The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MAN

  • 25-year-old held for ‘’ 85-year-old

    A 25-year-old man, Familola Ayodeji, has been arrested for  allegedly raping an 85-year-old woman in Ido-Ekiti, headquarters of Ido/Osi Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

    In another incident in Ikole-Ekiti, headquarters of Ikole Local Government Area, an 80-year-old man, Pa Olajide Ojo, allegedly defiled a 12-year-old girl on Christmas Eve.

    Ayodeji has been arrested by operatives of the Department of Criminal Investigation of the State Police Command.

    A statement by police spokesman Victor Babayemi said Ayodeji reportedly sneaked into the room of his victim and forcefully had carnal knowledge of her on December 25, last year.

    The suspect was said to have gone into hiding after committing the crime but he was arrested, following a manhunt by police detectives.

    Pa Ojo, on December 24, reportedly lured his victim into his room under the pretence that he wanted to buy pounded yam from her.

    As soon as the victim entered, the suspect locked the door and forcefully defiled her.

    Neighbours were attracted by the girl’s cry. The police were later alerted.

    The octogenarian was promptly arrested by detectives attached to Ikole Divisional Headquarters.

    The suspects will be charged to court as soon as the strike by judiciary workers is called off.

  • Man kills brother over Owho soup

    A 57-year-old man, Sunday Osam-wekha, has been arrested by the police in Edo State for killing his half brother while arguing over Owho soup.

    The suspect was said to have chopped off the hand of the deceased with a cutlass which led to his death.

    Police said the incident happened at Evboesi village in Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

    Sunday told The Nation during a parade of suspects by the police that his late brother dipped plantain into the Owho soup he was eating and did not show any remorse.

    He said he did not intend to kill his brother but that he bled to death.

    Police sources said Sunday was an ex-convict who had only recently regained his freedom.

    Also, one John Abiodun, aged 27, was paraded for defiling an eight-year-old girl in a church auditorium along Medical Store Road in Benin City.

    The suspect was said to have offered the victim N50 after he called the victim away from the church pastor’s children she was playing with.

    Police statement said the suspect later dragged the victim into one of the rooms in the church and have carnal knowledge of her.

    Others arrested for defilement included 72 years- old Solomon Ugiagbe, who defiled an 11-year old girl at Evbuotubu, 32-years-old Kelvin Ohenhoba who slept with a 12-year-old girl inside a bush, and James H’shagbe who reportedly had carnal knowledge of a four-year-old child.

    A total of 28 suspects were paraded for last month cult killings in the state which claimed over 15 lives.

    State Commissioner of Police, Foluso Adebanjo, in a chat with newsmen, said the suspects have confessed to the crime and would soon be charged to court.

     

  • Man alleges police cover-up in ear biting case

    Man alleges police cover-up in ear biting case

    A man whose right ear was bitten off by a trader at the Ladipo and parts market in Lagos has petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, over attempts to cover up the case.

    Sunday Nwali is alleging that the police are conniving with the trader whose name was simply given as Nzube to kill the case.

    Nwali claimed that Nzube and his friend Samuel attacked him at the market last month.

    The matter was earlier reported at the Area ‘D’ Police Station in Mushin, but the suspects allegedly sent a petition on the matter to the State Criminal investigations Department (SCID) at Panti, Yaba, Lagos Mainland.

    Since the petition was sent, the petitioners have not appeared at the SCID, The Nation learnt yesterday.

    In his petition to the Commissioner of Police (SCID), which was copied Aderanti, Nwali said: “I am facing intimidation in the hands of persons who want to deny me justice by claiming that my case has been transferred to SCID, Panti, whereas they wanted to use it to escape justice. Sir, I wish to bring to your knowledge that the persons named Nzube and Samuel (their surnames unknown) can be easily identified and located at the Conference Warehouse, Toyota Area of Ladipo Market. Nzube who bit off my right ear with mouth has been dribbling me with the policemen at Olosan Division and Area ‘D’ in Mushin.

    “They said that my case had been transferred to SCID, yet from December 22 2014, when I went to the SCID with my IPO (Investigating Police Officer) from the Area ‘D’, the suspects had not surfaced up till now. It shows that they want to evade justice by lying and refusing to come to the SCID. I want them to be invited there to explain why they chopped off my right ear without offending them.”

    The Lagos Command spokesman, Kenneth Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said both reports would be looked into.

  • I cant date a man who is broke

    I cant date a man who is broke

    Nollywood actress, model and TV presenter, Nancy Isime, might be relatively new to the Nigerian movie scene, but according to her, hard work is her recipe for success. She speaks to OVWE MEDEME on her journey into acting and life as a model, among other issues

    Give us an overview of yourself and how you got into the acting world

    I am a model and an ex beauty queen. I am still modelling. I started out with a TV drama series called Echoes. That was my very first gig. Last year, I was in a couple of movies. Some of them are yet to come out but I started acting from modelling. I was doing runway modelling then and a director on one of the runway shows was going to do the TV series called Echoes, so he saw me and suggested that I come read a script for the drama. I wasn’t too into it but I went for the reading and I got the role.

    From there, it just kept going. From the comments I am getting and from the referrals and commendations, I would say I have done well. Also, I am a TV presenter. I present a show called The Squeeze which is a gossip show. I also present a show called What’s Hot. It is a technology show. I also covered back stage on MTN Project Fame season 7.

    Is it right to say acting stole you away from modelling?

    If I still get modelling projects, I still go for it but acting is something that has caught my interest. There is something I have always said. I don’t want to be stagnant in life, I want to go out there and explore my options. I modelled for a while, I was a beauty queen at first. I won the Miss Valentine International pageant in 2009. Even before then, I was a model but my career in modelling took off from there. After that, I started doing fashion shows. I did quite a lot of fashion shoots and also commercial modelling. But when it came to acting, I found it really interesting and very challenging but I still model. I won’t say acting took me away from modelling.

    Professionally, how long have you been acting?

    I did Echoes sometime around 2011 and then I went off the scene for a while. You can rightly say that professionally, I went into acting from last year when I did Heaven on Ebony Life TV. If you want to count from Echoes, it would be from 2011. But mind you, after we filmed Echoes, it didn’t start showing till last year as well; so it is safe to say I started acting from last year.

     In summary, how would you say your acting career has been?

    It has been awesome. I happen to work with very talented people. I have worked with quite a number of big names including John Njamah. I just finished a job with him.  So far so good. It has been awesome to be able to work with people who have been in the industry for a while, people who have been acting way longer than I have. So I can say it has been going on very well.

    What was your first experience on set like?

    I was really nervous. At a point, I forgot how to speak English (laughs). I didn’t know what was going on. The director kept on saying ‘Nancy, calm down.’ I would still give it up to him. His name is Gibson. He is a Ghanaian director and he nurtured me. He told me that I was doing great. As soon as I caught on, I could speak up. When I started, really, I couldn’t speak up. I was so scared that my voice sounded somehow. I used to speak on such low tones. I was so nervous working with really big people. Echoes had a lot of stars.

     So far, what has been your low moments?

    None, really. All I can say is that it is really challenging being an actress. When you are on set, no one cares if you are down or anything. They just want you to come and deliver a job, whether it is an emotional scene or a very violent scene. All they know is that you should come on set and do what you can.

    For now, there has been no major low moment. It is just that I have had very challenging times and anybody who is in the industry will tell you that most directors are extremely strict and they can appear harsh but that is just for your own good. I hope I never have those low moments, but there are times when I get home, I just drop my bag and say no more because sometimes you have to shoot for as long as 17 hours a day.

     How far are you willing to go to rub shoulders with the big names in the industry?

    I am a total believer in hard work, in persistence and in being focused. The highest I can go is to get to work, be the best I can be and bring out the best in me each time I’m on set. I don’t believe in doing several takes. I believe in bringing out the best in the very first take. What I just need to do to get higher in the game is to be the best, to work really hard and to stay focused and to just make sure that I do what I am supposed to do on set and give my producers and directors their money’s worth and not waste anybody’s time. All I’m just trying to say is, I just make sure I bring out the best in me, make sure I connect with the crowd and can give the audience what they want to watch.

    What does being a model entail?

    First and foremost, you need to have the body. Also, you need to be patient enough to go for auditions, stand on queues and also have the heart to take disappointments. People think modelling is so easy but it is not. You have to stand on a long queue, get auditioned, get picked sometimes or get dropped at other times.

    It is all about the ability to always try and to keep coming back until you get your big break. In Nigeria, modelling is not as it is in the western countries where you get your big break and that is it. Here, you can get your big break and still go back down, so it is very imperative that you get your big break and continue to work hard and continue to come back for more. Just be hungry because when you stay hungry and when you stay focused, you keep coming back for more. Make sure you look good and presentable all the time because you have to represent brands, so you have to look the part.

    How true is the notion that modelling rakes in big money?

    The fashion world hasn’t really gotten there if you ask me, but the commercial world is definitely there. For example, if you get to model for multinational brands, it brings a lot of money compared to the fashion industry which has been stagnant for a while. There is money in the modelling business but you need to have a big break for that.

     Compared to acting, which pays more?

    For now, I can’t say. Because in acting, I am not yet in a place where I can start to receive all the big bucks. I just basically started a year or two years ago. I cannot be expecting to get paid as much as people like Mercy Johnson and Genevieve Nnaji but trust me, there is a lot of money in acting but that depends on the stage you are in. I believe someday, I will get to the stage where I can say it pays too much. For now, it takes care of my bills. It pays moderately but if I am to compare it to modelling, I can’t really say. But as I said, some modelling just pay small cash; some bring in the big cash.

    Would you date a broke guy who is jobless?

    Let me put it this way, I would date an ambitious guy and ambitious guys are never really broke, they are never jobless. They are guys who are so industrious, guys who would go out there to do everything they can to make money for themselves. I say this because I want the best for anybody that I am in a relationship with, be it a friend, my family member or a boyfriend.

    In the case of a boyfriend, I believe any man who is broke and jobless really has no business being in a relationship. I say this because it actually takes away from your focus as a man. As a struggling man, you should sit down and focus on your goals, unless you want to be poor forever. If you know you want to be rich, there is a stage you have to pass through. If you can pass through the stage of working hard, putting yourself out there to make sure you are comfortable, at least you can now go out there and find a relationship.

    You don’t even have to go out there and look for a relationship. They will come to you. That way, you can now start to make your choice. But if you are a man who is pursuing girls up and down in the name of ‘I am broke, please love me,’ I don’t think it is necessary, I don’t think it is worth it. Coming back to me, I cannot date a man who is broke. I can only date a man who is ambitious, who is focused and who is hardworking. You can’t be hardworking and jobless. Those two do not come together. I work too hard to want to sit down with a jobless man. I only can date a man who can inspire me to be better. So we both can work hard to get to where we want in life. But when you are jobless and you are calling my phone 24/7, then I have a problem with that.

     Are you in a relationship?

    That I can’t answer (laughs).

     Is it that you are wary about having an interference between your career and your relationship?

    No, I don’t see myself having any interference whether I say I have a boyfriend or not. I just like to keep some things personal for my own sake, for personal reasons. It has nothing to do with the job. There are married people in the industry, so if it doesn’t affect them, it shouldn’t affect me. I would rather keep that personal.

     Can you let us into your educational background?

    I did my diploma at the University of Lagos where I studied Social Work. It was a two-year course, but I haven’t gone for my BSc. I rounded that up last year. For now, I am still working with the diploma.

     Why Social Work?

    I do love social works. It is something that, if push comes to shove tomorrow, I would love to practice it. I love social works and the fact that it enables me be there for humanity, to be able to give and just help people in general. Later on, I intend to go for my BSc in the same field.

  • How man lost leg, daughter same day

    How man lost leg, daughter same day

    •’I’ve accepted my fate, but the pains won’t go’

    Usually, on his birthday, his home is a beehive, with family members and friends coming to rejoice with him.

    But this December 12 was different. Kaseem Ayinla, 64, was not in a celebration mood because of his condition.

    He looked at his amputated right leg on his wheel chair in front of his Ogunlesi Street, Palmgrove, Lagos home and shook his head. A few sympathisers, mostly his tenants, watched as he struggled to suppress his emotion. Breaking his silence after a deep sigh, he cleared his throat, saying: “Al-hamdu-lillahi (To Allah be the glory).

    “I can’t but accept my fate, but I don’t know what I have done to deserve this; and the pains have refused to go,” he said.  

    Ayinla, popularly addressed as Oluaye by admirers, is the younger brother of former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Jubril Ayinla.

    How did it happen? He recalled that it happened shortly after last year’s  Eid-il-Kabir celebration. Ayinla said his first daughter, Bidemi, who was on admission at a Lagos hospital, died from shock minutes after his leg was amputated at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi (NOHI) in Yaba, Lagos Mainland.

    He said: “Everyone around me knows that sickness is alien to me. The day this trouble began, it was like a bad dream. About 5pm, I took a stroll to a friend’s shop just a stone’s throw to my home to take a bottle of drink. Before settling down there, I headed for the toilet to ease myself. To my dismay, my legs suddenly went stiff and lifeless. I could not move the legs. All I could ask myself was: ‘what is this?’ I had to wait for whoever would come there to urinate. Not quite five minutes later, a man came around and I pleaded with him to assist me. He was the one that promptly alerted others who came to carry me home.”

    After sometime, he regained the use of his left leg, but the right “unbearable pains.” “It was as if the bones in the leg were being smashed by an invisible hammer,” he said.

    From then, he became a regular caller at the NOHI, the Navy Hospital and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja in his search hospitals for treatment.

    NOHI eventually became his second home. “I spent weeks there; I lost count of how many patients gave up the ghost while I was there, which is why I feel I have cause to thank Allah for this gift of life. Before I was rushed there, I was sitting in front of my house when strangely, my right foot dropped off. As one of my children was packing it inside a poly bag, maggots were dropping from the rotting portion. Like everyone around me, I was alarmed. So, my journey to Igbobi (NOHI) began,” he said.

    He went on: “If I had thought that I had a brother in Vice Admiral (Jubril), I knew better that I have a father in him. He is a rare one that any family would pray fervently to have. When he was not with me at my sickbed, he is on phone asking for my condition. He made sure I lacked nothing throughout my dark moments. Ah …… (Virtually lost in spontaneous effusive prayers). He rushed in from abroad, met with the doctors around and dropped more than the money I would need pending when he would return. He did not leave without assuring me that Allah was with me.”

    Ayinla said his doctor cracked jokes with him to get his back off the surgery.

    “I was made to fix my gaze on a moving object on an electronic board in my front after giving me some injections minutes earlier. I only got to know that I had lost my right leg some minutes later when the pains began. It was traumatic,” Kazeem said.

    While he was awaiting surgery, the late Bidemi was in pains in another hospital. A relation, who got wind of her father’s predicament, broke the news of his amputated leg to her during a visit her.

    “Hearing that his father’s leg had been amputated, Bidemi was said to have screamed on her sickbed and that was how she died instantly. But the news of her death was not broken to me until later on my birthday – December 12, last year,” Kazeem said, explaining: “I was at home here when my brother (Jubril) came with all sorts of gifts as it was my birthday. Some of my children and relations were around too. Shortly after settling down, my brother moved closer and held me by my shoulder. I was moved by the display of brotherly love. He reminded me that I was no longer a kid and that at my age and life experience, nothing should move me badly. So, he dropped the bombshell: ‘Take heart and be a man; Bidemi is no more!’ I was shattered. I wept like a baby. It was a day I would never forget in my life.”

    AVM Ayinla then got him a wheel-chair to aid his movements in his compound. Not long after, the ex-naval officer returned from abroad with a motorized wheel-chair which, according to Kazeem, costs between N1.5million and N2million. With the wheelchair, he can visit friends in the neighbourhood with ease.

    Weeks after, another a medical test revealed that the problem in his amputated right leg was about affecting the other. Then, he had to undergo another surgery on his stomach.

    Pulling off his shirt to show the reporter the affected part of his stomach, Kazeem said: “You can see the stitched portion. It was done in Abuja. My brother flew in experts from abroad to do it. It cost him about N5million. You can only join me in daily prayers for him (Jubril); he is my human saviour. Even after the surgeries, he has been taking adequate care of my upkeep and that of his other siblings among others in and outside the family.”

    On Saturday, the reporter saw him cruising around in his motorised wheel-chair. He was in a flowing agbada with cap to match. He told the reporter: “What has happened has happened; we have to move on with Allah behind us.”

    After a  exchange of pleasantries, he rode off, beaming with smiles.

  • Why Buhari is man for the season

    Like the drop of rain that brings relief after a prolonged period of drought, the emergence of General Muhammad Buhari (GMB) as presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, has already brought considerable joy and relief to a few Nigerians who see the Generals’s General as yet another hope and the APC as the only credible platform that can save Nigeria from the current state of hopelessness.

    Of course the PDP never believed the APC could manage the presidential primaries successfully considering the pedigree of aspirants and considering the way such exercises had gone in the past. But with the outcome of the delegates election and the unwavering support other contestants have openly given to endorse GMB, it is clear to everyone now that APC means business with this election and the party is set to give Nigeria the type of real leadership that can bring about genuine transformation, not the types we see on television adverts that derive from artist impressions of development projects.

    There is somehow a semblance between the GMB candidacy and HOPE 93; the campaign platform used by the late business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola. The general acceptance of the former head of state was just like the case with Abiola; cuts across tribes and religion even when the other party tried with a lot of sweat to paint the APC flagbearer in negative religious and ethnic colours. The level of trust that the low and mighty have expressed towards the General, deriving from his track record of integrity in public and private undertakings, is akin to the general trust men and women, the old and the young had towards Abiola. We all knew Abiola would not tamper with our collective wealth because he already had more enough, and today we  know that GMB cannot do it; he did not do it when he was much younger, it is not now that he would start the ugly game that the present ruling party has elevated to statecraft.

    GMB offers us hope, against the present gloom and despair in the land. The gloom is all around us as a nation. It is present in the failure of the ruling government to offer any reasonable explanation for its inability to end the spate of killings in the north-east, the gloom is there in the home of every mother who has a daughter among the over 200 Chibok girls now gone without trace for almost 300 days; it is there in the home of every mother who has lost a son or daughter to the slaughter’s slab of Bokko Haram, it is there in the heart of every woman who has suddenly become a widow because of the failure by government to provide security for the nation. It is there in the heart of every Internally Displaced Person, men and women who were once home owners but have become homeless today, men and women who used to feed others but today depend on rations given by Victim Support Fund etc. The gloom is there in the downturn in our national economy where the naira has defied their economic logic and continued its free fall. The gloom is compounded by the federal government’s refusal to satisfactorily give account of our collective wealth there by denying states governments their statutory portions and the people the necessary dividends of democracy.

    Nigerians are appalled, the atmosphere is uncertain. It is  sad that we have a leadership that has so much divided us along ethnic and religious lines that differences we thought were gone are suddenly appearing and becoming stirring factors in dealing with one another. The labour of our heroes past; those who told us that though tribe and tongue may differ in brotherhood we stand, have since been frustrated because we have a leadership that mocks the leaders of yesterday and deride their contributions to the growth of the nation all because they want to become the ‘founder ‘of a new Nigeria. They have so much elevated sycophancy and deceit to high heavens, that the only thing you need to get their attention is form a group of ‘transformers’ who go about collecting dubious signatures to ‘convince’ a man they knew was going to run to run. We have ‘transformers’ who sing and dance on the grave of thousands of victims of Boko Haram while the transformers we need to power our home are not available.

    And that is why the Buhari candidacy is offering something better. It is giving us hope that Nigeria can still be what our forefathers dreamt it to be. The APC has practical records of doing it well, of nurturing hope and bringing joy to people in the states where it hold sways today that the developments in those states are enough campaign about what the party can do. Go to Lagos. Go to Rivers. Go to Kano. Go to Sokoto, Kwara, Edo and other states under the rule of APC and compare the rate of genuine transformations there with what the PDP has been able to do even when they have access to fund better than their counterparts.

    GMB is running with these states. GMB is offering the same opportunity for Nigeria at the larger scale. A GMB presidency will bring to bear on the nation the collective contributions of all men of goodwill who desires genuine transformation for this nation, men and women who have seen the lies and deceit of the PDP which in many states have been unable to manage its primaries. Day by day, the PDP is losing the confidence of Nigeria and with the emergence of GMB as candidate of the APC, the tide is turning against the ruling party because Nigerians want real change, not cosmetic projections by armchair economists.

    Listen to the words of hope offered by the people’s General:  ý”My nomination is not because I am better than any of the other contestants. I see it as a tribute and mark of confidence to carry the torch as we all join hands to rescue our dear country Nigeria, from those who have led us into the current state of insecurity, poverty, sectarian divide and hopelessness among our people.

    What I say today is for all Nigerians: Christian and Muslim, southern and northern, rich and poor, young and old, man and woman. We are all citizens of Nigeria. There is no dividing line among us that I care to honour. Either we advance as one or fail altogether.

    My choice and my colleagues’ choice and wish are that we progress together. Preserving the nation’s future is a scared obligation to all of us in this party. Leaders should be wholly committed to fulfilling this obligation otherwise they have no business being leaders. Sadly, the current administration does not believe in this obligation. By their actions they are leading us to calamity.

    At international conferences, the Nigerian delegation is usually among the largest but at the same time the least effective. Our president should have the status and the voice of Africa’s largest nation. But in political influence we are among the weakest.”

    Finally, Buhari asked: “Shall we continue in a situation where 250 of our daughters have been abducted and the government has been unable to rescue them or provide credible information about what steps they are taking?

    “Shall we live in a nation where several people were trampled to death in search of jobs in a stadium and yet no one has taken responsibility for the tragedy?

    This is the man for the people, the leader long awaited.

    • Oba writes from Ilorin

  • Osinbajo, right man for the job

    SIR: I first met Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, in January, 1971, when I entered secondary school. Although he was just two years ahead of me, he was already highly regarded by both students and the teaching staff on account of the fact that he was a diligent and dignified student. He also possessed the prestige that came from being known nationally as a first-rate and accomplished school debating champion in the early 1970s. I lost touch with him, from 1975, for a long time, but did not fail to hear of his reputation as a brilliant and perceptive jurist on the Faculty of Law of the University of Lagos, where he was similarly highly respected and liked by his colleagues and students.

    I restored my links with him when he emerged as the attorney-general, and therefore my boss in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, in Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reforming administration in 1999. It was in this position that I came to observe him closely as a man, lawyer, and public servant. I quickly discovered that he is a profound and distinguished lawyer. As an advocate, I doubt that he has few, if any, peers at the Bar today. It is also my opinion that he was the most reform-minded attorney-general in Nigeria’s history. With the able support of another able and resourceful public servant and profound and distinguished lawyer, our then solicitor-general, Fola Arthur-Worrey, and drawing from the earlier pioneering work of Justice S.O. Ilori, a former chief judge of Lagos, and one of the most brilliant legal minds, he revolutionised practice and procedure in the Lagos High Court (their reforms became a model); he considerably expanded legal aid, bringing legal services within the reach of many indigent citizens; raised the conditions of service of the Lagos judiciary to a level unparalleled elsewhere; renovated, built, and equipped courts with modern gadgetry [bringing them into the modern age] all across the state; incorporated alternative dispute resolution into the administration of justice in Lagos, etc.

    However, some have criticized his nomination on the ground that he was never a state governor and is a political neophyte. I find this rather amusing, as I know of few people who possess his knowledge or understanding of our constitutional history, political evolution, contemporary political issues, or, most importantly, of the great issues on which the future of this country turns.

    I, therefore, believe that his input into Nigerian public life is likely to be in the tradition of past politico-legal greats such as FRA Williams, Bode Thomas, Adeyemi Lawson, Udo Udoma, Wenike Briggs, Justice Dan Ibekwe, etc. His entry into public life is, like those of the aforementioned greats of yesteryears, a boon to the life of this nation, for it brings once more to the art of politics and public service the benefit of a profound intellect which is a rich seam of ideas and initiatives. The contributions of great legal minds to public service has a long and distinguished history as the great careers of Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, Nottingham, Hardwicke, Eldon, and Haldane in the UK; the great New Deal lawyer, Benjamin V. Cohen, in the USA; and Norman Manley, in the West Indies, illustrate. What this nation needs, particularly at this time, is less of the narrowness, partisanship, and meaness that has characterized our politics for far too long, and more in the way of ideas and independent critical thinking. In this light, therefore, I have never quite understood the argument that a full-time committment to politics and the holding of the office of a state governor should be prerequisites for holding high political office. But then, I have never found, in all my years, that criticism is ever hindered by ignorance.

    • Akin Ajose-Adeogun,

    Lagos

  • Over 15,000 packaging jobs threatened, says MAN

    The National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) may be under threat from the illegal operations of some packaging firms in the Ogun Free Trade Zone.

    Operators in the Pulp, Paper and Paper Products, Printing, Publishing and Packaging Sectoral Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) accused companies operating in the zone of manufacturing corrugated cartons,  which is on the banned list of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

    A letter signed by the group’s Chairman, Princess Layo Okeowo, to the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, it alleged that the companies also sell 100 per cent of their finished goods in the zone at prices lower than those outside without paying duties, taxes and other financial obligations to the various tiers of government.

    The manufacturers said the adverse effect has forced their members to shelve expansion and modernisation plans, while smaller units are on verge of closure the livelihood of thousands of employees under threat as their sales have dropped drastically.

    The National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Product Workers (NUPPPPROW), in a statement signed by its President, Comrade  Ayokunle Olaoye and  General Secretary, Comrade Fatai Salami, said companies, which earlier engaged numerous workers are being forced to reduce their workforce by over 65 per cent because activities in the zone.

    The union said: “With total disregard to Federal Government’s Industrial plan, some non-patriotic companies in the zone have resorted to importing finished printed and cut to size papers, cartons and flexible packaging materials as their raw materials.”

  • Reform too early to be assessed, says MAN

    It is too early to assess the power sector reform, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has said

    Its Chairman, Infrastructure Committee, Reginald Odiah, told The Nation that the body wants to observe the unfolding situation before passing judgment on issues relating to the power sector reforms.

    He said: “As regard the issue of privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), it is a good development in the history of Nigeria’s energy sector. The idea is aimed at repositioning the sector for growth to enable it compete with others in the emerging economies.

    “Though we believe that the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is competent to regulate the sector and further make it work, we are still studying the situation. We want to see how the whole thing plays out before stating our position on the matter.”

    Odiah said the body presently generates about 550 megawatts (Mw) of power in the three out of its eight delineated industrial clusters.

    He said the association grouped the country into eight industrial clusters, out of which three were picked for the location of power plants after careful appraisal of developments. He said the three clusters located in Ota/ Abeokuta axis of Ogun State have functional power plants, adding that the Ota/Abeokuta axis was chosen because of its relatively huge concentration of industries.

    “We are looking at areas with high concentration of industries and after necessary investigations, we arrived at a decision to choose Ota/ Abeokuta axis. Besides, we discovered that the cost implication of having power plants in the area is not much compared to others.  In the three industrial clusters located in the Ota/ Abeokuta axis, we have three power plants with an output of 550Mw,” he added.

  • Man regains freedom

    A man identified as Mr. Ezebunwa, a native of Ekeakpara community in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State has reportedly regained his freedom after three days in his abductors’ hands.

    Unconfirmed report has it that Ezebunwa was released on the third day of his abduction after he had paid an undisclosed amount of money to his captors.

    Sources who spoke on anonymity told disclosed that the victim was trailed by gunmen who after rounded him up along New Umuahia drove away with him in his Toyota Camry to an unknown destination from where they opened communication with the victim’s family, demanding for a ransom for his release.

    It was gathered that after the family and the captors had reached agreement and the money delivered at unnamed location, the victim who had since been reunited with his family was dropped along Abayi Ohanze village in Obingwa Local Government Area by the hoodlums.

    Geoffrey Ogbonna, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) could not be reached and was yet to respond to a text message sent to his mobile phone.

    However, a senior police officer who preferred anonymity said they were unaware about the ransom and attributed the Ezebunwa’s release to the heat mounted on the captors by police team after the case was officially reported to them.

    “We swung into action after the case was officially reported to us. Police doesn’t involve in negotiations with hoodlums. What I can tell you is that the man was released by those that allegedly kidnapped him when the heat was too much on them. It is our duty to protect lives and property in the state and to also reduce crime to the barest minimum and that we shall continue to do,” the source stated

    The immediate family of the victim could not yet been reached for comments on whether they paid any ransom to the abductors or not.