...towards a better life for the people

N150VOL. 25: NO. 61959

ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013**

Mr & Mrs

Continues on page 5

•Jonathan meets rebel governors, others•Obasanjo urges Baraje faction to return•They are jokers — Babatope

Rebellion, panicengulf PDP

COLUMNISTS:

•P.17

OCHEREOMENNANNA

LES LEBA•P.44

•P.21

DELESOBOWALE

•P.36

Insidetom

orrow

NAIRA'SFALL:CBNcompelsbanks tobuy dollars

SERVICE—From Left: Former President Olusegun Obasanjo; President Boni Yayi of Benin Republic; President GoodluckJonathan, First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and the Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe at the Aso Villa Chapel service,yesterday. Photo: NAN.

OZEKHOME:Community cancelsage-grade festival 7

Mandelareturns home,still critical

BANK LIQUIDATION:Depositors paid N6.82bn in 2012 — NDIC

13

BY EMMANUELAZIKEN, HENRY

UMORU, BENAGANDE & DAPO

AKINREFON

A B U J A — T H EBamanga Tukur-

led Peoples DemocraticParty, PDP, was throwninto panic, yesterday, aday after seven gover-nors on the platform of

•P.54

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 — 3

4—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Yakassaidissociatesself fromPatriot'spoliticalsummit

BY HENRY UMORU

2006 census controversy: CAN tellsJonathan not to sack Odimegwu

£3,000 visa bond: UK govt still undecided— ENVOY

...wants query withdrawn, says 2006 census manipulated to favour North

BY SAM EYOBOKA &CALEB AYANSINA

ABUJA—THE ChristianAssociation of Nigeria,

yesterday, warned PresidentGoodluck Jonathan againstbeing used by Northerners tosacrifice chairman of NationalPopulation Commission, ChiefFestus Odimegwu, ahead of2015 election, following therevelation of the true nature of2006 census by the latter.

Odimegwu had described the2006 census results as incredible,and his declaration earned hima query from the Office of theGovernment of the Federation.

CAN called on the FederalGovernment to withdraw thequery and tender an apology toOdimegwu in the interest offairness, insisting that 2006census results were cooked tofavour the north .

The association also decried thepoliticization of Odimegwu’scomment, saying they were ploysby the North to blackmailPresident Goodluck Jonathanahead of the 2015 generalelections.

A statement by the PublicRelations Officer of CAN in the19 Northern states and Abuja,Mr. Sunny Oibe, said the callby Arewa Consultative Forumand Governor Rabiu Kwankwasoof Kano State for the removal ofthe NPC boss before the 2016census because he was asoutherner was misplaced.

He said: “The call by ACF onPresident Goodluck Jonathan tomake sure that Odimegwu doesnot supervise the 2016 census ismisplaced.

“The question we are asking is:which part of the North are theysaying has higher population?Since when has ACF become apolitical party that every timethey will always dabble intopolitics?

"We in CAN hereby demandthat the Federal Governmentshould withdraw the queryissued to Odimegwu withimmediate alacrity. Why wouldthe government be blindfoldedby Kwankwaso?

“The government should alsoapologize to Odimegwu;Jonathan should make sure thatnothing happens to him. We aresurprised that Jonathan isallowing himself to beintimidated by the Islamic North.

"Before the 2006 census, weconfronted the former chairmanof NPC, Mr. Samuila Makamafrom Plateau State on whyreligion and ethnicity are notincluded in census matters to beable to ascertain who is who inNigeria and the man wassweating.

“We wanted to know which tribeand religion exist in Nigeria andthat this information must beincluded in census data. The manwas sweating. The North thenblackmailed and intimidated ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo thatif the indices were not removed,they won’t participate in the

exercise.”According to him, although

there was a census that wasconducted during the IbrahimBadamasi Babangida’sadministration, Lagos Statewas given a figure more thanKano.

Oibe, however, added that

thereafter, the late General SaniAbacha came and split Kanointo Jigawa and Kano states.He said: “As at today, half ofthat Kano is more than Lagos.So are we saying that Lagos isnot growing, meaning that it’sonly the core North that isgrowing?"

BY VICTORIA OJEME

ABUJA—CONTRARY tospeculations that November

2013 is the date the new UK visabond of £3,000 would take off,British High Commissioner toNigeria, Ambassador AndrewPocock, weekend, said hisgovernment was yet to take adecision on whether to go aheadwith the policy or not.

Ambassador Pocock, in a chat withVanguard in Abuja, insisted thateven if his government decided toimplement the visa cash bondpolicy, only a fraction of 150,000Nigerians granted travel visaannually would be subjected to thepolicy.

Pocock said: “We don’t know, firstof all, whether this will happen atall, but if 150,000 Nigerians travelto the UK every year, this schemewill probably only affect a coupleof hundreds, which is a very smallproportion of 150,000. So it’s nota catastrophe coming down theroad.”

He noted that much of the uproarabout the proposal was based on amisunderstanding of what the

scheme was all about.He said: "What I said to your

foreign minister is that as soonas I know what has beendecided in London, I will tellthe Nigerian governmentformally and we will tell thepeople of this country.

“But we are a long way awayfrom that and we know whatthe Nigerian governmentprobably thinks about this. Wehave passed those feelingsback to the government inLondon, and they are taking itinto consideration.”

On the speculation thatNovember has been fixed forthe take off of the policy, he said“Let me say a number of things,I have said this in public andam happy to say it again. Firstof all, there is no policy, it issimply something that is beingdiscussed in the UK .

“If we do need to set up somekind of policy, there will be apilot scheme, a very smallscheme to see how it works andto see if Nigeria is one of thecountries.

“But even if this bond schemeis put into practice, it will affectonly a tiny fraction of thetraveling public of Nigerians.

“Just to put things inperspective, 200,000 Nigeriansapply for a UK visa every year,about a 150,000 get a visa sothat is between 70 and 75percent of Nigerians who applyto get a visa.”

He assured that the proposedpolicy, if implemented, wasintended to eliminate abuse ofUK visa regime.

He said: “So if we did put ina bond which is intended tostop people from abusing thevisa system only a very tinyfraction will be affected by this.

“So with all the things I havesaid it is not a policy, we stillneed to pilot it if it is decidedwe don’t know whether Nigeriawill be involved and even if itis, we are talking of very smallnumbers. It is not merely as badas it sounds but it doesn’t meanthat every Nigerian has to pay£3,000 for a UK visa. It does notmean that.”

ABUJA—AHEAD of theproposed National

Political Summit by ProfessorBen Nwabueze in Uyo, theNigerian National SummitGroup, NNSG, yesterday,disowned and dissociateditself from it, saying the saidsummit was not capable ofachieving the yearnings ofNigerians for a SovereignNational Conference.

In a statement by thechairman of NNSG andelder statesman, TankoYakasai, said the problemsNigeria was going throughwere too endemic for whatthe group termed revelryand ceremonies in the nameof national political summit.

He said: “We wish to bringto the notice of Nigeriansthat the proposed NationalPolitical Summit scheduledto take place in Uyo,AkwaIbom State, is beingorganised by a distinct body,Project Nigeria which is ledby Professor BenNwabueze.

“This clarification hasbecome very imperativebecause of the numerousinquiries and clarificationssought by discerningNigerians who have, overthe years, rightly associatedthe Nigerian NationalSummit Group with the taskof organising genuinedialogue to address themyriad of problems facingNigeria through nationalconference.

"It would be recalled thatProfessor Ben Nwabueze, arespected elder statesmanand leader of the Patriots,was one of the co-convenersof the inaugural NationalSummit Group meeting inLagos in February, 2012.

“It is worthy to state thatthe meeting was wellattended, drawingrepresentations from allsections of the country.However, midway into themeeting, our elderstatesman Professor BenNwabueze whose mainobjective was to persuadeparticipants to endorse theconcept of SovereignNational Conference, SNG,which obviously was not thepreferred mode of dialogueby majority of participants,staged a walk-out.

“We, therefore, wonderwhether the proposednational political summit inUyo would satisfy theyearning for a sovereignnational conference".

PORTHARCOURT CENTENARY—Secretary to the Rivers State Government, George Feyii;Mayor of Port Harcourt City, Chimbiko Akarolo; Deputy Governor of Rivers State, TeleIkuru; Professor of History, E. J. Alagoa; and Administrator of Greater Port Harcourt City,Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, cutting the centenary cake at the opening ceremony of the PortHarcourt Centenary Celebrations in Port Harcourt, weekend.

POCKET CARTOON

TAKE HEARTBY ELLA RANDLE

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—5

LIFEWORDSBY PASTOR ITUAH

Rebellion, panic engulf PDPContinues from page 1

Do not despise adversity; learn from it— PastorTaiwo Odukoya. There is definitely a lesson in eve-rything.

UNLESS you know the basic mechanics behindthe workings of the ego, you won’t recog-

nize it, and it will trick you into identifying with itagain and again. This means it takes you over, animposter pretending to be you. You cannot fightagainst the ego and win, just as you cannot fightagainst darkness. The light of consciousness is allthat is necessary -You are that light —E. Toile

Lord Tennessee’s insightful message about theego is very thorough and sums it beautifully, whenhe says that nobody sees anybody truly but allthrough the flaws of their own egos. That is theway people sometimes view others in life. Vanity,fear, desire, and competition- all such distortionswithin our own egos- condition our vision of thosein relation to us. Add to those distortions to ourown egos the corresponding distortions in the egosof others, and you see how cloudy the glass mustbecome through which we look at each other. That’show it is in all living relationships except when thereis that rare case of people who love intenselyenough to burn through all those layers of opacityand see each other’s naked hearts.

This much I do know, no matter what you do, howgood your intentions, people will always see thereflection of themselves in you. It does not matterhow a person sees you, if your heart holds a beau-tiful conviction of harmony, purity and divine lovethat is all that matters.

MANDELA—An ambulance carrying former South African President, Nelson Mandela arrivesat his house in Johannesburg, yesterday. Mandela was discharged, yesterday, from hospital where hehas been treated since June 8 for a recurring respiratory illness, the Presidency said. Inset: Media keepwatch outside Mandela's home. AFP PHOTOS.

MANDELA HOME, CRITICAL

the ruling party brokeaway to form a parallelexecutive of the party.The panic was beingfuelled by reports of therebellion swelling to in-

clude party officials dis-enchanted with the out-come of last Saturday’sconvention.

Another governor inthe North-West was lastnight said to be making

moves towards joiningthe rebellion just as aformer female deputygovernor in one of theSouth-West states, waslast night said to be mo-bilising women, includ-ing a former female gu-bernatorial aspirant inLagos State to join theKawu Baraje-led paral-lel faction of the partytoday.

The sense of forebod-ing was reflected by theunwillingness of partyand presidency officialsto comment on the de-velopment which manyof them said was stillunfolding.

Meanwhile, Baraje,yesterday, confirmedthat the faction would beopening its national sec-retariat in Abuja, today.

It was confirmed, yes-terday, that PresidentGoodluck Jonathan hadsummoned a meetingwith PDP governors, in-cluding the rebel gover-nors last night. Themeeting was on-going atpress time, with 16 gov-ernors in attendance.But even before its com-mencement, there wereindications that some ofthe governors hadmoved to frustrate or boy-cott the meeting.

The sense of panicwhich was prevalentamong senior party andpresidency officials was,however, played downlast night by former Min-

ister of Information,Chief Edwin Clark whosaid the rebellion wasbound to fail. He ac-cused former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo oforchestrating the rebel-lion with the purpose offoisting Governors SuleLamido and RotimiAmaechi as presidentand vice-president re-spectively in the 2015election.

Also dismissing therebellion, PDP chieftain,Chief EbenezerBabatope, said the de-velopment was a stormin a tea cup as he de-scribed the architects ofthe split as jokers.

The rebellion in thePDP was neverthelesswelcomed by governorsin the opposition AllProgressives Congress,APC, who through theirplatform, theProgressives GovernorsForum, lauded the de-velopment in the PDP asthey promised to joinhands with the gover-nors irrespective of par-tisan leanings to movethe country forward.

Their assertion none-theless, the PDP Gover-nors Forum has pledgedto stem the rebellion.

Besides summoningthe seven rebel gover-nors, the president, yes-terday, met withObasanjo during whichit was believed the de-velopment in the party

was discussed. Presi-dential spokesmen didnot give details of themeeting betweenJonathan and Obasanjowhich happened afterthe church service at theAso Rock Villa Chapel.

Obasanjo is known tobe a patron of, at least,five of the northern gov-ernors who have in thelast few weeks raisedagitation againstJonathan’s handling ofissues in the party andpolity.

The five Obasanjo gov-ernors, Sule Lamido ofJigawa, Aliyu Wamakkoof Sokoto, BabangidaAliyu (Niger), MurtalaNyako (Adamawa) andRabiu Kwankwaso(Kano) were joined inthe rebellion against theTukur-led PDP by Gov-ernors Rotimi Amaechi ofRivers State andAbdulfatah Ahmed ofKwara on Saturday.

Obasanjo meetsJonathan

The meeting was pre-ceded by a church serv-ice at the Aso RockChapel which was at-tended by the duo andwas held behind closeddoors.

Former PresidentObasanjo met the firstfamily shortly before thecommencement of yes-terday's church serviceand they were laterjoined by visiting Presi-dent of Benin Republic,Boni Yayi.

The trio subsequentlyvisited the children’schurch after the servicefollowing which theywent into the President’sresidence for lunch.They were joined by theChief of Staff to thePresident, MikeOghiadomhe.

Special Adviser to thePresident on Media andPublicity, Dr ReubenAbati who confirmed themeetings, however, didnot give details of whatthey discussed at themeeting.

The move by the sevenPDP governors provokedconcern among presi-dency officials whofeared yesterday that itcould lead the PDP tobecome a minority in thetwo chambers of the Na-tional Assembly.

Besides, it was learntthat the crisis in the partycould provide the basisfor members of the Na-tional Assembly disaf-fected by developmentsin the PDP to formallybreak away from thePDP.

Under constitutionalprovisions, legislatorscan only decamp fromthe party on which theywere elected if the partyis factionalised.

Presidency minders itwas learnt, were yester-day desperately reach-ing out to the principalofficials of the NationalAssembly to sustainparty and official har-mony. A senior presi-dency official made a cir-cuit of the residences ofthe presiding officers ofthe National Assembly tosustain the cordiality be-tween the administra-tion and the legislature.

Women kickagainst KemaChikwe

Meanwhile, therewere strong indications,yesterday, that the rebel-lion was catching on es-pecially among womenwho were displeasedwith the return of Dr.Kema Chikwe as Na-tional Women Leader. Aformer deputy governorof one of the South-Weststates was yesterday al-leged to be mobilisingwomen to show solidar-ity with the Baraje-ledfaction of the party to-day. The women werepeeved that Chikwe wasreturned despite stridentopposition and cam-paigns to the nationalheadquarters by womengroups against her re-

Continues on page 53

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Casket seller ‘kidnaps' self, demandsN2m ranson from brothers

BY TONY EDIKE

ENUGU — KIDNAPPING forransom which has remained

the quickest means of makingmoney among criminals withinthe South-East zone has taken anew dimension as some dubiouspeople now hide under the evilpractice to dupe their wealthy re-lations.

One Samuel Ani, a casket (cof-fin) dealer from Ugwuaji commu-nity in Enugu South Local Gov-ernment Area of Enugu Statewas arrested by operatives ofAnti-Kidnapping Unit of theEnugu State Police Command,weekend, for attempting to dupehis brothers of N2 million underthe guise that he was abductedby kidnappers.

Ani, whose coffin shop is atGarki, Awkunanaw area ofEnugu, allegedly hid himself ina bush behind his shop for sixdays and alerted his brothers thathe was in a kidnappers’ den.

The state Police Public RelationsOfficer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, whoconfirmed the arrest, yesterday,said the suspect “never knew thathis sin shall find him.”

He said: “Samuel Ani hid him-self in a bush behind his shopfor six days from where he wasmaking phone calls to his twoyounger brothers in a very con-vincing tone that he had beenabducted and that N2 millionwas required to get him out ofthe kidnappers' den or else hewould be killed.

”Following this, the case wasreported to the state police com-mand who mobilised its anti-kid-

napping unit to rescue the vic-tim. When Samuel intensified hiscall that the purported kidnap-pers were on the verge of killinghim if his people could not bringthe ransom, he later reduced theransom to N1.2 million.

"Some money was then depos-ited into the account number pro-vided by the purported kidnap-pers and a certain girl who wentto cash the initial N100,000 sentthrough one of the new genera-tion banks around Agbani Roadon August 29, 2013 was arrestedby the operatives.

”The girl was identified as oneOluchi Faith Ogbu from Akpugoin Nkanu West Local Govern-ment Area of the state and a fi-ancee to Samuel Ani.

"When interrogated, OluchiFaith Ogbu said that the accountbelongs to her but was instructedby Samuel to supply the accountnumber so that his brothers canpay the ransom via the accountand that she was to cash it as soonas she receives alert of the pay-ment and bring it to him.”

The police spokesman saidOluchi’s confession, however, ledto the arrest of Samuel, who saidhe was not kidnapped but main-tained that he kidnapped him-self so that his wealthy youngerbrothers could pay ransom whichhe would use to sort out his busi-ness dealings.

He said apart from the trick headopted, nothing would makehis brothers give him any mon-etary assistance even though heregretted his actions.

Ani admitted that the step hetook was not good in the sight of

God, man or law and pleaded forforgiveness.

He said he is a father of fivechildren but never revealed toOluchi that he was married ashe had promised to marry her.

Asked if he was not makingends meet from the constructionand sale of coffins, Ani said he

made low sales, and that he de-cided to trick the brothers to getmoney from them to address hisimmediate challenges which re-quired huge amount of money.

Amaraizu said Oluchi and Anihad been detained while inves-tigations into the ugly incidenthad commenced.

The suspects, Samuel Ani (right) and Oluchi Faith Ogbu

46 families rendered homeless as fire guts houses in LagosBY EVELYN USMAN &MICHAEL NWOPOKE

LAGOS — NO fewer than 46families were, weekend, ren-

dered homeless and propertyworth millions of Naira de-stroyed, after fire gutted overseven houses in different loca-tions in Lagos.

Five person injured during the

stampede were reportedly beingtreated at undisclosed hospitalsin Lagos.

This is just as men of the fireservice were attacked by the an-gry mob at one of the scenes inIkorodu area of the state.

Two of the affected houses arelocated on 25 and 27 OwoyemiStreet, Amukoko. The fire, asgathered, started at about 8

pm,with conflicting reports onthe cause.

While the Police said they werestill investigating it, the AmukokoVigilante commander, MrOguntade Sesan said it wascaused by a power generatingset.

According to Sesan, the firestarted from 27, Owoyemi Street,adding: “The fire started fromthe generator set used by one ofthe tenants in 27, OwoyemiStreet, and spread to the twinbuildings. Occupants of thebuildings who were just return-ing from their respective workplaces were shocked at the dis-covery.

"I was tired so I decided to re-lax only to hear a bang on mydoor. When I came out, I discov-ered that the building was cov-ered by thick smoke. I managedto come out alive. As at now, Ihave only this shirt I am puttingon. Everything I have labouredfor since I started working isgone.”

Another occupant, Afa Basirisaid: “I was shocked when I re-turned home to find the house

on fire. I watched helplessly asall my property were burnt toashes. But my joy is that I amalive.”

When Vanguard visited thescene, yesterday, the affectedfamilies were trying to salvagesome of their valuables from thecharred remains.

Fire service menattacked

A similar incident also occurredat Alhaji Ladega bus-stop inIkorodu area of Lagos. In thiscase, fire service men said tohave responded to the distresscall were attacked by a mob whoaccused them of arriving late.

Contacted, the Lagos State Di-rector of Fire Service, Mr RasakFadipe, expressed disappoint-ment over the attack on his men,noting that they arrived the sceneimmediately they received thedistress call.

He said expensive fire truckswere destroyed, including theirequipment, adding, however,that those attacked had been dis-charged from the hospital.One of the burnt houses

Two pastors,28 othersnabbed overpipelinevandalism

By EVELYN USMAN

LAGOS — THIRTY suspected pipeline van-

dals, among them, two pas-tors and two teenagerswere, weekend, arrested byofficials of the Ogun Statecommand of the NigerianSecurity and Civil DefenceCorps, NSCDC, in IsheriOlofin area of the state.

The suspects, according tothe Commandant, MrAkinwande Aboluwoye,were arrested after a shoot-out.

Recovered from the sus-pects, according toAboluwoye, were canoesand 400 50-litre jerricansfilled with siphoned petro-leum product.

Parading the suspects,among whom were sixwomen, the commandantexplained that the feat wasachieved following a tip off.

He said: “Immediatelythey sighted us, theyopened fire, thereby lead-ing to a gun battle. Butwhen it became apparentthat the heat was too muchfor them, they abandonedthe products and jumpedinto the river and escaped.However, we were able toarrest their accompliceswho reside in the area. Weset the recovered canoesablaze while surveillancehas been intensified in thatarea.”.

However, when the teen-agers, MichaelOyedotun(13) and AzeezAjani(12) were quizzed,they denied theirinvolvment, saying they areapprentices in a tailoringworkshop in the area.

While Oyedotun claimedhe was arrested while tak-ing his bath at the OgunRiver, Azeez admitted see-ing jerricans around thearea any time he wakes up.

On his part, one of thepastors who identified him-self as Nikuleyi Adesola,claimed he was arrested inthe company of two femalemembers of his church.

According to him, “I live inthe church. I was with two ofmy members when NSCDCofficials ordered us to come out.I do not know anything aboutthe recovered jerricans or ac-tivities of vandals.”

Meanwhile, the comman-dant has said the suspectswould be charged to courtsoon.

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—7

OZEKHOME: Iviukwe community unites infasting, prayer Age group festival cancelled

Community leaders, youths speakBY GABRIEL

ENOGHOLASE

AGENEBODE — IVIUKWEcommunity is one of the com-

munities in Agenebode clan,headquarters of the Wepa WanoKingdom of Estako East LocalGovernment Area of Edo State.

It is an agrarian rural commu-nity with majority of its inhabit-ants being peasant farmers.

Members of the communitywore mournful look, weekend,when Vanguard visited over theabduction of one of thier illustri-ous sons, High Chief MichaelOzekhome.

Chief Ozehkome was abductedbetween Ehor and Ekpoma, pe-nultimate Thursday, on his wayto his home town while four po-licemen from the Ehor Police Di-vision, who were on rescue mis-sion, lost their lives as they wereambushed by the kidnappers.

During the visit, Vanguardgathered that the kidnap saga hasbrought the different religiousgroups in Iviukwe together asthey have embarked on fastingand prayers, appealing to God totouch the conscience of the ab-ductors and release him to themunhurt and unconditionally.

Since the abduction, places ofworship in the town have beenunusually jam-packed duringsuch exercises and this was no-ticed yesterday as the St. MaryCatholic Church and other Pen-tecostal churches in the commu-nity were filled up as they offeredprayers to God.

Age group festivalcancelled

Sadness was clearly writtenon the faces of children,youths and elderly as theywondered what MikeOzekhome might have done towarrant his kidnap.

The community also can-celled the biennial manhoodfestival and insisted that it can-not hold without Chief MikeOzekhome who they all ac-claimed has been their majorbenefactor. The aged groupfestival called, “Out-ageGroup” was usually celebratedto initiate young men intomanhood.

Everybody spoken to by Van-guard agreed that Chief MikeOzekhome is their greatestbenefactor, leader and philan-thropist.

They said in the past years,he had awarded scholarshipsto students in primary, second-ary and tertiary institutionsrunning into millions of Naira,apart from giving interest freeloans to women to embark onpetty trading and other ven-tures, as well as sewing ma-chines, dryers and motor-cy-

cles to the youths.Community leaders,youths speak

The following are the views ofmembers of the community in-cluding his elder brother, ChiefPius Ozekhome, on what theyfelt about the abduction andwhatMike Ozekhome meant tothem.

CHIEF PIUS OZEKHOME(ELDER BROTHER):

"I will like to appeal to thosewho are still holding him to pleaserelease him to us because he isthe only man here in this part ofthe country that cares for the com-mon man,ordinary people, for thejobless people.

"That is Mike Ozekhome for youwhom the masses declared Sen-ior Advocate of the Masses(SAM) even before he was con-ferred with the prestigious hon-our of Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN).

"This is a man who has beengoing to the prisons to look outfor detainees who were detainedunjustly for one reason or theother. He would go to court andrelease them, spending hismoney after he found out the rea-sons they were detained.

"Here is a man who fought forthis country during the militaryregimes and he was detainedseverally. He joined several pro-tests including the one organisedby the late Chief GaniFawehinmi for the return of thecountry to civil rule."

SUNDAY MOMOH (CHIEFEXECUTIVE, CONOIL,IVIOGHE):

"It is sad that Chief MikeOzekhome is one that has falleninto the hands of kidnappers. Itis just unfortunate that this is hap-pening to him because he caresfor the people, the entire commu-nity and the country at large.

"As a human rights activist, hefought for the down-trodden andthe common man in the street.

"I join his family and all Nigeri-ans to appeal to those holding himto look at his antecedent in the

society and please, release him.He has no such money that he isbeing asked to pay as ransom andthere is no way the communitycan raise such an amount.

"We, therefore, appeal to theirconscience to release him unhurtand unconditionally and this isthe time all Nigerians should joinhis family to pray for his release."

CHIEF PATRICK OKEGA(VILLAGE HEAD, IVIUKWE):

"Children, youths, men andwomen in Iviukwe community aresad about the kidnap because heis the only helper that we have.

"He feeds us, gives scholarshipto our children, builds our com-munity hall, provides electricityfor us among other social ameni-ties.

"As the village head, I appealto the abductors to release him tous because we are tired of weep-ing and our tears are running dry.We are appealing to the Policeand those concerned to do theirbest to secure his release."

EMMANUEL UJAH (YOUTHLEADER AND COMMUNITYCSO):

"We are very sad and helpless.We have declared mourning pe-riods until he is released and weare still mourning because we

have not seen him within ourmidst.

"What Chief Mike Ozekhomehas done for us is unquantifiable.He is the life wire of this commu-nity and when you talk about theprogress and development of thiscommunity, Chief Ozekhome’sname is written in gold.

"He is the one who has raisedthe community from the dust tograce. He is the man who hasbeen caring for the entire com-munity. He bought motorcyclesfor the youths including the oneI am riding now free of charge.

"Every year he earmarks largesum of money to buy sewing ma-chines and dryers for the women,awards scholarships to our chil-dren.

"As a result of the incident, theage group festival that was sup-posed to hold has been cancelled.We called it the Out Age Groupwhich we normally celebratedevery two years. That festival pre-pares young men for the man-hood functions in the community.

"So, when we heard that he hadbeen kidnapped, we decided thatthe festival should no longer hold.So, for now, there is nothing likecelebration in the community untilMike is released to us."

CHIEF PIUS NASAMU,IVIUKWE COMMUNITYCHAIRMAN:

"Everyone of us in the commu-nity is in anguish as a result ofthe abduction. He is a man of thepeople, he is a man of the com-munity, and he is a man that takesgood care of the people of Iviukweand apart from Iviukwe, all othervillages in Estako East.

"There is no where in Edo Stateand the country as a whole wherehis philanthropic gesture is notfelt. We are feeling very bad aboutthe kidnap incident.

"We are begging those whohave taken him away from us toplease release him so that he cantake care of us as he has been

doing. This is our appeal."I also pray to God Almighty to

touch the hearts of the abductorsto release him because he is notjust somebody that should betaken away just like a small fowl.We want to see him released un-harmed and unconditionally."

HABEBO OZEKHOME(COUSIN):

"Chief Mike Ozekhome, a com-munity leader, philanthropist ismy uncle. We received the newsof his kidnap with rude shock andnobody in Iviukwe community ishappy about it.

"He is a grassroots man whocares for the people and apartfrom being a human rights activ-ist, he has been the bread winnerof our family.

"My appeal to those still hold-ing him is to release him becausewe love him so much, we don’twant any harm to be fall him."

HIGH CHIEF STANLEYODIDI, FORMER CHAIR-MAN, ESTAKO EAST LGA:

"I am pleading and appealingto the kidnappers to please re-lease him. Again, there is no wayanybody can possibly raise thekind of money that they are de-manding for to get him out. It isnot possible.

"I am pleading with them to re-lease him, he is our illustrious sonand somebody that we hold verydearly.

"He has a family, friends andother well wishers who missedhim.

"So, I plead with them to releasehim so that he can continue to dothe work that God has sent him. Ialso commiserate with the fami-lies of the policemen that werekilled. They should be veryproud that they died serving thiscountry and I pray God to givethem the fortitude to bear the ir-reparable loss of their bread win-ners and loved ones."

Chief Mike Ozekhome's mansion under lock and key.

A cross section of Iviukwe community leaders.

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

THE last has not beenheard about the crisis in

the health sector as the Ni-gerian Medical Association,NMA, will today hand theFederal Government a 21–day ultimatum to tackle themyriad of challenges andanomalies confronting thecountry's health system or faceanother industrial action.

This is coming on theheels of the suspension of anine-day indefinite strike bythe Medical and HealthWorkers Union after govern-ment agreed to their de-mands.

However, Nigerians maynow have to contend with thenew threat by the umbrellabody of doctors in the coun-try.

A communique issued atthe end of its 2013 NationalExecutive Council, NEC,meeting in Sokoto weekend,

said the ultimatum was alsofor the Federal Governmentto resolve the ongoing de-struction of what they de-scribed as “the fabric of pro-fessionalism and hierarchi-cal order in Nigeria’s publichospitals and the health sec-tor.”

The communique, jointlysigned by the President, Dr.Osahon Enabulele and theSecretary-General, Dr.Akpufuoma Pemu, said thenon-negotiable stance ofNEC is the enthronement ofprofessionalism and interna-tional best practices.

It said: “NEC resolved notto further tolerate the dislo-cation and unqualified suf-fering of doctors and otherhealth workers, who are be-ing owed salaries due to non-payment of wages occa-sioned by recurrent irregu-larities in the implementationof the centralised integratedpersonnel payroll informa-

tion system, IPPIS.“Since the commencement

of the implementation ofIPPIS in federal public hos-pitals, it has greatly under-mined the welfare of doctorsmany of whom have had toendure over three months ofnon-payment of salaries dueto the irregularities in the im-plementation of IPPIS.

“NEC, therefore, calls ongovernment to urgently cor-rect the numerous deficien-cies within the next 21 daysor stop the use of IPPIS as ameans of payment of the sala-ries of doctors in public hos-pitals, pending when the ir-regularities in the IPPIS aresorted out with a perfect in-nocuous system put in place.”

They also mentioned thedelay in the inauguration ofthe Governing Board of theMedical and Dental Councilof Nigeria, MDCN, despiteseveral appeals made byNMA to Government.

FG gets 21-day ultimatum from NMA

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

AFTER series of postpone-ments, eminent leaders

of thought, statesmen andpoliticians across the six geo-political zones will convergeon Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capi-tal, tomorrow to begin a two-day political summit on the wayforward for the country.

Convened by Project Ni-geria (National ConsensusGroup) in conjunction withthe National Political SummitGroup, NPSG, the confab willhold at Le’Meridien Hotels &Resorts, Uyo.

The two-day summit, withthe theme National Securityand Political Stability in Ni-geria, according to MalamNasser Kura, Head of Com-munications, summit secre-tariat, would be jointlychaired by two elder states-men from northern and south-ern Nigeria.

Some of the key participantsnominated to play strategicroles at the confab include allformer Presidents/Head ofState and their deputies; allformer governors and theirdeputies; all former servicechiefs; 21 leaders of thoughtfrom each of the six geo- po-litical zones; three first classtraditional rulers from each ofthe six geo-political zonesand six national Muslim lead-ers and six Christian leadersfrom across the nation.

Others are 18 leadingwomen advocates in the coun-try, 18 labour and civil socie-ties’ leaders, 18 youths fromacross the federation, sixleaders of persons living withdisability and 21 leaders ofleading political parties in thecountry.

Why we’re meeting— Nwabueze

Speaking on the goals of thesummit, Professor Nwabueze(SAN), one of the leaders, dis-missed insinuations that thepurpose of the confab is totake a decision to stop Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan fromseeking re-election in 2015.

He said: “This is very farfrom the truth. The purposeof the Uyo summit is to agreeon a road map to stability,progress and unity of Nigeria.The entire aim of the summitis to build national consensuson how to save Nigeria.

“As I said in my interviewwith the press after The Pa-triots met with PresidentJonathan, the President isperfectly eligible to seek re-election in 2015 and he is freeto do so.

“It is a matter in his abso-lute discretion to decidewhether to run or not to runin 2015. My position on thismatter is totally irrelevant.

“Therefore, my personal ad-vice to him not to run is onlyone factor that he should takeinto account in deciding forhimself whether to run or not

to run.“My advice is purely a per-

sonal one and not that of ei-ther The Patriots or Project Ni-geria, organisers of the na-tional summit, and has noth-ing to do with the Uyo summitas the question of election isnot also a matter listed on theagenda of the summit.”

We’re not part of it— NNSGMeanwhile, the Alhaji TankoYakasai-led Nigerian NationalSummit Group, NNSG, has dis-tanced itself from the summit.

In a statement, Yakasai saidthe clarification became im-perative because of the “nu-merous inquiries and clarifica-tions sought by discerning Ni-gerians that have, over theyears, rightly associated theNNSG with the task of organ-ising genuine dialogue to ad-dress the myriad of problemsfacing Nigeria through na-tional conference.

He said the group had beenworking for the convocation ofan all-inclusive national con-ference, “drawing participantsfrom the grassroots, to dialogueon the future of our countrywith a view to strengtheningthe bonds of unity.

“We believe that our strengthas a nation, as diverse andmulti-ethnic as could be, restssquarely on our common re-

solve to address our chal-lenges in an atmosphere ofpeace, conviviality and fra-ternity, and not confrontationto existing realities.”

Consequently, Yakasai saidthe NNSG intends to consult

Nigerians on the need toconvene a national confer-ence and would “at no dis-tant time release an already-prepared structured time ta-ble for zonal consultationsand all requisite modalities

leading to the convening of anational conference/dialogue.

“The problems of our coun-try today are too endemic forrevelry and ceremonies in thename of national politicalsummit.”

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE& DAPO AKINREFON

Eminent Nigerians stormUyo for 2-day summit

2015 elections not on the agenda— Nwabueze

PDP CONVENTION: From left— Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha; Governor AliyuWammako of Borno State and Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Special National Conven-tion in Abuja, Saturday.

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—9

NAFDACto beginherbalmedicinetrial

BY CHIOMAOBINNA

VISIT: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (left) receiving a plaque from Engr.Elias Nbam, Chairman, Revenue Allocation Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission during acourtesy visit by the commission to Atiku. PHOTO: Gbemiga Olamikan.

THE National Agencyfor Food and Drug

Administration Control,NAFDAC, and NigeriaInstitute of Pharmaceuti-cal Research and Devel-opment, NIPRID, plan tocommence limited clinicaltrial on some Nigerianherbal medicines used forlife-threatening ailmentslike HIV/AIDS among oth-ers.

Disclosing this weekendin Lagos during a one-day symposium to cel-ebrate this year’s Interna-tional Traditional Medi-cines Day, the Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr.Paul Orhii, said the clini-cal trial had become nec-essary following recentnoticeable swing from theearlier bias in favour oforthodox medicine togreater acceptance of tra-ditional medicines in thecountry.

Orhii said with this newtrend, the need to ensurethat only good quality,safe and effective herbalmedicines were distrib-uted and used becameparamount to the Minis-try of Health.

MAKURDI—BENUEState Government has

urged the state’s Police Com-mand to unearth the master-minds of the recent killings atAyati, Agena and Agbayecommunities in Ukum LocalGovernment Area, where alocal militia reportedly mas-sacred 13 persons, injuredmany and burnt down housesand huts of residents.

Acting Governor of the state,Chief Steven Lawani, toldjournalists, yesterday, inMakurdi that “the state gov-

ernment is working in col-laboration with the Policeto fish out leaders of thegang responsible for thebloody attack.

“But despite that unfor-tunate incident, Benue re-mains a safe place and Ican assure you that thesafety of the lives and prop-erty of each and every in-dividual residing or pass-ing through Benue State issafe.

“Already, Police has beenurged to investigate andapprehend the master-minds of the attack and I

can assure you that we areworking closely with the Po-lice to ensure that the peaceof Benue is not disrupted byanyone or group.

“Moreover, the security re-port I have indicates that eve-rything is peaceful and thereis no breach of security inBenue State.”

The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG, Zone4 Makurdi, Mr. MikeZuokumor, and Benue StateCommissioner of Police,Adams Audu, have also or-dered full scale investigationsinto the killings.

The duo gave the order aftervisiting the besieged communi-ties where they assured the resi-dents of the safety of their livesand property.

According to a statement bythe State Police Public RelationsOfficer, PPRO, Deputy Superin-tendent Daniel Ezeala, “whileaddressing the besieged com-munities, the AIG appealed forcalm and also ordered full inves-tigations into the killings.”

NMA's claimMeanwhile, Nigerian Medical

Association, NMA, said yester-day that Nigeria was losing $800million (about N125 billion) an-nually to medical tourism.

The National President of theNMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele,made the announcement inSokoto at a news conference atthe end of the National Execu-tive Council, NEC, meeting ofthe association.

According to him, no fewerthan 5,000 Nigerians travel toIndia annually for medical tour-ism.

He said: “That is why we arecommending Governor IdrisWada of Kogi State for heedingour advice when he had an ac-cident and he stayed back inNigeria for treatment.

“Other public and political of-fice holders should emulate himand have confidence that thereare adequate medical manpowerand facilities in Nigeria.”

Benue calls for investigationinto Ukum council massacre

BY PETER DURU

Nigeria loses $800m to medical tourism yearly, says NMA

THE United States CoastGuard has declared that

the Nigerian Maritime Ad-ministration and SafetyAgency, NIMASA, is on theright path to the successfulimplementation of the Inter-national Ships and Ports Fa-cility Security, ISPS, Code inNigeria.

The leader of the US CoastGuard team to Nigeria, Mr.Tivo Romero, made this dec-laration at a meeting withmembers of the ISPS CodeImplementation Committee inLagos, weekend, during avisit to NIMASA, the desig-nated authority for ISPS Codeimplementation in Nigeria.

Mr. Romero, who saidthey visited six port facili-ties in the country duringtheir two-week visit to Ni-geria, said that they no-ticed tremendous improve-ment since the last visit tothe country.

He commendedNIMASA for the outreachto facility operators.

Romero said: “I mustcommend the NigerianMaritime Administrationand Safety Agency for itsefforts so far.

“However, the UnitedStates Coast Guard willprovide required technicalassistance to ensure that

infrastructural and legal in-struments needed for effectiveimplementation of the ISPSCode in Nigeria are put inplace.

“I urge you all to see thisproject as a voyage, which wehave all embarked on, thatmust be concluded.”

Romero dismissed mediareports that the United StatesGovernment would embargovessels from visiting Nigerianports, noting that the US Gov-ernment was fully behind Ni-geria as a strong business part-ner that requires desired part-nership, a reason for whichboth countries would alwayscontinue to work together.

US Coast Guard commendsNIMASA on security code

FOREMOST Nigerian photog-rapher, Pa Peter Obe is dead.

Aged 80, Pa Obe died in hisMasha, Surulere Lagos home yes-terday.

Although details of his death areyet to be made public, a close fam-ily member, however, confirmedthe death yesterday.

Obe became famous with thedocumentation of Biafra-NigeriaCivil War.

The man, who in one of the in-terviews he granted a major Ni-gerian newspaper, confessed thathe took to photography as a sec-

others, who took and still keepnegatives of historical events andarchitectural scene.

His lens were said to havecaptured scenes like the Janu-ary 12, 1954, Ikeja Airport, La-gos scene where late ObafemiAwolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Belloand Dr. Nnamidi Azikiwe, werewaiting for British Secretary ofState Sir Olivier Lytttleton.

The ace photographer wassaid to have covered the Janu-ary 16, 1954 scene at the La-gos Constitutional conferencechaired by Lytleton, where lateAnthony Enahoro first movedthe motion for Nigeria’s inde-pendence.

Ace photographer, Obe dies @ 80

BY PRINCE OSUAGWU

ond option after hisdesire to be a mo-tor mechanic, how-ever cut his teethas a photographer.

Obe’s name al-ways come firstwhen mentioninggreat Nigerianphoto artists, in-cluding Tam Fiofori,Barber, Garba Mo-hammed among

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

INCESSANT PIPELINE VANDALISM:Lagos blames negligence on FG

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

BY MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

....As govt evicts 200 occupantsof distressed buildings

Experts decrydearth ofanaesthetistsin Nigeria

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

Ashafa lauds FG on Third MainlandBridge

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

Wild Fusiondebuts inKenya

LAGOS—LAGOS State Government has blamed the

Federal Government for its in-action and negligence over in-cessant cases of oil pipelinesvandalism and degradation inthe state.

It equally condemned allegedongoing arrest of innocent resi-dents around Idimu/Ejigbo Lo-cal Council Development Areas,LCDA, by Nigeria Security andCivil Defence Corps NSCDC,without proper investigationover suspicion that they wereresponsible for oil pollution ofunderground wells in the area,saying the residents should beprotected rather than being ar-rested.

ArrestIt would be recalled that

NSCDC officials last week al-legedly invaded Ejigbo and ar-rested some residents includinga pregnant woman, for allegedNNPC pipelines vandalism.

Commissioner for the Envi-ronment, Tunji Bello who spokeweekend, noted that while thestate government supportedevery action of the Federal Gov-ernment to curb stealing of pe-troleum products and pipelinevandalism, it, however, frownedat any act that could constitutean infraction on the rights ofresidents of the affected areasthrough wanton and unjust ar-rests by officials of NSCDC.

Bello speaksAccording Bello “Lagos State

Government expresses seriousreservations over indiscrimi-nate arrest of innocent residentsaround Idimu/Ejigbo areas ofthe state, without proper inves-tigation over suspicion that they

LAGOS—VICE CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee

on Lands, Housing and UrbanDevelopment, Senator GbengaAshafa, has commended the Fed-eral Government for approvingN290.745 million for a comprehen-sive underwater inspection of theThird Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

Ashafa, representing Lagos EastSenatorial District, also urged theFederal Executive Council, FEC,to ensure the prompt mobilizationof experts to the site and handlethe project with urgency that it de-served in the interest of the gen-eral public.

It will be recalled that SenatorAshafa had in February 2013, leda motion with other 55 Senatorsseeking for an investigation to as-certain the true state of the Third

LAGOS—MEDICALexperts have de-

cried dearth of anaes-thetists in the countryand called on FederalGovernment and the 36states governors to in-vest in maternal andchildcare through theestablishment of Motherand Child Centres,MCCs, hospitals dedi-cated to the health andwell being of mothers andchildren.

Anaesthetists are spe-cialist doctors who are re-sponsible for providinganaesthesia to patients foroperations and other pro-cedures.

League of ObstetricAnaesthetists of Nigeria,LOAN, at a briefing in La-gos ahead of its 3rd AnnualScientific Conference withthe theme: “Mother andChild Centre, a GiantStride Towards the Reali-sation of MDGs 4 & 5 andsubtheme: Lumbar Epi-dural analgesia: an incen-tive for safe child birth”,decried the acute shortageof anaesthetists in Nigeriaand said in Lagos that only100 anaesthetists wereserving 18 million people.

Describing it as a seriousproblem on the outcomesof medical treatments,President, Lagos Anaes-thetists Association, Dr. A.AMafe said there was needto train more Nigerians inthe field of anaesthesia.

Flays arrest of Ejigbo residents by NSCDC operativesare responsible for oil pollu-tion of underground wells.We recollect that successiveadministrations in the statehas drawn the attention of theFederal Government to con-comitant of hazards being ex-perienced by residents ofBaruwa-Ipaja, Ilado, Amuwo-Odofin, Ejigbo among othersthrough polluted boreholes,contamination of under-ground water, ruptured pipe-lines and seepage of pipe-

lines. Yet, no visible action hasregrettably been taken till date byrespective agencies of the Fed-eral Government.

Records of officialletters

“The state government hasrecords showing that official let-ters were written by the immedi-ate past Governor of Lagos State,Bola Tinubu to former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo in 2000.More importantly, the presentadministration of Mr. Babatunde

Fashola, equally wrote a letterto President Goodluck Jonathanand Minister of Petroleum Re-sources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke respectively, com-plaining about serious oil pol-lution and high level of degra-dation that residents of theseareas are daily exposed to with-out any meaningful result com-ing forth.

“Lagos State Governmentin these correspondences didnot only complain but alsosuggested to the FederalGovernment to consider mod-ern methods of protecting oilpipelines, including casingand tamper proof warningdevices among other contem-porary methods.”

WILD FUSION, aleading digital

marketing agency, hasopened an office in Nai-robi, Kenya as it pursuesits African expansion pro-gramme.

Wild Fusion, which wasfounded by entrepreneurAbasiama Idaresit, man-ages a portfolio of leadingplayers in Nigeria’s Bank-ing, Telecom and FMCGsectors.

Speaking on the expan-sion, Idaresit said: “We arevery excited about this op-portunity offering our qual-ity digital marketing serv-ices to brands and adver-tisers in Kenya. We believethrough our services weempower businesses tosucceed.”

Its client list includesUnilever, Diamond Bank,Vodafone and other lead-ing blue-chip companies inNigeria and Ghana.

Mainland Bridge which has pro-gressive steel caisson deteriora-tion in about 1,318 FoundationPiles and there was extensive re-inforcement bar deterioration in8 piles.

The Senator spoke yesterdaywhile reacting to the outcome ofFEC’s meeting presided over byPresident Goodluck Jonathan onWednesday.

Ashafa said that the controver-sies surrounding the underwa-ter piles of the Third MainlandBridge will at last be laid to rest.He said: “No one is trying tospoil the works of others, both theSenate and the executive arm ofthe government are workingtogether to provide good gov-ernance rather than playingpolitics with the lives of ourpeople.”

LAGOS—NO fewer than200 occupants’ of three

distressed buildings inMushin Local Government area

of the state were weekendevicted by the state government.

It has also continued the demo-lition of one of the three build-ings; a four-storey, located on 34Adeyemi Street.

The two remaining buildingsawaiting demolition are a two-sto-rey and a shopping complex lo-cated on 32 and 33 Adeyemi Streetrespectively.

However, the evicted occupantshave alleged that they paidN100,000 to un-named official ofthe Lagos State Building ControlAgency, LASBCA, to allow themremain in the distressed buildingsfor another year before demoli-tion.

It was learnt that some of thebuildings were erected over 22years ago and were never reno-vated, but the landlords were onlycollecting rents worth over N200,000 each annually.

Vanguard gathered that fiveother buildings were also markedfor demolition for allegedly con-travening approvals among oth-ers. They may be demolished ina matter of days.

Speaking, General Manager ofLASBCA, Mrs. AbimbolaAnimashaun-Odunayo, said:“The occupants were evicted be-

cause the buildings are unsafefor habitation. They have obvi-ous cracks and can collapse anymoment. This was the reason forgovernment action. They are dan-gerous for habitation and if theycollapsed today, about 200 occu-pants of the houses will suffersevere injury. We have to beproactive to ensure that build-ings especially distressed onesdo not collapse on the occupants.

“To avoid loss of lives, a newslogan has been adopted; ‘killthe house, before it kills us’. Wehave issued the landlords of theaffected buildings notices thricedirecting their tenants to vacatethe property. But they refused.”

On the alleged bribery, shesaid: “I believe they made suchallegation because they wereupset. They believe that if theysay that we can pardon them.Earlier, they appealed for a weekextension, but we turned itdown. We are all human beings.We have seen a lot of collapsedbuildings and we have seen thenumber of causalities that diedas buildings caved in. Why willanyone collect money from some-one when we know that suchbuilding can collapse any mo-ment? We have conscience.”

BIRTHDAY: Former Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Oladipupo Diya, rtd (left) and Sena-tor Gbenga Ashafa, at the 69th birthday of Sen. Adefuye in Lagos.

Vanguard MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—11

Ondo State guber: We ‘re down, but notweakened over S/Court judgement— APC

BY DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE — THE All Pro-gressives Congress,

APC, weekend, said the Su-preme Court judgment on thegovernorship election in OndoState, last week affected itsmembers negatively, but in-sisted that their spirit would notbe weakened.

In a statement in Akure, theSenator representing OndoNorth Senator Ajayi Boroffice,said, however, that “we mustaccept the decision of the court.

“This judgment might havedampened our spirit but it hasnot weaken our determinationto rescue our state from theclutches of poverty, mass un-employment, among others.

”Though we long for achange in agreement with thefeelings of the people of OndoState, the decision of the high-est court of the land has notdispensed justice in this direc-

tion.“Leaders of our party, the pro-

fessionals, and the peoplefought a good fight like gallantsoldiers of progress. Theyspoke against policies thatwould not allow developmentin their communities.

“You demanded character inleadership and agitated forgood governance that will pro-vide a launch-pad for a rapidindustrial development of thestate.

”We salute the courage of ourgovernorship candidate, ChiefRotimi Akeredolu (SAN) andhis legal team in their unwa-vering commitment to cleanpoll.

“You did not lose; you only setagenda for the new phase ofactivities for our great party inOndo State.

“Let us all remain focused inour resolve to produce a pro-gressive government in whichgood governance and demo-cratic institutions thrive to guar-

antee justice, equity and op-portunities for our people.

“We will continue to demandand insist on free and fair elec-

....My government ‘ll notdisappoint Ondo people— Mimiko

AKURE — ONDO StateGovernor, Dr. Olusegun

Mimiko, yesterday, reassuredthe people that his governmentwould not disappoint, sayinghe had taken political risks inthe past 30 years of his careerwithout thinking of personalinterest.

He spoke while addressingthe people of the state whothronged the GovernmentHouse, Alagbaka to congratu-

BY DAYO JOHNSON late him on last Thursday’sSupreme Court verdict.

Mimiko, however, noted thatGod had been sufficient for himthroughout the period, sayingthat there were moments ofanxiety but God was kind tohim all through. ”The God that we serve isenough, he is a sufficient God,I can testify before you peoplethat in the course of my career,God has been sufficient forme.

“I have taken risks that areprofound as you all know. I alsowant to make it absolutely clearthat there are moments ofanxiety but our God is suffi-cient for us.

“Our mission here is evan-gelical and I assure you thatwe’ll not disappoint you”

The governor assured unem-ployed youths in the state ofgainful employment, insistingthat the youths would soon seethe wonders of God

He hinged his promise ofgainful employment on thenear completion of the state’sPower Project with its refinery,fertiliser and petrochemicalindustries underway.

According to him, “effortsare on to industrialise thestate.”

tions to ensure that the choicesof our people are respectedand reflected in their represen-tation.”

THE first instructor,Weights and Measure

training school, Federal Min-istry of Commerce, ChiefEphraim Olusegun Ogungbe,is dead, aged 71.

He died on ofAugust 28, 2013.

Late Ogungbe,who attended theAbeokuta GrammarSchool between1956 and 1960,achieved the bestresults at the Boardof Trade Examina-tion in Englandand Wales in 1967.

Ogungbe wasBaale of IkerekuChristians.

He is survived byhis wife, childrenand grand-chil-dren.

Burial will be an-nounced

OlusegunOgungbe is dead

Gov Fayemicondemnsuse of youthsas politicalthugs

ASUU calls onNigerians toprevail on FGover N400bneducation fund

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN — ACADEMIC Staff Union of

Universities, ASUU, hascalled on Nigerians to joinhands and prevail on gov-ernment to approve the re-maining N400billion for theuniversity system.”

Chairman, University ofIbadan Chapter of ASUU,Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, whospoke yesterday, said “As atnow, the amount due for in-jection into the Universitiesin the agreement isN500billion naira and notN100billion.”

He described as insincer-ity on the part of governmentto say it had no money, say-ing while the Governmentclaimed it had releasedN100billion forinfrastructural developmentin federal universities, theamount due for injection wasN500billion.

Government also main-tained that it had met sub-stantially the agreementsreached with the union withexception of N92billionearned allowances.

BY Gbenga Ariyibi

ADO EKITI — GOVERNOR Kayode

Fayemi of Ekiti State, week-end, raised alarm that Nige-rian youths were being usedby politicians as tools for de-structive politics detrimentalto the nation.

This came as the governorasked gubernatorial aspir-ants in the state includingmembers of the newly regis-tered All Progressive Con-gress, APC, especially amember of the House of Rep-resentatives, OpeyemiBamidele, to feel free to de-clare their ambition.

VISIT: Chairman, Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, dur-ing a courtesy visit on Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (left), in Warri. Photo:Bripin Enarusai

The general public is hereby notified that we, the UMUAROMUMUDARA IHITE IHIALA in Ihiala Local Government Area ofAnambra State, hereby state categorically that the publication ofThursday 8th August in the National Light precisely on page 6captioned " Community Change of Name" is not to the Knowledgeof UMUAROM UMUDARAIHITE Ihiala.And therefore we state thatwe remain UMUAROM UMUDARA, IHITE IHIALA in lhiala LocalGovernment Area of Anambra State and not UMUZOWULUUMUDARA IHITE IHIALA in Ihiala Local Government Area,Anambra State.The Ogbuehi of Umudara and the Okpara of Umudara shouldplease take note.

The general public and the good people of Ihiala LocalGovernment should please take Note. All former documentsbearing UMUAROM UMUDARAIHITE Ihiala remain valid.

PUBLIC NOTICEDISCLAIMER BY UMUAROM UMUDARA IHITE IHIALA

Signed:LEO O. MBAEYI

Chairman, Peace CommitteeUmuarom Umudara Ihite Ihiala

PUBLIC NOTICE

The above-named association has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission,Abuja for registration in accordance with the provision of Companies and AlliedMatters Act No. 1 of 1990 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

1. EVANG. ADEBAYO OLUFEMI ABAYOMI - CHAIRMAN2. ABOSEDEJOSEPHINE ADUROTOYE - TRUSTEE3. PASTOR ISAIAH ADEMOLA JAMES - TRUSTEE4. EMMANUEL MEDAHUNSI - TRUSTEE5. FELICIA BALOGUN - TRUSTEE6. ARIKAWE DORCAS - TRUSTEE7. OLA REWAJU ONIKOYI - TRUSTEE

1. To promote the interest and welfare of shareholders in publicly quotedand unquoted companies in Nigeria.2. To ensure a just and equitable management of publicly quoted andunquoted companies in Nigeria.3. To ensure ordinary behavior at company meetings.4. To arrange seminars and/or lectures for the enlightenment of shareholders.5. To organize shareholders for companies’ general meetings.6. To ensure that shareholders can and do keep simple records of theirshareholdings and dividends payment.Any opposition to the registration should be directed to the Registrar General,Corporate Affairs Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent, Maitama District,PMB 198 Garki, Abuja within 28 days from the date of this publication.

MEMBERS

AIMS AND OBJECTIVESN

PASSIONATE SHAREHOLDERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA

Signed: Bar. Olarewaju Ademola (08033641678)Signed: Bar. Olarewaju Ademola (08033641678)

12 — Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

ASUU strike:DELSUchapterre-affirmssupport fornationalleadership

BY FESTUS AHON

UGHELLI — THEAcademic Staff Un-

ion of Universities, ASUU,Delta State University,Abraka chapter, has re-af-firmed its resolve to standby the national leadershipof the union until victorywas achieved and thankedNigerians for their under-standing of the issues inthe on-going strike.

It urged the Federal Gov-ernment, FGN, to fulfill itswritten commitment to thedisbursement of N500 bil-lion by 2013 towards therevitalisation of public uni-versities in the country.

Chairman of the union,Dr. Emmanuel Mordi,said: “Congress re-affirmedits earlier resolution to con-tinue with the diligentprosecution of the on-go-ing strike as directed byNEC until the 2009 ASUU/FGN Agreement is fullyimplemented.

“Congress resolved tostand by the 2012 Memo-randum of Understanding,MoU, between ASUU/FGN, and called on theFederal Government ofNigeria to fulfill its writtencommitment to the dis-bursement of N500 billionby 2013 towards the revi-talisation of Nigerian pub-lic universities.”

ResidentsconvertIgbogenebridge to carpark

BY SAMUEL OYADON-GHA

YENAGOA — THEIgbogene bridge-

end on the outskirts ofYenagoa, Bayelsa State,yesterday, cut the pictureof a car mart as residentsof the fast growingIgbogene were forced topark their vehicles bythe road side, followingthe closure of the ailingstructure to traffic.

Investigation revealedthat the development, ifnot urgently addressed,may affect work on theongoing dualisation ofthe Igbogene-Yenagoaby-pass as vehicles be-longing to the nativesand heavy duty ma-chines owned by con-struction firm competefor space.

Stowaway: Family, volunteer lawyersbeg for his release

BY EMMA AMAIZE &SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN CITY — THE fam-ily of the stowaway teen-

age boy, Daniel Oikhena, whois still being detained by theDepartment of State SecurityServices, DSS, in Lagos, hasappealed for his release, say-ing he was only an innocent boywho tried to pursue his dreamsand not a criminal.

This came as a rights group,Forum for Justice and HumanRights Defence, FJHD, calledon the DSS to release the 13-year-old boy to reunite with hisfamily.

Similarly, a volunteergroup,De Raufs, has also con-cluded plans to dispatch a teamof lawyers to secure the releaseof the teenage boy, as coordi-nator of the group, ComradeAmitolu Shittu, said the teamof lawyers from Osun State,which would be led by Mr.Yinka Muyiwa, will team upwith the Lagos coordinator ofthe group to secure the boy’srelease.

However, younger brother ofthe teenage boy, DesmondOikhena, who made the ap-peal, said the family wasshocked that their brother was

still being detained by the DSS,explaining that that the stowa-way is only a young boy whodid not even know what he didand not a criminal.

He said: “My brother learntwhat he did through films, hewatched films a lot and that waswhy he had problem with myelder sister the night to that hisaction at the airport.

“We are missing him a lot; weare appealing that he shouldbe released so that he can comeand prepare for the coming newschool session.

“My brother is not a criminal.He is just a quiet young man

who was pursuing his dreamof going to America. We thankGod he survived the incidentso they should allow him comehome so that he can go to thehospital for proper medicalcheck up.”

While condemning the con-tinued detention of the boy inLagos, Comrade Shittu, whoreiterated the earlier resolve ofthe group to award the stowa-way teenager scholarship upto university level, queried thecontinued detention of the boyby the DSS, saying airport of-ficials in Benin were to blamefor the security lapses at Benin

Airport and not the teenager.Meanwhile, a group, Forum

for Justice and Human RightsDefence, FJHD, has called onthe Department of State Secu-rity, DSS, to release the boy toreunite with his family.

The group in a statementsigned by its national coordi-nator, Oghenajabor Ikimi, inWarri weekend, said: “We be-lieve that rather than crucifythe above adventurous and cou-rageous teenager, all handsmust be on deck to secure hisfuture educationally so that hecan achieve his dream of trav-elling by air legitimately.”

Ozekhome: Afemai youths call forrevolution against kidnapping

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN CITY— AFEMAI Youth Coalition,AYC, an umbrella body of all youths in the

North senatorial district of Edo State, weekend,reiterated their call for the release of their sonand human rights lawyer, Chief MikeOzekhome.

While lamenting the general insecurity andkillings in the country, which they attributed tobad leadership, the youths at Afemai Youth Sum-mit, Auchi, called for a radical revolution to check

Senatorial by-election:Ethiope East youths drumsupport for Amori

kidnapping and ensure better funding in the edu-cational sector.

In his opening address, convener of AfemaiYouth Coalition, Dr. Philip Ugbodaga, who ex-pressed worries that the youths might derail thenation’s democracy if the incessant kidnappingof people was not checked, however, describedthe nation’s leaders as wicked.

He said the leaders pauperised Nigerians, de-spite the fact that the nation was wealthy, andforced them into criminality.

“It is sad that our son, Chief Ozekhome, whohas worked tirelessly for the poor masses is stillbeing held by his captors. While we acknowl-edge the fact that our youths have engaged inall these illicit trade due to bad leadership, weappeal that he should be released to us,” he said.

BY FESTUS AHON

UGHELLI — CHAIRMAN of concernedPeoples Democratic Party, PDP, youths

in Ethiope East Local Government Area of DeltaState, Mr. Ese Ogoro, has urged Urhobo lead-ers to give Chief Ighoyota Amori the opportu-nity to represent the people in the Senate.

The Senate seat became vacant as a result ofthe sudden death of Senator Pius AkposEwherido.

Reacting to recent media reports, Ogoro said:“Much as people are entitled to their opinions,it is only civil that such opinion should not bedamaging to the persons being targeted.

“Facts should be verified before publicationsare made, such that the public is not misinformedand in the process bias with seed of discord issown in the mind of voters and his teeming sup-porters.

“It is a statement of fact that right now there isno alternative to Chief Ighoyota Amori for theSenate. Chief Ighoyota Amori’s antecedents andcontribution to the Urhobo nation are just toosolid to be ignored by anybody.”

“Urhobos are in a hurry to emerge from thedoldrums and regain lost grounds. This is notthe time for bickering and casting of unneces-sary aspersions on the person of Chief IghoyotaAmori.

“We have passed that stage. If anything, weshould be working relentlessly to actualize themandate we Urhobo people gave him on theplatform of the PDP in 2011.

Vanguard MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 — 13

Bank liquidation: Depositors paidN6.82bn in 2012 — NDIC

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

YENAGOA — THE Ni-geria Deposit Insurance

Corporation, NDIC, weekend,said it paid N6.82 billion to528,212 insured depositors ofclosed banks as at December,2012.

NDIC Managing Director,Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, dis-closed this at the corporationspecial day at the on-goingYenagoa Trade Fair being heldat Peace Park in the state capi-tal.

The figure, he said, sur-passed the amount paid forthe same purpose in 2011which stood at N6.68 billionfor 527, 942 insured deposi-tors.

According to him, the bankin 2012 paid the sum ofN2.505 billion to 75,322 veri-fied depositors of 95 of 103closed micro-finance banks.

This, he said, was higherthan what the bank paid forthe same purpose in 2011which stood at N2.249 billionfor 72,062 verified depositors.

Ibrahim added that the sum

of N73.58 billion had beenpaid as liquidation dividendto 250,209 depositors of De-posit Money Banks,(DMBs)as at December 31,2012.

The NDIC, he noted, haddeclared liquidation divi-dends and paid general credi-tors of eight ‘’banks- in- liq-uidation’’ and erstwhileshareholders of three ‘’banks-in- liquidation,’’ the sum ofN1.122bn and N1.286bn as atDecember 31, 2012 respec-tively.

Oil pollution: Bayelsa govt seeks help from Italy

BY VICTORIA OJEME

ABUJA — THE govern-ment of Bayelsa State has

appealed to Italy to assist inremedying the state from envi-ronment degradation causedby oil pollution.

The Chief of Staff, BayelsaHouse, Abuja, Chief Diekivie

Ikiogha, made the appeal,when he paid a courtesy callon the Italian Ambassador toNigeria, Ambassador RobertoColamine.

Chief Ikiogha in a statementmade available to journalists inAbuja, called on the Italian gov-ernment to help the state tackleits environmental challenges.

He noted that the peculiar ter-

rain of the state as well as oilpollution, occasioned by oil ex-ploration and vandalisation ofoil pipeline, had thrown upenormous environmental chal-lenges to government.

He appealed to the ItalianAmbassador to support the gov-ernment of President GoodluckJonathan and GovernorSeriake Dickson by providing

support to the development ofthe Niger Delta and the coun-try as a whole.

In his remarks, AmbassadorColamine said the Italian gov-ernment appreciated the com-mitment of Bayelsa govern-ment in developing the stateand its people and assured ofits partnership in the area ofinvestment in agriculture andcapacity building.

According to him: “Italianfirms engaged in the manufac-ture of improved farm equip-ment are ready to supply trac-tors and allied equipment to thestate as well as set up a manu-facturing plant if the right en-vironment exists.”

The Italian envoy alsocommended the Bayelsa gov-ernor for improving the secu-rity of the state, noting thatthough the Boko Haram crisiswas worrisome initially, it hadnot stopped major economicand commercial activities inother parts of the country.

Italian companies, he re-vealed, were ready to invest inNigeria, but needed the righteconomic environment and le-gal framework to operate effec-tively.

Sanusi, 3CBN chiefsriskcontempt ofcourt

BY EGUFE YAFUG-BORHI

PORT HARCOURT— A Port Harcourt

Court, presided over byJustice JoyAkpughunum, hasthreatened to arraigngovernor of the CentralBank of Nigeria, CBN,Lamido Sanusi Lamido,and three other execu-tives of the bank for defi-ance of an order.

The court in an earlierorder issued July 2, thisyear, had authorised theCBN to payN123,375,780.26 owed bythe Enterprise Bank toGenproghetti Companyas liquidation of debt.

Justice Akpughunuminquired from SanusiLamido, his deputy incharge of operations,Tunde Lemo, Director,Banking and PaymentSystems, Dipo Fatokun,and Director of LegalServices, MD Suleiman,why they should all notbe charged for contempt.

Ibrahim, who was repre-sented on the occasion by theCorporation’s Acting ZonalController, South- South, Mr.Samuel Dauda, noted that thebroad mandate of the bankwas to provide depositguarante to depositors of in-sured financial institutions,banking supervision, failureresolution and liquidation.

The bank, according to him,plays a crucial role in ensur-ing the safety, soundness andstability of the financial sys-tem in the country.

Orido joinsrace for DeltaCentralsenatorialby-election

Crisis hits IMB/NUPENG Warri unit over outcome ofelection

BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

BENIN — DISTRIBU-TION of petroleum

products to customers in Edo,Delta and neighbouring stateswas halt, weekend, by the na-tional body of IndependentPetroleum Marketers Associa-tion of Nigeria, IPMAN, fol-lowing alleged seizure ofIMB secretariat by a faction ofWarri unit of body.

This prevented the newlyelected chairman, Mr.Benjamin Ifeta, and his execu-tives from carrying out their

duties.It was gathered that the na-

tional body of the union tookthe decision to halt suppliesof petroleum products to theaffected states until peace wasrestored.

Meanwhile, NUPENG na-tional headquarters in Abuja,which waded into the crisis,has petitioned the AssistantInspector General of Police,Zone 5, Hashimu Argungu,asking the Police authoritiesto properly investigate al-leged forgery, impersonation,threat to lives and abuse of po-lice escort to intimidate and

harass IMB/NUPENG mem-bers in Warri.

The petition which wassigned by the national secre-tary of IMB/NUPENG, Mr.Chidi Nwosu, read: “ Wewrite to bring to your noticethe criminal activities ofHenry Baro and BrightEdejewho who forged andimpersonated our nationalsecretarial and conducted anillegal election in a hotelwhere they forged our letter-heads and signature of thenational officers.

PRESENTATION:From left, Mother of the N5million winner, Mrs. Elisabeth Kuti; winner, Stephen Kuti; Glo ambassador,Funke Akindele; General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Globacom Nig. Ltd; Ashutosh Tiwary, Finance Manager, NCC;Sanusi Temitope, Glo ambassador; Gbenga Adeyinka, and President General, Supporters’ Club, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo, at theprize presentation to winners in the 'Glo recharge to stardom promo,' at Mike Adenuga Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos,weekend. Photo:Joe Akintola, photo editor

BY FESTUS AHON

UGHELLI — A busi-ness mogul and politi-cian, Chief MaxmillerOrido, has joined theforthcoming Delta Cen-tral Senatorial by-electionwhile his campaign or-ganisation has been inau-gurated.

Director General of hiscampaign organisation,Chief Moore Ologitere,during its inauguration,said Chief Orido was themost credible candidatefor the Senate job.

He said Chief Oridoover the years had provedhimself a worthy Urhoboson, adding that he(Orido) used his per-sonal funds to build in-frastructure when he wasPresident General of theAgbarho (Urhobo) Im-provement Union.

Other members of thecampaign organisationare: Mr. Erhabor Isaac,Mr. Peter Ehare, ChiefOke Taiwo, Mr. PatrickEdatire, Mr. J. Ishaka,Mr. Sunday Adjaimue,Mr. Jerkins Gogori andSir Joe Evuarherhe, toserve as secretary.

14—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Stowaway: Aviation stakeholders laudefforts to boost security at airports

No going back on October 5date for LG polls — Gov Obi

BY VINCENTUJUMADU

AWKA—GOVERNORPeter Obi of Anambra

State has insisted there wasno going back on theOctober 5, 2013, date forconduct of the localgovernment election in thestate.

There had beenarguments in somequarters concerning thepossibility of the councilelection, in view of itscloseness to the November16 date for thegovernorship poll.

But speaking at the

opening ceremony of athree-day training courseorganised for AnambraState IndependentElectoral Commission,ANSIEC, in Awka,Governor Obi said hisadministration wasdetermined to entrenchdemocracy at the grass rootbefore the end of his tenure.

The governor, who spokethrough the Commissionerfor Local GovernmentAffairs, Mrs. AzukaEnemuo, regretted thatlocal government electionhad eluded the state for along time.

Recalling that efforts toconduct the election sincehe assumed office in 2006had been marred by seriesof litigations.

He expressed optimismthat with the calibre ofpeople in ANSIEC and theefforts being made by them,the state would witness free,fair and credible electionsthis year.

He charged the electoralumpire to provide a level -playing ground for allpolitical partiesparticipating in the electionto ensure true participatorydemocracy.

BY KENNETHEHIGIATOR

“I know that what thisgovernment inherited weredecayed terminals, securityequipment and non-existence facilities but sinceit started the remodellingprogramme, we havewitnessed what have beenachieved and we know thatmost airports in the countrywill have perimeter fencingand operational vehicles.

"The FederalGovernment has starteddeployment ofsophisticated screeningequipment in variousairports andsimultaneously kicked offtraining of personnel toman this equipment.”

A security expert and theCEO of CenturionSecurities Limited, GroupCaptain John Ojikutu (rtd),said during the auditing of

airport security by theInternational Civil AviationOrganisation, ICAO, thatFAAN had failed to provideperimeter fencing andsecurity fencing of airportsin 2004, 2006 and 2008.

He said the Category 1safety status Nigeriaobtained from the USFederal AviationAdministration was in thehope that the country wouldimprove its securitysystems at the airports.

FAAN said recently thatbushes at airports would becleared to ensure full viewof the perimeter, allow boththe control tower, FAAN fireand rescue observationposts and aviation securitypatrol teams have asweeping view of theperimeter of an airport fromtheir duty posts.

Anambra communities in Lagos, Houston hailObiano's emergence as APGA guber candidate

INDIGENES of AnambraState in Lagos and the

city of Houston, USA, havebeen unanimous in theirpraise on the recent electionof ex-banker andrenowned technocrat, ChiefWillie Obiano, as the AllProgressives GrandAlliance, APGA, candidatefor the gubernatorialelection in Anambra State.

Obiano, whose late entryinto the gubernatorial racecaused a rupture in existingpolitical arrangements inthe state, has become thecandidate to beat since hisvictory in the APGAprimaries.

Speaking at a function inLagos, Emeka Obiora, amedical doctor from

Ogbunike in AnambraState, described Obiano’semergence as “a breakfrom the past.”

According to him,“Obiano is a breath of freshair. Anambra gubernatorialrace is tough becauseAnambra has manyillustrious sons anddaughters who canchallenge for the position.But Obiano is different. Hehas a verifiable track recordand a career profile that canprovoke envy. We havegreat expectations of him.”

Also, FrancisIgboanugo, a Lagosbased lawyer, seesObiano’s victory as avery wise decision byAPGA. He said:

“Obiano’s profile markshim out as a naturalsuccessor to GovernorPeter Obi. After eighteventful years of Obi’sleadership, AnambraState cannot afford toend up in the hands oftraders and hardcorepoliticians again. Thatwould be a return to theenemies of the state.”

Lawrence Oguejiofor, aNigerian engineer wholives in Houston, Texas,USA, described Obiano’svictory at the primaries asan answered prayer of sortsto Anambra indigenes inHouston who had hopedthat Obiano who owned apalatial home in Houstonwould emerge victorious inthe primaries.

FUNERAL—From left: Deacon Elder Albert; Otunba Olumide Talabi; MrsYeye; Mrs Dupe Talabi and Wing Commander Tosin Talabi, during the funeralservice for Late Madam Comfort Adeoti Talabi (Nee Sewoniku), at the AllSaint Anglican Church, Yaba, Lagos. Photo: Shola Oyelese.

CMYK

SEQUEL to thestowaway incident at

Benin airport penultimateSaturday, aviation securityexperts have commendedthe Federal AirportAuthority of Nigeria, FAAN,for taking additionalsecurity measures toforestall runway incursionsat airports in the country.

The Chairman of Aviationstakeholders Squaretable,Capt. Balarabe Usman, toldnewsmen that the aviationindustry had suffered manyyears of neglect which wasinherited by the presentadministration.

Usman noted thatsecurity equipment andfacilities were allowed todecay, even as some wereabandoned, adding thatthere were several efforts tobuild perimeter fencing atthe various airports in thecountry, especially themajor airports, but wereabandoned halfway.

Usman, who was theformer Chief SecurityOfficer of FAAN and anaviation security consultant,said if the agency hadcompleted the initialprojects on perimeterfencing, the situationwould not havedegenerated to the levelwhere there was noperimeter fencing at someairports.

He said: “While wecondemn the failure ofFAAN to provide adequatesecurity at the airside ofsome of these airports, wehave to also commend theefforts being made by theMinistry of Aviation toreinforce security to forestallsuch incident happening infuture.

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—15

UNIZIK VCbegs ASUU tocall off strike

BY VINCENTUJUMADU

British secret agency, M16, police proposed£3,000 visa bond against Nigeria — REPORT

Igbo youths hail Jonathan over Akanu Ibiamairport, decry crisis in Ohanaeze

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

IGBO youths, under the bannerof Igbo Youth Movement, IYM,

have commended PresidentGoodluck Jonathan for bringing tofruition the upgrading of AkanuIbiam Airport into an internationalfacility.

IYM President, Mr Elliot Uko,said in a statement that with thefulfillment of Akanu IbiamInternational Airport promises,there was hope that PresidentGoodluck Jonathan would alsofulfill his other promises to theSouth-East.

Uko said: “We would also liketo use this opportunity toproclaim our heart felt gratitudeto President Jonathan on thefulfillment of an internationalgateway at Akanu IbiamInternational Airport, Enugu.We are truly grateful. Now, weknow that the modernization ofthe Eastern railway lines andother promises would befulfilled in due time too. Weknow that the people of theSouth-East know how toreciprocate when the timecomes. We believe that Mr.President knows that only

prompt and dutiful fulfillment ofhis promises to Ndigbo willsustain his relationship with ourpeople and nothing else.”

Uko also decried theleadership crisis in Ohanaezeand advised Ndigbo at homeand abroad to come together andsupport the group in order notto give outsiders the impressionof a disunited home front, notingthat the Igbo question within thecontext of a larger Nigeriancould not be favourably resolved,if Ndigbo remained disunitedand permanently at war withthemselves.

BY UDUMA KALU, WITHAGENCY REPORT

A report from a UnitedKingdom based journal,

University World News, has saidthe £3,000 visa pilot schemeagainst Nigeria was proposed bythe British intelligence service,MI6 and British policeheadquarters at Scotland Yard.

The new UK visa scheme willimpose £3,000 (US$4,740) incharges on unspecified visaapplicants thought to be ‘high riskvisitors’ from Nigeria, Ghana,Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

The Nigerian government hasthreatened retaliatory measuresif London goes ahead with the‘refundable’ but unpopular visabond.

The report said there waspalpable anger anddisappointment amongNigerians who have gainedadmission into Britishuniversities for the upcomingacademic session.

Students already in UKinstitutions are also unhappyabout a new ‘visa bond’ schemeto be implemented against ‘highrisk’ visitors by the DavidCameron's administration.

As a precautionary measure,many parents have instructedNigerian banks to suspend, fornow, sending tuition andaccommodation fees to Britishuniversities, the report noted.

The report written by ProfessorTunde Fatunde, a Nigerianscholar quoted diplomaticsources in Abuja, as saying thatboth the M16 and theScotland Yard, are reportedlyworried that some foreignstudents who apply for visas tostudy in British universities havedeveloped, in their homecountries, ideas anddetermination to commit terrorismon British soil.

The report said, the visa bondis believed to be a subtle way ofensuring that students who arelabelled as ‘high risk’ know thatthey will be targets of intelligencesurveillance while they arestudying at British universities.

It quoted a diplomat, who didnot want to be named, as sayingthat Ghana was included on the‘high risk’ country list because itsairport and seaports werethought to be avenues for LatinAmerican drug cartels who usesome Ghanian students as drugcouriers.

The same diplomat said somestudents from Nigeria, Pakistan,India and Bangladesh had beeninvolved in terrorism in Britain.

He cited the examples of UmarFarouk Abdulmuttalab, aNigerian and former student ofUniversity College London, whotried to blow up an Americanplane in December 2009, andstudent Michael Adebolajo, a

Nigerian-born Briton, who recentlyhacked a British soldier to death.

“The British government isconvinced that the use of visa bondmay go a long way to make Britain

safe,” the diplomat said.The diplomat also revealed

that the visa bonds would beextended to some non-studentsthought to be high risk and

hinted that British embassiesmight collaborate with localintelligence services incollecting evidence on somevisa applicants.

Clericslament attackon churchesin Anambra

BY CHIDINKWOPARA

AWKA—AS members ofAcademic Staff Union of

Universities, ASUU,continue their nationwidestrike, Vice Chancellor ofNnamdi Azikiwe University,Awka, Professor BonifaceEgboka, has made apassionate appeal to hiscolleagues to call off thestrike in the interest of thestudents whose academicprogrammes were beingthreatened.

Addressing the universitycommunity during whichhe announced theinstitution’s allocation fromthe Federal Government forinfrastructural developmentand payment of staffallowances, Egboka said inas much as the lecturers hadthe right to make demands,they should also realize thatthe students are currentlywasting away at home.

The vice chancellorobserved that governmenthad done excellent work tosupport the variousuniversities and urged theunions not to abuse it so asnot to be seen as playingpolitics without conscience.

OWERRI—SECURITYagencies have been

urged to painstakinglyinvestigate and prosecutepersons found culpable inthe reported attack on sevenchurches in Anambra State.

Concerned Christianleaders of the South-Southand South East geo-politicalzones made the plea in acommunique they issuedafter a meeting in Owerriweekend.

According to thecommunique signed by theChairman and Secretary,Bishop Goddy Okafor andRev. Dr. Joseph Ajujungwa,the clerics expressed griefthat 50 innocent peoplesustained varying degreesof injuries during the attack.

The clerics said: “We areaware that the governorshipelection in Anambra State isfast approaching. We appealto political parties to avoidoverheating the polity butensure that the poll ispeaceful and successful.”

Catholic priests to fight abortion law in Imo

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

OWERRI—PRIESTS of theCatholic Ecclesiastical

Province of Owerri, have startedstrategizing to tackle the anti-lifelegislation recently signed into lawby Governor Rochas Okorocha.

Vanguard investigation revealedthat the clerics held their firstmeeting last Thursday at MariaAssumpta Cathedral, Owerri.

Feelers from the meeting chairedby His Grace, Dr. Anthony J. V.Obinna, revealed that one of themajor issues discussed was thecontroversial abortion law foisted

on the people by the state.One of the priests said: “We

met to properly positionourselves to effectively battlethe controversial abortion lawrecently signed by GovernorRochas Okorocha.”

Meanwhile, ArchbishopObinna has called forimmediate abrogation of thestate laws containing what hetermed “anti-life legislation”signed by Okorocha and hispredecessor, Chief AchikeUdenwa in 2012 and 2007respectively.

Archbishop Obinna, who was

visibly angry as he spoke on anumber of issues, including thecontroversial abortion law andthis year’s Odenigbo Lecture,insisted that all anti-life laws inthe state must be abrogated.

“We are calling for immediateabrogation of all anti-lifelegislations in the state.Although the church will not bemirred in the nation’s murkywaters of partisan politics, it will,however, continue todemonstrate interest in thenation’s democratic process forthe common good of thecitizenry.”

AWARD—From left: Mr Ubong King, CEO, Protection Plus Services Limited (2nd right),with staff receiving the 2013 Best Coastline Surveillance Pipeline and Port Facility ProtectionServices Company award from Dr. Mourtada Deme, Country Director, UNDP DemocraticGovernance Development Project (3rd right), at the African Governance and CorporateLeadership Award in Abuja, weekend.

CMYK

16—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Flood wreaks havoc in Makurdi,submerges 180 houses

BY PETER DURU

BY TAYE OBATERU

SURE-P creates 21,000 jobs in North-West zone

VC blames drop in IGR on prolonged crisis

PDP winsOffa LGchairmansiprerun election

BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI

I L O R I N — C H A I RMAN of the Kwara

State Independent Elec-toral Commission,KWASIEC, Dr. UthmanAjidagba yesterday de-clared AlhajiA b d u l W a h e e dOlanipekun, candidateof the ruling Peoples’Democratic Party, PDP,in the Offa localgovernment re - runelection, weekend inOffa, as winner of thechairmanship seat witha total vote of 35,937.

The party’s councillor-ship candidates simi-larly emerged victoriousin all the 12 wards in thelocal government area.

The Chairman ofKWASIEC, Dr. UthmanAjidagba who announcedthe result in IIorin yester-day, said Olanipekunpolled 35,937 votes against20,161 votes scored by theAll Pregressives Congress,APC candidate, SaheedPopoola.

I L O R I N — A l lProgressives Con-

gress, APC, has de-manded the immediateannouncement what itclaimed is “the authen-tic” results of last Satur-day’s rerun election inthe Offa local govern-ment by the Kwara StateIndependent ElectoralCommission, KWASIEC.

In a statement yester-day, its Interim NationalPublicity Secretary, AlhajiLai Mohammed, allegedthat results announced bythe Kwara PDP on Sunday,in which the party con-verted its defeat to victory,were totally unacceptableand would not stand.

It said that according tothe authentic results of theelections, which were inpossession of KWASIEC aswell as securityagencies, the APC got11,526 votes to PDP’s4,668, as against the fig-ures announced by thePDP in Ilorin,which awarded the party35,937 and the APC20,161.

KADUNA—THE FEDERAL Government

weekend said CommunityServices Women and YouthEmployment, CSWYE, projectof SURE-P created 21,000jobs in the North-West Geo-political zone of Nigeria.

Minister of Labour and Pro-ductivity, Chief Emeka Wogu,who disclosed this in Kaduna,

MAKURDI—OVER fourhours of torrential rain

has left several parts of Makurdithe Benue State capital floodedwith no fewer than 180 housessubmerged in the unexpecteddeluge.

Also lost to the downpourwhich started around 7pm Sat-urday night, were property,household items and valuablesvalued at more than N200 mil-lion. Areas badly affected by theflood included Demekpe, GyadoVilla, Wurukum, Idye village,Achusa and Mobile Police Bar-racks on Naka road and Wadata.

When Vanguard visited someof the affected areas, many resi-dents were seen battling to res-cue their property and valuablesfrom their flooded homes andneighborhood while some couldnot find access to the houses tosave their valuables from beingswept away by the flood.

At Demekpe, one of the vic-tims, John Adamgbe told Van-guard that he lost most of hisvaluables and important docu-ments to the flood. “My familyand I were preparing to haveour dinner when the rain startedaround 7pm. We knew we werein for trouble when the rain be-

came torrential and was notshowing any signs of stop-ping. As at 9pm it was as ifthe heaven would come downand the entire place was likeRiver Benue and we started

battling to save my five chil-dren from being swept awaywhile most of our property andvaluables had already goneunder water.”

When contacted, the General

Manager of Benue StateEmergency ManagementAgency, BSEMA, Mr. AdikpoAgbatse warned residents ofMakurdi town to desist fromdumping refuse ondrainages to avert the flood-ing of the town, adding thathe had commenced a tour ofthe affected areas after whichhe would issue a statementon the devastation.

JOS—VICE CHANCELLORof the University of Jos, Pro-

fessor Hayward Mafuyai week-end lamented the negative ef-fect of the prolonged crisis inthe state on the institution,blaming it for the sharp drop ininternally generated revenue.

Receiving members of theHouse of Representatives Com-mittee on Education on over-sight visit to the institution, hesaid courses which were highrevenue-yielding had becomeunder patronised because of thecrisis.

He said: ”As a result of the in-security in Jos and its environs,our part-time programmeswhich used to boost our inter-nally generated revenue, IGR,have drastically declined interms of patronage.

“The university had to sus-pend its IJMB programme as aresult of low patronage, the Uni-versity Demonstration School isat the verge of being closeddown and staff laid off as a re-sult of poor patronage.”

The vice chancellor noted thatsome infrastructural facilities inthe institution such as the roadnetwork, water supply networkas well as residential and aca-demic buildings were in badcondition as a result of inad-equate capital grants to main-tain them.

He said the return of part of

LASAA begins outdoor audience research project

the 2012 capital grants allo-cation to the federation ac-count was because of the de-lay in the release of the fundsand the activities of contrac-

tors and consultants overwhich the university had nodirect control.

Mafuyai said the institutionwould henceforth not allow

delay by contractors or con-sultants force it to returnmoney to the federation ac-count again.

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

when he led a Federal Gov-ernment delegation includingMinister of Environment,Hadiza Mailafa and the Spe-cial Adviser to Mr. Presidenton Political Matters, AhmedGulack, on sensitisation andappraisal of the CSWYEprojects in Kaduna.

A statement by OlowookereSamuel, Assistant Director(Press) in the Ministry of La-bour said Governor of KadunaState, Alhaji Ramalan Yero and

five other Ministers were alsorepresented at the event.

He said: “The present ad-ministration of PresidentGoodluck Jonathan is work-ing and putting the massesfirst in its development plans,in the North-West geo-politi-cal zone. More than 21,000women, youths and peopleliving with disabilities arebenefiting from the Commu-nity Services Women andYouths Employment Project.”

LAGOS—LAGOS StateSignage and Advertisement

Agency, LASAA, has commencedoutdoor audience researchproject expected to reveal fasci-nating statistics about the op-portunity in outdoor adverts inLagos State. The research, the first of its kindin West Africa and in line withpublished audience research forradio, TV and press, will produceaudience estimates for outdoor advertising.The data published will tell ad-

vertisers how many people seean outdoor advertising campaignin specific locations in the stateas well as how often they do so.The audience will be brokendown in many typologies includ-ing age, sex, class, lifestyle andso on. The information is ex-pected to be used by advertisersin planning and evaluating ad-vertising campaigns in the out-door medium.

It is the first time that such aproject will be initiated in Nigeriasince outdoor advertising com-menced in the country more than

50 years ago. Speaking on thisinitiative, the Managing Direc-tor of LASAA, Mr. George Noahsaid: ‘’This is a defining mo-ment in outdoor advertisingpractice in Nigeria. For adver-tisers to make informed buyingdecision, data analysis of thetarget audience is very essen-tial.

“Outdoor advertising marketsin developed economies areflourishing because data is avail-able for both buyers and sellers of out-door spaces to make informed choicesand careful planning.”

...as APCkicks, asksKWASIEC torelease‘authentic’results

VISIT: From left: Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris; Natinal Coordinator, Focus Youth ForProgressive Peace Initiative in Nigeria, Hajiya Rahina Zubair and Kaduna State Coordina-tor, Lady Safiya Ibrahim Ogoh, during a visit to the monarch in Zaria. Photo: Olu Ajayi.

CMYK

VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—49

THE Anambra State AllProgressives Congress

(APC), weekend, held its statecongress in Awka andpromised to conduct hitch-freeprimaries today for thenomination of itsgovernorship candidate forthe November 16 election.

At the state congress, ChiefChuks Chinwuba, a formersecretary of Onitsha NorthLocal Government waselected as chairman whileChief Samuel Igwedibiabecame the deputy chairman.

Also, Chief J.P.C Obikweluwas elected state secretary,while the woman leader isMrs. Modesta Okagbue.

APC elects officers, promises hitch-free primaries

Henry Emerah is the stateyouth leader.

With the party’s executive in

•Ubah

STORIES BY VINCENTUJUMADU

THE Anambra Statebranch of the defunct

Congress for ProgressiveChange, (CPC) which is oneof the three political partiesthat merged to form the AllProgressives Congress, APC,has pulled out of the mergerarrangement and joined thenewly formed PeoplesDemocratic Movement, PDM.

Former Anambra Statechairman of CPC, Prince ChubaIkwagwu, who is the interimstate chairman of PDM, toldVanguard yesterday that theover 25000 members and all thestructures of CPC in the 326wards of the state have beentransferred to PDM.

Already, PDM underIkeagwu, is planning theprimaries of the party forSunday, September 1, 2013 topick its governorship candidatefor the November 16 electionin the state.

Vanguard gathered yesterdaythat one of the governorshipaspirants on the platform ofAPC, Mr. Hygers Igwebuike,has also joined PDM as itsaspirant for the November 16governorship election.

Giving reasons for pullingout of APC, Ikeagwu said theparty had failed to comply withtenets of democracy, addingthat its leaders were moreinterested in manipulatingsituations to suit their selfishinterests.

Claiming that lack of internaldemocracy might destroy APCin Anambra, he said:

“We are talking of democracywhere everybody will haveequal say, equal right and fairparticipation, but whattranspired in APC is so

Anambra CPC pulls out of APC•Joins PDM

undemocratic and those of uswho love democracy do not fitinto such environment.

“ Up till this moment, there isno state executive of APC. Thefour state chairmen of the

political parties that merged toform the party were asked tocome together to form the stateexecutive but nothing hashappened.

“ As we are talking, there has

not been any harmonizationand APC has not held itscongresses and party primariesand we therefore say thatinstead of staying wherenothing is happening, we

Labour Party Candidate, DrPatrick Ifeanyi Ubah, haspicked Dr Emeka Eze as hisrunning mate.

He said in a statement byhis Media Aide, Mr AyoAkinola, that the choice of Ezewas based on his“accomplishment as a medicaldoctor whose practiceexperience spans more thantwo decades.

Ifeanyi Ubah picks running mate

place, all is set for theprimaries to be conducted forSenator Chris Ngige and

Chief Godwin Ezemo, today.The congress was

supervised by a special

committee headed by ChiefRomeo Anyisia, who appealedto members to jettisonparochial sentiments in theforthcoming election so as toelect persons with testedcredentials.

In his acceptance speech,Chinwuba, thanked themembers for their sense ofduty and commitment andassured that the newleadership would notdisappoint them.

He said the party wouldgive the two governorshipaspirants equal opportunity toactualize their ambitionurging them to eschew anyform of rumour over bias onthe part of the party executivemembers.

AFRICAN DemocraticCongress, (ADC) has pickedChief Anayo Arinze, ajournalist, as its flag bearer forthe November 16governorship election inAnambra State.

The party also said it isdetermined to change the wayof doing things in the state.

National Chairman of ADC,Chief Ralphs Okey Nwosu,while addressing delegatesat its primaries in Awkawarned that if Anambrapeople continue to dobusiness-as-usual, the statewould remainunderdeveloped.

He said: “There is so muchcorruption in the system andADC abhors corruption.

This party believes that wehave the human and naturalresources to make Nigeriabetter and that can onlyhappen if the right things aredone.”

According to him, somerecurring names in Anambrapolitics are at it again,polluting the environmentwith their questionable wealthand hoping to use such wealthto move to GovernmentHouse.

He warned that giving suchpeople chance meantdragging the state

ADC vows it won’t be business-as-usual

should pull out. As the former CPC has pulled

out to join PDM, many formermembers of All Nigeria PeoplesParty, (ANPP) have also joinedus in PDM.”

backwards. The governorship

candidate of the party, AnayoArinze, who was electedunopposed, said that thosewho hope to use their moneyto buy the people’sconscience would bedisappointed because‘Anambra is not for sale.’

His words: “There arepeople sharing money for the

purpose of this election andthey believe that GovernmentHouse is for the highestbidder, but they will bedisappointed. My advice tothe voters is that they shouldtake the money and still votewisely. ”

Delegates from all the 21local government areas of thestate participated in theprimaries.

•Nwosu

Chief Udoka Udeogaranyahas been nominated as thegovernorship candidate of theAfrican Peoples Alliance,APA, one of the newlyregistered political parties.

Udeogaranya, a Lagos –based businessman, is from

APA nominates Udeogaranya as flag bearer

He is the managing directorof Toronto Hospital Limited”.

Belonging to the youngergeneration and a professional,the statement added that“Prince Eze is articulate anddynamic in thinking, he ispoised to strike a balance toDr Ubah who hails fromNnewi South SenatorialZone”.

Ihiala in Anambra Southsenatorial zone.

In his acceptance speech,Udeogaranya reminded thedelegates, who came from allthe 21 local government areasof the state of the enormoustask ahead, urging them to

sell the programmes of theparty to the grassroots toensure that it wins theforthcoming election.

The primaries wassupervised by officials of theIndependent NationalElectoral Commission, INEC.

•Ezemo •Ngige

CMYK

50—VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

THE ‘evil’ omen had forlong clouded the party,

but no one really expected thePeoples Democratic Party,PDP to split on its 15thanniversary.

The Eagles Square venuefor the Special NationalConvention had beendecorated with 38 cake standson which were placed invitingcakes representing one foreach of the states of thecountry, the federal capitalterritory and one for thenational party.

Ahead of thecommencement of theconvention, PresidentGoodluck Jonathan hadsuccessfully mobilised mostof the party ’s powerfulgovernors to ride with him ina bus to the conventionground.

The sight of the party ’sgovernors, including the “fiverebel” northern governorsentering the conventionground in the same vehiclewas to buttress the sense ofunity that party eldersdesperately sought to portray.

That sense of unity was alsosomething the presidentconveyed in his speech as hecompared the survival andunity of the party with itsoriginal contemporariesformed about the same timein 1998.

“Of the three political partiesregistered in 1998, and I wantyou to listen, only PDP hasretained its singular identifyand core vision as a political

PDP:The path to disintegrationBY EMMANUEL AZIKEN,

POLITICAL EDITOR

,

,

Continues on page 51

movement till date whileothers have been implodedalong the way or subsumedtheir identity in search ofpolitical direction andrelevance,” PresidentJonathan declared in hisspeech to the special nationalconvention of the PDP lastSaturday.

It was as such an irony thaton the day that the partyclocked 15 years that the selfproclaimed largest political

party in Africa split into two.It was the first time that thePDP which had for most of its15 years trudged on the pathof crisis would be splitting intotwo major factions with itselected political office holdersidentifying with differentfactions.

Dr. Jonathan it appearedhad for some time had a senseof foreboding that the partyentrusted to him by fate wasslipping from him.Penultimate weekend, thepresident met with one of hisstrongest foes among thegovernors, Dr. Rabiu

Kwankwanso in thepresidential villa. At thatmeeting, the president itappeared, seemed to nudgethe governor to retrace hisstep from the internaldissension that he,Kwankwanso and four othergovernors of Sokoto, Jigawa,Adamawa and Niger hadbeen fuelling in the last fewmonths.

Also last weekend, less than48 hours to the convention,

the president also met withGovernor Babatunde Aliyu ofNiger State.

Aliyu like Kwankwanso theweek before appeared to beconciliatory after the meeting,telling State House reportersthat he remained a member ofthe PDP.

The sense of urgency by thepresident and his minders tomend fence with the five‘ rebel’ governors wasapparently based onintelligence reports that theopposition within the PDPwas already making decisivemoves to fracture the party

based on the long simmeringcrisis that had pitched someof the governors against thepresident and the nationalleadership of the party asrepresented by the NationalChairman, Alhaji BamangaTukur.

At the centre of the crisis isthe allegation by many of thegovernors that the presidenthas completely taken over theparty, punishing all thoseperceived to be against his2015 presidential effort.Chairman of the NigerianGovernors Forum, NGF,Governor Rotimi Amaechi ofRivers State had beensuspended from the party onthe basis of allegations ofbeing opposed to Jonathan’s2015 alleged ambition orhaving a presidential or vice-presidential ambition of hisown.

While the president playedthe game of reconciling withthe governors, the governorsapparently did not believe thepresident was sincere.

So it was not surprising thatin the days preceding theconvention that many of thegovernors sustained theirconsultations which was nowfocussed on how they couldsustain their politicalrelevance in the polity givenwhat they assumed was thedetermination of the presidentand Tukur to crush allopposition to the president’s

2015 ambition.Along the way the governors

also established contact withformer Vice-President AtikuAbubakar, who like some of thegovernors, was also losingrelevance in the party to thenew forces loyal to thepresident.

But teaming up with Atikuhad a problem for thegovernors given the problemsbetween Atiku and his homegovernor, Murtala Nyako,one of the five rebelgovernors.

Engagementin politics

Atiku and Nyako have hada bitter-love relationship inrecent times since the latter’sfull engagement in politics in2006. Nyako it is rememberedwas a direct beneficiary of theonslaught against Atiku bythe forces of OlusegunObasanjo who paralysedAtiku’s political machinery inhis home base using SenatorJibril Aminu to plant Nyakoas governor in 2007.

However, following hisproblems with Aminu, Nyakosought help from Atiku whomobilised domestic support tohelp Nyako win his re-election two years ago. At thattime it was alleged that therewas a quiet understandingthat Nyako would support

The sight of the party’s governors,including the “five rebel” northerngovernors entering the convention groundin the same vehicle was to buttress thesense of unity that party elders desperatelysought to portray

•Vice-President Namadi Sambo, President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan and Bamanga Tukur at the PDP Convention in Abuja

VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—51

PDP:The path to disintegrationContinued from page 50

Atiku for his own presidentialcampaign in 2015.

However, following that,Nyako was alleged to havereneged as he again resumedfighting Atiku and sided withTukur against Nyako.

So with both Nyako andAtiku forced against the wallby the Jonathan forces, it wasapparent to all that thegovernors had to combineforces with Atiku to confrontthe president. The advantageAtiku brought to the table washis nationwide organisationand structure which thegovernors lacked being thatthey were limited to theirstates.

But before they could forgealliance with Atiku the issueof the problem between theformer vice-president andNyako had to be sorted out.

Rebelgovernors

The task apparently fell onGovernor Sule Lamido ofJigawa State, perhaps themost experienced of the sevenrebel governors.

Lamido was the one whowas dispatched to meet Atikulast Friday to prepare roomfor a formal reconciliationbetween him and Nyako. Thedetails of the meetingbetween Lamido and Atiku inAtiku’s Asokoro, Abujaresidence were notimmediately known, but it waslearnt that the ground rules

,

,

for the rapprochement withNyako were established.

It is, however, difficult tobelieve that the governorswould have gone ahead withthe split on Saturday but forthe events that happened onthe convention ground.

While many of the dissentswho met the president in thelast few days complained thatthe president did not bringanything to the table, theywere further grieved by whatsome described as the brazeneffort by Tukur and the party’shandlers to take what wasremaining in their hands fromthem.

After the president’s speechon Saturday in which hehighlighted the unity of thePDP and how it had defied allodds and remained onedespite the fractionalisation ofthe opposition, and as the

convention moved intoelection mood, the 'dissident'governors were pissed off bythe seeming circulation ofwhat was described as a unitylist allegedly endorsed by thepresidency. That apparentlywas the last stab.

When the 16 members of theNational Working Committee,NWC resigned in deferenceto a report of the IndependentNational Electoral

Commission, INEC that theirelection was irregular, therewas a general understandingthat all of them would bereturned at the specialconvention.

However, for Tukur and hisallies in the presidency, theelection offered them theopportunity to do away withnon-conformists in the partyleadership who were seen asallies of the governors oropponents of Tukur.

Dr. Sam Jaja who wasnominated as the deputynational chairman byGovernor Rotimi Amaechi ofRivers State was the firsttarget. He was removed onthe unity list and replaced byPrince Uche Secondus, a longtime party veteran andassociate of former RiversState governor, Dr. PeterOdili.

Equally troubling was thedecision of the ElectoralCommittee to remove electeddelegates from Rivers,Adamawa and AnambraStates following the spate ofcrises in the states. Given thatthe PDP governors ofAdamawa and Rivers statescould not bring delegates tothe convention, it was notdifficult for them to take theirlong planned walk from theparty.

So as the president roundedup his speech and as Mrs.Patience Jonathan came downto cut the 15th anniversarycake, the ‘ rebel’ PDPgovernors commencedconsultations.

Kwankwanso and Lamido asif in a final salutation to theparty made a tour round EagleSquare and from thereproceeded to the ShehuYar`Adua Centre where theywere joined by Atiku and theother governors includingAmaechi who was not at theconvention ground, havingbeen suspended from theparty three months ago.

Atiku's drama atthe Eagle Square

Atiku on his part had madesome drama at the EagleSquare when he againsttradition refused to sit in theVIP stand preferring to sit withdelegates from his nativeAdamawa State.

“The essence of this is toshow that the party belongs tothe people and to convey toeveryone that those in the VIP

stand who now control theparty have lost touch with thepeople and Turaki is doingthis to buttress his opinionthat the party must bereturned to the people,” anassociate of the former vice-president told Vanguardahead of the walkout onSaturday.

But how far the dissidentscan go remains an issue. Thefirst issue is for them to unifyamong themselves and burytheir own individual politicaldifferences and objectivesunder a united dream ofoverwhelming the Jonathanled PDP.

Reaction ofthe president

As a step towards that move,the seven governors wereyesterday at press timeengaged in a meeting withAtiku in Atiku’s residence inAbuja where they wereaiming to bury differencesbetween Atiku and Nyako.

Following that, the rebelswho are indeed callingthemselves the New PDP,hope to gauge the reaction ofthe president to their move.

As a source in their campdisclosed, their plan is to seeif the president wouldrespond positively to theirissues and if he does therecould be some talking, but ifnot, the new faction of thePDP would then seek toexplore options open to it.

Among the options, is goingto join the Peoples DemocraticMovement, PDM already

registered as a political partyand believed to be the childof Atiku or forging ahead withtheir own party, the Voice ofthe People.

In the end, the governorscould register the VOP andallow the PDM to co-exist withit as a way of diverting votesfrom the PDP, given thecloseness of PDM to PDP onthe ballot paper.

The temptation to sustainthe rebellion is fired by thepopularity of the rebellionamong some other partyfaithful.

A number of women whowere opposed to theemergence of Dr. KemaChikwe as the nationalwomen leader includingsome women with nationwidename recognition it waslearnt, are already makingcontact with the Baraje-ledfaction to team up with it.Another governor from theNorthwest who did not jointhe boycott, Vanguardgathered yesterday, had alsomade contact to join therebellion.

Yesterday, the president andhis associates were in anoverdrive to stem therebellion. President Jonathanmet with former PresidentOlusegun Obasanjo who is apatron of the five northernrebel governors apparently tobring him into the troubleshooting mission.

A meeting between thepresident and the rebelgovernors it was also learnthas been arranged for late lastnight. The meeting was yet totake off as at press time.

So with both Nyako and Atiku forcedagainst the wall by the Jonathan forces, itwas apparent to all that the governors hadto combine forces with Atiku to confrontthe president

•Governor Murtala Nyako, Rotimi Amaechi, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Kawu Baraje at a parallel PDPConvention at Sheu Musa Yar'Adua Centre Abuja

52— Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

PDP convention a disaster, says Junaid Mohammed

AdeboyeadvisesNigerianyouths

BY OLAYINKA LATONA

GENERAL Overseerof Redeemed

Christian Church of God,Pastor Enoch Adeboye, hasadvised Nigerian youths toembrace life ofrighteousness and Godlyprinciples that would bringabout the changes neededin the country.

Speaking during aspecial prayer organisedfor RCCG, Region 1 youthswith the newly ordainedministers of God in Ebute-Meta, Lagos, Adeboye saidmost challengesconfronting the nationcame because Nigeriansfailed to obey God to theletter.

In his sermon themed:“Walking in fullness ofblessing” Pastor Adeboyeurged the youths inattendance to serve Godwith their might, strength,resources and shun sin. Hesaid God’s plan for theyouths is to go higher andif only they obey God’scommandments, God willbless them in return.

NIGERIAN NationalPetroleum Corporation,

NNPC, has allayed fears that therecent decision of Shell and

l-r: Innovation Manager, Mr Paul Osho; Regional Sales Director, Mr Afeez Ajibowu;Divisional Sales Manager, Mr Osaretin Oshodin; Marketing and InnovationDirector, Mr Austin Ufomba, Innovation Manager, Ms Omosefe Odaro and HumanResources Director Mr Wale Adediran all of Guinness Nigeria Plc at the launch ofOrijin at Ibadan.

Chevron, Shell pull out from OKLNG wontaffect Nigeria’s gas agenda—NNPC

Atiku seeks cut in FG expenditure

SECOND Republiclawmaker, Dr Junaid

Mohammed, yesterday,described what happened at theConvention of the PeoplesDemocratic Party, (PDP) as adisaster and catastrophe waitingto tear the party apart.

He also urged those clamouringfor true democracy within the PDPto join forces with otheropposition parties to giveNigerians a viable option as thecountry approaches the 2015elections.

Mohammed who spoke in atelephone interview said allNigerians should accept and

welcome what was happeningwithin the PDP because eventshave shown that the party wassitting on a gunpowder waitingto explode.

His words, “The PDP hasshown Nigerians that there wasnever democracy within theparty and I have alwaysmaintained that if the PDP is notdestroyed by the same forceswithin the party, then the partymust destroy itself by exploding.The PDP we know will never bethe same again because whenthis kind of pain and catastrophebefalls a party, history has shownthat the party won’t remainsame.”

He said that PDP was not aparty but a collection of pettytraders with crazy ideas thatpower must rotate round thewhole country, noting, “Thedefunct Yugoslavia is todaysplit into about six countriesbecause of rotationalPresidency which led into civilwar. History has shown clearlythat such arrangement willnever work because even as anation, Nigerians have neveragreed over issues before”.

According to him, PDP lackedrespect for the Constitution andthe Nigerian people and whatwas seen so far was a show ofshame. He said, “This

government as being led by thePDP has nothing to show forits existence since PresidentJonathan took over and theykeep promoting ethnicsentiments in their way ofappointing people in position.”

Junaid, however, maintainedthat what Nigerians have seenso far concerning PDP willcontinue to happen till the partyloses its relevance, stressing,“Nigerians will continue towitness this fighting andrebellion within the PDP. It isbound to happen because theparty was not built on sincerityand democracy”.

BY GBENGA OKE

Chevron Nigeria Limited towithdraw from the OlokolaLiquefied Natural Gas Project,OKLNG, may derail the

President Goodluck Jonathan’sGas Revolution Agendalaunched in March 2011.

The corporation’s ActingGroup General Manager,Group Public Affairs Division,Tumini Green, said in a pressstatement, that the GasRevolution Agenda was notonly intact but has since takenoff with significant progress ingas supply for powergeneration and industrialusage.

Green said,“The GasRevolution Agenda which is anintegral part of the gas masterplan cannot be derailed just likethat. NNPC can confirm thatthe exit of Shell and Chevronwill not impact on MrPresident’s Gas RevolutionAgenda. In fact, very goodprogress is being made withdomestic gas supply which hasreached the highest level of1500mmcf/d from about500mmcf/d about three yearsago.”

She noted that more than 70per cent of the gas was beingdirected to the Power sectorpursuant of the Gas RevolutionAgenda. Green explained thatthe gas based industrialization

agenda of Mr Presidentplanned for Ogidigben inDelta State has teed-off withsite data gathering activitiesnoting that major new heavygas based industries such asfertilizer, petrochemicals etc.would come on board to createthe much needed jobs.

“All these are very much un-der way and unaffected by therecent exit of Shell and Chev-ron from OKLNG. Similarly theBrass LNG project is unaf-fected by this exit as sharehold-ers of the Brass LNG are dif-ferent,” the NNPC spokesper-son stated.

She noted that in line withthe transformation agenda ofthe Federal Government, theNNPC was determined to con-tinue to work with partners andstakeholders to ensure thatNigeria continues to be thedesired location for gas basedinvestments.

She said,“In a changing glo-bal gas market, OKLNG inevi-tably has suffered a setback asa result of the exit but effort willbe intensified to secure otherwilling investors. NNPC andthe Federal Government re-main committed to thisproject.”

By EMMA UJAH,Abuja Bureau Chief

FORMER Vice President,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,

weekend, threw his weight behindrecommendations of the SteveOronsaye’s Committee andcharged President GoodluckJonathan to reduce FederalGovernment expenditure at theMinistries, Departments andAgencies, MDAs.

Atiku who spoke in Abujaregretted what he described as,“too much federal bureaucracy andtoo much centralization,” and calledfor the scrapping of FederalMinistries of Agriculture andEducation. He said the twoministries would better serve theobjectives for their establishment atthe state level and that the federal

government’s roles in the twoministries should be restricted toregulation.

The former VP called for financialresources to be allocated to the twolower tiers of government to makethem more alive to theirresponsibilities of ensuringgrassroots development, across thecountry. He expressed support forlocal government autonomy andthe control of their resources.

The Revenue MobilisationAllocation and Fiscal Com missionhas been consulting past politicalleaders on the new RevenueSharing Formula which isexpected to create a more evenlydistributed resource frameworkbetween the three tiers ofgovernment and among thefederating units.

A VICE President ofNigeria Labour

Congress, NLC, andGeneral Secretary ofNational Union of Textile,Garment and TailoringWorkers of Nigeria,NUTGTWN, Issa Aremu,weekend, warned that thefactionalisation of thePeoples Democratic Party,PDP, could undermine thenation’s democracy.

In a statement inKaduna, he called onmembers of the party to putthe nation first instead oftheir personala g g r a n d i z e m e n t ,lamenting that Nigeria’sdemocracy was tall inpolitical acrimonies,executive thuggery,bickering, elbowing,exclusion among others.

Aremu said “Theweekend split within theruling People’s DemocraticParty (PDP) arising fromthe special convention ofthe Party held on Saturday,August 31, 2013 andincreasing factionalisationof some of the politicalparties on the eve of 2015election is a dangerousdevelopment to Nigeria’sdemocracy, unity andcohesion of the country asa whole.”

Factionalisationof PDP, dangerousfor democracy— NLC VP

Ekiti Dep Gov rallies supportfor Ado monarch at festival

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

EKITI State DeputyGovernor, Prof.

Modupe Adelabu has calledon sons and daughters ofAdo-Ekiti to sustain theircooperation and support forthe Ewi of Ado, Oba RufusAdeyemo Adejugbe.

She said their support wasnecessary for the town tocontinue to witness furtherdevelopment.

Adelabu who made the callin her remark at the 2013Udiroko Day festival held atthe palace ground of the Ewi,in Ado-Ekiti, noted that theunprecedented developmentthe town has witnessed in thelast one year was partly dueto the support, cooperationand mutual understandingthat the people have for theparamount ruler and theirreadiness to work together for

the progress of the town.The deputy governor also

reminded the people of theregard the government ofGovernor Kayode Fayemihas for the indigenes byappointing sons anddaughters of the town intokey positions and enjoinedthem to continue to supportthe administration at alltimes.

She urged indigenes toreciprocate the good gestureby their continued support forthe administration and toprotect public facilitiesprovided in the city centre.Prof Adelabu, who is also aprincess of Ado-Ekiti,charged indigenes,especially those in theDiaspora to make it a pointof duty to attend Udirokofestival.

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013—53

Rebellion, panic engulf PDP

election or endorse-ment.

The women plan tomake a show at the for-mal opening of the na-tional secretariat of theBaraje-led faction inAbuja today.

Chief Clark neverthe-less described the devel-opment as a gang-upagainst the presidentwhich he said was boundto fail, saying Dr.Jonathan would not inany way lose sleep overthe development.

Speaking with journal-ists in Abuja yesterday,Clark accused formerPresident Obasanjo ofstoking the rebellionsaying he, Obasanjo, hadconceived a scheme topair Governors Lamidoand Amaechi to run onthe ticket of the party forthe 2015 presidentialelection.

“Dr. GoodluckJonathan is the Presidentof Nigeria, not PDP. It istrue that PDP presentedhim. What happened yes-terday, (Saturday)wouldn’t affect his elec-toral fortune, it is Nige-rians that would decidehis fate in 2015. Noamount of gang up

would make Jonathanlose sleep over 2015.

Clark blamescrisis onObasanjo, Atiku

“Obasanjo is the oneencouraging them; he ispushing GovernorsLamido and Amaechi torun in 2015, that’s wherethe trouble started.

“Amaechi thought be-cause Senator BukolaSaraki used the NigeriaGovernors’ Forum chairto contest to be presi-dent, he could also useit to become Vice-Presi-dent and we have said inthe South-South wewanted President, notVice-President. So, thegang up of five gover-nors which Amaechi hasjoined believe only anortherner could bepresident.”

He also accused formerVice-President AtikuAbubakar of disloyaltyfor allegedly sponsoringthe Peoples DemocraticMovement, PDM, as aplatform to contest the2015 election.

“Atiku said he is inPDP, not PDM but all hismen are in PDM. Is thata loyal member of theparty? All his followershave left. PDM was cre-

ated for them by Atiku.Even Governor MurtalaNyako had boasted thatthey would bury the PDP.Let them go, but I can tellyou that PDP will remainstronger! They will soonknow that they are alone.Atiku has always been adisloyal person; what heis doing now he hasdone it to Obasanjo be-fore.”

But in a swift reactionto Clark, the chairman ofthe parallel PDP, AlhajiAbubakar Kawu Barajetold Vanguard: “Let uswatch and see, by thetime we put our office inplace tomorrow, (today),we will know who is se-rious or not.”

Also speaking on thedevelopment, GovernorGodswill Akpabio, chair-man of the PDP Gover-nors Forum said the disa-greement would soon beresolved.

“Let me tell you that Iand some of my col-leagues have resolvedhere and now to ensurea total reconciliation ofthe grievances in thismatter. I can tell you thatthere was a break in com-munication. I was withthe former Vice Presi-dent, Atiku Abubakarand we even took pic-tures with the deputy

senate president, IkeEkweremadu at the con-vention venue.

“This is a family affairand I can assure you thatin a few days time, thismatter would be re-solved”, he said, ex-plaining that the PDPGovernors’ Forum hascommenced reaching outon a personal basis tosome of the governorsinvolved.”

Those involvedare jokers— Babatope

Chief EbenezerBabatope in a chat withVanguard, said the po-litical history of Nigeriahas shown that splintersout of political parties donot normally succeed inthe country, saying thoseinvolved do not have aworkable script.

He said: “The peoplewho moved know whythey moved away, it hasnothing to do with theexistence of the PDP asa party. I can assure youthat the PDP is as strongas a rock. We respect ourconstitution and the Ni-gerian people who putus in power and we will

never joke with the su-preme will of the Nige-rian people. Those whoannounced that theywere going to form an-other PDP know that theywere only joking; theconstitution does notguarantee what theyhave announced. Weknow very well that theywere acting a script thathas long been written.

“Nigerians will witnesswhen they have finishedacting out the script, butI am very happy Niger-ia’s political history hasnever recorded a suc-cessful rebellion or revoltagainst an existing po-litical party.”

On whether the SouthWest PDP will toeOyinlola’s path, he said:“The PDP in the SouthWest remains one.Oyinlola has the demo-cratic freedom to moveanywhere. The SouthWest PDP will remain inthe party and will remainfirmly with the adminis-tration of PresidentGoodluck Jonathan.”

Progressive Gov-ernors laudBaraje faction

Governor KayodeFayemi of Ekiti State wholauded the action of thesplinter PDP governorssaid the APC governorswere ready to join forceswith them to navigatethe country unto a bettercourse.

Fayemi in a posting onhis facebook page said:“The Progressive Gover-nors Forum (PGF) wel-come the PDP split ofAugust 31, 2013 and theemergence of AbubakarKawu Baraje-led PDP asa necessary and inevita-ble result of repressiverule of the PDP.

“Recent events, firstwith the orchestrated cri-sis in the Nigeria Gover-nors Forum (NGF), sus-pension and expulsion ofPDP leaders, includingserving Governors with-out fair hearing and com-plete demonstration oflack of tolerance and re-spect for different opin-ions are signposts of cri-sis that should unavoid-ably result in the split ofany organization.

“The PGF commend thecourage and resilienceof the Baraje-led PDPand in particular con-gratulate all the servingPDP governors for stand-ing up to be countedamong patriotic politicalleaders of Nigeria. Itmust no doubt be a con-scious decision that musthave been borne out of

commitment to make allthe sacrifices needed torescue our dear nationfrom the current reign ofterror and bad govern-ance.

“As serving governorstoo, we are ready to sup-port, work with our col-leagues in partnershipand solidarity with thegoal of facilitating accel-erated human develop-ment by embracing poli-cies and programmes toimprove quality of life ofall Nigerian citizens,eradicate poverty andcreate jobs in the coun-try. We are under no il-lusion that our reality asa nation today calls forboth intra and inter partynetworking.

We are therefore readyto transform our relation-ship with all serving gov-ernors irrespective of ourpartisan differences inorder to move our dearcountry, Nigeria, for-ward. Nigeria has out-lived all dictatorships inthe past and will defi-nitely outlive any presentor latent, manifest or po-tential dictatorship. Con-gratulations".

Obasanjopleads withBaraje faction toreturn

Meanwhile, formerPresident OlusegunObasanjo yesterday ap-pealed to a breakawayfaction of the party tosheathe their sword andcome back to the party’sfold saying the develop-ment was giving eldersof the party great con-cern.

In a statement he re-leased in Abeokuta yes-terday, the former Boardof Trustees , BoT, chair-man of the party said:”The situation in our rul-ing Peoples’ DemocraticParty (PDP) after the con-vention on Saturday andthe parallel conventionsame day has given greatconcern to all well-meaning members of theparty and particularly tothe elders of the party.

“While some selectelders are making effortsto get the situation re-solved as soon as possi-ble, it is imperative toemphasize that the movewill bring back peaceand return the party to itsvigorous and dynamicelection-winning partythat it has always been.

“I want to passionatelyappeal to both sides fornow to sheath theirswords, maintain the sta-tus quo, with earliest con-veyance of the Elders’meeting before the endof this week. Membersare equally enjoined toremain calm until theElders’ complete theirpeace-making meeting.”

CONFERENCE—From left: Quality Control Manager, Nigerian Ropes Plc, Engr. ChimaraokeAlua; Managing Director, Mr. Joao Pereira and the Executive Director, Mr. Dayo Ogunmowo, at aPress Conference by the company on Test Certificate being falsified and faked by some business men tocover sub-standard imported wire ropes, in Lagos.

Continues from page 5

54 — Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Syria: UN scribe supports Obama's bid to congress

U.S. President BarackObama’s decision to

seek congressionalapproval for possiblemilitary action against Syriacan be seen as part of aneffort to forge a globalconsensus on responding tothe use of chemical armsanywhere, the UnitedNations said yesterday.

Already, the UnitedNations has received atleast 14 reports of possiblechemical weapons use inSyria. After months ofdiplomatic wrangling,Sellstrom’s team arrived inSyria on August 18 with a14-day mandate to visit thecountry.

The U.N. team wasinitially going to look intothree incidents, but itspriority became the August21 attack. The inspectorshave also been looking intoSyrian allegations that therebels used chemicalweapons three times thismonth against the Syrianarmy - allegations thatWashington has dismissed.

The world body wasresponding to Obama’sannouncement on Saturdaythat he will ask forcongressional consentbefore taking military action

against Syria for a poisongas attack on Syriancivilians that he blames onPresident Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The process of seekinga congressional vote waslikely to delay any strikefor at least nine days.

U.N. Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon viewsObama’s decision “as oneaspect of an effort toachieve a broad-basedinternational consensus onmeasures in response toany use of chemicalweapons,” U.N.spokesman MartinNesirky said.

“The use of chemicalweapons will not beaccepted under anycircumstances,” he added.“There should be noimpunity and anyperpetrators of such ahorrific crime againsthumanity must be heldaccountable.”

U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry said on Sundaytests showed that sarinnerve gas was used in adeadly August 21 chemicalattack near Damascus, ashe sought to build the caseto convince skeptical U.S.lawmakers to authorize a

military strike against theSyrian government. TheUnited States says 1,429people were killed, 426 of

them children.Nesirky said Ban spoke

earlier on Sunday withAke Sellstrom, head of the

U.N. chemical weaponsinspection team that leftSyria on Saturday.Sellstrom is currently in

The Hague preparing theanalysis of samples andevidence collected at thesite of the August 21 attack.

Senegalese President sacks PM

SENEGALESE President Macky Sall has

sacked the prime minis-ter he appointed soon af-ter coming to power lastyear. Abdou Mbaye, aformer banker who didnot belong to any politi-cal party, has been re-placed by Justice Minis-ter Aminata Toure.

“The president hasasked me to form and leada new government. Ihave accepted the job,”she said. A statement is-sued by a spokesman forPresident Sall gave noreason for Mr Mbaye’sdismissal.

In March 2012 election

Mr Sall defeated Abdou-laye Wade - who hadbeen president for 12years - promising totackle poverty and cor-ruption.

Senegal is seen as abeacon of democracy inWest Africa and remainsthe region’s only coun-try never to have had amilitary coup.

Egypt expels Al Jazeera journalists

EGYPT deported three AlJazeera journalists

yesterday , days after theQatari-owned channelcarried appeals fromleaders of ousted PresidentMohamed Mursi’s Muslim

Brotherhood to stageprotests against the army-backed government.

The Gulf emirate was astrong financial backer ofBrotherhood rule andvehemently opposes thearmy’s overthrow of Mursiand the ensuing bloodycrackdown on hismovement. Al Jazeera’soffices in Cairo have beenclosed since July 3, whenthey were raided bysecurity forces hours afterMursi was toppled,although the channel,broadcast from Qatar, canstill be seen in Egypt.

Security officials at Cairoairport, declining to be

named, said Wayne Hay,Adil Bradlow and RussFinn had been put on anEgyptian plane headed forLondon, after being forcedto leave their equipmentbehind.

The men had been heldsince Tuesday. An AlJazeera spokesman saidthey had been released andleft Egypt without beinggiven a reason for theirdetention.

The station also said thatShihab Elddin Shaarawi,an executive producer forAl Jazeera’s Egyptianchannel, had been arrestedon Friday morning butlater released.

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon

Merkel faces poll rival in TVdebate

GERMAN ChancellorAngela Merkel and

centre-left election rivalPeer Steinbrueck are dueto take part in their onlytelevised election debate.

The event is seen as theSocial Democrat (SPD)leader’s biggest chance toclaw back Mrs Merkel’slead in the opinion pollsbefore this month’s vote.

Although thechancellor’s conservativebloc is expected to win,her coalition partners arefaring poorly.

The 90-minute debatestarts at 18:30 GMT andwill be aired on mainchannels.

With three weeks to gobefore the 22 Septembervote, the two candidateswill be grilled by fourjournalists before anestimated TV audience ofup to 20 million.

Peer Steinbrueck willface the first question andAngela Merkel will havethe final answer, witheach answer limited to 90seconds.

Mandela leaves hospital

NELSON Mandela,the anti-apartheid

leader and former SouthAfrican president, hasbeen discharged fromhospital and has returnedhome after being treated

for a recurring lunginfection, according togovernment sources.

“Madiba’s conditionremains critical and is attimes unstable,” the SouthAfrican president’s officesaid on Sunday, referringto the 95-year-oldMandela by his clanname.

“His team of doctors areconvinced that he willreceive the same level ofintensive care at hisHoughton [inJohannesburg] home thathe received in Pretoria,”the statement said.

This comes after aweekend statement by afamily member that he hadbeen discharged wasdenied by Mac Maharaj,the presidentialspokesperson.

Mandela had beenreceiving medical

treatment in a Pretoriahospital for almost threemonths since June 8.

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page,reporting fromJohannesburg, said thereare hopes that there will besome sort of recovery.

Veteran broadcaster, Frost, dies at 74

VETERAN broadcasterSir David Frost has

died at the age of 74 aftera suspected heart attackwhile on board a cruiseship.

A family statement saidhe had been giving aspeech aboard the Queen

Elizabeth on Saturdaynight.

Sir David’s careerspanned journalism,comedy writing anddaytime televisionpresenting, includingThe Frost Report.

Internationally, he willSir DavidFrost

be remembered for hisrevealing interviewswith former USPresident RichardNixon.

A statement said: “Hisfamily are devastatedand ask for privacy atthis difficult time.

Dr. Nelson Mandela being driven to his home inJohannesburg yesterday

Mursi to stand trial forviolence

EGYPT’s publicprosecutor referred

deposed PresidentMohamed Mursi to trialyesterday on charges ofcommitting and incitingviolence, the state newsagency reported.

The prosecutor,Hesham Barakat,

referred Mursi and 14other MuslimBrotherhood members toa Cairo criminal courton charges “ofcommitting acts ofviolence, and incitingthe killing andthuggery”, the statenews agency reported.

Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard,Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2,,,,, 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013—55—55—55—55—55

For me, nutrition means life andquality of life — OGUNTONA

On human nutrition

For me, Nutrition means lifeand quality of life. The wholeessence of life is nutrition andfor me what is important inproper nutrition is knowledge ,food, and care. Knowledgebecause if you have all themoney, resources and you can’tput it together to get good foodis a waste; then the food can begrown or bought while care isimportant because it includes

• Professor Babatunde Oguntona

It is not that the leaders arenot aware of the magnituide ofthe problem, they are justwishing it away, but it will notgo away. It is actually gettingworse. Most of the problems weare having with infant deathhas to do with nutrition. Morethan 60 percent of theunderlying causes of death canbe attributed to malnutrition.Isn’t that enough reason for usto be more serious about it?

Achievements

Let us say some happeningshave given me intensesatisfaction over the years inthis profession. Let me justmention a few. I have initiatedand galvanised theestablishment of Nutritionprogrammes in many Nigerian

health, hygiene, environment,sanitation and all that. Care isvery complicated but veryessential as an element ofnutrition and if one is missing,there is no nutrition.

People really think nutritionis cookery and its always therelike water but that is not true.There is so much more tonutrition than just food and eat.One could kill one self with badnutrition. It is the whole essenceof life and the way the body uses

food.Food science is preparatory

but food stops where nutritionbegins and you need to takeone for the other to take off.Foodhelps to maintain what one hasin the body, the working of theeyes, heart etc and then to grow,and fight infections and thebody is doing this because onehas ingested elements the bodyneeds to do the function. Thatis working of nutrition-how thebody uses the food to grow,maintain and fight offinfections. That is why it isimportant

The start of life in the embryoneeds good nutrition to formand become healthy and no onemust lose sight of this. There isthe school of thought which haspropounded that whatever achild is fed on while in theembryo stage come to reallyaffect the lifespan of the child.

Problem of malnutrition

Malnutrition is a big problem.In Nigeria, the leadership ismissing the point and not reallyappreciating nutrition. We donot assert the right value tonutrition, and have not given itits rightful place andrecognition.

POPULARLY called “Father of Nutrition in Nigeria”Professor Babatunde Oguntona, who clocked 70 on August

28, has contributed immensely to the development of thenutrition profession in Nigeria.Starting from his days as a lecturer at the University ofMaiduguri in the mid 1970’s he pioneered the teaching ofnutrition to Agriculture of Medical Students in that Institution.His efforts to create a department of Nutrition led to theestablishment, firstly of the department of Animal & FoodScience and finally a department of Food Science & Technology.As part of his pioneering efforts he started the MaiduguriNutrition Club in 1979 when the profession was little known.He also played the key role in the development of the Nutritionprogramme at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.A past President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria,and currentlythe Chairman of the Nigerian Beverage Panel, Oguntona, whois retiring as the Head of the Department of Nutrition andDietetics, which he and his colleagues established at theFederalUniversity of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAAB, in thisinterview, tells SOLA OGUNDIPE, about his majorachievements as a nutrition advocate. Excerpts:

• R-L: Consultant Neurologist, University of Abuja TeachingHospital , Dr.Gerarld Onwuegbezie , Associate Prof / ConsultantEurologist University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Dr. FlorenceAnuma , with Country Brand Lead Pfizer, Dr. Akanbi Bayodeduring the 2nd Pain Academy 2013 Advancing the Managementof Painful Diabetics Peripheral Neuropathy (PDPN) LectureOrganised by Pfizer Lead held in Abuja recently.

Educational Institutions. I havepublished (with anothercolleague) the only text on theComposition of Foodscommonly consumed in Ni-geria. Published about 15years ago, it is standard text forNutritionists and Dieticians inNigeria. The only trulyNational survey of ‘FoodConsumption and NutritionalStatus of Nigerians’ wasconducted between 2001 and2003 by a team of which I wasthe zonal Co-ordinator. Thatwas a seminal work thatsurveyed families in every nookand corner of this country andit is an indication of the state ofcommitment of the cognateFederal Ministries to Nutrition

More than 60 percent of theunderlying causes of death can beattributed to malnutrition; isn’t thatenough reason for us to be moreserious about it?

‘ ,COFFEE consumption is

associated with a lowerrisk of prostate cancerrecurrence and progression,according to a new study byFred Hutchinson CancerResearch Center scientists.

Co-Director, Programme inProstate Cancer Research inthe Fred Hutch Public Health

Sciences Division, Dr. Janet L.Stanford, conducted the studyto determine whether thebioactive compounds in coffeeand tea may prevent prostatecancer recurrence and delayprogression of the disease.

Stanford and colleaguesfound that men who drank fouror more cups of coffee per day

experienced a 59 percentreduced risk of prostate cancerrecurrence and/or progressionas compared to those whodrank only one or fewer cupsper week.

They did not, however, findan association between coffeedrinking and reduced mortalityfrom prostate cancer, althoughthe study included too few menwho died of prostate cancer toaddress that issue separately.

Regarding tea consumption,the researchers did not find anassociated reduction of prostatecancer recurrence and/orprogression. The study alsodid not draw any conclusionsregarding the impact of teadrinking on prostate-specificdeath.

It is the first investigation ofpotential association betweentea consumption and prostatecancer outcomes.

The results are consistent withfindings from Harvard's HealthProfessionals Follow-up study,which found that men whodrank six or more cups ofcoffee per day had a 60 percentdecreased risk of metastatic/lethal prostate cancer ascompared to coffee abstainers.

Nigerian Universities havebeen beneficiaries ofScholarships provided by aFood manufacturing companythrough this linkage.

Nutrition Club

For me to have been able todevelop a programme for thedepartment was indeed a thingof joy for me. Secondly, tocreate awareness on nutrition,we were able to start what wecalled the Nutrition Club, asmall club where we broughttogether al the people whowere in disciplines and intangential to nutrition becausewe couldn’t find anybody witha nutrition qualification.

issues that such a survey hasnot been attempted 10 yearsafter.

As President of the NutritionSociety of Nigeria, we tookNutrition Advocacy all the wayto the Presidency in Abuja andgot the President (Obasanjo)and Ministers of all relevantMinistries and otherstakeholders to listen to whyGovernment should do morefor the nutrition of Nigerians.Regrettably, despite thePresident’s commitment anddirective on that day, not muchhas happened.

In the last five years I amvery happy to be able toestablish a fruitful linkagebetween the private sector andacademia. About 50 studentsstudying Nutrition atpostgraduate level in several

4 cups of coffee a day keep prostatecancer at bay

56 — Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 — 57

,

58—Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Why NDDC Advisory Committeeshould act now

AS far back as the thirdcentury B.C., the “Legist”

school of philosophy in Chinahad made a case for the existenceof law in society. The underlyingidea, around which this case isbuilt, is that man is by nature eviland the law is needed to keephis evil inclination in check. Itconcluded that only the restraintof penal law would bring goodback to the society. The schoolwas reacting to the decadenceand chaos that then characterisedthe Chinese society.

Interestingly, at about the sametime, the “Shastra coriters” ofIndia were making a similarargument. According to thisschool, man by nature is greedyand if left to operate without law,life itself would become a sort of“devil’s workshop” operating onthe “logic of the fish”. The bigfish will feed on the smaller ones.In the words of Thomas Hobbes,“a society without law is averitable recipe for disaster”. Hisarguments are copiously andeloquently outlined in his bookLeviathan, published in 1661.

The Niger Delta DevelopmentCommission, NDDC, wasstatutorily set up by an Act andcharged with variousresponsibilities with a view tobringing development to memberstates and, by implication,Nigeria as a country. Recently,the tenure of its Board expiredand an acting managing directorhas been appointed to steer theship of the commission pendingthe constitution of a new board

expires, tends to create theimpression that there is no lawin place to guide the process forappointing the executive team.It has become pertinent,therefore, that there be some newthinking to remove this cog in thewheel of progress of thecommission.

The NDDC Act upon which thecommission was established isexplicit regarding theappointments of members of theboard and other relevant issues.Part I Section 4 of the Act is clearon the rotational process (basedon alphabetical order) for theappointment of its Chairmanamong the nine member states.And Part IV Section 12 equallystates how the ManagingDirector and two ExecutiveDirectors shall be appointed.With current emphasis onapplying the rule of law toaddress societal harmony, it is,therefore, of paramountimportance that appointmentsinto the in-coming board take intocognisance the letter and intent

Committee”) which shall consistof (a). The Governors of themember states of the commission.

(b) Two other persons as maybe determined, from time to timeby the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

(c) The Advisory committeeshall be charged with theresponsibility of advising theboard, and monitoring theactivities of the commission, witha view to achieving the objectiveof the commission.

(d) The Advisory committeemay make rules regulating itsown proceedings.”

The undercurrents and on-going power-play relating to thecomposition of the in-comingNDDC Board is ludicrous andcertainly calls for the AdvisoryCommittee to do the needful andthe lawful at this critical time.

Potential formisinterpretation

This should be able to stave offthe potential for misinterpretationor misapplication of the law,which ordinarily ought to berather evident even to the layreader.

From the foregoing, therefore,it would be a welcomedevelopment for all the governorsof the member states (ascontained in Part 1 section 2 ofthe Act) to mull over andharmonise positions incompliance with the intent of theAct, and thereafter they may bein a position to advise on thecurrent uncertainties regardingappointments into the board.

Therefore, this is a clarion callon Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan(Governor of Delta State) who isunderstood to be the currentchairman of this AdvisoryCommittee to call an emergencymeeting where he and othergovernors of member states,together with other primarystakeholders, would resolve thecurrent uncertainties and advicethe President accordingly.Besides, we suggest that suchmeetings be held before theexpiration of an existing boardto minimize the time for transitionto a new one. A stitch in time•Opukiri is a Port-Harcourt-basedpublic affairs analyst

,

BY SIR GRANVILLE ABIBO,SAN

RIGHT OFRIGHT OFRIGHT OFRIGHT OFRIGHT OFREPLREPLREPLREPLREPLYYYYY

by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.What has become obvious are theincessant challenges that seemto arise every time a new Boardhas to be constituted. Thissituation arises in relation towhich of the member states willproduce the three key executivepositions namely, ManagingDirector, Executive Director(Finance) and Administration,and the Executive Director(Projects).

However, from recentpublications, it appears that thispersistent horse-trading andmanoeuvring has reared its uglyhead again. It will not be out ofplace to imagine that it mayalready be playing out in thecorridors of power as to whichstate gets what position amongmember states in terms ofappointment of executives for thein-coming board. This situation,which has become repetitiveevery time the tenure of a board

of the NDDC Act to avoidaltercation or misapplication.

In addition to applying the ruleof law, there are other criticalstakeholders recognized asrelevant to assuring thecontinued growth andsustenance of the commission.The Act also makes provision forthese important organs ofgovernment who should play acrucial role in guiding theprogress of the commission,clarifying uncertainties orresolving controversies that mayarise from time to time, includingsuch issues as appointments intothe board.

In fact, Part III, Section 11 ofthe NDDC Act defines a specificrole for the State Governors of themember states, composed as partof an Advisory Committee, andit says: ”There is herebyestablished for the Commission,a Niger-Delta DevelopmentAdvisory Committee (in this Actreferred to as “the Advisory

Okocha denies SANs supportfor Ag CJ, a rejoinder

SANs in Port Harcourtconsists of all personsadmitted to the rank of silk.They are all equal membersof that body, albeit withseniority in accordance withthe known and fine traditionsof the Bar. There is no JuniorSAN or Senior SAN. Suchdivisions in rank do not exist.It is, therefore, mostunfortunate to describe anymember of that rank “as MostJunior”. All members aredistinguished members of theInner Bar.

Executive members andother senior members of thefour branches of the NigerianBar Association in RiversState were invited to ameeting with the actingChief Judge of the state; and

DESPITE the cleardirectives of the

Nigerian Bar Association atits Pre-NEC meeting ofSunday, August, 25, 2013 thatall lawyers should refrain fromcomments in the pressregarding the issue of theappointment of acting ChiefJudge of River State, myattention has been drawn toa newspaper publication inthe Vanguard of August 27,2013, at page 11 (eleven)thereof issued by Chief O.C.J.Okocha, MFR, SAN, JP, and

BY BELEMA OPUKIRI •Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi () with the state’sacting chief judge, Agumagu

being the only SeniorAdvocate of Nigeria presentin that meeting (four othershaving previously sent intheir apologies) and inkeeping with the tradition ofthe Bar, I was afforded theopportunity to speak, whichI did.

It may be instructive tohighlight that there hasnever been a meeting of theBody of SANs in PortHarcourt, for over three yearsnow. The Body is not, hasnever been and cannot be aone man show.

To my knowledge, therewas never any meeting of theBody where a Resolution wasagreed upon, to write thenewspaper statement underreference, against adistinguished member of thatsame body.The said write-up itself, istherefore, self-serving. Itmay also be important to statethat those who findthemselves in leadershippositions must always go theextra mile to hear all sideson an issue, before reachingunsupportable conclusions.They must act withoutpromoting personal interests.Let the rule of law and justiceprevail always.

captioned as above, statingfalse and misleading factsagainst my person.Because silence will notreadily be seen andunderstood to be golden in thecircumstance, I amconstrained to correct many ofthe half truths contained in thesaid publication.

Firstly, it is not true that thereare nearly 20 members of thebody of Senior Advocates ofNigeria based in PortHarcourt. The number isprecisely 17.

Facts aresacrosanct

It is also completely untruethat Granville Abibo, SAN isthe “Most Junior of all theSenior Advocates of Nigeriain Port Harcourt.” There areother Senior Advocates afterGranville Abibo, SAN,including one just recentlyappointed.

It is also not true that I wasadmitted into the rank ofSenior Advocate “just about ayear ago.” I was admitted tothe distinguished bodyprecisely on August 26, 2011.Facts are indeed sacrosanct.It may be important toemphasise that the Body of

,,There was never any meeting of the

Body where a Resolution was agreedupon, to write the newspaper statementunder reference, against a distinguishedmember of that same body

•Map of theNiger Deltaregion

The Advisory Committee shouldresolve the current uncertainties andadvice the President

Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 — 59

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AIDAMENBOR—I,formerly known andaddressed as MissAidamenbor LenientOsaze, now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs. OkpogorLenient Osaze. Allformer documentsremain valid. Nursingand MidwiferyCouncil of Nigeria andgeneral public pleasetake note.

I D A H O S E — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissFaith Aituaje Idahose,now wish to be knownand addressed asMrs. Faith AituajeAgboola. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

Conirmation of NameThis is to confirm thatthe name Esua EffiongOkon, refers to one andthe same person asAmami Joseph, nowwish to be known andaddressed as AmamiJoseph. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

ALEGE—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss TitilayoRachael Alege, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Titilayo RachaelAnnan. Formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

O G B O R I F O — I ,formerly known andaddressed as MissCaroline Ogborifo,now wish to be knownand addressed asMrs. CarolineEbimami Eyiango. Allformer documentsremain valid. Generalpublic please takenote.

EFEJUKU — I, formerlyknown and addressed asMiss Efejuku JessicaAjolo, now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs EjueyitchieJessica Ajolo. All formerdocuments remain valid.General public pleasetake note.

AKUTA —I, formerlyknown and addressedas Miss Chizoba S.Akuta, now wish to beknown and addressedas Mrs. Chizoba S.Onoseme. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

MAFO—I, formerlyknown and addressedas Mrs. MafoTemitope Tosin, nowwish to be known andaddressed as Mrs.Ogunniyi TemitopeTosin. All formerdocuments remainvalid. General publicplease take note.

YOU CAN B O O K Y O U R A D -V E RT S AT OU R

L A G O S I S L A N D O F FI C E —VA N G U A R D

M E D I A L I M I T E D ( L A G O SOFFICE) K I O S K

4 8 E A S T PAV I L I O N T B S ,L A G O S .

VANGUARD'S LAGOS OFFICE

,

Time to end open season onthose who are not like us

PREJUDICE has become profitable inNigeria. It’s boom season for ethnic

entrepreneurs and, indeed, for sundrypurveyors of hate. These traders inprejudice do not inhabit any specialcorners of Nigeria. They are everywhereand they profit from nearly everything.They cut across generations, class, gen-der, creed. Nothing escapes their atten-tion and everything is sooner or lateran ethnic conspiracy or an excuse for aslur on an identity group.

To be fair, these profiteersin prejudice have receiveda lot of help recently. Gov-ernors in different parts ofNigeria who swore to de-fend the Constitution of Ni-geria have resorted to re-moving Nigerians from onepart of the country to an-other under various artificesfrom security to specioushumanitarianism. Othershave sacked workers in thepublic service of their statesbased on claims that the af-fected workers are supposedly aliensfrom neighbouring states.

All this takes place notwithstandingthat Nigeria’s constitution expressly

ity supposedly confers power. In real-ity, a minority necessarily exercises andprofits from it.

In Nigeria a narrow band of interestshas always controlled our patrimony.The membership of this narrow bandcomes from all over the country. Whenthe going is good, they care little aboutthe others. When they encounter theoccasional difficulty in carving up ourpatrimony, they enlist others in manu-factured divisions of ethnicity and sect.And they litter the land with red meatfor profiteers in prejudice.

All over our laws,being poor iscriminalized. The lawestablishing the AbujaEnvironmental Protec-tion Board describeshardworking womenselling agriculturalproduce or seekingother legitimate liveli-hood in day time as“solid waste” andrenders them liable toarbitrary arrest. Un-employed persons are

punished for being “idle and disor-derly”. Poor people in the wrong placeare “vagabonds”. And those who suffermental disability are “lunatics” or “madpeople”. What is notable in the recent

,and preferment within the public serv-ice because they married spouses fromoutside what is supposed to be theirstate of origin. It gets worse: prejudicefeeds extremism. When a bomb goes offin No-Man’s Land or a security opera-tion somewhere reports mass casualties,the beer-parlour - and even predomi-nant policy - inquiry no less, often turnson the ethnic or sectarian identities ofthose affected.

Most no longer seem to harbour thecapability for pause to mourn the col-lective injuries to our country, to sharein the grief of people like who mustmourn the loss of loved ones or to trans-mit solidarity or compassion to commu-nities living under the weight of vic-timization. Transcendentalism is nolonger a requirement for leadership. Tohave a place at the table of leadership,you must corral and bring along a filialcollective tied to nativity. Co-existencehas acquired new enemies. Online chatrooms and electronic communities havenot helped. There is a frightening elec-tronic traffic in prejudice and vitupera-tion. It is as if some electronic platformsare designed to spike their own trafficmetrics by deliberately promoting echo-chambers in prejudice.

All this traffic in prejudice misses oneessential and obvious point. In Nigeria,there are only two tribes that matter: therulers and the others. The former arean overwhelming minority. The rest ofus are “the others”. And when you are“the other” in Nigeria, anything canhappen to you. The idea of an “over-whelming minority” sounds inherentlyself-contradictory but not when you lookat it closely. In a democracy, the major-

one-way traffic in Nigerians across stateborders is not where those affected comefrom or the race or ethnicity of those whothink that the response to our admit-tedly profound social or politicalpathologies is the internal banishmentof other people. It is rather that the vic-tims are all generally poor people. Tounderline this point, they are also ren-dered nameless. As a category, we callthem “beggars”.

It is as if being called a beggar is goodreason for being put beneath humanityand beneath the protections of our con-stitution. When states banish motorbikeoperators from the roads, the main rea-son they give is that such “beggars” con-stitute threats to security.

When banks preclude persons withdisability - whose deposits they happilycollect - from their transaction andservice halls, it is because such “beg-gars” are unsuitable to be seen in theircorporate spaces. And when we excludepeople who do not look like us from ourvarious neighbourhoods, we call them“beggars” too.

In all these instances, we deploy theseusages to excuse our inability to care orshow compassion. Yet, the only thingthat is beggared by all this sniffing atpeople who are not like us is the possi-bility of mutual co-existence in a viablecountry. The use of the word “beggar”to describe fellow human beings andcitizens says everything about the per-vasiveness of status as the defining in-fluence in how Nigeria is presently or-ganised. This is not chosen by naturenor ordered by any ethnic or faith group.

BY CHIDI ANSELM ODINKALU

To be concluded

prohibits discrimina-tion on grounds ofplace of origin, ethnic-ity or sex. The sameconstitution entitles allNigerians to movefreely and live any-where within the coun-try. Yet, women haveroutinely lost access to

Transcendentalism is no longer arequirement for leadership. To have aplace at the table of leadership, youmust corral and bring along a filial

collective tied to nativity

CHIDI ODINKALCHIDI ODINKALCHIDI ODINKALCHIDI ODINKALCHIDI ODINKALUUUUU

60— Vanguard, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Vanguard, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 — 61

...Just back fromCalabar, courtesy Mobil

,

,

CALABAR holds a special place in my life. It was in Calabar that I cut my teeth as a jour-

nalist when I got employed as a proof reader in theCross River State Newspaper Corporation, Publish-ers of The Nigerian Chronicle, after a glorious stintas editor of the Saint Finbarr’s College magazine,The Conqueror.

In Calabar, I decided to further my studies, ac-quire the mastery of French Language which was tohelp boost my sports reportage, that is how I gotadmission into the Department of Modern Languag-es and Linguistics of the University of Calabar evenas a staff of The Chronicle.

Passing through Calabar Airport to Akwa Ibom al-ways brought back fond memories of my “Malabite”days until Governor Akpabio made the Uyo Airporta reality and Calabar became far away.

Two months ago, I went back to Calabar, to negoti-ate the use of facilities at the U.J Esuene Statdium,facilities that The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN ) had certified world class through the yearlyMobil Trials ( Name changed recently)

I needed the tartan track and the infrastructure inCalabar to camp 165 graduates of the AKS/NNPC/MPN Schools Athletics championships. After 12 un-interrupted years of sponsorship of the competition,in Akwa Ibom Schools and Colleges, we decided(and MPN approved) a holiday camping and train-ing programme aimed at honing the skills of the2011 and 2012 winners of the competition.

Going to Calabar meant transporting them fromthe beaten earth of Eket Stadium to the tartan tracksof U.J. Esuene stadium. This also meant the use ofspike shoes, introduction to starting blocks and allother paraphernalia necessary to make a differencein their athletics life.

Seven top track and field coaches in the land werecontracted to handle the various departments ofjumps, throws, long distances, sprints and relays,and that is how I got in touch with Armelia Edet,Utitofon Nkantah ( Nee Ukoh), Stephen Nuhu, Pro-fessor Lucas Ogunjimi, Solomon Abari, Ken Onu-aguluchi and Sule Oladimeji .

For two weeks, these coaches were required tonot only mentor but introduce the athletes to thebasic rudiments of track and field. My plan was toset the machinery in motion and get out, only tocome back and close the camp as it were. Howwrong, as I had to savour all the fourteen days thatthose kids were in camp, having the time of their

lives..The first inspiration I drew was from the coaches

who marveled at the abundance of talent on dis-play. They started by pouring encomiums on Mo-bil Producing Nigeria, Operator of the NNPC/MPNJoint Venture for starting a programme that thiscountry needs if we must recapture the lost gloryof our track and Field and indeed all sports.

After one week, the coaches decided to hold thefirst trials and were awed at the progress made bythe students, progress that the coaches insistedmust be sustained if we must make any impact inthe programme.

By the time the second trials came up, it was ev-ident that we had the destiny of sports in our hands.A few examples will suffice.

In 100 metres boys, the 10.7 seconds returned byNdipmong Uwem was considered good enough toget him an invitation to the national camp, dittothe girls sprints queen Aniekeme Alphonsus Edemwho was constant on 12 seconds in addition to atechnique and pace that the coaches said was pro-fessional.

Coach Oluyomi was delighted by the 5.11 metresdone by Maria Joseph in the Long Jump. Hear him.

“ She started with 4.88 metres and after one weekdid 5.11 metres which is as good as the jump madeby some senior girls in this country. Also worthy ofmention is Emenim Effiok the properly built stu-dent of Saint Brians Model College Uyo who threwa distance of 16.53 metres in Shot Put. Effiok cameinto the camp doing 4.88 metres and by the timecoach Onuaguluchi took him on for two weeks hehad done 16.53 metres. You can then imagine theprogress these kids are likely to make if subjectedto constant quality and progressive training.

All, repeat, all the students that went into the campcame out with personal best times, throws andjumps.The verdict was unanimous that given con-stant training and tracking, there exists not lessthan fifteen national champions in the experimen-tal batch that we took to Calabar.

The crowning of the show was the closing cere-mony held in Uyo where Governor Godswill Ak-pabio commended Mobil for such an initiative andurged the Oil Drilling Giant to continue to be theGood Corporate citizen that it has always been.

Represented by his Deputy, Noble Lady ValerieEbe, Governor Akpabio reiterated the need to catchthem young and promised the delivery of an Olym-pic Sized stadium before the end of his tenure.

The State Education Commissioner Professor, AtimAntai and the Special Adviser to the Governor onsports and Youth Development Mr Samuel GeorgeFrank also spoke glowingly about Mobil and theinitiative that will go a long way in shaping thelives of the students especially those who are anx-ious to forge a career in the sport.

Back in Lagos, I was browsing through the re-sults returned at the just concluded Junior AfricanChampionships in Mauritius and concluded thatwhat we have started in Calabar, if well handled,was indeed the future of track and field.

Take heart Kayode.

NIGERIA’s foremost Sports Librarian KayodeTijani has lost his father. At 86, Pa Kayode

has lived his life and his departure could only betermed a “celebration of life”, but as I told his in-dustrious son, a father is a father and he will begreatly missed.

Take heart Kayode and welcome to the club of or-phans of which I have been a member, only Godknows for how long.

See you next week.

In 100 metres boys, the10.7 seconds returned by

Ndipmong Uwem wasconsidered good enough

to get him an invitation tothe national camp

Team Nigeria’s Diogu denied Top 5 placing,wins top scorer award

TEAM Nigeria’ captain,Ike Diogu was voted

among Africa’s top basket-ball players by a votingpanel of journalists andtechnical officials of all theteams which participatedin the Afrobasket conclud-ed last night in Abidjan,Cote d’Ivoire but the or-ganisers denied him thehonour.

They claim that since hewas not on ground at thevenue of the closing cere-mony at Palaise de Sports,he could not be honouredin absentia and so had togive it to another player,as one official who plead-ed anonymity said thereason for the action wasbecause “they wanted agroup photograph of the

players instantly.”Diogu who was howev-

er, named the top scorerof the competition havingamassed a total of 153points with an average of21.8 points per match inthe seven matches heplayed and got a trophyfor his efforts, said he was

not informed of the awardnor the ceremony so therewas no way he could havemade it to the ceremony.

“Nobody told me aboutany award and so Icouldn’t have been there,”Diogu said, however add-ing that he was glad he

got the top scorer’s awardbut stressed he wouldhave been happier if Ni-geria won the competitionand got a ticket to the 2014World Cup in Spain.

One of the assistantcoaches who picked thetop scorer’s award on be-half of Diogu, AhmedSani said it was unfair todeny the player an awardhe duly deserved sincehe was not told in ad-vance to prepare for theceremony.

Meanwhile Angola de-feated surprise finalistEgypt 57-40 to win their11th Afrobasket title afterthey missed the 2011 edi-tion to Tunisia. Their starplayer, Carlos Moraiswho scored 21 points onthe night, was voted theMost Valuable Player,MVP of the champion-ship.

Uplift FC record anotherwin in Slovenia

UPLIFT Football Teamyesterday confirmed

their superiority by beatingBilje Football Club in afriendly match 6 – 0.

The 22-member of UpliftFootball Team discoveredduring UPLIFTing Under-15 Grassroot Football pro-gramme organised by theWife of the Governor of

Ogun State, Mrs. Olufun-so Amosun in April 2013,currently undergoing atwo-week Summer footballinternship at Udinese FCin Italy. The good footballperformance displayed bythe Uplift Football playersattracted applause from thespectators.

After the match, theTechnical Crew of Bilje FCled by Coach Damir Litarcommended the UpliftFootball players. “Your boysare very good and theyplayed good football aswell. I admire them. Pleasealways endeavour to en-courage them. I congratu-late you,” he said.

All the Uplift Footballplayers were decoratedwith a medal at the end ofthe match for their victoryand sterling performance.

•Diogu

BY PATRICKOMORODION

•Mrs. Olufunso Amo-sun

Ronaldoon targetfor Real

62 — Vanguard, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

Sturridge strikes down Man UDANIEL Sturridge

provided a fittingtribute to the memory ofBill Shankly with afourth-minute winneragainst ManchesterUnited to maintain Liv-erpool’s 100 per centstart to the Barclays Pre-mier League season.

Today would havebeen Shankly’s 100thbirthday, and it will becelebrated with Liver-pool claiming a 1-0 vic-tory, with Sturridge nowbagging the only goal inall three matches so far.

In contrast, Manches-ter United manager Dav-id Moyes endured a de-pressing day.

He failed to claim ahoped-for first win atAnfield following 12 un-successful visits withEverton.

If that was not badenough, Wayne Rooneyfaces a few weeks on thesidelines with the headinjury sustained in train-ing on Saturday, andwith the transfer windowclosing at 11pm on Mon-day night, Moyes is stillto make his first signifi-cant signing.

Not that United’s tra-vails will bother Liver-pool, who dominated theopening half, then hadenough defensive mus-cle to resist the visitors’late rally.

ARSENAL beat Tottenham Hotspur

1-0 in yesterday’s NorthLondon derby at the

Gunners edge SpursEmirates Stadium.

Olivier Giroud scoredthe only goal midwaythrough the openinghalf of the Barclays Pre-mier League clash, ap-plying a magnificenttouch to Theo Walcott’sball across the six-yardbox.

CRISTIANO Ronaldo scored his first

goal of the season asReal Madrid made itthree wins out of threeby comfortably seeingoff Athletic Bilbao 3-1 atthe Bernabeu.

Team P W D L F A D PTSLiverpool 3 3 0 0 3 0 +3 9Chelsea 3 2 1 0 4 1 +3 7Man City 3 2 0 1 8 3 +5 6Arsenal 3 2 0 1 5 4 +1 6Stoke 3 2 0 1 3 2 +1 6Tottenham 3 2 0 1 2 1 +! 6Man U 3 1 1 1 2 1 +2 4West Ham 3 1 1 1 2 1 +1 4Norwich 3 1 1 1 3 3 +0 4Southampton 3 1 1 1 2 2 +0 4Cardiff 3 1 1 1 3 4 -1 4Newcastle 3 1 1 1 1 4 -3 4Aston Villa 3 1 0 2 4 4 +0 3Palace 3 1 0 2 4 4 +0 3Everton 3 0 3 0 2 2 +0 3Swansea 3 1 0 2 3 5 -2 3Fulham 3 1 0 2 2 4 -2 3Hull 3 1 0 2 1 4 -3 3Sunderland 3 0 1 2 2 5 -3 1West Brom 3 0 1 2 0 3 -3 1

ARTURO Vidalscored twice as

Serie A champions Ju-ventus cruised to anemphatic 4-1 victoryover 10-man Lazio at theJuventus Stadium onSaturday night.

Vidal’s brace had thehome side 2-0 up after26 minutes, only for Mi-roslav Klose to halve the

Juve thrash Laziodeficit two minutes later.Mirko Vucinic stretchedJuve’s lead four minutesinto the second half,though, before Hernaneswas given his marchingorders for a second book-able offence just after thehour mark and CarlosTevez completed thescoring 10 minutes fromtime.

HENRIKH Mkhitaryan’s first two

goals for Borussia Dort-mund were enough tosecure his side a 2-1 winover Eintracht Frankfurtyesterday.

The close-season sign-ing from Shaktar Donet-sk opened the scoring,but Vaclav Kadlec hitback with his first Frank-furt goal in the 35thminute.

Mkhitaryan added an-other after the breakthough, to send Dort-mund to the top of theBundesliga as theymaintained their 100 percent record.

Dortmundstay stop

Liverpool's r Daniel Sturridge (L) celebrates with Martin Skrtel (R) after scoring against ManchesterUnited at the Anfield stadium on September 1, 2013. AFP PHOTO

Wantaway Nigerian and West

Brom str iker PeterOdemwingie has beenspotted in London aday before transferdeadline day yetagain.

This time though, itwasn’t to negotiate atransfer away from theclub - though he admit-ted West Ham were in-terested - it was to lookfor sales of his own onOxford Street.

Osaze inLondon forshopping

Arsenal players celebrate yesterday's win against Spurs

Tevez celebrates after scoring against Lazio.

CMYK

Vanguard, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2013 — 63

Bale

12:00 BST on Mondaybefore speaking at amedia conference.

He added: “I am notsure there is ever a goodtime to leave a clubwhere I felt settled andwas playing the bestfootball of my career todate.

“I know many playerstalk of their desire to jointhe club of their boyhooddreams, but I can hon-estly say, this is mydream come true.

“Tottenham will alwaysbe in my heart and I’msure this season will bea successful one forthem.

“I am now looking for-ward to the next excitingchapter in my life, play-ing football for Real Ma-drid.”

Bale joined Spurs as aleft-back for £10m fromSouthampton in 2007and scored 26 goals lastseason as he was namedboth the ProfessionalFootballers’ Associa-tion’s and Football Writ-ers’ player of the year.

His representativestold Spurs at the end ofJuly that he wanted tospeak to the Spanish gi-ants.

Real Madrid coachCarlo Ancelotti’s claimat the start of Augustthat they were “in talks

Continues from BP

to find a solution” to thetransfer angered Totten-ham manager Andre Vil-las-Boas, but the clubshave now reached a set-tlement.

After his side’s 1-0 lossto Arsenal, Villas-Boassaid: “Bale is a wonder-ful player. He is goingto join Real Madrid sowe wish him all the best.

“He left us with somegreat memories from lastseason.”

Bale, who becomesReal Madrid’s fifth sign-ing of the summer, paidtribute to both South-ampton and Tottenhamfor developing his career.

He said: “I am wellaware I would not be atthe level I am today wereit not for firstly South-ampton and then Spursstanding by me duringsome of the toughertimes and affording methe environment andsupport they have.

“I would like to thankeveryone at the club: thechairman, board, staff,coaches and players,and, most of all, the fan-tastic fans who I hopewill understand thisamazing career opportu-nity.”

Spurs have been busyin this transfer window,signing seven players fora total outlay approach-ing £105m.

we have won again. Indeed wehave completed a hat-trick,” Ath-letics Federation of Nigeria techni-cal director, Navy CommodoreOmatseye Nesiama declared.

What thrilled the Nigerian dele-gation was the overall performanc-es of the athletes some of who werein the team to the AYAC and theWorld Youth Championships inUkraine. Of particular note wereOmezie Akerele and Oduduru whoran his personal best in the men200m.

Oduduru clocked 21.19 seconds toclinch the gold. He dusted off hisopponents at the curve, even as

Nigeria

Continues from BP

Mauritian, Permal Jonathan was onhis trail, but Oduduru held on tohis lead to the finish. Jonathantagged in at 21. 26, while South Af-rica’s James Mokofend was thirdwith 21.62.

In the girls race, Uwakwe was alsoeffective with her race plan. She beatoff opposition from Yuma Tamanguto finish at 24.21 seconds. The Ethi-opian took the silver with a time of24.27 and Loungo Matihaku wasthird with 24.62. “The era of usingover age athletes is over. We can onlyhope that we will get the support ofpublic and private sectors to takethese athletes to the next level,” Ne-siama added.

NIGERIA international will play for

Anfield giants Liverpoolthis season as a loan dealhas been agreed for thewinger.

Both clubs finallyagreed a £1m fee for theseason-long loan switchfor the Nigeria winger,according to the Guardi-an of UK.Moses, signed by Chel-sea from Wigan Athleticlast summer for £9m, hasslipped down the peck-ing order at StamfordBridge after the summerarrivals of Willian andAndré Schürrle, andKevin De Bruyne’s re-turn from his loan spellat Werder Bremen.Chelsea have accumulat-ed a number of playerscapable of operating fromattacking midfield andthe 23-year-old has beengranted permission toseek first-team football

Liverpool land Victor Moses

Thank God Toriola lost!

WHEN Segun Toriola started his

electrifying strokes in Ta-ble Tennis which madehim one of Africa’s mostdecorated Ping-Pongers,Egyptian Omar Assarwas not yet born.

But the Egyptian, 22,with lightening strokeshumiliated Nigeria’spride in the finals of theLagos International Ta-ble Tennis Classics 11-9,11-4, 13-15, 6-11, 11-4,11-9. It was a true reflec-tion of the fact that sportsbelongs to the youths.Assar dominated the fi-nal and was full of vimand vitality. He came toLagos without a coachand beat Nigeria’s best.And even with a coachby his side, Toriola couldnot counter the fireworksof the Pharaoh. He sentthe Molade Indoor Hallinto raptures with hislightening display. Youmay ask what useful in-struction did our coachpass on to his player?.

BY TONY UBANI

elsewhere. Brendan Rodgers had

earmarked him as a po-tential recruit earlier thissummer and, despiteChelsea’s initial reluc-tance to loan the playerto a Premier League ri-val, the Liverpool manag-er has now been givenapproval by the EuropaLeague winners to pur-sue the deal.Moses was in Prague onFriday for Chelsea’s de-feat to Bayern Munich inthe Super Cup final, inwhich he did not feature,but has made clear hisdesire to move to Mer-seyside - despite interestfrom West Bromwich Al-bion, Southampton andEverton over the courseof the summer - and willcomplete the move beforeMonday’s transfer dead-line with the loan fee nowagreed.

Without disparaging To-riola, our coaches stillhave a long way to gobeyond reminding theirwards that “Governor iswatching you o, E magba fun e … No gree foram). When he made thewinning point, Assar ranstraight to salute Gover-nor Fashola in the VIP for

putting up the Classicsbefore jumping onto thetable to salute the vocif-erous crowd that cheeredhim lustfully throughout.

Representing Nigeriasix times at the Olym-pics, is no mean joke (Ol-ympics holds once in 4years. That means thatToriola had been to the

Olympics for 24 years).Incredible! He is notalone. So also with ele-gant Funke Oshonaikewho lost in the semi fi-nals to Offiong Edem.For these players to re-main Nigeria’s bestshows that the sport isnot developing in Niger-ia. The younger playershave failed to retire theveterans and find joy incheering visiting playerswho torment Nigerians.

The final was a splen-did display of tennis.Lagos fans, denied ofgood table tennis for solong, came out in theirthousands to watch theclassics. Credit to BarristerEnitan Oshodi and Gover-nor Babatunde Fasholawho acknowledged that hewould ensure that TableTennis returns to its origin.

In the female category,Cecilia Otu-Akpan beat Of-fiong Edem 9-11, 11-7,11-6, 5-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9.

Elegbeleye commendsTeam Nigeria

DIRECTOR General of the National

Sports Commission(NSC) Hon GbengaElegbeleye has show-ered encomiums onTeam Nigeria foremerging the 2013 Af-rica Junior AthleticsChampions in Mauri-tius yesterday.

Nigeria emergedoverall winners, hav-ing won 9 gold, 7 sil-

ver and 3 bronze med-als at the Champion-ship that was roundedoff in Mauritius on Sun-day.

“The National SportsCommission is elatedabout the feat of ourjunior athletes thatemerged the overallwinners and Champi-ons of the 2013 AfricaJunior Athletics Cham-pionships.•Moses

Gov. Fashola decorates Egyptian Omar Assar, who beat Segun Toriola in thefinal of the Lagos Classics.

CMYK

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How to Play Sudoku

Place a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line canhave two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (alsonine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within abold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1through 9. This means that no number can appear twicein any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, divisionor multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

YESTERYESTERYESTERYESTERYESTERDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSDAY'S ANSWERSTODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLETODAY'S PUZZLE

Sudoku

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS

QUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORDQUICK CROSSWORD

VANGUARD, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 , 2013

ACROSS1 Moist (4)4 Sicker (3)6 Noisy (4)9 Messy (6)10 Rodent (3)12 Over-enthusiasm (5)14 Accustom (5)15 Near (5)18 Talented (6)20 Deed (6)24 Mistake (5)26 Emulate (5)28 Biscuit (5)30 Pig-pen (3)32 Tawdry (6)33 Property (6)34 Family (4)35 Fish (3)36 Regulation (4)

DOWN2 Fragrance (5)3 Forecast (7)4 Declare (4)5 Oaf (4)6 Language (5)7 Experience (7)11 Donkey (3)12 Beaker (3)12 Beer (3)16 Poem (3)17 Spike (3)19 First (7)21 Intimidate (3)22 Farm-vehicle (7)23 And not (3)25 Groove (3)27 Fire-raising (5)29 Praise (5)30 Footwear (4)31 Shout (4)

ACROSS: 2, Check 7, Canoe 8, Draft 10, Panic12, Eft 13, Fused 15, Cheated 17, Reader 19,Elk 20, Defamed 23, Ibis 25, Rear 26, Decided30, Cod 31, Native 34, Refused 37, Metal 38,Car 39, Divan 40, Water 41, Genus 42, Beret.

DOWN: 1, Value 2, Coped 3, Headed 4,Chic 5, Breaker 6, Often 9, Aft 11, Cheapen13, Frail 14, Elm 18, Resided 21, Debit 22,Cred 24, Secured 27, Cos 28, Damage 29,Decay 32, Tenet 33, Vague 35, Fat 36, Dire.

Bale, at long last!•Breaks Ronaldo's record

REAL Madrid havebroken the world

transfer record to signTottenham forward Ga-reth Bale.

The Wales star hasagreed a £300,000 perweek, six-year deal aftersealing an £85.3m(100m euros) movewhich eclipses the £80mReal paid ManchesterUnited for Cristiano Ro-naldo in 2009.

“I have had six veryhappy years at Totten-ham but it’s the righttime to say goodbye,”said 24-year-old Bale.

“We’ve had some spe-cial times together andI’ve loved every minuteof it.”

Bale will have a medi-cal and then be present-ed to the Real Madridfans at the Bernabeu atContinues on Page 63

G S BNigeria 9 7 3South Africa 7 7 3Ethiopia 7 7 8Egypt 5 4 2Kenya 4 9 4

Medals table top Five

Nigeria complete athletics ‘hat-trick’

BY BEN EFE,Mauritius

African Championships:

NIGERIAN juniorsyesterday in

Bambous, Mauritiustopped the medals tableof the African JuniorChampionships.

Divine Oduduru andNkiru Uwakwe addedtwo gold medals on thefinal day of the event tocement Nigeria’s posi-tion at the top with nine

gold medals. South Afri-ca that threatened tospoil the fun for Nigeri-an officials came secondwith seven gold medals;Ethiopia also had sevengold medals.

“Last year in Port Novo,Benin Republic, we wonthe African senior cham-pionships. Then in War-ri earlier in the year, wewon the African youthchampionships and now,Continues on Page 63

EPLLiverpool 1 Man U0West Brom 0Swansea 2Arsenal 1 Spurs 0

BUNDESLIGAStuttgart 6 Hoffeiheim2E’ Frankfurt 1Dortmund 2

LA LIGAReal Madrid 3Atletico 1Espanyol 0 Betis 0

LIGUE I

Saint Etienne 2Bordeaux 1Nice 2 Montpellier 2

Results

Curse of Anfield strikes Moyes again

as Sturridge inflicts first defeat of new

boss’s reign and sends Rodgers’ Reds

top of table — Page 62

•Victor Moses joins Liverpool — Page 63

•Thank God Toriola lost! — Page 63

Top stories

•Bale

CMYK

TWO WEEKS TO LIVE