STATES APC PDP

LAGOS 811,994 659,788

OGUN 306,988 201,440

OYO 327,319 79,019

KWARA 295,831 115,140

NIGER 450,757 171,856

AKWA IBOM 996,071 89,865

KADUNA 1,117,635 485,140

KATSINA 943,085 476,768

KANO 1,546,434 509,720

SOKOTO 647,609 269,074

GOMBE 285,369 205,132

EBONYI 289,867 27,583

BAUCHI 654,934 282,650

ENUGU 482,277 43,837

Vol. 5 N0. 1089 Monday, April 13, 2015 N150

P.11

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16>>

Nebo

Ambode (Lagos)

Ganduje (Kano)Abubakar (Bauchi)

el-Rufai (Kaduna) Masari (Katsina)

Tambuwal (Sokoto)Udom (Akwa Ibom) Umahi (Ebonyi)

Ugwuanyi (Enugu)

...APC gets 18 states, PDP 5

Poor electricity: Applications to import generators soar

BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS

All Progressives Congress, APC, may be coasting

to a landslide in the gu-bernatorial and Houses of Assembly elections held weekend, as it has

already gotten 18 states in its kitty.

Governor Abiola Aji-mobi finally broke the second term jinx in Oyo OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

First term governors of Ogun, Oyo, Kwara and Gombe states, Ibikunle

Amosun, Abiola Ajimobi, Abdulfatah Ahmed and Ibra-him Dankwambo respectively, were re-elected for a second term in Saturday’s gubernato-rial election.

Amosun, who contested on the banner of the All Pro-gressives Congress, APC, polled 306,988 votes to defeat his closest rival, Gboyega Isiaka of the Peoples Demo-cratic party, PDP, who man-aged to garner 201,440 votes.

In Oyo, Ajimobi, also of the APC, defeated other con-tenders for the Agodi Govern-ment House, which included two former governors, Rashi-di Ladoja and Adebayo Alao-Akala. He polled 327,319 votes to win the gubernatorial elections. PDP candidate and former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, came a distant fourth with 79,019 votes.

TOLA AKINMUTIMI & UDEME AKPAN

Despite privatisa-tion and assuranc-es by the Federal

Government on improved electricity, investigations have shown that unstable power supply has buoyed generator importation significantly over the past two years.

This shows that billions of Naira committed to the privatisation of the sector by power generation (Gen-cos) and power distribu-tion companies (Discos)

FRONT PAGE COMMENT:

Ahmed, Amosun, Ajimobi, Dankwambo re-elected

THE RESULTS SO FARCONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>

Ambode, Umahi, Tambuwal, Udom, Masari, el-Rufai win

Away with politics of opportunism

5 killed as church building collapses

Mobile internet userssurge to 80 million

BUSINESSTHE SECTION

P.A4Free inside

Recent reports show that the political class stepped up their odious pastime, as their political

fortunes tumble with panic-stricken members of the ruling Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) defecting in droves

to the erstwhile opposition All Pro-gressives Congress (APC) following the losses their party posted during the March 28 presidential and National Assembly polls. In Gombe, the Major-

ity Leader of the House of Assembly, Mamman Alkali, was listed as one of scores of PDP members who defected to the APC. Over 50 Personal Assistants

BEHOLD! THE NEW GOVERNORS

State, as he was re-elect-ed for a second term, be-coming the first governor of the Pacesetter State to be so re-elected.

Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, was declared winner. He won 11 out of the 20 local gov-ernment councils of the state to retain his seat for another four-year term.

INEC’s State Return-ing Officer, SRO, Prof. Duro Oni, said Amosun polled 306,988 out of 555,430 total valid votes cast to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Gboyega Na-sir Isiaka, who polled 201,440 votes.

Ajimobi defeated 11 other candidates, among whom were two former governors, Rashidi Lado-ja and Adebayo Alao-Akala, who contested under the platforms of Accord Party and Labour Party, LP, respectively and candidates of the PDP, Teslim Folarin and the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Seyi Makinde.

Ajimobi triumphed in 20 of the 33 local gov-ernment areas, leaving Ladoja and Akala with seven and six councils re-spectively.

He polled 327,319 votes against Ladoja and Alao-Akala who polled 254,520 and 184,111 votes respec-tively.

Folarin and Makinde polled 79,019 and 54,740 votes.

APC won 18 of the 32 state Assembly seats, leaving Accord and LP with 8 and 6 seats respec-tively. PDP and SDP won no seat.

The Deputy Vice-Chan-cellor of Obafemi Awolo-wo University, OAU, the returning officer for the state gubernatorial poll, Prof. Ayobami Salami, declared that “Ajimobi of APC having satisfied the requirement and scored highest number of votes is hereby declared win-ner.”

In Lagos State, APC’s Akinwunmi Ambode defeated PDP’s Jimi Ag-baje, his closest rival in the race to Alausa Round House with 152, 206 votes.

Ambode polled 811,994 to defeat Agbaje who polled 659,788. Ambode won in 15 out of the 20 lo-

and loans guaranteed for them by government for improved electricity may not have begun to yield tangible results.

Available statistics on power generator imports showed that in 2013 alone, 524 applications were re-ceived and processed as against the about 430 in the preceding year.

Though the 2014 of-ficial figures were not made available officially by the Nigerian Electric-ity Regulatory Commis-sion, NERC, the regula-tory agency responsible for issuance of import certificates to importers of generators at the time of filing this report, a source in the know of the

importation trend hinted that last year alone, over 650 applications were re-ceived.

Only a few of the 2014 applications were said to have been processed by the end of the year, leav-ing a backlog of hundreds of applications to be pro-cessed this year.

The source confirmed that this year, over 80 ap-plications had been sub-mitted by prospective importers of power gener-ators as the hope of stable electricity remains slim still.

The breakdown of the 2013 figures showed that 264 applications were re-ceived in the first half of the year compared with

the 260 applications re-ceived between July and December of the year.

A further breakdown showed that 123 applica-tions were received from importers in the first quarter, while 141,139 and 121 were received in the second and third quarter (July – September) and fourth quarter (October – December) respectively.

An industry operator, who pleaded not to be named, confirmed that the over 240 lucky appli-cants who secured the ap-proval of NERC to import generators last year, were already bringing in the product, which came in different sizes and capaci-ties.

NERC had earlier con-firmed that the quest for generators remained high as the challenges of ef-fective power generation, transmission and distri-bution in the country re-mained unabated.

For instance, data by the Presidential Task Force on Power showed that the country gener-ated 3,913 megawatts as at February 9, 2015.

This, which is grossly insufficient considering the 10,000 mw, estimated national demand, culmi-nated in load shedding, blackouts and increased importation of genera-tors.

The Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Sam

Amadi said, in a tele-phone interview with National Mirror, that the poor state of power sup-ply may justify the need for increased importation of generators.

Officials of the Minis-try of Power in Abuja did not take their telephone calls when our correspon-dent called.

But one of them, who preferred not to be named because he was not per-mitted to speak, hinted that the Minister of Pow-er, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, had stated that the cost of providing electricity per megawatt on average is $2bin.

“For us to generate

cal government areas of the state, while PDP won in only five.

Agbaje, who has since conceded defeat, report-edly called Ambode on his cell phone around 7pm to congratulate him on his victory at the polls.

Agbaje equally twit-ted on his handle: “I just called Akinwunmi Am-bode to congratulate him on his victory. I wish him well and pray he will be successful in guiding this state.”

In Gombe, PDP’s Gov-ernor Ibrahim Hassan

Dankwambo was re-turned winner. He polled 285,369 votes to defeat APC candidate, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya who gar-nered 205,132 votes, in a result released by the state returning officer, Prof. Saminu Ibrahim.

However, the victory is seen by many in the state as a big blow to immedi-ate past governor of the state and leader of the APC, Senator Muham-mad Danjuma Goje, who is seen as the main force behind Inuwa's cam-paign.

In Enugu, PDP’s If-eanyi Ugwuanyi, has been declared winner.

The state returning officer, Prof. Hillary Ede-oga declared that Ugu-wanyi polled 482,277 votes against his closest rival, APC’s Okey Ezea, who garnered 43,837 votes.

In Katsina, Speaker of the House of Represen-tatives, Aminu Masari, of the APC was declared winner, beating six other contestants to the plum job.

He garnered 943,085 votes against his closest

rival, PDP’s Musa Nas-huni, who polled 476,768 votes.

INEC’s Returning Offi-cer, Prof. Lawal Sulieman Biblis, who read out the results, said Masari was returned after having certified requirements of the electoral law.

Biblis said total num-ber of voters for the election was 2,798,102; 1,641,251 were accredit-ed, and valid votes were 1,514,000.

He said rejected votes stood at 41,333, total votes cast was 1,555,333.

Meanwhile, it was cel-ebration galore for the APC members follow-ing their gubernatorial win, with celebrations reported in several parts of the state following the results' announcement.

APC also won all the seats in the state House of Assembly.

The story was also not different in Sokoto as the incumbent Speaker of the House of Represen-tatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal won the gu-bernatorial election for

Poor electricity: Applications to import generators soar

Ambode, Umahi, Tambuwal, Udom, Masari, el-Rufai win CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>

L-R: Returning Officer, Prof. Ayobami Salami; Resident Electoral Commissioner for Oyo State, Amb. Rufus Akeju and AIG Zone 2, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye, during the announcement of results of governorship election in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net2 Monday, April 13, 2015News

DID YOU KNOW?Walnut fi ghts bowel cancer, heart disease

Paracetamol cannot cure lower back pain

FRANKA OSAKWE

If per adventure you find yourself in a medical condition that requires blood transfusion for you to remain alive, at

that point, the focus will be; getting a blood donor that will match your blood type, mak-ing sure the blood is free of infection, hav-ing it brought to the hospital on time, but these can be very challenging. More so, the right donor may not be available and other things may go wrong.

But thankfully, scientists have developed artificially created blood that will one day replace blood donations for blood transfu-sion.

The researchers from the University of Edinburgh have been using stem cells to create red blood cells and they have now reached an efficiency of almost 50 per cent.

In 2016, these researchers will be try-ing their artificial blood in three patients who need regular transfusions due to a red blood cell disorder known as thalassaemia.

If they succeed and the transfusion goes well, this breakthrough in red blood cell production could lead to a future where artificial blood is used more regularly than donated blood.

This is according to the leader of the study and Medical Director at Scottish Na-tional Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), Professor Marc Turner, who predicted that artificial blood could replace donated blood as the norm for transfusion in the next 20 years.

“The artificial blood would be made from a person of the rare universal blood type ‘O’ as this can be transfused into other patients of any blood type.

“Producing an artificial blood which is of the scale, quality and safety required for human clinical trials is a very significant challenge”

“But if we can achieve success with

Ea t i n g a hand-

ful of wal-nuts a day can cut your risk of bowel cancer, heart disease and dementia, re-searchers claim.

A number of studies presented at a confer-ence in the US help shine fresh light on the super-food’s health boosting properties.

Researchers at Ewha Womans University in Korea found that walnut extract reduces the size of colon tumours and slows the spread of cancer stem cells.

They called for further studies into the role of walnut consumption in bowel cancer therapies.

Millions of people advised by their doctor to take paracetamol to relieve lower back pain and os-

teoarthritis have been wasting their time, researchers claim.

An extensive study has found that the over-the-counter drug is ineffective for pain concentrated in the lower spine.

Monday, April 13, 2015National Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net

Good Health

PAGE3

Another recent study at Louisiana State University showed that adding walnuts to the diet of animals improved their gut bac-teria, vital in maintaining a healthy bowel.

At Tufts University, Massachusetts, tests on rats found that adding walnuts to their diet improved mental ability.

The researchers said eating walnuts may help protect the ageing brain.

And a study of postmenopausal women with high cholesterol by the University of California, Davis, found those who ate walnuts saw improved function in small blood vessels, where clots can cause a heart attack or stroke.

this first trial, it will be an important step forward to enable populations all over the world to benefit from blood transfusions,” says Turner.

He stressed, however, that it will take at least 20 years before artificial blood over-takes donated blood as the source for blood transfusions and that people should not stop donating any time soon.

If artificial blood finally replaces blood donation, it is hoped that the cost of blood per unit would drop.

According to the researchers, artificial blood may also carry with it health advan-tages due to blood regeneration.

“Blood cells last around 100 days but not all cells are born at the same moment, so do-nated blood is a mixture of old and new cells.

“Artifical blood, on the other hand, would be entirely new blood cells. The ma-jor problem at the moment is scaling up production from a trial to industrial levels.

“Nonetheless if the trial proves to be a success, it would be a big step in the right direction towards making blood transfu-sions more widely available at a reasonable cost”, the report said.

On how the process is made, Turner ex-plained that it involves using adult skin or blood cells that have been genetically modi-fied into stem cells, known as induced plu-ripotent stem (iPS) cells.

“These iPS cells are then cultured in biologic conditions that mimic the human body, eventually leading to their transition into mature red blood cells.

“The trick so far has been increasing the efficiency of this transition process, as not all the cells are capable of becoming red blood cells. The red blood cells are then separated from the rest of the cells in a cen-trifuge”, he said.

The team at the University of Edinburgh said they’re re-engineering the hemoglo-bin molecule to overcome a major problem faced by other researchers which is to make an artificial hemoglobin that isn’t toxic to the body.

According to them, the new method is able to avoid toxicity by introducing into the artificial hemoglobin, specific amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, in an effort to detoxify it.

“This artificial blood doesn’t need refrig-eration, can be given to all blood types, and wouldn’t be at the mercy of willing donors”, they added.

Although similar research has been con-ducted elsewhere, this would be the first time that manufactured blood would be produced in appropriate quality and safety standards for transfusion into a human be-ing.

The previous artificial blood was created by researchers from Babe�-Bolyai Univer-sity in Cluj-Napoca, Romania Romania to-wards the end of 2013.

The blood contained water and salts along with a protein known as hemerythrin that is extracted from sea worms.

So far the artificial blood has been tested on laboratory mice that didn’t experience any adverse side effects.

Scientists also found that paracetamol offers just “small but not clinically impor-tant benefits” for people with osteoarthri-tis.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, will come as a blow to mil-lions of sufferers who use the pills to man-age both conditions.

Back pain and osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, are the leading causes of disability worldwide with clinical guidelines long recommending paracetamol as the first line drug treatment for both.

But the research led by the George In-stitute for Global Health at the University of Sydney in Australia suggests this advice may be wrong.

•Set for human trial in 2016

Artifi cial blood to replace blood donation

Election observers on Sunday called for cancellation

of the governorship and House of Assembly elec-tions in Rivers State.

Leader of African Centre for Leadership Strategies and Devel-opment, Mr Humphrey Bekaren, who spoke on behalf of the observers, made the call in Port Harcourt.

He said the observers were shocked that INEC

disregarded the widely reported violent irregu-larities to begin the pro-cess of declaring results in the state.

“We request all lovers of democracy to join us in calling for the out-right cancellation of the phony election.

“Unless this is done, we would have sown the seed that could eventual-ly grow into providing a shade of fear and death over us,” he said.

According to Bekaren, what happened in Rivers State was a far cry from what election should be.

“What we saw did not meet international stan-dards of electioneer-ing, not even the ones set by the Independent National Electoral Com-mission INEC,’’ he said, adding that there were reported incidents like deliberate delays and diversion of electoral materials, attacks on

electoral officers, wide-spread arson and voter intimidation.

Resident Electoral Commissioner for Riv-ers, Mrs Gesila Khan, said INEC cancelled election in centres with reported electoral mal-practices.

She said re-run elec-tions took place in six local government areas in the state where elec-toral malpractices were reported.

Int’l observers call for cancellation of Rivers result

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net4 Monday, April 13, 2015Photo News

Omeiza ajayi ABUJA

Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday re-

leased preliminary report on its conduct of gover-norship and Houses of As-sembly elections across the country at the weekend.

Governorship elections were held in 29 states of the federation, while House of Assembly elections were held in 36 states. Both exer-cises excluded the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, be-cause the president and the federal legislature consti-tute the executive and legis-lative arms of the territory.

The report, which was not signed by any INEC of-ficial, was however, sent through the usual channel used to reach the media by Chief Press Secretary to the commission’s chair-man, Mr Kayode Idowu.

Overall, many parts of the country remained rela-

INEC releases interim report on guber polls

L-R: Managing Director/CEO, Uzoamaka Oshogwe; Chairman, Erelu Angela Adebayo and Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Mr. Obong Idiong, during the annual general meeting of the company in Lagos, recentlyL-R: Executive Members of Abuja Residents Forum, Alhaji Abubakar Aminu; Leader, Hon.

Olushola Emmanuel and Evang. Charles Okehislem, during a press briefing in Abuja, yesterday.

L-R: Senior Vice President, Babcock University, Prof. Iheanyichukwu Okoro; President, Prof Kayode Makinde; Vice Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Bamitale Omole and Guest Speaker, Prof. Yetunde Makinde, during the 3rd inaugural lecture of Babcock University in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, at the weekend.

L-R: Resources Persons, Barrister Bonat Job Tagwai; Barrister Ado Solomon; Representative of Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. David Manya Dogo and Assistant Commissioner of Prisons (ACP) Cordelia Aguh at the Capacity Building on Mitigation of Post Election Violence for Community Support Brigade (CSB) held in Lafia, Nasarawa State at the weekend.

National News

tively peaceful during the elections, the report stated.

It, however, regretted that in some states, there were records of a signifi-cant number of violent in-cidents, the most affected being Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Ebonyi and Ondo states.

“INEC’s records show that there were 66 reports of violent incidents target-ed at polling units, the com-mission’s officials, voters and election materials.

“These were in Rivers State (16 incidents), Ondo (8), Cross River and Eb-onyi (6 each), Akwa Ibom (5), Bayelsa (4), Lagos and Kaduna (3 each), Jigawa, Enugu, Ekiti and Osun (2 each), Katsina, Plateau, Kogi, Abia, Imo, Kano and Ogun (1 each),” the report stated.

It was, however, quick to add that the commission was investigating those in-cidents and would do every-thing within its powers to

…says 66 violent incidences recorded in 19 statesunits had commenced vot-ing by 2:30pm.

INEC added that the pro-cess of accreditation with Smart Card Readers was also successful in majority of the polling units despite initial challenges recorded in Edo and Abia states. It said the technical teams de-ployed to support the states were able to resolve the is-sues on time.

INEC also commended Nigerians for once again demonstrating their re-solve and commitment to participate in the electoral process and by doing so, contribute to deepening democracy in the country.

The commission called on Nigerians to maintain the peace, as results of the governorship and House of Assembly elections are

being processed, and to ac-cept the official outcome.

It emphasised that win-ners can only emerge af-ter collation of official results and on the basis of the requirements pre-scribed by the legal frame-work.

The commission specif-ically urged any aggrieved persons or groups to seek redress at the tribunals.

bring the culprits to justice.According to the report,

a general assessment of the exercise showed that the elections “went very well across the country”.

It said 88.9 per cent of polling units opened for accreditation between 8am and 10am across the coun-try. Only 5.2 per cent were yet to open as at 1pm. Also, 73 per cent of the polling

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 5Monday, April 13, 2015 News

the APC.Tambuwal won with

647,609 votes, beating Ab-dallah Wali of the PDP who scored 269,074 votes, according to INEC.

In Kaduna, APC candi-date, Nasir el-Rufai sacks incumbent governor and PDP candidate, Ramalan Yero, in what has been described as a landslide victory.

el-Rufai defeated Yero with 1,117,635 votes, while the PDP candidate polled 485,140 votes.

Yero has conceded victory to his successor, wishing him success and prayed for peace and de-velopment in Kaduna State and Nigeria at large.

Incumbent governor and APC candidate in Kwara State, Abdufatah Ahmed also won a second term in office after the collation of results from the 16 local councils of

the state.Ahmed won with

295,831 votes to PDP's 115,220 votes, while LP trailed with only 2,840 votes.

APC also seems to be coasting home to victory in Niger State, as it leads the PDP, having won 17 out of the 18 local coun-cils so far declared out of 25 councils.

APC candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, won in Munya, Rijau, Shi-roro, Gbako, Bida, Lavun, Chanchaga, Lapai, Agaie, Rafi, Paikoro, Suleja, Ka-cha, Borgu, Gurara, Bos-so and Tafa council areas, polling 450,757 votes to PDP candidate, Hon. Nas-ko’s with 171,856 votes.

Nasko only won in his local government of Magama.

In Kano, as at the time of filing this report, APC candidate and deputy governor, Dr Abdulla-

hi Umar Ganduje, has emerged victorious in the 32 local government areas where results have been declared, beating his arch rival, Mallam Sagir Takai of the PDP in his Takai local govern-ment stronghold.

Takai polled 19,855 votes to Ganduje’s 32,012 votes in his constituency.

National Mirror re-ports that at the time of going to press, 32 re-turning officers have announced the outcome of the results in the 32 local governments, with Ganduje polling 1,032,884 votes out of 1,466,960, against 313,927 polled by the PDP standard bearer.

The local govern-ments whose guberna-torial elections results have been announced by assigned INEC return-ing officers are: Ajingi, Albasu, Bebeji, Danbatta, Dawakin Kudu, Dawakin

Tofa, Doguwa, Gabsawa, Garko, Gaya, Gezawa, Wudil, Warawa, Tudun Wada, Takai.

Others are, Sumaila, Rogo, Rano, Munjibir, Makoda, Kiru, Kibiya, Karaye, Kabo, Gwarzo, and Garun Mallam local government areas.

PDP gubernatorial candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel won in Akwa Ibom.

Announcing the result of the election in Uyo, the Returning Officer, Prof. James Epoke, said Emmanuel polled 996,071 votes to defeat his APC rival, Mr Umana Umana, who polled 89,865 votes.

Epoke said that Em-manuel won in all the 31 local government areas in the state, adding: “By the provision of the Elec-toral Act, Emmanuel, having scored the high-est number of votes cast in the election, is hereby

declared elected.”It was history repeat-

ing itself in Bauchi State, as the APC defeated the ruling PDP with 654,934 votes. APC also won all the state Assembly seats, save two which the PDP won.

APC candidate and incumbent governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura looks set to re-turning to Lafia Govern-ment House, as he is lead-ing in eight out of 9 local councils so far declared with a margin of 24,724 over his closest rivals.

Al-Makura won in Ke-ana, Keffi, Wamba, Ak-wanga, Karu, Kokona and Obi councils, while Laba-ran Maku of the All Pro-gressives Grand Alliance, APGA won in Nasarawa Eggon local government area. PDP candidate, Mo-hammed Agabi is yet to win any local council.

PDP and its candidate

in Ebonyi State, Mr. Dave Umahi, has been declared elected in the Saturday gubernatorial election.

Declaring the results of the election, Ebonyi State collation officer, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikwe University noted that Umahi won in 13 local councils, polling 289,867 votes to defeat LP, APC and APGA, which polled 124,817, 27,583 and 17,971 votes respectively.

In Plateau State, PDP candidate, Gyang Pwajok was ahead of his closest rival, APC’s Simon Lalong with over 47,000 votes in the eight local councils which results have been declared by INEC.

According to the results announced by INEC in Jos yesterday, the PDP and APC candidates won in four local councils apiece.

In Adamawa, PDP

40,000 mw like South Afri-ca, we need to invest about $3.2trn (about N672trn),” he said.

Investigations by our correspondent showed the low funding and other problems had impacted negatively on the rehabili-tation of power sector in-frastructure.

For instance, a recent government data showed that some major units of Kainji plant, including 1G

5, 1G 6, 1G7, 1G8, 1G9, 1G10 and 1G11 were down for maintenance.

The authoritative data showed that units 2G5 and 2G6 of Jebba plant were due for rehabilitation.

The ST1 unit of Sapele Power Plant suffered a major water leakage in its boiler feed pump. Other units, including ST3, 4 and 5 were also out because of fault. Delta was not differ-ent.

The power plant has a

generator winding fault in its GT3 and 5 while GT7 was shut because of leak-age.

While GT 19 broke down while other units such as GT11 and 15 ex-perienced high vibration and turbine blade failure respectively, the Afam plant recorded some prob-lems. For instance, its GT2 was down while GT3 suf-fered high vibration. Also, GT4, 5, 17, 18 and 19 were affected as a result of

various operational con-straints.

Also, Geregu Plant suf-fered a setback in its GT 12 and 13 due mainly to low gas pressure while the units GT2 and 3 of Omo-toso were out because of some challenges.

This is even as Olo-runsogo Plant suffered a setback in its GT5 and 6 because of poor trans-former and vibration re-spectively.

The units GT21 and

22 of Geregu (NIPP) wit-nessed low gas pressure because of limited supply of the product. The GT1 unit of Alaoji (NIPP) was shut for water injection test.

The GT4 unit of Olo-runsogo (NIPP) was shut for maintenance; Omo-toso (NIPP) was shut be-cause of gas constraint while the GT1 unit of Ihovbor plant was shut as a result of another fault.

The inadequate gas supply that affected the plants occurred mainly because of pipeline van-dalism in the Niger Delta.

For instance, the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC Joint Venture has at various times shut its pipelines because of vandalism.

The Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Com-merce and Industry, LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, noted that energy cost remained a major threat to the sus-tainability of business.

Yusuf, who pointed out that expenditure by busi-nesses on diesel and other fuels had risen greatly de-spite the privatisation of the power sector, lament-ed that profit margins of most firms has not yet shown improvement due mainly to rising cost of

alternative power supply.He said the chamber’s

2014 Business Environ-ment Survey revealed that key sectors in the econo-my like construction, ag-riculture, manufacturing as well as oil and gas, have experienced slow growth.

“Manufacturers, es-pecially SMEs, still have major challenges such as worsening power supply, lack of access to credit, in-flux of fake and substan-dard products, and regu-latory infractions, among others,” he said.

The LCCI boss said with cost of fund gener-ally hovering between 20 and 30 per cent, not many businesses can generate turnover to match the cost.

Apart from the cost risks to the economy, there are also the environ-mental and health risks associated with the usage of the smoke-effusing gen-erating sets.

For instance, the Na-tional Environmental Standards and Regula-tion Enforcement Agency, NESREA had hinted re-cently that it would estab-lish vehicular emission testing centres across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The project, which is

Ambode, Umahi, Tambuwal, Udom, Masari, el-Rufai win

CONTINUED ON PAGE 52>>

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Poor electricity: Applications to import generators soar

Governor Godswill Akpabio (left) celebrating with the Governor-elect, Mr. Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, at the Government House in Uyo,

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net6 Monday, April 13, 2015 News

Jega

Party faithful celebrating with Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun (middle), his wife, Olufunso (right) and the incoming Deputy Governor, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga (left), following Amosun’s vic-tory in Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Abeokuta, yesterday.

Some ad hoc staff of INEC waiting to move election materials during the governorship and House of Assembly election at Imiringi in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, on Saturday. PHOTO: NAN

L-R: Rivers State gubernatorial candidates, Mr. Dakuku Peterside (APC), Mr. Charles Harry (APGA) and Rev. Minaibim Harry (SDP), during a joint news conference asking for cancellation of the governorship and House of Assembly elections in the state, in Port Harcourt, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

Supporters of incumbent Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, jubillating over his victory in the governorship election in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

…fi xes re-run for April 18

Edo APC sweeps 21 Assembly seats SEBASTINE EBHUOMHANBENIN CITY

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiom-hole’s last-minute

aggressive campaigns yielded bountiful results with the ruling All Pro-gressives Congress, APC, defeating the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and taking a total of 21 seats in the 24-seat legisla-tive chamber of the state.

Though APC lost the rescheduled Edo South senatorial election in Orhionmwon Local Government Area and parts of Uhunmwode local council to PDP, which candidate, Mat-thew Urhoghide, de-feated APC’s reigning Minority Whip of the House of Representa-tives, Samson Osagie, by 139,784 to 117,759 votes, APC’s perfor-mance in the state As-sembly poll that held same day was much better compared to its result in 2008 and 2012 when he was over-whelmingly re-elected.

Chairman, Board of Trustees of PDP, Tony Anenih, proved his mettle by pulling the needed strings to pick three seats for his party

in Edo Central Senato-rial District.

Declaring the re-sults, Resident Elector-al Commissioner, REC, Mike Igini, commended Edo people for their lawful conduct and sup-port that made the elec-tions successful.

“Overall, I am very satisfied, particularly with the performance of Saturday’s election. Unlike the first election last two weeks, our lo-gistic arrangement was perfect,” Igini said.

Declaring Urhoghide winner of the hotly con-tested and rescheduled election, the Returning Officer Prof Joseph Osemwenkhai said he scored the highest number of votes to sat-isfy the requirements to win the election.

Edo South District Oredo I (West): APC scored 13,127 against PDP 10,193 votes. In Oredo II (East), the APC polled 15,587 against PDP’s 9,084 votes to win, even as APC won in Ikpoba-Okha with 23,571.votes, while PDP got 14,459 votes. In Egor, APC polled 19,554 votes while PDP got 12, 233 votes.

The story was the

same as APC took Ovia South East with 22,562 votes against PDP’s 10,497 votes, as well as Orhionmwon and Ovia North East I with 7, 477 votes, while PDP polled 4,633 votes.

In Ovia North East II, APC won with 8,041 votes, while PDP got 5,462 votes.

Edo Central District Esan South East: APC polled 11,615 votes; PDP 18,867 votes. APC won Esan West, while PDP won Esan North East I.

Esan North East II: PDP won. Esan Cen-tral: APC—10, 557 votes; PDP—8, 201 votes. Igue-ben: APC—8, 140 votes; PDP—6, 947 votes.

Edo North District Akoko Edo I: APC—14, 195 votes; PDP—7, 206 votes. Akoko Edo II: APC—2, 074 votes; PDP—677.

Etsako West I: APC—11, 228 votes; PDP—6, 321 votes. Etsako West II: APC—14, 373 votes: PDP—4, 001 votes. Et-sako Central: APC won. Etsako East: APC—16, 825 votes; PDP—8, 793 votes.

Owan West: APC—12, 883 votes; PDP—9, 963 votes. Owan East: APC won.

INEC withholds results in 4 Anambra constituencies

Independent National Electoral Commis-sion, INEC, in Anam-

bra State yesterday withheld the results of elections in four constit-uencies and fixed April 18 for the re-run.

Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr Edwin Nwatarali, announced the devel-opment in Awka when he briefed newsmen on outcome of the April 11House of As-sembly election.

Nwatarali also an-nounced results of 25 constituencies, while one, Anambra West, was still being col-lated.

He said the four outstanding constitu-encies would have re-scheduled elections due to electoral mal-practices in the area during Saturday’s polls.

According to Nwata-rali, the 30 available seats, the All Progres-sives Grand Alliance, APGA, won in the 25 constituencies so far concluded.

The commissioner listed areas where elections were re-scheduled as Ekwu-sigo, where violence erupted during the poll; Aguata 1, Uga ward, Anaocha 1 and 2

where manual accredi-tation was used with-out justification.

News Agency of Ni-geria, NAN, reports that the 25 constitu-encies so far declared were mostly won by incumbent lawmak-ers.

Anambra is one of the states where gov-ernorship election was not conducted.

7Monday, April 13, 2015 POLLNational Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

Ogun PDP candidate to challenge Amosun’s victory FEMI OYEWESO ABEOKUTA

Gboyega Nasir Isiaka Campaign O r g a n i s a t i o n ,

GNICO, has signified in-tention to challenge the electoral victory of All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candi-date, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, in a court of law.

GNICO in a statement issued and signed yester-day in Abeokuta by Direc-

tor of Media and Public-ity, Ifekayode Akinbode, accused Ogun APC of rigging the governorship election, which gave victo-ry to the incumbent gover-nor, describing it as “un-fortunate and not a true reflection of the wishes of the people.”

Akinbode stressed that his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will follow legal pro-cess in seeking redress.

He stated that GNICO

legal officers and PDP were looking at the results and promised they would come up with a clear posi-tion on the election, which he said was marred by gross irregularities.

Akinbode appealed to PDP supporters, party faithful and Ogun people to remain calm and ab-stain from any act ca-pable of disrupting the peace.

The organisation fur-ther claimed that the gu-

Oba of Lagos holds prayer for peace

Kogi APC accuses PDP of malpractice

LP guber candidate, supporters protest Delta results

Whoever wins in Lagos is people’s choice –Mbu

Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, yesterday organ-

ised a prayer session for peaceful co-existence in Lagos and Nigeria in general.

The prayer was con-ducted at his Iga Idun-ganran Palace on Lagos Island.

Akiolu said the prayer was imperative to peaceful co-existence in Lagos and Nigeria in general, after peaceful conduct of the general elections in the state.

He urged different tribes in Lagos to work for the progress of the state.

The royal father urged the president-elect, Maj. Gen. Muham-madu Buhari, to assist Lagos in repairing most

of the damaged federal roads in the state.

Akiolu, who spoke in Yoruba language, said when Buhari came to his palace during the campaign period, he was three hours behind schedule.

He said Buhari com-plained of bad roads and told him that when he becomes the presi-dent he would help the state to reconstruct the roads.

The monarch said he was sure that God would give him the pow-er to do it.

Akiolu also urged the incoming governor of Lagos, to do what he promised the people.

The prayer was con-ducted by Imam Mujita-bah Giwa, the Alawiye

WALE IBRAHIM LOKOJA

All Progressives Congress, APC, says it won 10 of

the 21 Kogi State House of Assembly seats, accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of conniving with Peoples Democratic Par-

ty, PDP, to rig the election.Kogi APC Chairman,

Haddy Ametuo, who dis-closed this while address-ing journalists yesterday in Lokoja, stated that most areas the results were declared have now been declared inconclu-sive.

Ametuo noted that all the constituencies APC

Supporters of APC gubernatorial candidate, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, jubilating over his victory in the governorship election in Kaduna, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

AMOUR UDEMUDE ASABA

Delta State Labour Party, LP, gover-norship candidate,

Great Ogboru, led over 300 supporters yesterday evening to protest at the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, office in Asaba over alleged malpractices and falsification of results in Saturday’s gubernatorial and House of Assembly election.

The demonstrators were, however, barred from gaining entry into INEC headquarters by armed policemen, civil de-fence and other security personnel.

The protesters carried placards that read: ‘PDP is a thief ’, ‘We shall not accept fraudulent results’, ‘Enough is enough’, and ‘The thieving is too much.’

The protesters stated that Ogboru won the elec-tion convincingly, but the

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in collaboration with some INEC officials, ma-nipulated the results over-night.

Ogboru therefore, called for immediate can-cellation of the results be-cause, according to him, ballot boxes were snatched in some areas. He stressed that the results from the wards were totally differ-ent from those announced at the INEC office, while usage of the Card Read-ers were totally ignored in most of the voting centres.

According to Ogboru, in local government areas such as Burutu, Bomadi, Warri North, Warri South West, Isoko North, Isoko South and the entire Delta North, the card readers were not used, but fantas-tic figures were obtained.

“The LP will no longer allow tyrants, who have colonised the state for years to continue to rule the state. We would con-test the results in court

Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Joseph

Mbu, yesterday stated that whoever wins Lagos State governorship election did so on merit.

Mbu told journalists at INEC office in Lagos, where the election results were being collated, that whoever emerged winner was the people’s choice.

“We have done our best. I am not in possession of the figures, but I know it was a keen contest,’’ he said.

He said no arrest was made by the police during Saturday’s governorship

and House of Assembly polls “because the people were orderly.”

He said few incidents were recorded during the polls, but they were minor and did not warrant ar-rest.

“There is no perfec-tion on earth, but both the people and the security men did well,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.

The two major contes-tants in the Lagos gover-norship election are Akin-wunmi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress and Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party.

bernatorial election held on Saturday was a traves-ty staged to help perpetu-ate APC government in the state in power.

“Let us quickly state emphatically that we are displeased with the out-come of the governorship election, particularly be-ing irregular in most as-pects. It is clearly not a true reflection of Ogun people’s wishes and will be challenged as appro-priate,” he stated.

of Lagos and his league of Imams.

Giwa prayed for peaceful coexistence in Lagos and also for political leaders in the country.

Some traditional rul-

ers in Lagos as well as white cap chiefs were present at the prayer session.

Chairman of Elegan-za Group, Chief Rasak Okoya, was among dig-nitaries present.

…says it won 10 seats won and got the result sheets, but now declared inconclusive, were Dekina /Biradu, Ofu and Koto Karfe.

The APC boss also al-leged that when the Resi-dent Electoral Commis-sioner arrived Kogi, he was accommodated at Government House, add-ing that he has been aid-ing and abetting the rul-ing PDP to rig election in

the state.Ametuo listed the lo-

calities won by APC as Lokoja I, Koton Karfe, Mo-pamuro, Okene 1 Ofu, An-kpa I, Ankpa II, Dekina/Biradu, Olamaboro and Ajaokuta.

He called on the Na-tional Chairman of INEC, Prof Attahiru Jega, to call the Kogi REC to order so as not to cause crisis in the state.

…as Obanikoro, Ajomale’s sons lose

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net8 Monday, April 13, 2015

Nollywood star, Des-mond Elliot, of the All Progressives

Congress, APC, on Sunday polled 23,141 votes at the Surulere state constitu-ency l to emerge winner.

Mr Bayo Smith of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, came second with 12,546 votes in the April 11 poll.

For Surulere Constitu-ency ll, Returning Officer, Quadri, declared Mrs Mo-sunmola Sangodara-Rotimi of PDP winner with 33,583 votes, closely trailed by Mr Abiodun Awobotu of APC with 32,767 votes.

Mr. Folajimi Mohammed, APC candidate and son of Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC’s spokesman, was also declared winner of Ikeja Constituency l House of As-sembly election.

INEC Returning Officer, Mr Onochie Mordi, made the declaration at the Cen-tral Primary School, Ikeja GRA.

According to him, APC

scored the highest votes of 13,603 to emerge winner.

INEC also declared Adedamola Kasunmu, APC candidate, as winner of Ike-ja Constituency ll House of Assembly election.

The APC candidate scored the highest number of 19,909 votes to emerge winner.

The electoral commission also declared Wasiu Sanni and Giwa Shakirudeeen of APC as winners of the two seats in Lagos Island con-stituency.

Declaring the result on Sunday morning, Dr Martha Amadi, Returning Officer, Lagos Island Con-stituency 1 for state House of Assembly election, said Sanni scored 17,866 votes to defeat Yusuf Saheed of PDP, who got 7,628 votes.

Amadi said the three par-ties that contested in Lagos Island Constituency were APC, PDP and PPA.

According to her, APC got 17,866 votes, PDP 7,628 and PPA 13 votes.

Also, Mr Adekunle Salva-dor, the Returning Officer, Lagos Island Constituency 2 for State House of Assembly Election, said that Mr Giwa Shakirudeen of APC scored 16,645 votes to defeat Mr La-teef Oluwanisola of PDP who got 7,676 votes.

Salvador said that four political parties participat-ed in the contest.

Also, Mr Adekanye Ol-adele, the APC state House of Assembly candidate for Lagos Mainland I, was de-clared the winner of the constituency election.

Oladele was declared winner of the election hav-ing polled 18,000 votes to de-feat his major challenger Mr Ishola Jelili Balogun of PDP who scored 16,641.

Mr Moshood Olarenwaju Oshun, the APC state House of Assembly candidate for Lagos Mainland II, was also declared the winner of the state constituency election.

Olanrewaju polled 12,147 votes to defeat his major challenger Mr Ibrahim Aji-

ga of PDP who scored 9,985.The APC also won the

two constituency seats in Mushin House of Assembly election.

The INEC announced APC candidate, Funmilayo Tejuosho, as the winner of the Mushin House of As-sembly Constituency 1.

The commission also de-clared Olayiwola Olawale of APC as the winner for the Mushin House of Assembly constituency II.

The PDP candidates, Dipo Olorunrinu and Ha-keem Bello, were declared winners of Amuwo Odofin State Assembly Constitu-ency I and II seats.

The declarations were made by INEC’s returning officers of the constituen-cies, Mrs Fatima Taiwo and Prof. Ngozi Osarenren.

Sultal Adeniji of APC scored 12,010 votes and Olorunrinu of PDP scored 13,580 votes.

On the other hand, Ra-mota Hassan of APC scored 14,216 votes and Bello scored

Voters waiting patiently for results in Ajase-Ipo, Ifelodun LGA of Kwara State.

Speaker, Plateau House of Assembly, Mr Titus Alams of

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bokkos, on Saturday lost his bid to return to the house.

Alams lost the seat to All Progressives Party, APC candidate, Mr Sun-day Mallo, who polled 30,851 votes in the result declared by Returning Officer, Dr Kagoro Ben-jamin.

Alams polled 21,331 to lose the seat.

“I, Dr Kagoro Benja-

Plateau Speaker, Alams, loses seat

Lagos Assembly poll: Elliot, Lai Mohammed’s son, win

shin North Constituency seat to another APC can-didate, Mrs Alice Nim-long.

Dr Ajai Philip, Return-ing Officer, declared that Nimlong scored 17,782 votes against Plang’s 16,134 votes to clinch the seat.

A former Speaker, Pla-teau House of Assembly, Mr Istifanus Mwansat of PDP, beat APC candidate, Mr Gideon Dashe, to re-

Theophilus onojeghenWARRI

All Progressives Congress, APC, House of As-

sembly candidate for Ika South Constituency in Delta State, Dr. Felix Mor-ka, has called on the In-dependent National Elec-toral Commission, INEC, to declare election in the area inconclusive.

Morka in a letter to INEC obtained by our correspon-dent said he was calling for cancellation of the poll be-cause the exercise in many polling units featured vio-lence and votes were not col-lated in polling units.

In a letter addressed to the Electoral Officer, Mrs Obasi, yesterday, the APC candidate said: “I write re-garding the House of As-sembly elections held in Ika South Local Government Area and to request that you declare the election to be void or inconclusive. I make

Ika South: Morka demands cancellation of election

this request on the following grounds:

“Voting in many poll-ing units was truncated by extreme violence. There was no collation of votes in many polling units. Rather, the results of votes were written in INEC’s Local Government offices. There was no collation of results in any of the designated Ward Collation Centers. Rather, the ward collation is being done at the INEC LGA Offices.”

Shedding more light as to why the poll should be voided, he stated: “The Ward collation agents mysteriously disappeared and never returned while polling officers wrote and doctored results in the full glare of all at your office. Even as of this morning, up until 5 am, your polling of-ficers were filmed writing and rewriting polling units results.

“I urge you to declare the House of Assembly election to be void or inconclusive.”

tain his seat in Pankshin South Constituency.

Returning Officer, Dr Joel Barde, declared Mwansat winner with a total score of 9,841 against Dashe’s 8, 997 votes.

In Kanke Local Gov-ernment, PDP candidate, Mr Jacob Kassam scored 23,480 to be declared win-ner over his APC rival, Mr Emmanuel Jank-anwa, who scored 17,458

votes.The Returning Officer,

Mr Emmanuel Ramson, accordingly declared him winner of the poll having scored the high-est number of votes.

The result from Kanam Local Govern-ment showed that PDP and APC shared the two seats in the council with APC clinching Dengi constituency while PDP won at Kantana constitu-

ency.The APC candidate,

Mr Saleh Shehu, scored 17,282 votes to beat PDP candidate, Hajia Hadiza Usman who polled 11,736 votes for the Dengi con-stituency.

The PDP candidate at Kantana constituency, Mr Yusuf Adamu, scored 16,124 votes against APC’s Ismaila Bala’s score of 9,811 votes to win the seat.

min, returning officer for Bokkos Local Gov-ernment, declare that Mr Sunday Mallo, having satisfied requirement of the law and having scored the highest num-ber of votes is hereby declared winner and re-turned as elected,” he said.

In Pankshin, Mr Diket Plang of PDP, who is also the House Committee Chairman, lost the Pank-

19,272 votes.Mudashiru Obasa of

APC was declared winner for the Lagos State House of Assembly elections in Agege Constituency 1.

Obasa polled 19,979 votes, Mr Adeyemi Adeseye of the PDP polled 14,489 votes, Mr Sogbade Adio of LP got 2,504 votes, Mr Babatola Olu-waseyi of AD got 93 votes.

Similarly, Mr Ishahu Gbolahan and Mr Kazeem Alimi, of APC won the two seats in Eti-Osa constitu-ency.

Mr Oluwa Olatunji Fatai of PDP was returned as the winner of the House of As-

sembly election for Ajeromi-Ifelodun Constituency Two.

The PDP candidates were declared winners in the two state constituencies in Oshodi/Isolo Local Govern-ment Area.

In Oshodi/Isolo Con-stituency 1, Mr Shokunle Hakeem, was declared win-ner with 17,479 votes, while APC candidate, Mr Olukay-ode Ogundipe, came second with 17,125 votes and NCP candidate, Mr Olayilawal Ahmed, had 382 votes.

In Oshodi/Isolo Constitu-ency 2, PDP candidate, Eme-ka Idimogu, won with 27,423 votes. The APC candidate,

POLL

POLL

APGA picks 25 Assembly seats in Anambra

…Ekiti PDP clears 25 seats

Akala congratulates Ajimobi APC wins 24, PDP 2 seats in Osun

Femi OyewesOABEOKUTA

Ogun State chapter of All Progres-sives Congress,

APC, has won 17 out of the 20 seats in the House of Assembly elections held last Saturday in the state.

In the results made available in Abeokuta, the state capital, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, won the remaining nine seats.

The state constituen-cies won by APC included Obafemi-Owode, Abeo-

kuta South I, Ewekoro, Abeokuta South 11, Abeokuta North, Iken-ne, Odeda, Remo-North, Ijebu-North 11, Sagamu I, Odoogbolu, Ifo I and II, Ado-Odo/Ota 1, Ado-Odo/Ota 11, Ogun Water-side and Egbado North I.

The PDP won in Egba-do 11, Imeko-Afon, Egba-

do South, Ipokia/Idiroko, Ijebu-North 1, Sagamu II and Egbado North II.

The APC, which had 13 lawmakers during the outgoing 7th Legislatives session, will be return-ing 11 members, while the PDP, which had three lawmakers, will be re-turning with nine mem-

bers.Among the principal

officers in the outgoing Ogun State House of As-sembly that would be returning for the 8th As-sembly is current Speak-er, Suraj Adekunbi, while his deputy, Tola Banjo, lost his seat to PDP can-didate.

OjO Oyewamide AKURE

Following irreg-ularities that c h a r a c t e r i s e d

Saturday’s House of As-sembly election in Ondo State, the Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, yester-day declared the poll in Ilaje Local Government Area inconclusive.

State Resident Elec-toral Commissioner, REC, Segun Agbaje, said only INEC nation-al headquarters could decide what next to do concerning the poll in the council.

Agbaje made the disclosure while ad-dressing journalists at INEC’s office in Akure, the state capital.

Some election mate-rials meant for some

wards in the council were reportedly hi-jacked by suspected po-litical thugs.

Meanwhile, the Peo-ples Democratic Par-ty, PDP, won 19 seats, while the All Progres-sives Congress, APC, clinched five seats out of 26, according to re-sults released so far.

PDP won in Owo con-stituency 1, Ose, Akure constituency 1, Akoko

North West constituen-cy II, Akoko South East, Akoko North East, Idanre, Ifedore, Ondo West I and II, Ondo East, Odigbo I and II, Akure North, Ese-Odo, and Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo.

APC won Akure South constituency II, Owo constituency II, Akoko South West I and II, and Akoko North West constituency I.

APC wins 17 Assembly seats in Ogun

BOladale BamigBOlaOSOGBO

All Progressives Congress, APC, re-tained its control

of Osun State House of As-sembly, as the party claimed 24 seats in Saturday’s House of Assembly poll out of 26 available.

The party, however, lost two seats within Ile-Ife me-tropolis, losing in Ife Cen-tral state constituency and Ife East to candidates of the

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Results released by the Independent National Elec-toral Commission, INEC, showed that in Irewole/Iso-kan state constituency, APC got 20,176, while PDP got 6, 248 votes.

In Boripe/Boluwaduro state constituency, APC got 14,631 votes, while PDP se-cured 6,181 votes; Ifelodun state constituency, APC, 12,292 votes, PDP 3,367 votes; Ila state constitu-

ency, APC 11,657, PDP, 3,847; Ifedayo state constituency, APC 3,820, PDP 1,366; Ire-podun/Orolu state constitu-ency, APC 18,200, PDP, 8,378; Odo Otin state constituency, APC 11,549, PDP 7,054.

In Olorunda state con-stituency, APC,15,182, PDP, 3,267, Osogbo state constitu-ency, APC, 22,803, PDP, 4,854, Atakunmosa-West and East state constituency, APC, 14,253, PDP, 2,407, Ife-Cen-tral state constituency, APC, 8,534, PDP, 9, 529.

Ife-East state constitu-ency, APC, 7,768, PDP, 7,886, Ife-North state constitu-ency, APC, 7,490, PDP, 5,92, Ife-South state constituency, APC, 8,806, PDP, 5,401.

In Ilesa-East state constit-uency, APC, 9,195, PDP,1,469, Ilesa-West state constitu-ency, APC, 8,550, PDP, 1,618, Obokun state constituency, APC, 9,499, PDP, 7,130, Ori-ade state constituency, APC, 11,738, PDP, 6,990, Ayedaade state constituency, APC, 10,775, PDP, 5,550.

Ondo REC declares Ilaje poll inconclusive

L-R: Ogun State INEC Administrative Secretary, Dr. Dickson Atiba; State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Chief Timothy Ibitoye and State INEC Presiding/Collation Officer, Prof. Duro Oni, announcing Governor Ibikunle Amosun as winner of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ogun State, yesterday.

Charles Okeke AWKA

The fortunes of the All Progressives Grand Alliance,

APGA, was boosted yester-day as it won 25 House of Assembly seats out of the 30 competed for in Anam-bra State on Saturday.

Announcing this devel-opment at a press briefing in Awka, the state capital, yesterday the State Resi-dent Electoral Commis-sioner,

Engr Edwin Nwatarali, stated that INEC has re-scheduled election in four of the 30 state constituen-cies in Anambra State for

aBiOdun nejO ADO EKITI

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ekiti State has won all 25

House of Assembly seats, which results have so far been declared.

The result of Ilemeje constituency was still being awaited yesterday.

But the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday rejected outcome of the election, saying the exercise fell short of free and fair exercise.

kemi OlaitanIBADAN

Former Oyo State gov-ernor and Labour Party’s gubernatorial

candidate in Saturday’s elec-tion, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, has congratulated Governor Abiola Ajimobi over his victory at the poll.

According to a release by Alao-Akala’s Director of Public Affairs, Oludare Ogunlana, the former gov-ernor was said to have put a

call through to Senator Aji-mobi after being informed of the situation of things by his agents at the collation centre before the final result was announced.

He said his decision to congratulate the governor was borne out of the need to respect the people’s wish and for the state to move forward, urging the gover-nor to be magnanimous in victory and device ways of taking the state to greater heights.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 9Monday, April 13, 2015

reasons ranging from elec-toral violence, card reader malfunction and loss of election materials.

Nwatarali stated that the 25 seats won by APGA were part of results al-ready declared by the agen-cy, adding that the result for Anambra West state constituency were still be-ing collated.

He stated that the con-stituencies where elections were rescheduled include; Anaocha 1 and 2 House of Assembly constituencies, Uga ward 1 and Ekwusigo.

He disclosed that in Anaocha, the card readers were alleged to have been sabotaged, leading to usage of manual accreditation and that in Uga, violence had disrupted the pro-cess, while in Ekwugigo, Nwatarali stated that some hoodlum hijacked more than half of the sensitive electoral materials for the election.

The REC said that the re-scheduled elections would be held on 18th April, 2015 including that of Ekwu-sigo state constituency which had been scheduled to hold on 25th April.

A statement from APC state Publicity Secretary, Mr Taiwo Olatunbosun, stated that the party would chal-lenge the result at the tribu-nal.

Olatunbosun alleged that there were cases of alleged intimidation by policemen and thugs deployed to poll-ing units across the state.

Similarly, the Labour Party, LP, in the state also accused the Independent National Electoral Com-mission, INEC, of robbing the party of four Assembly seats during the election.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net10 Monday, April 13, 2015South West

Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi with his wife, Florence, and Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mrs. Monsurat Sunmonu in the midst of a jubilant crowd shortly after his declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as winner of Saturday’s gover-norship election, yesterday.

Saidat alauSa

Governor Baba-tunde Fashola of Lagos State has

said in order to stem un-employment rate in the country and fit into global best practices, the state has continued to improve on technical education.

He disclosed this at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, during the 23rd convocation ceremony at the weekend.

According to him, it was for the actualisation of that vision that gov-ernment revamped insti-tutions in the state to en-sure that besides getting education on technical

knowhow, the state was also raising a generation that would not wait for government to create jobs for them.

“We want our students to leave school as well-grounded people, able to stand on their own and to not only work, but create jobs for others.

The governor, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Education, Otunba Fatai Olukoga, said the unemployment rate in Nigeria was quite high with data pointing to half of the youth popula-tion being unemployed.

That is why, accord-ing to him, in raising the standard in Lagos insti-tutions, the state govern-

ment focused on fostering the creation of small and medium enterprises since they are the largest em-ployers of labour around the world.

Pointing out that there was a place and a need for every knowledge ac-quired, he said more courses have been added to the curriculum to pave the way for a wider range of career choices and pro-fessions.

He told the new gradu-ates that the polytechnic had given them tools they needed to excel in their fields therefore, they must be confident to not only settle for just any job, but do that which they have learnt and also cre-

ate their own small and medium enterprises.

“I want to encourage you to be focused as you go out into the world, don’t get distracted by the pursuit of money or fame, focus on doing good work and making a difference in the lives of others and the society.”

In his speech, the Rec-tor of the polytechnic, Dr. Abdulazeez Lawal, said the school is excelling on all fronts and that their academic programmes enjoy full accreditation by the National Board for Technical Education and other professional bodies.

A total of 7,045 students graduated at the ceremo-ny.

Fashola restates commitment to stem unemployment

3 killed in APC, PDP supporters’ clash

Tamuno, ex-UI Vice Chancellor, dies at 83

FRSC apprehends 357 offenders in Lagos

Boladale BamigBola OSOGBO

Three people were feared dead in Ile-Ife yesterday following

violent clashes between supporters of All Progres-sives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in several neigh-bourhoods in the town.

Although identities of the deceased could not be confirmed at the time of filing this report, however, residents of Gbodo Area in Ile Ife, who spoke with National Mirror, said two people were killed in the area during a fight involv-ing supporters of the two

parties.It was reliably gathered

that the two victims of Gbo-do clash were siblings of a notable politician in the area, whose house was also razed during the crisis.

Sources said hostilities between the parties began on Friday when their sup-porters clashed at Enuwa area. During the fight, eye-witnesses said cutlasses and charms were freely used, as people ran in dif-ferent directions to escape from the troubled spot.

Ooni of Ife, Oba Oku-nade Sijuade, had to sum-mon leaders of both parties to his palace Friday eve-ning, when it was becoming

obvious that people would not come out to vote be-cause of the crisis that was spreading to all parts of Ife, a source in the town said. However, late Saturday eve-ning violence resurfaced in some areas in the town, when suspected political thugs, clashed at Ayetoro, Otutu, Gbodo, Ita-akogun areas when guns were free-ly used for hours.

“After the clash in Ayeto-ro here, a lifeless body was seen near the road leading to the neighborhood, but we were too scared to come out. Many people were also in-jured and properties dam-aged.

“In a house in Gbodo, the

hoodlums damaged four vehicles. Also, around Ita Akogun, properties, mostly cars were damaged”, a resi-dent said in telephone chat.

Also in many areas in Ife East Local Government Area, properties were dam-aged while unspecified numbers of people were in-jured during clashes by sup-porters of APC and PDP.

At the time of filing this report, fight was still going on in many parts of Ife and efforts to get reaction from Commissioner of Police in charge of election in the state, Mr. Valentine Ntom-chukwu, proved abortive as he could not be reached through his mobile line.

Kemi olaitan IBADAN

A renowned Profes-sor of History and former Vice

Chancellor of Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan, Tekena Tamuno, is dead.

National Mirror learnt that Tamuno, who was ex-President of the Nige-rian Academy of Letters, passed on in Ibadan, Sat-urday afternoon. He was aged 83 years.

His demise came as a shock to friends and col-leagues as he was said to have recovered and looked healthy after re-turning from the United States where he was reportedly treated for prostate cancer mid last month.

Details of his last mo-ments were sketchy as his family members refused to speak on his demise at the Agodi residence of the late university ad-ministrator and scholar yesterday.

One of his sons, a law-yer, Tamuno’s widow and a few other relations, who received sympathisers flatly declined talking

about his death, describ-ing their loss as “a pri-vate affair”.

They also turned down entreaties to copy entries in the Condolence Regis-ter already opened for the deceased despite being re-minded that the late histo-rian was a public figure.

The late Emeritus Pro-fessor served as Chancel-lor, Redeemer’s Univer-sity; Chairman of the Presidential Panel on National Security from October 2001 to Decem-ber 2002, and Panel on Policing Nigeria Project 2002- 2003. A poet and his-torian, Tamuno was a fel-low of both the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Rockefeller Foundation and a member of the Na-tional Universities Com-mission, NUC.

Born on January 28, 1932, in Okrika, Rivers State, he attended Saint Peter’s School, Okrika, 1938-46; Okrika Gram-mar School, Okrika, 1947-51; University College, Ibadan, 1953-1958; Birk-beck College, University of London, 1960-62; and Columbia University, New York City, USA, 1965-66.

oluSegun KoiKi

Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, said it arrested 357

road offenders in the first quarter of 2015 at the Murtala Muhammed Air-port, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos, alone.

The commission, how-ever, said that none of the traffic offenders has been prosecuted by the agency.

Assistant Corps Com-mandant, RS2-115 Air-port Unit Command, Mrs. Vivian Aladegbemin, dis-closed this in an inter-view with aviation jour-nalists at the weekend.

She said most of those arrested had tyre viola-tion of their vehicles, stressing that those ap-prehended cooperated fully with the corps, a situation that led to non-prosecution by the unit.

She, however, identi-fied the huge gridlock on

the Lagos Airport road, especially during peak period as one of the ma-jor challenges confront-ing her unit.

She urged the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria to expand the ac-cess plaza, stressing that its expansion would lead to massive reduction in traffic within the airport.

“We have slow move-ment during the peak hours. At times, some drivers who do not want to pay toll will keep oth-ers on queue. This will extend, at times from Ike-ja bus stop to the toll gate at the International wing of the airport.”

Aladegbemin noted that the unit command involved its staff at its training school to enforce law and order during the heavy traffic situation, particularly at the round-abouts along the access road.

NewsNational Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 11Monday, April 13, 2015

5 worshippers killed as cathedral collapses in EnuguHouse of Repre-

sentatives mem-ber-elect, Alhaji

Abdulsamat Dasuki, yesterday promised to initiate a bill that would enable the Federal Gov-ernment attract unem-ployed youths into mecha-nised agriculture.

Dasuki said in Sokoto that such legislation would ensure availability of mod-ern farming inputs at gov-ernment controlled rates across the country.

He said the youth would be actively engaged in the system to enable them con-tribute towards the nation’s socio-economic and politi-cal growth.

Dasuki, who will be rep-resenting Tambuwal/Keb-be federal constituency, said the federal and state gov-ernments would be encour-

Rep-elect promises bill on mechanised agriculture

Don’t be used as rubber stamp, NGO tasks lawmakers

JNI denies collecting Jonathan’s N12bn, threatens legal action

what the PDP government had done in terms of es-tablishing and equipping secondary and tertiary education, creating job op-portunities, provision of infrastructural facilities, tackling insecurity and prompt payment of work-ers’ salaries, among others.

“In spite of the defeat our great party, PDP, suf-fered during the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections, los-ing the presidential seat to APC, PDP will not and will never die.

“It will continue to exist and we will win all posi-tions in future elections,” he noted.

He acknowledged that in every contest, there must be a winner and a loser and pledged the party’s commitment to do every-thing humanly possible to achieve its set targets and to improve on the standard of living of Nigerians for the benefit of all.

Jibrin applauded Presi-dent Goodluck Jonathan for exhibiting a high level of maturity by conceding defeat and urged other pol-iticians to emulate him.

“For President Jona-than to accept defeat when he lost his second term presidential ambi-tion to APC has accorded him great respect from all Nigerians and even from the international commu-nity.

aged to set up colleges of agriculture to train youths and women in mechanised farming.

He said the introduction of mechanised agriculture would guarantee food se-curity and discourage food importation.

“We are blessed with vast land needed to produce as-sorted food crops for our consumption and exporta-tion,” he said.

He noted that mecha-nised agriculture would ensure the optimal develop-ment of the sector, saying it would further sustain the nation’s giant strides.

Dasuki stressed that the teeming unemployed youths would be interested in farming under the sys-tem, expressing confidence in the ability of the youth to reposition the sectors.

Vanguard for Better Living, an NGO, has urged lawmak-

ers, especially at the state level to resist being used as rubber stamp by the execu-tive.

The organisation’s Co-ordinator, Mr. Samson Olaide, gave the advice yesterday in Ikole, Ekiti State.

He spoke against the backdrop of new set of legislators that would take over in the states after May 29.

Olaide said the call be-came necessary following

Jama’atu Nasril Is-lam, JNI, yesterday dismissed specula-

tions that it received N12bn from outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, and challenged the author to produce evidence.

The organisation also threatened legal action if the author of the rumour failed to substantiate, with-draw the information and apologise to JNI.

This was contained in

Dennis AgboENUGU

Five worshipers were killed on Saturday following the col-

lapse of St. Anthony Cath-olic Church Cathedral in Oduma, Aninri Local Gov-

Confirming the inci-dent, Police Public Rela-tions Officer, PPRO, Mr. Ebere Amarizu, said cause of the incident was not yet known.

“Yes, I can confirm that five persons died following the collapse of St. Anthony

Catholic Church about 8pm, but we are yet to know the cause.

“It is not yet clear what brought about the collapse of the building, but we have commenced investiga-tion into the matter,” Ama-rizu said.

Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trust-

ees, BOT, Senator Walid Jibrin, has said the party will never die in spite of its electoral misfortune in the March 28 presidential and National Assembly election.

Jibrin said this yester-day while speaking with newsmen in his country home in Nasarawa State.

While encouraging PDP supporters not to be deterred by the defeat it suffered in the elections, he assured that the party would bounce back and win all positions in future elections in the country.

“I want to tell you and the whole world that the various PDP governments since inception of the party had done a lot in fighting poverty, hunger, unemployment and youth restiveness as well as em-powering women.

“Also, it has promoted peace and boosted the so-cio-economic development of the country.

“President Jonathan has transformed the education, agriculture, economic, health, judi-cial, commercial sectors, and the electoral system, among others.

“His transformation agenda has touched and improved the lives of every Nigerian positively.

“Nigerians have seen

Journalists at INEC results collation centre for governorship and House of Assembly election in Lagos, yesterday.

ernment Area of Enugu State.

An eyewitness said the incident occurred between 8pm and 9pm following a downpour, adding that the worshipers were in a prayer meeting when the tragic incident occurred.

the dominance of Houses of Assembly by certain political parties as pecu-liar to each state.

“Do you expect a House of Assembly with 26 mem-bers from one political par-ty to kick against a request sent to it by a governor from the same party?”

He noted that some state legislatures could hardly follow due process in deal-ing with issues as the law stipulated because of inter-ference from the executive.

“Most of the state leg-islatures are just rubber stamp in the hands of their

a statement issued by Sec-retary General of JNI, Dr Khalid Aliyu, in Kaduna.

A copy of the statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, said the allegation was publicised by one Obinna Akukwe via online medi-um with an e-mail address: profetobinna2@yahoo.com

The statement said the allegation went virile in the social media and oth-er electronic media plat-

governors and any law-maker trying to raise an ob-jection is marked as a rebel.

“The development has plunged many states into huge debts which should ordinarily not have been approved by the Assembly.

“The results of the House of Assembly polls from states across the country show that things will get worse if the law-makers fail to realise their statutory duty,” he said.

Olaide urged legislators to be principled in their job irrespective of the cordial relation with their gover-

nors.“They should resolve to

always follow due process, make laws that will be ben-eficial to the state and per-form their oversight func-tions effectively rather than being used as a rub-ber stamp legislature,” he added.

He also urged them to play vital roles in poverty reduction in their con-stituencies through viable economic empowerment programmes and desist from dishing out paltry sums of money to needy individuals.

forms.“The most unfortunate

part of the article was its deliberate and scanty refer-ence in the paragraph JNI featured; details were not provided at all, whereas to some extent nitty-gritties were provided for other stated organisations,” it read in part.

JNI expressed worry over the allegation, con-sidering the various con-cerns raised by well mean-

ing individuals as a result of the weightiness of the allegation.

“We wish to place on re-cord and for posterity that such has never occurred and we (JNI) don’t really understand the ill mo-tives of those behind the release.

“We did not understand or is it because some other faith(s) are said to have collected the presidential largesse?

National Mirror www.nationalmir-12 Monday, April 13, 2015News

Chief Observer, EU Election Observation Mission in Nigeria, Mr. Santiago Fisas, speaking on governorship and House of Assembly election at St. Paul School, Breadfruit Street, Lagos Island, on Saturday.

Jega

Nigerians in Diaspora laud conduct of pollsJoel AJAyiABUJA

As the governor-ship and House of Assembly elec-

tions held nationwide on Saturday, mixed reactions have trailed the exercise.

In spite of low turnout of voters, the polls im-proved considerably in its overall organisation compared to the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly election.

According to Centre for Democracy and Develop-ment, CDD Director, Iday-at Hassan, general con-duct of the election raised more concern about the conduct of politicians and political parties.

“There is urgent need for investigation and prosecution of electoral offenders by the authori-ties; a further need to en-sure the non-partisanship of security agencies po-licing elections; and an improved management of the conduct of elections by the Independent Na-tional Electoral Commis-sion, INEC.

“The high level of re-ported cases of hijacking of election materials and confrontations between politicians and their party supporters led to disruption of the election process in many areas.”

She cited a recent re-port titled ‘Matters aris-ing from the Voting Phase during the Nigeria 2015 Governorship and House of Assembly Elections,’ where CDD documented many cases of electoral violence perpetrated by politicians and their sup-porters.

The CDD, a civil organ-isation that deployed over 70 field observers in 21 states of the federation to observe the 2015 general elections, cited the situ-ation in Rivers State as particularly disturbing.

“Besides reports of kill-ings, there were also cases of arson, attacks on INEC officials and hijacking of electoral materials,” the CDD director said.

Hassan pointed to the complicity of security agents in cases of elec-toral fraud and violence in several states, particu-larly Rivers, where active connivance of security agents were recorded in the commission of elec-

Group demands immediate prosecution of electoral offenders

were killed in Ogba/Eg-bema/Ndoni local govern-ment area, including the party’s youth leader.

Harry gave the names of those killed as Obinna Ndubuoke, Jeophat King-dom, Ndidi Ebere, Syd-ney Wokocha, Hon Clever Orukwowu (APC Youth Leader), while scores were either beaten or shot in various areas across the state.

Elsewhere, the three candidates alleged that “disenfranchisement of voters, intimidation, ha-rassment and outright manipulation of already announced results at the various units were the or-der of the day.”

Continuing, they said 75 electoral officers were arrested by mobile police-men for allegedly thumb printing ballots for PDP in the home of one of its party chieftains.

“The mayhem was such

toral violence. “Security and party

agents were present at most polling units with-out being intrusive.

“Their conduct during the exercise was generally evaluated as mature and professional. Voters also maintained orderliness across the country.”

She said despite this, there were serious con-cerns about voter apathy during the elections.

The CDD observed that several factors were re-sponsible for the low voter turn-out.

“The tense electoral environment across the country; pre-election vio-lence, false assumption that the desired ‘change’ has been attained with the outcome of the federal elections and will there-fore automatically engen-der solutions to the prob-lems of governance at the state level are some of the factors,” it stated.

that even the governor-ship candidate of APGA could not even be accred-ited. Such high levels of violence and misconduct recorded in these areas leave us as bearers of our people’s destiny with no choice than to insist that the elections that held in Rivers State were an unfor-tunate sham; a gruesome episode enacted by forces which are in alliance to mortgage Rivers and the future of our unborn chil-dren.

“From vicious attacks that lasted for all night and stretched into the elec-tion day proper, to wanton destruction of property and intimidation of our supporters; from outright snatching of electoral materials to ballot boxes-snatching perpetuated across the 23 local govern-ment areas of Rivers State to the killings in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni and Asari

Toru local government ar-eas, respectively, we stand to assert that the elections have left us with more questions than answers.

“It is therefore evident that any announcement of winners for these polls would be a travesty of jus-tice and a rape of democ-racy.

“We insist that the purported Governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers be cancelled in their totality and a new date set for us. We hope that INEC will enforce the rights of Riv-ers people to free, fair and credible elections by heed-ing this clarion call,” the three candidates said.

Peterside said elections should be rescheduled at a new date when INEC, se-curity agencies and stake-holders would be focused on only Rivers State, to en-able the people freely exer-cise their franchise.

tions.Speaking on the devel-

opment, Dr Philip Idaewor, All Progressives Congress, APC, UK chairman, said: “I am happy with the gen-eral conduct of the elec-tion, but I am concerned over reports of violence in the South East and South South of the country.

“Our appeal is for gov-ernment to bring perpetra-tors of violence to justice; that is the only way we can deepen our democracy.”

On the use of the card readers, he said: “Tech-nology is part and parcel of 21st century life. For anyone to suggest that the

device should be discarded means taking us back to the Stone Age.

“The card reader is very good for our democ-racy, though there were hitches, what we should be looking for is continu-ous improvement.’’

Similarly, Mrs Kemi Ashinwuinde, a member of the Central Associa-tion of Nigerians in the UK (CANUK), said she was motivated to monitor the election “because of my concern for a better Nigeria.

“This way, I will not feel completely left out of the process or disenfran-

chised.“From my observation,

it was largely peaceful, you cannot rule out ir-regularities but this was well planned.

“The INEC has done an incredible job and should be commended, al-though there is room for improvement, especially with the card reader de-vice and general organ-isation,” Ashinwuinde stressed.

The call for diaspora voting dominated talks at the viewing centres while the group was watching the live streaming of the elections.

Dennis nAkuPORT HARCOURT

Three political par-ties, the All Pro-gressives Congress,

APC; All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and Social Democratic Party, SDP, have called for outright cancellation of Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections in Rivers State.

The parties said the elec-tions were fraught with violence and irregularities and called on the Indepen-dent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to re-schedule the poll.

The three political par-ties at a joint media brief-ing on Saturday night alleged that INEC and se-curity operatives colluded with the Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, to manip-ulate the April 11 exercise.

Dr. Dakuku Peterside of APC, Prince Charles

Harry of APGA and Rev Minaibim Harry of SDP, gave accounts of their ex-periences during the poll.

In a text read on behalf of two others by the gov-ernorship candidate of APGA, Prince Harry said elections did not hold in most parts of the state, al-leging that violence was unleashed on the people.

“As governorship can-didates of the All Pro-gressives Congress, APC, APGA, and SDP, and oth-ers, who due to certain exi-gencies are unable to join us, this press conference has become necessary.

“As you are already aware the April 11 Gover-norship and House of As-sembly was fraught with violence and unbridled manipulation and intimi-dation by the PDP, INEC and security agencies,” he stated.

The contestants alleged that five APC members

A group of con-cerned Nigerians in the United King-

dom has expressed satis-faction with the conduct of the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elec-tion.

In an interview with Eu-rope Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Sunday in Lon-don, some of the group’s members unanimously lauded the conduct of the election, describing it as “generally peaceful”.

The group set up view-ing centres in parts of Lon-don where they watched live streaming of the elec-

PoliticsNational Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net 13Monday, April 13, 2015

Female voters display their cards during governorship and House of Assembly election in Suleja on Saturday. PHOTO: NAN

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

Ekiti State All Pro-gressives Congress, APC, has rejected

weekend House of Assem-bly elections results, say-ing the exercise fell short of free and fair elections. It therefore vowed to chal-lenge the result at the tri-bunal. APC Publicity Sec-retary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that there were cases of alleged intimidation by policemen and thugs deployed to poll-ing units across the state by Governor Ayo Fayose.

He explained that intimi-dation of opponents began on Friday with many un-pleasant reports of state-sponsored intimidation, which accounted for the low turn-out of voters across the state.

He said: “To be specific, APC members were driven to the bush in many towns across the state. They in-

cluded Efon Alaaye, where PDP thugs did not allow any APC member to partic-ipate in accreditation while no party agent was allowed to stay in any of the polling units in the town.

“In Ilupeju-Ijan, APC members alleged that the traditional ruler of the set-tlement threatened to ban-ish them because of their refusal to vote for the PDP as he decreed. The dwell-ers in their hundreds left their abodes and could not vote for the party of their choice.”

He added that also in Ijan-Ekiti, PDP agents forced members of the National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, who worked as adhoc staff, to abandon card readers for manual ac-creditation in three units, namely Eyingbe, Ogbon-titun and Imekun in the town to enable them stuff the ballot box in support of PDP candidate who is from the town.

Olatubosun said APC members in Ilejemeje Local Government were driven into the bush while thugs and policemen from the Government House did most of the thumb printing of the ballot papers.

He added: “In Ikere Ekiti, thugs and police-men from the Government House did not allow APC members to vote while par-ty agents were driven into the bush. In Afao Ekiti, Fayose’s town, many APC members were not allowed to vote as they were driven into the bush by Fayose’s thugs imported into the town previous night.”

The statement also noted that in Oke-Ako country home of factional Speaker, Dele Olugbemi, thugs and fake policemen were shoot-ing to scare voters away while they were engaged in illegal thumb printing of ballot papers.

“In Ijero Local Govern-ment, it was the same sto-

ry as thugs chased away voters and carted away voting materials, includ-ing ballot boxes, and later thumb-printed papers and deposited them in the bal-lot boxes, while in Ado Ekiti, policemen attached to the Government House, who were not accredited to monitor election, arrested APC members illegally but were only released when the people protested that they were on illegal mis-sion. They were thereafter detained.”

Olatubosun said PDP candidate in Irepodun/Ifelodun constituency II, Sanya Aladeyelu, was mov-ing from his town, Eyio to Esure and Iropora with fake policemen harassing voters while in Itaji, Ayede, Ilemeso and Ilafon, thugs under the command of the candidate of the PDP in Oye constituency II, raided polling units and carted away ballot papers which they later thumb-printed.

Ekiti APC rejects Assembly polls, vows to challenge result at tribunal

Osun ex-Speaker, Alabi in strong contention for Reps’ Speaker

OBIORA IFOHABUJA

A former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly

and a professor of Politi-cal Science, Mojeed Alabi, may emerge Speaker of the House of Representatives as leaders of the All Pro-gressives Congress, APC, fine-tune zoning arrange-ments this week in Abuja for National Assembly top positions.

Alabi, who holds two doctoral degrees, PhDs in Law and Political Science, is a lecturer at the Univer-sity of Ilorin.

The APC, which pro-duced the President-elect, General Muhammadu Bu-hari in the March 28 presi-

dential election, is also the majority party in the in-coming National Assembly. It also won 214 of the 360 seats in the House of Rep-resentatives.

APC National Chair-man, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, had during the

week said: “The party has not taken any position on power sharing at both the Senate and the House of Representatives, because we are still going through elections. We are going to meet after the elections to take decisions as regards

which of the zones will pro-duce the Senate presidency and Speaker of the House of Representatives in view of the fact that the South East and by extension, the South South, that ordinar-ily ought to be in serious contention for the posi-tions, are either not hav-ing APC senators-elect or House of Representatives members or ranking ones for that matter.”

As the leaders of the par-ty get ready for this week’s crucial meeting in Abuja after Saturday’s governor-ship and House of Assem-bly elections, some recently elected federal lawmakers of the APC from both the geographical North and the South West zones have commenced open and sub-tle campaigns for the posi-tions of Senate President and Speaker.

With the South East out of contention for the Sen-ate presidency, two rank-ing APC senators from the North-Central have started oiling their political ma-chinery. They are Senators George Akume, Benue and Bukola Saraki, Kwara).

Although, both are ac-complished senators and pillars of support in the party in their respective states, a party leader who confided in National Mir-ror in Abuja yesterday said the odds are in favour of Akume.

According to him, “with our President-elect coming from the core North and be-ing a Muslim, the position of the Senate president which will now go to the North Central, will have to be given to a Christian. That is not only just, it will also erase the pre-election campaign by the rival Peo-ples Democratic Party, PDP, that our party is a Muslim party.”

He reasoned that “Sara-ki’s ethnic affiliation is a minus for him in the consid-eration of who becomes the Senate president,” stress-

ing that “one shouldn’t for-get that he is Yoruba from Kwara State, and since a Yoruba from the South West will eventually emerge Speaker, we cannot in fair-ness have another Yoruba as Senate President.”

For the position of Speaker, those known to be interested are Hon. Abdul-mumin Jibrin, the incum-bent chairman of the House Committee on Finance, rep-resenting Bebeji/Kiru fed-eral constituency of Kano State; Hon. Yakubu Dogara, representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa federal con-stituency of Bauchi State; the incumbent Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, representing Surulere 1 fed-eral constituency of Lagos State and Hon. Mojeed Olu-jimi Alabi, former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, now to represent Ede North/Ede South/Eg-bedore and Ejigbo federal constituency.

Alabi is coming to the House of Representatives for the first time. He is how-ever also a ranking lawmak-er, having served as Speaker of Osun State House of As-sembly between 1999 and 2003 when Chief Bisi Akan-de was the governor.

With the new zoning formula likely to come into effect soon, Jibrin and Dogara may not go far in the race as they are from the North.

This may narrow the race down to Alabi and Gbajabiamila. Another form of zoning may also come into play among the duo. Already, the west-ern end of the South West – the Lagos/ Ogun axis where Gbajabiamila hails from, has produced the Vice President-elect, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Alabi’s Oyo/Osun axis of the South West, called ‘Ara Oke’(upland) Yoruba, may thus be given the consider-ation to produce the Speak-er of the House of Repre-sentatives.

Politics National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net14 Monday, April 13, 2015

History’ll vindicate Jonathan –AdeyeyeABIODUN NEJOADO EKITI

Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye,

has said that the court of history will overturn the verdict of the 2015 presi-dential election which vot-ed out President Goodluck Jonathan.

Adeyeye said although Jonathan lost the election, history would vindicate him for the various trans-formations he brought into the polity and the socio-economic development that took place during his

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU

In realisation of the pe-culiarity of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT,

Abuja, where elections were not held for governor or state legislators, some powerful stakeholders in the city have canvassed for the appointment of in-cumbent governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwank-wanso, a former Defence Minister as the next minis-ter of the territory.

Speaking under the ae-gis of Abuja Residents Fo-rum, ARF, the stakeholders at a media briefing in Abu-ja at the weekend said with requisite experience and records of performance in maintaining peace and unprecedented infrastruc-ture development in the last four years in Kano, it is only appropriate that Kwankwaso be allowed to turn Abuja into a master-piece like other interna-tional capital cities.

Leader of the group, Alhaji Aminu Abubakar said: “We are aware that Dr. Kwankwanso has just been elected a senator of the Federal Republic but it is our belief that he will be better utilised as a min-ister under the envisaged dispensation as Nigerians are all too eager to reap the benefits of electing Gen-eral Muhammadu Buhari and it is only tested hands that can help to achieve this.

“Remember that he was governor between 2003 and 2007 before he took a break to serve as Minister of De-fence. He returned to Kano Government House in 2011, where he performed his de-velopment miracle in the state.

administration.The minister, who spoke

in his Ise Ekiti country home yesterday, said: “For-get about the emotions of the present, history will be fair to Jonathan and ad-judge him for his interest in the development, peace and unity of the country.”

He said that the loss of the Presidency to the All Progressives Congress, APC, by the Peoples Demo-cratic Party, PDP, and the gale of defections at pres-ent was “an opportunity for PDP as a party to sit back, do a critical analysis and move forward with the

Noting that the FCT does not have a governor and so residents lack the power to elect who governs FCT residents, the stake-holders said appointing Kwankwanso as FCT Min-ister will have the multiple advantage of ensuring that someone with sound pedi-gree and great antecedents is put in charge; giving residents a minister with listening ears and also; giv-ing the President peace of mind because of Kwank-wanso’s dependability.

The Kano governor was Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives between 1992 and 1993 and member representing the North-West on the board of Niger Delta Development Com-mission, NNDC.

Abubakar added: “Cur-rently, over 1,000 students from Kano State are study-ing in various universities in Nigeria and abroad on government scholarship in addition to the various oth-er first class institutions that he established within the short period.”

ARF, a socio-cultural group interested in the development of the FCT and with members cutting across different tribes, re-ligion, culture, and states of the federation, who live in the six area councils of the FCT insisted that “our aim is to see to the prog-ress of FCT and improve-ment of welfare of its resi-dents.”

Congratulating the President-Elect, General Buhari on his well-de-served victory after three strenuous trials, ARF said the victory is a lesson for the younger generation of Nigerians in persever-ance, dedication and pa-tience.

ARF also commended President Goodluck Jona-than for displaying states-manship, humility and exemplary attitude for hu-manity to emulate in con-ceding defeat even before the official announcement of the results.

ARF executive members at the briefing include: Hon. Olushola Emmanuel, Comrade Mohammed Us-man, Alhaji Hussaini Yu-suf, Evangelist Charles E Okehislem and Mrs. Ve-ronica Joseph.

hope that it is coming back very soon. I don’t believe APC can go far”.

Adeyeye allayed the fears of Nigerian that there might not be opposition to the APC-led Federal Gov-ernment, saying: “PDP will be able to offer virile opposition. But the major opposition will come from the people.

“It is Nigerians who will feel the impact of the programmes and policies government and speak out. I don’t think Nigeri-ans should fear that there would be no virile opposi-tion. The opposition will

start from within.”Adeyeye, who said he

was not bothered by the de-fection of some PDP mem-bers to APC shortly after the loss of the presidential election, said: “I am sure that in the next two years, PDP will consider not re-ceiving the defectors back to its fold.”

He said: “What is im-portant is that we are able to have a good transition. President Jonathan has demonstrated that he is not power thirsty. If we allow things like this to happen, the winner will be Nigeri-ans.”

Abuja residents want Kwankwanso as FCT Minister

INEC staff during the collation of result in Rivers State.

EBERE NDUKWU

Winner of the election to rep-resent Oshodi/

Isolo constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Emeka Idimo-gu, has assured that he would ensure adequate laws are made in the state to benefit the generality of the people.

He stated that the idea of referring to some peo-ple as non-indigenes was obsolete and should be discarded for the polity to

properly develop.Returning Officer, Dr

Adeyemi Osinowo, had on Sunday, announced Idimogu, the PDP candi-date as the winner of the seat with 27,423 votes.

The returning offi-cer said that the APC candidate, Mr Olayinka Ajomale, came second with 25,727 votes, while Mr Ifeanyi Udeh of APGA came third with 673 vote.

Idimogu, who ex-pressed gratitude to the people of the area for choosing him to repre-sent them, assured that

he would do his best to justify the trust reposed in him.

He stated that every-one is a stakeholder in the project to develop the constituency, and the nation, adding that he would use everything at his disposal to attract de-velopment to the area.

Idimoju decried, the gale of defection emanat-ing from the loss of PDP at the federal level, say-ing it was not the best thing, as it exposes the nation to a one party rule.

According to him,

there is the need for poli-ticians to remain in their parties, to form a formi-dable opposition, which he said will keep the rul-ing government in on its toes.

He said that the forma-tion of formidable oppo-sition worked well for the APC, which finally paid off, as it won at the fed-eral level.

He stated that for the first hundred days in the House, he would do his best to make his presence felt for the benefit of his constituency.

Lagos House of Assembly winner assures of adequate representation

Kwankwaso

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

Nigeria’s presidential election has come and gone. There are lessons deriv-able from the reactions of President Good-luck Jonathan and his APC challenger, General Muhammadu Buhari, a fourth time campaigner. Their statements, fol-lowing the outcome of the election, were most endearing and demonstrated their statesmanship. They also reflected in a large measure the kind of incumbency-opposition relationship we are likely to witness. President Jonathan reaffirmed his position that nobody’s ambition was worth the blood of any Nigerian, adding that “the unity, stability and progress of our dear country is more important than anything else”. In his own reaction, Gen-eral Muhammadu extended a hand of fel-lowship to the outgoing president.

Writing on the essence of the opposi-tion, which I described as ‘devil advocates’ on this page sometimes ago, I observed as follows: “When we are myopic, they widen our lenses and perception; when we have tunnel view, they open for us new and mul-tiple windows of ideas; when we are lazy or

complacent, they force rigour on us; when we are flippant, they drive order in our thoughts and words; when we forget to do our homework well, they give us the hard knocks to awaken our senses; when we be-come arrogant, they bring us down from the clouds to the world of reality; when our preparations are shoddy, they point out our shortcomings; when we are superficial, they ignite in us the flame of originality”.

In the sense I was writing, I assumed that the opposition would be sincere and patriotic in its position on the policy choic-es and programmes of the government of day in the overall national interest. In fact, in the ideal governance framework consisting of the state, citizens and the ‘third sector’, the opposition is the domi-nant force. Therefore, the opposition is necessary for deepening the democratic space and for the sustenance of good gov-ernance, required for the growth and de-velopment of any polity.

But is this always the case, especially in most Third World countries, which have been victims of political instability? For us in sub-Saharan Africa, where Nigeria occupies a strategic position as the voice of the black race, we need to rethink the ideal of the opposition as a complement in the governance framework. Our expe-rience since the First Republic suggests that the opposition has been mostly adver-sarial, never seeing anything good in the ruling government.

The death of our First Republic was sig-naled by the acrimonious relationship be-

tween the government and the opposition. The Second Republic also suffered similar fate because the opposition and the rul-ing party put their group interest above the national interest. In the conduct of the Fourth Republic so far, we have barely managed to keep the nation together.

I believe that even if the opposition has a superior logic or better alternatives, there should be a way of offering them without compromising the stability of the state. But because power contest is a zero sum game affairs, national interest takes a back stage in the pursuit of group interest. Therefore, the incumbent always views the opposition with suspicion, not willing to give an inch or totally rejecting the its position. The bottom line is that the ma-jority versus the opposition syndrome in many developing countries always gives room for fifth columnists to cause confu-sion or destabilize the polity.

In the last presidential election, there

SANDRA AKUOMA

In this column last week, we got intro-duced to the concept perfectionism, which I put down as a set of defeating

thought patterns that push one towards achieving unrealistic high goals. I went ahead to differentiate between ‘healthy and unhealthy perfectionism’. In the for-mer case, the victim is never satisfied by less than perfection state and becomes depressed when confronted with failure. And for the latter, which is also termed adaptive perfectionism, the victim mani-fests obsession with high standards.

Our focus in this current discourse is the effects of negative perfectionism. Let us maintain a tap-tap approach to the discourse. First it leads to a constant sense of failure. Perfectionists tend to focus on their flaws rather than their achievements. So, no matter how well a task is done, there is always a sense of failure that it wasn’t done even better. An example is completing a lovely project but focusing on the rough edges.

Second, it leads to procrastination and low output. Instead of taking the first step to start a new project, one is plagued by the overwhelming anxiety of not meeting the standards expected. The fallout is you don’t make a move at all. You take forever to begin something because you don’t want to make a mistake along the way. Too much attention to details can overwhelm you to the point of leaving a project incomplete

until time forces its pressure on you to perform. It might take you twice as long to finish a project, for fear of producing anything less than perfect. As a result you miss deadlines and the process of achievement is normally full of terror and pain.

Third, it leads to missed opportunities; meaning you wait for all the ducks to line up so you can make the first move. Now is never the perfect time or moment, because of that perception of life one chooses to stick to working jobs they have no passion for, despite their superb skills, rather than actively using them to push toward their ambitions.

When they are not open to new experiences, they miss out on a lot of opportunities to discover new interests, people and passions. When they are closed off, these limits they place upon themselves bring unnecessary stress and make them miss out on what life has to offer. More importantly, it reduces opportunities for creativity.

Fourth, is that loved ones, especially might be affected. Imagine the pressure a perfectionist puts on their children by drumming in their ears or in other ways

that anything short from perfection is not good enough by focusing on the stuff they get wrong rather than what they do right.

Fifth, perfectionists never learn from their mistakes. One side effect of a perfectionist’s attitude is the terror of making mistakes. Mistakes equate with failure to a perfectionist. So, either they don’t acknowledge their and learn from their mistakes or they simply don’t make them. But the only way not to make mistakes is to limit what they do – thus limiting themselves and their growth as a person.

Another effect is stress and anxiety. It makes you unhappy when you don’t need to be. You become drained by excess stress when you try to complete a task with anything less than perfection as the acceptable standard. When you’re under heavy amounts of stress, the anxiety can take over, robbing you of your sleep at night through over thinking. You can become so worried about things outside of your control that pose a threat to reaching perfection, or beat yourself up over minor setbacks because you can’t help but perceive them as a personal failure. This can cause burn out, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), high blood pressure and stress related diseases, all in the name of wanting to be perfect.

And of course, low self esteem is another fruit of perfectionism. Since perfectionist tends to believe that everything can come out perfectly with their own hands, they will damage

themselves when failure comes. They may think negative things about themselves and bring themselves down. Perfectionists are like birds that fly so high when the weather is great, but when a sudden outpour of rain comes, the bird will stop flying and look for trees to shield them from the rain. Perfectionists fly high when great projects are being done, but when a failure comes, they fly down, get wet and find it hard to fly high again because they have lost self-esteem.

Food for thoughtBeing a perfectionist is not wrong at

all if you use it in a proper and positive way. Extreme perfectionism will bring consequences that you wouldn’t like to experience. If you notice that your being a perfectionist stresses you, then it is time for you to start changing. Use perfectionism in a good way for you will be happy to see the result of it.

Next week the focus will be the causes of extreme perfectionism

Akuoma wrote from Lagos via sanlifepointers@hotmail.com and can be reached on 01816 5583876 (SMS only)

ONE SIDE EFFECT OF A PERFECTIONIST’S

ATTITUDE IS THE TERROR OF MAKING

MISTAKES

THE PEACEFUL AND TRANSPARENT

CONDUCT OF THE LAST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

CAN BE REGARDED AS THE RIGHTEOUS STEPS TO ACHIEVE NATIONAL

COHESION

Of political competition and opposition politics

Effects of negative perfectionism

korewarith@yahoo.com, 08090585723 (SMS only)

ABDUL-WAREES SOLANKE

A

Mirror of the moment

15Monday, April 13, 2015 Views

Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mail@nationalmirroronline.net mirrorlagos@yahoo.com or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs. Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.

were concerns even in the international community that the election might be deadlocked. The nation surprised all in meticulously conducting the polling exer-cise and completing the counting process transparently. The general mood in the country also reflected that we have learnt from past experiences when announce-ment of election results was always greet-ed with spontaneous violence.

In the composition of the government and the National Assembly following this historic election, however, what would be the relationship between the two key arms of government? The two contending sides are sides of the same coin and should, therefore, be complementary. This is the spirit with which the nation should march on in this Fourth Republic. But this is not to say that the opposition should be a collabo-rator in impunity or an ally in corruption. To sustain this spirit, the various patriots who intervened at critical periods in the run up to the elections and committed the frontline candidates to peace agreements should not go to sleep as the nation will con-tinue to cherish their intervention at criti-cal periods of intense political competition.

The peaceful and transparent conduct of the last presidential election can be re-garded as the righteous steps to achieve national cohesion. The new opposition to be led by PDP and the about to be en-throned ruling APC need to foster a com-plementary relationship and benefiting from each other’s respective insights on how Nigeria can progress.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

NIGERIANS HAVE BEEN DECEIVED, FOOLED

AND PROVOKED ENOUGH BY THE

SHENANIGANS OF THEIR POLITICIANS

16 Monday, April 13, 2015 EditorialEditorial

Away with politics of opportunism and Special Assistants to Gov-ernor Ibrahim Dankwambo and many contractors were said to be in the carpet-crossing boat. They were received at the state secretariat of the APC by the party’s governorship candi-date, Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya.

In Edo State, the PDP guber-natorial candidate in the 2012 gubernatorial rerun election, who served as the National Coordinator of the Goodluck Support Group and Goodluck Youth Initiative, Major-General Charles Arhiavbere (retd) reportedly led over 10,000 of his supporters to the APC. They were heartily received by Gov-ernor Adams Oshiomhole. The story was the same in Delta State, where PDP youth leader and chieftain, Chief Ayiri Emami and hundreds of others switched camp to the APC and vowed to deliver the governor-ship election of last Saturday.

Similar apprehensions are rife in Kaduna and other states of the federation. Some of the big names in the defection fren-zy before now included Gover-nors Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara). Others are Governor Olusegun

Mimiko of Ondo State, Speaker of the House of Representa-tives, AminuTambuwal, former governor of Ekiti State and one time Deputy National Chair-man (South West) of the PDP, Olusegun Oni, former Kwara State governor, Abubakar Bu-kola Saraki, former Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi, Isiaka Adeleke, the first civil-ian governor of Osun State and Olagunsoye Oyinlola, also former Osun State governor, to mention but just a few.

Several reasons meant to de-monise the parties from which they defected from are also being flaunted by the defectors to justify their abandonment of the party that brought them to limelight. Incidentally, the defection is mutual across both the PDP and APC, especially; and both parties pop cham-pagne whenever it favours them. Unfortunately, too, while the defectors dangle patrio-tism, service to the nation or national interest as some of the reasons for which they jumped ship, what has become glaring is that they discard their par-ties mostly for selfish reasons bordering on survival in the political turf. Never in the his-tory of the nation has clueless, non-principled, unethical and crude politics of the belly been

exhibited in the country as in the past 16 years. It is for this reason that most Nigerians view the PDP and the APC as just two sides of the same coin, a perception that an APC-led federal or state government can only shrug off or discounte-nance with hard work and qual-ity service to the citizenry.

It is quite shameful that what the Nigerian political elite could most generously offer since the dawn of democracy in 1999 is deception of the public, gluttony for power, profligate lifestyles, confused and, indeed, hollow principles. Sadly, too, the nation’s judiciary has not shown sufficient seriousness in reining in the national aberra-tion. We recall that in Decem-ber 2014, the PDP lost out in its bid to declare the seats of four governors - Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano); Aliyu Wamakko (So-koto); and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara) - that defected to the

APC vacant. Originally, the PDP dragged five governors, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State inclusive, to court. But the latter’s name was struck out from the suit following his impeachment. Had the courts been able to teach some defec-tors the right lessons, they would by now be circumspect when taking the steps that diminish the integrity of the nation’s body politic.

Baffling equally, is the open arms with which the APC is accepting defectors. Being the party that will be in the saddle beginning from May 29, 2015, the APC should be cautious not to plunge the nation into a one-party state, a dream that the PDP almost accomplished but for the emergence of a strong opposition coalition in the APC. A polity with-out a vibrant opposition is one sentenced to a no-choice condition, whereas democ-racy thrives on making free choices. Without a potent op-position, for instance, the APC probably won’t be opportune to take the place of the PDP at the centre. Nigerians have been deceived and provoked enough by the shenanigans of their politicians; and the APC should distance itself from encouraging same.

Letters to the EditorLetters to the EditorLetters to the Editor

x

Western Union (in cooperation with NASA and Hughes Aircraft) launched the United States’ first com-mercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Westar 1. A special case of geosynchronous satellite is the geostationary satellite. These satellites have revo-lutionized global communications, television broad-casting and weather forecasting; and have a number of important defense and intelligence applications.

April 13, 1974 April 13, 2014

A bus traveling from Villahermosa to Mexico City crashed into a tractor-trailer and caught fire, killing at least 36 people from the Veracruz region. There were four survivors. The collision took place near the municipality of Juan Rodriguez Clara, which is itself near Acayucan. The bus was owned by a car-rental company called ‘Tur-tle’, and the truck was owned by a milk protein company called ‘Prolat’.

April 13, 1997

Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. The Masters Tour-nament is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, it is the first of the majors to be played each year. Unlike the other major cham-pionships, the Masters is held each year at the same location, Augusta National Golf Club, in the city of Augusta, Georgia, United States.

ON THIS DAY

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A2 18 Business CourageCourage

Cover

Real Sector:

UDO ONYEKA, CO-ORDINATOR

BUSINESS COURAGEudonyeka@gmail.com

c Global Media Mirror Limited

Growth prospects,challenges aheadAs latest reports of the nation’s real sector continue to reflect hope for brighter outlook in the years ahead, analysts say that in spite of the latest 55 per cent capacity utilisation recorded in the sector, its untapped productive opportunities require more than mere policy semantics to translate them into concrete gains. Udo Onyeka reports

The increasing importance of the real (manufactur-ing) sector to national development cannot be

better captured than now when cataclysmic pricing upheavals in the global oil market are rap-idly eroding the very foundation upon which Nigeria’s acclaimed growth was anchored in the past few years.

Indeed, experts believe that one of the sure ways Nigeria could overcome the prevailing fi scal whirlwind is for govern-ment to focus more on the real sector, the strongest link in na-tional economic diversifi cation value chains with a view to tap-ping its immense benefi ts for broad-based development of the country.

Specifi cally, far better than other climes’ real sector capaci-ties, economic development ex-perts see the Nigerian real sector as structurally strong in produc-tivity mix such that exploring it better will give the country a stronger pedestal for capital ac-cumulation, employment gen-eration and economies of scale maximisation.

According to a 2014 economic report by Renaissance Capital, Rencap, Nigeria’s manufacturing sector has displaced Telecom-munications and Oil and Gas sectors to become the major eco-nomic growth driver.

The report stated that with Ni-

geria’s re-based Gross Domestic Product, the manufacturing sec-tor was growing faster than the telecommunications, oil and gas and agricultural sectors.

Titled, “Nigeria’s GDP: Bigger but slower – Manufacturing is the engine of growth,” the research result was further strengthened by recent fi gures by the Manu-facturing Association of Nigeria, MAN, which showed that there was an increase in capacity utili-sation from 46.3 per cent record-ed in the fi rst half of 2013 to 52.7 per cent in the second half of last year, but is currently put at to 55 percent.

Rencap stated that the manu-facturing sector recorded 22 per cent growth in 2013, as against the 14 per cent it recorded in 2012, with growth largely driven by the textile, cement and food sub-sectors, among others.

The growth recorded by the manufacturing sector within the period under review, it said, ac-counted for one third of the total growth in the economy.

“Manufacturing is growing strongly, despite power defi cit. The manufacturing sector is a much bigger, faster-growing sec-tor under the new series, nine per cent of GDP as against the four per cent previously. In 2013, it recorded substantial growth of 22 per cent, as against 14 per cent in 2012, comprising one-third of total growth.

“Food, beverage and tobacco producers account for half of the manufacturing sector. The sub-sector’s growth accelerated to 12 per cent in 2013, against 7 per cent in 2012,” the report said.

Interestingly, in Nigeria there have been conscious efforts by governments to implement re-forms aimed at holistically trans-forming all facets of the economy in order to positively impact on the lives of the people. But then, the impact of such measures is yet to be fully felt as socio-eco-nomic performance indices of the economy remain poor still.

It is against this backdrop that sector’s stakeholders are champi-

oning the cause of new strategies that could help in revitalising the ailing industry and putting the economy on a more structurally balanced operational space nec-essary to unlock its potentials for sustainable, inclusive and foreign exchange yielding source for Ni-geria. One of such measures cen-tres on increasing access to credit by real sector operators.

“It was in a effort to revive and revitalise the economy and real sector in particular that the Fed-eral Government had initiated several intervention funds”, Min-ister of Industry, Trade and In-vestment, Mr Olusegun Aganga had said

But Aganga on the Redcap’s report said it only corroborated the fact that the manufacturing sector was being transformed un-der the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The trade and real estate sectors trumped agriculture and fi nancial services in 2013, to be-come among the top three growth drivers, together with manufac-turing. The decline in agricul-

Muda Yusuf, DG, LCCI

Kola Jamodu, DG, MAN

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A3 19Business CourageCourage

BC

ture’s growth contribution in 2013 was partly due to the third quarter fl oods.

“It is a good thing that the manufacturing sector is breath-ing well under this administra-tion. Figures are there as proof. All we need do now is further im-prove the situation through con-sistency in policy as we continue to work hard towards continu-ously improving Nigeria’s non-oil revenue,” Aganga said.

In spite of the efforts of the government, manufacturers are still lamenting that the operat-ing environment in the country is poor, making the cost of do-ing business in the country very high.

For instance, Managing Direc-tor/Chief Executive Offi cer of the Arewa Metal Containers Limited, ARMECO, Mr. Daudu Joachim, lamented recently that govern-

ment support to local industries in the country was very poor and not encouraging.

Speaking at the company’s 45th Annual General Meeting, AGM, of the company held in Ka-duna late last year, Joachim said local manufacturers have been operating within a very challeng-ing environment coupled with the security challenges.

In the same vein Director General, Abuja Chamber of Com-merce, Industry, Mines and Ag-riculture, ACCIMA, Mr. Joseph Wenegieme, also said that the business climate in Nigeria has been a challenging one despite

the fact that there are so many growth and development as evi-denced by the number of compa-nies springing up daily to start off business in Nigeria. He regretted that the business environment has remained harsh as the cost of doing business in the country is “neck breaking”.

One of the factors affect-ing the real sector according to stakeholders is security chal-lenge, which has threatened the survival of many local industries.

Apart from this issue of se-curity is the challenge of Power, which also ha in no small mea-sure affected the production ca-pabilities of local industries.

“More worrisome is custom-er’s preference to imported prod-ucts and the lack of support from the government; government should do more and provide better business opportunities for local industries to perform”, Joachim said.

Board Chairman of ARMECO, Alhaji Mohammed Kabir Musa, said economic activities has been sluggish even though interest rates and infl ation had remained relatively stable, stressing that lo-cal manufacturers have been put under pressure, resulting in the reduction of capacity utilisation or outright closure of some com-panies.

He said the problem faced by local manufacturers is made double by the prolifi c liberation of the import policy currently in place. According to industry ob-servers erratic power supply has increased the overhead cost of local manufacturers since all of them rely on power generating sets to power their machines.

A lot of money is being spent in purchasing diesiel or fuels and also maintaining the gener-ating sets. Also, the Institute of Directors, IoD, Nigeria, has con-demned the high cost of doing business in Nigeria, saying it is the bane of economic growth and development in the country.

The institute however enu-merated some of the challenges facing the real sector operators to include: lack of access to fi nance, lack of infrastructure and good operating environment, smug-gling of substandard goods in to the shores of the country, lack of local patronage and dearth of in-dustrial skills.

According to experts the infra-structure defi cit in Nigeria is very huge making government efforts in the tackling the issue looks as child’s play.

The infrastructural defi cit, ac-cording to the experts, is so huge that Nigeria needs to spend about $14.2bn per year for the next 10 years to be able to bridge the gap.

The Lagos Chamber of Com-merce and Industry, LCCI, re-cently decried the high cost of do-ing business in Nigeria and has therefore called on the incoming administration to address the is-sue.

A communiqué issued at the end of the chamber’s meeting in Lagos, said both high cost of do-ing business and low productiv-

ity are intermingled with macro-economic factors, institutional challenges and structural issues, which constitute the fundamen-tal problems the incoming gov-ernment must solve.

LCCI noted that the outlook for many macroeconomic indi-cators is not bright with foreign reserves dropping below $30bn and persistent pressure in the exchange rate.

It said that the chamber wants the incoming regime to ensure the blocking of all fi scal leakages and wastes in govern-ment especially in respect of the management of petroleum prod-uct subsidy, pension fund, im-port duty waivers, ghost workers in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.

The chamber equally wants prioritisation of government ex-penditure to boost investment in critical areas as well as perfor-mance audit of key regulatory in-stitutions whose activities impact on the private sector with a view to ensuring that these institu-tions deliver the desired value to the private sector and economy at large.

Other expectations by the chamber include acceleration of reforms on the oil and gas sec-tor in order to attract more pri-vate investments in both the upstream and downstream seg-ments stressing that this would save the economy the current huge foreign exchange used for importation of petroleum prod-ucts.

The LCCI called for a level playing fi eld for all investors across all sectors with regard to import tariffs, funding opportuni-ties, tax incentives etc as well as the sustainability of selected poli-cies and programmes which of-fered value to the economy under the outgoing regime.

The chamber said it wants a robust consultation with the pri-vate sector for inputs into policy formulation processes, and in-vestment incentives should be universal application to all inves-tors in the private sector.

The Federal Government had inaugurated two Standing Inter-Ministerial Committees to address the high cost of doing business and revitalising of local industries.

According to the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, NIPC, Mr. Mustafa Bello, “Doing Busi-ness and Competitiveness Com-mittee was charged with the re-sponsibility to regularly monitor, review and recommend improve-ment on existing policies and legislation that govern the act of doing business in the country, while Investor Aftercare Commit-tee was charged with the respon-sibility of considering complaints from investors on account of ap-parent irregularity and inconsis-tency in the implementation of Government policies.

He said the Committee on Doing Business and Competi-tiveness, has identifi ed 10 do-ing business indicators such as:

starting business, registering property, getting credit, protect-ing investors, enforcing contracts and dealing with construction permits.

Others are: paying taxes, trad-ing across borders, getting elec-tricity, and resolving insolvency. The committee according to Bello prioritised the indicators based on their impact on the competi-tiveness of the Nigerian business environment.

To further reduce the cost of doing business in the country, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, had approved the downward re-view of the cost of business reg-istration at the Nigerian Invest-ment Promotion Commission ,NIPC, from N50,000 to N15,000 ($100).

Stakeholders have tasked to ensuring the provision of steady electricity supply, as well as mount pressure on the banks to reduce their lending rates, saying that with high cost of fi nance, there is no way manufacturers can survive in their businesses.

The need to direct credit to the manufacturing sector and other priority sectors necessitated the implementation some special in-terventions by the government.

For instance real sector is ex-pected to tap from a N300bn fa-cility put together by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The facility aims at helping the sector to unlock its potential that will at the end stimulate out-put growth, value-added produc-tivity and job creation.

The CBN, penultimate week in a circular to announce the initiative explained that the fa-cility would be used to support large enterprises for startups and expansion fi nancing needs of N500m up to a maximum of N10bn.

The real sector activities tar-geted by the facility are manufac-turing, agricultural value chain and selected service sub-sectors, the bank said.

According to the circular, the objectives of the facility are to im-prove access to Nigerian Small and Medium-scale Enterprises to fast-track the development of the manufacturing, agricultural value chain and services sub-sec-tors of the economy. This is also expected to increase output, gen-erate employment, diversify the revenue base, increase foreign exchange earnings and provide inputs for the industrial sector on a sustainable basis.

Bello

Aganga

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L-R: Zonal Business Manager – West, Opeyemi Oluwalusi, Regional Trade Marketing Manager, Ibadan Brewery Ayodeji Oke, and Regional Business Manager – West, Joseph Bodunrin, all of Nigerian Breweries Plc., at the trade launch of Ace Roots, in Ibadan

Combined risk cover will eliminate exporters’ losses – CDFBy Francis Ezem

The Cargo Defence Fund CDF has said that it decision to

introduce the Combined Insur-ance Risk Cover in conjunction with the NEXIM Bank and the Nigeria Insurers Association NIA, was designed to check-mate the losses being incurred by Nigerian non-oil exporters.The CDF is a unit of the Nige-rian Shippers Council NSC, charged with the responsibil-ity of helping Nigerian ship-pers (exporters and importers) to pursue their cargo claims, among several other functions.

Business Courage had reported exclusively that Nige-rian charcoal exporters loose a whopping N9.7bn in three years to fraudulent importers in European countries comprising Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Belgium.

The combined risk cover is an additional insurance cover, apart from the one offered by the conventional marine underwriters, which alsocovers political risk and other risks of the buyer’s insolvency provided by the NEXIM Bank.

Secretary to the Fund, Ms. Ogo Azuka, who spoke in an interview, disclosed that this additional risk cover, which is in line with Federal Govern-ment’s policy of promoting non-oil exports, is designed to provide a double protection for the Nigerian non-oil exporter so that he would remain in busi-ness even after any loss arising in the course of his internation-al trade transactions.

She disclosed that in addi-tion to providing political and other risks associated with the insolvency of the buyer, the NEXIM Bank, which is a development-oriented bank-ing institution provides due diligence services on the pro-spective international buyers of Nigeria’s non-oil exports so that the exporters would be properly guided even before commencing the entire process.

According to her, under the combined insurance risk cover, the Fund provides the Standard Contract Form, which among

several other factors specifi es the payment method for the Nigerian exporter, which en-ables him to negotiate with the foreign buyer on the preferred payment method.

It was gathered that the es-sence of this is to ensure that the exporter selects the pay-ment option that is benefi cial to him, as many had in the past chosen wrong payment options as against the preferred Letter of Credit option that left them at the mercy of the foreign

buyers, most of who took advantage of them.

Investigation further showed that this combined risk cover in addition covers the foreign buy-er of the non-oil export which ensures that payment is made as soon as the consignment is delivered, a development that gives both parties a high level of protection, thereby making the transactions interesting.

She however noted that as part of measures to ensure that the new risk cover gained wide acceptance, the Fund is also working with relevant agencies of the government to carryout regional enlightenment pro-grammes to increase awareness for the cover.

Dangote supports WEF African global leaders’ community projects By Udo Onyeka

Thirteen from among the Seventeen Africans recog-

nised as Young Global Lead-ers, YGL, in 2015 by the World Economic Forum, WEF, are to benefi t from the Dangote Fellowship instituted by the Dangote Foundation.

The African youngsters were part of the 187 young leaders from 66 countries honoured for leadership and service to

society by the WEF.The Dangote Fellowship,

created by the WEF and President and Chief Executive Offi cer, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, was designed to in-crease the quality and quantity of young African leaders across the continent by supporting the engagement of African YGLs in the community, such as those from small enterprises or the non-business sector.

The Fellowship helps YGLs from Africa attend YGL and World Economic Forum events and funds the organization of an YGL Africa Education Module.

Dangote said the institution of the fellowship award was his own way of contribution to the intellectual development of exceptional young people of African descent.

The YGLs come from diverse backgrounds and bring a range of expertise to the community from across the world. Over 50 per cent of the new intake are women, half come from the private sector and half from the public sector, including aca-demia, arts and culture, civil society, government, media and not-for-profi t organizations.

According to Director and Head of the Young Global Lead-ers Community at the World Economic Forum, John Dutton, “The World Economic Forum has announced the leaders under 40 who are shaping the future of industry and society. About half of the new class of Young Global Leaders, YGLs, come from emerging economies with 17 from sub-Saharan Africa. The list of YGLs has a strong representation from women leaders and is split 50-50 between business and non-profi t sectors, academia, arts and culture, civil society, policy and government, media and social entrepreneurs”.

The class of 2015 joins a community which has been

growing in signifi cance since it began 10 years ago.

Mobile internet users surge to 80 million

Figures from Nigeria’s tele-coms industry regulator,

the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, indicates a strong increase in the number of mobile internet users on the Global System for Mobile com-munications (GSM) in January.

According to its Monthly In-ternet Subscriber Data, mobile internet subscribers rose from 76,324,632 in December 2014 to 81,892,840 in January 2015 – translating to 5,570,038 new users in January alone.

MTN Nigeria leads the pack with 39,173,123 subscrib-ers, followed by Globacom at 17,671,405 subscribers, Airtel stands at 14,969,924 while Etisalat had 10,078,388 sub-scribers.

The data also showed that in the sick Code Division Mul-tiple Access, CDMA, segment of the industry, Multi-Links and Visafone had a joint total of 153,798 internet users on their networks in January, down from 154,324 in the last quarter of last year.

Apapa Customs Command generates N74.5bn in Q1

Activities in the maritime industry ended on Friday

with the Apapa Area 1 Com-mand of Nigeria Customs Ser-vice, NCS, announcing revenue of N74.5bn in the fi rst quarter of 2015.

The Public Relations Offi cer of the Command, Mr Emmanu-el Ekpa, stated this in the com-

mand’s revenue report made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos.

The report indicated that the Command generated N20.7bn in January; 21.5bn in Febru-ary, and N32.3bn in March 2015.

The command collected rev-enues from Import Duty, Com-mon External Tariffs, CET; and levies from rice, sugar, wheat fl our, cigarette and iron.

During the week, Mr Uchu Block, the National Vice-President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, called for improvements in maritime trade environment.

Block urged the in-coming government to make the na-tion’s refi neries to work at full capacity.

He said besides creating more jobs, the efforts would solve the problem of tankers drivers coming from all over the country to load petroleum products in Apapa.

In the week under review, the Federal Government ap-proved the implementation of the ECOWAS Common Exter-nal Tariffs, CET, 2015-2019 and 2015 Fiscal Policy Mea-sures.

National Public Relations Offi cer of Customs, Mr Wale Adeniyi, in a statement, said the implementation of the ECOWAS CET together with its Supplementary Protection Measures occurred concurrent-ly and would take effect from April 11.

The development, therefore, meant that all imports arriv-ing the country beginning from April 11, shall be subjected to the rates contained in the CET 2015-2019 and the 2015 Fiscal Measures.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Dikko Abdullahi, directed all Customs Control-lers on immediate enforcement of the tariffs to enhance trade facilitation.

Also, the Rector, Certifi ed Institute of Shipping, Prof. Alex Okwuashi, urged the Federal Government to accredit some maritime institutions for post-graduate training.

He said the urgent accredi-tation of the institutions would assist in meeting the manpower needs of the industry.

Okwuashi said it would

Azuka Dikko

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Cross section of Executive Council Members of World Federation of Advertisers, WFA, with Executive Council Members of Advertisers As-sociation of Nigeria, ADVAN, during the just concluded WFA Global Marketers Week in Marrakech, Morocco

also be a welcome initiative to transform the Maritime Acad-emy of Nigeria ,MAN, Oron, to a maritime college in any of the newly- established maritime universities.

Delta takes delivery of 46 tractors to boost agriculture

Delta Government has disclosed that it had taken

delivery of 46 tractors to boost agriculture in the state.

This is contained in a state-ment signed by the media aide, Mr Dennis Medi, to the Com-missioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Delta, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, in Asaba.

The statement called on farmers in the state to form cooperative societies to enable then hire the tractors at subsi-dised rates.

It stated that the ministry had placed order for 92 trac-tors, out which 46 tractors had arrived the state.

“The bulk of the tractors will be giving to farmers at subsidised rates to encourage them go into commercial farm-ing and boost food production, which is the hallmark of the ‘Delta Beyond Oil’ agenda,” it said.

The statement described the procurement of tractors as parting gift to farmers by Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan’s admin-istration.

The statement quoted the commissioner as appealing to farmers take advantage of the gesture to boost farming by engaging in commercial or large scale farming.

Muoboghare commended the management and staff of the State Tractor Hire Agency for their commitment to the development of agriculture.

He called for timely as-semblage of the knocked down parts and urged them to ensure adequate care and mainte-nance of the tractors.

General Manager, Tractor Hire Agency Mr Peter Onicha-bor, was also quoted as com-mending the state government for bringing revolution into ag-riculture, which has impacted the activities of the Agency.

UBA’s N30.50bn bond on FMDQ to enhance liquidity – Operators

Capital market operators have expressed optimism

that the listing of the UBA Plc N30.50bn bond on the FMDQ OTC and the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, would boost market liquidity.

FMDQ OTC is Financial

Market Dealers Quotations over the Counter, another trading platform on the nation’s capital market.

They told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos that the listing would increase foreign and local investors’ par-ticipation in the market.

Managing Director, Com-pass Investments and Securi-ties Ltd., Mr Emeka Madu-buike, said that the listing would enhance liquidity at the nation’s bourse.

He said that the develop-ment would make the nation’s capital market a better invest-ment destination due to trans-parent price discovery.

“We are expecting more trading platforms in this mar-ket where all kinds of products can be traded,’’Madubuike said.

Immediate past Presi-dent, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, CIS, Mr Ariyo Olushekun, said that the bank listed on both markets to boost liquidity.

Olushekun said that listing on both market would allow a buyer or seller to buy or sell from either FMDQ or the NSE.

“We are optimistic that listing will encourage more corporate bonds to be issued and listed on FMDQ and NSE,’’ he said.

NAN reports that FMDQ OTC on April 8 commenced corporate bond listings on its platform with the listing of the bank’s N30.50bn bond.

The listed Bond is Series-1 of UBA PLC 7-year 16.45 per cent Fixed Rate Subordinated Unsecured Notes due in 2021.

Managing Director, FMDQ, Mr Bola Onadele, at the board listing exercise said that the listing would deepen the na-tion’s capital market.

Onadele, who commended the bank for the feat said that the bond was the fi rst corpo-rate bond to be listed on its platform.

He said the admission of the bank’s bond followed the recent approval of FMDQ bond listing and quotation rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission ,SEC.

According to him, bonds listed and admitted on FMDQ will be traded by Fixed Income Specialists who would act as market makers to these bonds thus providing trading liquidity to the bond.

“FMDQ provides a platform for the registration, listing, quo-tation and trading of bonds and other fi xed income securities,’’ said Onadele.

He said the company had empowered the Nigerian bond market with price discovery, transparency and market in-tegrity through market develop-ment initiatives.

Onadele said that listing and quotation on FMDQ pro-vided a host of benefi ts across the debt market value chain, positively impacting stakehold-ers in the Debt Capital Market, DCM.

He said that FMDQ had made the nation’s capital market globally competitive with continuous disclosure of relevant information on fi xed income issues listed on its platform.

Lagos water master plan will reduce borehole drilling, says LSWC

The Lagos State Water Corpo-ration, LSWC, has said the

completion of the water master plan would stem indiscrimi-nate drilling of boreholes in the state.

Managing Director, LWC, Mr Shayo Holloway, made the re-marks in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos.

According to him, it is mor-ally wrong to start enforcing the law on boreholes when majority of the areas in the state do not have access to water from the main source.

“We know that there is pro-liferation of boreholes drilling in the state and this is because there is inadequate water sup-ply to go round.

“We are concerned about this development and that is why the corporation has de-veloped a water master plan to increase water supply by 2020.

“Studies indicated that if the proliferation of boreholes is not promptly addressed in the next ten years, Lagos runs the risk of saline water.

“That is salty water from the Atlantic ocean massively migrating inwards to pollute ground water,’’ he said.

According to him, this will make all boreholes draw salty water and that it is already happening to boreholes along the coastal region of Lagos.

Holloway noted that the long term goal of the master plan was to ensure that water is available in the front of houses so that people do not suffer before fetching it.

The director said that the corporation would enlighten

residents to connect to the water main source provided for communities.

He said that the master plan involves developing additional water schemes, taking raw water from rivers and the la-goons for treatment into potable water.

Why campaign on .ng domain not yielding results – NIRA

The President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Associ-

ation, NIRA, Mrs Mary Uduma, has attributed the low uptake of the doting, .ng, domain names to infrastructure challenge.

Uduma told the News Agen-cy of Nigeria ,NAN, in Lagos that the association had done a lot toward sensitising Nigerians on the .ng domain names but that the efforts had yet to yield the desired goal.

She said that one of the impediments of .ng domain up-take was the absence of infra-structure to ensure broadband penetration to all nooks and crannies of the country.

According to her, infrastruc-ture will ensure that everyone has access to the internet to facilitate the uptake of the country’s domain names.

“How many people have websites, how many people have email addresses, how many people have internet ac-cess, is internet everywhere in Nigeria?

“The price for internet ac-cess, how affordable is it? So those are the things that are impediments to .ng uptake,’’ she said.

The NIRA president said that another shortcoming was that of knowledge, adding that not many Nigerians knew much about the internet.

She said that not many Ni-gerians were aware of the busi-ness benefi ts in the .ng domain names.

Uduma said that the as-sociation, through its registrars registered and renewed about 1,500 domain names on a yearly basis.

According to her, the low up-take is as a result of attitude of Nigerians towards what is made in the country.

Phillips Oduoza, GMD, UBA Uduma

Yemi Adeola, CEO, Sterling Bank

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BATN reiterates commitment to shared values

Sterling Bank to hold 53rd AGM April 30

FBN Holdings record N82.8bn after tax profi t

By David Audu

Chief Executive Offi cer, British American To-bacco, BAT, Nicandro

Durante, has stated that sus-tainability is at the core of its stakeholder engagement.

“Sustainability is not a choice or something that is ‘nice to have’, but something cru-cial to securing the future of our company and for creating shared value for our consum-ers, our shareholders and our stakeholders.”

In its 2014 Value Shared publication, BAT’s engagements with a cross-section of its stake-holders were highlighted. The new report, which details the company’s sustainability ini-tiatives, showed how BAT en-hanced its approach with the development of a new sustain-ability agenda that is focused on the most important issues for the business and its stake-holders in 2014.

Some of the issues raised in the report include harm reduc-tion, sustainable agriculture and farmer livelihoods as well as corporate behaviour.

These have clear commit-ments to research and develop-ment as well as promotion of a range of less risky alternatives to regular cigarettes and work-ing to enable prosperous liveli-hoods for all farmers who supply tobacco leaf. This is in addition to operating to the highest stan-dards of corporate conduct and transparency. “The concept of shared value, for us, is ensuring mutual benefi ts for our share-

holders and society, while also underpinning the company’s whole approach to sustainabil-ity,” said Durante.

As a major international business in a controversial in-dustry, British American To-bacco has a long history of focusing on sustainability. To this end, it has been produc-ing independently assured re-ports since 2001. The company has made signifi cant progress in that time, which is refl ected by the Group’s inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the last 13 years, 12 of which have been as industry leader.

The report highlights issues that include its leading role in innovative nicotine product li-

censed as a medicine, publica-tion of the Group’s new human rights policy, detailing its com-mitments to eliminating child labour, no exploitation of labour and respect for freedom of as-sociation, the Group’s youth smoking prevention activities and publication of new prin-ciples for engagement as part of the Group’s commitment to transparency and integrity in lobbying.

Other key highlights of the report include: investing more than £65 million each year in providing on-the-ground advice and support for over 100,000 contracted farmers worldwide, helping them to build suc-cessful, profi table businesses; achieving a 45 percent reduc-

By Udo Onyeka

Sterling Bank has said its 53rd Annual General Meeting, AGM, would hold

on Thursday April 30, in Lagos.The Bank in a statement

signed by the Company Secre-tary, Mrs. Justina Lewa said the Directors of the Bank at the AGM will receive the audited fi -nancial statements for the year ended 31st December, 2014, together with the Reports of the Directors, auditors and the Au-dit Committee.

Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of the Bank for the year ended December 31, 2014 released last week at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, showed appreciable growth in all key performance indices, sus-taining the strong performance outlook of the lender in spite of industry-wide headwinds.

For instance, Sterling Bank

Plc announced gross earnings of N103.7bn and a profi t before tax of N10.7bn, an increase of 13 percent and 15.4 percent over its 2013 fi gures respectively.

Major highlights showed that net interest income leapt by 20.1 per cent to N43.0bn in 2014 as against N35.8bn recorded in 2013. This was driven mainly by an 11.4 per cent growth in inter-est income to N77.9bn, which far outweighed the 2.2 per cent increase in funding costs to N34.9bn. This underlined the increasing cost effi ciency of the lender as cost of funds dropped from 6.1 per cent in 2013 to 5.3 percent in 2014. Similarly, non-interest income grew by 18.3 per cent from N21.8bnin 2013 to N25.7bn in 2014. This was boosted by an 82.2 per cent growth in net trading income to N6.8bn.

The Bank continued to strengthen its mid and bottom-

line performances as its increas-ing focus on cost reduction credit risks management and operating effi ciency cushioned macro headwinds and retained value for shareholders. Net op-erating income rode on the back of growth in net interest income and a 10.5 per cent reduction in impairment charges to N61.4bn

FBN Holdings Plc has re-corded profi t after tax of N82.8bn for the year ended

December 31, 2014, showing an increase of 17.3 per cent above N70.6bn recorded in 2013.Based on the performance, the direc-tors recommended a cash divi-dend of 10 kobo per share and a bonus of one new share for every 10 shares already held.

The company grew its gross earnings by 21.3 per cent from N396.2bn to N480.6bn, while net interest income went up by six per cent from N230.1bn to N243.9bn in 2014. Profi t before tax stood of N92.9bn, up 1.7 per cent from N91.3bn in 2013, while profi t after tax rose by 17.3 per cent from N70.6bn to N82.8bn. A cash dividend of 10 kobo per 50 kobo share and scrip of one for 10 were recommended amounting to a total distribution of N1.05 per share compare to N1.10 in 2013.

FBN Holdings total assets grew by 12.2 per cent from N3.9trn to N4.3trn, with loans and advances jumped by 23.2 per cent from N1.8 trillion to N2.2trn.

Commenting on the results, the Group CEO, FBN Holdings, Bello Maccido said,“The group recorded a strong fi nancial per-formance in 2014 in spite of the highly challenging operating en-vironment particularly for our fl agship business, First Bank of Nigeria. As such, the perfor-mance by the Banking Group is a testament to the underlying strength of our commercial bank-ing business which is built on an extensive retail network and a robust information technology platform. Notwithstanding the tough operating environment, the group showed commendable growth across all the key perfor-mance indicators buoyed by the complementary performance of our non-bank subsidiaries with gross earnings growing by 21.3 per cent to N480.6bn and profi t before tax at N92.9bn.”

According to him, “We remain focused on diversifying our rev-enue streams through the ex-traction of value from our recent bank acquisitions, consolidating our position in the investment banking space, especially with the acquisition of Kakawa, and expanding our insurance busi-ness scope.”

tion in CO2 emissions from 2,000 baseline and a 24 percent reduction in water use from 2007 baseline; and more than £50 million invested each year in the fi ght against the tobac-co black market – a trade that cheats governments out of an estimated £30 billion each year in taxes, puts consumers at risk and actively markets and sells tobacco products to children.

Durante further stated that, “These areas are not only where we face some of our biggest chal-lenges, but also where I see the greatest opportunities. They can add value to society, as well as helping to ensure we deliver our Group strategy and BAT con-tinues to grow and thrive in the long term.”

in 2014, an increase of 24.4 per cent on N49.3bn recorded in 2013. While the Bank recorded a profi t before of N10.7bn its profi t after tax increased by 8.8 per cent to N9bn.

The Bank’s Balance Sheet also emerged stronger. Net loans and advances increased by 15.4 per cent to N371.2bn in 2014 com-pared with N321.7bnin 2013. Customer deposits rose by 15 per cent to N655.9bn as against N570.5bn while shareholders’ funds increased by 33.5 per cent from N63.5bn to N84.7bn. Total assets closed 2014 at N824.5bn, representing an increase of 16.5 per cent on N707.8bn recorded in 2013.

Commenting on the results, the Bank’s Managing Director, Mr. Yemi Adeola, said the bank’s performance shows the strengths of its resilient growth model and its ability to continue to deliver value for all stakeholders. Maccido

L-R: Director Corporate Communications Department (CBN), Ibrahim Mu’azu; Managing Director CitiBank Nigeria Limited, Omar Hafeez; Managing Director Standard Chartered Bank, Bola Adesola; Director Banking Supervision Department (CBN), Agnes Olatokunbo Martins; and Managing Director Union Bank, Emeka Emuwa, addressing journalists at the end of the 321st bankers’ committee meeting in Lagos

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Ecobank boss offers students investment tips

Mansard tops industry performance, gets award

Axa SA predicts strong industry growth in Nigeria

CWG operating margins rises in 2014

The Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Ji-bril Aku, has said one of

the best ways to grow money is making investments. Aku gave this advice recently while lec-turing students of Government Secondary School, Lugbe, Abu-ja on the topic “Growing Your Money” as part of Global Money Week.

He described investment as something that is purchased with money and expected to produce income or profi t, stat-ing that, investing money re-duces risk of theft, spending and gives chance for the mon-ey to grow.“Generally, invest-ments are broadly divided into ownership, equities and lend-ing (debt). The higher the risk involved, the higher the return and interest rate; the longer the period of investment, the high-er the interest rate,” he said.

The Ecobank boss also took the students through investing in real estate, precious objects, bonds, mutual funds, adding that “just like you eat good food and take vitamins to protect your body from sickness and allow you grow, you need to protect your money and invest-ments in a similar way by get-

ting insurance.”He explained that “Stocks are securities that allow you become a part-owner of the company whose stocks you purchase. Examples of stocks are shares. When you buy the shares of a company, you are given a share certifi -cate and entitled to dividends only if the company makes a profi t. Shares also allow you to attend the company’s general meetings and sell your shares for capital gains in the stock market when the price of your shares increases.”

He also counselled the stu-

dents on the need to save mon-ey in the bank, noting that “to register with a fi nancial insti-tution, you opened an account and are provided with an ac-count number. The commercial banks generally offer ordinary savings account; current ac-count; time savings deposit account and foreign exchange deposits.

”The Global Money Week is a global money awareness cel-ebration that takes place be-tween March 10 and 17 every year to engage children globally in learning the concept of sav-ings and investment. The day is being marked to focus atten-tion on children and youth in primary and secondary schools nationwide and to empower them by enhancing their fi nan-cial knowledge and planning skills.

During the period, fi nancial institution chief executive will visit; teach selected students from the schools a module of a Financial Literacy curricu-lum specially designed by Ju-nior Achievement Nigeria – a non-governmental organisation focused on educating children about their economic environ-ment.

Aku

Mansard Insurance plc’s has been named the top quartile, fi rst

place in Insurance Category, of publicly listed Growth Strat-egy Leaders for the year 2015 awards season.

The award honours “best of the best” growth companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Nigeria and was presented by MSY Analytics, a teaming partner and Nige-rian representative of global re-search and growth consulting giant, Frost & Sullivan.

According to MSY analytics, ‘Using a weighted scoring meth-odology, the performance and fi nancials of all publicly traded companies on Nigerian Stock Exchange ,NSE as of Decem-ber 31, 2014 were evaluated across several metrics such as total shareholder returns, rev-enue growth and profi tability growth.

From within the pool, the company selected elite group of 10 top companies per industry and Mansard ranked 1st in the Insurance Industry.”

The organizers further dis-closed that emerging and fron-tier markets represent over 50 percent of world GDP & over 2/3 of global growth and thus a strategic focus area for inves-tors around the world.

While African continent is home to several of these mar-kets, Nigeria ,a key frontier market, enjoys a unique posi-tion as the largest GDP in Af-rica.

Moreover, Nigerian Stock Market was among the 10 best performing markets around the world during 2013 and is ex-pected to be an attractive mar-ket for both domestic as well as global investors for coming de-cades.

Head of Mansard’s Market-ing and Corporate Communi-cations Group, Mr. Taiwo Adel-eye, while receiving the award appreciated MSY Analytics for the honour accorded Mansard and he noted that Mansard has remained the biggest insurance company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for several years.

The 2015 Growth Strategy Leaders award was presented during the Wharton Club of Africa, WCA, Executive Invest-ment Summit & CEO Forum 2015 in Lagos.

Mansard Insurance plc is a member of the AXA Group, the worldwide leader in insurance and asset management with 157,000 employees serving 102 million clients in 56 countries.

Mansard was incorporated in 1989 as a private limited lia-bility company and is registered

as a composite company with the National Insurance Com-mission of Nigeria, NAICOM.

By Johnson Okanlawon

Computer Warehouse Group, CWG, has an-nounced an improved

performance for the fi nancial year ended December 31, 2014.

The company’s results show an improvement in operating in-dices across most fi nancial seg-ments and also affi rm its posi-tion as the foremost Pan African ICT services provider.

According to the result pre-sented to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, gross margin appre-ciated fi ve per cent while the fi -nancing costs and general oper-ating costs dropped 43 per cent and 15 per cent to N199.8m and N2.7bn respectively.

However, the company’s revenues declined N5.3bn to N15.3bn while the gross profi t shed 27 per cent to N3.0bn, refl ecting the harsh operating environment leading up to the elections in the country.

A statement from the com-pany attributed the bottom line decline in the revenue fi gures with a less than corresponding drop in the operating costs.

Others include the foreign exchange losses of N380million due to the currency devaluation and the Central Bank of Nige-ria’s directive that excluded IT related companies from the Re-tail Dutch Auction System for-eign exchange window.

Reviewing the fi nancials, the Chief Operating Offi cer of the company, Mr. Philip Obioha, stated that the results refl ected the current harsh operating en-vironment, and that the macro-economic trend which the com-pany started experiencing from the second part of last year.

The Group Chief Executive

Offi cer, Mr Austin Okere, said the company shall continue to consolidate her operations in new systems and processes to achieve improved cost effi cien-cies in the face of stiffer compe-tition, and dwindling margins.

“In doing so, we shall achieve a cost leadership position whilst delivering superior service to our customers,” he added.

He explained that the com-pany will focus investments in new lines of business, chris-tened CWG2.0, which are bet-ter positioned to withstand macroeconomic shocks, espe-cially those relating to foreign exchange.

He stressed that there are also collaborative agreements with multilateral organizations, which are focused on the growth of SMEs, in achieving inclusive growth in the country.

“There is also the free to air services which the group is of-fering in collaboration with the second largest satellite provider in Europe. This service would launch with 30 TV channels and is planned to be launched in the second quarter of this year.

Okere

Axa SA, a foreign insurer active in Nigeria, sees the peaceful manner in

which the country is handling its fi rst transition in political power in decades as supporting economic growth in the country and beyond.

Head of Axa’s global proper-ty and casualty business, Jean-Laurent Granier, commenting on the just concluded presiden-tial election said, “We think that political stability and the re-spect of democratic rules in this vote can only consolidate devel-opment potential in Nigeria and other African countries,”.

A largely peaceful election in which Muhammadu Buhari defeated President Goodluck Jonathan has bolstered inves-tor confi dence, he said.

Nigeria’s insurance penetra-tion is about a fi fth of the av-erage on the continent and less than a 20th of the level in South Africa, underscoring the oppor-tunity in a country with 177 million people.

“We are not making a po-litical interpretation of this out-

come,” Granier said. “This rein-forces and confi rms our will to grow in Nigeria.”

Axa has disposed $9.7bn of assets in developed markets since 2010 to invest in faster-growing nations, including Afri-can markets.

In December, it spent €198 million to buy a majority stake in Mansard, Nigeria’s fourth-largest insurer.

Also last month, Paris-based Axa completed the purchase of a 7.2 percent stake in pan-Afri-can reinsurer Africa Re for $61 million.

Insurance penetration in Nigeria, as measured as a per-centage of premiums to gross domestic product, was 0.68 percent in 2012, according to a KPMG report in August.

That compares with a 3.5 percent average for Africa and 15.4 percent in South Africa, the continent’s biggest insur-ance market, according to fi g-ures from PriceWaterhouseCoo-pers in October.

Insurance premiums tend to increase faster than economic growth in Nigeria and African countries, as companies and households adjust their cover-age to “catch up” with rising liv-ing standards, Granier said.

“The corporate insurance market was fi rst to develop and now the market for individuals is opening,” he said.

Health insurance products sold through corporate or indi-vidual policies, car-insurance needs and micro-insurance ini-tiatives are contributing to in-surance expansion in Nigeria, as in other fast-growing African markets, he said.Granier BC

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A8 24 Business CourageCourage

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Global News

China to punish Internet fi rm Sina over series of complaints

China will punish web portal and social media fi rm Sina

Corp after it was identifi ed as operating the most complained about major website in the country, the Internet regulator said on Friday, the latest blow in an ongoing online crack-down.

Representatives from Sina, which also operates China’s most popular microblog Weibo Corp, discussed “the issues of breaking the law and the re-cent large quantity of Internet user complaints” with offi cials from the Cyberspace Admin-istration of China (CAC) and its Beijing branch, the regula-tor said in a statement on its website.

User complaints about Sina concerned “spreading rumours, terror, obscenity and pornogra-phy, fraud, publicising cults... distorting facts, violating social morality and promoting vulgar-ity,” said the CAC.

Sina declined to comment.Since President Xi Jinping

came to power in early 2013, he has overseen a broad cam-paign to bring China’s Inter-net under the government’s control. This includes clamp-ing down on content seen as destabilising for the ruling Communist Party, using what cybersecurity experts say is the world’s most sophisticated censorship mechanism.

CAC will punish Sina to strengthen supervision and management of news web sites and promote the healthy and orderly development of the Internet news services, the statement said, citing a CAC offi cial. The regulator did not specify the punishment.

If Sina fails to reform prop-erly or illegal activity continues on its platforms, Sina will be severely punished or even have to halt its online news services, the CAC said.

According to the statement, the Sina representative told the regulator the company would target the problems, strength-en its internal oversight and carry out its services in strict accordance with the law.

GE slashing fi nance arm, sells $26.5bn in real estate

General Electric announced Friday it was getting out of

most of its banking business, slashing back GE Capital and selling $26.5 billion worth of real estate.

The US industrial giant said it would sell off most of the $500 billion in assets of GE Capital, a business which earned $2 billion last year.

But GE will retain its air-craft leasing and energy and healthcare equipment fi nance operations, businesses that are closely tied to GE’s core indus-trial manufacturing operations.

The action follows the spi-noff and public offering of GE’s retail fi nance and credit card business, Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF - news) , last July, as the 123-year-old company gets back to its roots after years of letting fi nance drive much of its business.

The sale over the next two years of GE Capital assets could generate as much as $90 billion to be returned to inves-tors via dividends, share buy-backs and a share exchange, the company said.

The company heralded the move as getting back to core capabilities in advanced manu-facturing technology.

GE manufactures aircraft engines and parts, railroad locomotives, turbines for the energy industry and health care industry equipment. It also develops a broad range of technologies in communica-tions, consumer goods and health care.

By 2018 more than 90 per-cent of the company’s earnings will come from its industrial business, compared to 58 per-cent currently.

“This is a major step in our strategy to focus GE around its competitive advantages,” GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt said.

“These businesses are lead-ers in technology, the Indus-trial Internet and advanced manufacturing. They are well-positioned in growth markets and are delivering superior customer outcomes, while

achieving higher margins,” Im-melt said.

Immelt said the fallout from the fi nancial crisis, which led to GE Capital being designated a “systemically important fi nancial institution,” (SIFI), drawing tougher regulation and capital requirements, spurred the move.

“The business model for large, wholesale-funded fi nan-cial companies has changed, making it increasingly diffi cult to generate acceptable returns going forward,” he said in a statement.

GE said it will ask regula-tors to remove the SIFI des-ignation for the pared-back company.

“GE Capital will be smaller and simpler, with businesses designed to drive industrial growth,” it said.

Tories to freeze train fares for fi ve years

Rail fares will be frozen in real terms for fi ve years

if the Tories win the General Election, David Cameron has pledged.

The Prime Minister said extending the Retail Price Index infl ation cap on regulated ticket prices until 2020 would save the average commuter £400.

The coalition has imposed the same restrictions for the past two years, and also removed the “’fl ex” train that allowed operators to increase some fares by more than infl a-tion as long as others went up by less.

According to the Conserva-tives, the policy means commut-ers are already paying £75 less than they would have been.

The announcement is part of an effort to blunt the Labour at-tack over the cost of living, and accusations that most people are not benefi ting from the eco-nomic recovery.

Mr Cameron, who was cam-paigning in the south west, said: “The cost of commuting is one of the biggest household bills that hardworking families face and it is something we are determined to bear down on.

“It shouldn’t just be taken for granted that people across the country who get up early and come home late, spend a large amount of the money they earn travelling to and from work.

“Because of the diffi cult deci-sions that we have taken to re-pair the economy, we have been able to hold down commuter fares for the past two years.

“If elected in May, we would freeze them in real terms for the next fi ve.”

But Mick Cash, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said: “This latest stunt would still mean annual fare increases that would institu-tionalise the harsh reality that

the British passenger pays the highest fares in Europe to travel on rammed out and unreliable trains.

Germany to cut public debt below 70%/GDP next year – Finance minister document

Germany is cutting its public debt faster than expected,

with Berlin now aiming to reduce its debt to less than 70 percent of its economic out-put next year, according to an excerpt of a fi nance ministry document seen by Reuters on Friday.

Under European Union rules, set out in the 1992 Maas-tricht Treaty, euro zone states are supposed to keep the ratio of their debt to their gross do-mestic product to 60 percent or less. That rule has been broken for years.

Even Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, has not been close to that level since the early 2000s, and its public debt rose further during the fi nancial crisis in 2007-08 as the govern-ment pumping billions of euros into struggling banks.

In its coalition agreement from 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition agreed to reduce the public debt to below 70 percent of GDP in 2017.

However, Germany now will achieve this goal in 2016, one year early, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 68.75 percent, thanks to a reduction of toxic assets in government-run bad banks and generally good public fi nances, according to an excerpt of the fi nance ministry’s latest stability report seen by Reuters.

Berlin further aims to reduce its public debt gradually in com-ing years and almost fulfi l the Maastricht criteria in 2019, with a planned debt-to-GDP ratio of 61.5 percent, the document showed.

Helped by strong tax rev-enues and rock-bottom interest rates, Germany achieved its goal of a balanced federal budget -- also known as the “schwarze null” (black zero) -- one year early in 2014. It was the fi rst time since 1969 that Germany

had achieved the feat.

IG Group launches trading app for Apple Watch

Britain’s IG Group Holdings Plc said on Friday that it

would launch one of the fi rst online trading apps for Apple Inc’s smartwatch, in keeping with the trading platform’s push to bolster its technology divi-sion.

The app will automatically install itself onto clients’ Apple Watches if it has already been downloaded to their iPhones, IG said in a statement.

Traders will be able to buy, sell and monitor stocks, as well as spread bets across a number of asset classes from the watch through a “one-tap” login.

IG Group said the app would be available from April 24, when Apple plans to start selling its watch in stores.

Oil rises towards $58, heads for weekly gain as Iran supports

Oil rose towards $58 a bar-rel on Friday, heading for

a weekly gain, supported by an easing of concerns that the interim accord over Iran’s nu-clear work will lead to a rapid rise in Iranian oil supplies.

Evidence this week of ample global supplies, includ-ing the biggest jump in U.S. inventories since 2001, a glut of unsold Nigerian crude and Saudi Arabian output reaching a record high, limited the rally.

Brent crude was up $1.16 at $57.73 a barrel by 1348 GMT, remaining on track for its third weekly gain in four weeks. U.S. crude rose 50 cents to $51.29.

“The latest agreement with Iran does not open the fl ood-gates for a signifi cant return of Iranian oil on the market as many had feared,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of com-modity markets strategy and oil strategy at BNP Paribas.

World powers and Iran an-nounced the interim accord last week. But on Thursday, Iranian supreme leader Ayatol-lah Ali Khamenei demanded all sanctions on Iran be lifted on the same day as any fi nal agreement, while the United States maintains that sanc-tions would be lifted gradually.

Crude was also supported by expectations of stronger de-mand after data this week from the United States and Germany bolstered the view that world growth is slowly perking up. Oil’s rally came despite a stron-ger U.S. dollar, which tends to weigh on commodities priced in the U.S. currency.

Jinping

Immelt

Merkel

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Brand Watch

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Dearth of data, media consumption key issues affecting African marketers

NB launches Ace roots for traders in Ibadan

WPP tops Effi e Index for fourth year in a row

Stories by David Audu

Participants at the recently concluded Global Market-ing Week 2015 in Mar-

rakech, Morocco, organised by World Federation of Advertisers and co-hosted by the Moroc-can Association of Advertisers, GAM, Advertisers Association of Nigeria, ADVAN, alongside other trade associations in Af-

rica released new research into the state of marketing expertise and opportunity.

The results highlight key challenges that all brands face in Africa, notably the lack of reliable data, including media consumption and retail perfor-mance, as well as the progress that marketers in the region are making in delivering more effec-tive marketing.

President of ADVAN, Kola Oyeyemi, Executive Member, Kachi Onubogu and Executive Secretary, Ediri Ose-Ediale led ADVAN to the global marketers’ conference.

According to Oyeyemi, the new document which seeks to unravel Africa’s marketing challenge was in co-operation with Millward Brown and Na-tional Advertiser Associations

in Cameroon (CMA), Kenya (MSK), Morocco (GAM), Nigeria (ADVAN), South Africa (MASA) and Zimbabwe (MAZ).

The association said that the results are based on 82 re-sponses from marketers work-ing for well-known local and global brands at a country or regional level.

They also reveal the gap in consumer understanding that local and regional marketers say exists at a global level.

Fifty fi ve per cent respon-dents agreed with the state-ment that “global colleagues do not understand consumers in our local markets” and only 20 per cent disagreed.

The local versus global debate also applied to local agency part-ners, with 58 per cent of respon-dents agreeing that local agencies have a superior understanding of local business issues than inter-national agency brands.

Nevertheless, there was also a lot of common ground with marketers in other regions with key priorities cited such as brand positioning, integration, consumer insights and market-ing analytics.

“This refl ects many of the

core concerns that WFA mem-bers globally have identifi ed in the most-recent survey of mar-keter priorities, where integrat-ed activity planning and digital marketing are the top priorities.

Oyeyemi, on the importance of the conference to the Nige-rian market said “It was a week of knowledge, new experiences and new insights into the mar-keting profession especially as it affects measurement of effec-tiveness in marketing”

“It was quite insightful to learn from other markets the challenges and proven solu-tions to key marketing issues, these results are also applicable and automatable for Nigeria.

“We are back with fresh in-formation to ensure best prac-tice marketing in Nigeria,” AD-VAN president said.

On his part, Onubogu stressed that the GMW 2015 provided the participants the opportunity to gather relevant knowledge and understand the local industry more.

“Local marketers found the conference useful in many ways and the ripple effect would en-hance our operation and add value to what we do.

L-R: Chairman, Briscoe Technologies, Emmanuel Ekong; Technical Director, Briscoe Technologies, Ralph Schubert and Regional Market-ing Manager, Overseas Marketing Department, Hytera Communications Corporation Limited, Jimmy Jin, during the SECUREX West Africa Exhibition held at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos

Nigerian Breweries Plc re-cently unveiled its new product, Ace Roots, to

traders, distributors, retailers, entertainment spot operators and teeming consumers in the Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomosho, Os-hogbo, Ilesha/Esa-Oke trade zone.

According to the company’s Zonal Business Manager – West, Opeyemi Oluwalusi, Ace Roots is a product of painstaking research and response to consumers’ re-tailers and distributors’ demands and the result of Nigerian Brew-eries Plc’s in-depth consultations with critical stakeholders before its intervention in the herbal mix section of the beverage drink market.

“At Nigerian Breweries Plc., we love to respond to consumers’ de-mands. You will bear me witness that your feedback from consum-ers and critical stakeholders have continued to play critical roles in our decision making process.

“When our competitor came up with her brand sometimes

last year and stakeholders like you and our teeming consumers started asking when is Nigerian Breweries going to come out with her own brand of herbal mixture drink?

“We responded by appealing for patience as we need time to carry our proper research and consultation with you ,retailers, distributors, including teeming consumers and other critical stakeholders before we can make a decision.

“The result of that painstak-ing research and consultation is what we are launching and un-veiling to you here today – Ace Roots,” he said.

Speaking further to crowd of traders, retailers, bar operators, distributors and consumers that thronged the Ibadan Civic Cen-tre, venue of the Trade Launch in Idi-Ape area of the sprawling ancient Yoruba city; Oluwalusi stated that Ace Roots is produced with the wellbeing and welfare of the consumer in mind.

“Ace Roots takes the health, wellbeing and even the pocket of the consumer into serious con-sideration before it debuts.

“The herbal mix comes with the lowest sugar content in the Nigerian market today. Ace Roots has very low sugar content of just one cube of sugar. Aside this, Ace Roots is made with actual herbal juice extract from age-long roots, leaves and herbs. It’s alcoholic content is moderated at 6 per cent, that’s a little higher than la-ger beer and slightly lower than stout beer beverages.

“More importantly, Ace Roots is entering the market with great value that takes the consumers’ purse into serious consideration.

Oluwalusi explained that like many of its predecessors from the stable of Nigerian Breweries Plc, it has come to’ change the game for nightlife, especially for the bit-ters/herbal mix section of bever-age industry.

“Of course, the in-thing will be for consumers to ‘change their game to low sugar’,” he said.

He espoused the rich herbal content of Ace Roots to include: kolanut, ginger roots, chilli pep-per, sweet orange, bitter orange, ginseng roots, cocoa bean, AS-PARTNE plus seven other fruits, spice and herbs.

WPP has topped the Ef-fi e Index as the most effective agency hold-

ing group globally for the fourth year in a row, as Omnicom’s BBDO is named the most effec-tive ad network.

The Coca-Cola Company top-pled Unilever from the top spot to be named the highest ranked marketing company. Coca-Co-la was also the most effective brand, a title it has now held for three consecutive years.

Chair of the board of direc-tors, Effi e Worldwide and vice president, global marketing solutions, Facebook, Carolyn Everson, said “Effi e Worldwide’s annual Effi e Index recognizes the exceptional ideas that deliv-ered results and made a differ-ence for businesses globally.

The Effi e Index Worldwide is compiled from more than 3,000 fi nalists and winners from its 43 Effi e effectiveness competitions around the world.

“The Index is distinctively comprehensive in that it shines a light on the incredible ideas that worked around the globe, from local to international cam-paigns, and from both multi-na-tionals and independent brands.

“This year’s honorees have set the bar higher for the indus-try and proven that great cre-

ative combined with thoughtful strategy equates to successful marketing initiatives.”

The Effi e Index Worldwide is compiled from more than 3,000 fi nalists and winners from its 43 Effi e effectiveness competitions around the world.

Each Grand Effi e gets 12 points, GOLD Effi es receive eight points, six points are given to silvers, bronzes winners get four and fi nalists are awarded two points.

WPP topped the global hold-ing company rankings for the fourth time, keeping Omnicom in second place. Interpublic was ranked third, Publicis Groupe fourth and Havas was listed in fi fth place.

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, said: “Some people talk about the impor-tance of effectiveness to the mar-keting services industry. That’s like saying goals are important to football, or speed is important to Formula One. It’s not merely important – it’s the point of what we do.

“Strategy, data, insights and, of course, outstanding creativity are the ingredients WPP agen-cies use to deliver their mission: results for clients. Or, to put it another way, creative effective-ness.”

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A10 26 Business CourageCourage

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Energy Review

Stakeholders lament over increasing vandalism in the power sector

Energy commission, NBTI partner on commercialisation of research products

By Gbenga Odogun

Epileptic power supply has remained the biggest single source of worry for

Nigerians. But the question on the lips of everyone concerned is why the problem has seemed to have defi ed all solutions in spite of successive govern-ment’s huge investments prior to the privatisation of the sec-tor.

According to stakeholders one answer that is readily avail-able is the facility vandalism in every part of the country.

The recent being the vandal-ism of gas pipeline transporting gas to various power stations. Just last month the Escravos gas pipeline transporting gas to Lagos was reportedly van-dalised resulting in signifi cant loss of supply to Lagos and its environs, in fact the media is awash with stories of mind-less vandalism of public power facilities to the discomfort and detriment of the populace.

Increasing cases of public power facility vandalism across Nigeria should worry all well-meaning Nigerians, especially, against the backdrop of the fact that it is already threatening the recently acquired status of the country as the largest econ-omy in Africa.

Although government’s commitment to power sec-tor reforms especially with the building of Independent Power

Projects, IPPs, and the privati-sation of the sector is well com-mendable, the spate of van-dalism being reported appears to constitute the single most pressing challenge for the sec-tor at the moment.

Until recently, some com-mon thieves take advantage of the inadequate policing of the power lines to steal high tension cables, where some even die by electrocution in the process. But the sophistry and co-ordi-nated vandalism suggest more

of sabotage than mere theft.While it will be impracticable

to provide round-the-clock se-curity for power-lines, Nigeria should be able to bank on the patriotic support of her citi-zenry. But to even imagine that some Nigerians may be sabotag-ing the system either because they are dealers on electrical facilities or because of political gains is regrettable .The task before the incoming adminis-tration should focus on using every means at its disposal to

protect this national asset and should not give stories of how vandals were making them fall short of their targets. The secu-rity agencies should be put to the best use.

Again, the issue of cables being stolen because some thermal stations had gas cut is something that should never happen. The incoming admin-istration of General Buhari should focus on reviewing the whole privatisation process with a view to determining their

suitability to bring about the desired change in the power sector since some of them have demonstrated lack of either technical knowhow or adequate fi nancial capability to effect any meaningful change in both gen-eration and supply chains.

Notwithstanding the odds and constraints that attend ef-forts at fi xing the power sector, government must go the extra mile to deliver on its promise on public power supply because of the importance and critical na-ture of power to the country’s social and economic develop-ment.

Government must stop at nothing in ensuring that very harsh penalties, aside other unpleasant consequences, are imposed on people that destroy public utilities, while the politi-cal will should be mustered to ban, even if temporarily, the importation of electricity gen-erators into the country.

It must be made clear that a few selfi sh and unpatriotic business people cannot hold the country to ransom even if it has to mount frequent raids on electrical materials markets to identify stolen materials with a view to bringing culprits to jus-tice. By the time these measures are put in place, the nefarious activities of power facilities van-dals would have been brought under control and Buhari will have succeeded in writing his names in gold.

NNPC offi cials working on vandalised pipeline

The Energy Commission of Nigeria, ECN, said it is working in conjunc-

tion with the National Board for Technology Incubation, NBTI, to commercialise its research and development products nation-wide.

Prof. Jere Bala, the Direc-tor General of energy commis-sion who disclosed this said the commission’s collaboration with NBTI was to exploit the avenues of commercialising some of its research and development out-puts, adding that the processes had been ongoing.

The D-G said there were vari-ous research and development programmes currently running at six of its Energy Research Centres in universities of Soko-to, Nsukka, Lagos, Illorin, Bau-chi and Benin.

Bala said that the universi-ties of Lagos had been carrying out research and development on energy effi ciency and con-servation; Benin on energy and

environment; Illorin on hydro-power plant and Bauchi on hy-drocarbon.

He said the basic research products of the commission in-cluded solar water heater, solar crop dryers, pilot wind electric-ity machines and bio-gas digest-ers from its research centres for commercialisation.

“We ultilise the biomass or sun to produce direct process heat through conversion of sun to heat, using solar water heater or solar crop dryer to convert the sun into electricity-using solar panels.

“We produce prototype solar water heater in our research cen-tres. Some have been installed, particularly in Usman Danfodio Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, and they are now helping in the pro-duction of warn water for use in the hospital.’’

He said the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology had established NBTI, to harness all the research and development

products for commercialisation.“Now, this board provides an

avenue where research and de-velopment outputs from these research centres are incubated. NBTI brings in private sector to see the products during the in-cubation.

“This will enable the investors to key in and get them adopted for mass production and convert

them into businesses,’’ he said.Bala said the commission

had been planning to bring in private investors, entrepreneurs and research institutions on how they could key in to convert the products into businesses.

Bala said the agency had to collaborate with NBIT to attract investors to invest in the devel-opment of the products for sale

and job creation.He said the conversion of the

products for mass production required an expert with special knowledge to get the products into the market.

The D-G said the commission had been promoting the use of wind energy for power genera-tion and the sun energy not only for production of electricity but also solar water heaters.

“We have also been able to promote small hydropower plants. We collaborate with UNIDO on capacity building and also on promotion of pilot project

He said the National Energy Master plan, NEM, which was still at draft forms had been re-viewed in 2013 and would be taken to the FEC for approval alongside with NEP and later to the national assembly.

Prof Bala said the master plan would be roadmap for the implementation of the renewable energy component of the Nation-al Energy policy.Bala

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By Isaiah Erhiawarien

Although predictions have revealed that worldwide IT spending is expected

to shrink to $3.66 trillion in 2015, by a 1.3 percent decrease from 2014, yet there are indica-tions that telecoms companies in Nigeria may be spending more this year, particularly on spectrum purchase and other telecoms infrastructure.

According to the latest fore-cast by Gartner, Incorporated the rising dollar is chiefl y re-sponsible for the slowdown.

Since 2001, In addition, Nigerian operators have paid close to $4 billion (N640bn) in license and spectrum fees since 2001. Further, 3 to 5 percent of Nigerian telecoms services revenues are paid out in wages and benefi ts for some of the highest skilled jobs in the econ-omy. Other contributions to the economy include payments to contractors, corporate social re-sponsibility (CSR) programmes and dividends to shareholders. CSR programmes have been of particular signifi cance, with many operators investing a ma-terial portion of their revenue on such programmes despite not breaking even on their in-vestments.

Research Vice President at Gartner, John-David Lovelock said that the study forecast U.S.-dollar-valued worldwide IT spending in 2015 to shrink by 1.3 percent, down from 2.4 percent growth forecast in last quarter’s update.

However, he said that the shrink is not a crash, even if it looks like one saying that the recent rapid rise in the value of the U.S. dollar against most currencies has put a currency shock into the global IT market.

He said, “Taking out the impact of exchange rate move-ments, the corresponding con-stant-currency growth fi gure is 3.1 percent, only off 0.6 per-cent from last quarter’s update. Such are the illusions that large swings in the value of the dol-lar versus other currencies can create.”

He noted that this illusion masks a bigger issue that has real implications stressing that every product or service that has a U.S. dollar-based compo-nent must have those costs cov-ered at the lower exchange rate.

“The simple implication is that there will be price rises. However, there are many other market forces at work protect-ing U.S. dollar profi ts will re-

quire a nuanced and multifac-eted approach involving pricing, partners and product manage-ment,” said Lovelock.

The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the lead-ing indicator of major technol-ogy trends across the hardware, software, IT services and tele-com markets globally.

For more than a decade, global IT and business execu-tives have been using these highly anticipated quarterly reports to recognise market op-portunities and challenges, and base their critical business de-cisions on proven methodolo-gies rather than guesswork.

For stance, the U.S. dollar spending on devices (includ-ing PCs, ultra-mobiles, mobile phones, tablets and printers) for 2015 is forecast to decline 1.2 percent to $685 billion.

Spending for all devices in 2015 was revised down partly due to a slowdown in PC pur-chases in Western Europe, Russia and Japan, countries where local currency has deval-ued against the dollar.

Although the mobile phone market is not as affected by the currency shifts, yet the study observed that substan-tial change in the phone mix in emerging markets toward low-er-priced smartphones negates price increases of premium phones, resulting in fl at phone average selling prices between 2014 and 2015.

The study captured data center system spending, which is projected to reach $142 bil-lion in 2015, an increase of just 0.4 percent from 2014 while external controller-based stor-age, enterprise network equip-ment and servers have all been impacted by the depreciation of

some local currencies against the U.S. dollar, but the server segment has seen the biggest impact due to the greater pric-ing pressure that server ven-dors are exposed to, due to their relatively lower margins.

Gartner said that the spend-ing in the enterprise software market is on pace to total $320 billion in 2015, a 2.3 percent increase from 2014 saying that this is a downward revision from the last forecast and is the result of a substantial reduc-tion in the forecast for offi ce suite spending, refl ecting the acceleration of Offi ce 365 adop-tion.

The study revealed that Of-

fi ce 365 is disrupting tradi-tional revenue fl ows stating that its cost is prorated over the life of the subscription, result-ing in signifi cantly lower rev-enue growth as user’s transi-tion away from the on-premises model.

“IT services spending will contract slightly to $942 billion in 2015, down from $948 billion in 2014. The largest reductions were made in implementation services, particularly in the U.S. Although the oil and gas industry is only one percent of the IT services market, oil and gas buyers historically react quickly when their prices drop, often cutting back on spending

20 percent or more”, the study noted. The Gartner noted that because the U.S. is a large oil producer and a large market for IT services, the largest spend-ing reductions on services is ex-pected to take place in the U.S. through 2015 and 2016, with an early impact on implementa-tion services.

Among the more prominent changes affecting multiple re-gions were reductions in total connections for developed mar-kets such as the U.S. and sev-eral Western European nations, as growth in data-only con-nected devices and multi-SIM connections were not as high as previously expected.

Nigerian IT spending to rise as global operators slash budget

Lovelock

IT improvement

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A12 28 Business CourageCourage

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with Esther Ozue

(ozueesther@nationalmirroronline.net) 08059234648 (sms only)

TechnotalkTechnotalk

Counting multitasking costs on you, your entreprise

Hytera participates in Securex West Africa 2015

Telecoms fi rms back campaign for girls ICT education

Multitasking reduces your effi ciency and performance because your brain works best when it focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things

at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully. Multitasking is an illusion. Your brain shifts each time you introduce a new task to juggle. Here are few effects of multitasking:

1. Multitasking might damage your brain.Do you read while watching TV or sitting in on a confer-

ence call? Listening to the chatter in the open offi ce? You’re asking your brain to split its attention and it can’t do that. Scientifi c researchers have shown that our brains are not capable of focusing on multiple tasks at once. We think they are, but what’s happening is the brain is jumping back and forth between the tasks, focusing briefl y one at a time and not only can our brains not make it happen, but they get damaged when we try to force them.

2. Multitasking makes you less productive.It takes more time to switch tasks than stick with them

until you fi nish.We think because we’re good at switching from one task

to another that that makes us good at multitasking. But then, having a great ability to lose focus isn’t admirable.

If you’re convinced that multitasking makes you super-productive, you’re super wrong. It just means you backtrack a lot, because every time you switch tasks, you have to re-peat a bit to fi nd out where you last left off. How many times have you had to re-read your blog post drafts because you can’t remember what you wrote since your last attempt?

3. Multitasking makes you prone to cheat.Cheating (intentional or not) happens when you make

sloppy mistakes you otherwise would not make.Multitasking itself won’t make you dishonest and turn

you into a content crook, but being pressed for time (which is what multitasking ultimately leads to) makes you cut corners. And that’s when sloppy things happen that can get you into trouble. Sloppy things like using images you don’t have permission to use, or plagiarizing or lifting content a little too heavily.

4. Multitasking lowers the quality of your work.Multitasking reduces worker performance, makes proj-

ects last longer and creates that panic-inducing backlog because your to-do list isn’t getting done.

What you should do about it?Time management is the key. Learn how to manage your

time very well. However, here are a few things you can do to combat the problem of multitasking:

1. Mix Your Activities Correctly: If you must do two things at once, then go about it with the right mix of com-plexity and simplicity. They key is to match high cognitive activities (like writing or anything that involves complex thinking and judgment), with physical tasks your brain’s autopilot (the cerebellum) can handle.

2. Choose Better Tools: Find the best distraction-free writing tools you can so you can focus on writing and noth-ing else until you are done.

3. Break the habit: Multitasking is a terrible habit to get into. It becomes pure distraction without the pretence of even “tasking” after a while.

4. Go with No: Learn to say “no” so that you can weed out the projects that bore you that drive you to facebook and candy crush.

5. Turn Things Off: Turn off your phone so the pavlov-ian beeps don’t distract you. Turn off browser notifi cations. Turn off email notifi cations. You can attend to all of those things later. BC

By Isaiah Erhiawarien

More private sector organi-sations have indicated

their interest to support com-mitment towards enhancing development in ICT education.Vodacom Business and Main-One Cable Company and FPG Technologies, j

MTN Nigeria and Huawei Technologies have indicated interest in partnering with eBusiness Life magazine on the campaign by celebrating the International Girls in ICT Day under auspices of eBusiness Life magazine published by eBusiness Life Communication Limited.

According to MainOne Cable Company, it is partner-ing with eBusiness Life in this year’s event because of the successes of previous partner-ships between as well as the impact of the event on young girls. MainOne has been a partner in this campaign from the maiden edition in 2012.

Also Vodacom Business, in a statement noted that the campaign to groom young girls and empower them technologi-cally for the future is in line with the company’s vision and Corporate Social Responsible.

It further stated that part-nering with eBusiness Life has created an extended platform to realise this objective in Nigeria.

The event, which is billed to take place at the Oriental Hotels in Lagos is part of the International Telecommunica-tion Union campaign to sensi-tise young girls and encourage them to take up Information and Communication Technol-ogy as a career.

While encouraging all its members to be part of the cam-

paign, the Association of Tele-communications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) commended the efforts of eBusiness Life in bringing this campaign to life in Nigeria.

In a letter signed by the ATCON’s Executive Secretary, Ajibola Olude, the Association stated: “Please accept the com-mendation and endorsement of our Association on this laud-able initiative”.

International Girls’ in ICT Day is an initiative launched through ITU Resolution 70 with the idea of creating a global environment that will empower and encourage girls and young women to consider careers in the field of infor-mation and communication technologies. The ITU declared the 4th Thursday of April every year as a day of encourage-ment to girls and young women to consider careers in ICT, while other stakeholders are reminded to support them in their choice.

Supporting the global Girls in ICT movement empowers girls and young women, giving them the confi dence to pursue ICT studies and careers. Girls and young women have the potential not only to become ICT users, but also to become ICT creators.

The event, which will be chaired by the Managing Di-rector, Edo State Information Communications and Tech-nology Agency, Mrs. Olayemi Wonuola Keri will feature Blog-ging and Quiz competitions amongst students from select secondary schools, roundtable discussions, interactive and motivational talk from re-nowned women ICT profession-als, amongst others. Awards to deserving female ICT practitio-

ners will also form part of the celebration.

The Nigerian Communica-tions Commission, the Ministry of Communications Technol-ogy and the National Informa-tion Technology Development Agency had been partners in this campaign.

e-Business Life Magazine is a monthly Information and Communications Technology Magazine incorporated to bring better information that would link users and service provid-ers as well as enable Nigeria take its pride of place among the comity of nations in the new global economy.

The mission at e-Business Life Magazine is to inform and educate ICT users on trends and developments both locally and internationally; to provide a platform on which to build ICTs in Nigeria and also to be a voice for ICT consumers in the country. In addition, it is poised to create a world where Nigerian youths have a better understanding of modern tech-nologies and can easily deploy these technologies in develop-ing their communities.

Funke Opeke, CEO, MainOne Cable Co.

By Johnson Okanlawon

Hytera, a leading profession-al mobile communications

solution provider, showcases its latest digital two-way radio portfolio at Securex West Africa 2015 in the Eko Convention Centre.

Hytera solution has been globally and locally in Nigeria, adopted by government and public security, utility, trans-port, and enterprises, which receive benefi ts of higher op-erational effi ciency and security due to the advanced voice and data features.

Speaking at the exhibition in Lagos, the Regional Marketing Manager, Overseas Marketing Department, Hytera Commu-nications Corporation Limited, Mr. Jimmy Jin said the com-pany offers the most complete

DMR portfolio, including portable two-way radio, mobile radio, repeater, infrastructure and applications.

He said that the company have other products including cost-effective radios like PD3, PD5& PD6 series, to high-end radios, such as PD705/PD785, which can support DMR trunk-ing mode, smallest DMR radios X1p/X1e, intrinsically safe DMR radio PD795 Ex for oil and gas industry.

He added that the com-pany also produces full series of TETRA radios, including portable, mobile, infrastructure and applications.

“Besides the PT580H por-table radio and MT680 mobile radio, in this year, we take a new Tetra portable radio in this expo, the smallest and most beautiful Tetra radio Z1p.

“Bringing infrastructure and terminals of both DMR and Tet-ra solutions, Hytera highlights emergency communication system, smart dispatch system in Securex 2015,” he said.

Jin, who noted that Nigeria is a very important market for Hytera, stressed that the com-pany clients adopt both digital technologies DMR and TETRA well.

He said, “Hytera is one of the few radio communication providers who can provide complete solutions for public safety & security, transporta-tion, oil and gas industries and companies.”

The Marketing Director of Hytera, Mr. Dylan Liu, said, “We want our customers to know who we are and prove that Hytera is a top brand in profes-sional mobile radio fi eld.”

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A13 29Business CourageCourage

Continued on pg A14

Owolabi Kapo:

By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

Born to Nigerian par-ents whose roots are from Badagry, Lagos state, South-Africa

based Thomas Owolabi Kapo, a renowned jeweler, teacher, founder and chief executive offi -cer of Hyde Park, Johannesburg based Akapo Jewels Ltd, has emerged, in the last 38 years, a shining example of a classic en-trepreneur who through sheer creativity, determination, hard work, restlessness spirit, clear head and far-sighted business strategies raised his company from ground level to an enviable international status.

Born in May 1958, Labi is a gifted and artistic jeweler who has been all over the world and has worked with renowned jew-elers such as Andrew Grima (Queens Court Jewelers), Uni-versal Gem Trade and Alexis Jewelry Limited gaining the experience that has made him into the master craftsman he is today. Originally, his surname

His entry into the entrepreneurial world was accidental. He got into the jewellery industry at the age of 17, after helping out at a jewellery shop that was short-staffed. But 35 years down the lane in the jewellery trade, having worked and did commissioned work for over 17 companies around the world, Thomas Owolabi Kapo is today not just an ordinary jeweler, he is a successful industrial icon, a quintessential entrepreneur and a master in the art of (model making and diamond mounting). Evidently, his story no doubt provides a motivational pull for aspiring entrepreneurs

The jewellery merchant

Kapo

was Akapo, a name in Yoruba clan, which literarily means treasurer, or keeper of money, but his father had had to remove fi rst letter when he got to Europe to study.

Labi kapo has never been afraid of taking risks and per-haps it has led him to a suc-cessful career in a fi eld not too diffi cult for people with his back-ground. He is the fi rst black man of the executive board of the jury of manufacturer association and jury council of pan African.

He has made customized hand craft jewelry to most of the top jewelry houses like Christies and Sotheby’s all over the world. Most of his clients buy his prod-ucts worth of tens of thousand dollars

Imbued with humility and ag-gressiveness, popularly known as Labi Kapo, he has managed to beat all odds to survive in a turf mostly seen as the preserved of the Western companies. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, young Kapo was barely 10 months old when he left the shores of Nigeria when his parents decided to further

their studies in Geneva. From there they moved to London where he grew up and received his education.

Kapo had his primary school education at St. Mary and St. Peters Primary school, Tedding-ton, Middlesex while he later moved to Teddington Secondary Boys School still in Teddington, Middlesex for his high school education.

Being a gifted boy, while right from childhood, he was discov-ered to have been very good at handcraft and hand skills, win-ning awards, unexpected cir-cumstances had led him to such an expected career.

His journey into the jewellery industry at the age of 17 was rather accidental, an act he de-scribed as being by chance and luck. He fell into the jewellery industry after helping out at a jewellery shop that was short-staffed.

“My chance came in the jew-ellery industry when I purchased an expensive beautifully-crafted watch from a friend who worked in a jewellery shop in Knights-bridge, London. I didn’t have

enough money to buy the watch outright so I made arrangements with my friend through his em-ployer to pay in installments.

“On making the fi nal pay-ment, my friend was no longer in their employment. The direc-tors of the jewellery shop, Mr and Mrs Peera, then asked me to help them in the shop. That was the beginning of my entry into the jewellery industry 38 years ago, in 1976. I specialise in bespoke and handmade jew-ellery, made to order.” He had explained.

Incidentally, after spending some time decided to further his education as he got a qualifi ca-tion in mechanical engineering, and so enlisted at Sir John Cass College in Aldgate, to begin to learn his craft.

Having been trained by a fi rm of goldsmiths in Hatton Gardens, the diamond centre of the United Kingdom and jewel-lery centre of London, he later moved on to work for top London goldsmiths, Barry Stern Jewel-lery Limited.

“At that time I would have been one of the fi rst Africans to

work in the jewellery industry. That’s going back to 1975 or 1 976,” said Labi.

Another renowned jeweller whom Labi worked for was An-drew Grima, a Court Jeweller for the Queen of England, who won a number of prestigious Diamonds International Awards for jewellery design. Kapo sub-sequently joined the industry, doing commissions for private diamond companies within Lon-don, including Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

However, having spent some years on the job as an employee, it was not surprising when Labi decided that he was convinced he could stand on his own. He decided to take a plunge as he established Akapo Jewels Ltd. Akapo Jewels serves the high end of the jewettery trade with specialised, hand-crafted work in 18-carat yellow and white gold, and platinum. Kapo is a master goldsmith, having learned the trade from gold-smiths in the jewellery centre of London.

Akapo Jewels, according to

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A14 30 Business CourageCourage

BC

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Kapo is the only black or African company producing high-end jewellery at the moment produc-ing fi ne, hand-crafted jewelery in avant-garde, antique and mod-ern or cotemporary designs.

The reality with the forma-tion of Akapo Jewels in Johan-nesburg has offered him the op-portunity to produce jewelry for top-end clients and also allowed him the space to train people from the continent to become top manufacturers.

He considers himself fortu-nate to have worked with the likes of Andrewand Svetla Ste-vens of Greig and Stevens, lead-ing producers of fi ne design jewellery. Since mid-2003 he had also produced handwork for the higher end of the mar-ket for Charles Greig Jewellers shops and designer jewellers Jenna Clifford. He had produced a range of jewellery for fi e 2004 African Mining Indaba.

The range was also displayed at fi e opening of fi e new wing at 0R Thambo Intemational Air-port, and fi en at First World Af-rican Jewellery in Rosebank.

As he confessed however, he did not fi nd it quite as easy as he had thought. “It wasn’t easy coming up through the ranks in London. In the 80s, I was able to do a tour of the workshops where I got to meet many elders with years of experience, in or-der to gain expertise. On some occasions I had to take a pay cut in order to acquire new skills.”

In 2002, after 25 years in the jewellery trade in London, the African goldsmith returned to the continent with his wife, Wumba, to pursue a common dream and open his own high-end jewellery manufacturing business in Hyde Park, Johan-nesburg, a business that could train talented youngsters from Africa to become goldsmiths as good as the best London could offer.

Then, a colleague of his who he was teaching in London went to South Africa fi rst, and then asked if he would be interested in coming down too, to look at the prospects of doing busi-ness together. “We spent three months here, but during the last two weeks of my stay I invited my wife down to have a look at opening a business. That was in 2002. I then returned alone in November 2002 to set up this business. My wife joined me with our children in December 2002.”

Getting to South Africa, he went ahead to set up a top shop in a plush suburb of Johan-nesburg. Within few years after establishing his feet in South Africa thus becoming a master of the craft and having dazzled millions of people all over the world with his work, the mas-ter craftsman decided to focus on on teaching the next genera-tion Africans on how to benefi t from the continent’s precious resources. “I have a passion for arts and craft I don’t know how to describe it. What I have learnt

and being told as well as what I have known all over the years is that it is quite disservice hoard-ing information. There is need to pass information across to the next generations.”

However, while admitting, it was not a bed of roses for him like every entrepreneur, he had little problem with start-up capi-tal, he noted there was not any major diffi culties as such. “There was no much problem setting up our company here in Hyde Park, because we cater for private clients as well as teaching and training. We run a college with full accreditation. Skills transfer is vital for African development.”

Being one of the few black goldsmiths in the industry, he admitted that there challenges. “Being one of the few black gold-smiths in the industry comes with its own challenges. There have been challenges from as far back as I can remember when I fi rst started training to become a goldsmith in London. The chal-lenges here in South Africa are very similar to those in London.”

‘The benefi ciation industry is small and can be very secretive. When we set up our company here, initially we were warmly welcomed. But when we got in-volved in transferring skills, we began to notice a change in at-titude towards us.

“One time a white colleague

approached me and asked what I was teaching. I went through a list of different projects to ex-press where we need to take the young people to become good goldsmiths. I was shocked to hear him say that some of the programmes I was teaching were a bit too advanced for black Af-ricans. “Aren’t they?”, he asked.

“What he wasn’t aware of was that I had been teaching a “rain-bow nation” in my workshop and at the universities from the day I began teaching here in South Africa, and I always told my students that I was teaching them to be better than me, and to be free of me, not the same as me, otherwise there would be no progress. I do not discriminate. Limitations in terms of skills cut across race, even though in South Africa blacks were delib-erately excluded and need to be given more exposure. The im-portant thing is the opportunity to learn and train. This is why education is extremely impor-tant.” Kapo explained.

As a teacher of crafts, Kapo’s students are all over the globe. He lectures, on a part-time ba-sis, in the manufacture of plati-num jewellery at the University of Johannesburg and the Cen-tral University of Technology in the province of Free State.

Anglo Platinumalso sponsors the annual platAfrica Competi-

tion for professional and jew-ellery design students. The objective remains to stimulate the jewellery industry by driv-ing customer demand and then supporting the design and man-ufacturing, so that there are lo-cal people and industries that can meet that demand.

Andrew Stevens of Greig and Stevens attests to the highly specialised nature of producing hand-crafted work serving the high end of the jewellery market. He estimates there to be,’less than 100 individuals” in South Africa capable of such work.

Kapo is a member of the London Assay Offi ce, the body charged with testing and hall-marking precious metals in the United Kingdom, and he is also involved with the University of Johannesburg where he is a lec-turer in its Jewellery faculty.

He played a prominent role when staff and students from the University’s Jewellery De-sign Department helped raise R230 000 for the Nelson Man-dela Foundation in July 2010 through an Anglo Platinum ini-tiative.

Kapo’s broach, which auc-tioned for R100,000, expressed freedom and was entitled Ibhab-hathane (butterfl y). The project was aimed at raising funds and contributing to the long-term sustainability of the foundation as well as an opportunity to cel-ebrate the life of Nelson Man-dela.

Until recently, he was the only black person on South Af-rica’s Jewellery Manufacturers Association. Having seen the potentials deposited in him, in 2010, late former chairman, Alan Mair had invited him to be-come a member of the executive committee of the Jewellery Man-ufacturers’ Association of South Africa, a branch of the Jewellery Council.

He had become a member of the association not long after he made a very detailed butterfl y in platinum, which was auctioned at a charity event. The proceeds went to the Nelson Mandela

Foundation. The butterfl y was set with diamonds, rubies and sapphires. He called the butter-fl y Ibhabhathane. Last year, an-other black African was invited to join on the board of directors of the Jewellery Council.

He is member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen Member-ship No A079751 member since January 1999, member of the London Assay Offi ce Account No 29254 member since May 1980 all pieces made by him are struck by the Assay offi ce with his mark TLK, (Thomas Labi Kapo) in the United Kingdom.

He is also a member of the National Steering Committee of Jewellery, put together by the Mining Qualifi cations Author-ity (MQA) and the Jewellery Council, member of the Execu-tive Committee of the Jewel-lery Manufactures Association of South Africa, member of the ETQA Quality Assurance Sub Committee (MQA) Subject Mat-ter Expert and Member of Afri-can Designers & Jewellery Or-ganisation Steering Committee (ADJO).

To Kapo, Africa is blessed with many resources especially metals and stones, which can be used to catalyse African devel-opment. “I am a goldsmith so I work with gold, platinum, silver, diamonds and all precious and semi-precious stones. Africa has truly been blessed. All the stones from the rubies, emerald, sapphires, tanzanite, etc, are spread throughout the whole continent. What Africans are missing is in the value chain. There is an urgent need for ben-efi ciation. The real benefi t does not go to Africans.”

He believes that at the high-end of the jewellery industry, namely the handmade and what is internationally acceptable, it is without a doubt the whites run the show. “They have had a long head start, as black Afri-cans could not enter the indus-try and were not taught skills at the high-end of jewellery de-sign and manufacture in the old apartheid dispensation.

I have a passion for arts and craft I don’t know how to describe it. What I have learnt and being told as well as what I have known all over the years is that it is quite disservice hoarding information. There is need to pass information across to the next gen-erations

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A15 31Business CourageCourage

ThebuddingEntrepreneurs

Motivational Business Quotes

BC BC

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

– Norman Schwarzkopf

The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place.

– Orison Swett Marden

I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! – C.J. Walker

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you fi nd something you love to do, be the best at doing it. – Debbi Fields

Life is too complicated not to be orderly. – Martha Stewart

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their wak-ing thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.

– Dennis Waitley

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming. – Rich-ard Branson

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. – George Van Valkenburg

Business is more exciting than any game. – Lord Beaverbrook

B U S I N E S SMamora is a system thinker and advisor whose belief and activator leadership strengths are directed towards improving workers perspective for city and enterprise development. e-mail: olusegunmamora@gmail.com

K L I N I CWith Mamora Victor

Service improvement by subtraction

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Business leaders and her team that improve ser-vices usually don’t take

the path of the norm which is the easiest decision of “do more work and add more people”. The path of leaders and team who have successfully improved business services is to fi rst take the merciless path by spotting and removing poor quality or useless business rules, tools, and fools (people who are al-ways saying it is impossible), that congest the business pro-cesses and cloud the business team mind with false fable.

While I was reading the Sut-ton and Rao title, I found the old story of how Steve Job, founder of Apple computer, improved services by subtraction too.

In the year 1980s, Apple hired Kelly’s innovation fi rm to help design their fi rst mouse. Kelly designers were on hand when Steve Jobs decided the mouse would have one button rather than two. Apples engi-neers argue vehemently for two buttons because users could do more things than with one. Eventually Steve Jobs heart was persuaded with a technical writer, who was probably the lowest paid person in the room. She said “it would be a lot eas-ier to write a simple instruction manual if the mouse had just one button-and far easier for customer to learn and use”.

The input of the technical writer resonated with Steve Jobs life long quest to cut cog-nitive load and simplify experi-ences for Apples customers and employees- a mindset that en-dures at Apples computer and i-products designs.

Dear entrepreneur, I will suggest that you clear off the is-sues and processes that stand in the way of business excel-lence. Sometime the people who show up at work and creating confusion and crisis because of sentiment sold to you by friends and family to employ them should be subtracted from the team. You must question and get answer on relevant value that your business processes, people, policy, products pack-

aging and place add to both customers and enterprise and be courageous to subtracts the features that threaten the fu-ture of the enterprise and cus-tomer loyalty.

In the year 2012, Adobe company executive experiment-ed with service improvement by substraction. This time the executive of Adobe subtracted a policy they felt will not help the long term goal of the business. I use Adobe software products often and I enjoy them. Prod-ucts such as Acrobat, PDF reader, Photoshop are key tools for many entrepreneurs.

Yes! Entrepreneurs are well serviced by Adobe company tools and look forward to the company’s growth and innova-tive products. In the year 2012, Adobe subtracted one of the most sacred cows in corporate policies of many organisation: “business yearly performance review”. Adobe company could not fi nd the value in yearly per-formance review to their busi-ness therefore, they killed the tradition. Adobe Company de-cided to put in place frequent “Ckeck-ins” policy where man-agers provide employees tar-geted coaching an advice. The managers simply have regular

check-ins to convey what is ex-pected of employees, give and get feedback, and help employ-ees with their growth and devel-opment plans. Both Apple and Adobe Company decisions align

with principles that guide ser-vice improvement.

So what are the guiding principles for service improve-ment by subtraction?

The fi rst principle is the “Law of Love”

In the previous edition, I mentioned the Law of love and now it is the fi rst mention. This is because it is always about the best interest of the people who use your products and ser-vices and people who works to improve the products and ser-vices.

In the Steve Jobs story shared earlier in this article it will be noted that his business process decision making and especially in the design of the Apple computer mouse is peo-ple good experience driven.

The law of love says you cannot give your best except to people you love with what you love to do. The law of love drove Henry Ford to design T-Mobile automobiles that an average

Americans can afford and ease the burden of mobility. That is an expression of love. I strongly doubt the success of an en-trepreneur who does not align with the law of love.

The second principle is the Law of Courage

The law of courage state that ability to make decision and to act boldly determines the level of success in business. Lead-ership in business will always requires that one break new ground, do away with unpro-ductive processes and tools and this could be quite fearful, but entrepreneur has to face her fears and act boldly to subtract bad tradition, unworkable tools, bad experiences, and parasitic part of business processes to achieve their goals of service improvement for customers.

The Adobe company case of subtracting traditional yearly performance review was a cou-rageous decision of the man-agement executive. It was a courageous move against popu-lar tradition. They succeeded at doing that and have gone ahead to improve services since 2012 they experimented that deci-sion.

The third principle is the Law of Excellence

An entrepreneur must be committed to continuous im-provement. Excellent is not a destination, so innovation and improvement must be worked on consistently. In addition, excellent is not only a question of additional feature but also a question of what feature should be subtracted to have a better service and improve customers experience.

The fourth principle is the law of Flexibility

The law of fl exibility says success is possible when the goal is defi nite, but the process is fl exible. Be willing to experi-ment, as Adobe Company did new things for the achievement of the goals. The goal should be fi xed, but the business process-es should be fl exible.

My encouragement for you today is that no matter how strong your opinion is be open to other members of your busi-ness team views. When you realised your opinion to be counterproductive to the busi-ness goal in the long term, be humble to subtract it from the business process. After all, you hired people to bring in ideas for services improvement. It is your season of business expansion, be courageous to maximise the opportunity.

An entrepreneur must be committed to continuous improvement. Excellent is not a destination, so innovation and improvement must be worked on consistently

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A16 32 Business CourageCourage

ThebuddingEntrepreneurs

Management Principles

Simdul Shagaya is a very humble man with noble and innovative aspira-

tions whose mercurial success in the entrepreneurial realm is driven by the understanding that one ought to use what one has to make the best of where one is. According to him “We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we start-ed and know the place for the fi rst time.”

He is the Chief Executive Offi cer CEO of online shopping website, Konga.com who won the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award in the CNBC/All Africa Business Lead-ers Award in West Africa. An in-digene of Plateau state in North-Central Nigeria, Sim schooled in the United States, worked in South Africa and set up shop at home here in Nigeria.

“I have not for a second re-gretted coming back to Nigeria to start my own business. You’ll fi nd that Nigeria is an amazing economic environment to do business; the margins are gen-erally better than other parts of the world,” he revealed.

At age 10, Shagaya began writing computer codes. At Christmas, he would program his basic computer, run syn-

The dotcom merchantDespite being a computer prodigy, Sim Shagaya still had to wade through the friendless isle of ecommerce entrepreneurship failures to arrive at the enviable state of prestigious success in the world of astute business leaders who have immensely impacted their sphere of influence

taxes, and connect it to a TV set to display ‘Merry Christmas’ and a digital xmas tree. Many years later, upon graduating as an Electrical Engineer from George Washington University, and bagging his MBA at Har-vard Business School, he be-came the Vice President of Rand Merchant Bank (West Africa), before moving back to Nigeria as Google Africa head.

Over the years, he has founded several tech start-ups: iNollywood, E-motion, DealDey, and Konga the latest of which is Konga.com, a Nigerian online shopping mall launched July 2012 with only seven workers but currently has grown to 130.

Konga has its central dis-tribution centre in Lagos ware-housing its entire inventory, with two sorting centres in Abu-ja and Port Harcourt which act as regional depots. From Lagos, products are transported to the sorting centres to meet orders coming in from around the re-gions, before being delivered to consumers.

Konga, DealDay and e-motion were successes in his entrepreneurship adventures; however Sim has had his share of failures as well.

He had started a dating site called Alarena which didn’t quite take off followed by a job portal, JobClan that didn’t fl y, undeterred he kept searching for the right success formula and proceeded to develop a classifi ed posting site known as Gbogbo but unfortunately for him it also fl opped, at this point most people would have concluded that entrepreneur-ship was not for them but cou-rageously Sim trudged on fi rmly fi xed in his belief that success was just around the corner.

Albeit through his ingenu-ity he developed an iNollywood content streaming service and wait for it, it failed again; not because of lack of creativity and service offerings but due to the fact that the idea was way ahead of the trend in the Nige-rian entertainment industry at the time of its inception.

Sim never gave up his quest to be a successful online entre-preneur and so with tenacity and a quiet resolve to succeed he founded E-Motion Advertis-ing which became a successful, fast growing and leading Out-

“Konga is an online retail that allows Nigerians to order something; anything they want from anywhere in the country where we will be able to get it to them in as little as 24 hours at most three days. That is our promise to them,” he enthused.

Surprisingly for someone who had experienced failures before hitting it big, Sim still as-cribes his success today to good luck besides risk taking, hard work and a willingness to do the mundane things.

And his message to Africa’s young aspiring business people and entrepreneurs is simply to work hard and build success by helping others be successful.

Sim credits the CNBC Af-rica All Africa Business Leader Award to Konga’s audacious-ness, tenacity and innovative-ness in online shopping in Ni-geria and he dedicates it to the team and investors of Konga.

He believes that the inter-net today is a more profound force to attaining to aggregat-ing human advancement than what the printing press and the steam engine achieved and that it also represents a shift in the way society is structured and commerce is done.

“I got to participate in what I guess people call the dotcom and doing a lot of work there for online companies. The internet was really just changing the way people where doing busi-ness and even the way the so-ciety was structured and I think that infl uenced me greatly,” he said.

of-Home advertising company in Nigeria.

Following up on that suc-cess he built two very dynamic and successful ecommerce businesses: DealDey Limited in 2011, one of the foremost and now the most prominent group

buying website in Nigeria, which offers amazing services and products at discounted prices. And Konga Online Shopping Limited (Konga.com) in July 2012 now one of the leading one stop shop online retail company in Nigeria.

Shagaya

The secret to selling your brand with one sentence

You believe in the importance of your vision, but how do you get others to stop and listen to you? There will be many instances when you don’t have a lot of time to grab someone’s attention, be it a potential investor or a licensee.

That’s why you need to be able to summarize the benefi t of your business idea in a single, powerful sentence - a sentence that is so direct and compelling; it stops whoever reads or hears it dead in their tracks. A good one-line benefi t statement should make someone think: “I want to know more about that.”

On the day the iPod launched, Steve Jobs called it “a thousand songs in your pocket.” Wow. That’s captivating. He didn’t have to explain any further. We wanted it already!

People don’t care about how something works. They want to know what it’s going to do for them.

Newspapers, tabloids, and these days, Twitter has been making use of the head-line for years. How often do you fi nd yourself on a webpage you never intended to visit, all because a headline was so tempting, you had to click on it? Creating excellent one-line benefi t statements isn’t an easy skill, but it’s an important one, because it can be used to explain your idea in so many different kinds of situations in an attractive, successful way.

Sometimes, you only get one chance to make an impression. Cut through the clutter to make it count! Here three ways to create an awesome one-line benefi t

According to Robert Kiyosaki, “Getting rich begins with the right mindset, the right words and the right plan.”

Raising capital for your startup or funds for your small business expansion plans is no doubt one of the most challenging aspects of starting or grow-ing a business. This is why you must be adequately prepared for the task.

Seriously, raising money for your business is not a piece of cake; as you almost have to practically beg and convince potential investors or lenders to trust you with their hard earned money. There are more-than-countable stories of entrepreneurs and small business owners becoming discouraged and frustrat-ed by the harsh challenges they are faced with while trying to raise funds for their businesses.

These challenges include the amount of time it takes to secure the required funds, the crippling terms and conditions, the paper work involved, the rejections, and the lack of linearity and progress checkpoints over the course of the fund raising pro-cess. Now, let us go into more detail on some of the commonest challenges entrepreneurs face during the fund raising process.

“Never worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, you might inherit a million dollars or be run over by a truck. Or inherit a million dollars and be run over by a truck.” – The Mafi a Manager

1. The “maybe” situationIt is very common for a prospective investor,

either an individual or a venture fi rm to show great interest in an entrepreneur’s idea after the initial review, only to leave the entrepreneur guessing after-wards by not giving any defi nitive feedback (positive or negative) on the investment proposition. No entre-preneur would fi nd this an easy experience.

Because they “have the gold” and “make the rules,” investors demand that you, being the entre-preneur, provide a very specifi c timeline in regards to growth metrics and return on their prospective investment. But they usually don’t reciprocate this by making quick and specifi c investment decisions. Why should they be hasty about investing in your business, when there are other promising business opportunities out there.

2. Lack of urgencyAnother great challenge in raising funds for a new

or existing business is the lack of natural urgency. This is usually because the number of entrepreneurs seeking to market their ideas by far exceeds that of ready investors. And so, investors have their tables fi lled with several investment proposals and usually need enough time to go through them and scrutinize the opportunities that each one presents.

“The rich invest in time, the poor invest in mon-ey.” – Warren Buffett

Also, most investors / lenders are busy indi-viduals with many corporate and personal issues to attend to; thus leaving them with less time to go through the numerous business plan they receive daily. So get their attention, your business plan and email pitch must be exceptional and attention grab-bing.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A17 33Business CourageCourage

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ThebuddingEntrepreneursPersonal FinanceDespite being a successful busi-

ness man on the ecommerce plat-form Sim will tell you that the key to enterprise success isn’t neces-sarily superior technological solu-tion but people and relationships. “Business is transaction with in-dividuals not machines or assets. Business is people.”

He stresses that the immedi-ate objective is to give the Nigerian customer the best price; the best convenience; the best selection of goods than anybody else can give them in Nigeria whether they are online or offl ine.

“If you order anything on Kon-ga.com we call you to verify it be-cause also in this part of the world people want that human contact, you need to build trust with peo-ple.”

“In Nigeria we don’t have a functional postal system in any real sense of the word so Konga’s greatest challenge has been to cre-ate that from the scratch; a fl eet of motorbikes and delivery men we had to build up our system to make sure that goods will get to anywhere in Lagos within 24 hours and anywhere in Nigeria within 72 hours or less and that is a huge challenge,” he said.

Leveraging on its generated traffi c and logistics infrastructure Konga also launched an online marketplace in Nigeria, a platform that enables local retailers to build their own stores online and con-nect with prospective buyers called Konga Mall.

It is a place where third-party sellers can list their products and sell directly to customers via Kon-ga platform; Seller bring the mer-

chandise to Kon-ga’s warehouse, and then Konga can open up the retailers’ merchan-dise nationwide, and take a commis-sion on sales.

“Over the next fi ve years we are going to see Afri-ca’s income levels rise the same way they rose in the early part of the 20th century in the United States and we want to be part of that, we want to spread our wings and ride that wind,” he enthused.

Konga’s effi cien-cy at logistics sys-tems and focus on consumer experience had helped the retailer garner customer loy-alty and brand equity. Unknown to Sim and his team, while foreign investors turned down Konga’s investment proposal, South Afri-ca’s media giant Naspers MIH In-ternet Africa, came across several tweets and blog posts testifying of Konga’s good customer service.

The testimonials were so over-whelming that they engaged the South African media giant’s atten-tion. Two years earlier, Naspers MIH had operated an e-commerce business in Nigeria, Kalahari.com.ng. But a discouraging per-formance and inability to make near-term profi t forced the multi-national to shut down operations. Konga’s impressive performance

however presented Naspers MIH an opportunity for a comeback into Africa’s largest market.

“We think they Naspers MIH did some test orders at Konga.com that went well but they wouldn’t admit to it,” Sim jokes.

Eventually, Naspers invested cash for equity in Konga under a non-disclosure term that makes it illegal for both parties to reveal specifi c facts about the deal.

Reports have inaccurately put the size of equity acquired by Naspers at 50 per cent. Sim dis-closes that it is “signifi cantly less.” What is not in doubt is that the se-rial South African online business investor poured eight-digit million dollar cash into Konga.

With Naspers’ investment, the retailer plans to engage in a plethora of offl ine marketing, im-prove logistics systems with bet-ter people, IT and working capital, and push out more sorting centres across Nigeria to deliver orders faster and more precisely.

“And this is the super-complex part. The decisions of what these distribution centres would look like in 2016, have to be taken now. Also you don’t want to stock a mo-bile phone the market wouldn’t want, in 6 months.”

Konga recently moved to a 20,000 square feet warehouse which is reportedly the biggest e-commerce distribution centre in Africa. According to Shagaya, the move was to meet the company’s current and long term retail goals and power Nigerian businesses.

“We were under no illusion that this was a one, two or three year’s journey, we knew that this was go-ing to be a long road to build out this system that we feel we owe it to Nigerians to build out, to allow them consume with dignity and sustainability,” he said.

According to him his enter-prise vision is not altruistic by any means, as he says; “we are in business but I think also what we are doing is building our coun-try.”

Shagaya

Preparing yourself for the challenges of raising capital

statement:

1. Make it emotional.Why should people care about what you have to say?

Grab them with something they can relate to. Benefi ts sell ideas, not facts. What is your idea going to do for the consumer or the world? Don’t be afraid to use emo-tion. People are motivated by their emotions more often than they are motivated by reason. Emotion also evokes visual imagery - if people can begin to see your idea,

that’s a good thing. Some emotional words include: “free”, “incredible” and “unbelievable.”

2. Keep it shortLike - really short. I’m talking no more than 10 to 12

words, ideally less. Remember, you don’t have much time. If your statement is too long, people may move on before they’ve even fi nished reading or hearing it. Don’t be intimi-dated by using fewer words. This is a really good exercise in general. Too often, I ask an inventor or entrepreneur to tell me about his or her idea and I’m overwhelmed with a fi ve-minute speech. “What is he talking about again?” I fi nd myself thinking. I’m not even sure. Brevity forces clar-ity.

3. Use numbersNumbers convey specifi city. Look around you. Head-

lines with numbers dominate our world. One has only to look at Buzzfeed to understand the power of numbers. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A18 34 Business CourageCourage

Behind d WheelsThis page is open to sponsorship

Called the “most radical redesign of the Civic in its history” and “a Civ-

ic that Mr. Honda would be proud of,” a concept car very close to the production tenth-generation Civic coupe hit the auto-show stage in New York in a hailstorm of corporate hy-perbole.

Sadly, all Civic fans get at this point is this lime-green concept on 20-inch rims, which lacks both an engine and an interior.

Besides the customary se-dan and coupe, the U.S. will get its fi rst fi ve-door Civic hatchback in history. The next Civic also will introduce a new family of twin-cam VTEC engines, starting with a 2.0-liter four as the base pow-erplant and a 1.5-liter turbo as the upgrade. A six-speed manual and a CVT will be the transmission choices for reg-ular-grade cars.

It is regarded as “regular-grade” because American Honda Motor also confi rmed that the Type R is fi nally coming to the U.S., although it could be up to two years away. Informed speculation says the next-generation Type R likely will use the freshly unveiled current car’s 2.0-li-ter turbo engine with around 300 horsepower, to match other hot hatchbacks in the segment, and offer only a six-speed manual. It is also

learnt that the Civic fi ve-door will come last in the launch rotation, after the new se-dan this fall, the coupe next winter, and the Si models shortly after that. The New York concept was described as the most aggressive take on the next-gen Civic’s styl-ing, and thus it could be a preview of what the Type R will look like.

Apparently, some new car somewhere bombed because the automaker released the suspension particulars six months in advance of the launch, so Honda is being particu-larly stingy with the de-tails. It refuses to divulge the horsepower, body materi-als, suspension architecture, or even confi rm exactly when the new Civic will go on sale.

Thus, all we have to go on at this point are assurances that this will be a return to the sporty Civics of beloved memory, establishing new high points of handling and refi nement for the model. The new Civic will be a little lon-ger and a little wider than the current model, with a shorter front overhang and A-pillars

that are pulled back to give it a sexier profi le. The concept coupe sports curvier front fenders and a very fast roofl i-ne that ends in a notchback trunk. Front and rear LED lighting strongly link the con-cept to the current Civic as well as the rest of the Honda lineup. No real risk-taking to be seen there, although it’s not clear if the racy band of LEDs across the trunk lid that connects the taillight clusters

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A19 35Business CourageCourage

Autocare

BC

BC

Behind d WheelsThis page is open to sponsorship

Ways to proactively protect your engine (3)6. Keep your belts on:

No. We are not talking about dressing etiquette. We’re talk-ing about the rubber belts on your engine that run all sorts

of vital components. The function of a belt can vary from car to car, but some of their main responsibilities are running the fan, water pump, alternator and air conditioner. You don’t need to know what all those things are, but you do need to know that the belts on your engine run at least some of them.

If your engine is on then your belts are running. In other words, they get a lot of use. They typically last a very long time, but eventually they will start to show signs of wear and begin to crack. If your belt breaks while you’re driving it can cause major damage to the engine. Check your belts by turning them over slightly to see if they have any visible cracks in them. A squealing or spinning belt may also indicate that it needs to be adjusted or replaced. Stay on top of your belts and you’ll ensure your car runs a whole lot smoother -- and longer.

7. Follow-up when automotive warning lights come onThis may seem like an obvious one, but if you neglect to get

your car checked when any of the automotive warning lights come on you could be neglecting a serious problem. The check engine light, and other warning lights, can come on for a num-ber of reasons. The good news is that all of them aren’t neces-sarily going to be a major issue. But you won’t know until you get it checked out.

In addition to the typical check engine light, many cars have several other lights that come on to indicate a problem. They can warn about problems with the alternator, battery, engine temperature or other areas surrounding the engine that are monitored. To protect your engine, either run a diagnos-tics check when the light comes on and then fi x the problem yourself, or take it to a mechanic so they can run the test and perform the work. If you wait too long after the light comes on you could allow a small problem to develop into a big one.

8. Replace the fuel fi lterWe mentioned earlier about how the fuel fi lter protects your

engine from harmful sediment and particles in the gas. The fuel fi lter catches any particles or debris that would be harmful to the engine and keeps it trapped in a canister, much like your oil fi lter does.

If the fi lter hasn’t been replaced in a while, then it’s a good idea to change it to keep the engine running smoothly. If your fi lter is easily accessible, this repair won’t be too diffi cult, but some fi lters may be hard to reach. If you can’t access your car’s fuel fi lter, take it to a mechanic to be replaced.

A new fuel fi lter will keep the gas fl owing into your engine clean. Your engine will have less build-up inside of it and will last longer if it’s not working as hard to burn the fuel it’s get-ting.

9. Go easy on the start and stop drivingYour engine is built to run, but it runs much better and

tends to last longer when it’s run at a continuous speed. Imag-ine running in a race where you constantly went from a full sprint to a dead stop every few minutes. You’d wear yourself out by picking up speed only to force yourself to slow down to a standstill every few minutes. Your engine gets worn down in the same way. Constant stops and starts, like those that you can experience in city driving, are really hard on your car’s engine.

If it is possible, stick to the highway and keep your speed and RPMs at a consistent level. You’ll notice better gas mile-age and your engine will likely last longer if your driving habits allow it to run at a fairly consistent rate. The more stops and starts you throw into the mix the more your engine has to work.

10. Change the spark plugs and wiresOne simple way to proactively protect your engine is by

changing the spark plugs and wires. The wires running from your distributor send an electrical current to the spark plugs which then generate a spark to ignite the fuel and air mixture in your cylinders. They get a lot of use and they can cause your engine to run really rough if they get too old.

will remain for production. The new Civic is largely a

North American project, with fi nal styling done in Honda’s Los Angeles studio. Sedan and coupe production are slated for the current Civic facto-ry sites in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, and Greensburg, In-diana. Engines will come from Honda’s plant in Anna, Ohio. In a repeat of history, when Civic Si hatchbacks were im-ported from England from 2002 to 2005, the fi ve-doors—and thus the Type R—will be built in Honda’s U.K. plant in Swindon.

New headlight shines where you look

Opel is developing a new type of headlight that tracks the movement of your eyes

and then shines in the direction you are look-ing at.

The high-tech feature will form part of Opel’s adaptive headlights in the near future and will probably be extended across the Gen-eral Motors family eventually.

The system employs a camera to read the driver’s face more than 50 times a second, de-tecting the movements of the eyes and nose to

NEWS

determine the driver’s line of sight. The system translates this information into data com-mands for electronically-controlled actuators that align the vehicle’s headlights.

The tricky part was dealing with the fact that a driver’s eyes tend to constantly jump from one focal point to another during normal driving, meaning that the headlights would move erratically if they followed the driver’s eye movements exactly. Opel’s engineers solved this by using a delay algorithm to ensure a natural movement for the light path. The headlights will automatically point in the direction of the vehicle if the driver takes their eyes off the road.

Opel has yet to confi rm when these eye-tracking headlights will be launched, but the German fi rm already has some clever technology in its third-generation adaptive headlight system available now. Called AFL+, these “intelligent” headlamps include a cornering function and can adjust their direction and inten-sity depending on the road situation. A forward-facing camera detects other cars ahead and automatically dims the high beams.

Opel is also planning to introduce ma-trix LED headlights, as already used in some luxury marques, that can “curve” around other vehicles, ie. that don’t blind other road users while still brightly il-luminating the rest of the road. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A20 36 Business CourageCourage

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REGULATORS

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Only 20% of N220bn MSME fund disbursed – CBN

NDIC tasks Aso Savings and Loans on good corporate governance

Council urges incoming govt to reposition maritime sector

By UDO ONYEKA

The Central Bank of Nige-ria, CBN and the Bankers Committee have disclosed

that only 20 per cent of the N220bn for the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, MSME, development fund have been given out.

This was made known on Thursday by the Managing Di-rector, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Bola Adesola, after the Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos.

“20 per cent of MSME funds disbursed so far. You know the fund is disbursed through states, DMBs as well and cur-rently we have close to 20 per cent disbursed. To increase that fi gure, we have put in a lot of measures and capacity build-ing and market awareness”, she said.

Director, Banking Supervi-sion, CBN, Mrs. Tokunbo Mar-tins, said the CBN has managed to keep the banking industry safe and sound in collaboration of all members of the Bankers’ Committee, adding that the committee also agreed to name and shame these debtors.

According to her the data showing increasing rate of loan default was not acceptable to the committee. She it was there-fore decided that going forward; loan defaulters would have access to foreign exchange. ” One thing that we may do is to stop them from getting access

to foreign exchange. Another thing that we also considered going forward is to publish the names of the borrowers that re-fuse to pay up. All these are to ensure the continuous safety and soundness of the banking industry.

“It is not all debtors, it is the bad and chronic debtors, those ones that have deliberately re-fused to pay, those are the ones we are talking about. Now, in the industry we have a stan-dard, we don’t want Non Per-forming Loans, NPLs to be more than fi ve per cent of total loans in the industry. Total loans in the industry are in the region of N13trn”, she said.

Martins said that even though banks have not reached the upper limit of fi ve per cent, they would not be allowed to get there, adding that that was

what to the introduction of these measures.

“Currently the industry aver-age is at 3.3 per cent NPLs and we don’t want to get to fi ve per cent that was why we came up with this measure.

“There is no way we can stop the bank debtors from purchas-ing at the parallel market, but that will come to them at a cost because it is more expensive there. What we are more con-cerned with is the offi cial mar-ket”, she said.

Martins said we should re-member how much AMCON spent to clear up toxic loans, adding that we should make sure we don’t go back to such horrible situation. She said there was a time we had NPLs at 2.5 per cent and 3 per cent, 3.3 per cent and so it is important that we take action now and not wait till it is too late.

On stability of the exchange rate market, Managing Director Union Bank plc, Emeka Emuwa said one thing that was agreed was around the use of the naira debit cards “We did fi nd that in a number of cases people were using the cards in manners that were not expected. So, in order to sustain stability, what was agreed by the committee was that the limits for the use of the naira debit cards would be reduced. As customers, if you have a dollar account, you will still have unfettered access to it, but for naira debit accounts, the limits would be reduced to more

judicious levels”, he said. Emuwa said these abuses

are draining foreign resources that would have been used for the growth of the economy.

“This specifi cally refers to the use of these banks abroad because when they are used abroad, the merchants have to be settled. Even if it is ATMs, the service provider, Visa or MasterCard has to settle in for-eign currency and we fi nd that it is a drain on the foreign re-sources available to fi nance our industries. So, there is going to be a reduction in the annual al-lowable draw down using naira debit cards abroad.

“The limit currently is $150,000 per annum, but this would come down to a more practical level. But the usage, whether you are using domesti-cally or internationally will not be affected”, he said.

On his own Chief Executive Offi cer, CEO, Citibank Nigeria, Omar Hafeez , informed that the issue of BVN was discussed and that clients and account hold-ers are advised to get their BVN from the banks because it will be diffi cult for them to access credits if they don’t do that.

“We advise all account hold-ers to focus on coming to the banks and register. Banks would do enlightenment campaigns on BVN because we are very keen that every bank customer has a BVN. We are working towards the solutions on a very proactive manner”, he said.

Godwin Emefi ele, CBN boss

Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, Managing-Director, Ni-geria Deposit Insurance

Corporation, NDIC, has advised Aso Savings and Loans Plc to al-ways ensure good corporate gov-ernance.

This is contained in a state-ment by the Head, Communica-tions and Public Affairs of the Corporation, Mr Hadi Birchi.

According to the statement, Ibrahim made the remark when the management of the bank vis-ited him after taking over Union Homes Savings and Loans ,UHSL, Plc.

It quoted Ibrahim as say-ing that `` the initiative will not only give all depositors and staff of UHSL a new lease of life but promote public confi dence in the banking system.

“The task before the manage-ment is to maintain the confi -dence reposed on it by the board, shareholders and the super-visory authorities by ensuring higher performance and quality service’’.

Ibrahim enjoined the mort-gage bank to embark on a pro-cess of effective communication of its turnaround plan, to pro-mote confi dence and trust of its depositors.

He also advised them to es-tablish a toll free Help Desk and other effective communica-tion channels such as radio and television jingles to reach out to existing and prospective custom-ers.

“This is in order to overcome potential risks of rumours which may trigger a run on both Aso Savings and Union Homes,’’ it quoted Ibrahim as saying.

The statement also stated that Mr Hassa Usman, the Man-aging Director of Aso Savings and Loans Plc, in his response, expressed appreciation to the corporation for its usual support.

Usman assured NDIC of full implementation of the recom-mendations of the supervisory authorities, to ensure sound management of both institu-tions. Ibrahim

The Chairman of Nigerian Port Consultative Coun-cil, PCC, Chief Kunle

Folarin, has urged the incom-ing government to reposition the maritime sector to make it more competitive.

Folarin, who gave the ad-vice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos, said that the advice became necessary because a competitive maritime sector could grow the economy.

“To grow the economy from the maritime contribution; to re-engineer the whole mari-time sector to be competitive in the region.

“To make sure that all the potentials and the reforms that have been carried out over the years within the mar-itime sector, in particular the port industry, are optimised.

“A point in case of the con-cessioning regime, customs reform and so many other reforms that are taking place in the maritime sector to po-sition the country to be the leader in the region.

“The maritime sector wants to be the apex contrib-utor to the economy; the core of the potential is there.

“The programmes and the projects that will deliver on this particular expectation are there.

“So we will write the gov-ernment to give priority atten-tion has been given to the oil and gas sector to the maritime sector”, he said.

He added that a competi-tive maritime sector would of-fer job opportunities and cre-ate wealth for Nigerians.

Folarin said that the new government could achieve so much if it focused more on the sector.

Folarin

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A21 37

Stock Updates

GAINERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

BETAGLAS 23.69 26.11 10.22

OANDO 15.75 17.00 7.94

FCMB 3.37 3.61 7.12

SKYEBANK 2.50 2.64 5.60

NPFMCRFBK 1.00 1.05 5.00

SEPLAT 370.00 388.50 5.00

NB 155.98 163.76 4.99

NAHCO 5.84 6.13 4.97

DANGFLOUR 4.67 4.90 4.93

GUINNESS 133.46 140.00 4.90

LOSERS

COMPANY OPENING PRICE CLOSING PRICE CHANGE

PRESCO 28.50 26.70 -6.32

CHAMPION 8.15 7.76 -4.79

INTBREW 20.58 19.65 -4.52

INTENEGINS 0.53 0.51 -3.77

WAPIC 0.55 0.53 -3.64

CONTINSURE 0.89 0.86 -3.37

CAVERTON 3.00 2.90 -3.33

UNILEVER 43.00 41.72 -2.98

NEM 0.69 0.67 -2.90

FIDELITYBK 2.07 2.02 -2.42

Treasury Bills

Maturity date Bid Offer

16-Jul-15 13.41 13.91

15-Oct-15 12.94 13.86

24-Mar-16 13.43 15.42

Primary Market Auction

TENOR AMOUNT (N’mn) RATE (%) DATE

91-Day 21538.34 9.95 14-Mar-15

182-Day 33783.25 10.1 27-Mar-15

364-Day 59081.14 10.35 27-Mar-15

Market Indicators for Week Ended 03-04-15All-Share Index 34,520.14 pointsMarket Capitalization 11,911,188,375,065.33

Business CourageCourage

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Stock market last week

W/African crude oil exports to Asia rise by 2.34m bpd

EQUITIES

It was another brief trading week as the market opened for four days, having ob-

served Monday 6th of April, 2015 as Public Holiday de-clared by the Federal Govern-ment of Nigeria to mark “Eas-ter” celebrations.

Meanwhile, a turnover of 3.511 billion shares worth N25.196 billion in 26,836 deals were traded this week by in-vestors on the fl oor of The Ex-change in contrast to a total of 2.632 billion shares valued at N36.583 billion that exchanged hands last week in 21,393 deals.

The Financial Services In-dustry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 3.000 billion shares valued at N18.262 billion traded in 16,356 deals; thus contribut-ing 85.44 per cent and 72.48 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value re-spectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with a turn-over of 259.080 million shares worth N1.120 billion in 1,650

deals. The third place was oc-cupied by the Consumer Goods Industry with 89.843 million shares worth N3.103 billion in 3,768 deals.

Trading in the Top Three Eq-uities namely- Diamond Bank Plc, Standard Alliance Insur-ance Plc and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (mea-sured by volume) accounted for 1.773 billion shares worth N4.964 billion in 1,589 deals, contributing 50.49 per cent and 19.70 per cent to the to-tal equity turnover volume and value respectively.

ETPsAlso traded during the week

were a total of 25,721 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N1.838 million executed in 23 deals compared with a total of 27,730 units valued at N533,087.50 thou-sands transacted last week in 22 deals.

RETAIL BONDSThere was no bond traded

this week. However, a total of 16,500 units of Bonds (Cor-

porate bond 12,000 units and State bond 4,500 units) valued at N17.370 million were traded last week in 6 deals.

INDEX MOVEMENTThe NSE All-Share Index

and Market Capitalization de-preciated by 2.23 per cent and 1.92 per cent respectively to close on Friday at 34,930.02 and N11.903 trillion.

Similarly, all the Indices fi nished lower during the week with the exception of the NSE Consumer Goods and NSE Lo-tus II indices that chalked up by 1.04 per cent and 0.34 per cent respectively. However, the NSE ASeM Index that closed fl at.

SUMMARY OF PRICE

CHANGESTwenty-fi ve equities appreci-

ated in price during the week, lower than 72 equities of the preceding week. Fifty-three eq-uities depreciated in price, high-er than six equities of the pre-ceding week, while 118 equities remained unchanged, the same with the preceding week.

West Africa Crude Oil export to Asia are set to rise by 30 per cent

to 2.34 million barrels per day in April.

The fi gure is up from 1.78 million bpd initially planned for March, according to a Reuters survey of traders and ship-tracking data last week .

The data indicated that a fl urry of buying from Indian refi ners, led by state-run IOC, was the primary source of the increase.

It indicated that Indian re-fi ners booked a total of 34 lots of West Africa crude to sail in roughly 21 April-loading ves-sels.

The amount doubles Indian buying compared with March, when refi ners in the country booked about 16 West African

cargoes.Tenders from state-owned

fi rms, led by IOC, accounted for the bulk of the buying, which included Nigeria’s Brass River, Bonny Light, Agbami, Forcados and Qua Iboe, Angola’s Pazfl or and Girassol and Equatorial Guinea’s Zafi ro.

The data also showed that privately held Reliance also booked fi ve Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) to load in West Africa in April.

The buying came as the companies sought to restock with the cheapest oil available after the end of the fi nancial year, pressing differentials for West African crudes to eight-month highs.

In spite of this development, India shunned West Africa for Iraq’s Basrah

Light when it purchased the fi rst cargo destined for its re-cently opened strategic petro-leum reserve.

Several of India’s refi neries are set to enter seasonal main-tenance, which will also lower crude consumption.

The number of cargoes going to China slipped from March but the country remained an important destination, particu-larly for Angolan grades such as Cabinda, Saturno and Paz-fl or.

Companies booked at least 30 lots of West African to sail in about 16 VLCC crude oil carri-ers.

Chinese buying for May loading is also in question, as sources said the country’s stra-tegic petroleum reserve has lit-tle space remaining.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A22 38 Business CourageCourage

BC

By Johnson Okanlawon

For investors that want regular fl ow into their account, Zenith bank

seems to be offering attrac-tive income considering its performance for the fi nan-cial year ended December 31, 2014. Just last week, the bank share price led other 40 stocks, gaining 17.3 per cent as at Friday to close at N20.94 per share, from the opening price of N17.85 per share on March 2, 2015. The stock is trading at 8.15 times earnings with a dividend yield of 9.51 per cent. The bank declared dividend of N1.75 per share.

The bank has, over the past 24 years, grown to be one of the biggest and most profi t-able banks in the country as it maintains steady growth. As at December, gross earnings and profi t after tax increased by 14.7 per cent and 4.34 per cent respectively, while quarter-on-quarter, gross earnings and profi t after tax improved also by 45.1 per cent and 20.4 per cent each.

Profi tabilityThe bank declared a profi t

after tax of N99.6bn, an in-crease of 4.34 per cent when compared to N95.3bn record-ed in the same period of 2013, while profi t before tax rose from N110.6bn to N119.8bn in the review period. This fol-lowed a 14.7 per cent year-on-year growth in gross earnings, which rose from N351.5bn in 2013 to N403.3bn.

The fi nancials for 2014 further strengthened the per-formance outlook of the bank despite the regulatory head-winds, which had affected profi ts and dividends of many of the banks.

Analysts at FBN Capital Research said, “All in all, the results were ahead of expecta-tions. Zenith delivered an re-turn on average equity of 19 per cent for 2014. We would expect consensus estimates for 2015 to move up slightly.

“On the back of the results, we would expect the market to react positively, with the ca-veat that concerns about the impact of the fallout from the decline in oil prices are likely to linger a bit. Zenith shares have outperformed the index this year, gaining 3.2 per cent

Zenith Bank: Good corporate governance drives earnings

compared with a loss of -12.4 per cent for the ASI. We rate Zenith Bank shares Neutral. Our estimates are under re-view.”

LiquidityZenith Bank’s liquidity

profi le remains very strong (being a consistent net placer of funds in the interbank mar-ket) and its risk management practices give assurance that this profi le will be maintained. The bank has a sound and robust liquidity risk manage-ment framework that ensures it maintains suffi cient liquid-ity, including a cushion of unencumbered, high-quality liquid assets at all times.

The bank’s assets appreci-ated 19.5 per cent to N3.76trn in 2014, from N3.14trn re-corded in the same period of 2013, while its total liabili-ties stood at N3.20trn, from N2.63trn in the correspond-ing period of 2013. The bank’s debt securities issued and the borrowing lifted the value of li-abilities in the review period.

A vote of confi denceExotix Partners LLP, a

global fi nance and invest-ment fi rm with offi ces in ma-jor global fi nancial centres and signifi cant imprints in Africa, said Zenith Bank has potential return of 72.9 per cent over a 12-month period. Exotix coordinates its global operations through fi ve major offi ces in London, New York, Lagos, Dubai and Nairobi. Ex-otix stated that Zenith Bank’s share price could reach N28.6 per share with a possible divi-dend yield of 6.6 per cent, within the highest bracket in the banking industry. While analysts at Exotix said the de-valuation of Naira would put pressure on banks’ earnings, they noted that Zenith Bank is one of the two banks that are favoured to weather the headwinds. According to ana-lysts, the devaluation could lead to lower foreign exchange trading volumes and increas-ing cost of risk, which could negatively impact the earn-ings of banks.

However, the devaluation also holds possible silver lin-ings for Zenith Bank. Analysts said devaluation could lead to higher infl ation, which could subsequently push up inter-

est rates on government secu-rities and thus lead to higher net interest margins (NIMs) for banks with high liquidity ratios and strong deposit-tak-ing franchises such as Zenith Bank. According to analysts, given its strong deposit-tak-ingfranchise, Zenith Bank could offset any possible de-cline in forex revenue by in-creasing margins. Exotix also stated that the bank’s strong risk management track record should enable it to maintain a below average cost of risk and thus earn higher than average profi tability. So, the devalua-tion will have almost no nega-tive impact on the bank.

Looking forwardZenith Bank has benefi tted

from stable board and man-agement. With the assump-tion of the chairmanship of the bank by its founding Managing Director, Mr. Jim Ovia and the appointment of Mr. Peter Amangbo, who has spent more than two decades with the bank, as managing director, Zenith Bank has fur-ther strengthened its manage-rial edge. Amangbo experience with Zenith Bank which cuts across corporate fi nance and investment banking, busi-ness development, credit and marketing, fi nancial control, strategic planning and opera-tions. He was a pioneer non

executive director of Zenith Bank UK.

According to the manage-ment of the bank, the overall vision is to build the Zenith Bank brand into a reputable international fi nancial insti-tution recognised for innova-tion, superior performance while creating premium value for all stakeholders. The stra-tegic objectives thus include the continuous improvement of its capacity to meet the customer’s increasing and dy-namic banking needs as well as sustain high quality growth in a volatile business environ-ment through: continuous in-vestment in branch network expansion and thus bring-ing quality banking services closer to our teeming exist-ing and potential customers; continuous investment and deployment of up to date and state of the art technology; continuous employment of the best people available and motivating them; continuous investment in training and re-training of our personnel; maintaining and reinforcing our core customer service de-livery charter.

“At Zenith Bank, we do not just see our organisation as an entity solely concerned with wealth creation for the shareholders. Our strate-gic alliance with the various stakeholders, government

and non-governmental agen-cies centre round institu-tional building and capacity development in the following areas: Strong commitment to the support of Small and Me-dium Enterprises as well as development of indigenous industries. Entrepreneurship incubation for the youths through sustained funding of institutions responsible for entrepreneurial development. Development of the real sec-tors of the economy through provision of funds to industry players at competitive costs,” the bank stated.

The bank envisions that as Nigeria’s information technol-ogy infrastructure improves, its leading edge in informa-tion technology will keep it well positioned in the global banking community to sus-tain its offering of exceptional e-banking services. This will continue to be complemented by the bank’s risk manage-ment system that creates a blend that not only grows cus-tomers’ businesses but also strengthens them.

Corporate Profi leZenith Bank Plc was estab-

lished in May 1990, and com-menced operations in July of the same year as a commer-cial bank. The Bank became a public limited company on June 17, 2004 and was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on October 21, 2004 following a highly successful Initial Public Of-fering (IPO). The bank has a shareholder base of about one million and is Nigeria’s big-gest bank by tier-1 capital. In 2013, Zenith Bank listed $850m worth of its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

The bank has over 500 branches and business offi ces in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Terri-tory (FCT). In March 2007, Ze-nith Bank was licensed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the United Kingdom to establish Zenith Bank (UK) Limited as the United King-dom subsidiary of Zenith Bank Plc. Zenith Bank also has subsidiaries in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Gambia. The bank also has represen-tative offi ces in South Africa and The People’s Republic of China.

Ovia

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net Monday, April 13, 2015 A23 39

STOCKWATCH

AGRICULTURE/AGRO-ALLIED Crop Production FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 0.50 9,140 0.64 0.50 2,200,000,000 0.10 N/A 0.50OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 26.01 261,540 107.81 20.92 476,955,000 2.29 -8.06 28.29PRESCO PLC 26.70 107,996 41.14 8.24 1,000,000,000 7.55 -6.32 28.50Fishing/Hunting/Trapping ELLAH LAKES PLC. 4.26 70 4.26 4.26 60,000,000 0.00 N/A 4.26Livestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 2.27 1,249,104 7.18 0.68 1,199,549,736 0.07 -8.47 2.48CONGLOMERATES Diversifi ed Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1.36 100,150 2.08 0.71 2,191,895,983 0.11 9.68 1.24CHELLARAMS PLC. 3.95 300 6.43 4.15 963,900,300 0.16 N/A 3.95JOHN HOLT PLC. 0.94 17,558 5.89 1.07 389,151,408 1.09 N/A 0.94SCOA NIG PLC 4.44 512 4.44TRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC 3.18 6,693,406 5.89 0.50 821,666,666 0.09 N/A 3.59U A C N PLC. 37.30 2,658,148 71.10 28.00 1,600,720,323 4.38 N/A 36.02CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction ARBICO PLC. 5.30 375 26.00 5.05 148,500,000 0.33 N/A 5.30CAPPA & D’ALBERTO PLC. NT 3 95.49 95.49 196,876,000 4.50 N/A NTBuilding Structure/Completion/Other COSTAIN (W A) PLC. 0.94 807,550 2.66 0.72 920,573,765 0.00 N/A 0.70G CAPPA PLC 14.46 217 14.46 14.46 125,000,000 0.00 N/A 14.46Non--Building/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 51.00 27,437 83.75 19.86 1,200,000,000 6.74 1.47 50.26ROADS NIG PLC. 6.29 1,832 10.60 6.61 20,000,000 1.69 N/A 6.29Real Estate Development PINNACLE POINT GROUP PLC NT NT 7.28 7.28 0.00 N/A NTUACN PROPERTY DEV 11.05 324,368 20.90 8.82 1,375,000,000 2.20 -3.07 11.40Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 100.00 93 100.00 100.00 20,000,000 5.82 N/A 100.00UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INV 45.22 100 50.00 50.00 250,019,781 0.19 N/A 45.22UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 10.00 6,350 10.50 0.00 10.00CONSUMER GOODS Automobiles/Auto Parts DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 0.50 5,016 0.50 0.50 4,772,528,415 0.00 N/A 0.50Beverages--Brewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 7.76 54,992 19.48 3.13 900,000,000 0.00 N/A 7.38GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 0.89 8,132 0.68 0.68 272,160,000 0.00 N/A 0.89GUINNESS NIG PLC 140.00 28,374 297.41 209.10 1,474,925,519 8.66 0.72 139.00INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 19.65 172,515 30.00 5.34 2,112,914,681 0.63 N/A 22.87JOS INT. BREWERIES PLC. 2.02 50,000 9.09 0.81 562,000,000 0.00 N/A 2.02NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 163.76 1,808,302 179.40 91.10 7,562,562,340 5.03 -1.50 166.25PREMIER BREWERIES PLC 3.61 513,550 0.97 0.93 126,000,000 0.00 N/A 3.61Beverages--Non-Alcoholic 7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 160.00 24,150 75.90 38.12 640,590,362 4.46 N/A 161.00Food Products BIG TREAT PLC NT NT 0.50 0.50 2,000,000,000 0.00 N/A NTDANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 4.90 224,970 10.68 3.85 5,000,000,000 0.00 14.75 4.27DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 7.30 1,588,435 12.85 3.26 12,000,000,000 0.81 -5.44 7.72FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 34.00 187,271 109.24 50.00 1,879,210,666 3.38 -7.66 36.82HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 3.06 952,850 4.11 1.83 7,930,197,658 0.34 -7.27 3.30MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 0.50 53,816 1.21 0.50 3,722,493,620 0.00 N/A 0.50N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 18.05 159,011 29.70 17.51 178,200,000 0.00 N/A 18.05NATIONAL SALT CO. NIG. PLC 8.38 2,835,920 14.00 3.65 1.05 2.32 8.19P S MANDRIDES & CO PLC. 5.35 2.08 124,000 5.94 5.35 40,000,000 0.08 N/A 5.35U T C NIG. PLC. 0.50 50 0.93 0.50 1,233,375,004 1.13 0.00 0.50UNION DICON SALT PLC. 11.84 100 13.31 4.22 360,000,000 0.00 N/A 12.46Food Products--Diversifi ed CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 41.52 5,725 64.53 8.33 3,129,188,160 1.57 3.80 40.00NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 1,044.05 390,319 1250.00 400.00 792,656,250 28.34 11.47 936.60Household Durables BETA GLASS CO PLC. NT 25,333 15.58 10.03 3.90 N/A NTNIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 31.82 100 36.19 32.27 63,360,000 13.92 N/A 31.82VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 4.15 187,845 5.54 2.91 819,000,000 0.71 0.73 4.12VONO PRODUCTS PLC. 0.85 15,000 2.88 0.57 300,000,001 0.00 N/A 0.89Personal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 27.20 156,973 56.00 21.02 3,176,381,636 1.34 -6.82 29.19UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 41.72 119,119 76.00 27.60 3,783,296,250 1.42 -6.14 44.45Textiles/Apparel UNITED NIG. TEXTILES PLC. NT NT 0.97 0.57 843,284,027 0.00 N/A NTFINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. 6.50 20,610,779 12.39 4.70 17,888,251,479 1.61 -2.55 6.67DIAMOND BANK PLC 4.47 1,358,484 7.85 1.92 14,475,243,105 1.71 0.45 4.45ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INC. 19.46 5,746,153 17.51 9.90 9,873,614,567 3.67 -0.26 19.51FIDELITY BANK PLC 2.02 4,669,271 3.47 1.13 28,974,797,023 0.68 -2.42 2.07FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC. NT NT 8.30 3.04 16,271,192,202 0.60 #VALUE! NTGUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 28.01 11,491,149 29.99 13.02 29,146,482,209 3.08 -12.14 31.88INTERCONTINENTAL BANK 13.50 13.50SKYE BANK PLC 2.64 5,074,965 7.05 2.65 13,219,334,676 0.97 0.00 2.64STERLING BANK PLC. 2.30 2,601,379 3.05 0.80 12,563,091,545 0.63 -3.77 2.39U B A PLC 4.80 11,173,106 9.60 1.64 32,334,693,693 1.70 -2.44 4.92UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 11.00 1,469,943 15.30 2.34 13,509,726,273 0.44 0.00 11.00UNITY BANK PLC 0.50 359,359 1.16 0.50 33,675,576,085 0.18 0.00 0.50WEMA BANK PLC. 0.95 1,128,531 1.88 0.50 12,821,249,880 0.00 -14.41 1.11ZENITH BANK PLC 23.52 9,778,427 27.40 11.96 31,396,493,790 3.30 -6.11 25.05Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services AFRICAN ALLIANCE INS. COY. PLC 0.50 200 0.50 0.50 20,585,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 1.00 1,627,718 1.42 0.50 7,809,391,256 0.19 0.00 1.02CONFIDENCE INSURANCE PLC NT NT 0.64 0.61 211,626,000 0.00 N/A NTCONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INS. PLC 0.50 9,140 0.52 0.50 6,000,000,000 0.05 N/A 0.50CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 0.86 1,882,960 1.45 0.58 10,372,624,157 0.15 0.00 0.94CORNERSTONE INS. COY. PLC. 0.50 62,000 0.72 0.50 8,820,010,363 0.02 0.00 0.50CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC NT 9,054,578 2.44 1.08 5,100,846,808 0.24 0.00 NTEQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 4,754 0.50 0.50 8,847,298,420 0.01 N/A 0.50GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 0.53 NT 0.69 0.50 4,549,947,000 0.00 N/A 0.53GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 0.50 42,003 0.60 0.50 3,827,485,380 0.03 N/A 0.50GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 165,731 0.50 0.50 720,000,000 0.01 N/A 0.50INTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INS. PLC NT NT 2.50 0.50 5,061,804,000 0.00 N/A NTINTERNATIONAL ENERGY INS. PLC 0.51 698,304 2.50 0.50 6,420,427,449 0.00 0.00 0.55INVESTMENT AND ALLIED ARN. 0.5 NT 0.50 0.50 28,000,000,000 0.02 N/A 0.5LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 14,710 0.50 0.50 7,323,313,227 0.00 N/A 0.50LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 0.50 100 0.61 0.50 3,437,330,500 0.00 N/A 0.50LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 220 0.50 0.50 4,083,713,569 0.02 0.00 0.50MANSARD INSURANCE PLC 3.05 23,600 2.87 1.06 10,000,000,000 0.25 0.00 3.05MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 1,319,465 0.63 0.50 7,998,705,336 0.00 N/A 0.50N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 0.67 10,579,013 1.01 0.50 5,332,830,881 0.37 -10.67 0.75NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 52,100 1.11 0.50 5,649,693,923 0.02 N/A 0.50OASIS INSURANCE PLC NT 1,654,611 0.50 0.50 5,003,506,791 0.04 N/A NTPRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 27,973 1.24 0.50 2,508,315,436 0.06 0.00 0.50REGENCY ALLIANCE INS. COY PLC 0.50 5,028 0.53 0.50 6,668,750,000 0.04 N/A 0.50SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 0.50 100 0.59 0.50 5,203,757,266 0.09 0.00 0.50STANDARD TRUSTASSURANCE PLC 0.50 1,650 0.50STANDARD ALLIANCE INS. PLC. 0.50 161,547,689 0.50 0.50 8,493,173,450 0.00 N/A 0.50UNIC INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 25,000 0.50 0.50 2,581,733,505 0.00 N/A 0.50UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 200 0.50 0.50 13,000,000,000 0.02 N/A 0.50UNIVERSAL INS. COMPANY PLC 0.50 518,140 0.50 0.50 16,000,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 0.53 1,368,084 1.55 0.50 0.07 0.58Micro Finance Banks FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 5.42 10,000,000 6.60 0.00 1.18 5.42NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 1.05 584,766 1.22 0.72 0.19 1.06Mortgage Carriers, Brokers &Services ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.30 500 1.65 1.37 4,200,000,000 0.03 N/A 1.30ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 0.50 500 0.50 0.50 8,679,148,676 0.02 N/A 0.50INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.45 500 1.45RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 0.50 220,000 0.50 0.50 13,175,732,404 0.30 N/A 0.50UNION HOMES SAVINGS&LOANS PLC 0.5 4,570 0.99 0.50 7,812,500,000 0.00 N/A 0.5Other Financial Institutions AFRICA PRUDENTIAL REGISTRARS 2.74 313,164 2.1 0.5 0.63 2.84CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC 4.15 369,250 4.16CRUSADER ( NIG) PLC. NT 500 0.61 0.50 3,778,005,975 0.00 N/A NTDEAP CAPITAL MGT & TRUST PLC 0.67 5,000 2.02 2.02 1,333,333,333 0.15 N/A 0.67FBN HOLDINGS PLC 9.51 8,812,914 21.50 8.57 32,632,084,358 2.45 -0.31 9.54FCMB GROUP PLC 3.61 27045923 5.70 2.90 1.23 3.18ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 0.55 1,050,953 1.33 0.50 3,608,657,661 0.13 N/A 0.54STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 30.00 3,807,836 20.72 10.64 18,750,000,000 1.53 -3.23 31.00SIM CAPITAL ALLIANCE VALUE FUND 103.24 465 103.24 98.33 103.24NIGERIA ENERGY SECTOR FUND 552.20 100 552.20UBA CAPITAL PLC 1.45 1,926,013 1.70 0.00 0.29 1.53HEALTHCARE Healthcare Providers EKOCORP PLC. 3.72 170 5.05 4.32 498,600,908 0.13 N/A 3.72UNION DIAGNOSTIC &CLINICAL PLC 0.50 40,000 0.50 0.50 3,553,138,528 0.00 N/A 0.50Medical Supplies MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 1.82 100 10.54 7.39 152,178,750 0.00 N/A 1.82Pharmaceuticals

NOTE NT=Not Traded on 10-04-15 N/A=Not Avialable

EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 2.09 74,488 4.80 0.50 486,473,856 0.58 -5.00 2.20FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 3.30 1,444,640 2.50 0.61 1,500,000,000 0.24 -3.23 3.41GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER PLC 56.26 66,411 69.00 18.97 956,701,192 3.07 10.23 51.04MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 1.74 163,454 3.38 1.23 980,000,000 0.09 4.82 1.66NEIMETH INT PHARM PLC 0.87 251,300 1.76 0.58 1,925,717,268 0.00 19.18 0.73NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 6.32 100 8.59 7.36 153,786,012 0.00 N/A 6.32PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 2.13 572,185 3.50 1.83 100,000,000 0.00 N/A 2.13ICT Computer Based Systems COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SLN PLC 0.50 37,000 0.96 0.50 2,960,000,000 0.11 0.00 0.50Computers and Peripherals OMATEK VENTURES PLC 0.50 100 0.50 0.50 2,941,789,472 0.00 N/A 0.50Electronic Communications Services MTECH COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.91 NT 0.91 0.91 4,966,666,668 0.00 N/A 0.91IT Services COMPUTER WAREHOUSE GROUP PLC 4 400 4NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 12.19 100 18.70 13.12 108,000,000 0.00 N/A 12.19TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 1.77 5,460 2.94 2.07 492,825,600 0.03 N/A 1.77Processing Systems CHAMS PLC 0.50 27,420 0.50 0.50 4,620,600,000 0.04 N/A 0.50E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 3.39 1,080 4.97 3.13 4,200,000,000 0.04 N/A 3.39Telecommunications Services IHS 3.8 3.8HIS NIGERIA PLC 2 2.25 2.25HIS NIGERIA PLC 1 3.08 3.08MTI PLC 0.5 100 0.50 0.50 4,893,594,400 0.00 N/A 0.5INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. 2.72 2,000 2.86 2.86 260,000,000 0.07 N/A 2.72ASHAKA CEM PLC 19.32 1,557,197 29.98 8.01 2,239,453,125 0.80 -9.72 21.40BERGER PAINTS PLC 9.49 40,673 12.20 6.82 217,367,585 0.91 4.75 9.06CAP PLC 35.66 20,474 67.50 13.78 560,000,000 1.66 4.88 34.00CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 11.74 1,514,719 12.99 4.00 1,241,548,285 1.12 -6.83 12.60DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 180.00 1,167,463 210.01 102.00 15,494,019,668 5.77 -1.10 182.00DN MEYER PLC. 0.83 40,890 3.54 0.50 242,908,200 0.06 N/A 0.83FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 0.50 600 0.75 0.50 2,109,928,275 0.00 N/A 0.50IPWA PLC 0.50 6,000 1.34 0.50 513,696,000 0.00 N/A 0.50PREMIER PAINTS 10.93 60 10.93LAFARGE WAPCO PLC. 90.01 109,667 110.00 39.80 3,001,600,004 6.83 -3.22 93.00PAINTS & COATINGS MANFACT.PLC 1.40 50,000 2.41 0.50 792,914,256 0.36 N/A 1.40PORTLAND PAINTS & PRDT NIG. PLC 3.50 72,650 7.22 2.27 400,000,000 0.43 N/A 3.46Electronic and Electrical Products AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2.09 100 2.00 2.00 0.05 N/A 2.09CUTIX PLC. 1.58 220,132 2.39 1.20 510,396,608 0.19 -4.82 1.66NIGERIAN WIRE AND CABLE PLC. 0.50 100 0.73 0.50 2,220,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.50Packaging/Containers ABPLAST PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.98 3.98 25,000,000 0.00 N/A NTAVON CROWNCAPS & CONTAINERS 1.59 561 5.94 1.71 683,974,528 0.00 N/A 1.59BETA GLASS CO PLC. 26.11 1,361 13.18 9.04 3.23 23.69GREIF NIGERIA PLC 11.48 100 13.28 12.68 42,640,000 0.90 N/A 11.48NIG. BAGS MANFACT. COY PLC NT NT 3.60 1.60 6,215,000,000 0.24 #VALUE! NTPOLY PRODUCTS (NIG) PLC. NT NT 1.86 1.05 240,000,000 0.22 N/A NTW A GLASS IND. PLC. 0.63 NT 0.63 0.63 199,066,550 0.00 N/A 0.63Tools and Machinery NIGERIAN ROPES PLC 7.46 100 8.69 8.26 265,409,280 0.00 N/A 7.46NIG SEW MACH. MAN. CO PLC. 0.15 200 0.15STOKVIS NIG PLC. 0.14 NT 0.14 0.14 2,918,000 0.00 N/A 0.14NATURAL RESOURCES Chemicals B.O.C. GASES PLC. 5.21 10,000 9.35 5.68 393,120,000 0.76 0.00 5.21Metals ALUMACO PLC 7.75 320 7.75 7.75 75,600,000 0.00 N/A 7.75ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 10.43 100 12.39 10.55 100,000,000 0.24 N/A 10.43MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE PLC 0.50 100 0.50 0.50 4,058,989,226 0.01 N/A 0.50Paper/Forest Products HALLMARK PAPER PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 3.22 3.22 50,000,000 0.04 N/A NTTHOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 0.73 4,050 1.38 0.67 220,000,000 0.00 N/A 0.73OIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SER. PLC 0.50 1,408,720 1.02 0.50 6,262,701,716 0.00 0.00 0.50Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC 17.00 4,924,248 24.80 9.32 2,262,711,568 1.24 -3.41 17.60Petroleum &Petroleum Products Distributors BECO PETROLEUM PRODUCT PLC 0.5 10000 0.5CONOIL PLC 39.50 2,577,516 76.00 16.96 693,952,117 2.69 0.00 39.50ETERNA PLC. 3.05 2,541,040 4.87 1.32 1,249,162,828 0.61 -4.69 3.20FORTE OIL PLC. 207.50 412,758 115.64 7.73 1,080,280,628 1.43 -3.49 215.00MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. 158.00 22,164 146.00 106.00 300,496,051 9.93 -9.71 175.00MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 50.54 167,074 59.00 16.20 253,988,672 1.04 N/A 50.54TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 180.00 43,476 190.01 118.75 339,521,837 12.91 0.00 180.00Exploration and Production SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVT. CO, LTD. 388.50 306,355 28,677,671 443.99SERVICES Advertising AFROMEDIA PLC 0.50 200 0.72 0.50 4,035,497,307 0.00 N/A 0.50Apparel Retailers LENNARDS (NIG) PLC. 3.15 100 3.48 3.48 0 N/A 3.15Automobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. 0.81 209,933 2.45 1.00 980,294,400 0.00 2.53 0.79Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 3.60 2,572,000 5.10 2.19 589,496,310 0.52 0.00 3.60TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 1.23 3,000 3.45 0.73 198,819,763 0.00 N/A 1.24Employment Solutions C & I LEASING PLC. 0.50 4,059,547 1.64 0.85 865,808,912 0.00 N/A 0.50Hospitality TANTALIZERS PLC 0.50 1,500 0.75 0.50 3,211,627,907 0.00 N/A 0.50Hotels/Lodging CAPITAL HOTEL 4.28 100 4.28IKEJA HOTEL PLC 4.85 599,750 1.72 0.64 2,078,796,396 0.00 -5.46 5.13TOURIST COY NIG PLC 3.51 1,000 3.88 3.51 3.51TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 9.63 2,800 10.00 10.00 9.63Media/Entertainment DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.50 1,000 0.51 0.50 8,000,000,000 0.43 N/A 0.50Printing/Publishing ACADEMY PRESS 1.06 16500 1.06LEARN AFRICA PLC 1.51 224,498 3.09 1.39 771,450,000 0.00 N/A 1.27STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 2.30 20 2.78 2.52 0.00 N/A 2.30UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 4.47 20,800 5.77 3.00 425,641,111 0.61 -4.89 4.70Road Transportation ABC TRANSPORT PLCPLC 0.57 955,140 1.29 0.50 1,507,000,000 0.21 N/A 0.59Specialty INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 4.66 6 5.15 4.90 236,699,511 0.00 N/A 4.66SECURE ELECTRONIC TECH.PLC 0.5 40,000,700 1.88 0.80 5,631,539,736 0.00 N/A 0.5Transport-Related Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC 1.95 111,000 5.90 1.27 634,000,000 0.50 N/A 1.70NIG. AVIATION HANDLING COY PLC 6.13 246,274 8.81 5.08 1,230,468,750 0.43 -9.19 6.75SUPPORT AND LOGISTICS CAVERTON OFFSHORE GROUP PLC 2.9 189044 3.3ASeM CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Property Management SMART PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC NT 60 1.43 1.04 45,000,000 0.12 N/A NTCONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC NT 100 2.26 1.02 201,885,335 0.00 N/A NTOIL AND GAS CAPITAL OIL PLC NT 100000 NTNAVITUS ENERGY PLC NT 1000 NTPersonal/Household Products ROKANA INDUSTRIES PLC. NT NT 0.60 0.60 30,000,000 0.00 N/A NTHEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals AFRIK PHARMACEUTICALS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 24,898,850 0.00 N/A NTINDUSTRIAL GOODS Electronic and Electrical Products NT NT NTADSWITCH PLC. NT NT 1.88 1.63 125,005,250 0.00 N/A NTNATURAL RESOURCES Metals W.A. ALUM. PRODUCTS PLC. NT NT 0.50 0.50 6,650,000 0.00 N/A NTFood/Drug Retailers and Wholesalers NT NT NTJULI PLC. NT 1,000 3.05 2.76 194,700,000 0.00 N/A NTETF’s Sector ETF LOTUS HALAL EQUITY ETF NT NTNEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND NT 41 2,706 2,003 #VALUE! NTVETIVA GRIFFIN 30 ETF NT 10 49467 NT

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

PRICE 52 WK 52 WK SHARES MOV.SECURITY (=N=) QUANTITY HIGH LOW OUTSTANDING EPS (%) Previous

Stock Exchange weekly equities summary as at Friday, April 10, 2015

Business CourageCourage

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015A24 40 Business CourageCourage

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nationalmirrorlaw@yahoo.com

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41National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, April 13, 2015

‘’Freedom of religious belief and to act in the exercise of such belief cannot override the interest of peace, order or moral of the society’’

— Justice Niki Tobi, retired Justice, Supreme Court of Nigeria

Law & Justice

China’s ex-security chief charged with bribery

Ibori’s march to UK prison two years ago

45

42

Electoral offenders are left unpunished, says Adetola–Kaseem

CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed NBA President, Augustine Alegeh, SAN

Rule nine of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (2007) provides that a lawyer shall pay his annual practising fees not later than 31st March of every year. However, a number of practising lawyers could not comply with this directive when the designated receiving bank shuts its door abruptly at 12 noon to all its customers, including lawyers due to announcement of election results . WALE IGBINTADE reports.

Rumbles at the Bar over payment of practising fees

CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

Section 3(2) (a) (ii) of Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Con-stitution provides that a law-

yer shall pay his annual practising fees not later than 31st March in every year. The fees are paid year-ly into the account of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, where every law-yer enrolled to practice as a Barris-ter and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The constitution further stipulates that ‘’any mem-ber who fails or neglects to pay the prescribed Annual Practicing Fees before the end of March each year shall, as long as he/she remains in default, have no right:

(a) Of audience in court, (b) To prepare, authenticate or frank any legal document, including Memo-randum and Articles of the Asso-ciation,

(c) A failure or neglect to pay the Annual Practicing Fees, as and when due, shall be deemed to be an act of professional misconduct’’.

Aside being called to Bar, prompt payment of practising fee is what gives the legal practitioner

the licence to act as one. It is imper-ative to note that any lawyer who defaults risks forfeiture of every right a legal practitioner enjoys in court, corporate practice or an in-house counsel and loss of other rights and privileges generally. All these go to show the essence of payment of practising fees in the noble profession.

In addition, lawyers are ex-pected to pay their branch dues in their various NBA branches and such dues are used by the NBA to finance all its numerous projects. Some of these projects include capacity building; professionalisa-tion initiatives of the NBA Secre-tariat; human capacity building at national level; institutional syner-

gy with regional and international organisations; human rights pro-gramme; anti-corruption crusade and other initiatives aimed at uplifting the legal profession stan-dards.

Penultimate week, the NBA in a paid advertisement recently informed its entire members that payment for the annual Bar prac-tising fee that commenced from January 1, 2015, would end on March 31, 2015. The advertorial went further to state that all legal practitioners enrolled at the Su-preme Court of Nigeria, whether in private, public or corporate practice are required to pay their practising fees on or before the end of March 2015.

The schedule of fees is as fol-lows;

*Senior Advocates of Nigeria and Honourable Benchers, N50, 000.

*Legal practitioners of 15 years or more standing post call, N25, 000.

*Legal practitioners of 10 years or more standing, but less than 15 years post call, N17,500.

*Legal practitioners of 5 years or more standing, but less than 10 years post call, N10,000.

*Legal practitioners of less than 5 years standing post call, N5, 000.

Stamp and Seal Project The NBA at a National Work-

shop on the countdown to the 2015 general elections held in Abuja, signed a strategic partner-ship agreement with Strateflex Nigeria Limited for the produc-tion of adhesive paper stamps for lawyers. The NBA stamp policy requires that lawyers affix their

...As bank shuts door to lawyers before time lapse

s2AsNtlr

ACCESS BANK SHOULD HAVE NOTIFIED THE NBA IN ADVANCE ON MARCH 30, 2015, OF ITS INTENTION TO SHUT ITS

DOOR TO CUSTOMERS BY 12 NOON THE FOLLOWING DAY, MARCH 31

42 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015Law & Justice

Electoral offenders are left

Considering the volume of appeals pending before the Supreme Court, do you share the view that the apex court is overburdened?

It is neither here or there, people have advocated for the creation of constitu-tional court. I am handling a case as to whether the decisions of the National In-dustrial Court should be appealable and if appealable, should they end at the Court of Appeal? There is a school of opinion that says it’s better for the apex court to hear appeals from the National Industrial Court so that the law will be more certain. However, there are others who say em-ployment matters should not be allowed to linger too long in court.

They argued that people should be able to know their fate early and move on with their life. Today, cases stay long in court that litigants become so frustrated and many of them died and do not reap the benefits of the case. There are some mat-ters that are so personal and when the liti-gant dies the matter dies with them. There are some cases such that when the litigant dies, another person can be substituted for him. It is a very serious jurispruden-tial discussion as to in what circumstanc-es should appeal be allowed to proceed to the apex court and in what circumstances should it be stopped at a certain point.

For instance, I started a chieftaincy matter in Ogun State High Court in 1994 and it was recently determined against us by the Supreme Court. However, I did not think the matter ought to have been deter-mined against. Unfortunately, at the time the matter was determined by the apex court, all the litigants but one had died. Even the lawyer who was defending the case from the beginning died before the matter got to the Supreme Court. When you look at that type of scenario you find that, it is not a pleasant thing for cases to last so long in court. So, there must be a way of reviewing such cases that they can be taken quickly in court.

Will you advocate for regional divisions of the Supreme Court?

It may be the workload and it maybe that the Supreme Court needs reorgan-isation. But, I do not support the idea that we should have various divisions of the Supreme Court. We cannot afford to have conflicting decisions from the apex court, it will lead to chaos. We had that experi-ence from the Court of Appeal when dif-

ferent divisions of the appellate court gave conflicting decisions on the same subject -matter. It’s a matter of reorganis-ing these courts to make them work speed-ily. There is need to appoint more judges and equip the court with modern facili-ties.

Eight years after he was arraigned, the Supreme Court recently ordered a former Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye, to submit himself for trial on corruption and money laundering charges filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. What does this portend for our judicial system?

Such a thing should not be encouraged, because it could lead to delay in justice. Justice delay is justice denied. We should be able to embed it in our rules that inter-locutory appeals should not be allowed to stop hearing of the substantial suit. Criminal matters should be disposed off speedily.

How will you react to a judgement de-livered by a Federal High Court, which declared restriction of people’s movement during the monthly environmental sanita-tion exercise in Lagos State unlawful?

I have not read the judgement and can-not comment on the judgement intelli-gently. It is a carryover from the military era. In our younger days, there is what we called Wolewole (Sanitary Inspectors) that inspect houses. If they find any filth in your environment you will be charged to court. From my point of view, it is not right for the State to make it mandatory for people to clean their surroundings and keep people indoors for three hours against their will. In my premises, mu gutter flows and it is cleaned almost every day. My environment is well- cleaned and yet you say I should not go out for three hours. I think we should move away from military mentality. Unfortunately, in Ni-geria nobody does something unless he is compelled to do it. It ought not to be so. It is a question of re-orienting the society for us to do things willingly. Nigerians

have to learn how to do things without compulsion. I am sorry for your genera-tion because you have not seen better days and you think what is happening now is normal. In those days, if you are a civil servant, you dare not dress beyond you in-come. If you ride a motorcycle when you have not taken motorcycle loan, people will ask you where you got it from. Civil service regulations are there, they have not changed much. Today civil servants are building mansions without taking loans. It is wrong.

How will you assess the quality of judg-ments from our courts?

The quality of judgments you get from the judiciary is a reflection of what you get from the presentations from the Bar. Nobody is expected to know all the law. Al-though, we often say to judges that the law

Adetola-Kaseem

Chief Gani Adetola-Kaseem is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, with 35 years post-call experience. The lawyer, who became a member of the inner bar in September 2002, in this interview with WALE IGBINTADE, speaks on the volume of cases before the Supreme Court and the election tribunals, among others. Excerpts.

I DO NOT SUPPORT THE IDEA OF HAVING VARIOUS DIVISIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO HAVE CONFLICTING DECISIONS FROM

THE APEX COURT, IT WILL LEAD TO CHAOS

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 43Monday, April 13, 2015 Law & Justice

unpunished, says Adetola–Kaseem resides in their bosoms, but the truth is that a judge is not expected to know all the laws. He must be assisted by the presenta-tions of lawyers. So, if the presentations coming from the Bar are poor, unless the judge is extremely lucid and industrious he may also turn out a watery judgement.

Having said that, it would not be fair to our judicial system to condemn wholesale judgments from our courts. We have seen cases where the court of first instance will come to a decision; the decision will be affirmed by the Court of Appeal but upturned by the Supreme Court. This does not necessarily mean that the court of first instance and the Court of Appeal Justices are not learned, it is just their perception of the case.

We have also had cases where a high court will decide a matter and Court of Appeal will disagree but the Supreme Court will affirm the judgement of the high court. However, we have to look at the length of time cases stay in court. A lot of cases should be subjected to Alternative Dispute Resolution rather than litigation. Not all matters ought to go through pro-cess of litigation. For instance, commer-cial cases from my experience are better resolved through arbitration or mediation than litigation.

What is the way forward on the crisis be-deviling the Rivers state judiciary?

I don’t want to be judgmental in my view and the matter is in court. There is a little bit of ego between the politicians and the judicial authorities. If the issue of ego had not been there the matter ought not to have degenerated to this level. The constitution is very clear, both the gover-nor and NJC have roles to play in the ap-pointment of judges. To understand the issue you need to look at the history be-fore the National Judicial Council, NJC, evolved.

Ordinarily, in most federal systems you won’t find an authority at the federal level interfering with the appointment of judicial officers at the State level. That didn’t happen during the First Republic but it is a lesson from the First republic that brought this about. The essence of setting up the NJC is to insulate judicial officers from political manipulations. NJC is meant to protect judicial officers from states’ and federal chief executives. We want to be sure that those who are ap-pointed in the third organ of government are free of political influence. If there is a recommendation from the States’ Judicial Service Commission, it is the responsibili-ty of the NJC to screen the candidates and satisfy itself that the appointments had no political colouration.

In Rivers State judiciary, there have been issues on who should and who should not be appointed as the Chief Judge. The governor has a say in the matter, he would approve whatever the State Judicial Com-missions brought to him for approval but the final approval is done by the NJC. If the NJC in its wisdom finds that there is something fishy in the appointment, it could act as checks and balances. That may be what has happened.

It is a matter of style, if the governor had been advised properly; there are bet-ter ways to handle it. I do hope that before long the cases that are in court over this issue will be disposed off and everybody will be in peace.

Some have said the powers of CJN should be whittled-down. Do you agree?

Some have said the CJN is becoming too powerful; the only thing that can be done to whittle-down the powers of CJN is to ensure that most members of NJC are not his appointees, so that the Council is not dominated by those who the CJN ap-pointed. Once that is done, the NJC will be able to come up with some balanced deci-sions.

Several months after judges were at-tacked in Ekiti State, no suspect has been brought to court by the police. How will you react to this?

A situation where you have impunity at whatever level is dangerous for any sys-tem. Can you imagine a judge sitting in court and not feeling secured? He is not having confidence that he can make pro-nouncement without having to look over his back. It’s unfortunate and it tells a lot about our political system. Judges needs protection.

I sympathised with judges. I did not accept judicial appointment when I was offered some 25 years ago for many rea-sons. For every case a judge decides he makes an enemy. The executive controls the law enforcement agents. The Federal Government in particular controls the Police. Even at the State level, Police Com-missioner has minimal commitment to the state government. A situation where a State governor and the President are in linked, they can manipulate the secu-rity system to suit their purpose. If the Governor of Ekiti was not in the same party with the President, would he have done what he did and nothing would have happened? It is barbaric, there is no two ways to describe it, when people misuse security machinery for their political advantage. They forget that they are in office today; they may not be there tomor-row. Some of us are not matured enough to distinguish between State interest and personal interest. So, it is better to build strong institutions, institutions that work where everyone will be secured.

What are you expectations from the elec-tion tribunals?

The law has placed responsibility on the CJN to set up election tribunals ahead of the elections. Members of these tribu-nals have been duly warned to perform their duty according to law and with fear of God. Nigeria is one of the most reli-gious countries in the world, whether as Muslims or Christians. But, in terms of the fear of God we are one of the worst in the world. But, we don’t have the fear of God. Both leaders and followers, people act with impunity and do not care what the law says. If you get into a lifestyle that you cannot sustain after leaving office, what is the essence? You need to steal so

must to be able to sustain it. People will be remembered for their service, for leav-ing the world a little better than they met it and not how much wealth they are able to accumulate to themselves and their cohorts. We still remember some names and we revere them for the little they were able to do to change the society.

In the Western part of Nigeria, we re-member Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I am a pioneer beneficiary of the free educa-tion. The system started on January 17, 1955 and I was one of the students in that system. Even as late as the Second Re-public, what Jakande did in Lagos State is commendable. What Jakande did in four years is more than what Bola Tinubu and Fashola did in 16 years. I can say it with all boldness. In the North they remember

the Sardauna of Sokoto. In the East, they remember Michael Okpara and many oth-ers. But, today people are not thinking about that, they focus on personal aggran-dizement. What is your take on the 180 days time frame to conclude election petition mat-ters?

It is a balance between two devils. We know 180 days’ is difficult to meet especial-ly when the burden of proof is placed on the petitioner. The petitioner must prove that the election has not substantially complied with electoral law. The burden is too much. Still, I cannot blame the framers of electoral law. The constitution says he who asserts must prove. But, there should be a way to balance this. The law could make it mandatory on electoral umpire to bring evidence before the tribunal so that the burden on the petitioner would be less. So long as the respondent has very little burden to discharge and he knows that the petitioner has so much to prove within 180 days, he will put every pegs at his way. The respondent would make sure that you will be talking about procedural matters for four to five months. It is difficult to con-clude election petitions within 180 days. Yet, we do not want a situation where someone who lost election would be in of-fice and enjoying the benefit of the office. Unless there is penal measure that says; if you are declared a non-winner, all the money and benefits you have taken will be refunded. If we can incorporate this into our law perhaps people will be more dis-couraged to rig themselves into office. The decay is due to the fact that people are not being punished for electoral offences.

must to be able to sustain it People will

A JUDGE IS NOT EXPECTED TO KNOW

ALL THE LAWS. IF THE PRESENTATIONS FROM THE BAR ARE POOR, UNLESS THE JUDGE

IS EXTREMELY LUCID AND INDUSTRIOUS, HE MAY ALSO TURN OUT A

WATERY JUDGEMENT

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net44 Monday, April 13, 2015Law & Justice

Chairman NBA, Lagos branch, Mr. Alex MuokaChairman, NBA Ikeja branch, Mr. Farounbi

‘Stamp and seal project ‘ll eradicate touts’numbered stamp on every document en-dorsed by or emanating from them.

Connected with the payment of practis-ing fees is the introduction of ‘’Stamps for Lawyers’’, which required practising law-yers to affix their STAMPS on every legal document prepared and/or endorsed in ac-cordance with law. According to the NBA, the use of the stamps shall become manda-tory from the April 1, 2015. A packet of 120 stamps according to the NBA costs N4, 000 and payment should be made into NBA ac-count with Access Bank Plc.

However, National Mirror gathered that quite a large number of practising lawyers were unable to comply with the directive of NBA and could not pay their practising fees as at March 31 because the designated bank, Access Bank unexpectedly shut its doors to customers at 12 noon on March 31, 2015 due to possible fear of breakdown of law and or-der when the results of the March 28 presi-dential elections were being announced by the Independent National Electoral Com-mission (INEC). Hence, many lawyers, who went to various branches of the bank be-tween 12. 01 pm and 4 pm on March 31 could not pay.

A Lagos based- lawyer, Mr. Ibukun Oy-eyipo told the National Mirror, ‘’ I tried my best to pay my practising fee but I could not. The bank closed at 12 o’clock as against the mandatory time of 4.00 pm. I later gathered that it was due to the apprehension over the just- concluded presidential election. He la-mented that ‘’ Unfortunately, junior lawyers do not have anybody to fight for them since the death of human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi of blessed memory. ‘’

Like Oyeyipo several lawyers across the country were caught in this web last March 31. A lawyer who preferred anonymity shared Oyeyipo’s view saying that the Ac-cess Bank should have notified the NBA in advance on March 30 of its intention to shut its doors to customers by 12 noon on March

31. Another lawyer, Mr. Ademola Adewale

said ‘’every lawyer knows that between Jan-uary and March 31, he is supposed to have paid his practising fee and if you failed to pay, we all know the consequences. There are some privileges that such a lawyer will not enjoy if he failed to pay within the stipu-lated date. For instance, if you are applying for Notary Public and you have not paid

your practising fee as at 31st of March, that will automatically disqualify you even if you pay after the stipulated period.

Contacted, the Chairman NBA, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Yinka Farounbi said the pay-ment of practising fees is statutory and the option opened to lawyers at that time was to pay the fees on-line to Supreme Court.

Concerning the Stamp and Seal issue, if you did not pay within time, then you should blame yourself. It is only Access bank that NBA has chosen because the asso-ciation has arrangement with the bank. You cannot say Access Bank is not spread across Nigeria. Even if the date is extended some lawyers will still not pay while others will continue to procrastinate’’.

In his view, Mr. Friday Oshomagbe said ‘’ the constitutional directive is in order in regulations of our association’s activities and all lawyers are encouraged to comply with the directive. I don’t think there is need for extension of time to allow those have not done do. However, members are looking for a better organised association where inter-

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

31.

est of junior lawyers will be protected. Oshomagbe however commended the

NBA executives for the introduction of stamp for lawyers adding that ‘’it will eradi-cate touts from the legal profession.’’ He however raised objection over the N2, 000 administrative costs saying ‘’ the intention is good if well implemented to minimize but charges is not necessary having paid the an-nual dues.

In his opinion, James Ode Abah said ‘’the law is clear without peradventure that gen-erally a legal practitioner has the right of au-dience in all courts of law sitting in Nigeria. This position has been asserted in a number of decided cases by the Apex Court’’.

‘’In the case of Ajakaiye .v F.R.N (2010) 11 NWLR PT 1206 AT 500 PP PG 523 PARAS F-H the court held that a person who is qualified as a legal practitioner within the meaning of the Legal Practitioners’ Act is entitled and has absolute right and privileges to ap-pear and be accorded audience in any court of law or tribunal throughout the country.

However one major exception to this gen-eral rule of the right of audience of lawyers in all courts in Nigeria is clearly stated in Section 8 (2) The Legal Practitioners Act (Cap L11) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The practice of lawyers paying practis-ing fees is clearly rooted in the provisions of Section 8 (2) of The Legal Practitioners Act (Cap L11) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 which clearly states that no legal prac-titioner shall be accorded the right of audi-ence in any court in Nigeria in any year, un-less he has paid to the Registrar in respect of that year, a practising fee as from time to time prescribed by the Attorney- General of the Federation after consultation with the association ( Nigerian Bar Association). However it is important to note that the pro-visions of the Legal Practitioners’ Act are statutory and therefore matters of substan-tive law which cannot be waived.

LEGAL TIPSBarBarJokesJokes

an offence committed by his limb.” “Well put,” the judge replied. “Using your logic, I sentence the defendant’s arm to one year’s imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses.” The defendant smiled. With his lawyer’s assistance he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, and walked out.

My daddy’s a lawyer Two small boys, not yet old enough to be in school, were overheard talking at the zoo one day. “My name is Billy. What’s yours?” asked the first boy. “Tommy,” replied the second. “My Daddy’s an accountant. What does your Daddy do for a living?” asked Billy. Tommy replied, “My Daddy’s a lawyer.” “Honest?” asked Billy. “No, just the regular kind”, replied Tommy.

I am a divorce lawyerA guy walks into a post office one day to see a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing “Love” stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.His curiosity getting the better of him, he goes up to the balding man and asks him what he is doing. The man says “I’m sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, ‘Guess who?’” “But why?” asks the man. Culled from lots of jokes.com and lawyers jokes.com

Pickpocket in courtA pick pocket was in court for a series of petty crimes. The judge said, “Mr. Banks, you are hereby fined $100.” The lawyer stood up and said “Thanks, my lord, however, my client only has $75 on him at this time, but if you’d allow him a few minutes in the crowd. . .”

Lawyer’s funeral A man is at his lawyer’s funeral and is surprised by the turnout for this one man. He turns to the people around him. “Why are you all at this man’s funeral?” A man turns towards him and says, “We’re all clients.” “And you ALL came to pay your respects? How touching.” “No, we came to make sure he was dead.” Accused arm. A lawyer defending a man accused of burglary tried this creative defense: “My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for

A garnishee pro-ceeding is a ju-dicial process

whereby a judgement creditor, who is armed with the judgement of a court, may re-cover such debt owed by judgement debtor from a third party who in turn has an obliga-tion to the judgement debtor.

*Thus, there are three parties in gar-nishee proceedings; the garnishor, who is the judgement creditor, the garnishee, who is the third party and the judgement debtor.

*For instance, if Mr. A gets a monetary judgement in court

against Mr. B and Mr. B has refused to pay, Mr. A can ask the court to help collect Mr. B’s money from Mr. C, who in turn owes Mr. B mon-ey. The third person indebted to the judge-ment debtor is called the garnishee, while the judgement creditor is also referred to as the garnishor.

*The law governing garnishee proceedings can be found in Rules of Court, the Sheriff and Civil Process Act (SCPA) Cap 407, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and case laws.

*Any debt owing to a judgement debtor

Garnishee proceedings in Nigeria from any other person within the jurisdiction of the court can be re-covered by the judge-ment – creditor towards the satisfaction of his judgement by attach-ment of debts via a gar-nishee order.

*For a debt that is on attachment, it must be due or accruing to the judgement debtor. It must also be a sum certain, examples are, salaries, money in bank account and rent.

Written by Francis Famoroti, Head, Judi-ciary. We welcome feed-back and reactions from readers via our e-mail: nationalmirrorlaw@ya-hoo.com

IF YOU ARE APPLYING FOR NOTARY PUBLIC AND YOU HAVE NOT

PAID YOUR PRACTISING FEE AS AT 31ST OF MARCH, THAT WILL

AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFY YOU

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 45Monday, April 13, 2015 Law & Justice

Ibori

Two years ago, former Governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment by a Southwark Crown Court in the United Kingdom (UK). FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary reflects on the various legal battles Ibori had, beginning from his ex-convict saga at the Bwari Upper Area Court about 20 years ago.

James Ibori was convicted and sentenced to 13 years jail term at about 3.20p.m on April 17, 2012 by

Judge Anthony Pitts of the Southwark Crown Court in the UK. His conviction was sequel to a guilty plea he made to a number of corruption and money laundering charges preferred against him. These charges were put at about $250million and included the V-Mobile and Bombardaire scams which amount-ed to $50million.

Prior to his conviction in the UK, he had been indicted for corrupt practices after his two-term tenure as the Delta State Governor. Besides, he had also faced accusation of being an ex-convict to which his legal team and himself var-iously denied.

It was therefore not surprising that two Delta State indigenes, Engineer Goodnews Agbi and Anthony Alabi headed for an Abuja High Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and sought a declaration to stop Ibori from seeking re-election as the state gover-nor in 2003.

The plaintiffs had told the court that by virtue of Ibori’s previous conviction at the Bwari Upper Area Court, he was not qualified to contest election as the People’s Democratic Party‘s (PDP’s ) gu-bernatorial candidate for the 2003 Delta State governorship election.

They also claimed injunctive reliefs aimed at restraining the then PDP Na-tional Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, another PDP Chieftain, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, and the Independent Nation-al Electoral Commission (INEC) from presenting Ibori to the INEC as their candidate for the said elections.

After the addresses of the lawyers, the trial judge, Justice Mukhtar, in his ruling delivered on March 24, 2003, ruled that there was “no conviction against the accused in that case”, and dismissed the claims of the plaintiffs.

Agbi and Alabi appealed against the ruling. The Court of Appeal after criti-cising the procedure adopted by the tri-al judge held that on the face of Exhibit A, there was a conviction of the person therein named as the accused.

The court however held that in order to determine the identity of the person convicted, it was imperative to remit the case to the High Court for trial de novo. This would enable the court to establish the identity of the convicted person.

Indeed, the facts of the case are that on September 28, 1995, the Upper Area Court Bwari in FCT in a criminal case No CR-81-95 convicted one James Onanefe Ibori for the offences of neg-ligent conduct and criminal breach of

trust under Summary Trial Procedure under the provisions of Section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the for-mer Northern Region of Nigeria, appli-cable to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The said convict was sentenced to a fine of N1000 or one year imprison-ment on the information.

As far as Agbi and Alabi were con-cerned, the identity of the convict re-mained the same Ibori.

Ibori however felt dissatisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal and appealed to the Supreme Court. The ap-pellants were also aggrieved with the verdict and they also cross-appealed.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court on February 6, 2004, dismissed both the appeal and the cross-appeal and af-firmed the decision of the Court of Ap-peal. The court equally sent the case to the High Court for trial de novo.

The Supreme Court had also un-equivocally held that the issue of the conviction of one James Onanefe Ibori was settled beyond any dispute, and ‘’ what remains in dispute was whether the 4th respondent was in fact the per-son convicted in Exhibit A in CR/81/95, C.O.P. vs. James Ibori.’’

The trial de novo came before Justice Hussein Mukhtar who ordered plead-ings as directed by the Supreme Court.

At the end of the testimonies and after the written addresses, the judge on November 8, 2004 delivered his judg-ment dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims and granted partially Ibori’s claims in his counter-claim.

Insisting that they were sure of their facts, the men accordingly appealed to the Court of Appeal but the appellate court on May 21, 2005 dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims.

Dissatisfied with the decision again, Agbi and Alabi pursued the case at the Court of Appeal. The Notice of appeal contains 10 grounds of appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

Now in this judgment, the plaintiffs shall be referred to as the appellants, and the defendants as the respondents.

Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) argued the appeal on behalf of Agbi and Alabi while Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) represented Ibori. The panel of the Supreme Court justices that heard the appeal were, Salihu Modibbo Alfa Belgore, Idris Legbo Kutigi, Umaru Atu Kalgo, Dahiru Musdapher, Sun-day Akinola Akintan, Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, and Ikechi Francis Ogbuagu.

In its lead judgment delivered on Fri-day, May 19, 2006, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that appeal brought by the men was unmeritorious.

Justice Musdapher who read the lead verdict accordingly dismissed this ap-peal and affirmed the decisions of the lower courts.

According to him, ‘’ In attempting to prove their case, the appellants called P.W.1, Alhaji. Awwal Yusuf the presid-ing judge of the Upper Area Court. He gave his evidence which was not be-lieved by the trial court and the Court of Appeal.

He said ‘’ The appellants unfortu-nately led no evidence in proof of these averments. The appellants also failed to call any other witness beside P.W. 1 to establish the identity of the convict. Un-der the circumstances, it is obvious that issues 1, 3 and 4 are not made out. I re-

solve them against the appellants. Both the lower courts considered the plead-ings and the evidence led by the plain-tiffs and rightly came to the conclusion that they failed to prove, the identity of the convict aforesaid.’’

Six other justices concurred with the lead judgment that the judge found contradictions and inconsistencies in the evidence of trial Upper Area Court judge, Awwal Yusuf (PW1) whereby he disbelieved the latter that it was Ibori that he tried.

By the apex court decision, Ibori es-caped being stopped from seeking re-election into the Delta State Govern-ment House.

About six years after this verdict, Ibori was charged with money launder-ing before a UK court, which eventually found him guilty and sentenced him to 13 years jail term in April 2013.

Five months after his conviction, Ibo-ri, appealed in September 2012 against his conviction by a Southwark Crown Court for money laundering. He eventu-ally lost his appeal and would serve his sentences. The jailed former Governor lost his appeal against the 13-year pris-on sentence for embezzling £50m in one of Britain’s biggest money-laundering cases.

Ibori’s march to UK prison two years ago

FAMOUS CASES

Justice Musdapher who read the lead

PRIOR TO HIS CONVICTION IN THE

UK, JAMES IBORI HAD BEEN INDICTED FOR CORRUPT PRACTICES

AFTER HIS TWO-TERM TENURE AS DELTA STATE GOVERNOR

46 National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Court sentences ex-mayor to 15 yearsjail for graft

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott

A former mayor of major eastern Chi-nese city of Nan-

jing has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on corruption charges, as President Xi Jinping’s an-ti-graft crackdown contin-ues to gather steam.

According to Associated Press, AP, Ji Jianye also was fined 2 million yuan ($323,000) for taking bribes in exchange for doling out public works contracts and arranging job transfers..

Ji’s decision not to fight the charges likely resulted in his relatively light sen-tence, handed down by In-

Australian court orders internet fi rms to divulge data

Indian court convicts former IT chief in fraud case

termediate People’s Court in the eastern city of Yan-tai.

The China Daily newspa-per and other state media put the amount of bribes Ji was accused of receiving at 11.32 million ($1.8 million).

His former position is equivalent to that of a vice minister, making him one of the highest-ranking of-ficials brought down by the anti-corruption drive launched shortly after Xi was installed as ruling Communist Party chief in 2012.

Xi has vowed to go after officials at all levels, and thousands have been inves-tigated the party’s anti-cor-ruption body.

BEIJING

BEIJING

AUSTRALIA

An Australian court has ordered inter-net service provid-

ers (ISPs) to hand over de-tails of customers accused of illegally downloading a US movie.

In a landmark move, the Federal Court told six firms to divulge names and ad-dresses of those who down-loaded The Dallas Buyers Club.

The case was lodged by the US company that owns the rights to the 2013 movie.

According ABC report, the court said the data could only be used to secure “com-pensation for the infringe-ments” of copyright.

In the case, which was heard in February, the applicants said they had identified 4,726 unique IP addresses from which their film was shared online us-ing BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing network. They said this had been done without their permis-sion.

Once they received the names of account holders, the company would then have to prove copyright in-fringement had taken place.

The judgment comes amidst a crackdown by the Australian government on

internet piracy. Australians are among

the world’s most regular il-legal downloaders of digi-tal content. The delay in release dates for new films and TV shows, and higher prices in Australia for digi-tal content, have prompted many Australians to find surreptitious ways to watch new shows.

The ISPs involved in the case, including Australia’s second-largest provider iiNet, said releasing cus-tomer information would be a breach of privacy and lead to what is known in the US as “speculative invoic-ing”.

This is where account holders are threatened with court cases that could result in large damages unless smaller settlement fees are paid.

INDIA

Monday, April 13, 2015Law & Justice

practice by myself because I have never been in court and I know that anyone can read out the law, but procedure and handling of evidences need experience.

My friends in practice then encouraged me to start anyhow because I was al-ready above pupilage, but I knew I do not know anything about procedure and han-dling of evidence so, I iden-tified a judge whose judge-ment I respected, for three months I was listening and

taking notes of the proceed-ing just like a law student.

I had my first case at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, I studied the matter I was going to handle thoroughly, when the matter was called I stood up and I was to move a preliminary objection.

It was a case between two parties who had agreed to go to arbitration whenever they have a dispute and not to go to litigation so, I prepared an affidavit and raised the motion to strike out the case

My friends in practice encouraged me –Sagay

China’s ex-security chief charged with bribery

Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN

Chinese prosecutors have charged former domestic Se-curity Chief Zhou Yongkang

with bribery, abuse of power and in-tentional disclosure of state secrets.

A report by Reuters says that Zhou, 72, is the most senior Chinese official to be ensnared in a graft scandal since the party swept to power in 1949.

The decision to prosecute Zhou underscores President Xi Jinping’s commitment to fighting graft at the highest levels.

The indictment accused Zhou of “taking advantage of his position to seek benefits for others”, “illegally accepting other people’s huge as-sets”, “abuse of power” and “caus-ing heavy losses to public property.

Zhou’s alleged crimes took place over decades, including when he was deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corpo-ration (CNPC), party boss in south-western Sichuan province, minister of public security and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the statement said.

Zhou had been informed of his legal rights and listened to the views of his lawyer, the statement added, without saying where Zhou, who has not been seen in public since October 2013, was being detained.

No date was given for Zhou’s trial, but state media said last month that China would hold an “open trial” in an attempt to show transparency. Legal experts say, however, the party runs the risk of Zhou threatening to reveal state secrets.

Zhou was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee - China’s apex of power - and held the post of security tsar until he retired in 2012.

He also built an extensive power base at oil giant CNPC, as he rose to the top of the company in the 1990s. At least a dozen former top managers at CNPC have been arrested as part of the crack-down on graft.

Last year, China said it had arrested Zhou and expelled him from the party,

accusing him of crimes ranging from accepting bribes to leaking state se-crets.

In ordering the investigation, Xi has broken with an unwritten understand-ing that members of the Politburo Standing Committee would not come under such scrutiny after retirement.

The move suggests Xi’s anti-corrup-tion crackdown - he has promised to go after “tigers”, or senior officials, as well as those of lower rank - has much fur-ther to run.

The government’s corruption fight has extended to almost every corner of the country, including powerful state-owned companies which dominate sectors of the economy such as energy, banking and telecommunications.

An Indian court has convicted the founder of one of the country’s biggest IT compa-

nies as well as nine others of fraud. This comes six years after Ramal-inga Raju confessed to investors that he had cooked the books.

A court in Hyderabad, the capital of India’s southern Andhra Pradesh state found Byrraju Ramalinga Raju and nine others, including one of his brothers guilty of manipulating the

books of Satyam Computer Services Ltd during India’s information tech-nology boom in 2009.

“All the accused have been con-victed of almost all charges,” pros-ecutor K. Surender told reporters outside the court in Hyderabad.

The court had charged Raju with criminal conspiracy, cheating, and breach of public trust in connection with the case, which prosecutors said had caused 140 billion rupees (2.09 billion euros, $2.25 billion) in losses to the company’s sharehold-

ers.Satyam Computer Services,

which was once India’s fourth-larg-est software company was plunged into turmoil after Raju admitted in a letter to shareholders in early 2009 that he had fraudulently hugely in-flated the company’s profits on pa-per for years.

Several weeks later, Tech Mahin-dra, a unity of vehicle and farm equipment maker Mahindra, bought a majority stake in Satyam, saving it from almost certain collapse.

It will interest you to know that I had obtained my Ph.D when I made

my first appearance before a judge; I did not want to

because it should not have come before the court, but arbitration. I moved the application and suc-ceeded.

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 47Monday, April 13, 2015

Ogun State CJ, Justice Olatokunbo Olopade

Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Funmilayo Atilade

Law & Justice

MATTHEW IRINOYE

The Otu Oka-Iwu, under the umbrella association of Igbo lawyers, has congratulated the President-elect,

General Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) for winning the presidential elections.

The group also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for sacrificing person-al ambition on the altar of national unity, peace and development adding that, Jona-than would go down in history by keeping faith with his commitment to deepen Nige-ria’s electoral process and nascent democ-racy

The group lauded the President for his

uncommon display of statesmanship for congratulating the president-elect even before the final results were declared, it added that the action is responsible for the absence of post-election violence in the country.

In a statement by its President and Publicity Secretary Mr. Zik Obi II and Mr. Emeka Nwadioke, respectively, the asso-ciation also congratulated the Vice Presi-dent-elect, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) describing him as “one of our own.”

While lauding Buhari’s steadfastness in seeking a presidential mandate, the asso-ciation said that the president-elect should be committed to make a difference in the lives of fellow Nigerians, adding that his

administration should promote democra-cy and the rule of law.

“His pledge towards just and principled governance where no-one is oppressed due to favouritism based on ethnicity, religion, region, gender or social status is eminently refreshing.”

“We urge the incoming administration to speedily initiate reforms that will curb the plethora of ills facing the justice sec-tor”

The association also enjoins Buhari’s administration to create a level playing field in the area of law enforcement, such that Nigerians of all social strata are equal before the law.

“We further urge General Buhari to

combat the twin evils of terrorism and corruption, corruption has long been identified as perhaps Nigeria’s most irk-some drawback. We support all efforts to rout these challenges in order to put Nige-ria on an irreversible march to greatness.” The association said.

The association however, described Mr. Osinbajo as one of Nigeria’s finest legal minds, adding that his tour of duty as Lagos State Attorney-General remains indelible in the annals of Nigeria’s justice sector.

“We are confident that his reform-mind-ed predilection will greatly complement General Buhari’s acclaimed commitment to good governance.” The association said.

Igbo lawyers’ group lauds Buhari, Osinbajo

Court stops RCCG from building on disputed land

Sterling Bank sues two companies over unpaid N367m debts

WALE IGBINTADE

An Ogun State High Court in Sagamu has granted an inter-locutory injunction restrain-

ing the Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), it agents or representa-tives from carrying out any form of construction on a landed property situ-ated at Ewu Odofin Village, in Sagamu Local Government area of Ogun State.

Justice E .O Osinuga , gave the or-der in a suit filed by United Bank of Af-rica, UBA, Co-operative Multipurpose Society Limited against the Registered Trustee of RCCG over the disputed land measuring about 30.7 acres.

The judge in her ruling observed that the respondent (RCCG) was duly served with all court processes, but it (Church) however failed/refused to file any counter affidavit to same.

‘’it is trite that in an application of this nature, the court would not look

WALE IGBINTADE

Sterling Bank Plc has dragged two lim-ited liability companies; Gem Global Market Limited and Treasure Capital

and Trust Limited, before a Federal high court in Lagos over unpaid N367, 903,489.93 million debts.

The bank, in its affidavit in support of the suit deposed to by its debt recovery Manager, Segun Babatunde, averred that the two companies appointed the bank as their settlement bank for their security dealings and trading transactions.

The bank contended that by a letter dated June 30, 2011, Gem Global market Limited intimated the bank with its desire

into the merit of the substantive suit, but whether from the content of the Af-fidavit, the claimant is deserving of an interlocutory order of the court to pre-serve the Res (subject-matter). In the instant case where there is no counter affidavit to the deposition, the court cannot but rely on same as the truth of the matter’’, the court held.

Consequently, the court granted the application of the claimant and ordered the claimant to enter into an undertaking in the sum of N500, 000 should the order ought not to have been granted.

The claimant had in its Motion on Notice filed by its lawyer, Yemi Omod-ele sought for a declaration that it is the legitimate owner of the expanse of land covered by Survey Plan No- OG/854/2013 dated October 31, 2013.

The claimant further urged the court to declare that the alleged invasion/destruction of the fence, gate, security house, buildings, boreholes and other building materials on the land by agent of the RCCG on November 28, 2014 was illegal and unconstitutional.

In a 38-praragraph affidavit in sup-

and request that all its outstanding and go-ing bond market transactions be settled through the Treasure Capital and Trust Limited account and that the bond pur-chase and sale on behalf of the company will be made by Gem Global market limited

Babatunde also averred that the defen-dants through Gem Global market Limited made an application to Sterling Bank some-times in July 2013, for credit facility to pur-chase a Federal Government Bond (REPO Trades transaction of N1, 518, 472, 602.74) and the facility was granted and the bond purchased and transaction consummated on July 25, 2013, with a maturity/settlement dated of October 21, 2013.

It was agreed that the facility shall at-tract interest rate at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s prime lending rate.

However upon the maturity date, Octo-ber 21, 2013, the defendants failed to fund their accounts or disposed of the bond.

The deponent further stated that he knew

port of the Motion of Notice deposed to by one Sylvester Oyaminelen, sec-retary to the claimant, he stated that the claimant purchased the disputed land from the Olowoto-Olisa chief-tancy family of Ewu-Odofin village and immediately took possession and started construction.

The claimant added that it fenced the land and dogged bore holes with industrial water tanks at a cost of N50 million.

The deponent stated that on Novem-ber 28, 2014, the defendant through its agents allegedly destroyed the fence and other buildings erected on the land and started constructing its own buildings.

The deponent added that unless the defendant is restrained, it will continue to build on the land and thereby jeopardise the suit and it will suffer irreparable loss.

Consequently, it urged the court for to award the sum of N50 million as general damages against the de-fendant.

Justice Osinuga has adjourned the suit till May 18 for mention.

as a fact that by its bond sale instruction’s letter dated October 30, 2013, to the bank, the two companies working in tandem with each other directed the bank to dis-pose of the bond at the prevailing market rate, and that the transaction be settled through the first defendant’s account.

He stated further that on December 2, 2013, the bank sold the bond in line with the instruction of the defendants, and on the same day credited the first defendant’s account with the proceeds as the bond was eventually sold at N1, 3336,343, 409. 59 million, leaving a shortfall to be paid by the defendants to liquidate the credit facility granted.

On 2nd of December 2, 2013, the first defendant’s account was debited with the bond purchase transaction and also prop-erly valued to the original settlement date of October, 2013.

Babatunde averred further that as at July 14, 2014, the total sum due and pay-

PROPERTY LAW

COMMERCIAL LAW

able to the bank from the defendants stood at N367, 903,489.93 million, and that series of letter have been written to the defen-dants to liquidate their indebtedness but to no avail.

48 National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, April 13, 2015

Community MirrorPDP has kept the federal power consistently for 16 years. We shall continue to remain in PDP because it is the only party that recognized us.

Bayelsa State Governor – Seriake Dickson

Two docked over stealing

Scene of an accident that claimed the driver’s Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Ilorin, Kwara State, over the weekend. PHOTO: DARE AKOGUN

RichaRd NdomaCALABAR

Cross River Command of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria has arrested a

man suspected to be child traf-ficker and rescued two boys in Abana community of Bakassi Local Government area of Cross River state.

Briefing journalists in Cala-bar, the State Commander, Vigi-lante Group of Nigeria, Rev. (Dr.) Mercy Effiom disclosed that the Group achieved the feat following a tip off which the Divisional Vigilante Officer in Bakassi received concerning the trafficker, and she directed the DVO to ensure the suspect is arrested.

Effiom stated that following her directive Mr. Godknows Okon Edem a fisherman and a native of Ikot Obio Okon in Es-sien Udim Local Government area of Akwa Ibom residing at Abana was arrested by men of Vigilante Group of Nigeria.

According to her, “My Divi-sional Vigilante Officer (DVO), Bakassi gave me information about kidnapping of children on March 18, 2015 and I ordered my Ikang Divisional Vigilante Offi-cer to go back and make sure the suspect is arrested and brought to me for onward handing over to the police for further investi-gation and prosecution.”

The Commander revealed that after serious interrogation,

olaNRewaju olatuNbosuN

Two men, Abdulahi Abubakar and Mojeed Jamiu have been ar-

raigned before an Ebute Metta Magistrate’s Court for alleg-edly stealing industrial print-ing machine valued N1.8 mil-lion.

The alleged stolen printing machine was said to belong to Louis Valentino Nigeria lim-ited.

Police Prosecutor, Ejeaji Emmanuel told the court that the defendant unlawfully en-tered into the warehouse of Louis Valentino Ltd and stole the printer.

He said the defendant com-mitted the alleged offence on March 29, 2015 at 271 Moshood Abiola way Iganmu Lagos.

According to police pros-

Vigilante group nabs child trafficker in Cross River, rescues 2 boys

the suspect said that there is a particular woman who usu-ally brings children to him and others who have need for children adding that he pays the woman N10, 000 monthly.

The suspect, Mr. God-knows Okon Edem who claimed to be 31 years old, disclosed that he requested for a house-help and some-body brought the boys to him adding that the eldest of them has escaped, he denied being a child trafficker.

“I asked the lady who brought the children to me about their mother and she told me that the children belong to her sister and that they don’t like going to school” he said.

daRe akoguN

A community leader in Ig-baja, Ifelodun Local Gov-ernent Area of Kwara

State Barrister Wasiu Ajiboye has applauded the peaceful conduct of the electorate in the area throughout the 2015 polls.

Ajiboye made the commenda-tion while speaking to newsmen in Igbaja on Sunday to congrat-ulate the Governor of the state Abdul Fatai Ahmed on his re election.

He described the victory of the governor at the polls as a

Community leader lauds INEC on peaceful elections

ecutor, the defendant commit-ted punishable offence under section, 409,308 and 285 of criminal Law of Lagos state Nigeria 2011

When the charge was read to them, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the accusation levied against them.

Defence Lawyer, Mr. O. B Otighi urged the court to grant his client bail in most libral term.

In her ruling, Magistrate Ogunkunmi admitted the de-fendants to be bail in the sum of 100.000 with two credible sureties in like sum.

The sureties must be work-ing in Lagos, and one of them must be blood relation to the defendants.

Besides, the court directed that their addresses should be verify and adjourned the mat-ter till April 22 for mention.

Group urges Buhari to reduce cost of governanceAdvocacy for Advance-

ment of Peace and Har-mony in Africa Initia-

tive, ADAPAHI, has urged the President-elect, Gen. Muham-mad Buhari, to reduce the cost of governance on assumption of office.

ADAPAHI’s Executive Direc-tor, Mr. Ajibola Olaniyi, made the call at a news conference in Osogbo where he decried what he described as ‘governance –in-

duced poverty in Nigeria.’Olaniyi said that making

politics and cost of governance less expensive should be one of the priorities of the incoming government.

“The incoming administra-tion must get it right in terms of good governance.

“The basis of the economic travails of the common man in Nigeria is the bogus salaries and allowances of elective of-

ficeholders and political appoin-tees.

“Gen. Buhari has a very im-portant and urgent anomaly to correct in the Nigerian political system, if he truly wants to win the war against corruption.

“The president –elect must quickly make government less attractive by slashing the jumbo pay of the elective office holders and political appointees imme-diately he assumes office,’’ he

said.The director said that once

this was corrected, there would be improvement in infrastruc-tural development and the stan-dard of living of Nigerians.

“It is inhumane and callous for the National Assembly that accommodates less than five-hundred members to be taking over 25 per cent of the total ex-penditure of the country,’’ he said.

testament to the fact that he de-livered on the election promise to the state during his first tenure.

He urged all Kwarans to sup-port the state governor in his quest to take the state to a greater height.

Ajiboye who was until recently was a member of the PDP but have defected to the All Progres-sive Congress noted that the com-munity needs to align with the federal government in other to enjoy the dividends of democ-racy.

He equally commended the Independent National Electoral Commission for the introduction of Smart Card Readers in the 2015 general elections, urging them to consolidate on its achievements in terms of distribution of elec-toral materials as well as distri-bution of the Permanent Voters Cards.

He however urged INEC to tackle the challenges experienced in the handling of the card read-ers in the subsequent election.

He said, “The 2015 elections have exposed the people to the fact that electorate has the power to effect a change of government in the country and that power be-longs to them”.

Police arrest rape suspects in EnuguChildren fetching water from a public tap during governorship and House of Assembly election in Suleja on Sat-urday. PHOTO: NAN

Dare akogun

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kayode Ad-eranti, over the weekend

said some hoodlums were ar-rested for allegedly disrupting the electoral process during the Gov-ernorship and House of Assembly polls in the state.

Aderanti disclosed this while addressing journalists during a visit to Mr Akin Orebiyii, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos.

He, however, declined to give the number of the arrests made, but simply said that the police had commenced interrogation of the suspects.

Aderanti said that the arrested

individuals were involved in elec-toral offences.

“We have made some arrests; we are trying to look into it. To me, the election is reasonably good, if compared with what has been hap-pening in the past, we have started interrogating the suspects,’’ he said.

He noted that the police had not recorded any fatality in the elec-

tions.Aderanti commended the of-

ficers of the command, INEC and also the people of the state for their peaceful conduct.

He said that the comportment of the politicians was above average.

Meanwhile three people have been reported killed in Ojota area of Lagos in a clash when some po-litical thurgs clashed on Sunday.

An anonymous source revealed to our reporter that the hoodlums were on a revenge mission to avenge the death of their member who was killed on Saturday.

Efforts to get in touch with the Lagos Police Public Relations Of-ficer DSP Keneth Nwosu, was abortive as his numbers were not reachable as at the time of fill-ing this report.

The police in Enugu State have arrested seven sus-pects accused of raping

a Reverend Sister, in addition to the kidnap of over 10 Rev. Fa-thers, pastors, politicians and passengers.

The suspects were arrested at Ugwuaji forest, Enugu State by men of the state police anti-kid-napping squad after abducting several victims along Enugu/Port Harcourt road.

The men of the underworld were also said to operate a camp in Akwuke forest where they keep some of their victims. They were also accused of operating at Ndude Seminary where they have allegedly kidnapped over 10 Rev. Fathers, who were taken to their Ugwaji forest camp.

The suspects in custody in-clude Haruna Ibrahim (27), Abubakar Abdullahi (37), Sun-day Selbon Melven (27), Onye-dika Okafor (25), Lawal Sule (28), Bello Mohammed (29), Bello Musa Shehu (25). They were said to hail from Sokoto, Kebbi, Bau-chi, Gombe, Kano, Plateau and Enugu State.

“Based on several petitions

Police arrest hoodlums over electoral offences in Lagos

District Head of Wa-makko in Sokoto State Alhaji Salihu Barade,

who was recently kidnapped and released by his abduc-tors, has urged government to enhance security in the country.

He made the call in an in-terview with newsmen on Saturday in Wamakko, head-quarters of Wamakko Lo-cal Government Area of the

state. It will be recalled that Ba-

rade was kidnapped on April 8 at his livestock farm in Wa-makko at about 7.00 p.m. by four gunmen.

Barade was however re-leased by his abductors on April 10, near the farm of the Emir of Gummi in Zamfara.

“There is the need for the improvement of security in Nigeria and not only around

the traditional rulers,” he said.

Barade, who is also the younger brother of Gov. Aliyu Wamakko, expressed gratitude to God for secur-ing his safe release.

He urged Nigerians to sustain fervent prayers for peace and unity in the country, describing his ab-duction as a fall-out of the “general insecurity in Nige-

ria”.“I cannot, however, tell

you whether a ransom was paid or not as they seized all my telephone sets.

“I am, however, hale and hearty, but we were starv-ing with my abductors as they took me to a forest.

“We had no food for two days and I could not pray as there was no water in the place they took me to.”

Monarch urges govt to improve security in Nigeria

Legislator commends constituents on electoral victory

Mr. Chinedu Nwam-ba, a member of Enugu State House

of Assembly, has commend-ed the electorate in his Nsukka East constituency for re-electing him.

Nwamba, a member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was announced win-ner of Saturday’s election in the area by the Independent National Electoral Commis-sion (INEC).

According to result an-nounced on Sunday by Prof. Edwin Igbokwe, INEC’s Collating Officer for Nsuk-ka constituency, Nwamba polled 20,000 votes to defeat his All Progressives Con-gress (APC) opponent, Mr Osita Eze, who scored 3,408 votes.

Nwamba told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after the result was announced that by the mas-sive votes he polled, his con-stituents had re-affirmed the confidence they reposed on him as their representa-tive.

“I am happy, excited and overwhelmed by the soli-darity of voters from my constituency who massively voted for me during last Sat-urday House of Assembly election in the country.

“From the result an-nounced by INEC, my con-stituency demonstrated in unmistakable term that they love me and are comfortable

with my achievements in the past three years.

“I thank my people for their votes as well as for conducting themselves peacefully during the elec-tion,” he said.

Nwamba said that he would continue to do his best to offer effective rep-resentation to the constitu-ency by ensuring that every part of the area was devel-oped.

“I will ensure that basic amenities and infrastruc-ture that will bring more development to the constitu-ency are included in state budget.

“Within the limit of re-sources, I will also ensure that youths in the area are empowered so as to compete favourably with their coun-terpart in any part of the world,“ he said.

The legislator commend-ed INEC for free and fair election in the state, adding that conduct of the general elections across the country had showed that democracy had gained root in the polity.

“INEC has done well but should do more on the card reader so that in 2019 gen-eral elections, it will record 100 per cent in terms of functionality.

“I also hail security agents for providing the conducive environment for INEC to conduct credible elections,“ he added.

49National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015

on the activities of the suspects, I had to order the commander anti-kidnapping squad, Supol Alex Akinlalu who led his men to round up the kidnappers on March 19, at the Ugwuaji forest.

One of the suspects, Haruna Ibrahim told Saturday Sun: “We have two groups in Enugu State. We only collect ransom from the family of our victims, we don’t kill people.”

Speaking further on their ex-ploits, the suspect said “We have kidnapped a Rev Father at 9th mile and took him to Ugwuaji

forest where he spent just two days after we collected N250, 000 from him. Also, we kidnapped a pastor at Obiorre Udi old road and collected a ransom of N150, 000.

Another suspect, Bello Mo-hammed stated: “Our Owu group took a bus passenger into Ugwuaji forest and collected N200,000 from him before we re-leased him.”

The state police commission-er, CP Adamu assured that the suspects will soon be charged to court.

Felix Muriuki, a student at the University of Nairobi, holds his blood stained vest inside his room after he saved students who jumped from the windows

A huge crater opened up following the deadly blast in El-Arish

Bomb attacks in Egypt’s Sinai kill 13, wound dozens

Campus stampede: Kenyan student dies, more than 100 injured The leader of South Africa’s op-

position, the Democratic Alliance, has said she will not stand for re-election at the party’s congress next month.

Helen Zille said the “time was right” for her to step aside, adding that the DA would benefit from fresh blood.

She will remain as premier of Western Cape province until 2019.

Ms Zille, a former journalist and anti-apartheid campaigner, has led the party since 2007.

“These kinds of decisions are a long time coming, but in the end they are made suddenly,” she said.

Ms Zille was born in 1951 to Ger-man immigrants. She has been a staunch defender of South Africa’s liberal constitution, keeping a check on the leading ANC party’s over-whelming power.

In the past, she has openly criticised President Jacob Zuma and led a campaign to bring him before the courts to face allegations of bribery.

South African opposition leader steps down

Shark kills surfer, 13, off Reunion in Indian Ocean

Philippine police: Two Chinese dead in cargo ship violence

A 13-year-old boy has been killed by a shark off the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

The teenager, named as Elio, was surfing in an off-limits section of water off the west coast, when he was at-tacked on yesterday.

In a statement, local authorities said they had deployed specialist boats in an attempt to locate the shark.

There have been 16 such attacks on the island since 2007. Seven people have died.

The young victim was said to have been a promising surfer. Rescuers arrived at the scene quickly but were unable to save him.

In February, after a non-fatal shark attack, a ban was imposed on all wa-ter activities outside areas monitored by lifeguards.

Two Chinese men were stabbed to death and another was injured in violence among crew members of a cargo ship that radioed Filipino authori-ties for medical help, Philippine police said yesterday.

Philippine authorities boarded MV Qing May after it docked and brought an injured Chinese crewman to a hospital in southern Zamboanga city early Sunday with the permission of the ship’s skipper, Zamboanga police director Angelito Casimiro said. The bodies of two other Chinese crewmen, which had stab wounds, were kept on board the ship.

The Liberian-flagged ship with a crew of 25 Chinese was en route to China from Australia with a cargo of iron ore when it radioed for help while passing near the southern Philippines.

WORLD BULLETIN

Monday, April 13, 2015

World News50 National Mirror

www.nationalmirroronline.net

“I think people need to hold their fi re and let us negotiate without interference and be able to complete

the job over the course of the two-and-a-half months”

PAUL ARHEWEWITH AGENCY REPORTS

A Kenyan student died and more than 100 others were injured as they fled

after a electrical explosion trig-gered fears that their campus was being attacked before dawn yes-terday, officials said.

Students jumped from win-dows at their University of Nai-robi residence halls or rushed out in a stampede that underlined growing tensions just over a week after Islamist gunmen stormed another university campus, kill-ing 148 people.

“I could see the students jump-ing and one of them landed on his head,” said third-year student Felix Muriuki. Others said there were three loud blasts, plung-ing the dormitory into darkness, which heightened the panic among the students.

“We thought it was another al Shabaab attack,” said Eddy Ca-pella, a first-year student.

The dead student was among others who had tried to jump to safety at the Kikuyu campus, university vice chancellor Peter Mbithi told Reuters.

“We have lost one male student who fell from fifth floor,” Mbithi said outside the emergency sec-tion of the country’s main public hospital, Kenyatta National.

Kenya Power, the country’s main electricity distributor, said the explosion was caused by over-loaded underground cable. Ini-tial witness accounts had said a transformer exploded.

Kikuyu students called on the government to do more to secure all universities. “I’m not feeling 100 percent safe on campus but I will continue with my studies,” Muriuki said.

Witnesses said the explosion occurred at about 4.30 am (9.30 p.m. EDT), setting off terrified

Two separate bomb attacks targeting security forces in Egypt’s Sinai penin-

sula killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens yesterday, the latest in a wave of violence in a region hit by an Islamist insur-gency.

Egypt’s military said a road-side bomb detonated by militants killed six soldiers and wounded two others in an attack on an ar-moured military vehicle in the town of Sheikh Zuweid. Two of those killed were officers, it said.

The army said in a statement that “terrorist and extremist ele-ments” were behind the blast and that two of those killed were of-ficers.

A Twitter feed that describes itself as the official account for

vices were among the casualties.The Interior Ministry said

five police officers and one civil-ian were killed in the explosion, which it described on its official Facebook page as a suicide attack.

screams from the women’s wing of a dormitory. The panic spread to the men’s wing, where students woke up and scrambled to get out.

Students said the incident evoked memories of the April 2 attack on Garissa University College, about 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border. Soma-lia’s al Qaeda-aligned group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for that raid, which also came be-fore dawn.

The tragedy befell Kenya while it was still grieving over the stu-

Sinai Province, a militant group that has pledged allegiance to Is-lamic State, claimed responsibil-ity for the attack.

North Sinai is the epicenter of an insurgency that has killed hundreds of members of the se-curity services since mid-2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fat-tah al-Sisi ousted Islamist presi-dent Mohamed Morsi after mass protests against his rule. Sisi was overwhelmingly elected presi-dent last year.

Later on Sunday, a car bomb targeting a police station in the city of al-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai governorate, killed at least seven people and wound-ed 44 others, medical sources said, adding that both civilians and members of the security ser-

The explosion caused heavy material damage, blowing in windows and doors, sources in the city said, adding military helicopters were flying over the area.

dents killed in Garissa, with fu-nerals taking place around the country.

Al Shabaab has killed more than 400 people on Kenyan soil in the last two years, including 67 during a siege at Nairobi’s West-gate mall in 2013, damaging tour-ism and inward investment.

Kenya responded to the latest attack with airstrikes on al Sha-baab targets in Somalia and clo-sure of informal financial firms suspected of involvement in the funding of the militants.

–UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY,

India orders 36 Rafale fi ghter jets from France

51

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 51Monday, April 13, 2015 world News

President Barack Obama met Cuban President Raul Castro in the highest-level talks between the two countries in nearly 60 years, and the two men agreed to push ahead on improving re-lations after decades of hostility.

Describing their private meet-ing as “historic,” Obama said the two countries can now end the antagonism of the Cold War era, although he said he would con-tinue to pressure the communist-led country on democracy and human rights.

“Obviously there are still going to be deep and significant differ-ences between our two govern-ments,” Obama told Castro as they met in Panama, where they both attended a summit of lead-ers from across the Americas.

The U.S. president said he believed both sides could raise their concerns about the other’s policies yet still work together to boost commercial, travel and diplomatic ties.

“The Cold War is over ... Cuba is not a threat to the United States,” Obama later told reporters, pointing out that at 53, he wasn’t even born when Castro and his brother Fidel seized power in the 1959 Cuban revolution.

India’s prime minister announced Friday that New Delhi had ordered

36 Rafale fighter jets from France in a multi-billion-eu-ro agreement that has been years in the making.

Standing alongside his counterpart Francois Hol-lande on a visit to France -- the first leg of his maiden trip to Europe -- Narendra Modi finally relieved the frantic speculation over whether tortuous, years-long negotiations on buying the jets would ever bear fruit.

“I asked the president (Hollande) to supply us with 36 Rafale jet fighter planes, the ready-to-fly models,” Modi said at a joint news conference at the Elysee Palace.

While long-blocked exclu-sive negotiations between the two sides had initially focused on 126 French Ra-fales, the 36-jet order is man-ufacturer Dassault’s biggest yet abroad -- estimated to be worth nearly four billion eu-ros ($4.2 billion).

Paris sold 24 Rafale jets to Egypt earlier this year.

Negotiations to buy the

Obama meets Castro in highest-level US-Cuba talks in decades

WORLD BULLETIN India orders 36 Rafale fi ghter jets from France

French President Francois Hollande (R) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a joint statement at the Elysee palace, recently

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SIGNED: ODESEYE ADEDAYO86 ALLEN AVENUE, IKEJA, LAGOS.

PUBLIC NOTICETHE GREATER LIGHT OF GOD

WORLDWIDE RC NO: 9982The general public is hereby notifi ed that the above named organization has applied for change and appointment of additional trustees under Part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990. By the change/appointment of the following underlisted trustees

1. Baba Aladura Patrick A.Akinboboye 2. Gen.Evangelist Solomon O.Ogunjimi3 Apostle Jimoh A. Ogunaike 4. Senior –Mother In Israel Grace Adebogun 5 Senior Apostle Rufus A.Fadojutimi

B. That The Following Persons Be Appointed/Reappointed As Trustees1. Senior Apostle Rufus A.Fadojutimi 2. Apostle Dickson Oluwasiji Adegbesan3. Gen.Evangelist James Sunday Idowu Adenuga 4. Most Senior Mother In Israel Iyabo Ogunaike 5. Most Special Apostle. Bello Aina Peters 6. Special Apostle Prophet Isaac Ogunjimi7. Special Apostle Prophet Joseph Akinosi 8. Senior Apostle Prophet Olabisi Michael Akinlajuwon9. Apostle.Pro. Oluwadare Cornelius Idowu 10. Captain Mother In Israel Akinboboye Ajibike SusannahAny objection to this change should be forwarded to the Registrar General, Corporate Affairs

Commission, Plot 565 Ndola Square, Wuse Zone 5 Abuja within 28days of this publication.

OLD TRUSTEES ARE:

NEW TRUSTEES ARE:

planes kicked off in 2012 but had been bogged down over cost and New Delhi’s insis-tence on assembling a por-tion of the high-tech planes in India.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told report-ers after Modi’s announce-ment that all 36 jets would be manufactured in France.

Negotiations, meanwhile, continue on finalising the

initial 126-jet agreement.Indian defence analyst

Saurabh Joshi said the country’s air force urgently needs new jets to update its ageing fleet in the face of antagonistic neighbours

Pakistan and China.As such, India has

launched a vast defence modernisation programme worth some $100 billion.

Modi, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, was effectively

blacklisted by the European Union for years, accused of encouraging deadly com-munal riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat, which he governed for over a decade.

North National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 201552

L-R: INEC Administrative Secretary for Bauchi State, Mr. Emmanuel Umegheh; Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Tukur Sa’ad and Collation Officer for the state, Prof. Mohammed Faruk, during the announcement of results of governorship and House of Assembly elections in Bauchi, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

EU tasks Buhari on progressive taxation, Boko Haram

Election victory: Yari warns against excessive celebration

No tariff reduction for residential customers –AEDC

WOLE ADEDEJI ILORIN

Kwara State Police Command has ar-rested eight per-

sons allegedly disrupting public peace in Ilorin, the state capital, on Sun-day.

The suspects, who were mainly youths, po-lice sources said, were nabbed with dangerous weapons including guns, knives and charms, while going round the metropo-lis shooting spordically to intimidate and harass innocent citizens.

It was gathered that trouble started when

news of the governor-ship election victory of All Progressives Con-gress, APC, filtered into some parts of the town about noon on Sunday.

It was further gath-ered that the youths, who were believed to have sympathy for other oppo-sition parties from Niger, Ikokoro and Taiwo Isale streets, trooped out to protest the result of the election.

Eyewitnesses who spoke with National Mir-ror said several people sustained injuries as they ran for dear life while the shooting last-ed.

Governor Abduaziz Yari of Zamfara State has advised

people in the state to cel-ebrate outcome of the gov-ernorship and House of Assembly election within the ambits of the law.

Yari made the call on Sunday in Talata-Mafara while speaking with jour-nalists, and warned that celebrating political vic-tory should not be used to disrupt existing peace and

stability in the state.“As good Nigerians,

whether celebrating or not, we have to ensure to-tal adherence to the provi-sions of the law.

“As politicians, irre-spective of any political party we belong, we have to put the development of our dear state and the country in general in the frontline than our person-al or political interest,” he said.

Abuja Electricity Distribution Com-pany, AEDC, on

Sunday said the 50 per cent reduction in electric-ity tariff by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, does not affect residential con-sumers under R1 and R2 tariff categories.

This clarification was contained in a statement issued by Head, Public Affairs of the company, Malam Ahmed Shekarau, in Abuja.

The statement said the clarification became nec-essary in view of miscon-ceptions by some of its customers that the recent reduction by NERC was for all categories of electricity consumers.

It said the misconcep-tion had made some cus-tomers to resist payment of their electricity bills.

According to the state-ment, the tariff for custom-ers in the R1 and R2 tariff class was not adjusted in the last tariff exercise by NERC.

It said the reduction announced by NERC was meant for commercial and industrial customers only.

NERC had said that resi-dential customers under R1 and R2 would not also benefit from any reversal or reduction in tariff as the industrial, commercial and high-end residential consumers whose tariff was increased.

It would be recalled that NERC had said earlier that the increase in tariff for residential consumers was frozen until June this year.

The statement said the company would ensure to-tal compliance with NERC directives on tariffs and sundry issues.

WOLE ADEDEJI ILORIN

For Nigeria to be among the big-gest economies of

the world, the incoming administration of Gen-eral Muhammadu Buhari needs to introduce a new tax regime that would compel the rich to pay tax according to their re-sources.

Head of European Union delegation, EU, to Nigeria and Economic Commu-nity of West African States, ECOWAS, Ambassador Michel Arrion, said this, adding that the incoming

government, as a matter of urgency, “should de-radicalise” Boko Harram prisoners in order to per-manently end insurgency that ravaged the North East of Nigeria.

Arrion, who spoke with journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, said the current tax regime where everyone pays the same percentage on Value Added Tax, VAT, was to the disadvantage of the masses, which will not al-low the economy to grow to the advantage of the poor.

The Ambassador, who was in Kwara State for a

two-day visit as part of his ongoing mission of discov-ering Nigeria, also recom-mended that “the future of Kwara State be based on agriculture” while that of Nigeria be based on “diver-sification of the economy”.

He said though Nige-ria was adjudged the big-gest economy in Africa, its economy was still very small when compared to other countries in Europe.

While answering ques-tions on the outcome of Nigeria’s 2015 general elec-tions, Arrion said Nigeria was faring well, “showing a good example” to the rest of Africa, especially with

the action of President Goodluck Jonathan who, according to him, acted in a rare demonstration of sportsmanship by African leaders to concede defeat to his challenger at the presi-dential elections even as a sitting president and be-fore the result was finally announced.

He urged Africans to “in-vent its own democracy” and leverage on the opportuni-ties provided by ECOWAS to boost the economy of its member countries.

He said the EU was still building peace, emphasising that the country must con-tinue to toe the line of peace.

Police arrest hoodlums protesting election results

Continued from page 5

candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has conceded defeat half way into the collation of the election results

Ribadu in a statement issued by his spokesman, Malam AbdulAziz Ah-mad, said he had accepted the outcome of the elec-tion in good faith.

“I came into this race with lofty dreams and clear vision for our dear state, but the voice of the majority has not given me this chance. I take this in good faith.

“I want to take this op-portunity to congratulate the winner and pray that at the end of it all our dear state will witness the needed progress and

Ambode, Umahi, Tambuwal, Udom, Masari, el-Rufai windevelopment it so much desires,” Ribadu said.

Ribadu lauded the sup-port he got from President Goodluck Jonathan, party leaders and the people of Adamawa in general.

Ribadu’s concession statement was made shortly after the an-nouncement of the result of 12 out of the 21 Local Government Areas of the state by INEC, which shows the APC candidate leading.

Governor Abduaziz Yari of Zamfara State, who won the governor-ship election on the plat-form of APC urged people in the state to celebrate the outcome of the gov-ernorship and House of Assembly election within the ambits of the law.

Yari made the call yes-terday in Talata-Mafara while speaking with jour-nalists, and warned that celebrating political vic-tory should not be used to disrupt existing peace and stability in the state.

He urged the people to accept the outcome of the elections in good faith, saying that government would not fold its arms to allow people to take the law into their hands.

Yari commended the electorate in the state for their orderly and peaceful conduct during the Presi-dential and National As-sembly as well as Satur-day’s gubernatorial and state legislature elections.

In Delta State, results from 18 local governments so far declared showed

that Stanley Okowa of the PDP has won 15, Labour Party, 3 while APC is yet to win any.

APC candidate in Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom is leading with just result for one more local government area out of 23 local government areas yet to be declared.

Ortom is leading PDP’s Terhemen Tarzoor with over 91,000 votes.

APC has 394,047 votes while PDP scored 302,324.

APC has also won in 12 local governments, while the PDP won in 10. Results from Buruku were still be-ing awaited at the time of filing this report.

APC is also on the way to winning in Borno and Yobe states as at the time of going to press.

Sport–LIVERPOOL CAPTAIN, STEVEN GERRARD

I look back at my years in Anfi eld with so much pride and satisfaction. Honestly, I

have no regrets

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 53Monday, April 13, 2015

55

AAG: Glo salues Falcons, Dream Team

Awoniyi’s brace secure Dream Team ticket

AAG 2015:

Taiwo Awoniyi

Emmanuel Ohweferi

A brace by striker Taiwo Awoniyi yesterday qualified Nigeria to

the football event of the 2015 All Africa Games on Sunday as the Dream Team beat host Zambia 2-1.

Both teams played goalless in Abuja three weeks ago and the Nigerians needed a clear win in Lusaka to qualify for the Congo Brazzaville games.

Zambia attacked from the onset and carved several chances, but it was 17-year-old Awoniyi, drafted into the team for this return match, who put

the visitors ahead on 34 min-utes.

Zambia continued to pile on the pressure and they were rewarded in the 76th with the equaliser through substitute Friday Samu from close range after he was set up by Sheder-ack Malambo.

However, Awoniyi put this encounter beyond the Zambi-ans with just minutes to spare with his second strike.

Two minutes after Awoniyi’s winner, goalkeeper Daniel denied Zambia a sec-ond equaliser as he tipped Mo-

ses Phiri’s effort over the bar for a corner.

Mukuka Mulenga and Malambo were torn in Nige-ria’s flesh and within the first 20 minutes they forced two corner kicks and several goal attempts.

In the 22nd minute, Sodiq Atanda Ololade almost put Ni-geria ahead when his header off a corner kick flew wide.

Nigeria, who failed to qual-ify for the last AAG, will now join Burkina Faso and Sudan in the eight-team competition in September.

Seychelles 2015: Nigeria set to face hostsThe Supersand Eagles

team has arrived in Vic-toria, Seychelles and

already preparing for the Af-rican Beach Soccer Champion-ship opener against host na-tion Seychelles tomorrow.

There will be four matches tomorrow, with the Nigeri-ans up against Seychelles and Egypt tackling Cote d’Ivoire in Group A.

In Group B, Senegal will take on Morocco and Ghana will be up against Madagascar.

Champions in 2007 and 2009, and quarter-finalists at the World Cup four years ago, the Supersand Eagles will play Egypt on Wednesday and then round off their group phase campaign against Cote

d’Ivoire on Thursday.The top two teams in each of

the two groups qualify for the semi finals on Saturday, with the finalists, who battle for the trophy on Sunday, qualifying to represent Africa at the 2015 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Portugal in July.

Captain Isiaka Olawale will lead a squad that also includes fellow veterans Abu Azeez, Ola-dipo Olalekan, Bartholomew Ibenegbu and Victor Tale, as well as Festus Ehibhi, Emeka Ogbonna, Jamal Akewusola, Adams Taiwo, Lokosa Junior, Emmanuel Ohweferi and Igu-dia Godspower.

...as Nigeria beats Zambia 2-1

54 Sports National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.netMonday, April 13, 2015

QPR 0 1 Chelsea

Man Utd 4 2 Man City

EPL results

Red Devils Red Devils maul maul CityCity at Old Traffordat Old Trafford

CechChelsea could be willing

to let Petr Cech join rival Arsenal this summer, ac-

cording to media analyses yes-terday.

Cech has fallen behind Thibaut Courtois in the peck-ing order at Chelsea this season but, at 32, he remains one of the Premier League’s top ‘keepers and has made it clear he will seek a transfer in the summer rather than spend another year

as an understudy.When asked if Arsenal is in-

terested in the Chelsea star, one analyst responded: “Yes, they definitely want him. They’ve had a look at him and enquired about him last summer when they saw Thibaut Courtois was coming back.”

David Ospina has ousted Wojciech Szczesny as Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper recently and turned in a number of im-

pressive displays. But Cech is seen as a class above the Colom-bian.

“It would be a really big signing because I don’t think they’ve got a top-quality goal-keeper which sides that gen-erally win the title normally have,” the analyst said, adding, “Ospina has been better than I thought he would be but I don’t think he’s a top-quality ‘keeper for a whole season.”

tipped for Blues’ exit

Fabregas inches Fabregas inches Chelsea to titleChelsea to titleCesc Fabregas’ 88th-minute

strike yesterday dealt a significant blow to Queens

Park Rangers’ survival hopes as Chelsea moved to within 12 points of the title with a 1-0 win at Loftus Road.

With the game destined for a goalless draw after a spirited display from Rangers against the below-par league leaders, Fabregas converted Eden Haz-ard’s cross to shatter the home side and restore the Blues’ seven-point lead at the top of the table.

Willian struck the woodwork in the opening exchanges, while Charlie Austin and Matt Phillips drew Chelsea ‘keeper Thibaut Courtois into fine saves in each half, before Fabregas decided the outcome of the game.

Chelsea now requires just four wins from their remaining games to win a fourth Premier League crown while Rangers remain in the bottom three, two

points from safety.Jose Mourinho handed Didier

Drogba his first start since Febru-ary’s win at Aston Villa after Loic Remy – who was expected to depu-tise for the injured Diego Costa - was ruled out of a reunion with his former club through injury.

In a first half of few chances, Chelsea inadvertently went clos-est to opening the scoring eight minutes in when Willian’s cross-come shot almost caught Rob Green out but cannoned against the post.

Mourinho brought on Oscar as he looked to shift the game in his side’s favour, and the change did have an impact as the visi-tors took a real grip.

A sliced clearance fell kindly to Hazard who danced in off the left flank and laid the ball into the path of the Spaniard at the edge of the area who scored Chelsea’s 100th goal in all compe-titions this season.

Manchester United players celebrating their win over Manchester City at Old Trafford yesterday

Fabregas

Cech

National Mirrorwww.nationalmirroronline.net 55SportsMonday, April 13, 2015

Nigeria’s biggest corpo-rate supporter of foot-ball, Globacom, has con-

gratulated the Super Falcons and national U-23 team on their elaborate victories over Mali and Zambia and subsequent qualification for the 2015 All Af-rica Games football event.

The Falcons defeated their Malian counterparts 8-0 in the second leg final round of the AAG qualifier in Abuja last Friday while the Dream Team beat Zambia 2-1 in Lusaka yes-terday after playing goalless in Abuja three weeks earlier.

In a press statement in La-gos on Sunday, Globacom com-

mended both teams for their feats, saying they had high-lighted Nigeria’s potential on the continent of Africa,

“The Super Falcons should leave no stone unturned as they work toward a good out-ing in the All African Games and ensure that they emerge victorious, thus consolidating their position as the number one women team in Africa,” the statement said.

“The Dream Team also dem-onstrated their quality at edg-ing Zambia at home and we believe they can carry this ped-igree all the way to the Congo Brazzaville venue of the Af-

rica Games scheduled for Sep-tember 3 to 18 to excel in the football event,” the statement added.

Globacom commended the technical crews of both team for fashioning the right win-ning formula to hand the hand the emphatic victories to Nige-ria.

“We salute the doggedness of the coaches and wish them and the teams the very best as they move forward,” the state-ment concluded.

Globacom is the major part-ner of the Nigeria Football Fed-eration and official sponsor of Nigerian national teams.

Nigeria rave of the mo-ment in long distance race, Aderonke Olu-

mudi, yesterday confirmed her readiness to participate in the 3rd annual Okpekpe 10km Road Race.

The Kogi-born athlete has been in top form since moving to the United States of Ameri-ca where she recently won the 10km Women’s category of the third GE Irving Marathon race.

Olumudi had earlier won women’s silver and bronze medals at the March 14 fifth Longview Marathon and the 21st March 13th Bearathon Marathon races both in USA respectively.

“I am ready to race at the Okpekpe race and I am ready to be the first Nigeria to win the race,” she said.

“My target is to perform well at the Lake Minneola Half Mar-

athon billed for April 25, and hopefully take the form to Nige-ria for Okpekpe,” she added.

The Okpekpe 10km road race is organised by Pamodzi Sports Marketing in conjunc-tion with the AFN and Edo state government.

Previous editions were dom-inated by East Africans with Kenya’s with Nigeria athletes yet to finish top five of the race.

MERCY JACOB

Despite Super Eagles poor run in most recent times, former coach Austin

Eguavoen insists the national team will qualify for the 2017 Af-rica Cup of Nations to be hosted by Gabon, saying Egypt will not the Eagles from securing the group’s lone ticket.

Nigeria is drawn in Group G of the qualifiers with Egypt, Tanzania and Chad.

Eguavoen believes Nigeria had learned from the 2015 AF-CON miss and will easily quali-fy this term.

“I am sure the players who are the principal actors are feeling the pain of missing out of the last AFCON more than every other person,” Eguavoen said yesterday.

“So I expect them to give their best when the qualifiers begin in June. There shouldn’t be any form of distractions as it happened the last time,” the Gombe United Coach added.

On the coaching contract impasse afflicting the Eagles,

PAUL EREWUBA

President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Tijani Umar, has dis-

closed that the federation is set to present its Olympic qualifica-tion blue print after D’Tigers’ qualification for the All Africa Games.

“We’ve set a huge prece-dence in qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics,” Umar said yesterday.

Oshoala

AFCON 2017: Pharaohs can’t stop Eagles –Eguavoen

Rio 2016: NBBF to outline blueprint

Olumudi ready for Okpekpe

Eguavoen said: “The NFF should decide quickly on the new coach so that the team can start preparation towards the 2017 qualifiers in earnest.

“I have confidence that Ni-geria will go through. All the coaches need is to mix the expe-rienced players with the youth players and blend them to a perfect team”.

“We qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and we want to repeat that experi-ence in Rio de Janeiro next year.

“We have outlined pro-grammes that will ensure that the men and women national teams are well prepared to compete at the 2015 FIBA Af-rica championships so that we can qualify for the Olympics Games.”

Umar disclosed that the fed-eration had constituted a two-man-task force that will travel to the United States to meet with the Nigerian players in view of the programmes.

“We have so much talent pool that can serve the national team at home and abroad, so we have decided that we will pres-ent two national teams that will persecute the Afrobasket and All Africa Games so we can always have the best talents available at every point,” he concluded.

Eguavoen

Umar

A A G :

Glo salutes Glo salutes Falcons, Dream Falcons, Dream TeamTeam

Vol. 05 No. 1089 Monday, April 13, 2015

w

Trainer of Filipino pugilist, Manny Pacquiao, Freddie

Roach, says the former has been focusing on his left hand, leaving challenger Floyd Mayweather with no

chance in their May 2 bout in Las Vegas, USA.

Pacquiao has stopped more than half of his op-ponents with his left and he says it will be a big ad-vantage when he gets in

the ring with Mayweather.Roach insists he has

always had a game plan on how to beat the world’s pound-for-pound best and made it clear that the Pac-quiao’s sharpness is cru-

cial.“We did 12 rounds of left

hand only and the right hand was never used,” the trainer said yesterday.

“It’s all about muscle memory and both will be

equal at some point in the bout,” he added.

Roach also warned May-weather that there will be nowhere to hide, with Pac-quiao’s ringmanship back to its best.

Boxing: ‘Pacquiao will destroy Mayweather’Sport Extra

Fastest mile fi reman’s carry

N150

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WORLD RECORD

Pacquiao

Longest metal coil passed through the nose and out of the mouth

The longest metal coi l passed through the nose and out of the mouth measured 3 .63 m (11 f t 10 .91 in) in length and was

achieved by Andrew Stanton (USA)

anthonykila@mail.com

HeartBeatCallistus Oke

Callistusoke@nationalmirroronline.net 08054103275 (SMS ONLY)

ALREADY, THE CRASH OF THE PDP

FROM POWER IS SPEWING TROUBLING

DYSFUNCTIONAL RESPONSES ACROSS THE

COUNTRY

Of defection and the pangs of change“Success has many fathers, but

failure is an orphan”. This wisecrack by Michael Joseph

Harrington Sr., a Massachusetts politi-cian and entrepreneur, best captures the over glorification of the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candi-date, General Muhammadu Buhari, in the March 28 presidential election over the incumbent, President Goodluck Jon-athan. I concede the upset as an epochal event, a political threshold, so to say; so is the uncommon manifest altruism of an incumbent in accepting defeat, es-pecially in a Third World setting where power is an end in itself. The grace, élan and sublimity of that enormous sacrifice by President Jonathan is underscored by the fact that General Buhari’s thrice failed bids for the exalted presidential trophy before the deserved victory in

the fourth attempt were vigorously con-tested. It took the pronouncement of the Supreme Court for him to drop the gauntlet!

However, the action General Buhari took to invalidate the victory of his traducers in the three previous attempts does not detract from the import and substance of his victo-ry in his fourth successful attempt. Putting his victory in perspective, certain disturbing facts assault the sensibilities of discerning Nigerians. First, the General’s victory is the product of the alliance of two of the old re-gions in which Nigeria was divided – North-ern Nigeria and Western Nigeria. Eastern Nigeria (South East and South South minus Edo and Delta states geopolitical zones) had thrown its lot with President Jonathan. In a strict political sense, therefore, the East could be said to have worked against the presidency of General Buhari. The implica-tion is that the region is now at the mercy of the new man of power.

Second, Eastern Nigeria would most likely suffer the fate of Western Nigeria when in the seventh National Assembly, it was consigned to irreverent status in national politics having failed to secure any position of worth in the two chambers of the National Assembly and so was a periph-eral player in the nation’s centre politics. Proof? The North got both the Senate presi-dency and House speakership (secured the Vice Presidency to boot), while the East produced the number two in the two cham-bers of the national legislature (in addition

to the plum job of the presidency). And third, in the wheeling and dealing

leading to the appointment of members of the federal cabinet and boards of the para-statals, the East should be ready to settle for crumbs for it lacks strong bargaining chips. This is the objective reality. But this reality could be circumvented by the readiness of some of the PDP federal legislators in the about to be inaugurated 8th National Assembly to dump the party for the APC in the spirit of no morality in politics. This is a negotiable prospect and the only way out now for a region that needs the federal might for survival. A coalition of the North and West at the centre, if well managed, will constitute a balance of terror in the polity.

Already, the crash of the PDP from power is spewing troubling dysfunctional responses across the country. Like predict-ed, APC’s stunning successes at the centre and the unavoidable bandwagon effects it would have on last weekend governorship and state legislative elections, have caused political hysteria leading to mass defection

of some of its members to APC, the new ruling party. The media were replete last week with stories of consummated defec-tions and orchestrated plans for defection by several members of the PDP to the APC.

Last week, I got several calls on the development, with many denigrating the politicians, using unprintable expletives. What I found disturbing in the approach of many to the development is lack of realistic explanatory perspective. To burrow through the maze of enveloping confusion over the phenomenon, let us answer this simple ques-tion: What attract Nigerians into politics? And the simple answer is payoff! Some egg-heads call it politics of the belly. As I espouse this rationalization, I remember a friend dismissing the observable trend of defection in our politics as crass opportunism, politi-cal prostitution, and a manifestation of the dysfunctionality of the system.

Many believe that defection depicts the fluidity of the nation’s political terrain, which is explained away as a product of the absence of clear cut ideology of the political parties. I have heard many dismissed our existing political parties as mere political contraptions for winning elections. Posi-tions as these are influenced more by the experience of western democracy and the received knowledge of the classical defini-tion of a political party.

The puerility of a dismissive position as this is better appreciated by the fact that in both the first and second republics when Nigerian political parties had ideological clarity, defection or cross carpeting was a tolerable aspect of our political culture. I have heard that anti-defection law should be enacted. As long as there will be excuses for defection, such a law would be at best vacu-ous. Even the 1999 Constitution (as amend-ed) allows room for defection by spelling out conditions under which it could occur.

Wait a minute! Is the APC not a product of defection? What example of functionality of defection do we need? Let the party man-age very well its successes and Nigeria’s greatness will be assured.