Vol. 2 N0. 422 Thursday, August 9, 2012 N150FRANCIS FAMOROTI AND TOBORE OVUORIE

Two months after Dana plane crashed in Lagos, killing all 153 passengers on board, the Lagos State Government yesterday said that 132 bodies of the victims were ready for collection by their relatives from today.

This followed the conclusion of the

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Police arrest three suspects over Kogi church attack

Global Fleet Group marks 9th anniversary

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Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency at the scene of the collapsed two-storey building on Ademola Awosika Road, Kubwa Extension, Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

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...targets $75 per barrel benchmark

FG unfolds framework for 2013 budget

Staff celebrate

...avert bomb explosion in Sokoto PDP secretariatFasting revives virtues in Muslims Opposition senators move against Akume

DNA results out, 132 bodies for collectionDana crash:

16 others still being processed

Three die, 10 injured in Abuja building collapse

SSS grills El-Rufai as Farouk Lawan travels out

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ELLA OLAMIJU

Global Fleet Group, a conglomerate of fast growing Jimoh Ibrahimcompanies, yesterday commemorated its ninth anniversary amidst track records of excellence and

proven growth. The multi-sectoral

group of companies,

DAY 21

Jonathan

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Thursday, August 9, 2012News

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DNA results out, 132 bodies for collection

Police arrest three suspects over Kogi church attackSuspected terrorists paraded by the police in Lokoja, Kogi State yesterday.

OMEIZA AJAYI AND ADEMU IDAKWO

Police authorities in Kogi State yes-terday arrested three persons for alleged involvement in the Mon-days attack on the Deeper Life Bible Church in Otite, Okehi Local Government Area of the state and kill-ing of two soldiers at the Okene Central Mosque.

The state Police Com-missioner, Alhaji Mu-hammed Musa Katsina, while parading the three suspects before newsmen at the police headquarters in Lokoja, said that his men apprehended the terrorists at Ibilo in Edo State after a tip-off.

Among the three sus-pects was a middle aged woman, whom the police said preliminary investiga-tion revealed that she was an accessory after the fact.

This woman was said to have assisted the wounded terrorists under the cover of darkness to Ibilo after the exchange of fire with the police during the at-tack, he said.

Katsina explained that while effecting the arrest, the hoodlums engaged the policemen in a fierce gun battle until they fell to the superior power of the law enforcement.

He said many of them es-caped with serious injuries, but two were arrested on the spot.

The commissioner, who also confirmed the arrest of some politicians in con-nection with the dastardly acts in the area, added that as an intelligent commu-nity, they were using gen-eral approach syndrome to uncover the mystery sur-rounding the killings.

He called on the medi-cal centres in Kogi and Edo states not to admit anybody

with bullet wounds to their hospital without a written permission from the police, stressing that some of the hoodlums ran away with bullet wounds.

The Christian Associa-tion of Nigeria, CAN, in the state yesterday declared a three-day fasting and prayer for divine interven-tion in the security situa-tion of the country.

The state CAN Chair-man, Archbishop Emman-uel Egbunu, disclosed this in Lokoja at a media brief-ing on the Otite church kill-ings.

Bishop Egbunu, of the Anglican Diocese of Lo-koja, said that while the attack was not an isolated one against Christians at worship in recent times, it was a new and dangerous dimension in Kogi.

Our hearts are heavy over the cold blooded mur-der. This unprovoked attack against unarmed, innocent

citizens right in the place of worship leaves us in no doubt that it was a premedi-tated, calculated and clearly targeted attack.

We call on Christians to observe prayer and fast in their assemblies between Wednesday and Friday to implore divine interven-tion in our nation and state. This should be continued in the foreseeable future.

The CAN chairman, however, reminded the per-petrators that God will call everyone to account for ev-ery unprovoked bloodshed in times of peace and His justice cannot be escaped however long it takes.

The Archbishop also called on all Nigerians to turn to God in true repen-tance, saying sin and wick-edness constituted a re-proach that could only lead to more darkness.

He implored people of goodwill to join in the cam-

Deoxyribonucleic Acid results, otherwise known as DNA, in the United Kingdom.

DNA is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.

Speaking during a meet-ing with the affected families at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, yesterday, Commis-sioner for Health, Dr. Jide Id-ris, disclosed that the results were out.

Some of the medical personnel who carried out

the tests were also present at the meeting, while the families of the victims had been appropriately noti-fied which day of the week their representatives would come for the corpse.

Idris said that the state government would be re-leasing the 132 identifiable bodies to relatives of the victims in batches of 20 to authorised claimants from today.

He said the bodies would be released in alphabetical order and the names of the victims that had been iden-

tified would be pasted at the Lekan Ogunshola Memo-rial Morgue, adding that relatives should come with appropriate documents to claim the bodies.

Idris said: We have got some of the results of the DNA analysis from the UK.

The experts have re-leased the results and we felt it necessary to brief the families of the victims on the processes and docu-mentation needed to claim the bodies.

We will release the bod-ies in batches of 20 in al-

phabetical order daily from Thursday to reduce the cha-os and to resolve some legal processes needed to claim the bodies.

LASUTH Chief Patholo-gist and Chief Medical Ex-aminer, Prof. John Obafun-wa, said that 16 other bodies were still being processed.

Obafunwa said that the corpses would only be re-leased to their next of kin after the presentation of necessary documents.

He listed the order of pri-ority for the next of kin as spouses, children, parents,

siblings, half- brothers and sisters, grandparents, neph-ews and nieces.

The next of kin is in this order and they have to present legal documents before the bodies would be released to them.

But, in the case where the next of kin is not avail-able, he or she has to autho-rise someone else to collect the body with appropriate identification.

The authorised per-son has to come with the drivers licence, national identity card, international passport and letter of au-thorisation by the next of kin, he said.

Already, service of songs had been held for some of the victims of the plane crash.

It will be recalled that one week after the crash, the Lagos State government withheld the corpses on the grounds that DNA tests must be conducted on them for identification purposes to avoid giving bodies to wrong families.

This action brewed con-troversies. Concerned rela-tions were told to wait until the results were released before coming for collection of bodies.

One of the major reasons the state government took the decision was as a result of con-troversies and physical con-frontations among some fam-ily members over the rightful owners of some bodies.

This consequently led to a build-up of tension at LASUTH mortuary, which later got to a peak when an angry relative attacked morgue officials with a cut-lass following the state gov-ernments refusal to release the bodies already identi-fied by family members.

The assault was inter-rupted by a special squad of the Rapid Respond Squad, RRS, of the police. As the police held the angry rela-tive, he was shouting, You people can eat my brothers body if you want, since you dont want to release him to us.

The police had to station a team of RRS to man the mortuary 24 hours because of these unpleasant devel-opments at the mortuary.

Meanwhile, a Lagos State Coroners court con-ducting inquest into June 3 Dana plane crash was yes-terday told the challenges some rescue agencies faced in responding to the disas-

ter. Testifying at the resumed

inquest proceedings yester-day, an Assistant General Manager, Airports Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr.John Ekpe, told the coroner, Mr. Alexander Komolafe, that there was no emergency agency that had all the equipment required to save the lives of victims.

The witness said the FAAN rescue team was at the crash site early enough with two fire trucks and a water tanker ahead of other agencies but could not ac-cess the actual site of the in-cident because of the crowd.

Ekpe said by the time his team could accessed the site, our team recovered dead bodies from the nose of the plane, which was not completely burnt, while Julius Berger was called to evacuate the affected build-ings and wreckages with their heavy equipment.

Ekpe also told the coroner that FAAN had an emergen-cy plan and disaster emer-gency team but the search and rescue functions out-side the airport falls on the National Emergency Man-agement Agency, NEMA.

Another witness, a Chief Fire Fighter Station Com-mander /Head of Depart-ment of the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services of FAAN, Mr. Sanni Enessi, said that the authority had a checklist of agencies it of-ten call for emergency plan.

Cross-examined by law-yers at the proceedings, Enessi explained that there was no source of water sup-ply near the crash site, add-ing that the Water Corpora-tion was far away from the scene, hence that the team had to go back to the airport to collect water.

The fire chief said the challenges the team faced on its way was that the road was too narrow and bad, and the surging crowd in-hibited the emergency op-erations.

Enessi added that the number of police drafted to the scene was not adequate initially but later more men arrived.

The coroner adjourned the inquest proceedings till tomorrow when the of-ficials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Total Oil, Forte Oil and two other witnesses are expect-ed to appear.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 3Thursday, August 9, 2012

L-R: Prophet Abiara; his Senior Personal Assistant, Protocol, Pastor Olumuyiwa Oshati and Chief Security Officer, Pastor Yemi Adeniyi.

Business Development Manager, Global Fleet Group, Mrs. Bukola Ogundare-Oluyele (left) and Legal Officer, Global Fleet Oil and Gas Ltd, Barr. Mololuwa Adebiyi.

L-R: Brands and Marketing Correspondent, National Mirror newspapers, Ms. Ella Olamiju; Head, IT, Mrs. Esther Uwadia and Deputy Admin Manager, Mrs. Folake BewajI.

Managing Director, Nigeria Re, Lady Isioma Chukwuma (left) and Executive Director, Finance and Admin, Mrs. Adetutu Ajayi.

Managing Director, Air Nigeria, Mr. Kinfe Kahssaye (left) and Arc. Olusola Agbesua.

L-R: Secretary to the GMD, Lady Pat Odoh; Acting General Manager, Projects, Mrs. Bose Jinadu and Acting General Man-ager, Admin/HR, Nigeria-Reinsurance, Mrs. Biodun Olanipekun.

Editor, Saturday Mirror, Gbemi Olujobi (left) and Managing Director, Newswatch Daily, Mr. Moses Jolayemi.

Rev. Dorcas and Bishop Jim Okewu.

Group Managing Director, Global Fleet Group, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim (OFR) (left) and the General Evangelist of Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide, Prophet (Dr.) S. K. Abiara.

Members of staff of Global Fleet during the cutting of the anniversary cake.PHOTOS: YINKA ADEPARUSI

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net4 Thursday, August 9, 2012Photo News

GLOBAL FLEET @ 9: THE 9TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GLOBAL FLEET GROUP WAS MARKED WITH A SPECIAL THANKSGIVING SERVICE AT THE GROUPS CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS IN LAGOS YESTERDAY

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Thursday, August 9, 2012 News

Global Fleet Group marks 9th anniversary

Police arrest three suspects over Kogi church attack

Utomi gives panacea to security challenges

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L-R: Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim; Vice-President Namadi Sambo and President Goodluck Jonathan, at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

paign against ethical and moral bankruptcy in the country.

Egbunu commended Governor Idris Wada and the security chiefs in the state for their prompt re-sponse to the situation even as he decried the increas-ing surge of insecurity and the abuse of Christian grace and forbearance.

He said CAN and the Council of Ulama in the state were forging peace-ful co-existence and urged Christian and Muslim youths to strengthen the re-solve by rejecting evil acts under any guise.

The state Overseer of the Deeper Life Christian Bible Church, Pastor Ray-mond Ogunjobi, who was also present at the briefing, said that 17 persons died in the onslaught against 16 the media reported.

Ogunjobi said 15 mem-bers of the church were

gunned down and died on the spot while two died on their way to the hospital, adding that 10 injured per-sons were receiving treat-ment at Okene General Hos-pital with eight at Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja.

In Sokoto State, the hero-ic deed of a police corporal prevented a powerful bomb from wreaking havoc in front of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, secre-tariat on Sultan Abubakar Road in Sokoto yesterday.

The officer was reported to have sighted three fast-moving motorcyclists about noon dropping a polythene bag at the second entrance of the secretariat and raised the alarm.

When I saw that, my mind told me it was a bomb, so I came outside and began to stop all road users telling them, bomb, bomb, bomb, dont come near this place.

I had to go to the two junctions to tell the traf-

fic wardens to divert all road users from the lane. When, I returned, I alerted all neighbours, including operators of shops on the other lane that there was a bomb dropped by some fast-moving persons on a bike, he said.

The corporal said that having condoned off the whole area, he called the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, who later informed the police commissioner and the AIG before the anti-bomb squad could be mobil-ised to the scene.

An eyewitness said that it took the anti-bomb squad team about three hours before they could arrive at the scene, and when they came, they used some devic-es attached to a long wire to defuse the bomb before it burst into pieces.

They told all onlookers to vacate the premises be-fore they detonated it and it burst into pieces without

any damage to the building or anything within the vi-cinity.

The state PDP Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe Goronyo, who confirmed the incident, said that officials of the party witnessed the deto-nation which made a loud noise but did not affect the building or did any damage whatsoever.

He said the bomb, if not detonated, would have wreaked havoc in the area and called on the public to be extra vigilant on any sus-picious elements, luggage, boxes or polythene bags around public buildings in the state.

Meanwhile, two police-men were shot dead in Bau-chi.

It was learnt that the po-licemen were attacked in the morning during a patrol close to a police check point in Gubi village on Ningi/Kano road in the state.

Bauchi State Commis-sioner of Police, Mr. Mu-hammad Ladan, confirmed the incident.

He said that the two po-licemen were rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hos-pital, ATBUTH, Bauchi, where they died.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, has urged Nige-rians to be more vigilant and security conscious to assist security agencies in the fight against terror and organised crime.

The IG, who spoke in the aftermath of yesterdays controlled detonation of a high calibre explosive by the Sokoto State Police Command, however, restat-ed the commitment of the force to stamp out crimes.

Deputy Force Public Re-lations Officer, Mr. Frank Mbah, also recounted the details of the Sokoto inci-dent.

He said: About 11a.m., the Sokoto State Police Com-mand received information from a civic-minded citizen that an unknown person riding an unregistered mo-torcycle had dropped off a black polythene bag in front of the secretariat of one of the national political par-ties located at Rigiya area of Sokoto metropolis.

On receipt of the infor-mation, the AIG Zone 10, Ibrahim Muktari and the CP of the Command imme-diately dispatched a team of police operatives from the Bomb Disposal Unit to the area. The timely re-sponse of the police saved the day.

The polythene bag was located, examined and dis-covered to be containing high calibre IED. Personnel of the Police Bomb Dispos-al Squad thereafter carried out a controlled detonation of the explosives. No casu-alty of any kind.

which started with a filling station in Lagos nine years ago has since grown to 18 companies within and beyond the borders of Nigeria with a workforce aproximating 21,000 staff members.

Speaking at the occa-sion held at the Groups headquarters in Lagos, the Group Managing Director of Global Fleet Group and Ambassador of the Repub-lic of Sao Tome and Prin-cipe to Nigeria, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, OFR, highlighted fundamental business eth-ics and practices that have set the fledging company on the path of greatness.

He said: Foresight and dogged commitment to

signs of the times are criti-cal to steering business af-fairs of such magnitude, determination, hard work, and courage to pursue have helped in positioning the companies on the path of growth and the future is very bright for us.

In his speech, Dr. Ibra-him acknowledged the tough environmental chal-lenges facing businesses in the country while ad-mitting that only a meager fraction of registered com-panies make due returns to the federal purse due to increasing fold-up of regis-tered companies.

This, he said, was owing to environmental hiccups which strategic position-ing, insight, and core busi-

ness ethics practice have helped the Global Fleet Group surmount.

He advised all upwardly mobile businesses and staff to take intellectual property seriously as it is a key path to the successes being celebrated.

From a sizeable company, the Global Fleet Oil & Gas, the Group has grown to in-clude companies such as NICON Insurance, Nigeria Re-Insurance, NICON Luxu-ry Group of hotels, National Mirror newspapers, Energy Bank of Ghana, Air Nige-ria, Newswatch magazine and Newswatch newspapers amongst notable others.

Industry captains from the banks, insurance, avia-tion, oil and gas sectors and

the academia, who were present at the event, attest-ed to the uncommon strides achieved by the Group and its boss, noting that the ex-ceptional business acumen and ethics of the Groups GMD had sustained the or-ganisation over the years.

According to Prophet S. K. Abiara of the Christ Apostolic Church, who of-fered special prayers for the staff, said the Group had succeeded this far in nine years due to the hand of God upon the GMD.

Bishop Jim Okewu who was also part of the thanks-giving service, said: I have followed the achievements of the company over the years and it is uncommon grace that God has given

to Barrister Ibrahim. He is very hard working, a bil-lionaire who still reads, and God will continue to lift him and his businesses to greater heights.

Among the dignitaries that witnessed the event were Chief Executive Offi-cers of subsidiaries of the conglomerate, staff and guests.

NWABUEZE OKONKWOONITSHA

A seasoned econo-mist, Prof. Pat Utomi, has said that the present security challenges being faced by the country can be solved through enthronement of equality among the various ethnic nationalities.

Our leadership must enthrone equality among ethnic nationalities that make up the country for us to solve the present social security challenges and I believe that our people still want to be one due to long and existing historical and brotherhood ties", Utomi said yesterday.

Utomi, who spoke in a paper he delivered at the Basillica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha, during the National Annual Confer-ence of the Catholic Youths Organisation of Nigeria, CYON, however, blamed the countrys socio-economic crisis on the high rate of unemployment among

youths.He added that all tiers of

governments should con-centrate on job creation to tackle the situation.

In the paper entitled: The Catholic youths and the C-challenges of eco-nomic empowerment, Utomi noted that the coun-trys economy had been un-der-performing and needed boost which agric and agro-allied business could create since that was what we had in abundance and to the countrys advantage.

Anambra State Gov-ernor Peter Obi said the youths could change the country by playing active role in the economy and making sure they help to enshrine good and account-able leadership.

He said that they should see themselves as agents of change, adding that touths could change the country through positive living and readiness to challenge the ills of the society and the excesses of those in govern-ment.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6

2013 budget: FG unveils framework, targets $75 per barrel benchmark

ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA

President Goodluck Jonathan leaves Abuja for Ghana today as the head of the Nigerias official delega-tion to the burial of Pres-

ident John Atta Mills who died on July 24.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said in a state-ment in Abuja yesterday that Jonathan would par-ticipate in the funeral

rites of Mills scheduled for tomorrow and also meet with Ghanas new leader, President John Dramani Mahama.

Jonathan is expected to return to Abuja to-morrow.

Ghanaian Minister of

Foreign Affairs and Re-gional Integration, Hon. Muhammad Mumuni, had on July 31 brought a special message from President Mahama and an invitation to Presi-dent Jonathan to attend the burial.

ROTIMI FADEYIABUJA

The Federal Govern-ment yesterday un-folded the Medium Term Fiscal Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper for the 2013 budget.

According to the frame-work, the country is ex-pected to produce 2.53 mil-lion barrels of oil per day with a benchmark of $75 per barrel as against 2.48 million per day at $72 per barrel in 2012.

The 2013 budget frame-work tagged: Physi-cal Consolidation with Growth and Job Cre-

ation, which has been approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, has a projected expendi-ture of N4.929trn with a projection of N3.891trn revenue.

Briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of the weekly FEC meeting, the Coor-dinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okon-jo-Iweala, said the govern-ment was also working to-wards a new approach in managing domestic debt.

The minister said the government was project-ing N727.19bn for the 2013fiscal year.

She said: We have been managing down the yearly domestic borrow-ing from N852bn in 2011 to N744.44bn in 2012 and we are projecting N727.19bn for the fiscal year 2013. We are gradually bringing this down.

Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala noted that the projection of the government was to ensure that by 2015, yearly borrowing would go down to N500bn, adding that though the figure would not be the entire debt stock., it would mean that the stock of debt would grow at much slower pace.

She said: Fiscal defi-cit is coming down with

projected fiscal deficit expected to come down to 2.17 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, GDP, as against 2.82 per cent of GDP which is well below the 3 per cent prescribed in the fiscal responsibil-ity bill.

We are going to start a sinking fund, with Mr. Presidents approval we will be devoting the sum of N25bn to a sinking fund because we must be put-ting aside money to retire the debt that we have been building up, our domestic debt and we will also put aside N75bn to help retire a bond that is coming due in February next year.

FRANCIS FAMOROTI

Three employees of Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank Plc) and a Swiss-Indian na-tional, Ashok Isran, were yesterday arraigned be-fore an Ikeja High Court for alleged conspiracy and fraud involving about N855m.

The bank officials cit-ed as the first, third and fourth defendants respec-tively are Anayo Nwosu, Olajide Oshodi and Sunny Obazee.

Also Nulec Industries Limited and Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank Plc)

were charged as the fifth and sixth defendants.

Justice Habeeb Abiru, before whom they ap-peared, however, granted them bail.

He, however, ordered them to be remanded in the custody of the Eco-nomic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, until they perfect-ed their bail conditions.

In his ruling on the bail applications filed by the defendants, the judge held that the Chairman and the Managing Direc-tor of Keystone Bank/Bank PHB should, among other conditions, provide an undertaking and guar-

antee that Nwosu, Oshodi and Obazee would appear on each adjourned date in court for trial.

As for Isran, said to be a director of Nulec In-dustries, the court barred him from travelling out-side the country during the pendency of the case.

Specifically, the de-

fendants were accused of conspiracy to obtain money by false pretence and theft of N855m from Sir Daniel Chukwudozie of Dozzy Oil and Gas Lim-ited sometime in 2008.

The two-count informa-tion preferred against the defendants reads: *Con-spiracy to obtain money

by false pretence contrary to Sections 8(A) and 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Related Offenc-es Act No. 14 of 2006.

Anayo Nwosu, Ashok Isran, Olajide Oshodi, Sunny Obazee, Nuclec Industries Limited and Bank PHB now known as Keystone Bank Plc

sometime in 2008 at La-gos within the Ikeja Judi-cial Division, with intent to defraud, conspired to obtain money by false pretence from Sir Daniel Chukwudozie of Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited.

As soon as the charges were read, the defendants pleaded not guilty.

L-R: Alleged fraudsters Sunny Obazee, Olajide Oshodi and Ashok Isran with officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, during their trial at the Lagos High Court in Ikeja, yesterday.

Mallam el-Rufai

National News Thursday, August 9, 2012

SSS quizzes el-Rufai at Lagos Airport

N855m fraud: EFCC arraigns Bank PHB offi cials, Indian, others

OLUSEGUN KOIKI

Men of the State Security Ser-vice, SSS, yes-terday grilled the for-mer Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minis-ter, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, at the Murtala Mohammed Interna-tional Airport, MMIA, in Lagos.

The former minister was billed to travel to Dubai for an unknown reason with Emirates Airlines before the SSS men picked him up for questioning.

It was learnt that the SSS personnel also seized el-Rufais travel documents such as in-ternational passport and air ticket.

An SSS source told our correspondent that el-Rufai was approached at the check-in area of the airport and was told that he could not travel, but the former minister insisted that he had an important meeting in Dubai.

After he was delayed for about four hours, the SSS operatives retuned his travel documents to enable him continue his journey to the United Arab Emirates.

The source said that el-Rufais interrogation might not be uncon-nected with his ardent criticism of President Goodluck Jonathans administration in re-cent times, adding that

he had been on the watch list of the gov-ernment for over a year.

When our correspon-dent visited the SSS office at MMIA, the of-ficer, who declined to re-veal his identity, could not confirm or deny el-Rufais interrogation.

He directed our cor-respondent to speak with the SSS spokesper-son, Marylyn Ogar in Abuja.

However, efforts to get the SSS to comment on the issue were abor-tive at press time.

Meanwhile, contrary to report that the for-mer Chairman of the House of Representa-tives Committee on Subsidy regime, Alhaji Farouk Lawan, was ar-rested at MMIA, it was learnt that he actually travelled to Saudi Ara-bia for lesser Hajj on Tuesday.

Lawan, it was also gathered, was escorted into the check-in area of the Emirates Air-lines by an SSS official, when he boarded the plane to Saudi Arabia.

Jonathan leads delegation to Mills burial

Opposition senators move against AkumeGEORGE OJIABUJA

Opposition senators who are dissatis-fied with what they described as the weak lead-ership being provided by Senator George Akume, their leader at the upper chamber, have commenced moves for his replacement.

Akume was accused of selling out to the majority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and not protecting the interest of the opposition senators at the red chamber.

Besides, the former gov-ernor was also accused of being incoherent and un-serious in his contributions to debates on the floor of the senate.

In addition, he was al-leged to be playing truancy in the senate, resulting in other opposition principal officers acting in his place most of the time.

Incidentally most of the senators that are opposed to his leadership are drawn mainly from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)

camp. However, in order not to

incur the anger of the lead-ership of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ACN sena-tors do not want to come out in the open to express their dissatisfaction with the leadership of Akume.

Instead, the ACN sena-tors were said to be enlist-ing the support of other op-position senators from the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Labour Party (LP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to champion the re-moval of Akume.

National Mirror, how-ever, gathered that an op-position senator from the North-East is the one cur-rently leading the move to oust Akume. The opposi-tion senators are reported to have already started lob-bying the senate leadership to see reasons with them for the leadership change.

The plan is to conclude all arrangements concern-ing the leadership change before the senate resumes

OBIORA IFOHABUJA

Former Federal Com-missioner for In-formation and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday stood his com-ment that former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, has not done enough to assist govern-ment solve the problem of insecurity posed by Boko Haram sect.

He insisted that the for-mer military president must tell Nigerians why he has not deemed it fit to talk to the members of the sect the way he did during the Niger Delta crisis.

Clark said Nigerians will like to find out why Baban-gida has been silent for so long and why he is refus-ing to talk to Boko Haram, since he is such a great pa-triot as claimed in the state-ment he made.

The 85-year-old states-man was reacting to Ba-bangidas condemnation of his comments which noted that Clark might have been beclouded by his old age to the extent he could no lon-ger notice his (Babangida) efforts towards resolving the Boko Haram debacle.

Clarks comment on Gen. Babangida came shortly af-ter his (Babangidas) joint statement with former Pres-ident Olusegun Obasanjo, harping on the urgent need to resolve the security is-

UDEME AKPAN AND JOHN UWE

A major crisis is loom-ing in the power sector again follow-ing a sharp disagreement between the Federal Gov-ernment and Labour over the payment of total termi-nal benefits and severance package to workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

The PHCN has pushed for the payment of the workers in order to pave way for the implementation of the remaining part of President Goodluck Jona-than transformation of the power sector.

In its advice, ahead of actual payment, PHCN in-formed the workers that the components, including pensions, gratuity and sev-erance, were based on fac-tors such as condition of service, industry standards, pension laws and relevant

laws of the nation. The PHCN stated that;

This payment advice is an advance statement of ter-minal benefits due to you for your review and feed-back so as to avoid unfore-seen computational error. If any change (not contrary to paragraph 2 above), your feedback should be indicat-ed in the attached duplicate copy to the advice.

The total severance com-ponent and the 25 percent of the total accrued benefits were to be paid upfront in view of the forbearance obtained from PENCOM by the Federal Government of Nigeria in that regard.

It maintained that, The balance due to you will be domiciled in your Retire-ment Savings Account (RSA) in line with PEN-COM guidelines. Your re-sponse, through the CEO of your office should reach the office of the MD/CEO on or before 10 August 2012.

At least three people lost their lives and about 10 others were injured in the early hours of yesterday when an uncompleted two-storey building in the Kubwa area of Abuja, collapsed.

Located at No. 2 Ademo-la Awosika Street, Kubwa Extension III, the building was said to have been in the area for about 12 years and despite warnings earlier this year about the state of

the structure, some arti-sans and commercial mo-torcycle riders continued to live there.

National Mirror learnt that on January 19 this year, the Department of Development Control in the FCTA marked the structure for demolition but the whereabouts of the owner of the structure could not be immediately ascertained.

Most of the injured that

were rushed to the Kubwa General Hospital were said to have left the hospital fearing the possibility of a piling medical bill.

Ridwan Ali, who sur-vived the incident told National Mirror that the structure actually col-lapsed around 1.00 am yesterday, explaining that there were more than 50 people living in the ill-fated structure.

It happened around 1.00

am, when most of us were already asleep. Only three people died. Most of us who stayed there are Okada rid-ers or labourers, he said.

A combined team of res-cuers led by the National Emergency Management Agency were on hand to sal-vage the situation.

NEMA spokesperson, Yushau Shuaibu, said the situation was under control as rescue efforts were about being completed last night.

Fresh crisis looms in power sector

Clark to IBB: Tell Nigerians why youre avoiding Boko Haram Three die, 10 injured in Abuja

building collapse

L-R: Executive Director, Strategy and Research, Nigerian Governors Forum, Alhaji Abdulateef Shittu (left) and Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, during the meeting of Nigerian Governors Forum on Constitutional Amendment and Polio Eradication in Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

sues in the country.The comment, which did

not go down well with Gen. Babangida was made by Clark when he addressed a state of the federation lec-ture recently at the Nige-rian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) in Abuja.

Clark, who apparently stood his ground as con-tained in a statement he issued in Abuja which was signed on his behalf by his Legal Adviser/Consultant, Mr. Kayode Ajulo, noted that the popular amnesty programme which late President Umaru Musa YarAdua deployed to stop the activities of Niger Delta militants, was made pos-sible by Clarks going to the creeks with the then Vice-President Goodluck Jona-than, to talk to the militants to drop arms and embrace peace.

He said the recent utter-ances made by Babangida to portray Clark as one who has lost grip of the happenings in the country on account of his old age is unnecessary.

According to Ajulo, Or-dinarily, Gen. Babangida should have joined many other Nigerians who ap-plauded Chief E. K. Clark for crying out over the wanton loss of lives being experienced daily over the senseless killings of Nige-rias women and children, Christians and Moslems alike. sitting from its current an-

nual vacation in September, when the new leadership is expected to emerge.

National Mirror further gathered that the opposition senators are already posi-tioning Senator Solomon Ganiyu (Lagos West) who is currently the Minority Whip to take over from Akume.

Before emerging as the Minority Whip at the com-mencement of the 7th sen-ate in June last year, Ganiyu was the strongest contender to the office of minority leader, but lost the slot fol-lowing the intervention of Tinubu who imposed Akume on the senators.

Indeed, if the position of the Minority Leader had been thrown open for contest, Ganiyu would have conveniently won the seat.

Tinubus argument was that Akumes candidacy would make the ACN as-sume a look of a truly na-tional party as opposed to Ganiyu, which would have made a lot of people to per-ceive the party as a regional party for the South-West.

The arrowhead of the Akume Must Go Senators, who does not want his name in print said, If you are conversant with what is going on in the senate, nobody will tell you that the opposition have lost their voice in the senate because of the type of leadership foisted on us, this is quite clear. We are only opposi-tion senators by name as you can see from what is go-ing on in the senate. I wish we can regain our voice and play our role as true opposi-tion senators.

Akume

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Thursday, August 9, 2012 7News

L-R: Mrs. Yejide Falode; widow of the late Chief Segun Taiwo, Chairman of Ogun Central Senatorial District of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Adenike and Governor Ibikunle Amosun, during a condolence visit to the family of the deceased in Asero, Abeokuta, yesterday.

Sacked workers: Opposition trying to incite labour ACN

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Nigerias constitu-tion is no longer appropriate for the continued corporate exis-tence of the country, a uni-versity lecturer, Prof. Kola-wole Ogundowole, has said.

Ogundowole, a professor of Philosophy of Science, said this yesterday in an interview with journalists after delivering a lecture at the 55th anniversary cel-ebration of Self Govern-ment, the Foundation for the ongoing Constitution Review.

The lecture was organ-ised by a pan-Yoruba organ-isation, Atayese.

He said there was no ba-sis for the ongoing constitu-tion review embarked upon by the National Assembly, adding that such would at the end of the day amount

to a mere waste of time and the countrys resources.

Ogundowole said the present constitution was to-tally inappropriate for the countrys corporate exis-tence, adding that if some-thing is bad, it is already bad and the best thing to do is to have another one.

He said that the present constitution had become a subject of a series of amendments with nothing to show for it.

The fact is that the con-stitution has been amended many times but this time around rather than wasting time amending it, what we need to do is to write a new constitution, Ogundowole added.

The lecturer said that it was not possible for the National Assembly to write a constitution that would be appropriate for a multi ethnic country like Nigeria,

HAKEEM GBADAMOSIAKURE

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it would not conduct a fresh voters registra-tion in Ondo State for the October 20 gubernatorial election.

The state INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr. Akin Orebiyi, disclosed this yesterday in Akure while addressing participants at a stake-holders forum organised by the state police com-mand and his commission.

He explained that fresh registration of voters had been cancelled.

Orebiyi also disclosed that the October 20 date for the election would not be changed.

The REC, however, said the commission would conduct a nationwide con-tinuous registration of vot-ers after the governorship election in Ondo State.

SEKINAH LAWAL

The Lagos State chapter of the Ni-geria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, has called on em-ployers to provide crches in the workplace to boost productivity.

The state Chairperson of NAWOJ, Mrs. Dupe Olaoye-Osinkolu, made the call at a special congress held at Ladi Lawal Press Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, La-gos, to kick off the associa-tions family week.

Mrs. Olaoye-Osinkolu said this years family week was special because of its dedication to issues affect-

ing women as the nucleus of their respective families.

She said: We are the stronghold of every family. Our husbands look up to us for attention, we pamper them. Our brothers see us as perpetual protectors, we strive to protect them. Our children believe so much in our power of creativity, always bringing something out of nothing, we struggle not to disappoint them. We always nurture them.

Our multiple roles therefore behove on us to lend our voices to policies and decisions that will benefit our families, and ensure their comfort under any circumstance.

Mrs. Olaoye-Osinkolu urged employers to be more baby-friendly by es-tablishing crches within the work environment so that nursing mothers could easily breastfeed their ba-bies within a short time and return to their duties.

The establishment of crches in public and pri-vate workplaces would encourage mothers to ad-equately breastfeed their babies. By providing crch-es for nursing mothers, their babies would become healthier and productivity would also increase, he said.

adding that many ethnic groups in Nigeria were not represented at the National Assembly, as presently con-stituted.

Ogundowole said that there was no going back on the call for the convocation of a Sovereign National

Conference, SNC, which he said was for now the only way out for Nigeria as a country.

The Chairman of Atayese, Mr. Tokunbo Aja-sin, called for urgent return to regional autonomy for the country to move forward.

The Chairman of the construction giant, Bi-Courtney, Wale Babalakin, has accused the Federal Government of breaching a concessional agreement with the com-pany.

He also said the breach could discourage investors.

Babalakin said the Fed-eral Governments refusal to implement the agree-ment, despite the court judgments in favour of his company, had reduced Bi-Courtney to a company which could not actualise a

simple transaction. In a petition to the Direc-

tor-General, Infrastructure Concession and Regulato-ry Commission, ICRC, Bi-

Courtney had blamed the Ministry of Aviation for reneging on the agreement and resolutions of the Co-ordinating Committee set up by the Attorney-Gener-al, which had resolved the dispute in favour of the company.

Babalakin disclosed that the committee, among others, resolved that, in accordance with the Fed-eral Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAANs offer to Bi-Courtney and law, the term of the concession was 36 years.

FG breaching agreement with Bi-Courtney Babalakin

Nigeria needs new constitution to survive Don

INEC wont conduct fresh voters registration in Ondo REC

Family week: NAWOJ demands crches in workplace

KEMI OLAITANIBADAN

Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has denied the allega-tion by the Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN, that Gov-ernor Abiola Ajimobi, re-fused to comply with the resolution of the Oyo State House of Assembly to re-instate the 3,000 workers recently sacked by the gov-ernment.

The state Publicity Sec-retary of ACN, Mr. Dauda Kolawole, said in a state-

ment yesterday that the state chapter of SPN was at-tempting to use the issue of the sacked workers to incite the labour against the state government.

He said: While it is true that the House of Assembly, due to the controversy gen-erated by the workers sack, constituted a panel to offer those who felt they had gen-uine cases the opportunity to do so, it should be stated that no resolution has been passed by the Assembly call-ing for the re-absorption of the affected workers.

Of course, the House Committee could not have called for the reinstatement of the entire 3,000 sacked workers, having said em-phatically that majority of them were actually guilty of the offences that led to their disengagement from the state civil service.

Kolawole also quoted the Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee on sacked workers, Hon. Segun Ajanaku, as saying that, while some of them actu-ally falsified their certifi-cates, others, after being in

service, went to acquire fake certificates probably to re-tain their jobs, get promoted or whatever reason. We also have cases of those who had stayed long in service and due for retirement but who falsified their ages in order to escape retirement.

The ACN spokesman therefore challenged the SPN to come out and tell the whole world who it sponsors were rather than playing the devils advocate and exhibiting absolute ig-norance on the workings of the government.

Babalakin

He said names of all eligible voters in the state were still intact, adding that the commission was doing everything possible to ensure that the names of those who were registered and eligible to vote would be made available soon.

Orebiyi noted that the commission had records of those whose names were missing in the electronic register last year and that the document would serve as a back-up again for the e-register this year.

Speaking at the forum, the Secretary of the state chapter of the Action Con-gress of Nigeria, ACN, Mr. Adegboyega Adedipe, said his party was prepared to challenge the INEC posi-tion in court, arguing that the commission had no right to change the rule at this critical stage.

He pointed out that there is a provision in the elector-al law which gives room for the fresh registration exer-cise before election.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Thursday, August 9, 2012 South West

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

L-R: President, Pacesetters Club, Mr. James Popoola; Owa of Otan Ayegbaju, Oba Lukman Fadipe; Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Chairman, Planning Committee, Mr. Segun Aina, at the handing over of Medical Staff Quarters donated to the state government by the club at Otan Ayegbaju in Osun State, yesterday.

Boko Haram warned against desecrating Ramadan month OLUSEGUN KOIKI AND FEMI OYEWESO

An Islamic group, the Ahmadiyya Move-ment-In-Islam yester-day warned the Boko Haram sect and other groups to desist from the wanton killing and destruction of properties of innocent citizens in the coun-try.

The movement de-scribed such killings as the desecration of the holy month of Ramadan.

Speaking at the Move-ments Annual National Ramadan Lecture 2012 held in Lagos, the guest lecturer, Chief Imam of Ottun - Ota Mission of the Movement, Alhaji Abdulfatai Odun-aye, expressed sadness over the continued killing of in-nocent Nigerians, particu-larly as Muslims all over the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan.

Odunaye admonished the groups responsible for the killings to desist from the act that was capable of destroying the very fabric of the country.

A statement signed by the Chairman, National Think-tank and Public-ity Committee of the Move-ment, Alhaji Muftau Ayor-inde, said the Movement was disturbed that such act of killing and bombing continued even in the holy month of Ramadan, which was supposed to serve as a month that all mankind should move closer to Al-mighty Allah (S.W.A) to

seek forgiveness and re-pentance from acts that are contrary to the wishes of Allah for mankind.

The lecture, which has as its theme; The Impor-tance of Ramadan to Man-kind was presided over by the Movements First National President, Alhaji Samodi Shekoni, while the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Projects Implementation and Moni-toring, Alhaji T. P. L. Sulai-mon Yusuf, chaired the oc-casion.

Speaking on the sig-nificance of Ramadan, the guest lecturer said the holy month of Rama-dan was that in which the Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammed and that the Holy Quran specifically stipulated the 24th day of Ramadan as the commencement date of the revelation while other Ha-diths mentioned 25th, 27th or 29th day.

The revelation was re-peated yearly in the holy month by Angel Gabriel until the demise of the holy prophet of Islam.

He listed the benefits of fasting to be moral rejuve-nation; spiritual upliftment and physical attainment by persons fasting, among others. He also noted that those exempted from fast-ing are old men; very young children; weak per-sons; pregnant women and lactating mothers, who are still breast-feeding their ba-

Ogun initiates programme to reduce maternal mortality Ogun State govern-ment yesterday said it is set to implement a Conditional Cash Trans-fers programme for women aimed at providing cash, food and relevant materi-als to poor pregnant women during four ante-natal vis-its, delivery and one post-natal visit.

State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, disclosed this in Abeokuta during a meet-ing with some local gov-ernment chairmen, whose councils would be used for the pilot test of the pro-gramme.

Governor Amosun said the programme was part of an attempt at setting a stan-dard in health care delivery in the state.

He said local govern-ment areas played a pivotal role in achieving qualita-tive health care delivery at the grassroots and prom-ised that the programme would be extended to other local councils in the state.

The governor said quali-tative health service re-mained a cardinal part of his administrations five-point agenda, assuring that all primary health centres in the local government areas in the state would be upgraded and equipped with necessary personnel to boost efficiency in health care delivery.

Speaking earlier, Special Adviser to the Governor on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mrs. Hafsat Abiola-Costello, said the programme was designed to encourage poor preg-nant women to use mod-ern health facilities during child delivery, stating that the state was the first in the country to pioneer the use of conditional cash trans-fers.

She said about 545 wom-en out of every 100, 000 died during child birth and that Nigeria had two times the global average for maternal mortality.

ABIODUN NEJOADO EKITI

Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have been urged to step up their oversight function of budget tracking process to ensure accountability, openness and delivery of democracy dividends.

Speaker of the House, Dr Adewale Omirin, who described it as a major pil-lar of democratic process for development, also called

for sponsorship of private bills from members of the public.

Omirin, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media, Mr Wole Olujobi, encour-aged members to continue to initiate bills in the new legislative session for effec-tive discharge of their law-making responsibilities to move the state forward.

He charged his col-leagues to continue to sup-port the state government and inform their constitu-ents of their activities as

well as engage in public en-lightenment on government programmes.

The Speaker said: It is gratifying that infrastruc-tural development projects are on-going across the state and our people are happy for this. We must continue to encourage the execu-tive in this direction so that together we can raise our heads in our communities as development partners in building Ekiti to a state of our collective dream.

Omirin charged the law-

makers to see their perfor-mance in the first session which saw the passage of 31 bills as the benchmark through which they would be assessed in the new ses-sion.

He expressed delight that the members fulfilled their obligations to Ekiti people through their outstanding performance in the last ses-sion, saying their perfor-mance was appreciated by the people through their comments within the state and outside.

NCC frustrating our efforts, says Aregbesola

Lawmakers charged to step up oversight functions

WALE FOLARINOSOGBO

Barely 48 hours after Osun State govern-ment launched its joint security force named Swift Action Squad (SAS) the governor Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has accused the Nigerian Communica-tions Commission (NCC) of frustrating his administra-tions efforts at ensuring se-curity of lives and property in the state.

He said his administra-tions determination to combat crime in all ramifi-cations using modern tele-communication gadgets have been subtly frustrated

by the foot-dragging atti-tude of NCC, resulting in the non-issuance of securi-ty telephone numbers at the inauguration of the outfit.

The governor, who made this disclosure during the inauguration of SAS, said all attempts at securing three-digit telephone line from the nations telecom-munication regulatory agency have met a brick wall because of its lack of cooperation.

His words: We have tried to secure a three-digit security number for our se-curity outfit so as for them to be able to provide 24-hour security surveillance across the state as well as

to swiftly respond to crime activities within 20 minutes of receiving a distress call from the people anywhere in the state.

But it is unfortunate that our efforts have been frustrated by the Nigerian Communication Commis-sion (NCC) from acquiring the number. But I will now take it upon myself to visit the NCC office to see things for myself. The security of our citizens is very dear to us.

We want Osun to be save against any act of malfea-sance, be it armed robbery, kidnapping, rape or what-ever crime. We are up to the task and we guarantee our

people of prompt and ad-equate security to their lives and properties. Hence, this administration will leave no stone unturned to make sure the state is crime free.

According to him, with the three-digit security num-ber, the aim of government was to respond to distress call and arrive at the scene of crime within 30 minutes in any party of the state.

Meanwhile, the governor has bemoaned the level of infrastructural decay in the country, even as he called on engineers in the country to rise up and assist in the total overhauling of the na-tions social and infrastruc-tural needs.

Group tasks Jonathan on sectbies.

He advised Muslims to always hasten to break their fast without delay and also to shun evil deeds, reiterating that the main reason for fasting was the attainment of TAQWAH - piety, righteousness and protection against sin.

Meanwhile, an asso-ciation of Muslim profes-sionals; The Crescent, has called on President

Goodluck Jonathan to be firm and decisive in deal-ing with the menace of the dreaded sect.

The Muslim profession-als were speaking at the annual Ramadan lecture held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, yesterday.

The group frowned at the purported demand of the sect that President Goodluck Jonathan should convert to Islam before it

could cease fire.The Crescents Presi-

dent, Alhaji Rasak Ola Bello described Boko Ha-ram as non-muslims and stressed that Islam does not support compulsion of religion.

Citing Tuesdays attack on the central mosque in Okene, Kogi State as well as the recent one in an-other mosque in Yobe State which targeted the Emirs and worshippers during Fridays prayer, The Cres-

cents declared that Boko Harams agitation has gone beyond religion.

There is no compulsion in Islam, I want the presi-dent of the country to note that this has gone beyond religious problem, it is a po-litical situation or how can you interpret it when this same set of people now go to the central mosque tar-geting Emirs and worship-pers on Friday, so you can see that it has gone beyond religion.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net10 South East Thursday, August 9, 2012

CHARLES OKEKEAWKA

Commercial bus drivers under the umbrella of Anam-bra, Enugu and Ebonyi States Drivers Welfare Association yesterday staged a protest in Awka, the Anambra State capi-tal, against the imposition of illegal levies on their activities.

The association said they were also protesting against the seizure of their buses by a purported agent of government that goes by the name Winnerlack.

The protest, which last-ed for several hours left many travellers stranded.

It started when hundreds of members of the associa-tion stormed the Arroma Junction section of Awka to Enugu Expressway, compelling all commercial buses coming from Enugu that had arrived in the area to terminate their journeys abruptly.

As the protest persisted with their respective travel-ling buses now grounded, the passengers resigned to fate and waited for a time when they would be al-lowed to continue on their journey to Onitsha and other destinations.

Chairman of the bus drivers association, Chief Daniel Ojii, had in an inter-view with National Mirror

Bus drivers protest against illegal levy

L-R: Chairman of ASA (USA), Dr. Allison Anadi; Francis Cardinal Arinze and Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and some members of the medical mission at the flag-off of the ASA USA 2012 Medical Mission at the Community Health Centre, Ezeowelle, yesterday.

DENNIS AGBO ENUGU

The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) has pleaded with state govern-ments in the country to appreciate the benefits of childrens issues by plac-ing priority on them.

The body said studies have shown that progress in childrens rights has been achieved by spend-ing more and targeting resources on key basic social services, govern-ments could place prior-ity on child-related issues

to make it more meaning-ful.

UNICEF A Field Offi-cer in Enugu, Mr. Charles Nzuki, said this during the August 2012 high level permanent secretaries and secretaries to state governments meeting at Enugu that was made up of five states of the South-East, four states in South-South and Benue State.

Nzuki told the gather-ing that UNICEF works with development part-ners, individuals, busi-nesses, foundations and civil society to advocate for the realisation of

Prioritise children issues in states, UNICEF tells govt

Kidnap victim raises the alarm over others in ritual camp

childrens rights, to help children meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.

He further stated that UNICEF supports the gov-ernment and the civil so-ciety to achieve the Millen-nium Development Goals (MDGs) in the areas of ba-sic education, child protec-tion, health and nutrition, water sanitation and hy-giene, as well as social poli-cy and communication.

That is why we are here today to share ideas and experiences and identify ways forward in our col-

laboration, said Nzuki. The UNICEF boss chal-

lenged the government functionaries to have ac-tion plans even as the need to invest more in children, focus on equitable develop-ment and strengthening of the state systems, grows daily.

He added that there was also the need to translate the existing polices into visible results for children, the practice of quarterly monitoring of key develop-ment and relevant indictors should be adopted as part of state government priori-ties.

Chime

Travellers stranded in Awka said they were protesting because they were being forced to pay N14, 000 inter-state levy by Winnerlack, the company he also ac-cused of impounding their buses illegally.

In his words: Our major grouse is that our vehicles are being impounded ille-gally and N14,000 collected from every bus as inter-state fee and we dont know on whose authority Win-nerlack is doing this as he

was not issuing any paper. They called it inter-

state fee and insisted that each bus must pay. We wrote to the Commission-er of Police and the State Security Service (SSS) to enable them react. But, up till now, there was no reply from them. He said they were waiting for the gov-ernment to come to their assistance.

Chief Ojii, who said they sent a complaint to

the former commissioner for special duties on the issue without achieving any result, said their major demand now is that the in-terstate levy be abolished, while buses seized from their members, which are about 20, be released to them immediately. He lamented that the alleged forceful collection of the levy by the agent has de-stroyed their business.

Meanwhile, the protest which was planned as a two day-event was expected to

continue today. A member of Anambra State House of Assembly, representing Aguata 1 Constituency, Dr Umeh has, however, waded in to the issue with a prom-ise that he will liaise with the relevant authorities to ensure that the seized buses are released to their owners.

He made the offer to intervene to resolve the problem when he spoke to leaders of the association on their grievances at they were protesting yesterday.

DENNIS AGBOENUGU

A 22-year-old sales girl, Miss Chinenye Ugwoke, who was released by ritualists last Tuesday in Nsukka, Enugu State, has raised the alarm over three teenage girls, who are still in the ritual camp.

Narrating her ordeal in the hands of ritualists to journalists yesterday, Ug-woke said she was lured into the den of the ritualists in a thick forest in Nsukka in the morning of the fate-ful day.

Reprieve, however, came her way when the leader of the ritualists, after watch-ing her closely, said she was not the right person for the ritual and instructed his men to set her free.

Ugwoke, who told jour-nalists that she was a sales girl at Ogbete main market in Enugu, said she unknow-ingly, joined what appeared like a commercial bus as early as six oclock in the morning of that fateful day at Nsukka bus park to return early to Enugu with-out knowing that other oc-cupants of the bus were all members of a ritual gang.

She said the gang mem-bers initially pretended to be passengers but as they moved on, the driver said he would move through the old road, adding that none of them raised any objection.

She averred that she was surprised when the driver of the vehicle drove into a thick forest which she said she could no longer recog-

nise.Ugwoke said it was at

that point that she realised that she was the only stranger in the bus as the other two girls who were in the bus started playing, smoking and chatting with the gang members.

She said luck came her way when the ring leader of the gang came out and ordered that she should be set free and taken away be-cause she was not fit for the ritual.

According to her, the men obediently carried out the instruction and drove her out to a place near the main road.

She said it was at that place that she saw an old woman along the road who had compassion on her and took her to her house, fed and sheltered her till the next morning.

When contacted, the Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, ad-vised the victim go back to Nsukka and lodge a formal complaint to enable the po-lice at Nsukka commence investigation, and send the signal to police headquar-ters in Enugu.

DENNIS AGBO ENUGU

The Enugu State command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has sounded a note of warning to would-be vandals in the state to desist from their nefarious even as plans were under-

way to revitalise the Enugu depot of the Nigeria Na-tional Petroleum Company (NNPC) for lifting of crude oil products.

Commandant of NSCDC in Mr. Sikiru Adi-sa Raimi, in an interview yesterday said the resolve of his command to rid the society of oil pipeline vandals, water pipeline

vandals and NITEL cable vandals, was at an all time high.

Sikiri said his command has retooled and evolved new strategies to combat the activities of vandals in the state, adding that the command has sufficient manpower to weather the storm.

He commended the ef-

forts of other sister secu-rity agencies, saying that a harmonious working rela-tionship was pivotal to the success of the protection of lives and property of the populace, maintaining that all the security agencies in the state share intelligence briefs to enable them nip the activities of unscrupu-lous citizens in the bud.

NSCDC warns crude oil vandals in Enugu

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Thursday, August 9 , 2012 South South

The Presidential Am-nesty Office has de-scribed those who attacked journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journal-ists, NUJ, Secretariat in Warri, Delta State, as a group of impostors.

The Head of Media and Communications of the Amnesty Office, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, in a state-ment yesterday, dismissed the protesters claim that they were being owed their monthly stipends.

He said: For purposes

of clarification, our records show that the so-called pro-testers, who claimed to be former agitators under Phase Two of the Presiden-tial Amnesty Programme, PAP, are not known to this office. Clearly, they are im-postors trying to reap from the success of the amnesty programme.

Information available to us also shows that this was the same group that attacked the Benin NUJ secretariat last week and made similar claims.

Alabrah said the pro-testers were not part of the amnesty programme, but belonged to one of the numerous groups clamour-ing to be absorbed into the programme under a third phase.

He said: The Amnesty Office is not owing any Ni-ger Delta youth under the Presidential Amnesty Pro-gramme, as their stipends are paid through their banks from the 25th of ev-ery month. The payment process is computerised

and no one is paid by hand. The Amnesty Office,

however, notes the cam-paign of calumny and the attempt to blackmail the Special Adviser to the Pres-ident on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presiden-tial Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, by some disgruntled elements for reasons best known to them.

We have resolved to do what is best for the Niger Delta and Nigeria through the PAP. No amount of neg-

ative or hate campaign can make us lose focus.

In furtherance of Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathans transformation agenda for the country and our region, we will continue to work with the security agen-cies to foster peace and economic growth in the Niger Delta. The dividends of the amnesty proclama-tion have already ensured a steady rise in crude oil production, which only re-cently hit 2.7 million bar-rels per day.

CHINEDUM EMEANAPORT HARCOURT

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, said the $1bn rec-ommended by the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, as start-up fund for Ogoni clean-up for the first five years must be spent on Ogoni alone.

This is against the Fed-eral Governments deci-sion to adopt a regional ap-proach to the UNEP report

recommendation for Ogo-niland by setting up Hydro-carbon Pollution Restora-tion Pollution, HYPREP.

The people arrived at this decision after a Con-gress of the Ogoni People held at the Peace and Free-dom Centre, Bori, to mark one year of the release of the UNEP report.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Chairman, MOSOP Provi-sional Council, Prof. Ben Naanen, and member, Bish-op Solomon Gberegbara.

The Ogoni people, ac-cording to the statement,

also expressed concern that it took the Federal Gov-ernment one year to take action on the UNEP report.

However, the Ogoni said they decided to give the Federal Government the benefit of the doubt, by accepting HYPREP, real-ising that other parts of the Niger Delta also suf-fered oil-related pollution like Ogoni, and having received some guarantees from the representatives of HYPREP and National Oil Spill Detention and Re-sponse Agency, NOSDRA.

The statement reads in

part: The UNEP recom-mendations on Ogoni will be fully and faithfully im-plemented irrespective of HYPREPs intervention in other areas.

The $1bn recommend-ed by UNEP as start-up fund for Ogoni clean-up for the first five years must be spent on Ogoni alone.

The Ogoni people will be given first priority in the business and job opportu-nities connected with the clean-up in the Ogoni area as a means of ameliorating the dire poverty and job-lessness in the area.

President Jonathan

Members of the Nigeria Medical Association, Rivers State chapter, protesting the abduction of their colleagues in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

UNEP report: $1bn must be for Ogoni alone - MOSOP

Aides groan as cash crunch hits Dicksons govt

Warri: Attackers of journalists are impostors - Amnesty Offi ce

Religious leaders fl ay calls for Jonathans resignation

Bayelsa Assembly sacks fi ve LG chairmen over incompetenceEMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

The Bayelsa State House of Assembly yesterday sacked five local government chairmen for non-perfor-mance and incompetence.

The decision to sack the chairmen was taken at a closed-door plenary ses-sion in Yenagoa, presided over by Speaker Konbowei

Benson.It was the outcome of a

probe of eight local govern-ment chairmen ordered by the Assembly.

The lawmakers launched the probe into the financial activities of the councils, a development which sent jitters down the spines of some of the local government officials.

The affected chairmen, whose tenure is expected to end next April, are Tiwei

Orunimighe of Southern Ijaw Local Government, Ngo Sylva (Brass), Eddy Julius (Ekeremor), Pere Pereotu (Sagbama), and Sammy Boy (Ogbia).

Only three of the eight chairmen, who were in-vestigated, were spared. The local governments are Yenagoa, Nembe and Kolo-kuma/Opokuma.

Petitions by councillors in some of the councils ne-cessitated the investigation

EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

There are indications that the cash crunch being experienced by political appointees in Bayelsa State is crumbling govern-ment activities.

The situation is not go-ing down well with Gov-ernor Seriake Dicksons aides.

Some aides regretted that the governor hardly approves their memo, while others complained that he often slashes the sum specified in the memo.

Investigation showed that the appointees, in-cluding commissioners, special advisers, senior special assistants, com-plained that their sala-ries and allowances could hardly meet their needs.

In one of Dicksons pub-lic outings in the state, he had announced that the monthly take-home of his political aides, including himself and the Deputy Governor, John Jonah,

had been slashed by 15 per cent, describing it as a sac-rifice to the state.

Almost six months in office, the governors aides have not been allocated their official vehicles to fa-cilitate their job.

Some of the aides also threatened to resign their appointments if the situa-tion continued.

It was gathered that some of the appointees do not have offices, but only collect their monthly in-come as a political patron-age.

Worried by the grum-blings by the appointees, it was learnt that on Tues-day, Dickson convened a closed-door meeting with about 300 political aides inside the Banquet Hall of the Government House in Yenagoa.

One of the political ap-pointees at the meeting told our correspondent that the governor said the state was facing some financial difficulties as N3b was de-ducted at source from the states allocation from the federation account.

EMMA GBEMUDUYENAGOA

Christian and Muslim leaders in Bayelsa State yesterday con-demned a recent call by Boko Haram on President Good-luck Jonathan to convert to Islam or resign from offi ce.

The religious leaders prevailed on the Federal Government and security agencies to step up efforts to curtail bomb attacks and reckless killing of innocent people in parts of the coun-try.

This is contained in a communiqu issued in Yen-agoa after the leaders rose from an interactive session

convened by the Special Ad-viser to Governor Seriake Dickson on Civil Society Matters, Faithful Toifatei.

The leaders said Boko Haram contravened the constitutional right of in-dividuals to freedom of re-ligion.

We as religious stake-holders in the state do con-demn the activities of the religious sect, Boko Haram, and also the recent com-ment credited to the sect to the effect that President Jonathan should convert to Islam or resign his office, they said.

The religious leaders reasoned that both Chris-tianity and Islam preach peace and urged their ad-herents to always apply dialogue in resolution of conflicts.

The communiqu noted that both religions had co-existed peacefully in the state and called for suste-nance of the peace by being their brothers keeper at all times.

by the Assembly. During the probe, the

Assembly discovered a lot of anomalies in the trans-actions of the councils.

Governor Seriake Dick-son has never hidden his dislike for the high scale of corruption and indo-lence in the councils.

He had repeatedly called for the overhaul of the third-tier system of government to enhance development in the hinter-lands.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net12 Thursday, August 9, 2012 North

AUGUSTINE MADU-WESTKANO

Forty-eight hours after a six-man rob-bery gang invaded the popular Kantin Kwari textile market in the com-mercial city of Kano and looted about N100 million from a textile shop owned by a Lebanese, detectives from the Kano State Police Com-mand have arrested all the workers for interrogation.

A source close to the trad-ers at the market hinted that the Lebanese owner of the shop invited the police to arrest all his workers, all of whom he was suspecting to have connived with the armed robbers to snatch the N100 million, stacked in many Ghana-must-go sacks, and about to be deposited in a nearby bank, before the robbers struck.

According to the source, armed robbers at about this same period last year raided the same textile shop and carted away millions of naira, which the Lebanese owners of the shop are yet to recover from.

In its efforts to the re-cover the loss, according to our source, the owners of the shop hiked the prices of the various grades of textile materials and fabrics they have in stock by about 50 percent.

That the robbers struck when the N100 million was about to be conveyed to the bank, just like they did the same period last year, was enough indication that there must be an insiders conniv-ance, hence my resolve to seek the intervention of the police to quiz the workers in-dividually to determine the extent of their involvement and the role they played in aiding and abetting the rob-bers.

While the robbers were escaping, it was learnt that they were not only sporadi-cally firing into the air to ward off danger but were also raining bundles of nai-ra notes on the crowd that dotted their escape route, leading to desperate scram-bling for the money and in the ensuing confusion, they made good their escape.

Also, it was gathered that

some petty traders among the passersby, who benefited from the robbers largesse, have started replenishing their shops, a develop-ment that was baffling to some of their co-traders, who were aware that be-fore the robbery incident, they were barely strug-gling to keep their shops afloat.

National Mirror con-firmed that the police on arrival at the robbery scene were handicapped, as they could hardly open fire on the robbers who were busy showering bun-dles of naira notes on on-lookers, all of whom were scrambling for the loot.

Police quiz workers over textile market robbery

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Dr. Godknows Igali; Etsu of Yaba, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu; Supervisory Councillor, Abaji Local Government, Mr. Abubakar Sokodabo and Chairman, Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, Mr. Jagdish Chamrai, during the commissioning of Rehabilitated Hand Pump Boreholes in Abaji Area Council of the FCT Abuja, yesterday. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

JAMES ABRAHAMJOS

The Plateau State chapter of the As-sociation of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) yesterday ex-pressed concern over the ongoing military action in some communities in the state by members of the Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis.

It will be recalled that au-thorities of the STF had on July 14 ordered residents of five villages including Mahanga, Kakuruk, Kuzen, Maseh, Shong; one and two in Barki Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas of the state to vacate their settlements within 48 hours to enable them carry out military operation against terrorists that before now had launched series of at-

tacks on the villagers lead-ing to several deaths.

But, Chairman of AL-GON in the state, Hon. Em-manuel Loman, who spoke with journalists on the matter yesterday, said since the operation started last month, the people were yet to experience any tangible benefit of the operation as the people were still being killed by the terrorists.

Just last week, the Fu-

lani herdsmen killed three Tarok people in Langtang axis of the state.

Also some people in Gashit district who went to apply fertilizer on their farms were attacked as well.

Loman, who is also the Chairman of Barki Ladi Local Government Area added: You see the prob-lem I have with the ongo-ing operation is the way

ALGON expresses concern over STFs operation

Kwankwaso

JAMES ABRAHAMJOS

Youths in Plateau State have been asked to shun any negative tendency and al-low peace to prevail in the state.

They were also urged to see each other as one cre-ated by the God Almighty, who places a very high val-ue on human lives, too pre-cious to be wasted at will.

These were some of the views raised yesterday at the Azi Nyako Youth Cen-tre in Jos, where about 1, 470 youths made up of vari-ous ethnic groups resident in the state including the Hausa-|Fulani and the Berom ethnic nationalities, gathered to seek peace.

The meeting was well attended by top security personnel in the state and was supervised by the rep-resentative of the Chief of Defense Staff, Brig.-Gener-al B. Y. Bukar.

Addressing the multi-tude, the chief convener and the Special task Force Commander, Maj.-Gen. Henry Ayoola, told them that if they are beginning to realize that God is too busy and too purposeful to

create them for nothing they will be focused and conscious to trade the path of peace instead of going after one anothers life and property.

The taskforce command-er reminded youths of the two faiths that the security around them cannot guar-antee total security, if the youths themselves have not resolved solemnly to live to-gether in peace.

He said the command has packaged the parley to work on the psyche of the youths to remove from them the despondency that existed among them as a re-sult of the crises.

The task force com-mander tasked them to remain vigilant and give early warning to the se-curity for quick response and avoid acting on false rumours as well as dispel the myth of a no-go-area syndrome and reunite as Muslims and Christians, to fight the common enemy.

He assured the public that as officers commis-sioned to serve as the last hope of a common man they will discharge their responsibilities without fa-vour so as to keep Nigerian one.

Plateau youth urged to embrace peace Kaduna govt lifts

two-month-old curfewAZA MSUEKADUNA

Kaduna State gov-ernment yester-day lifted its two months old curfew imposed in the wake of the religious crisis which claimed lives and property in the state.

A statement signed by Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowas Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Reuben Buhari, said the re-striction of commercial mo-torcyclists movement from 9.00 pm to 6.00 am remained in force.

The statement said in part: In view of improved security situation in Kadu-na State, the security coun-cil met today and after exten-sive deliberation decided to lift the curfew that has being in place with effect from to-day.

Also Achaba/Okada operators in the state are to adhere strictly to the re-striction of their movement which starts by 9.00 pm and ends by 6.00 am. Mean-while, all are requested to remain law abiding and cooperate with security personnel.

and manner they set out to carry out the exercise in the first place.

How do you explain a situation where they went on air to announce their plans to go after the terror-ists before carrying out the operation proper, is that not funny? Will the enemy be there waiting for the sol-diers to come and swoop on them?

So it smacks of lack of genuine desire on their part to apprehend the terrorists who had been killing the villagers with impunity.

Apart from that, our people were asked to va-cate their settlements, we said no problem if that will bring the desired peace on the Plateau and we wasted no time to encourage the villagers to leave which they did.

But, we discovered that the Fulanis were not made to vacate the areas they oc-cupy. And the irony is that while the military opera-tion was going on, the Fu-lanis were busy destroying

the property owned by the indigenes while the mili-tary men were there.

Not only that, out of the five villages under military operation, four were re-cently asked by the STF to return to their villages but some of them who returned were attacked by the terror-ists again.

They also discovered that the houses they left behind have also been de-stroyed. So we suspect there is a conspiracy in the whole exercise. Let the STF tell the people what they have achieved since they started the operation.

The chairman, who was on the delegation of Gbom Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, who visited Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan on Monday over the recurring crisis in the state added; We have told Mr. President what the people on the Pla-teau are passing through. So, we expect him to take a very drastic measure to solve the problem once and for all.

SEBASTINE EBHUOMHAN

The Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) candidate in the July 14 governorship election of Edo State, Major-General Charles Airhiavbere (rtd), has decided to pursue the petition he filed before the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for Edo

State, contrary to his par-tys directive that he should immediately withdraw it.

Airhiavbere, who lost the governorship election by 144, 235 votes to the winner, Governor Adams Oshiom-holes 477,478 votes, yester-day confirmed to National Mirror his decision to go ahead and pursue his peti-tion at the tribunal against of his partys directive.

Im still going ahead with my petition to chal-lenge the irregularities in the election. Im a party in this matter and I have the right to challenge the in-justice done in the election. My lawyers are going ahead with the petition, Airhiav-bere told National Mirror.

The PDP candidate, how-ever, had on Tuesday got the backing of some chieftains

of his party in Edo South District, who met at the home of the former district chairman, Owere Disckson Imasogie and resolved to back Airhiavbere.

But speaking with Na-tional Mirror on the impact of Airhiavberes decision on the directive of the PDP, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Olisa Agba-

koba, stated that nothing is wrong if the PDP candi-date decides to pursue his petition alone, adding that the fact that his party has pulled out of the pursuit of the petition is not a good sign for him.

Agbakoba said: Wheth-er the petition succeeds or not is not the issue. Airhia-vbere is the petitioner. PDP is not the petitioner because Airhiavbere is the candidate. But you must understand that in law, not all petitions can be brought by a party. Some petitions can be pursued by the can-didate alone.

A visit to the venue of the petition at Court 1 of the High Court of Justice Complex located on Sapele Road in Benin City yester-day showed that copies of the petition marked: EPT/ED/10/2012, has been for-

mally served to the respon-dents who are expected to reply the tribunal ahead of a pre-conference hearing or trial that should follow.

Apart from Oshiomhole, other respondents in the petition include: the Ac-tion Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and INEC Returning Officer for the election, who is also the Vice Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof. Godwin Osayuki Oshodin.

Speaking on behalf of the state leadership of the party, the Public-ity Secretary, Mr. Matthew Urhoghide said the order not to contest the election result in court came from the national secretariat and supersedes any in-dividual ambition of the candidate.

OBIORA IFOH

Conference for Nige-rian Political Party (CNPP) has called on Nigerians to hold President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) responsible for the escalation of the activities of the Boko Haram Islamic sect in the country.

The umbrella body of the political parties also warned against the plot by the PDP to enthrone one-party state by working against the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, the Chairman of the CNPP, Alhaji Balarabe Musa ex-pressed worries that Presi-dent Jonathan could not do anything to arrest the incursion of the terrorist

group when he had told Nigerians that he know the sponsors of the sect.

His words: How can I hold any Nigerian respon-sible over the menace of the Boko Haram when the President himself has dis-played the most irrespon-sible attitude towards the security situation in Nige-ria? He said publicly that he was aware that Boko Haram was in his govern-ment and he has not done anything about it. Even at a time when one quarter of the annual budget is de-voted to security, is that not gross irresponsibility, gross misconduct? Deal with it first before you start deal-ing with the problem of ev-ery Nigerian.

He said that the way the President is handling the cases of corruption partic-ularly the oil subsidy probe

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to con-voke a national conference on the worsening insecurity in the land instead of offer-ing platitudes any time the deadly Boko Haram strikes snuffing out lives out of in-nocent Nigerians.

In a statement issued in Ibadan yesterday by its Na-tional Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the govern-

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

Osun State chap-ter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the state governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, of caus-ing confusion over the debt profile of the state.

The party cautioned the governor to stop deceiving people that the state is not indebted to any financial institution in the country.

The Osun PDP Direc-tor of Media and Strategy, Prince Diran Odeyemi,

in a press statement in Osogbo, the state capital, said that Aregbesola was economical with the truth when he stated that he did not borrow from any bank.

Odeyemi said: We all knew that the current Action Congress of Nige-ria (ACN) government in Osun State is deceiving us on the issue of the debt profile