The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MAN

  • Man steals glo sim, cash, Nokia phone

    A 25-year-old man, Olawale Sehun, yesterday pleaded guilty to stealing N22,500, one Nokia cell phone valued at N4,500 and a glo sim.

    Sehun told Magistrate A. Oshodi-Makanju of Ikorodu that he committed the offence and pleaded for leniency for doing so.

    He said “I did these things but I’m sorry and I beg the complainant to forgive me.”

    Prosecuting Corporal Kemi Adeniran said the court that Sehun committed the offence on May 26 around 11.30 a.m., with two others, still at large.

    Adeniran said Sehun stole the glo sim valued at N700, a Nokia cell phone worth N4,500 and N22,500 cash, totalling N29,000.

    The prosecutor added that the offence, committed at Ogolonto area of Ikorodu in Lagos, contravened Section 295 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011.

    The magistrate had remanded Sehun in police custody and adjourned till Thursday.

     

     

  • MAN, OPS reject EPA

    MAN, OPS reject EPA

    • EU: Nigeria can’t live in isolation

    THE Organised Private Sector (OPS) and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) have rejected the appeal by the European Union (EU) to Nigeria to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), arguing that signing the agreement in its present form will hurt the manufacturing sector.

    However, the EU has continued its push for the ratification of the agreement, insisting that with globalisation, Nigeria cannot live in isolation.

    Speaking on the sideline of  a dialogue session on Nigeria International Trade Relations organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI),  Head of  Trade & Economics at the  EU to Nigeria and West Africa, Fillippo Amato, said the OPS has nothing to fear as far  as EPA is concerned, as the EU has shown goodwill with the release of 12 million euro to support the enhancement of the National Quality Infrastructure,  to improve quality,  safety, integrity and marketability of Nigerian goods and services.

    Amato said smaller countries, such as Ghana, Rwanda, Gambia, Cameroun, Mauritania and the Southern African countries under SADEC have signed on.

    He said the EPA can diversify the economy, lead to the integration of the Nigerian economy into global trade and economic investment. As he put it: “The agreement is reciprocal but asymmetrical to market opening with flexible rules of origin. The country is already loosing so much by the rejection of beans and other product export into EU because of the presence of a pesticide known as dichlorvos which is harmful to health.”

    He said other countries that have taken advantage of the agreement and improved on the quality of their products, are enjoying the mutual benefit of international trade among countries. Furthermore, he said, the EU is working with the relevant agencies of government, such as  the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), National Agency for Food, Drugs and Administration and Control (NAFDAC),  Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), among others to ensure that relevant stakeholders are carried along.

    He said the EPA has a large number of safeguards to protect sensitive sectors, arguing that Nigeria will be better off with it.

    Experts have said that for over 50 years, Nigeria got away without proper standardisation, but that now, the nation cannot afford to live in isolation and must do the needful to meet international standards especially now that the country is looking towards diversification of the economy.

    MAN) President, Dr. Frank Jacobs, articulated his members’ position on the controversial deal. He said: “EPA will confine the Nigerian economy to a mere market extension of the EU since we cannot compete with Europe on all grounds. It is on this ground that we believe that Nigeria does not need EPA now until we have been adequately industrialised and able to trade industrial goods competitively.”

    He described EPA as a design to create free trade between the EU and Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, adding that duties on goods imported and exported between the parties are reduced and eventually removed because of the agreement.

     

     

    He argued that Nigeria is mainly a commodity goods producing country with very limited capability to produce and export industrial goods.  He maintained that most of the industries in the country are undeveloped and are plagued by lack of supportive infrastructure. The production plans of industry players are constantly distorted by the interplay of macroeconomic variables such as inflation, exchange rate and interest rate variations, he added.

    To the manufacturers, although, EPA may appear to be a good course in the document proposal, it may be catastrophic if implemented as it will stifle the slowly recovering manufacturing sector in the country.

    He said the implementation could worsen the unemployment situation and the standard of living of the people.

    According to him, Nigerian manufacturers have nothing against free trade, it could be better done in a situation of equal economic development as any attempt to coerce the country into a free trade arrangement would only succeed in killing the fledging manufacturing sector.

    To him, the industrialisation goal of government, through the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) would be a mirage if EPA is embraced. Besides, they said it would increase social unrest and insecurity, due to surge in unemployment.

    Rather than EPA, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yusuf, said real sector operators have been concentrating on promoting competitiveness on a sustainable basis.

    He spoke of the need to put in place the right policies and infrastructure either in the context of EPA or ECOWAS to achieve this.

    Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Rotimi Ogunleye said the time to diversify is now so as to achieve a vibrant and virile economy to withstand external pressure. We need to adjust the various imbalances in our economy besides addressing the EPA challenges, he added.

  • Man stabs mother to death over N20,000

    A young man in Ede, the headquarters of Ede South Local Government Area of Osun State, has allegedly stabbed his mother to death.

    The suspect, named Christian, who graduated last year from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, reportedly had an argument with his mother for not given him the N20,000 he demanded from her.

    It was learnt that  he allegedly dragged his mother, a widow, into one of the rooms in their apartment, which was located at Oba ‘Laoye area of the town before  stabbing her.

    Weeping profusely, the suspect’s younger sister, Folake,  told reporters that she witnessed the incident.

    Folake said their mother’s plea that she could not provide N20,000  fell on Christian’s deaf ears.

    According to her, she joined her mother, who was known as Iya Christian, to appeal to his brother,  whom she said “was desperate to collect the money by all means”.

    She said:  “Our mother told him to exercise patience with her because she was broke. But Christian was only adamant that he must collect the money on the spot.

    “It was this same mother that he killed that single-handedly sponsored his education from primary school till he graduated from the university last year. Since we lost our father, this woman had been our pillar of support.

    “He was very rough with our mother. He dragged her on the floor into the room, locked the door despite my pleading and stabbed her to death.

    “Before help could reach our mother, who was crying and begging him all along, he had killed her.

    “When we saw blood flowing from underneath the door, sympathisers forced the door open. But it was late to save her life.

    “Beside our mother’s lifeless body was the beast looking blank.  There were deep cuts on our mother’s head and neck.”

    The deceased was buried last Friday and the suspect is being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department on Ring Road, Osogbo.

    The acting police spokesman, Mr. Egbedele Ajibade, said the suspect would be charged to court after completion of investigation.

  • MAN rates economy low, proffers solutions

    Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has expressed mixed feelings on the current administration’s economic policies.

    MAN President Mr. Franks Udemba Jacobs, in an interview with The Nation, said it has been a mixed bag of sorts for the manufacturing sector, with some policies favouring his members and others hurting the sector.

    Lauding President Muhammadu Buhari on containing the insurgency in the Northeast, he, however, regretted that on the economy, businesses have been forced to slow down or, in some cases, shut down because of insurgents.

    “Traditional trade routes to neighbouring countries have been cut off as was witnessed in the Northeastern part of the country, while companies have been forced out of business because they were unable to continue with their operations in the face of obvious risks of death or incapacitation,” he said.

    Udemba underscored the association’s belief that the economy did not perform up to expectation during the period under review. He said macroeconomic indicators showed that the economy declined from what it was before the inauguration of the administration.

    According to him, this may not be blamed completely on the administration but on the downturn in the prices of crude oil by nearly 70 per cent.

    The MAN boss praised the government on the planned diversification of the economy into agriculture, solid minerals and the manufacturing sector.

    He criticised the non-release of fiscal policy measures by the government within the period under review, noting that it has created a vacuum. Fiscal policies are supposed to be released yearly to harness incentives and other measures and adjustments approved by the government.

    Jacobs cited pharmaceuticals where raw materials and inputs attract higher duty than finished products, and has been accepted for adjustment by the Tariff Technical Committee (TTC).

    He stressed that the absence of the adjustment was affecting local pharmaceutical companies, which are unable to compete. Some, Udemba noted have  had to close shop or downsize.

    Jacobs regretted that the Gross Domestic Domestic Product (GDP) declined to 0.36 per cent in the first quarter of the year, down from 3.96 per cent of the same quarter the previous year. “This negative growth, if not urgently and seriously addressed, could drag the economy into recession,” he warned.

    On the exchange rate, he said during the period under review, it depreciated from N191.10/US$ in the first quarter of 2015 to N200/US$ in the same period of 2016 at the Interbank Forex market, while it hovered around N320/US$ at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the market.

    “The deregulation of the forex market may be seen as a partial solution to the forex challenge the country is facing, but in reality, the scarcity of forex is unabated.

    “Consequently, manufacturing companies found it extremely difficult to source foreign exchange for the importation of essential raw-materials and this has led to a number of closures of affected companies,” he said.

    Jacobs, therefore, called for urgent measures by government to lift the manufacturing sector out of the woods by coming up with policies that will make the manufacturing sector robust.

  • Man loses property to fire

    Man loses property to fire

    A MAN yesterday lost his property when fire razed his self-contained apartment in a two-storey building on Ayinke Street, Bariga, Lagos.

    The man, who gave his name simply as Charles, said the fire was caused by a surge when electricity was restored.

    He said he was at work when he learnt of the incident. The fire, he said, spread to his neighbour’s apartment.

    According to him, ‘area’ boys, many of whom he is friendly with, saved the building from being razed by the fire.

    He said: “I was unable to remove anything from the house. The only thing I have on is what I’m wearing; nothing else. Even my wife and baby have nothing to fall back to. All the property was burnt. I just came back from work and met fire service men on ground.

    “But since I came back from work, I didn’t do anything. Those guys have been the ones helping me to evacuate the wreckage. Normally I usually buy them drinks, greet them when I’m going out, pay their bills at bar…. Some of them would even call me when they need one thing or the other but I’ll give whatever I have; sometimes N2,000. But some people thought it was stupid. Now see what happened today.”

    One of the ‘area’ boys, Suleiman said the man is generous to him and others, adding: “The moment I heard a building was on fire on our street, I quickly returned home to know where it was. On getting here, I saw that it was our Chairman’s apartment. So everybody quickly rushed there with others to help. The fire could have razed the building,” he said.

    Lagos State Fire Service Director Rasaq Fadipe said they received a distress call around 3:48pm.

    Fadipe said the ‘area’ boys initially prevented them from doing their job, until some persons appealed to them.

    “The building has six rooms on each floor, but we were able to put out the fire”, he said.

  • MAN frets over pending letters of credit

    MAN frets over pending letters of credit

    The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) supports the  new flexible Foreign Exchange (forex) regime introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), but the question of who bears the loss by manufacturers from pending Letters of Credit (LCs) opened before the new forex regime remains an issue, the Director-General, MAN, Remi Ogunmefu, has said.

    He spoke on the sideline of the “Business Luncheon for Managing Directors/CEOs” organised by the Ikeja branch of MAN in Lagos, last week.

    This year’s edition with the theme: “Manufacturing in a depressed economy: The way forward,” was to X-ray the challenges facing manufacturers, particularly under the forex regime to proffer solutions.

    Ogunmefu expressed optimism that the new flexible forex policy announced by the CBN would work, which was why manufacturers should support it, “because it has opened the market and it’s going to be transparent and beneficial to members of MAN who will now get forex”.

    He, however, said the only thing that is still an issue for manufacturers is who bears the loss from standing LCs before the new regime.

    LC is a document issued by a financial institution, or a similar party, assuring payment to a seller of goods or services provided certain documents have been presented to the bank. The LC serves as a guarantee to the seller that it will be paid regardless of whether the buyer ultimately fails to pay.

    It ensures that the risk that the buyer will fail to pay is transferred from the seller to the letter’s issuer. The letter can also be used to ensure that all agreed standards are met by the supplier, provided that these requirements are reflected in the documents described in the letter of credit.

    Ogunmefu said before the new forex regime that replaced the June 2015 CBN monetary policy, which barred importers of 41 items that can be sourced locally from having access to its official forex), manufacturers had standing LCs, which they opened with their bankers for the supply of critical inputs for production. The challenge for manufacturers now, he said, was how they will cope with the loss.

    The Nation learnt that before CBN’s forex restriction last year, it took about a week or a maximum of one month for banks to convert LC’s into the equivalent of the forex required by importers and manufacturers to import or carry out transactions.

    But because the volume of foreign currency available for business transactions seriously reduced on account of the forex restriction, most banks insisted that customers must pay the full value of what they are importing within 48 hours before their LCs could be attended to. As a result a lot of LCs was left standing, unattended to.

    With the introduction of the new flexible forex policy, Ogunmefu said manufacturers with standing LCs now have cause to worry. All the standing LCs before this new forex regime who is going to bear the loss?” he asked, noting that it is an issue MAN will be discussing with the CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele as time goes on, “because manufacturers had already concluded the deals and the LCs had been opened.”

     

  • Man kills in-law in Ebonyi community

    The Ebonyi State Police Command has arrested a man, Maduabuchi Ede, for allegedly killing his in-law, Kenneth Nkwegu Elom, with a piece of firewood.

    The victim and his wife, Scholastica, had reportedly been married for over eight years and have had four children before it collapsed.

    Scholastica was said to have returned to her parents’ home in the nearby village.

    But she allegedly continued to harvest her estranged husband’s yams in the ban and other crops in his farm, which reportedly angered him.

    Kenneth, in company of his friend, Augustine Nwankwegu, were said to have complained severally to his ex-wife’s parents and family to warn her against the act.

    But she was said to have persisted in the act.

    Speaking with our reporter, Nwankwegu said: “We have been complaining to the woman’s family that their daughter had been harvesting Kenneth’s yams and other crops in the farm and carting away his belongings.

    “The father in-law, after listening to us, fixed a date for the settlement of the matter and urged Kenneth to maintain the peace. He said the matter would be resolved amicably.

    “As we were driving home, Kenneth pleaded that we see the mother in-law to clear his conscience of reporting her daughter’s behaviour.

    “When we got there, it happened that they had locked their door because it was late in the night. But a relative, who was outside, knocked the door and it was opened by the mother in-law”.

    “The son in-law, who heard our greeting when we came in, directed the mother not to attend to us. He immediately ordered us to leave the compound within a second.

    “He rushed in and got a heavy wood while Kenneth turned back to open his vehicle to escape. But Maduabuchi descended on him, hitting him severally with the wood until he collapsed.”

    Nwankwegu said Kenneth was rushed to a hospital that night.

    He added that his friend was in coma for some days and died on May 20.

    Police spokesman George Okafor, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), confirmed the incident.

    He said the suspect had been arrested while investigation into the matter had begun.

  • Police arrest man for raping 18-year-old girl

    An 18-year-old girl has been hospitalised after she was allegedly sexually abused by a man.

    The incident, it was gathered, took place at Ishiagu in Nkalagu community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

    The victim was reportedly abused at gun point by her assailant.

    It was gathered that the girl was sleeping in her mother’s shop when the suspect broke into it and forcefully slept with her.

    Police spokesman George Okafor, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), confirmed the incident and the suspect’s arrest.

    He said: “On May 22, at 8.50 hours (8 a.m), a lady from Abia State and resident at Ishielu, in company of her brother, reported how she was raped by the suspect, who also allegedly made away with her N3,500 in the shop.”

    The spokesman said the police had visited the scene of the crime and arrested the suspect.

    He said the suspect would soon be charged to court.

    Okafor said the victim was receiving treatment at a hospital.

  • Man, 82, hangs self in Ondo

    Man, 82, hangs self in Ondo

    The lifeless body of an octogenarian, identified as Adegoke Oriola, was at the weekend discovered in Ondo town.

    He reportedly hung himself with a rope fastened to a ceiling fan inside his bedroom at Ayeyemi Street.

    It was learnt that residents learnt of the incident through one of his children, Taye, who is living with him.

    She reportedly discovered her father’s body when she went to his room to check up on him.

    Police sources said there was no suicide note.

    Some spiritualists and traditional worshippers removed the body for burial.

    Family sources said the 82-year-old may have committed suicide as a result of one of his daughter’s protracted illness on which he has spent all his money without cure.

    The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Enuowa, Kunle Omisakin, said the report on the incident has been forwarded to the state police command, Akure.

     

     

  • Man jailed four months for stealing N19, 000, computer game

    Man jailed four months for stealing N19, 000, computer game

    An Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, Thursday convicted a 27-year-old man, Ibrahim Aiyelangbe, of burglarising a company.

    Magistrate O. A. Olagbehinde sentenced Aiyelangbe to four months in Ikoyi Prison, Lagos, without an option of fine, after he admitted stealing a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) Game and N19, 000 cash.

    The court accepted his plea of guilt after examining the stolen items tendered as exhibits by prosecuting police Corporal Friday Mameh.

    “I don’t have anything to say. I want the court to have mercy on me. I will not do it again,” Aiyelangbe said when the court asked him if he had anything to say.

    “The defendant is hereby sentenced to four months in prison beginning from the date of arraignment,” Magistrate Olagbehinde said.

    Aiyelangbe, of no fixed address, was arrested by the police on May 9 and arraigned on May 11, on a two-count felony charge, with No. Q/28/2016.

    Corporal Mameh told the court that on May 9, at about 1:30am Aiyelangbe scaled a fence into the premises of Axon Engineering Ltd on Glover Street, Ikoyi.

    The prosecutor added that Aiyelangbe stole “a PSP Game 2003 Model valued at N40,000 and the sum of N19,000 cash, totalling N59,000, property of Joshua Saidu Bature, a supervisor at Axon Engineering.”

    Mameh said Bature and a security operative on duty that night at the company, apprehended Aiyelangbe with the items within the company’s premises and handed him over to the police.