Vol. 2 N0. 417 Thursday, August 2, 2012 N150

EMMANUEL ONANIABUJA

The much-anticipated out-of-court settle-ment over a disputed parcel of land between the former First Lady, Hajiya Turai YarAdua, and her

successor, Dame Patience Jonathan, has collapsed, as both parties failed to shift grounds.

National Mirror learnt from inside sources that Mrs. YarAdua rejected the offers of two alternative

P.50

Zakatll generate N73bn in Lagos

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Jonathans adviser stands surety for oil subsidy suspect

Budget: Okonjo-Iweala confronts Senate today

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Dame Patience Jonathan (left) with Turai YarAdua at a public function.

Oyerinde

P.2

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Tax evasion: Tribunal orders firm to pay N49bn

EFCC docks five othersNigerien, five others in custody

Three-storey building collapses on Lagos Island

Patience, Turai land dispute deal collapsesBattle of the First Ladies:

WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD

How we killed Oshiomholes aide Suspects

N164bn refund: Well sell Akingbolas properties Sanusi P.32

NOW

AYO OLESIN AND ROTIMI FADEYI The Federal G o v e r n m e n t yesterday said that

the Coordinating Minister

for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Thursday, August 2, 2012News

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Patience, Turai land dispute deal collapses

Jonathans adviser stands surety for oil subsidy suspect

Symphatisers at the scene of the collapsed three-storey building at 3, Anikantamo Street, Adeniji Adele, Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: ADEMOLA AKINLABI

KAYODE KETEFE

A Special Adviser to President Good-luck Jonathan on Inter-governmental Af-fairs, Mrs. Mariam Ali, yesterday, obtained the court permission to stand as surety for one of the oil marketers standing trial before an Ikeja High Court, Christian Taylor.

The presidential aide is also the wife of the former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and one-time chair-man of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regula-tory Agency, PPPRA, Dr. Ahmadu Ali.

Taylors nationality is in dispute, having claimed to be a Sierra Leonean, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Com-mission, EFCC, which de-scribed her as an unsta-ble character, said he had earlier claimed to come from Edo State.

Taylor and the son of Mrs. Ali, Mamman Nasir Ali, had been arraigned by the Federal Government through the EFCC last

Thursday and had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The three-count charge against them comprised the offences of conspiracy and obtaining N4.4bn from the Federal Government under false pretence.

The two defendants are some of the individuals and corporate organisa-tions accused of collecting N13.4bn from the Federal Government to import pet-rol, which they allegedly failed to deliver.

The presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Onigban-jo, had earlier granted Tay-lor and Mamman Ali bail in the sum of N20m and two sureties in like sum, one of who must be his blood relation with landed property within the juris-diction of the court.

But at the proceedings yesterday, Taylor, who claimed to be a Sierra Leo-nean, applied for a varia-tion in the bail conditions handed down by the court.

His lawyer, Mr. Kolade Obafemi, prayed the court to accept a reputable and responsible Nigerian in place of a blood relation which the judge had ear-

lier requested for.Obafemi added that Dr.

Mariam Ali, the mother of the second defendant, Mamman Ali, is ready to stand surety for him and use her landed property in Surulere, Lagos, as part of the bail conditions.

The prosecution lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, queried the propriety of the substi-tution.

He notified the court that Mrs. Ali had not made any deposition before the court.

At this, Obafemi re-plied: Mrs. Ali is a repu-table public servant and Special Adviser to the President on Inter-govern-mental Relations.

The prosecution op-posed the application for the variation of the bail conditions on the grounds that Taylor was trying to misrepresent fact, having allegedly earlier claimed in his extra-judicial state-ment that he was a native of Edo State from Okpe Local Government only to contradict himself by claiming before the court that he is a Sierra Leo-nean.

Jacobs added that a character who is so unsta-ble in his utterances might jump bail and, therefore, urged the court not to vary the bail conditions.

Taylor was, however, lucky as Justice Onigban-jo ruled that refusing the application for the varia-tion might defeat the pur-pose of bail granted to a defendant.

The judge, therefore, varied the bail condition and substituted with a reputable and responsi-ble Nigerian with landed property. in the place of a blood relation with a landed property as part of the bail terms.

This development paved the way for Mrs. Ali to now stand as surety for Taylor.

Reprieve also came the way of five other oil mar-keters standing trial for sundry economic offences before Justice Habeeb Abiru of the Ikeja High Court as the judge grant-ed them bail on varying terms.

The marketers includ-ed Abdullahi Alao, son of

plots located at the Central Area District, near Akwa Ibom Lodge and another one situated on Airport Road, Wawa District.

The Central Area plots, with N0: 818, measures 5,333 square metres, while the one on Airport Road, marked No: 3,367, measures 2. 1 hectares.

The land tussle is be-tween the Women and

Youth Empowerment Foundation, WOYEF, a non-governmental organisa-tion, NGO, being promoted by Turai and the one in which Dame Jonathan is the chairperson, African First Ladies Peace Centre.

The centre is planning to erect its secretariat on the land.

At the botched meeting, which held at the Minis-try of Justice, represen-

tatives of WOYEF from the law firm of Adamu, Ahmed, Ibrahim & Co. had offered to waive all the costs incurred in the ongoing litigation if the Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, and other title documents were restored fully.

They predicated their rejection of the two plots of land on the basis that the first plot lies within a

green area, while the sec-ond is an unapproved lay-out of the city.

The alternative par-cel of land was offered Turais NGO by the Fed-eral Capital Development Authority, FCDA, a de-partment of the Federal Capital Territory Admin-istration that is responsi-ble for the allocation and revocation of land in the FCT.

National Mirror gath-ered that the warring par-ties would soon return to court to continue the le-gal battle in suit number FCT/HC/CV/2591/2010.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, had approached an Abuja High Court for an out-of-court settlement.

Adoke, who is named as the fourth defendant in the suit, told the court, presided over by Justice Peter Affen, that the Feder-al Government wanted an amicable settlement of the dispute, saying all parties had promised to explore the option.

Other defendants in the suit are the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, the Federal Capital Terri-tory Administration and the Abuja Geographic In-formation System, AGIS.

The suit is in respect of the revocation of Plot No. 1347 located at the Cadas-tral Zone A00, which mea-sures approximately 1.84 hectares and bounded by beacons numbers PB 48, PB 1596, PB 1599 and PB 6827.

The disputed land is cov-ered by an accepted Offer of Right of Occupancy dat-ed February 19, 2010. It lies in-between NANET Suites and Federal Secretariat, Shehu Shagari Way, Cen-tral Area District, Abuja.

Already, Mrs. Jonathan has hosted all African First Ladies on the land between July 24 and 27, 2012, even as work has commenced on the development of the edifice.

The revocation, which Mohammed said was done in overriding public inter-est, formed the basis of the suit and the subsequent interlocutory order re-straining the defendants whether individually or collectively by themselves, their servants, employees, agents, privies, subsidiar-ies, departments, agencies, officers or otherwise how-soever from acting on the notice of revocation.

Moving the motion on behalf of the AGF for set-tlement, Baba Saidu told the trial judge that: there are arrangements to settle the matter out of court and we have reached out to counsel on all sides. In the circumstance, we urge your Lordship to grant us convenient adjournment to report back to this honour-

able court.He had expressed confi-

dence that fruitful results would be achieved from the proposed dialogue option, against the backdrop of the interest shown by the plaintiff and other defen-dants, when they were ap-proached.

The plaintiffs counsel, Mr. Innocent Lagi and the counsel to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants, Mr. Felix Ibanga, had expressed their readiness to settle the mat-ter out of court.

They told the court that the AGF had actually reached out to them on the need to cooperate to end the rift.

Consequent upon the motion, Justice Affen ad-journed the matter till Sep-tember 24 for report of settlement.

Justice Affen had ear-lier turned down an attempt made by Lagi to move an ex-parte motion for the leave of court to serve defence forms 48 and 49 (contempt charge and committal to prison).

The foiled contempt charge was consequent upon a subsisting order of interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants from acting on the notice of revocation dated November 2, 2011.

Adoke had filed a motion on notice brought pursuant to Order 7 Rule 7 (2) of the FCT (Civil Procedure Rules 2004), where he urged the court to discharge the re-straining order, saying the previous allocations were duly revoked and a fresh al-location made out to the Af-rican Peace Mission in over-riding interest.

He also contended that the invitations to the mem-bers of the African Unions First Ladies Peace Mission had already gone out and it would be most humiliating for Nigeria in the diplomatic circle to make an about-turn at this time, given the time constraint to effect any oth-er changes in venue.

Accordingly, the AGF had formulated two issues for de-termination to wit:

Whether this honour-able court may not set aside its injunction where such injunction is against public interest or policy;

Whether the court is de-prived of its jurisdiction to determine a matter where there is a breach of the fun-damental principle of fair-hearing.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 3Thursday, August 2, 2012

Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association, Rivers State chapter, Dr. Bonas Harry (left) and Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi during the NMA Annual General Meeting in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

L-R: Commissioner, Government and Consumer Affairs, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Alhaji Abba Ibrahim; Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi and Commissioner, Market Competition and Rates, Engr. Eyo Ekpo, during the press briefing on the Methodology for the Determination of Connection Charges for Electricity Supply effective 1st of August 2012 in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

L-R: Former Governor o Rivers State, Chief Celestine Omehia; former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana and Guest Lecturer, Chief Edwin Clark, during the 2nd State of the Federation Lecture of Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

L-R: Chief Launcher, Mr. Lanre Sagaya; Emeritus Prof. Olu Akinkugbe; Editor, Prof. Abolade Awotelu; his wife, Chinyere; Provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Prof. Akinyinka Omigbodun and Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Prof. Temitope alonge, at the launch of the book, Asthma in Africa, in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

appear before the Senate to-day to clarify issues on the 2012 budget performance.

Speaking on the budget performance and the sum-mons issued by the Senate on Okonjo-Iweala to appear before the upper legislative arm, Information Minister, Mr. Labaran Maku, noted that the government was ready to avail the legislators facts and figures regarding performance of the budget to douse the controversy trailing it.

The House of Represen-tatives had on Tuesday, July 19 threatened to impeach President Goodluck Jona-than if he failed to achieve 100 per cent implementa-tion of the 2012 budget by September.

The Senate also backed the decision of the House of Representatives and sum-moned Okonjo-Iweala to appear before it to explain details on the performance of the budget.

The House claimed that the budget had only been implemented by 34 per cent, while the Senate said the implementation levels was 21 per cent based on infor-mation obtained from the Accountant General of the Federation.

Okonjo-Iweala was to ap-pear on Tuesday before Na-

EMMANUEL ONANIABUJA

The Tax Appeal Tribu-nal, sitting in Abuja, yesterday ordered a foreign contracting firm, TSKJ 11 Construces Inter-national Sociaade UNIPES-SOAL to pay N49bn to the Federal Government, being the companies tax liabili-ties for 2008 and 2009.

TSKJ 11 Construces In-ternational Sociaade UNI-PESSOAL constructed the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG plant.

The construction firm had approached the Tribu-nal praying it to hold that

assessment of tax made by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS was contrary to the relevant tax laws in Nigeria.

It, therefore, urged the 3-man tribunal headed by its acting Chairman, Nnamdi Ibegbu, SAN, to set aside the action of the FIRS.

Consequently, the ag-grieved firm filed three ap-peals, two of which were later consolidated.

In a unanimous judg-ment, the tribunal dis-missed the consolidated appeals.

It said: This Tribunal hereby dismisses these two

appeals filed by appellant in the consolidated case TAT/ABJ/APP/006/2006 and TAT//ABJ/APP/2010 and order with respect to TAT/ABJ/APP/006.

The tribunal thereafter ruled that the appellant pay its tax liabilities for the pe-riod in contention.

The appellants tax li-abilities for 2008 and 2009 tax years as computed in the self assessment forms submitted by the Appel-lant to the Respondent in respect to those years being the sums of USA 550, 556. 74 respectively and the tax li-abilities have not been fully paid, but the appellant shall

pay tax as assessed by the Respondent.

Assessment of tax made by the respondent on the appellant is hereby upheld and the Appellant shall pay same forthwith to the respondent as contained in the respondents Notices of Additional Assessment No. PRBA 09 dated 19/02/2008 the sum of $2, 770, 689, PRBA 12 dated 19/02/2008 the sum of US3, 269, 488 and another PRBA amounting to US3, 763, 313.

The cost of the appeal is also fixed at N100, 000 in favour of the respondent against the appellant, the tribunal said.

Budget: Okonjo-Iweala confronts Senate today

Tax evasion: Appeal Tribunal orders foreign company to pay N49bn

to the fact that the budget was passed by the National Assembly in March and as-sented to by the President in April

He also identified the strict procurement process which made it mandatory that due process were fol-lowed in the award and implementation of any con-tract as another reason for the delay.

Clarifying the minis-ters position last night, her Senior Special Assistant, Media, Mr. Paul Nwabui-

kwu, said the legislature appeared to be dealing with a different set of figures in-sisting that the 56 per cent implementation mentioned by the minister referred only to cash-backed releas-es for the first and second quarters of the year.

The minister, he said had pointed out that out of the total capital budget of N1.3trn for 2012, N404bn had been released while the cash backed portion stood at N324bn.The percentage of cash backed portion that

has been utilised is 56 per cent.

This means however that the implementation ratio based on the entire capital budget is just 13.9 per cent or N181.4bn

The minister had ex-plained that the improve-ment in implementation ra-tio from 39.2 per cent by the end of May to 56 per cent utilisation of cash backed resources by June 20 was made possible by the direct leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, who is

personally leading the drive for better budget perfor-mance.

According to him, the minister is confident that there will be further im-provement in the level of implementation before the end of the year stressing that in order to maximise results, the ministry is be-ing careful and methodical in releasing funds to MDAs and that given the rate of utilisation, there is still room for more implementa-tion.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

tional Assembly joint com-mittee on Appropriation and Finance on the Budget 2012 implementation but did not show-up as she was on official trip to London to represent President Good-luck Jonathan at an invest-ment forum.

But yesterday, Maku said the Federal Government was committed to proper implementation of the 2012 budget to ensure economic growth of the country and in the interest of all Nige-rians.

He stated: The Minister of Finance should be ap-pearing before the Senate tomorrow (today) to clarify. It is better we stop the per-sistent controversies, legis-lature says this, Executive says that. I think that it is really distracting the pro-cess of implementation of the budget.

What is most important at this time is to tell you that we are working our asses out to execute the budget. That is our mandate, that is our job and that is why we are appointed and to serve the people of Nigeria and I am sure that as ministers we know our duties, we know what to do, he said.

Maku said Nigerians should avert their minds

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net4 Thursday, August 2, 2012Photo News

National News

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5 Thursday, August 2, 2012 News

How we killed Oshiomholes aide Suspects

Jonathans adviser stands surety for oil subsidy suspect CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

OMEIZA AJAYI AND SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN

The Department of State Security Ser-vice, SSS, yesterday paraded six suspects ar-rested in connection with the murder of the former Principal Private Secretary to Governor Adams Osh-iomhole of Edo State, Mr. Olaitan Oyerinde.

Among the suspects is a Nigerien, Sani Abubakar.

Others are Mohammed Abdullahi, Raymond Orig-bo, Chikezie Edeh, Saidu Yakubu (a.k.a Imam) and Hassan Bashiru.

SSS Deputy Director, Public Relations, Mrs. Marylyn Ogar, said inves-tigations revealed that careless statements made by Ali Ihade, the security guard of the late Oyerin-de, at various times about his masters position in government, attracted the attention of the prime sus-

pect, Abdullahi.She said among the

items stolen from Oyerin-des house were four black-berry phones, one Ipad, two galaxy pads, one lap-top, wedding ring and an unspecified sum of money belonging to Oyerindes brother-in-law, Adeyinka Oletubo.

Comrade Olaitan Oyer-inde was murdered in cold blood by the trio of Mo-hammed Ibrahim Abdul-lahi, Raymond Onajite

Origbo and Chikezie Edeh. The three other sus-

pects, Saidu Yakubu (a.k.a Imam), Sani Abdullahi Abubakar and Hassan Bashiru are habitual buy-ers of stolen items.

On the day of the rob-bery, Abdullahi specifi-cally instructed other gang members to tie up Ihade before they entered Oyerin-des residence so that Ihade will not see his face.

According to the rob-bery gang, Oyerinde was

shot and killed by the prime suspect, Mohammed Abdullahi, when he ran into his bedroom and at-tempted to go underneath his bed.

Abdullahi said he be-lieved Oyerinde was reach-ing out for a gun under the bed and therefore shot him.

The murder weapons, comprising three guns used during the robbery, have all been recovered.

The suspects are all currently in SSS custody and would be handed over to the police for criminal prosecution, Ogar said.

Origbo, however, fault-ed an earlier claim by Abdullahi, who tried to exonerate himself of the killing.

I am not the one who killed him (Oyerinde). I only shot up when the man ran to his bedroom and Abdullahi went back to the mans window and shot three times, saying he thought he was trying to bring out a gun under-neath his bed, Origbo told journalists.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, had earlier on July 11 disclosed that four suspects had been arrest-ed by his men in connec-tion with the murder.

Meanwhile, some Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, in Edo State yes-terday protested the con-tinuous detention of the Executive Director of the Africa Network on Envi-ronment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev. Da-vid Ugolor.

Addressing journalists yesterday, the protesters described as spurious the allegation of murder made against Ugolor for which the State Anti-Rob-bery Squad, SARS, cur-rently investigating the human rights activist.

The protesters included the Deputy Executive Di-rector of ANEEJ, Mr. Leo Atakpu and the counsel to the detained activist, Mr. Olayiwola Afolabi.

They said: We have ex-amined the situation and reached the conclusion that some faceless per-sons, who feel threatened by the lawful activities of Rev. Ugolor and his organ-isation have planned to dent his image and rope him with the murder of Comrade Olaitan.

Such persons should know today that such ac-tion will raise the profile of Rev. Ugolor against their selfish desires and wicked plot.

an Ibadan-based business mogul, Alhaji Azeez Aris-ekola-Alao.

The other four who were granted bail in sepa-rate proceedings are Ad-aoha Ugo-Ngadi, Fakuade Babafemi Ebenezer, Eze-kiel Ejidele and Walter Wagbatsoma. Wagbatso-ma had also been charged along with his company, Ontario Oil and Gas Lim-ited.

The defendants were arraigned by the Federal Government through the EFCC.

It will be recalled that the arraignment of Wag-batsoma, Ugo-Ngadi, Babafemi Ebenezer and Ejidele was stalled last Thursday because of the absence of Wagbatsoma.

They were, however, ar-raigned and pleaded not guilty yesterday before applications for their bail were entertained by the court.

Justice Abiru yester-

day granted bail to Alao in the sum of N100m. He is required to produce two sureties who would enter into bond in the like sum.

The sureties are re-quired to be resident in Lagos and also to have landed properties in La-gos. They are also re-quired to produce a clear-ance evidencing payment of tax to the Lagos State government.

The court also re-strained Alao from trav-elling abroad throughout the time of his trial with-out the permission of the court.

He was ordered to de-posit his international passport with the chief registrar of the court.

Wagbatsoma was granted bail in the sum of N150m. He is to pro-duce three sureties who must be resident in Lagos. At least two of the three sureties must have landed properties in Lagos.

Adaoha Ugo-Ngadi was

granted bail in the sum of N100m. She is to produce two sureties who must be residents in Lagos and also have landed proper-ties in the state.

Ebenezer was granted bail in the sum of N10m; he is also required to pro-duce two sureties who are both resident and have landed properties in La-gos.

Ejide was granted bail in the sum of N10m. He is to produce two sureties who are both residents in Lagos and have landed properties in Lagos.

The court ordered that the chief registrar of the court must verify the title documents of the landed properties of all sureties.

Also, all defendants must not travel outside the country during the pendency of the trials and they were ordered to deposit their travel docu-ments with EFCC.

Justice Abiru subse-quently adjourned the

trial till October 22, 2012.However, one of the

defendants standing trial before Justice Onigbanjo, Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, was not so lucky as the court rejected his bail plea.

Ogunbambo, who is being separately tried along with Habila Theck and Fargo Energy Lim-ited, was ordered to be remanded in Ikoyi Prison pending the commence-ment of his trial.

They had been ar-raigned on a six-count charge, comprising the of-fences of conspiracy, ob-taining by false pretence, forgery and use of false document to obtain N976, 653, 110. 98k from the Pe-troleum Support Fund of the Federal Government.

The EFCC had opposed Ogunbambos bail ap-plication on the grounds that he had allegedly jumped bail before and that he kept changing his identity by representing

himself with different names.

The arraignment of all the defendants was sequel to the probe of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Sub-sidy Payments, which al-legedly indicted about 70 oil marketers.

Alao had been ar-raigned along with his company, Axerenergy Limited, before Justice Abiru on a seven-count charge, comprising the of-fences of conspiracy, ob-taining by false pretences, use of forged document and forgery.

In the charge dated July 20, 2012, Alao was accused of having used forged doc-uments with intent to de-fraud to facilitate obtain-ing N1,168,172,064.44 from the Federal Government, by false pretences.

Alao had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

One of the counts in the seven-count charge slammed on Alao reads:

Abdullahi Alao and Axernergy Ltd, on or about December 28, 2011 at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division, with intent to defraud and order to facilitate your obtaining the sum of 1,168,172,064,44 by false from Federal Govern-ment, used a false docu-ment titled Tankers Bill of Lading which you purported to have been issued by Mercuria Trad-ing N.V dated September 16, 2011.

One of the counts in the separate nine-count charge against the remain-ing four defendants reads: Walter Wagbatsoma, Adao-ha Ugo-Ngadi, Ontario Oil & Gas Nigeria Ltd on or about July 7, 2010 within the juris-diction of this honourable court, by false pretences and with intent to defraud, obtained from the Federal Government of Nigeria, the sum of N340,178,111. 231k by false pretences from the Federal Government.

L-R: Suspected killers of the Principal Private Secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, the late Mr. Olaitan Oyerinde: Mohammed Abdullahi, Raymond Origbo, Chike Ede, Saidu Yakubu, Sani Abubakar and Hassan Bashir, being paraded yesterday at the State Security Service headquarters in Abuja, yesterday.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 National News Thursday, August 2, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) and the Nigerian High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Mr. Musa Jen, during President Jonathans meeting with the Nigerian community in Trinidad and Tobago, on Tuesday. PHOTO: NAN

25 escape death as building collapses in Lagos

WALE IGBINTADE

A Lagos State Coro-ners Court conduct-ing inquest into the June 3 Dana plane crash, yesterday watched video clips of what occurred at the crash site.

The video clips of the event were provided by two media houses summoned by the court namely; Channels Television and Television Continental, TVC.

During the proceeding, a witness from Channels Tele-vision, Mr. Oreoluwa Shoni-bare, told the court that he

was on duty when he got a call from his director that there was a plane crash at Iju-Ishaga.

He said he arrived at the scene about 3:30pm and met a large crowd and a thick smoke which made the site almost impossible to pen-etrate.

Shonibare gave a vivid description of how the plane plunged into a two-storey building and a bungalow.

He, however, said he was not aware of any casualties, adding that at a point it was tough seeing people burning so he had to help the rescue team.

MURITALA AYINLA

At least 25 people es-caped death when a three-storey build-ing located on 3 Anikat-amon Street on the Lagos Island caved in, injuring one.

It was learnt that the collapsed nine-year-old building was among the 120 structures marked by the Lagos State Physical Planning and Development Authority, LSPPDA, to un-dergo integrity test in 2008 in the wake of the cases of collapsed buildings in the

state. Officials of the Lagos

State Emergency Manage-ment Agency, LASEMA, the LSPPDA, Red Cross, the Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASTMA, Rapid Response Squad, RRS, had a hectic time controlling the sea of sympathisers who be-sieged the scene.

LASEMA officials and a few volunteers made fran-tic effort to ascertain that nobody was trapped in the building.

A witness said the build-ing caved in around 12:30 pm when many residents

had gone out. One of the residents,

who escaped unhurt, Mr. Godday Onasanya, 43, said occupants of the build-ing had complained to one Baba Luku, who is the de-veloper of the house.

He said: We did not see any sign that the building was going to collapse ex-cept that we noticed that the house vibrated when there was a street party. We complained to our de-veloper. The developer was about patching part of the collapsed portion of the pillar of the house when the building caved in. We

told him to stop hitting the pillar of the building and about two minutes later it collapsed. About 25 people are living in the building.

The Deputy Director of the LSPPDA, Mr. Rufai Adekunle, confirmed that no life was lost in the inci-dent.

He said: We have told them to conduct integrity test on the building and some other ones in the area. The buildings around the place may have to un-dergo integrity test after which we may have to de-molish them if they failed the test.

SOLA ADEBAYOWARRI

Nemesis caught up with four suspected kidnappers yester-day as they died in a shoot-out with the police in Eku, Ethiope East Local Govern-ment Area of Delta State.

Also yesterday, an armed robber was roast-ed to death by aggrieved members of the public at Estate area of Warri, the headquarters of Warri South Local Government Area of the state. The ban-dit was a member of a two man-gang apprehended by some residents.

The second bandit was, however, lucky as he was rescued by some police-men attached to B Divi-

sion in Warri metropolis. It was learnt that the

kidnappers, who met their waterloo in Eku, had ear-lier abducted an employee of Chevron Nigeria Limit-ed, CNL, (names withheld), on Refinery Road, Effurun, the headquarters of Uvwie council about 7:30am.

Men of the Anti-kid-napping Squad of Delta State Police Command, who acted on a tip-off, later stormed the hide-out of the hoodlums in the Urhobo community.

The kidnappers opened fire on the police team, which sparked a gun battle between the two sides.

A police source, said that the hoodlums were eventually overpowered. The victim was rescued

unhurt. The state Police Pub-

lic Relations Officer, Mr. Charles Muka, who con-firmed the bloody en-counter in a telephone interview with our corre-spondent last night, said the kidnappers merely sustained injury in the gun battle.

He said: They died

while the police team was taking them to the hospital. They were fatally wounded in the ensued gun fight with the police. We

tried to save their lives but they couldnt make it.

Items recovered from the hoodlums, according to the PPRO, include three cut to size guns, one G3 ri-fle and two vehicles.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala

Investors applaud Jonathans transformation agenda Okonjo-Iweala

FCTA rakes in N1.47bn through IGR

Four kidnappers, armed robber die in Delta

ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA

Participants at an In-vestment Conference in London have en-dorsed the economic poli-cies and the transforma-tion agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Coordinating Min-ister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said this at the Federal Executive Council meet-ing chaired by Vice Presi-dent Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday.

At a post-FEC briefing by the Minister of Informa-tion, Mr. Labaran Maku, leading investors that at-tended the recent invest-ment conference expressed confidence in the economy of Nigeria and interest to invest in the country.

Maku said the minister of finance also told FEC that the world was appre-ciative of ongoing reforms in Nigeria, as the countrys macro-economic policies were some of the best in the world, and that Nige-ria was becoming the first choice investors destina-tion in Africa.

Maku noted that the spe-

cial investment conference on Nigeria, which was put together by the Bank of In-dustry in partnership with other institutions, was at-tended by Nigerias min-istries and departments concerned with providing infrastructure and easing investment procedures.

He said: The Coordinat-ing Minister of the Econ-omy told us that the world is very appreciative of the present reforms taking place in Nigeria. Specifical-ly, she said global investors believe that the micro-eco-nomic policies of Nigeria are presently some of the best in world.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, also briefed the FEC on Tues-days close of bidding for power generation and dis-tribution companies in which 79 firms showed in-terest.

OMEIZA AJAYI

Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Ms. Olajumoke Akinjide, has disclosed that the ad-ministration recorded an Internally Generated Rev-enue, IGR, of N1.472bn in July.

She described the figure as a 34 per cent increase over the preceding months figure of N1.101bn.

The minister, who dis-closed this in Abuja at the FCTA Area Councils Joint Account Allocation Com-mittee, JAAC, meeting,

said the IGR rose by about N371m, adding that the increase would be used to stimulate more economic activities within the terri-tory.

She said: We are work-ing very hard and partner-ing with the area councils chairmen to raise the pres-ent level of revenue. This will ultimately result in more money being avail-able for the area councils.

We are also going to put in place, before the next meeting, mechanism such as biometrics to eliminate ghost workers and track the number of workers in the six area councils of the territory.

Coroner views video clips of Dana plane crash

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 7Thursday, August 2, 2012

L-R: Director of Nutrition, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Abimbola Ajayi; Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr. Yewande Adesina and Director, Nurition and Family Health, Dr. Modele Osunkeye, during a news conference on activities to mark the 2012 Breastfeeding Week in Lagos, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

N2.6 bn pension scam uncovered in Oyo

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

A medical expert, Prof. Olusola Ogun-niyi, yesterday warned of the rate at which asthma is spreading all over the world, saying that no fewer than 50 million people are currently afflict-ed by the disease.

He made the disclosure at the launch of a book titled; Asthma in Africa, written by Prof. Abolade Awotedu, of Walter Sisulu University, South Africa, held at the College of Medi-cine, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

He said not less than 20 percent of those affected by the disease die in Africa yearly, stating that it is a killer disease if it is badly managed.

Speaking to an audi-ence that includes medical gurus across the country such as Emeritus Professor,

Olu Akinkugbe, the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof. Temitope Alonge; Ogunniyi said all precau-tious steps must be taken to prevent it.

He disclosed that while treatment of the disease in the United States costs $7.2bn annually, the deadly disease is not a health priority in Af-rica, especially in Nigeria.

The university teacher advocated prolonged breast feeding to prevent the dis-ease in children and listed its causes to include smok-ing, cockroaches and inhal-ing of mosquito coil and he-reditary factor from parent who smoke.

He also said lack of exer-cise, middle distance race could induce it while engag-ing in swimming, dancing, marathon race among oth-ers could help to prevent it.

He said the time has come for the leaders in the continent to do all within their power to see to the

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Ogun State command, yesterday said it has secured life imprison-ment jail terms for four drug traffickers between April and June this year.

Speaking in an inter-view with the News Agency

The burial pro-gramme of Chief (Mrs.) Victoria Olawunmi Osinubi, who died on June 11, 2012 at the age of 91, has been an-nounced.

A commendation service will hold on Wednesday, August 15, at the Methodist Church, Fakorede Street, Shomolu, Lagos, at 10am.

On the same day, a ser-vice of songs will also hold between 5.00 and 7.00 pm at Hoares Memorial Method-ist Cathedral, Sabo, Yaba.

On Friday, August 17, at the Methodist Primary School, Imososi, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, a Christian Wake will hold between 5.00 and 7.00 pm while the funeral service and inter-ment will take place on August 18 at Methodist Ca-thedral, Imere, Ago-Iwoye

health care needs of the people, insisting that there is no disease now in the world that does not deserve special attention, more so when such can lead to the death of many people.

Editor of the book, Prof. Awotedu, said he was moti-vated to write the book be-cause he is a carrier of the disease while he also lost a

son to the disease 20 years ago.

Dignitaries at the event include former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Oluse-gun Agagu; former Vice-Chancellor of the Uni-versity of Ibadan, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro; Prof. A. A. Awotedu, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi and Justice Bola Babalakin.

Activities to com-memorate the 40th anniversary of Abeokuta Club were unveiled yesterday. The Chairman of the anniver-sary committee, Chief Ad-eniyi Lasaki, said the club will observe the milestone with a special meeting of members, prayers and a discourse.

Lasaki, at a press brief-ing disclosed that the club will celebrate the anniver-sary on its actual birthday

of Sunday, August 5, with events lasting just for a day; however a commemo-rative fanfare should be expected in the first week of November.

He said Sundays prayers will be led by the Anglican Bishop of Egba Diocese, Rt. Rev. Daisi Ad-ekunle and Chief Imam of Egbaland, Alhaji Liadi Orunsolu and that it will hold at the clubs prem-ises by 1.00 pm.

The anniversary com-

mittee chairman said one of the past presidents of the club, Chief L. A. Sof-enwa, will be the facili-tator of the anniversary talk; Raising the Next Generation of Egba Lead-ers, to be followed by narrative recollections by members of the club.

These, he said, are meant to be in tandem with the theme of the 40th anniversary: Celebrat-ing the Past, Shaping the Future.

Abeokuta Club celebrates 40th anniversary

50 million people affl icted by asthma, says expertFour jailed for drug peddling in Ogun

Madam Osinubi for burial August 18

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Oyo State govern-ment yesterday said it has uncovered a pension fraud in its Lo-cal Government Service Pensions Board totaling N2.6bn.

Chairman of the board and the Local Government Service Commission, Chef Lasisi Ayankojo, who said this while speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the state capital, said the inter-im investigative report of the commission into the ac-

count of the board between September, 2010 and March, 2011, which unearthed the fraud, had indicted 10 civil servants who were alleg-edly involved in the scam.

He said eight of the al-leged perpetrators of the fraud were at present being detained by the police while two of them had absconded.

He said upon the receipt of the report of the com-mittee, the board met with Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who ordered that the board should get to the root of the scam immediately.

Ayankojo while delv-

ing into the mode of the perpetration of the fraud disclosed that the board discovered the fraud af-ter complaints by retirees from local government workers and teachers, who claimed that their pensions had not been paid to them by government.

He said upon the re-ceipt of the complaints, the board set up a committee to look into the details of the retirees grouses, stat-ing that the committee, in the process of its work, dis-covered that monies were indeed collected by civil

servant intermediaries working in the commission and never were remitted to the pensioners.

He said the total amount of the money involved in the scam was collected via issuance of cheques to the affected civil servants in their own personal names, rather than through e-pay-ment into the accounts of pensioners, a situation he said made the fraud to sail through easily.

The Local Government Service Commission boss while giving a detailed ac-count of how the suspects

Madam Osinubi

of Nigeria (NAN) in Abeo-kuta, the state Commander of the agency, Alhaji Mo-hammed Mohammed, said another trafficker received a 15-year jail term.

He said that 25 other sus-pects were arrested during the period under review and are facing trial.

Mohammed said a total 1,655 kg of cannabis were recovered from the sus-pects, regretting that drug abuse and trafficking in the state was on the increase.

He pledged that the com-mand would not rest until the state was free of illicit drugs, appealing to the state government to sup-port the command with lo-gistics and funds.

I want to appeal to our dear governor to please support us in term of lo-gistics. There is hardly any crime committed without the influence of drugs.

at 10.00 am. A reception for guests will

be held on the grounds of Methodist Primary School, Imososi, Ago-Iwoye, imme-diately after the internment.

The late Mrs. Osinubi is survived by Mrs. Oluy-emisi Jaiyeola; Dr. Abio-dun Osinubi; Mr. Olusegun Osinubi; Dr. Titilola Bene-dict; Mr. Ademola Osinubi; Mrs. Oladunni Taiwo and Mrs. Anuoluwapo Odu-mosu.

allegedly stole the state money, said the then execu-tive secretary and director, finance and administration of the board, between Sep-tember, 2010 and November, 2010 withdrew by cash the sum of N680, 430,646.69 from the Local Government Staff Account meant for pension-ers, while these same two in-dividuals withdrew the sum of N1, 353,868,062.60 from the Teachers Account of the board.

He said the two officers of the board had at present absconded and all efforts made by the police to ap-

prehend them had failed.He also said that the

two officers of the board, alongside seven other top civil servants of the board equally collected the sum of N173, 800,000 from the pensioners accounts be-tween September, 2010 and March, 2011.

Ayankojo alleged that another staff of the ac-count department of the board (names withheld), at various times within the period, personally with-drew the sum of N401, 300, 000 of the boards money earmarked for pensioners.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Thursday, August 2, 2012 South West

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Thursday, August 2, 2012 9South West

L-R: Representative of Commanding Officer, NNS Beecroft Apapa, F. M. Ture; Lagos State Director of the State Security Service, Mr. Ben Olayi; Commander 9 Brigade, Ikeja Cantonment, Brig.-Gen. Pat Akem; Deputy Commissioner of Police in Charge of Operations Lagos State, Mr. Tunde Sobulo and Commander 435 Base Services Group, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Tony Omenyi, during the briefing of State House correspondents at the Lagos House in Marina, after the State Security Council meeting chaired by Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, yesterday.

Lagos-Ibadan Expressway: One dies as police, robbers exchange gunfi reFEMI OYEWESOABEOKUTA

A commercial bus driver was killed yesterday, while three passengers were critically injured when armed robbers number-ing about 10 engaged men of the Ogun State Police Command in a gun duel at Sapade junction on the

Lagos - Ibadan Express-way.

The driver, according to witnesses, died on the spot when the robbers started shooting sporadi-cally in a bid to escape from the police who foiled their operation.

Speaking on the inci-dent, the Ogun State Sec-tor Commander of the Federal Road Safety Com-mission, FRSC, Abayomi

Omiyale, told newsmen that the commercial bus with registration number Lagos XZ 271 FKJ was heading to Ibadan from Lagos when the incident occurred about 10a.m.

He explained that the robbers shot at the driver intentionally which made his vehicle to swerve into the bush before he died, leaving three of the pas-sengers critically in-

jured.Omiyale said that

the corpse of the driver had been deposited at the morgue of the Ola-bisi Onabanjo Univer-sity Teaching Hospital, OOUTH, in Shagamu while the victims were receiving treatment at the same hospital.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Muyiwa Adejobi, also

confirmed the incident.He disclosed that the

robbers operated with AK 47 rifles and other so-phisticated weapons.

Adejobi added that the Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, had directed the divisional police officer at Ishara to fish out the robbers who escaped with bullet wounds within the next 24 hours.

Crisis: Ondo community, Navy resolve differences

Bi-Courtney begins multi-billion naira power upgrade at MMA2

HAKEEM GBADAMOSIAKURE

The people of Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State said yesterday that they were not in support of the call that the Navy should vacate the area following a face-off with some for-mer militants.

The people dissociated themselves from the call at a stakeholders meet-ing between the parties involved in the crisis.

At the end of the parley, the communities and the authorities of the Nigeri-an Navy resolved to work and live together peace-fully to ensure security of lives and property in the area.

The meeting, held at the secretariat of the local government in Igbokoda, was attended by officials of the Nigerian Navy led by the Flag Officer Com-manding Western Naval, Rear Admiral Ameen Iki-oda, the traditional rulers in the area, led by their Chairman, the Olugbo of Ugbo, Oba Fredrick Akin-runtan, the Chairman of the council, Banji Oku-nomo and leaders of the youth.

Also in attendance was the Commissioner for En-vironment and Natural Resources, Sola Ebiseni, and the member repre-senting Ilaje Constituency I in the state House of As-sembly, Oyebo Aladetan.

The stakeholders, in the resolution which was read by Okunomo, ex-pressed regret over the crisis which led to the death of two people, say-ing steps would be taken to prevent future occur-rence of such crisis.

Okunomo explained that the stakeholders agreed to set up a board of inquiry to investigate the circumstances surround-ing the ugly incident.

He said: Pending the investigation, the youth and stakeholders agreed to go about their activities without any molestation or harassment from any quarter.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, Ikioda dis-closed that the officer re-sponsible for the shooting had been identified.

In line with its deter-mination to provide a comfortable environ-ment and make the Mur-tala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two, MMA2, La-gos, the most patronised in the country, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, BASL, said it was embark-ing on a multi-billion naira power enhancement project at the terminal.

The companys spokes-man, Steve Omolale-Ajulo, said in a statement that the first phase of the project, which would sustain alter-nate power supply to the

Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, would be-gin on August 6 and would last for about 60 days.

He said the completion of the first phase was expected to bring added advantage to the terminal.

Omolale-Ajulo added that the first phase involved the upgrade of the capacity of two of the four-unit gen-erators supplying power to the terminal.

He said: BASL hopes that all the relevant agen-cies and bodies will cooper-ate to ensure the success of this project.

The project became necessary to ensure and guarantee continuous un-interrupted power supply, which is one of the best qualities MMA2 is known for since it began operation five years ago.

It is also our desire that airline operation is undis-turbed and airport conces-sionaires and users have a comfortable place to operate from.

Having been used to uninterrupted power sup-ply in the last five years, we cannot offer users of MMA2 anything less.

Police arrest man for killing lover in Oyo KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Police in Oyo State have arrested a man identified as Kunle for the alleged murder of a 21-year old lady, Tolu Esi-ola, said to be his lover.

The deceased was burnt beyond recognition and found lying face down on her bed in Oyo town.

It was gathered that the trained health worker from the School of Health Technology in Osun State was hale and hearty and preparing to resume work at the Momoh Hospital, Oyo, where she had been employed, until the eve-ning of July 24, when the room where she slept was engulfed by fire.

It was also learnt that the fire, which ravaged the two other adjoining rooms in a two-wing bungalow at Akeetan Baale Compound, started around 10.30pm, but was not noticed by the neighbours until about 11p.m.

But triggering suspi-

cion that she was mur-dered was the fact that she was lying face down on the bed and did not move till she was severely burnt.

It was learnt that Tolu was the only one in the building that night be-cause her mother and oth-er siblings had travelled while her father was away in Ogbomoso, where he works.

Members of the family of the deceased are sus-pecting her estranged lov-er, Kunle formerly known as Aafa Yakubu before Tolus father converted him to Christian faith and became a member of the Deeper Life Bible Church.

Kunle had walked into the Ojongbodu Police Sta-tion, Oyo to lodge report that he had been defamed by some people, who al-leged he was responsible for Tolus death.

He was believed to be a lover to Tolu, although unknown to her parents until a misunderstanding erupted between the two.

Lagos commits N45bn to pension scheme - Fashola MURITALA AYINLA

Governor Baba-tunde Fashola of Lagos State said his administration had committed about N45bn to Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS.

The governor said this yesterday while present-ing retirement bond cer-tificates worth N2.8bn to 464 retired employees of the Lagos State Public Ser-vice under the old pension scheme.

The event was held at the NECA House, Alausa in Ikeja.

Fashola said that his administration remained committed to the welfare of retirees.

He added that Lagos was the only state in the country which had estab-lished a fully automated pension commission and the only state to issue re-tirement benefit bond re-demption certificates.

Presenting the bond certificates to the retirees, Fashola said the govern-ment had continued to ensure that retirees under the old pay-as-you-go pen-sion received their pen-sion entitlements regu-larly.

He said: In fact, the ac-

crued pension rights of N2,788,368,394.27 under the pay-as-you-go scheme, have been paid into the accounts of todays 464 re-tirees.

You may now choose whether you want a pro-grammed withdrawal pro-vided by your pension fund administrators or an an-nuity for life provided by licensed insurance compa-nies selected by the Lagos State Government after rig-orous screening.

Fashola, who spoke through the Head of Ser-vice, Adesegun Ogunlewe, said that in October 2010, the government commenced the payment of accrued pension rights into the re-tirement savings accounts opened by public servants with their chosen Pension Fund Administrators.

He said: Since then, we have credited the re-tirement savings account of 1,471 retirees with ac-crued pension rights of N7,544,922,856.70.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

GEORGE OPARAABIA

Abia State governor, Dr Theodore Orji, has blamed the ap-parently low profile of the states Internally Gener-ated Revenue (IGR) on the inactivity of certain state ministries and accused some key officers of the council areas of tamper-ing with the states IGR.

Specifically, Governor Orji called on the Commis-sioner for Lands and Urban Planning, Hon. Donates Okorie and Engr. Emma Nwabuko, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, local government treasurers, heads of town planning au-thorities, NULGE officials and chairmen of Aba South and North council areas for a meeting yesterday at Ok-para Auditorium in Umua-hia, the state capital.

During the interactive session, the governor ac-cused town planners in the 17 local government areas of the state of revenue leak-ages and sleazy adminis-tration. Others accused include; local government treasurers and heads of fi-nance, NULGE officials and chairmen of Aba South and North council areas.

Also, the governor said the treasurers have not been remitting PAYE which goes as revenue to the state government. In his expla-nation, the commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs said it was until November, 2011 that the treasurers started remitting the payee into the state coffers as internally generated revenue.

It is even worse to know that the local government planning authorities have not been generating rev-

10 South East Thursday, August 2, 2012

CHARLES OKEKEAWKA

Co m m i s s i o n e r s working with Anambra State gov-ernor, Mr. Peter Obi, will now face a quarterly as-sessment of their perfor-mances, the governor has said.

The assessment, which will be done by the gov-ernor at the end of every quarter, is designed to en-

sure that the targeted ob-jectives and expectations of the government in the remaining 18 months of its tenure are met.

The readiness of the gov-ernor to subject the com-missioners to a quarterly assessment exercise was announced by the new State Commissioner for Informa-tion and Culture, Chief Joe Martins Uzodike, in an ex-clusive interview with Na-tional Mirror. He said the

assessment, which will be a continuous exercise will take place throughout the remaining months of the administration.

His words: We have 18 months to go and every-body has to make his im-pact felt, the assessment will be individually based and every person will be assessed in his field and how far one has fared. He added that the governor has made it clear that if

one does not perform well; he will be dropped or trans-ferred to another ministry.

Among the commission-ers who are to be assessed include, Mr. Vin Ezenwaji-aku in charge of Special Duties; Callistus Ilozum-ba, Works; Lady Henri-etha Agbata, Women Af-fairs; Prof. Stella Okunna, Economic Development Budget and Planning; Engr. Patrick Obi; Hous-ing; Mrs. Ngozi Okoye, Fi-

nance and Mrs. Azuka En-emuo, Local Government Ministry, among other po-litical appointees who are expected to perform well or face sanction.

The information com-missioner, a legal prac-titioner and former manager of Rangers In-ternational Football Club, Enugu, also gave insight in to the direction of the government in the com-ing months.

His words: The direc-tion of the government is straight, and that is to complete all ongoing proj-ects and to ensure that new ones are put in place and to ensure that the de-velopment process going on in Anambra State re-mains unequaled and that is why the governor has said that we should be work-ing hard and that there will be a quarterly assessment of the commissioners.

Anambra commissioners to be assessed quarterly

L-R: South-East Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Bandele Onimode; representative of Enugu State Government, Mr. Chidi Ezenma and Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Kester Agbowo, at the Enugu State Emer-gency Management Agency Stakeholders Forum in Enugu, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI

The Chief Justice of Imo State, Justice Benjamin Njeman-ze, has tasked the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and human rights activ-ists in the country to find a permanent solution to the deplorable conditions of inmates in the nations prisons.

Justice Njemanze gave the charge while on a

visit to Owerri prisons on Tuesday.

He noted that both the state NBA and human rights activists should always take a visit to the prisons to have a better knowledge of life and conditions of the inmates there.

Njemanze said such knowledge would help them ascertain whether those in prison are really enjoying their basic hu-man rights as stipulated

in the constitution or not. The chief justice fur-

ther said that it was high time lawyers and activists rise up to their responsi-bilities for the good of the society.

It is not about talk-ing or writing on human rights but being involved in the practical aspects of it. Go right into the prisons and see things for yourselves.

It is part of the in-mates rights as humans

to be tried, it is a very big punishment keeping somebody who may not know his offence so long in the prisons and lawyers should take more inter-ests in what is happening in these prisons, he ad-vised.

The chief judge also said that some files of some inmates under cus-tody for five years had not reach the office of the Di-rector of Public Prosecu-tion (DPP).

Stakeholders tasked on condition of prison inmates

Orji blames LG officials for poor IGR

enues to the state as con-firmed by the commission-er for lands.

Orji accused all those officials in the cartel of misappropriating govern-ment revenue of becoming secret millionaires only to pretend that they are poor civil servants, when in real-ity they have investments everywhere.

Orjis words: You are secret millionaires who come to office to pretend. If you do not change, re-gard your appointment as terminated. IGR is now our salvation because what comes from the federation account is unsteady. So, you have to work hard.

However, the governor urged them to change from tampering with govern-ment revenue, generate revenue for the state or be shown the way out, he said.

GEORGE OPARAABIA

Abia State govern-ment and the Unit-ed Nations Chil-drens Fund (UNICEF) have signed the 2012 pro-gramme implementation agreement to strengthen collaborative intervention in matters affecting chil-dren and women in the

state.At the event, Governor

Theodore Orji said he was pleased with the achieve-ments of the joint inter-vention between the state and UNICEF towards the well-being of children in the state.

The governor implored UNICEF to increase its as-sistance to the state in the area of early child health-

care, and immunisation as well as to give more as-sistance to the state plan-ning commission and the state emergency manage-ment agency to improve response to emergencies.

Further, Governor Orji said the classification of Abia by UNICEF as a low burden state is erroneous and requested it to classi-fy the state appropriately.

He said the child right law will soon be comprehen-sively implemented in the state and that Abia State is committed to its part-nership with UNICEF and is prepared to fulfill its ob-ligations to the agency.

In his speech, the Chief field officer, UNICEF Enu-gu, Mr. Charles Nzuki, said the signing of the 2012 programme imple-

mentation agreement is a definitive expression of the commitment of UNI-CEF towards the wellbe-ing of the children in the state.

He maintained that one of the fruits of the co-op-eration between the state government and UNICEF will be a definitive prog-ress in the efforts to re-duce child mortality.

Abia signs MoU with UNICEFOrji

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Thursday, August 2 , 2012 South South

CHINEDUM EMEANAPORT HARCOURT

One of the objectives of the massive in-vestment in the education sector by the ad-ministration of Governor Chibuke Rotimi Amaechi is to rid Rivers State of ex-patriates.

The Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Alice Lawrence-Nemi, disclosed this at the graduation cer-emony of UCSI University in Malaysia, where some of the students sponsored by

the state government grad-uated with first class.

The commissioner charged the fresh gradu-ates to contribute their quota to the development of the state, stressing that the state wanted to get rid of foreign expatriates.

Mrs. Lawrence-Nemi noted that they were now experts in their various fields and qualified to take over from the expatriates working in several sectors of the state.

She said: The govern-ment of Rivers State is now

expecting you to put all your knowledge into prac-tice; you were sent here because the state wants to stop bringing in expatri-ates into our country. The purpose of our investment on you is for you to assist the government in reviving most of our dilapidated in-dustries.

The commissioner also said that the present ad-ministration in the state was committed to making it the hub of education in the country.

Mrs. Lawrence-Nemi

said primary and second-ary education was free and compulsory in Rivers State.

She added that the gov-ernment had provided an enabling environment for academic excellence through the provision of solid infrastructure in primary and secondary schools across the state.

Mrs. Lawrence-Nemi said that the schools had facilities like Information and Communication Tech-nology, ICT, sports facili-ties, libraries, among oth-ers.

EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Dem-ocratic Party, PDP, has stepped in to resolve the fresh crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.

It was gathered that a closed-door meeting of the party held on Tuesday in Yenagoa was attended by Governor Seriake Dickson, who was disturbed by the crisis in the Assembly.

Just last Wednesday, for-

mer Deputy Speaker, Fini Angaye, and the Speaker, Konbowei Benson, almost exchanged punches in the Speakers office over the formers unpaid allowanc-es.

But the timely interven-tion of other lawmakers prevented what would have become an embarrassment to the Assembly.

Investigation showed that Dickson had invited the lawmakers to the Gov-ernment House for a peace meeting the penultimate

week, but the issues were not resolved.

It was learnt that An-gaye, former Speaker Nestor Binabo and some lawmakers are boycotting plenary sessions of the House because of the fresh war.

At the PDP meeting, the governor told the lawmak-ers that no elected member of the party should be seen to be above the party, add-ing that the party remained supreme in all cases.

Also, Dickson lauded the

local government chair-men of the party and their executives for their hard work and called on them to learn to work together as a family by supporting one another. He urged them to extend the same to party leaders in the state.

Earlier, the state Chair-man of PDP, Col. Sam Ino-koba (rtd), harped on party discipline among members to ensure the realisation of the objectives of the resto-ration agenda of the gov-ernment.

Governor Rotimi Amaechi

R-L: Sales Manager, East-South, Pfizer, Mr. Sebastine Osakwe; Deputy Director, Graceland Montessori Nursery/ Primary School, Port Harcourt, Mrs. I. E. Essien and Director, Group Capt. E.U Essien (rtd) during the graduation of pupils of the school in Port Harcourt, recently.

She said: The gover-nor of the state, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, since assumption of office, has transformed the sector by building solid and last-ing infrastructure, librar-ies, ICT facilities and also award of scholarships to deserving Rivers State stu-dents.

PDP wades into fresh crisis in Bayelsa Assembly

Court stops EDSIEC from conducting LG polls

We want to rid Rivers of expatriates Commissioner

Deals with SAfrica must bear fruits, ACN tells Dickson

Edo council workers threaten strike over unpaid salaries SEBASTINE EBHUOMHANBENIN

Crisis is brewing be-tween workers and administrators of local governments in Edo State over unpaid salaries.

Already, the state chap-ter of the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, has told its members in five councils to prepare for a three-day warning strike

over the three-month sal-ary arrears.

The union gave the di-rectives in a communiqu issued after an emergency meeting of the state exec-utive council on Tuesday.

The communiqu, made available to journal-ists yesterday, was signed by Edo NULGE Presi-dent, Comrade Patrick Okeralen, and secretaries of the 18 councils in the state.

The affected local

government areas are Oredo, Uhunmwonde, Orhionmwon, Ikpoba-Okha and Esan-West local government areas.

The NULGE issued a seven-day ultimatum to the defaulting councils, following which the union said it would commence warning strike in the af-fected councils on August 13.

The communiqu also condemned some NULGE members trying to extend

their stay in the civil ser-vice.

The union also resolved to embark on a peaceful protest on August 7 to reg-ister its displeasure over the issue.

Efforts made to clarify the true position of the situation from the Com-missioner for Chieftaincy and Local Government Af-fairs, Chief Lucky James, were not fruitful as he could not be reached on his mobile telephone.

SEBASTINE EBHUOMHANBENIN

A Benin High Court yesterday stopped the Edo State Inde-pendent Electoral Commis-sion, EDSIEC, from con-ducting local government elections in the state.

The court said EDSIEC should not conduct the council elections because it was not properly constitut-ed by the current adminis-tration of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

Justice A. Edodo-Eruaga ruled in the case filed by Messrs Caroline Ewohin-mi, Robert Oghafuoso, Sa-liu Jeremiah, Friday Ojo, and Eric Uhunmwangho against Edo State governor, the state Attorney General, the state House of Assem-bly and the eight mem-bers of the re-constituted EDSIEC chaired by Solo-mon Aigbuoibo Ogoh.

It was gathered that elections into the 18 coun-cils of the state were to be

conducted at a yet-to-be-an-nounced date in December.

The state Attorney-Gen-eral and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Osagie Obayu-wana, said that the govern-ment had already appealed the judgment.

He said: We have al-ready filed our notice of appeal immediately after it was delivered. We are defi-nitely appealing against the ruling.

The judge granted the relief sought by members of the dissolved commis-sion that their dissolution was wrong as they were duly constituted on June 20, 2007 and that their ten-ure should have elapsed on June 19, 2012.

The court also set aside the appointment of all the new members into EDSIEC.

It also ordered that all the arrears of salaries, al-lowances and other finan-cial entitlements of the for-mer members during the period of their removal be paid.

EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has asked the admin-istration of Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson to exhibit sincerity in its bilateral talks with South Africa to fast track develop-ment in the state.

The party said the cur-rent business deal the gov-ernment claimed it had with that country should not be another window-dressing show to score cheap political points.

This is contained in a statement issued yesterday

by the state Public Secre-tary of ACN, Christopher Abaraowei.

Abaraowei recalled that previous administrations in the state had used such bilateral relationships and frivolous foreign trips to hoodwink indigenes of the state.

The party spokesman regretted that several years after such claims were made; there was nothing to show for the funds spent under the guise of attract-ing foreign investors to the state.

He said: The ACN lauds the move by the Bayelsa State Government to strike a business relationship with the South African Government. But we must quickly add that the people of the state witnessed so many bilateral talks by pre-vious governments from which nothing came out.

We wish to also recall that countless foreign trips were made by previous governments in the name of wooing foreign inves-tors to the state but as it is obvious today, no foreign investment existed in the state in spite of the public funds spent on such trips that turned out to be jam-borees.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 Thursday, August 2, 2012 North

AUGUSTIINE MADU-WESTKANO

Bomb experts yester-day were busy with detonation of explo-sives recovered from Kabu-ga, a few kilometres from the main campus of the Bayero University, Kano.

The anti-bomb squad had a day earlier detonated assorted local explosives

planted by unknown per-sons inside the Federal Col-lege of Education, FCE.

The Kano State Commis-sioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris, confirmed yesterdays exercise in an interview with our correspondent.

Idris said his men deto-nated four high calibre explo-sives.

According to him, the police decided to detonate

the bombs where they were found to avoid accident as re-corded in some states.

He said: We decided not to evacuate them to the tradi-tional spot where live bombs are defused to avoid an acci-dent.

Idris disclosed that no one was hurt neither was any damage done to structures in the vicinity from the im-pact of the explosions.

Chairman, Caretaker Committee, Kankara Local Government Area, Katsina State , Alhaji Abdulhadi Abdullahi (left), presenting working materials to representatives of vigilance groups in the area, yesterday.

OMEIZA AJAYI

Senior police officers met in Abuja yester-day to fashion out new ways to end the re-curring violence in parts of Plateau State, which last month claimed Sena-tor Gyang Dantong and the majority Leader of the state House of Assembly,

Hon. Gyang Fulani.At the meeting, Inspector

General of Police, Moham-med Abubakar, ordered the Assistant Inspector Gen-eral of Police, AIG, Zone 4, Mike Zuokumor, and the Plateau State Commission-er of Police, Emmanuel Ay-eni, to evolve practical ways of halting the trend and for-

ward such proposal to him on or before August 14.

He said: You must let me know before the close of work on Tuesday 14th Au-gust, 2012, what new things we must do to restore per-manent peace to Plateau State.

Abubakar said since criminals were becoming

more sophisticated in their approach to crime, the force must step up its operations and change its crime pre-vention strategies.

He disclosed that there would be a commensurate reward and punishment for officers who excelled and those who performed below expectation.

Police chiefs meet over Plateau violence

Governor Kwankwaso

ADEMU IDAKWOLOKOJA

One of the newly appointed com-missioners in Kogi State, Mr. Simon Ige Oluti-mayin, is dead.

Olutimayin, who was the commissioner for budget and planning, died barely six days after the inauguration of the State Executive Council by Gov-ernor Idris Wada.

The Commissioner for Information, Mallam Yabagi Gbologi, who ad-dressed journalists imme-diately after the State Ex-ecutive Council meeting at the Government House in Lokoja, described Olu-timayins death as tragic and unfortunate.

Gbologi said Wada had expressed his deep-est sympathy to family of the deceased and the

people of Yagba-East Lo-cal Government over the sad event.

A family source said Olutimayin died on Tues-day night at a private hos-pital in Lagos.

Born in Egbe, Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State in April, 1950, Olutimayin was an alumnus of the Ahmadu Bello Univer-sity, ABU, Zaria, where he graduated with a BSc de-gree in Economics in 1980.

Olutimayin joined the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and rose through the ranks to the position of an Assistant Director in charge of other finan-cial institutions before re-tiring in 2010.

Until his appointment by Wada, the deceased was the Managing Director of the Lagos-based Alpha Concept, a private firm.

Kogi commissioner dies a few days after inauguration

Bomb experts detonate high calibre explosives in Kano

I will therefore not take kindly with Commissioners of Police who stick to tradi-tional policing methodol-ogy which no longer yields desired results without taking new initiatives to combat emerging trends of criminal activities. Neither will I tolerate lukewarm (attitude), do-cility, incompetence, and lack of capacity to drive the Reform Agenda of this Administration by any Commissioner of Police.

I only demand and insist that our actions must depart from the old ways and reflect unam-biguously, our readiness to serve the Nigerian public with respect and

strictly within the provi-sions of the law, Abuba-kar said.

The IGP also cautioned policemen against de-manding payment for bail, warning that on no account should any Nige-rian be subjected to bail conditions outside those statutorily allowed by the law.

He said: I must warn you that defaulters will be severely sanctioned while CPs within whose com-mands such acts are per-petrated will face adminis-trative actions.

He added that compli-ance with his directive must reach his office by return signal not later than August 10.

IGP threatens to sanction AIGs, CPs, others

HENRY IYORKASEMAKURDI

Benue State House of Assembly has sum-moned the Com-missioner for Finance, Mr. Omadachi Oklobia, to appear before it next Wednesday to explain the poor financial status of the state which has result-ed in the delay of payment of salaries to some civil servants, including mem-bers of the Assembly in the last three months.

He was also directed to come with the status of the account of the state Inter-nally Revenue Generated, IGR, and the federal alloca-

tions so far received by the state.

Hon. Baba Odeh, who raised the motion sum-moning the commissioner during the House session yesterday, said that all the related documents pertain-ing to finances of the state should be presented to know why the workers have not been paid as at when due.

Odeh representing Otuk-po/Akpa state constituency, told the House that for some time now, salaries of civil servants, including Assem-bly members, had not been paid.

He added that teachers had not been paid in the last

five months. The issue raised heated

debate among members, who also lamented the re-fusal of the finance com-missioner to appear before the House to explain why their names were omitted in the payroll of the state in the last three months.

Speaker David Iorhemba put the matter to vote and ruled in favour of the ma-jority who voted that Ok-lobia should appear before the House on August 8.

Recently, there were rumours that the state ac-count had been frozen.

But Oklobia debunked the claims in a text message sent to journalists.

Benue Assembly summons commissioner over delay in salary

PRISCILA DENNISMINNA

Governor Muazu Ba-bangida Aliyu of Niger State has ad-vised the Federal Govern-ment to establish a bi-lat-eral relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to reap mutual benefits.

Aliyu made the call dur-ing a visit by the National Hajji Commission led by its Chairman, Alhaji Moham-med Bello, in Minna.

He said for over eight years, efforts were made to

establish the relationship without success.

The governor explained that currently, Nigeria was enjoying the bi-lateral agreements reached with various nations of the world and wondered why the same had not been es-tablished with Saudi Ara-bia.

Aliyu reasoned that Sau-di Arabia was benefiting from Nigeria because of the huge number of pilgrims who visited that country to perform the yearly Hajji pil-grimage among others.

FG must establish relationship with Saudi Arabia -AliyuThe Nigerian Conser-vation Foundation, NCF, has condemned

last Thursdays gruesome murder of its Taraba State Project Coordinator, Mr. Ashimi Tirimisiyu, by sus-pected gunmen in Jalingo.

The NCF Public Rela-tions Officer, Mr. Kunle Ola-woyin, said in a statement that Tirimisiyu, 46, was shot at close range by the gunmen at a place where he went to break his Ramadan fast.

He added the gunmen also stole the project vehi-cle, Tirimisiyus laptop and other personal belongings.

NCF decries coordinators killing in Taraba

EMMANUEL ONANIABUJA

Ijaw leader and former Minister of Informa-tion, Chief Edwin Clark yesterday accused some unnamed persons who had threatened to make Nigeria ungovern-able, as being behind the spate of bombings perpe-trated by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Clark gave the damn-ing verdict while deliver-ing a lecture entitled 2012 State of the Federation Lecture, organised by the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, NIALS in Abuja.

He said: People who said they must make Ni-geria ungovernable for President Jonathan must be behind what is happen-ing, even as he challenged the government to muster the political will to deal

with such persons, saying nobody is bigger than the government.

In the Niger Delta, our agitation is for 50 per cent derivation, what is their own grievance? President Jonathan is the President of Nigeria, he is not the President of the Niger Del-ta, he is not the President of the Ijaw.

He called for state of emergency to be declared in those volatile states ravaged by Boko Haram bombs and explosives, saying: I appeal to gov-ernors, instead of devot-ing themselves to meeting every month, to go home. They should be made to un-derstand that if they dont perform state of emergen-cy will be declared in their states for six months you will not be a governor.

On the recent moves by former Presidents Oluse-gun Obasanjo and Ibrahim

Babangida to find a lasting solution to the insecurity situation in the country, he doubted Babangidas ini-tiative, saying: IBB said he would wear a uniform and fight for Nigerias unity at 72. He should first

stand up and condemn Boko Haram from the bot-tom of his heart. Obasanjo has gone to Maiduguri to meet the people. Why has he (IBB) not gone?

On 2015: I also wish to appeal to certain poli-

ticians in the country to sheath their swords in their ambition to take over the presidency in 2015. I think it is too early in the day to think of 2015. The Presi-dent himself has warned his functionaries not to talk

of the politics of 2015 but to concentrate on the develop-ment of the country. Once again, I repeat let us not talk about the politics of 2015 because the current president has about three years more to go.

FELIX NWANERI

The Conference of Nigeria Political Par-ties (CNPP) has fault-ed the ex parte order grant-ed by an Enugu State High Court, extending by 48 days the interim injunction it

granted on July 25 restrain-ing the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh from running the party.

Describing the order granted by the Enugu State Chief Judge, Justice Inno-cent Umezulike as a ploy to

cripple the party, the CNPP in a statement signed by its National Secretary, Chief Willy Ezugwu, however commended the decision of the National Chairman of the party to challenge it.

The conference said the appeal will expose the political manipulation be-hind the order. He therefore urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mar-iam Alooma Mukhtar and the National Judicial Coun-cil (NJC) to investigate the ruling.

It said: As noted by Chief Umehs Counsel, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), the plaintiff, Jude Ejike never applied for an extension of the ex parte order and the judge proceeded to extend it by another 48 days in clear violation of the High Court Rules of Enugu State 2006, which only allows for ex parte order of seven days, subject to an additional

seven days of extension on application.

The order extending the duration of the ex parte order is in violation of Or-der 39 Rule3(4) of the High Court of Enugu State, 2006. So, where did the learned justice get his own 48 days order ex parte from? This is just part of a grand plan by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to prevent APGA from meeting to strategise on how it will ex-pand its membership base nationwide.

The CNPP noted that it is a good thing that the APGA chairman is asking for the vacation of the order to al-low the party to carry on with its regular activities since the judge erred in law by granting an order of such duration.

It warned against ma-nipulation of the judiciary to cripple political parties from functioning.

FELIX NWANERI

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State, Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) has described as contemptuous, the state-ment credited to Governor Olusegun Mimiko that Ondo people should not allow themselves to be pol-luted by aliens.

Akeredolu, in a state-ment through his cam-

paign orgainisation, signed by its Director of Media, Publicity and Strategy, Mr. Idowu Ajanaku, described the assertion by Mimiko at the commissioning of a night market at Idanre Town, as unbecoming of a governor, who instead of basing his campaign on issues, is trying to deceive the people.

It said: Indeed, if there is anybody that can be de-scribed as alien in Ondo State, it is Mimiko himself against the background of the claim by many people

of the state that the man has his origin firmly root-ed in Igbiraland in Kogi State as his name Mimiko is an alien Yoruba name. It is a notorious fact that his grandfathers name is Ati-ku which is not a Yoruba name.

The ACN maintained that despite the fact that it wants the campaign to be an issue-oriented one; the party will not hesitate to go deep into history to de-bunk any false claims by the present administration in the state.

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

The Lagos State chap-ter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the Na-tional Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Lai Mohammad, lacks the cre-dentials to raise any moral question over the trial of Mahmud, the son of the na-tional chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur.

The party, speaking through its State Public-ity Secretary, Taofik Gani, on behalf of the state chairman, Olatunji Shele, gave Mohammed a seven days ultimatum to prove his moral uprightness by making public his assets declaration records before and after his service in the administration of former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The reaction and demand is coming on the heels of the call by Mohammed for Tu-kurs resignation as nation-al chairman of the PDP over the involvement of his son, Mahmud in the ongoing fuel subsidy scam and trial of al-

leged scammers.The PDP said: Apart

from the diabolism, absur-dity and ignorance of the law expressed by Lai Mo-hammed, we wonder what credentials the ACN spokes-man posses to raise moral issues when in actual fact he is still carrying the mor-al burden of explaining to Lagosians the source of his monumental wealth just af-ter serving as Chief of Staff to Bola Tinubu in a govern-ment that remains the sym-bol of huge misgovernance and embezzlement.

Insurgency sponsored by forces against Jonathans govt Clark

Akeredolu describes Mimiko as an alien in Ondo

ACN lacks moral ground to call for Tukurs resignation PDP

Court order meant to cripple APGA CNPPGovernor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu receiving some publications from the Chairman, National Hajj Commission of Nige-ria (NAHCON), Mallam Mohammed Bello, during a courtesy visit at the Government House, Minna.

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Thursday, August 2, 2012

Insecurity: Can Dasuki make a difference?

1614

Furore over single term tenure proposal

Perhaps those who were agitating for a national dialogue are right after all, as indication in the politi-cal firmament is pointing to the fact that the country needs one, in order to forge ahead as a nation.

Prominent Nigerians recently met and called for a dialogue that will allow Nige-rians to sit down on a round table and dis-cussed all their fears and how they want to be governed. However, the Senate as well as the House of Representatives in unison kicked against such a decision, declaring it a no go area, because such idea may disintegrate the country.

Ironically, the reality on the ground on virtually everything, be it security, faulty constitution, monumental fraud, executive and legislative rascality, unem-ployment, agitation for state creation and true federalism are pointing to the fact that a further delay of such a dialogue, could be disastrous.

The recent Senate retreat at Asaba, the Delta State capital, discussed among other things the proposed five-year single tenure for the president and the 36 state governors.

The Senate Committee on Constitution Review had suggested a five-year single tenure for the offices of president and governors in order to deepen democratic culture and ensure sustainable develop-ment in the country.

President Goodluck Jonathan had shortly after he was sworn in as president on May 29, 2011 proposed single term ten-ure for president and governors. His pro-posal was greeted with mixed feelings.

Shedding more light on the proposi-tion, the chairman, Senate Committee on Constitutional Review, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, pointed out that President Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent governors would not benefit from the pro-posed five-year single tenure.

Ekweremadu noted that the single five-year tenure for the president and gover-nors was not the idea of the committee but a proposal by a consultant to the com-mittee and from memoranda submitted by various groups.

The memoranda according to him, is a pointer to the fact that Nigerians would be more comfortable with single tenure.

He said: It is the opinion of our con-sultants that single term will not be avail-able to those who are in office presently. If you are in office as president or gover-nor, either on first and or second term, you will not benefit from it.

If you are on first term as a governor or president, you will have to make the sacrifice of surrendering your rights for second term. If the proposal succeeds, only those who are not in office as gover-nor or President can vie for election for a single term.

ans a sense of belonging.According to him, the 1999 Constitu-

tion was forced on Nigerians by the mili-tary, therefore there should be a national dialogue, where all the stakeholders will sit down at a round table conference and all these inadequacies discussed.

Oyebode lamented that a constitution that attracts about 62 amendments, is worst than a terrible constitution. What we need is a brand new constitution that will address the fundamental crisis that afflicts Nigeria. Nigeria had a wronghead-ed quasi-federal structure where too much power has been concentrated at the centre. We have to engage in devolution of power and unscramble the Nigeria federation, re configures it, the 62 ite