Thursday, April 4, 2013

Vol. 3 N0. 592 Thursday, April 4, 2013 N150

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>

Death toll rises to 28, victims get mass burial

SOLA ADEBAYO, SAM OLUWALANA AND EMMA GBEMUDU

The Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, yesterday declared its readiness to resume attacks on oil installations in the region, beginning from to-morrow.

MEND in a statement signed by its spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, said it will begin sustained attacks on oil and gas infrastruc-ture under an operation codenamed Hurricane Exodus as from midnight on Friday.

The militant group said its planned attacks were provoked by the way and


MEND threatens fresh attacks on oil installations

P.6No plan to turn National Theatre to hotel FG

Were ready to tackle any upheaval, says JTFNDelta youths protest allocation of 11 oil blocks to non-indigenes

Henry Okah:

PDP govs not planning to dump party Anenih

P.13

P.2Fear grips NECO workers

ASUU, NUT kick against scrapping of UTME, NECO

A1-A16

Jimoh Ibrahim leads 200 Energy Group managers to Dubai Conference

P.6,51

Power outage likely as gas plant shuts downFG constitutes boards of Federal varsities L-R: Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke; Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Minister of Culture and Tourism, Chief

Edem Duke and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Nurudeen Mohammed at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

AZA MSUEKADUNA A 50-year-old widow, Mrs. Hanatu Bulus Veronica, yester-

day said that she lost five brothers during the Easter

attacks on some villages in Southern Kaduna.

The death toll from the attacks has risen to 28, ac-

How I lost fi ve brothers to Kaduna violence Widow

Yero

Nebo

JleEmtC

SPECIAL REPORT

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Thursday, April 4, 2013News

ASUU, NUT kick against scrapping of UTME, NECO

MEND threatens fresh attacks on oil installations CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1


L-R: President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice-President Namadi Sambo; Alhaji Maitama Sule and Mr. Paul Unongo during a meeting of the president with Northen Elders Forum in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: STATE HOUSE

manner the trial of its lead-er, Henry Okah, on terror-ism charges, was handled in South Africa.

According to the group, the conviction of Okah was based on a forged threat letter contrived by the Ni-gerian and South African governments purporting to have originated from MEND.

This fake letter was used as evidence against Henry Okah for which a 13 years sentence was passed. To make matters worse, the prosecutions second wit-ness Mr. Sele Victor-Ben exclaimed in court that the letter was fake after failing to catch the prosecutors eye who wanted him to lie under oath.

We are now determined to conjure this imaginary trumped up threat into a painful reality.

The attacks will be sus-tained until an unreserved apology is offered to MEND and the Nigerian govern-ment shows their willing-ness to dialogue. The same

way they are willing to dia-logue with Boko Haram, MEND said in the state-ment widely circulated to the media.

But the Joint Task Force, JTF, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield dismissed the threats and asked persons parading themselves as MEND to embrace the peace in the region.

JTF in a statement signed by its Media Coor-dinator, Lt. Col Onyema Nwachukwu, said it had po-sitioned its troops in strate-gic places and put them on alert to tackle any possible upheaval.

The statement said: Ni-ger Deltans are not in any bondage and therefore do not require armed struggle or emancipation as claimed by this threatening gang.

What Niger Deltans are in a dire need of now is peace for sustainable de-velopment having emerged from the dark days of tur-bulence in the region.

Informed by this devel-opment we have effected some redeployment to tack-

le any upheaval. This set of people are advised to toe the path of law and order in addressing whatever griev-ance they have and to desist from any action that will upset the peace and devel-opment of the Niger Delta.

The good and peace loving people of the Niger Delta are enjoined to disso-ciate themselves, their com-munities and leadership from this unwholesome ap-proach as portrayed by this group.

The MEND threats came amid fresh tension already brewing in the Niger Delta over the allocation of 11 oil blocks located in the region to non-indigenes of the area under an asset redistribu-tion programme by the Fed-eral Government targeted at facilitating more indig-enous participation in the industry.

The Niger Delta indi-genes, especially the youths of the oil-rich belt are an-gry with President Good-luck Jonathan that the oil assets located in their areas were allocated to individu-

als who come from outside the region by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Re-sources.

The latest development came to the fore just few weeks after allegations that virtually all oil blocks in the country were being operated by Nigerians of northern extraction.

Consequently, the youths have asked Jonathan to sus-pend the transactions su-pervised by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, and ensure that the indi-genes of the host commu-nities to the oil assets were given the right of first re-fusal in their management.

National Mirror gath-ered the tension stemmed from the allocation of the oil blocks in the region, es-pecially OMLs 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42 to beneficia-ries outside the region in clear contravention of the Nigerian Content Develop-ment Law of 2010.

It was gathered that relevant stakeholders in

TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE, MOJEED ALABI, PRISCILLA DENNIS AND IJEOMA EZEIKE

Reactions yesterday trailed alleged deci-sion of the Federal Government to scrap the National Examinations Council, NECO, and Uni-fied Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, with many stakeholders in the education sector, such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Ni-gerian Union of Teachers, NUT, among others, in total disagreement with the deci-sion.

They insisted that scrap-ping the two organisations wasnt a wise decision.

ASUUs National Trea-surer and University of Ibadans branch chairman, Dr. Ademola Aremu, said both organisations had not lost integrity in conduct-ing credible examinations, which was their major man-date, and therefore should not be tampered with.

He asked rhetorically whether the Federal Gov-ernment would want to say, for instance, that the reason NECO was established as a perfect substitute to WAEC are no more in existence.

According to him, the Orasanyes Committees recommendations were not enough to scrap not only NECO but any other government agency or in-stitution established by law and saddled with specific responsibilities.

So, government should have subjected the rec-ommendations to public debate, perhaps superior ideas to run those agencies may be provided before tak-ing any decision on them. I dont, in any way, believe that scrapping is a solution, especially as regards the fi-nancial implication of that action, he said

NUT National President, Comrade Michael Olukoya, said Nigeria was tired of governments policy somer-saults.

According to him, every government would want to be known with one par-ticular policy or the other, irrespective of the public importance of such policy.

If the Federal Gov-ernment was to beam its searchlight to curtail ex-penses on its agencies and institutions, it should let

it get to the ministries and every other areas of the economy, he said.

But the action appeared to have sent members of staff of NECO into panic mode.

Though, the staff re-ported at their duty post yesterday, many of them at national headquarters in Minna, the Niger State capi-tal, were seeing clustered at various points, discussing the issue.

It was evident that the recommendation has cre-ated fears among them as they discussed the devel-opment, especially since it affects the source of their livelihood.

However, the Registrar and Chief Executive Of-ficer, NECO, Prof. Prom-ise Opkala, could not be reached for comments at his office while calls to his mobile phone did not go through.

Also, key officers of the council refused to comment on the situation, but one of the top officers, who did not want his name in print explained that, though they have heard and read the purported plan to scrap the 10-year-old examination body, the organisation was yet to receive a letter to that effect.

Though, the report came to us as a surprise, I want to state that we are really worried by what we read on pages of the news-papers. This is because in Nigeria, anything can hap-pen and what we read is enough to create fears in ev-ery member of staff of this organisation, he said.

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, however, said it would conduct this years UTME as scheduled.

It also said the Federal Government did not scrap the board but was criti-cally looking into ways of strengthening its power.

The board stated this yes-terday in a statement made available to National Mir-ror as a way of reassurance for the over 1.4 million can-didates registered to write the exam scheduled for Sat-urday, April 27, across the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja.

The boards Public Rela-tions Officer, Mr. Fabian Benjamin, who signed the statement, said the organ-isations reassurance for its candidates and the public

became necessary in view of yesterdays media re-ports that the Federal Gov-ernment had scrapped the board and may have can-celled the UTME exam.

The board wishes to state that as a responsible and responsive organisa-tion, it is not against inno-vation, changes and gov-ernment policies that are designed to improve the education sector but the or-ganisation has not changed the date of the Paper and Pencil-Based exam for this year while that of the Com-puter-Based Test (CBT) will

be communicated to candi-dates soon, the statement said.

The JAMB spokesman noted that arrangements had been completed as rele-vant stakeholders had been sensitised about the exami-nation even as the board had also deployed all neces-sary logistics and materials to the designated centres to conduct a hitch-free exami-nation.

Also, parents and stu-dents expressed mixed feel-ings on the alleged scrap-ping of NECO.

Mr. Akin Amugiri, a par-

ent, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the plan to scrap NECO would hamper the smooth foundation already laid down in the education sec-tor.

Amugiri said the scrap-ping of NECO would be like returning to status quo, where people would wait for a long time before re-sults would be released.

He noted that before the scrapping of NECO, other plans should be put in place to give hope to candidates at that level.

Another parent, Mrs.

Edith Okafor, however, said that the scrapping of NECO was a good initiative.

According to her, NECO is a duplication of WAECs efforts. I see WAEC as hav-ing a wider sphere than NECO and more authentic.

Students seem to pass NECO more than WAEC, which is an indication that it is not well regulated, Okafor said.

A student, Miss Adelewa Adeniyi, said the scrapping of NECO would affect the majority of students who relied on the organisations certificates.

Thursday, April 4, 2013National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 3

FGll concession Abuja, Lagos stadia Minister

Photo News National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netThursday, April 4, 20134

ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA

The Presidency yes-terday debunked report of purported presidential directive on the former Lagos State gov-ernor and leader of the Ac-tion Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the planned fusion of opposition parties into the All Progressives Congress, APC.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Spe-cial Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.

According to the report, the President allegedly is-sued a directive to implicate Tinubu, get him arrested to frustrate his political ambi-tion.

The report also alleged that the President also di-rected that APC should not be registered.

Abati described the re-port as the handiwork of desperate politicians, who did not mean well for the country or have respect for the office and person of the President.

The special adviser, who

was reacting to a publica-tion in a national newspaper on the purported presiden-tial directive, said: What is being bandied around by a section of the media as a Presidential directive on Tinubu, APC and other mat-ters, is fictitious, designed to mislead the public, discredit the person and office of President Goodluck Jona-than and cause disaffection within the polity.

A careful examination reveals a mishmash of de-liberately arranged and concocted lies, presented to the public as evidence of a document emanating from the Presidency.

This is not only dubious but raises concerns as to the length certain persons will go to perpetuate falsehood for the sake of their selfish ambitions.

Abati said no such direc-tive was ever conceived or was any such directive put forth by Jonathan or his aides.

He said: It is ironic that this is coming at a time when the President is ac-tively engaged in serious discussions with various in-terest groups on how to fur-

ther deepen the democratic experience as well as the key issue of how to build an economically viable federa-tion.

Nigerians should be wary of such tactic of old, one that seeks to undermine a current administration by creatively espousing imagi-nary fault lines, with the aid of fake documents to create doubt, fear and disbelief in the minds of citizens and true patriots.

We unequivocally state that in this case, as in others that may follow the same path, the Goodluck Jona-than administration has no desire to create any in-hibitions to the expression of democratic ideas in the country.

With regards to the imaginary Presidential directive released to hood-wink the general public, the government is confident that the discerning public

is well aware that this pur-ported document is alien to how things are done within this Presidency.

The physical quality of the unsigned document pub-lished today in the Leader-ship newspaper, with jagged and irregular edges (which make a mockery of both presidential correspondenc-es and the quality of atten-tion paid to sensitive issues and development-oriented policies of government)

should signpost the level of desperation by those who seek to mislead the enlight-ened electorate of the Fed-eral Republic.

The publication of this spurious document (which was to all intents and pur-poses hurriedly put togeth-er in a roadside business centre!) and the passing-off of same by some media enti-ties should serve as an index on their credibility and sov-ereign interest.

ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA

The Federal Govern-ment has concluded plans to concession the Abuja and Lagos nation-al stadia as it could no lon-ger fund their maintenance to make them functional and effective.

The Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, who briefed the Federal Execu-tive Council, FEC, on the activities of his ministry, told State House Correspon-dents that the Infrastruc-ture Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, was al-

ready working out the pro-cess of the concession.

According to him, state governments are to take over the maintenance of other national stadia such as the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi, Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Ka-duna and Obafemi Awolo-wo Stadium, Ibadan in Oyo State.

Abdullahi explained that the President had already approved the request of Enugu State Government to take over the stadium in the state while Bauchis request was being considered.

The minister said the Federal Government would encourage Kaduna and Oyo states to also make similar request to take over mainte-nance of the stadia located in the two states.

He said: The Enugu sta-dium has been approved by the President for release to Enugu State Government. The Bauchi State Govern-ment has applied to Mr. President for us to release the Bauchi stadium to the Bauchi State Government.

So, we hope that other state governments will also take over other stadia be-cause it is no longer possible

for the Federal Government to continue to maintain these facilities.

We will now be left with Lagos and Abuja. You will recall that last year, Mr. President set up an inter-ministerial committee to come up with a sustainable plan for managing these two mega sporting struc-tures.

Since then, we have been working with the In-frastructure Concession and Regulatory Commis-sion, ICRC, to come up with the frame work for conces-sioning the facilities to the private sector.

No presidential directive on Tinubu, APC Presidency

L-R: Wife of Lagos State governor, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire and member of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Tayo Oduntan, at a seminar marking the 2013 International Womens Day organised by the state Ministry of Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation, in Lagos, recently.

L-R: Chairman, Oodua Investment, Alhaji Sarafadeeen Abiodun Alli; Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and General Managing Director, Oodua Investment, Mr. Adebayo Jimoh, at the inauguration of the Oodua Hall of Fame and Museum in Ibadan, yesterday.

L-R: Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu; Marketing and Technical Assistance, UNICEM, Mr. Vipul Agrawal and Country Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Cement, Mr. Jean-Christopher Barbant, at the Cement Manufactures Association of Nigeria Forum on Concrete Specifications and Cement Standards in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

L-R: Director, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Oladele Olateju; Managing Director, Premier Medical International, Dr. Kayode Obembe and book reviewer, Dr. Olayinka Ogunbode, at the launch of a book on accidents, emergencies and the pregnant woman in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

National News

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Thursday, April 4, 2013 News

MEND threatens fresh attacks on oil installations

How I lost 5 brothers to Kaduna violence Widow

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali (left) and Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr.Tetsuo Seki (right), at the JICA Advisors team workshop with the Ministry in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

the region were further ag-grieved that the exercise was concluded without due consideration of the inter-ests of the qualified mem-bers of the immediate en-vironment to the oil assets, who bear the horrendous social and environmental burden of oil and gas ex-ploitation and exploration.

Specifically, stakeholders in the region have raised the alarm that Oil Mining Lease 42, currently produc-ing about 12, 000 barrels of crude oil per day (bps), was allocated to one Dr. Ernest Azudialu, from Anambra State. OML 42 is currently in a joint venture opera-tion between the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, a subsid-iary of the Nigerian Na-tional Petroleum Corpora-tion, NNPC, and Neconde Energy Limited owned by Azudialu.

The OML 42 is made up of oil assets in Odidi, Jones Creeks, Batan, Egwa and associated oil fields in the coastal axis of Delta State.

The youths also said that OML 30, Nigerias biggest

production onshore block, which produces about 35,000bpd was allocated to Heritage Oil owned by one Tony Buckingham and Paul Artherton and Shore-line Natural Resources Limited owned by Mr. Kola Kareem from Kwara State. The operators of the two companies were accused of fronting for some northern interests.

The indigenes were fur-ther angered following the revelation that the Federal Governments 55 per cent stake in the asset allocated to NPDC for management was further consigned to Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited owned by one Jide Omokore, in viola-tion of the Public Procure-ment Act 2007.

Omokores company, which was registered with the Corporate Affairs Com-mission, CAC, on July 19, 2010, was preferred by the management of NPDC to the exclusion of some indigenously-owned com-panies endowed with req-uisite technical expertise and sound financial back-ground, they said.

Findings by National Mirror showed that Atlan-tic Energy was considered on a single-sourced pro-curement basis in violation of the extant laws of the Federal Government.

Also, OML 26 had been allocated to a former Minis-ter of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwan Lukman, who hails from Kaduna State. The block, which comprises oil fields from Ogini, Ovo, Aboh and Isoko area of Del-ta State, currently produces about 10,000bpd.

To this end, indigenes of the region under the aegis of Savannah Delta are very restive about the latest de-velopment in the allocation of the oil assets in the area.

The group in a statement made available to our cor-respondent yesterday, said that Jonathan and Allison-Madueke have disappointed the region.

The Savannah Delta, in the statement signed by its leader and Itsekiri top tra-ditional title holder, Chief Ayirimi Emami, said the hopes of the people of Niger Delta for a better deal under Jonathan administration

had been dashed.Emami, a frontline Ni-

ger Delta rights activist and the Akulagba of Warri Kingdom, said: Since the incumbent President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a Niger Deltan, it is rea-sonable for the good people of the region to expect a far better deal from govern-ment vis--vis the critical issues underlying the Niger Delta struggle. Further-more, since the Petroleum Minister appointed by the President, Mrs. Diezani Ali-son-Madueke, is also a Niger Deltan, I believe that it is our God-given right to ex-pect government to speed-ily restructure the Nigerian oil and gas industry in a way that is just and fair to the people of the Niger Del-ta who have borne the hor-rendous social and environ-ment burdens of oil and gas exploration and production in Nigeria. We obviously cannot expect anything less than this.

However, today, to our utmost surprise and dis-may, President Goodluck Jonathan and Hon. Minis-ter Mrs. Diezani Alison-Ma-

dueke have clearly decided to be completely unfair to the good people of the Niger Delta in their programme to restructure the most im-portant segment of the na-tions economy.

To be very clear, the opening-up of participatory and ownership access to lo-cal players in the nations upstream oil and gas assets is totally unacceptable when the definition of local play-ers is construed to exclude indigenous players. How in the name of God Almighty can President Jonathan and Alison-Madueke decide that only non-indigenous local players should be given par-ticipatory and ownership access to national upstream oil and gas assets being cur-rently restructured? In fact, should it not be the case that, in the spirit of fairness and justice, that indigenous players should be given the right of first refusal over these assets?

Emami added: That in-digenous players are being deliberately denied partici-patory and ownership ac-cess to the upstream assets being restructured is true.

For the avoidance of doubt, the same discriminatory ap-proach towards indigenous players was played out on all the assets restructured so far under President Jona-than and Alison-Madueke.

I am therefore calling on Mr. President to realise that the right of first refus-al on the upstream oil and gas assets being restruc-tured under his adminis-tration is a fundamental right of the host communi-ties of such assets. I call on Mr. President to urgently mandate full redress on all such restructured assets where this fundamental right of the Niger Delta peo-ple has been breached. I call on Mr. President to accept that granting privileged participatory and owner-ship access to indigenous players vis--vis the oil blocks being presently re-acquired is a far more fun-dament call of justice than the need for him to find ways and means to ensure the reflection of the federal character in the number of blocks owned by Nigerians before the inception of his administration.

cording to official sources while the victims have been given a mass burial.

The widow, who is one of the displaced people taking shelter at Model Primary School, Fadan Attakar, said government must bring the perpetra-tors of the dastardly act to book.

She said: My five brothers were killed by the attackers. I am left with nobody now. My hus-

band died in a mysteri-ous way. There is nobody to farm for me at my age and no food to feed my two children.

Fadan Attakar in Kaura, which shares a boundary with Plateau State and is about 320 kilo-metres from Kaduna city, became a Mecca of sorts, as people have continued to troop in to condole with the residents under tight security.

The paramount ruler

of Takad Chiefdom, Mr. Tobias Nkom Wada, dis-closed the new casualty figure when members of the House of Representa-tives from Southern Kadu-na made an on-the-spot-as-sessment visit to the area.

The paramount ruler, who called on security agencies to dislodge the attackers still on the hills, appealed to the govern-ment to immediately re-habilitate the displaced people.

He said: About 2a.m. on Saturday, armed Fulani herdsmen launched an attack on the villages on the hills; the place is our ancestral homes. They killed 28 people; we held mass burial for the dead on top of the hills on Tuesday.

Three churches, 200 houses were burnt. I dont have any commu-nity on the hills again be-cause Fulani who killed our people are still hiding

there with weapons. I am appealing to government and the National Assem-bly to find urgent way for my people to go back to our ancestral homes.

Hon. Gideon Gwani and Hon. Godfrey Gaiya, who spoke on behalf of other members of the House of Representa-tives from the Southern Kaduna, said the constit-uents rights to life as en-shrined in the constitu-tion must be guaranteed.

The lawmakers, how-ever, called on the peo-ple to remain calm and peaceful despite the at-tack.

Meanwhile, a Non-Governmental Organ-isation, NGO, Centre for Development and Rights Advocacy, CEDRA, has raised the alarm over the genocide going in South-ern Kaduna.

CEDRA called on the United Nations to in-tervene immediately to avoid a repeat of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

In a statement signed Dr. John Danfulani, the group urged the Kaduna State Government to ur-

gently prepare a robust resettlement action plan for the displaced people in refugee camps.

The statement reads in part: From the fore-going, it is clear that the Federal Government, se-curity agencies and Ka-duna State Government are playing politics with the security situation at hand, thereby the laxity and non-cogent security measures in the areas. All these are pointers that there are forces hell bent in committing geno-cide against the people, and have unknown back-ers arming them with sophisticated weapons to carry out their evil acts with impunity without any counter-actions by security agencies.

There are about 5,000 persons comprising old men and women, chil-dren and young men and women scattered in other parts of Southern Ka-duna as refugees in their own land, owing to the choice of blood thirsty group of killers invading villages and carrying out gradual genocide.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 News Thursday, April 4, 2013

Former Head of State, Generals Abdulsalami Abubakar, signing a condolence register in honour of the late literary giant, Prof. Chi-nua Achebe, at the Nigerian High Commission in London, yesterday.

UDEME AKPAN

The Federal Govern-ment has established transitional commit-tees to complete the pri-vatisation of the nations electricity generation com-panies, GENCOs and distri-bution companies, DISCOs.

This is in compliance with Share Sale Purchase Agreement (SSPA) ap-proved by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) transitional commit-tees for the 15 Power Hold-ing Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor firms, whose preferred bidders have paid 25 per cent of the bid value have been consti-tuted.

The committees were inaugurated yesterday by the Chairman of the NCP Technical Committee, Mr. Atedo Peterside.

Earlier, the Acting Di-rector- General of the Bu-reau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki, explained that each successor company had a three-member committee.

The members are each from the BPE, the man-agement of the successor company and the preferred bidder. The BPE nominee is the chairman of each com-mittee.

According to Dikki, BPE and the new owners have a mutual interest in ensuring the companies operate in a way so as to maintain the

FG sets up committees to complete privatisation of GENCOs, DISCOs

No Plan to turn National Theatre to hotel FG Power outage likely as gas plant shuts down for maintenanceCHIDI UGWU ABUJA

Lagos State and its environs may expe-rience three days disruption in electricity supply following a sched-uled gas maintenance exercise at the Chevron Escravos Gas Plant from April 5 to 7, 2013.

The Presidential Task Force on Power (PTFP) said it is coordinating with Chevron, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC)/NNPC and the Transmis-sion Company of Nigeria (TCN) to ensure minimal power supply disruption.

In a statement, the Se-nior Performance Monitor, Media and Communica-tions Unit, Awele Okigbo, quoted Chairman of the PTFP, Mr. Beks Dagogo-Jack, as saying that the

outage would take about 800 megawatts out of ser-vice during the three day period.

It added that the out-age is also inclusive of the Shell Afam VI scheduled maintenance which con-tributes about 200 mega-watts to the power short-fall.

The PTFP is coordi-nating with the relevant project owners to further mitigate the effect of the expected power short-fall, the statement said.

Dagogo-Jack likened the maintenance exercise to the periodic servicing of a vehicle.

In order to get the desired level of service reliability even basic ma-chines like our cars must be maintained at deter-mined intervals not to talk of power plants he said.

TERH AGBEDEH

The Federal Govern-ment has denied plans to turn the National Theatre to a five-star hotel.

Minister of Tourism, Cul-ture and National Orienta-tion, Mr. Edem Duke, made this known when he spoke to our correspondent on tele-phone yesterday.

The minister said the letters sent to agencies and parastatals which have offic-es at the edifice were meant to inform them about the decision to implement the National Theatre Master Plan, which was originally designed to include a hotel.

Duke said that he had held meetings with the heads of the agencies and parastat-als over the issue.

He said: This is only a temporary relocation so that

work can commence on the National Theatre Master Plan and we are only at the technical stage of revamp-ing the edifice so that work can commence.

The minister said the ser-vice of a technical adviser had been sought, whose name would be made public in due course and that the Federal Ministry of Works had been asked to provide alternative accommodation for the affected agencies.

However, the Chief Ex-ecutive Officer (CEO) of the National Dance Troupe, Martin Adaji, who receipt of the letter, said he was not part of the meeting.

He said: I got the letter and responded to it, but I have not gotten a reply. My response was that I was not part of the meeting, neither was I privy to the relocation site, which they must have

discussed at the meeting in which I was not present.

He said that if he has an alternative location, he would move. Adaji, who said his artistes were at the moment in camp, explained he is still waiting for a reply from the minister and is yet to receive it.

He said: I dont have a place to move to and I have artistes who are in camp and we have a joint decree with the National Theatre. I dont know if the National Theatre got the same letter, I dont know which other agency got the same letter. So, I am still waiting for his reply.

However, a stakeholder, Prof. Femi Osofisan, de-scribed the alleged plan to turn the National Theatre to a hotel as a severe blow to the nations cultural develop-ment.

He recalled that the art

community rose against the planned balkanisation of the edifice in the past, adding that the same thing would happen now if attempt is made to turn it to a hotel.

Osifisan said: It is the only National Theatre we have and somebody is think-ing of turning it into a hotel. At the same time, they are even talking of building one in Calabar. Meanwhile, the one in Abuja has not even been built. The land is there, the plan has been drawn, just ready to be done and they didnt even talk about that. Suddenly I am hearing of turning the place into a ho-tel.

It is absolute rubbish as far as I am concerned. What is the logic behind it? It is the only national theatre we have. At the last playwright confab which I convened in Ife, people are even asking for more theatres and that even local government coun-cils should be mandated to build a theatre each.

value of the company dur-ing the transition period.

He added that the transi-tion period could be within a month or a maximum of six months depending on full payment. Transitional arrangements will allow a platform to ensure that both the companies and purchasers are ready for the handover process.

He emphasised that the managements and boards of the successor companies will continue to exercise their functions during the transition period without interference from the tran-sitional committees.

The transition commit-tees are expected to facili-tate the smooth transition and eventual handover of the management and op-erational control of the successor companies to the purchasers.

They are expected to al-low purchasers access to the companies in order to prepare for the implemen-tation of their business plans laid out in the propos-als submitted to the Bureau of Public Enterprises.

The transmission com-mittees are also to provide a forum for purchasers to engage with existing man-

agement and employees to ensure a smooth transition and handover; and allow BPE and the purchasers to monitor the on-going opera-tions of the company to en-sure they are operating in an efficient manner and in compliance with the terms of the Share Sale Agree-ments.

It would be recalled that Share Sale Agreements were executed between the preferred bidders and BPE on February 21, 2013.

With the signing of the agreement, the stage is now set for the handing over of the Discos and the Gencos

to the preferred bidders fol-lowing the down payment of 25 per cent of the share purchase price within 15 business days after signing and the payment of the out-standing 75 per cent within 90 working days after the signing.

The preferred bidders for the Discos as approved by the NCP are Kann Consor-tium for Abuja Distribution Company at $164m; Vigeo Power Consortium for Be-nin at $129m; West Power & Gas for Eko at $135m; Inter-state Electrics Limited for Enugu at $126m; Integrated Energy for Ibadan at $169m;

NEDC/ KEPCO for Ikeja at $131m; Aura Energy Ltd for Jos at $82m; Sahelian Power SPV Ltd for Kano at $137m; 4Power Consortium for Port Harcourt at $124m and Integrated Energy Dis-tribution and Marketing for Yola at $59m.

For Gencos, the pre-ferred bidders include Am-perion for Geregu Plant at $132m; Mainstream for Kainji Plant at $50.76m with commencement fee of $237,870,000; North-South for Shiroro Plant at $23.60m with commencement fee of $111m; Transcorp/Wood-work for Ughelli Plant at $300m and CMEC/Eurafric for Sapele Plant at $201m.

The BPE had last year signed a $23m Management Contract Agreement with Manitoba Hydro of Canada for the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria for an initial period of three years.

In 2005, the Federal Gov-ernment commenced the process of reforming the power sector with the en-actment of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act, which paved the way for the privatisation of the PHCN successor companies.

At the beginning of the privatisation of the Discos and Gencos in 2011, the Bu-reau of Public Enterprises, BPE, received 301 Expres-sion of interests (EOIs) and later shortlisted 207 firms that met the minimum qualification standards set.

Well resist such move, artistes kick

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Thursday, April 4, 2013News

NSCDC rescues 32 teenage pregnant girls

Suspected armed robbers, transformer vandals arrested

L-R: Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi; Mrs. HID Awolowo and the eldest surviving daughter of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mrs. Tola Oyediran (right), during the governors condolence visit to the Awolowos over the demise of Chief Oluwole Awolowo at Ikenne in Ogun State, yesterday.

Policeman, terrorist killed in another gun battle

Ex-NITEL MDs, union members blast El-Rufai over Pentascope deal KUNLE AZEEZ

Some former chief ex-ecutives, union mem-bers and retirees of failed national carrier, the Nigeria Telecommunica-tions Limited, NITEL, have asked the Federal Govern-ment to hold the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Nasir El-Rufai, responsible for the organisations collapse.

They said that the ap-pointment of Pentascope, a little known Dutch com-pany, to take over NITELs management in 2000 by the Bureau of Public En-terprises, BPE, during El-Rufais tenure as direc-tor-general was the cause of NITELs death and dis-missed attempts by the former minister in a new book to pin the blame on former Vice-President Ati-ku Abubakar.

A former Managing Di-rector of MTEL, NITELs GSM subsidiary, Mr. Kunle Bello, said yesterday that he foresaw the collapse of NITEL/MTEL due to in-sincere and inconsistent implementation of policies

by the El-Rufai-led BPE. Bello, who said he vol-

untarily resigned, de-scribed the Pentascope management brought in by El-Rufai as a disaster for the company and the staff, who have been dying one after another due to non-payment of pensions.

Bello, an ITU telecom-munications expert said Pentascope squandered more than N100 billion of NITELs hard-earned money, besides the loss of revenue without adding a single telephone line.

He challenged the na-tions judicial and execu-tive arms of government to rise to the occasion to acquaint themselves of blame by going after the perpetrators of the fraud.

The former workers also said in a statement issued yesterday that the claim in a widely-circulated state-ment by El-Rufai that for-mer Vice-President Atiku Abubakar approved the ap-pointment of Pentascope, the failed management consultant hired to man-age NITEL in 2003, was false.

The former workers, who said they held El-

Rufai responsible not only for the collapse of NITEL, but also the destruction of their careers, said the is-sue at stake is beyond the debate of who signed and who did not sign.

The issue is who issued or originated the memo-randum to the National Council on Privatisation, NCP? How did El-Rufai, as BPE director-general pick Pentascope to manage NI-TEL?

The retirees accused El-Rufai of misleading, not only the NCP, but the Federal Government by presenting Pentascope as a capable management company that could turn NITEL around.

The retirees went on to say that the true story of the destruction of their national carrier has been revealed in two reports by the House of Representa-tives and the Senate.

Quoting from the re-port, the retirees said that; Rather than using Atiku as scapegoat for the col-lapse of NITEL to serve his hidden agenda, the concerned group of former NITEL workers advised El-Rufai to be honourable

AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO

In yet another gun battle that raged for hours in Kano yesterday be-tween men of the military Joint Task Force, JTF, and suspected Boko Haram members, two persons were killed, while one terrorist was arrested in the opera-tion.

One of the victims was a

police officer attached to the JTF while the other was a Boko Haram member.

As part of efforts to free Kano from the grip of the terrorists, the JTF opera-tives have intensified the their raids lately on suspect-ed hideouts of the extrem-ists.

It was gathered that in their recent raids, the JTF stormed Gwammaja, Yan-dabai and Yankaba, where

three police officers, includ-ing an Inspector, all attached to Bompai Police Division, were killed on Monday night inside a restaurant.

It was further gathered that this murderous activity of the sect informed yester-days raid in Yankaba by the JTF.

Our correspondent re-ports that sporadic gun shots rented the air for the greater part of yesterday

morning as the JTF cor-doned off the Yankaba Mar-ket area, ostensibly to en-hance their house-to-house search for possible suspects and weapons.

JTF spokesman, Captain Iwedichi Iweha, said one terrorist was killed while another was arrested.

The state Commissioner of Police, Musa Daura, said the command lost an offi-cer attached to the JTF.

GEORGE OPARAABIA

Operatives of the Ni-geria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NCSDC, have rescued 32 pregnant teenagers from a maternity home where victims are induced to sell their babies after delivery.

NSCDC Public Rela-tions Officer, Abia State Command, Mr. Victor Og-bonna, who paraded the victims before journalists yesterday in Umuahia, said the maternity, named Chigaemezue Care Centre, was uncovered at Umuzuo, Osisioma in Abia State.

Ogbonna said the owner of the centre, one Mrs. Nnenna Mba, and two men, Mba Agbai and Chinwoke Mba, who aid and abet the crime, were equally apprehended by the NSCDC team who act-ed on a tip-off.

According to the image maker of the command, the arrest was made in the early hours of Tuesday, April 2, at Umuzuo com-munity while the teenag-ers and the owner of the home were around.

He said intelligent gathering by the NSCDC revealed that the victims were induced to sell a ba-by-boy for N100, 000 while a baby-girl goes for N80, 000.

More investigations conducted showed that the owner of the maternity

thereafter resells a baby-boy for N450, 000 while a ba-by-girl goes for N400, 000, he said.

Ogbonna told reporters that findings by NSCDC showed that the home was established in 2009, but got registered with the state government in 2012.

Despite its registration with government, inves-tigations by our men re-vealed that the owner hides under the registration to commit evil because some of the victims made con-fessional statements on the illegalities taking place there, he said.

He said that more inves-tigations were on-going in the matter, noting that re-lations of the victims are being contacted to re-unite them with their people.

Mrs. Mba, the owner of the home, who spoke with reporters, denied claims that she victims were in-duced to sell their babies to child-less families.

She said rather, the cen-tre officially registered with the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, assist teenag-ers who got pregnant and are finding things difficult.

Chinwoke Mba, one of the men arrested claimed he was a member of Abia State Vigilance Service de-ployed to the centre official-ly, noting that the NSCDC officials overpowered him before the arrest.

ADEOLU ADEYEMOOSOGBO

Two suspected armed robbers and three vandals have been ar-rested by the Osun State Po-lice Command for robbery and stealing of transformer cables belonging to the Power Holding Company of Nige-ria, PHCN, in the state.

The suspects, who are now being interrogated at the criminal department of the command, were said to have been in the nefarious act a long time ago before nemesis caught up with them.

Speaking on the arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mrs. Folas-hade Odoro, in a statement made available to journalists yesterday, said that the sus-pects; Badesomo Folorunsho and Olumide Ekuoyeomo, were the ones terrorising the

inhabitants of Ayecooker village and Garage Olode in Ife South Local Government Area of the state while the transformer vandals, Akin-sola Wale, 21; Suraju Rilwan, 20, and John also fond of dis-turbing the peace of people living in Ilesa and environs.

Odoro said the police was able to arrest them following a tip-off from members of the public and charged them to maintain the tempo.

She pointed out that; Seven exhibits including one hack saw, four round spanners, one flat spanner, nine pieces of razor blades, eight transformer cables, one unregistered day long motor-cycle and two pieces of trans-former cable insulators were recovered from the suspects and they are all residents of Ibadan, Oyo State. In fact they are known for transformer cable vandalism.

enough to accept responsi-bility for rail-roading and blackmailing the former NITEL board and the pri-vatisation council into ap-proving a contract that had short-changed Nigerians and children yet unborn.

Meanwhile, a former Managing Director of NI-TEL, Prof. Buba Bajoga, who agreed to speak on re-cord, described the destruc-tion of NITEL as very painful.

He said by the time he left the organisation as its head in 2000, NITEL was a very viable commercial or-ganisation.

We approved the pay-ment of dividends to gov-ernment and I remember that I left N15 billion and $200 million in the coffers of the organisation, he said.

Bajoga said NITEL made more profit than most banks. We paid all our bills and were financing all our projects, he added.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net10 Thursday, April 4, 2013South West

L-R: Chairman, Abeokuta North Local Government Council, Hon. Taofeek Olabode; chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Chief (Mrs.) Iyabode Anisulowo; Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun and Chairman, state chapter of the ACN, Alhaji Tajudeen Bello, at the partys membership re-validation exercise in Abeokuta, on Tuesday.

Lagos transfuses 90,788 units of blood in fi ve yearsMURITALA AYINLA

No fewer than 90, 788 units of blood have been trans-fused into patients in public hospitals in Lagos State in the last five years, state Blood Transfusion Committee has said.

According to the statis-tics released at the opening ceremony of the Strategic Planning Workshop or-ganised by the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Com-mittee, LSBTC, between 2008 and 2012, 90, 788 units of blood were used up by all public hospitals in La-gos for patients that needed blood transfusion.

The workshop, which was held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCC1, Ikeja, Lagos, also showed that out of the 423, 893 pints of blood received and screened by the LSBTC between 2005 and January and February 2013; 4, 840 of them were found to be HIV infested; 8, 830 have Hepa-titis B; 3, 418 units contain Syphilis, while 393, 165 units of blood were certi-fied okay for use by public and private hospitals.

Speaking at the open-

ing ceremony, Chairman, LSBTC, Dr. Adetoun Agbe-Davies, said the state has less than 10 percent blood transfused from voluntary donation, different from the target of 100 percent.

Her words: We still have less than 10 percent of blood transfused in the state coming from volun-tary blood donors. This is far from the 100 percent tar-get set by the World Health Organisation, WHO, for the whole world to achieve by 2020. We have engaged the services of consul-tants to assist and guide us through the processes.

We should therefore focus our attention on for-mulating a robust plan that we can implement in the next few years - be it three or five years.

In his remark, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, lauded the steady increase in re-sponse to voluntary blood donation in the last nine years, saying the number of donors started from less than 500 blood donors in 2005 to more than 3, 000 in 2012.

Idris, who was repre-sented by the Permanent

Ekiti raps pregnant women, mothers on medicare

Soyinka, Ishola task Yoruba on preservation of culture

LAUTECH acquires eight dialysis machines

ABIODUN NEJOADO EKITI

Pregnant women and nursing mothers in Ekiti State have been urged to patronise public health institutions in the state to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.

State Health Commis-sioner, Prof. Olusola Fa-subaa, said the benefits of antenatal and postnatal care in government hospi-tals cannot be over empha-sised for the health of the citizens.

Fasubaa, who spoke yesterday at a media brief-ing marking the beginning of the seventh Free Health Mission of Governor Kayode Fayemi, appealed to people of the state to patronise the 35 primary health centres in the state for access to healthcare de-livery, particularly in the rural areas.

The commissioner said the state government was committing enormous resources into primary

health centres and the health sector in the state in view of the commit-ment of the Fayemi ad-ministration to healthcare delivery.

He said the seventh free health mission that would be executed statewide in collaboration with mem-bers of the state House of Assembly would gulp N70 million.

Fasubaa said that pa-tronage of the primary and secondary healthcare

delivery centres would re-duce unnecessary pressure on the Ekiti State Universi-ty Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.

The commissioner de-scribed the health inter-vention scheme as cost effective health services targeted at making medi-care available to all the citizens of the state, saying such opportunity, if well explored, had the tendency to increase the life expec-tancies of the people.

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and foremost writer, Prof. Akinwunmi Ishola, yesterday called on stake-holders in Yorubaland to be more committed to the preservation of Yoruba cul-ture, language and monu-ments.

They made the call in separate addresses at the inauguration of Odua Hall of Fame and Museum at Cocoa House, Ibadan, or-ganised by the Odua Invest-ment Company Limited.

Soyinka, who was the special guest of honour on the occasion, said things

went wrong at some point for the Yoruba as well as the entire country with the neglect of the peoples heri-tage and monuments.

While describing Odudu-wa as the generic father of the Yoruba nation, he said; There is need to right the wrongs. With this initiative (hall and museum), I see the beginning of Yoruba tech-nology. I am happy that ap-peal had been made earlier on the need to develop our culture.

However, there is one negative aspect, not just Ibadan, not just the South-West, but the country and its institutions just went into downward spin, includ-

ing the premier university, the University of Ibadan.

This cooperative build-ing (Cocoa House) was a vic-tim of deterioration simply because the normal facili-ties that were in place at inception had decayed. Co-coa House could not safe itself.

But what I have seen today shows that things are being brought into proper shape. We can say that Cocoa House is the contemporary Opa Oran-yan of the Yorubas.

I, therefore, congratu-late Odua Investment for resuscitating and re-invig-orating what is so essential to us as a people.

Ishola said there should be attempt at promoting the culture of Omoluabi as such shows that a child must differentiate between right and wrong.

His words: The idea be-hind setting up the hall of fame and museum is good. But what will help our cul-ture is the preservation and promotion of Yoruba language so that the young-er generation can imbibe the culture of Omoluabi.

Odua must find a way of teaching the younger generation the Yoruba lan-guage. Let writers write folktales and short stories that could be developed into cartoon.

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Determined to raise the standard of the teaching hospital of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, the Oyo and Osun State gov-ernments have acquired eight haemo-dialysis ma-chines to boost the hospitals infrastructural facilities.

A Consultant Nephrolo-gist at the institution, Dr. Edward Ayodele, who made the disclosure in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan yesterday, said six of the machines will be made available to patients suffer-ing from HIV negative and Hepatitis, while two will be made available to HIV/Hepatitis B Surface Anti-gen positive patients.

The increase in the number of the heamo-dialysis machines, which is about the highest in any hospital in the South-West, would improve the quality of life of the people suffering from serious illnesses, par-ticularly those with kidney

failure, HIV/AIDS amongst others, he stated.

It will be recalled that the teaching hospital, which was constructed and inaugurat-ed by the administration of Otunba Adebayo Alao-Aka-la, cost the Oyo State govern-ment then about N24billion.

Reacting to the develop-ment, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Ogbomoso, Rev. John Adetutu, who said he was always going to the teaching hospital to as-sess its development, said that the procurement and installation of the equip-ment were most welcome to the people of the com-munity.

His words: I am happy about the procurement and installation of the eight di-alysis machines at LAUT-ECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso. The community will now be better for it. It is what we have wanted for years, and thank God for its establishment by the last administration of Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala. I thank whoever is in charge of the running of this teaching hospital.

Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Femi Olugbile, added that the state gov-ernment is committed to ensuring that blood trans-fused in Lagos State is safe at all times and supply is adequate, by supporting the drive for voluntary donation, screening and quality assurance in pro-cessing.

He explained that there had been a satisfactory level of compliance with both private and public blood banks in issuing out blood certified by La-gos State as well as with hospitals transfusing only blood certified by the state.

His words: The blood transfusion service start-

ed with the screening of 35, 000 units of blood in 2005 which has pro-gressively increased to over 60, 000 in 2012. The state government is com-mitted to ensuring that blood transfused in Lagos State is safe at all times and supply is adequate, by supporting the drive for voluntary donation, screening and quality as-surance in processing.

The objective of the workshop was to consoli-date the progress so far, identify challenges and gaps and make plans on the way forward. The last strategic plan has now ex-pired and the committee is ready to review how much of the previous plan was implemented, identify the constraints and deliberate on further plans, he ex-plained.

Says 4, 840 blood pints HIV infested

ABIODUN NEJOADO EKITI

Indications emerged yesterday that the Ekiti State Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Jide Awe, has been whisked to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for interrogation over his role in the killing of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member, Mr. Ayo Jeje.

Jeje was allegedly killed last Saturday by some sus-pected ACN supporters at Erinjiyan-Ekiti.

Awe was said to have been whisked to Abuja at about 5:am yesterday on

the order of the Police In-spector-General (IGP), Alh-aji Mohammed Abubakar.

He was initially de-tained at the state police command on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti after he was quizzed on the matter by the Commissioner of Po-lice, Mr Sotonye Wakama.

PDP had accused Awe of complicity in the mur-der of Jeje, a former ACN member, who was to de-fect to the party alongside many others on Sunday.

ACN Publicity Sec-retary, Prince Tunde Adeleke, who confirmed that Awe was invited to the Force Headquarters

for fact-finding, disagreed that the party leader was detained.

Adeleke said: Awe is not a criminal and no case has been established against him, so why must he be detained by the po-lice? There is no iota of truth in the rumour that Awe was detained before being taken to Abuja.

It was true that our chairman was invited to Abuja and the invitation was just for fact-finding over the Erinjiyan issue. He was neither arrested nor harassed as being ped-dled around by the PDP. The invitation is normal

under this circumstance.But the Ekiti State po-

lice spokesman, Mr. Victor Babayemi Olu, told jour-nalists on phone that Awe was invited on Tuesday and was allowed to go after interrogation.

The spokesman, who said he could not confirm whether or not the ACN chairman had been in-vited by the Force Head-quarters, added: Chief Jide Awe is a Nigerian and I think if Abuja has some-thing to confirm from him, he can be invited.

This was even as for-mer Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose accused the ACN-led government of mounting pressure on the police to sweep the kill-ing under the carpet.

HAKEEM GBADAMOSIAKURE

Nigerian women have been advised not to see cervical cancer as a death sentence.

The advice was given by the President of the Ma-ternal Pulse Foundation and the wife of Ondo State Governor, Mrs Olukemi Mimiko, during the screen-ing of about 200 women for the disease under the Wom-en Health exercise put to-gether by the Foundation.

Urging women to always go for periodic screening, Mrs. Mimiko lamented that failure to embrace it had led to lose prominent women whose death could be prevented if the disease was detected early.

She said that of the 10

women under the care of the Foundation, eight had died of complications aris-ing from cancer.

Mrs. Mimiko said: Efforts should be geared towards en-suring that the disease is de-tected at the early stage.

She, however, said the screening was part of her promise made during the 2013 World Cancer Day cele-bration, which was aimed to-ward saving lives of women.

She said: "Cervical can-cer should not be treated as death sentence, we should create awareness on regu-lar screening, our women should make full health screening as a birthday gift, if detected early, cervi-cal cancer can be managed, through this we will be able to know what goes on in our body."

Ogun State Gover-nor Ibikunle Amo-sun has urged members of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state to ful-ly participate in efforts aimed at integrating the party into the All Progres-sives Congress (APC).

The governor spoke on

Tuesday after re-validating his ACN membership at the Gateway Secondary School at Ita Iyalode in Abeokuta North Local Government Area after which he was issued with a member-ship card number 264810 by the party's Ward Chair-man, Prince Adetunji Ade-bowale.

The exercise was con-ducted simultaneously in the 236 wards and 20 local government areas of the state in accordance with a directive of the ACN na-tional leadership.

The governor said: The exercise will afford members to have a ready-made data as ACN gets

ready for merger with some other opposition par-ties of like minds to form the All Progressive Con-gress (APC).

He also said the exercise would reveal the numerical strength of ACN, urging members to support the merger plan in the interest of all.

HAKEEM GBADAMOSIAKURE

A pregnant woman was allegedly shot dead by a police-man on Tuesday evening in Akure, the Ondo State capi-tal.

The incident occurred at about 6:00pm when the po-liceman, who was attached to the Ijapo Police Post, de-

manded a N20 bribe from a commercial motorist.

According to an eye wit-ness, the driver, who was on his way to Akoko area of the state in a Nissan Almera car marked: Ondo KAA 80 AAA, objected to the policemans demand.

It was gathered that the policeman was infuriated by the drivers refusal to give him the N20 bribe.

The policeman subse-quently cocked his gun and released a shot which pierced through the wind screen and hit the pregnant woman sitting in the front of the car.

The woman died immedi-ately before any help could reach her.

The policeman was, how-ever, aided by his colleagues to flee the scene when they

discovered that youths have gathered to protest the kill-ing.

The angry youths mobil-ised and moved to the Ijapo Police Post to demand the re-lease of the suspect to them.

They also barricaded the road leading to the station.

Stern looking anti-riot policemen, however, fired several shots into the air to scare away the angry youths.

Ekiti killing: ACN chair whisked to Force Headquarters

Cancer: Women asked to embrace regular screening

Fayose accuses govt of frustrating investigationEx-governor lied Commissioner

APC: Amosun mobilises party members for merger

Policeman kills pregnant woman over N20 bribe

L-R: Secretary to the Government of Ekiti State, Alhaji Ganiyu Owolabi; Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Yemi Adaramodu; his wife, Toyin; wife of the SSG, Dupe, and National President, Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, Alhaji Lateef Okunnu (SAN), during a presentation of National Merit Award to Owolabi at the 7th triennial conference of the society in Osogbo, yesterday.

Fayose, who called on the IGP to ensure proper investigation into the matter was conducted, also asked the state police commissioner to resist at-tempts to frustrate the is-sue.

The former governor told journalists at his Afao-Ekiti residence yes-terday that the spate of killings perpetrated by ACN supporters was wor-risome, adding: More disturbing is the impunity with which they carry out these dastardly acts.

Fayose said: We are telling the IGP to do some-thing about killings in Eki-ti State. Something is fun-damentally wrong here. A state of anarchy may be created here if the Police High Command does not do something urgently.

The killings perpetrat-ed by ACN supporters are evidence that the Fayemi government has failed. If not, why should they be killing when they are in government?

The former governor asked the police to make public the outcome of the investigation conducted by the Deputy Inspector Gen-eral of Police (DIG) on the series of attacks launched against his campaign train last year November and other reported cases of murder in the state.

But the Commissioner for Information, Mr Tayo Ekundayo, said Fayoses allegations were figment

of his imagination, saying the government was not frustrating the police over investigations into the Er-injiyan killing.

Ekundayo, who said Fayemi would not aid nor abet criminality under any guise, said the ACN would come out with its position on the alleged indictment of some of his members in the Erinjiyan killing.

He said: Killing is a grievous offence and Fay-emi frowns at it. So, we are appealing to the commis-sioner of police to investi-gate the matter thoroughly and in most professional way and bring the culprits to book.

Meanwhile, a member of the House of Represen-tatives, Hon Oyetunde Ojo, has accused PDP of using the federal might to op-press members of the rul-ing ACN on the killing.

Ojo, who described the arrest of ACN chairman as oppression, said: ACN knows nothing about the Erinjiyan killing. It is dis-heartening that our chair-man was arrested by the police. No member of the PDP has been invited by the police since they start-ed investigation.

"Chief Jide Awe was invited by the police on Tuesday because he is a chief in the town. I learnt that he was arrested by policemen this morning (Wednesday) and whisked away to an unknown des-tination.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11South WestThursday, April 4, 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netSouth East12 Thursday, April 4, 2013

CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI

Opinion leaders in the South-East have called on the Federal Government to immediately end the killings in the North or the Igbo would resort to self help.

The leaders said this while reacting to the threat by the leader of the Move-ment for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Bi-afra, MASSOB, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, to declare war on the North over the killing of Igbo during a bomb attack on a Lagos-bound luxury bus in Kano by terrorists.

They said since the Feder-al Government had remained indifferent to the killings, the Igbo had no option but to de-

fend themselves.Speaking with our cor-

respondent yesterday, the President-General of Igbo-zurume, Col. Joe Achuzie (rtd), said while MASSOB could not represent the opin-ion of the Igbo, the North should know that there were active and radical groups in the South-East ready to protect the interest of the region.

The former Biafran war-lord, however, said issues like this should be resolved in a civilised manner.

He said: But that will not give right to groups that are uncivilised to continue killing people as if they are slaughtering animals. That

we cannot take any longer.If this killing does not

stop we may react. But we are appealing to government to do something fast to stop this senseless massacre of innocent people.

It should stop because when we react, we may react foolishly, but we are not fool-ish that is why we want them to resolve the matter quickly.

We are not going to run away from the North just be-cause some people engaged themselves in senseless kill-ings of others, but we are ready to defend ourselves be-cause Nigeria is our country which we built together.

Also speaking, the for-mer President General of

Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Dozie Ikedife, said the killing of Ndigbo is a serious in-dictment on the government. It is disturbing that ones safety is not guaranteed in his country.

Ikedife said the prediction that 2015 would be bloody was gradually becoming a reality.

He said: There is nothing strong to show that the issue is abating, no condemnation on the side of the govern-ment, no arrest; this does not look right.

In his own reaction, for-mer Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemka Ezeife, regretted that the at-tack was targeted only at

Boko Haram: Well defend ourselves Igbo

CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI

The Campaign for Democracy, CD, has raised the alarm over the mismanagement of the Subsidy Re-invest-ment Programme, SURE-P, funds in the South-East.

The South-East CD said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Dede Uzor Uzor, and Secretary, Dr. Jerry

Chukwuokolo, that there was serious unemployment challenge, which the funds ought to have tackled.

The group observed in the statement issued yester-day that the funds were well utilised in South-West, but alleged that the South-East governors were diverting the funds.

The statement reads in part: Currently now in Ondo, Osun and Lagos,

their various governments had employed 3,000 youths with the money released for the states. But it is very sad that up till now, South-East governors have not made any move to start the programme and spreading its benefits to her people, after collecting their own share of the money from the Federal Government.

CD also blamed the high rate of crime on the

prevailing rate of unem-ployment and zero human capital development in the zone.

It, however, issued a 14-day ultimatum to South-East governors to do some-thing urgent about the programme.

CD said failure to do this it might drag the gov-ernors and their chairman to the National Industrial Court.

OBIORA IFOHABUJA

The Nigerian Gover-nors Forum State Peer Review Mecha-nism, SPRM, has commend-ed the Governor Peter Obi for curbing kidnapping and ritual killings in Anambra State since he assumed of-fice.

The SPRM also identified the State Peer Review as a

significant process for driv-ing development for the ben-efit of the electorate.

The SPRM National Co-ordinator, Dr. Afeikhena Jerome, told journalists in Abuja yesterday that Obi was an ardent believer in the development process and had embraced the mecha-nism.

He said: The turbulent crisis that characterised Anambra State seems to

have abated following the second reinstatement of Governor Peter Obi in 2007.

Jerome attributed the governors success to his ef-fort at creating an enabling environment for commercial and industrial activities in the state.

The coordinator said the right step taken by the state government attracted for-eign direct investments and encouraged the indigenes

to embrace more profitable ventures.

He said Obis administra-tion had not only supported the process, but was also committed financially to-wards promoting its applica-tion in good governance.

The coordinator com-mended Obis pioneering ef-forts, saying that the priority accorded the process now fol-lowed the initial move by the governor.

CHRIS NJOKUOWERRI

Commercial drivers in Owerri, the Imo State capital, have threat-ened to shut socio-economic activities in the town to pro-test constant police harass-ment and extortion at new checkpoints across the state.

The drivers called on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to prevail on the state Com-missioner of Police, Musa Mohammed Katsina, to dismantle all illegal police checkpoints in major cities and highways in the state.

They alleged that the po-lice in the state had reintro-duced roadblocks against the order of the IG, which abolished checkpoints across the country.

According to them, they are forced to pay toll ranging from N50 to N100 at the dif-ferent checkpoints that are

particularly seen between 6am and 7pm.

Speaking with our corre-spondent, a man, who iden-tified himself as Chief In-nocent Nwaneri, said: The police roadblocks are fully back in the state. They force motorists, including tricycle drivers, to pay toll at all the checkpoints in the state capi-tal and on the highway.

In certain cases, some drivers are brutalised while their vehicles are parked for several hours for refusing to give money to the police-men.

Even passengers are not spared the harassment by the policemen, who often beat up the hapless passen-gers for daring to question their actions.

He said if nothing is done to arrest the ugly situation commuters in the state will soon embark on indefinite strike to protest the extor-tion and harassment.

CHARLES OKEKEAWKA

The Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, has asked Governor Peter Obi to act fast and save the Law Faculty of the Anambra State University, ANSU, Igbariam campus, from losing its provisional accreditation.

In a letter dated March 25 signed by the state Chair-man of CLO, Aloysius At-tah, and the Secretary, Jus-tus Ijeoma, the organisation said there was palpable fear among the students and lecturers of the university that if no urgent step was taken towards meeting the requirements of the Council of Legal Education and Na-tional Universities Commis-sion, NUC, for accreditation,

the Law Faculty would most likely lose its accreditation.

The CLO contended that its letter to Obi was driven by the fact that the interim ac-creditation or compassion-ate quota which the ANSU Law Faculty was enjoying since 2009 was at the risk of being withdrawn because of some prevailing deficien-cies, like lack of functional e-library, lack of required books, journals and law re-ports, among others.

Shedding light on how the Law Faculty got to its present precarious position, the CLO said: The interim status was arrived at when the ac-creditation team visited the faculty in October 2009 and noticed some deficiencies in the standard, the faculty was given time to remedy those deficiencies.

South-East govs diverting SURE-P funds CD

Obi applauded for checking abduction, ritual killings

Imo drivers plan protest over police checkpoints, extortion

Save Anambra varsity Law Faculty, CLO begs gov

L-R: Pastor Pat Ezem; President/founder, Lively Hope Ooutreach, Rev. Benson Ezem and Abia State Governor Theodore Orji, at the presentation of award of excellence to the governor in Umuahia, recently.

the Igbo but he warned that Ndigbo had the right to de-fend themselves.

He said: It should be clear to everybody that Igbo are targeted people in parts of North. It is now time for the President, governors, police, Army and all security agen-cies in the land to not only recognise this fact but also accept the necessity for the Igbo to defend themselves.

Ezeife called on govern-ment to help Igbo procure equipment for self-defence.

The former governor, however, called on the peo-ple not to wait for such as-sistance before they defend themselves.

He said: The defence mechanism can take the form of vigilance/security group, properly registered and supervised by the au-thorities.

Ezeife urged government to amend the law on gun control because some people in the North were being tar-geted.

Boko Haram: Nigeria is under evil attack, says Tukur

PDP Crisis: NEC has no powers to sack NWC MetuhSays APC is destined to die soon

ISE-OLUWA IGE AND OBIORA IFOH

The Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it is untrue that some mem-bers of the National Ex-ecutive Committee (NEC) was plotting to sack the National Working Commit-tee (NWC), stressing that they have a constitution-ally guaranteed tenure that ends in 2015.

The party also disclosed that issues which prevent-ed it from convening its NEC meeting, which was last held in June 2012 have been resolved with the elec-tion of the chairman of the partys Board of Trustees (BoT).

National Publicity Sec-

doned, not the man who did the right thing. It is not the quantum of guilt, but the admittance of guilt based on self confession.

He called for the under-standing of Nigerians, say-ing the pardon was in good faith.

Tukur said the media had a key role to play in cre-ating awareness to enable all Nigerians wake up to the challenge which was fast

Chief Tony Anenih, the chairman of the Board of Trust-ees of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) yester-day said that none of its governors was planning to dump the party.

Anenih declared that the party was intact and would come out stronger and more united.

Anenih made the state-ment in Sokoto while ad-dressing newsmen shortly after leading other BoT members to a closed-door meeting with Governor Aliyu Wamakko and other stakeholders.

The meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, was attend-ed by the Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, Aminu Tambuwal, the state Deputy Gover-nor, Mukhtari Shagari, zonal and some national officers of the PDP.

According to Anenih, the visit to Sokoto is to ap-preciate Governor Wamak-ko for the good work he is doing in the state.

The PDP BoT chairman said the party was happy with the way Wamakko handled the affairs of the state, especially security.

tack churches, mosque, market places, schools, and even telecom facili-ties. It is not attributed to any part of the country, tribe or faith alone.

It is an evil that we must all challenge, dont give it any other name other than evil, as a big party, I am calling on leaders of all the political parties, and this is not politics, CPC, ACN, and all other political parties to come together to fight this evil, Tukur said.

He, therefore, called for collective effort to curb the security challenges posed by these enemies of progress.

On the state pardon granted to the former gov-ernor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alameisegha, Tukur said: Its the guilty that is par-

We have also dis-cussed issues about the corporate existence of the country and other issues where there is a discon-nect between the partys national secretariat and the states.

These issues also in-clude those of relations be-tween the executives and the legislatures and the general welfare of Nigeri-ans, Anenih said.

He stated that the meet-ing was a family one be-tween family members, adding that it was purely private.

According to him, we are pleasantly surprised about the warm reception we have received in the state.

Wamakko had earlier told newsmen that the visit was part of the BoTs tour of the PDP-controlled states.

This is with the view of making the party stronger and formidable, to ensure a better and brighter future for the PDP, he added.

Wamakko, however, stressed the need for the PDP to ensure jus-tice, fairness and equity amongst the party mem-bers and states nation-wide.

PDP govs not planning to dump party Anenih

retary of the party, Olisa Metuh, who made these clarifications in Abuja added that rather than be afraid of the merger of All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP would be happier if they meet the constitutional require-ments for registration, as they (APC) would soon disintegrate through unre-solved crises.

The PDP spokesman who explained that it was wrong for some people to insinuate that the PDP-NWC would be dissolved at the conven-ing of any NEC meeting explained that not only do NEC lack the powers to re-move any member of the NWC, there were no imme-diate internal threat that would warrant any uncon-stitutional moves against

destabilising the nation.He also expressed the

PDP commitment to resolv-ing internal crisis rocking it through reconciliation, edu-cation and dialogue among others to unite the party.

He commended the Ni-geria Arise Award initia-tive, saying it would en-courage Nigerians to strive to achieve in their various field.

Just last week, Tukur

L-R: (Front row) Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Muktari Shagari; Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal; Dr. Bello Haliru; Governor Aliyu Wamakko; Chief Tony Anenih and Senator Barnabas Gemade, after a meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party leaders in Sokoto, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

declared that Nigeria was under siege.

In an interview with journalists, Tukur had said: Today, there is fear everywhere, churches are being burnt, mosques are being attacked, United Na-tions building bombed, mo-tor parks are being bombed, people cannot go to motor parks again to travel for the fear of being attacked, security installations such

as police stations, prisons are being burnt down and inmates released at will, no-body knows the next target of attack.

Surely our nation is under siege. It is not the question of PDP, ACN, CPC or any political party or any religion, the truth is that Nigeria is under siege therefore all of us must come together and face this challenge.

together to drive the vision of our founding fathers.

He also said there were no Judases among the top echelon of the party, nor with the governors nor other members of the par-ty, stressing that the recon-ciliation tour embarked on by Tukur and Anenih was to ensure that all sections of the country and every individual are reconciled.

On the issue of registra-tion of the APC, he denied there was any presiden-tial directive issued to the INEC against the registra-tion of the party, stress-ing that the people who fabricated the matter were so unintelligent that they forged what they dubbed the so-called directive which was in writing, won-dering if anybody would want to do such a hatchet job in writing.

the partys leadership. His words: What we

read in the papers is that there appears to be clear war in the NWC. This is un-true. We have read all kinds of doomsday predictions in the papers and these are grossly exaggerated. I can assure you that after the Easter break, we shall hold our NEC meeting.

We are not embattled, either in the NWC or with our governors. I can assure you, this NWC has come to stay; this NWC will con-duct elections; we will be in-charge of our party ad-ministration until our ten-ure ends in 2016.

There is no attempt to remove anyone in the NWC. There is no prob-lem, there is no crisis. We have differences in ideas and approach but definite-ly we are united in being

AYODELE OJO WITH AGENCY REPORT

The National Chair-man of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Bamanga Tukur, has once again raised the alarm on the growing in-security in Nigeria, saying that the nation was under an evil attack.

Speaking against the backdrop of the Boko Ha-ram insurgency in the North, Tukur stated that the attack is being coordi-nated by enemies of Nige-rias unity.

Tukur, who spoke in London at the 2013 Nigeria Arise Award media chat said:

Nigeria is under at-tack and these people at-

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Thursday, April 4, 2013

Jangs public service reorganisation

excites Plateau1415

LG poll: ACN, PDP renew batt le in Edo

uration of the region, the report said.Signed by Rilwanu Charanchi and

Ezekiel Edeh, who coordinated the sam-pling, the report further explained that far-reaching changes such as the steady fragmentation of the region into states and the resultant erosion of the Northern hege-mony have triggered new trends in political thought and attitudes, which indicate sup-port for a new generation of political lead-ers with special consideration for national stature, strong professional credentials, positive track record in pragmatic service and promotion of unity in diversity in the North and building bridges of peaceful co-operation with other sections of the country.

It also revealed that a tangible major-ity of respondents in the rural and semi-urban areas, readily mentioned Sambo as the leading Northerner in the national political arena who has successfully blended with other strong constituencies, especially in the South-South, South-West and South-East to promote the interest of Northerners in the Nigerian federation and therefore regard him as our best bet for the future.

The Vice President gained also sig-nificant percentage points ahead of other mainly dark horses in the Northern leader-

sion was particularly significant because never in the history of the state has there been any such number of top civil servants brought on board in one fell swoop.

Stakeholders openly praised the gover-nor for not only ensuring equitable distri-bution of the topmost jobs across the 17 local government areas of the state but for placing square pegs in square holes in or-der to ensure effective service delivery.

Speaking during the ceremony, Jang told the new appointees: I wish to remind you that you are stepping in at a very critical point of the service in the state which is undergoing reorganisation. It means you are to arm yourselves with the necessary tools and bring to bear your intellectual acumen and service to midwife this change as driven by the three pillar policy.

Since the inception of this government, the civil service has remained close to our hearts thereby engendering our desire to get the best out of it. To achieve this, the

THE ONGOING REORGANISATION

WAS NO DOUBT INEVITABLE...

TOWARDS ATTAINING DISCIPLINE AND

EFFECTIVENESS IN SERVICE DELIVERY

ship bracket principally as a result of his well-appreciated performance as gover-nor of Kaduna State where he entrenched effective security measures to complement his courageous campaign for peaceful co-existence thereby curbing crises and re-storing peoples confidence in government.

The report also highlighted Sambos political maturity and personal human relations as demonstrated in his crisis-free partnership with President Goodluck Jonathan and generally cordial ties with all other important personalities and lead-ers across the country as another common reference point in a majority of respon-dents assessment of his performance at the Presidency.

This, they described as the best thing that has happened to the North following the deplorable period of geo-political ten-sions because the Vice President was seen to have checked the excesses of the hawks in the region without diminishing the North in the national arena of politics and governance.

Also mentioned in the report is the con-sensus of opinion on the expiration of the political relevance of the old brigade of Northern leaders who succeeded the Ah-madu Bello/Tafawa Balewa era but failed

ongoing reorganisation was no doubt inevi-table. In line with this, we are revising vari-ous instruments of operations such as civil service rules, scheme of service, financial regulations and stores rules all towards at-taining discipline and effectiveness in ser-vice delivery.

Jang further said that his administra-tion was confronted by a system that was highly challenged with some disturbing trends including corruption, apathy, indis-cipline, low morale, poor policy focus and strategic direction.

According to him, the sum of these is the poor image of the public service which he said, has been brought about by some elements within the system. The governor also added that his administration was planning to establish an institute aimed at training the civil servants as well as update them on latest trend in public service.

Before the swearing-in of the top civil servants believed to be the engine room of governance, the decay in the public service had prompted the governor to embark upon a number of measures aimed at reposition-ing the service for greater productivity.

For instance, the rot in the state civil service recently manifested in the shame-ful discovery of 6,000 ghost workers includ-ing ghost commissioners on the pay roll of the state government. The Economic and

Jangs public service reorganisation excites Plateau

Sambo, icon of new leadership in North Survey

woefully to match the development strides witnessed in the North prior to their emer-gence as well as the widespread rejection of the ambitious and corrupt clique of Northern governors and their tendency to betray and disown their political benefac-tors and leaders in their unbridled lust for power at all costs.

Noteworthy also was the reports refer-ence to respondents response when asked to advise President Jonathan on the way forward where it quoted a substantial ma-jority of the people apparently more inter-ested in the restoration of law and order and peaceful coexistence in the North than the quest for elective offices in 2015.

Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has commenced prosecution of those allegedly involved in the law court. This did not just happen. It took the intervention of a com-mittee set up by government in October last year to conduct biometrics verification exercise on the state workforce.

The discovery was shocking as, accord-ing to government, before the implementa-tion of the biometrics verification in Octo-ber last year, the staff strength fluctuates within the region of 22,000 monthly on the payroll. However, since the automation of the salaries in October to December last year, the figure d

Documents

Thursday, April 4, 2013