The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Malawi coach reports Keshi to FIFA

    Malawi coach reports Keshi to FIFA

    Malawi national coach, Tom Saintfiet who was called  a “white dude” by Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi has finally reported the matter to the world football governing body (FIFA).

     A response to a mail sent by SportingLife from the organization’s media department on Tuesday acknowledged receipt of the report.  The date it was received was not stated in the mail.

    “We can confirm that we have received a complaint on the said matter,” the mail read.

    FIFA however declined to offer further comments until the matter is finally thrashed.

     

    “But please understand that we cannot comment any further at this stage,” FIFA said.

    Although the matter is being investigated, FIFA may act on it owing to its policy of fairness and fairplay.

     

    SportingLife gathered from an official of the  Nigeria Football Federation that they were awaiting FIFA’s reaction.

     

    “I am very sure that FIFA just got the report since it was last week that the Malawian coach threatened to report Keshi. FIFA will certainly get back to us as the football federation. But like Keshi had said, he meant no harm when he called Saintfiet a “white dude”. As far as he was concerned, it was not a racist attack,” said the official.

     

    Report on BBC Sports says the Africa Cup of Nations winner disagreed with Saintfied over his request that next week’s World Cup qualifier between both countries be moved from Calabar to another venue owing to security reasons.

     

    Keshi followed up his reaction on UK-based African TV show, Vox Africa’s Sports360, by saying: -I think the coach of Malawi is crazy. “If he wants to talk to FIFA, he should go back to Belgium. He is not an African person, he is a white dude, he should go back to Belgium, ‘’ Keshi said.

  • EFCC arrests satellite broadcast scammer in Kano

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of one Tope Ajayi for his alleged involvement in digital satellite broadcast scam.

    The commission said Ajayi was picked up last Friday by the operatives of the EFCC from his apartment at 26 Link Bawo Road in Hausawa area of Kano following intelligence report.

    A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said over 100 decoders and other computer gadgets were recovered from his server room by operatives of the commission during a search on his apartment.

    The statement said: “Ajayi who claimed to have worked with Skye Bank Plc is said to be a major digital satellite broadcast scammer.

    “He is alleged to have a server that links up with a server in China and an unknown Internet Service Provider, somewhere in Europe or the United State of America.”

    The EFCC said the suspect was also alleged to be “engaged in illegal importation, selling and distribution of pirate devices popularly known as Dungle which enables subscribers to have free access to Multichoice satellite signals across West and Central Africa.”

    The statement added: “According to Mr. Frikkie Jonker, Senior Anti-Piracy Manager, Multichoice, Ajayi’s server is considered strong as it controls its counterpart server in China and distributes satellite signals to a host of West African and Central African countries including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya Uganda and Benin Republic .”

     

  • Only constitution can stop Jonathan – Clark

    Only constitution can stop Jonathan – Clark

    A former federal commissioner for information, Chief Edwin Clark, has said that it is only the constitution that can stop President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2015 presidential election.

    He noted that the purported agreement between the president and some governors on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not hold water.

    The Ijaw leader explained that since the constitution made provision for two terms, every other agreement on number of terms for the president is illegal.

    Clark blamed the ongoing noise about the president second term bid on some few politicians who he accused of overheating the polity for their personal ambitions.

    He spoke on Tuesday when he received a delegation of Second Republic federal legislatures at his Asokoro House, Abuja.

    He said, “So Nigeria is great, only few people want to confuse this country because of their personal ambitions.

    “Today is Mr. President’s turn, tomorrow it will be another man’s turn. That is why we have the constitution. The constitution says that before you can be qualified to be a president of this country, you must have contested through elections and after the first term of four years, you can contest again for a second term of another four years. Thereafter, you will not be eligible again, that is the law.

    “The law does not state that you remain in office for one term, you can enter into agreement with some individuals that after your one term, someone else will come in, that will be illegal. Such an agreement will be null and void, unconstitutional; nobody can change the constitution of Nigeria that is the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “Even though people are saying that it is imperfect, it is perfect until it is changed or amended. I think under section 137, Mr. President is entitle to two terms of eight years and as a former member you recognize that in your time Alhaji Shehu Shagari, the president during the Second Republic of Nigeria was elected president of this country in 1979 and he remained in office until 1983 when we sat down again at the convention and re- elected him.

    “You were all there and that was the time all of you left but that was the time some of us were elected as senators but for the military intervention. Some of them here said it is time for military to rule so they over threw our government in December 1983.

    “We woke up and they said we are no longer in office otherwise Alhaji Shagari should have remained in office until the end of his second term. Then, Obasanjo was elected the president of this country in 1999. In 2003, he re- contested in accordance with the provision of the Nigerian Constitution for another four years even though his deputy was trying to over throw him, he couldn’t succeed because of the constitution.

    “Nigeria said come back again for another four years. It was when he wanted to go beyond what the constitution provided that Nigerians said enough is enough.”

     

     

     

  • Mini convention: PDP candidate in last minutes efforts

    Mini convention: PDP candidate in last minutes efforts

    As the August 31 date for the mini convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) draws nearer, aspirants vying for various positions in the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) are in last minutes efforts to beat their opponents by every means possible.

    The latest in the series of such efforts emerged with calls for the disqualification of two other aspirants to the office of the deputy national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus and Dr. Sam Sam Jaja by one of the aspirants, Dr. Silva Opusunju.

    In a widely circulated statement on Tuesday, Opusunju alleged that all other aspirants to the office of the deputy national chairman had failed to comply with laid down rules and regulations, as stipulated by the party’s constitution.

    He alleged, among others, that aspirants did not file/return their individual nomination forms within the time period allowed for the submission of the forms which, is on or before Friday July 5 and that they did not also pay the correct amount of money for the purchase of the nomination forms.

    To this effect, Opusunju had petitioned the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the Chairman of the Mini Convention Planning Committee, Prof. Jerry Gana.

    In the petition, copies of which were given to journalists on Tuesday, Opusunju alleged that other aspirants to the position purchased and returned their nomination forms after the expiration of the entries.

     

     

  • Medview Airlines to fly on six international routes

    Medview Airlines to fly on six international routes

    Medview Airlines has been designated by the Federal Government to fly into six regional and international routes to actualise the principle of reciprocity in the bilateral air services agreement the Nigerian government signed with other countries of the world.

    The routes according to the Managing Director if the airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole include: 14 frequencies on the Lagos / Accra route;  Lagos / Dakar ; Lagos / Libreville;  Lagos/ Abuja / Jeddah ;Kano / Jeddah, which are four frequencies . The other routes are  : Lagos / Dubai  and Enugu / Singapore.

    Bankole disclosed the routes  in an interview while taking delivery of the fourth aircraft acquired by the airline at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

    He said the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA), has already granted Medview Airlines, the international air permit to carry  out the international operations.

    He said Medview Airlines is the first carrier to be awarded the new international permit by the new Director General of the authority, Captain Folaleye  Akinkuotu.

    Bankole assured that before the end of the year, Medview Airlines would begin direct flights into Dubia , even as plans are in place to consolidate on other routes, in which the airline has been designated.

    He said within a year that Medview Airlines began operations on the domestic scene of the industry it has flown over 250,000 passengers.

    He said the carrier airlifts a monthly average of about 30,000 monthly.

    “It has been a pride of this company and for Nigeria today to see a domestic airline within a short space of time growing as you have seen.

    ‘’We are  proud to tell you that, we spoke with you in January and we promised you that in another six to eight months we will give you two more aircraft, this one of them acquired by MedView, it is an aircraft that we purchase, we call it lease purchase and we have 737-800 coming in very soon, ’’Bankole stated.

  • Three feared dead in Ibadan tanker fire

    … Five hospitalized

    Tragedy struck on Tuesday at Orogun Junction along Iwo Road/Ojoo Expressway in Ibadan as no fewer than three persons died while five others sustained serious burns when a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation tanker trying to offload fuel from another exploded and caught fire.

    Properties worth several millions of naira were lost to the inferno.

    The raging inferno also touched eight shops, while two Sport Utility Vehicles were not spared as they were burnt to ashes.

    The incident occurred beside Energy filling station at Orogun Junction via Iwo Road/Ojoo Expressway between 11am and 1pm on Tuesday.

    Thick smoke covered the atmosphere as most shops and car owners packed in some perimeters close to the scene.

    Frantic efforts to retrieve some valuables failed due to the intensity of the fire.

    An eye witness, Dr. Ayo Osisanwo, said the unfortunate incident occurred when a NNPC truck was offloading fuel from a fuel –laden truck belonging to the corporation and had fallen off the road.

     

  • Bayelsa deputy governor denies abandoning office

    The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd), on Tuesday denied reports that he abandoned his office and fled to Abuja to avoid pressure by political appointees to approve files.

    Jonah was alleged to have run away from the state after his principal, Governor Seriake Dickson, began his three-week vacation.

    Dickson had postponed his vacation initially scheduled for August 5 to enable him finish his duties as the Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party.

    But he later commenced the vacation on August 15.

    There were allegations that shortly after his departure, his deputy also disappeared from the state.

    His alleged disappearance was said to have compelled the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Edmund Allison-Oguru, to represent the governor at events.

    But Jonah denied reports that he abandoned his office and travelled out of the state.

    Speaking through his Special Assistant on Media, Ebi Evinson, he debunked reports that pressures from appointees of the government forced him out of the state.

    Jonah said he only travelled to attend the PDP South-South meeting in Calabar, Cross River State, and returned to Yenagoa on Saturday.

     

  • Nigeria lost N20b to call drops in 2012 – NASRDA

    Nigeria lost N20b to call drops in 2012 – NASRDA

    The Director General, National Air Space and Research Development Agency, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, said on Tuesday that the nation lost a whooping 20 billion to call drops last year.

    He explained that the lost could easily have been avoided by the impact of modern communication satellites.

    Mohammed added that the agency is intensifying efforts to ensure that Nigeria enjoys greater benefits of modern communication satellites.

    The NASRDA boss stated these in Abuja at a lecture organized by the agency to commemorate the launch of the first communication satellite (Syncom2) in July 26, 1963 in United States.

    This, according to him, necessitated the first conversation between the First Nigerian Prime Minister, the late Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the then American President, John Kennedy in August 23, 1963.

    He said, “The Economic Intelligence Unit in the United States published that in 2012 alone, Nigeria lost N20 billion in call drops that could have been avoided and remedied by modern communication satellites.”

    Why stressing that the agency will continue to develop communication satellites to promote economic development of Nigeria, Mohammed hinted that communication satellite industry is a “multibillion dollars” industry that gives high returns on investments.

     

     

  • Bayelsa abducted workers regain freedom

    The five kidnapped workers of indigenous dredging firms, Beks Kimse Nigeria Limited and M. Sidom, on Tuesday regained freedom from their captors.

    The bandits were reportedly set them free at Nembe area of Bayelsa State.

    They were abducted by gunmen along the creek of Opuama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state by the assailants who operated on a speedboat.

    The victims were working for the companies engaged by the Niger Delta Development Commission to carry out shore protection and reclamation work at the erosion-ravaged riverside of Opuama when they were whisked away.

    Three of them were identified as Inoku Godwin, Sam Ede and Jackson Ibani.

    The bandits later demanded N6million ransom for each of the victims amounting to N30million.

    A source close to one of the firms, said the workers were rescued after series of negotiations and payment of ransom.

    He said the freed workers had returned to Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

    It was learnt that some notable former militant leaders were involved in the negotiations.

    There were claims that the suspects were youths from Lorbia and Azuzuama areas of the state.

    When contacted the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alex Akhigbe, confirmed the development.

     

  • NABTEB sanctions 5,108 candidates

    NABTEB sanctions 5,108 candidates

    The National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) said it has sanctioned 5,108 candidates for examination malpractices out of the 106,573 candidates that sat for the May/ June 2013 National Business Certificates (NBC) and the National Technical Certificate (NTC) examinations.

    It said 28,230 candidates, representing 27.2 percent obtained credit passes in five subjects including Mathematics and English Language, while 55,115 representing 53.1 per cent failed to obtain credit in English Language and Mathematics.

    The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NABTEB, Dr. Olatunde Aworanti, who announced this at a press briefing on Tuesday, decried the low enrolment of craftsmen in the examination.

    Dr. Aworanti said only 13,347 candidates representing 12.9 per cent were certified as craftsmen.

    The NABTEB boss called for more funding of technical education if the country wants to quench the burning flame of youth restiveness and unemployment in the society.

    He also urged the National and State Houses of Assembly to insist on the establishment of modern and well equipped technical colleges in all local government areas within the country.