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Tag: sanctions

  • Senate backs sanctions against 23,000 ghost workers

    Senate backs sanctions against 23,000 ghost workers

    The Senate has lent its voice to the call for sanctions against over 23, 000 ghost workers said to have been discovered through the  Bank Verification Number (BVN).

    Also for prosecution are civil servants and bank officials found to have aided the scam, adding that those found culpable must face prosecution.

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, John Enoh, stated this yesterday during the budget defence session with the Ministry of Finance.

    Addressing the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Enoh urged the ministry to ensure that funds fraudulently received through the scam are recovered.

    Mrs. Adeosun said perpetrators of the scam and their collaborators would be punished and that the dragnet would also cover bank officials that aided the theft.

    She added that the banks used in perpetrating the fraud would be made to refund the money.

    The minister said the ghost workers were discovered through the adoption of the Personnel Payroll Information System and Bank Verification Number platforms.

    Adeosun said:  “What the IPPIS-BVN registration has shown us has been a revelation, we have identified that there are people who appear on our payroll multiple times.

    “BVN links all accounts of that person, so we are seeing in our payroll, 20 names to one BVN number.

    “We have had a meeting on how we are going to clean them off, the process will be that we will suspend that person from the payroll pending the investigation.

    “We will try as much as possible to conclude that investigation within 30 days so that we do not suffer innocent people, but we need to clean our payroll.

    “We have about 23,000 that we need to investigate: those whom either the BVN is linked to multiple payment or the name on the BVN account is not consistent with the name on our payroll.

    “Not only will we remove those people from our payroll, but we will also be going after the banks involved to collect our money.

    “So some of the information that we are getting is how long has this person been on the pay roll, how much has he been getting. In some getting the accounts are held by the same bank and in some cases all were opened on the same day”.

    She hinted that the ministry would have registered the entire federal workforce on the BVN platform by the end of June.

    According to her, the removal of the ghost workers from the government’s pay roll would reduce personnel cost by over N100 billion.

    She added that the removal of fake workers will reduce the personnel burden on the Federal Government, hence the reduction of personnel cost in 2016 by about N100 billion.

  • Spate of regulatory sanctions worries LCCI

    Spate of regulatory sanctions worries LCCI

    • Chamber calls for restraint 

    The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) is worried over the spate of regulatory sanctions in recent times, saying the penalties are severe, arbitrary and disproportionate.

    In a document signed by its President, Mr. Remi Bello, and made available to The Nation, Bello said while the LCCI would not support impunity under whatever guise, it would desire that the activities of regulatory institutions are in consonance with best regulatory practice.

    He identified the recent sanctions of N1.4 trillion fine imposed on MTN by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) because of non-registration of SIM cards; and N1 billion administrative charge imposed on Guinness by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

    Others are the N4 billion penalty imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Skye Bank; penalty on FirstBank to the tune of  N1.9 billion and N2.9 billion imposed on UBA by the CBN.

    LCCI argued that “sanctions should be proportionate and corrective. It should not be of such magnitude as to impose a shock from which recovery by firms may either be difficult or impossible. There should also be a clear framework and guidelines for the imposition of sanctions or penalties.”

    Bello canvassed the defining of the limits of regulatory discretional powers. He said the chamber took this position to check the abuse of power by regulatory agencies to avoid high-handedness and intimidating disposition which would not augur well for an economy that needs to attract investment.

    “Already, the perception and ranking of Nigeria as an investment destination is unsatisfactory. For instance, Nigeria ranks 169 out of 189 countries profiled in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report for 2015.

    “It also has a ranking of 124 out of 140 countries profiled in the global competitiveness report of the World Economic Forum. The regulatory environment is a critical factor in this ranking performance of Nigeria”, Bello added.

  • NAFDAC sanctions 1,000 in Oyo

    NAFDAC sanctions 1,000 in Oyo

    The outgoing Oyo State Coordinator of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Rev. Benjamin Haruna, has said in the last six years, the agency sanctioned over 1000 individuals for unregistered products, sales of fake products, parallel importation and unsatisfactory factory productions.

    Haruna, the agency’s director, Chemical, Cosmetics and Medical Devices, Ports Authority, Lagos, said this at his send off in Ibadan.

    “During the six years that I was the state coordinator, we penalised not less than 1,000 people for offences stipulated by the agency.

    “The challenges encountered when we came in some years back was that there wasn’t much awareness about the activities of the agency, so we have to reach out to the people at the grassroots.

    “We also have logistics problem, we did not have enough vehicles before. We were also short of staff when I came in because we had six workers then but now we have 22. Another challenge is the small office space we have now for our staff and equipment.

    “We established the agency’s desk officers in each local government, we ensure massive awareness, collaboration with necessary organisations and sanctioned people found culpable.”

  • Sanctions, war and unity

    IN his address to the American people on the 13th anniversary of 9/11, the plane bombing of the twin towers of New York and the Pentagon building by Al Quada, the US President Barak Obama sounded more like his predecessor former President George Bush when he addressed the US Congress in 2001 after that unfortunate event that changed the course of world history with the start of the US War on Terror. The context was of course different and Obama had been elected on an anti war mood and campaign in 2008 but the spirit, the target, the message and challenges were the same.

    The US will go after those who kill or threaten its citizens any where in the world and would not flinch in fighting any threat to it security in any part of the globe. How this unity of purpose and commitment came about for these two very different presidents of the US and what we can learn or glean from it in advancing our understanding of the global security challenges posed by the rising menace of Islamic Militancy, is the kernel of our discussion of today. Since the US is perhaps right now, the only nation taking on ISIS on behalf of a watching, waiting and docile world, including of course a Boko Haram ridden and ridiculed Nigeria, we shall look at events that shaped the new US policy on ISIS which explicitly states that it will degrade and destroy the capacity of ISIS to kill, behead and murder innocent people with impunity anywhere in the world.

    Along side this we shall look at the efforts of UK Prime Minster David Cameron in trying to save the unity of the Kingdom by appealing to Scots desperately not to vote for separation or independence from the UK in the forthcoming referendum on that subject. We shall also look at an issue that threatens Nigeria’s unity and stability and that is the reported reallocation of polling booths in Nigeria by INEC. The two highlighted issues – from UK and Nigeria – bother on national unity and territorial integrity of both nations, and one should note that even in the newly declared limited war on ISIL, the US president has the backing of the Opposition Republicans in the US who even feel the ISIL war should be bigger in scope, just like George Bush got his go- ahead from his Congressional Address in 2001 to show internal unity of purpose on the war.

    Going back to the US president’s declaration of war on ISIL, on the anniversary of 9/11 this week I want to teasingly say that the road to war, albeit an half hearted one, by the US, has been littered by the grit, sweat and success of sanctions, first against Iran and now Russia on which the US announced further sanctions this week. In that ISIL address the US president praised his previous efforts in maintaining world peace by stating that the much criticised US policy on Syria where he stopped the much envisaged air strikes on Syria, yielded the dividend of the destruction of Syria’s much dreaded chemical weapons. It is interesting to recall that Russia was very much a stumbling block in thwarting any UN resolution advanced by the US and EU to get UN approval for the airstrikes against the regime of President Assad who was blatantly killing his country men just to stay in power. Obviously Russian foreign policy prevailed in the UN then, as it was able to prevent the west from dislodging the Assad regime with airstrikes .

    To me that lack of deterrence made Islamist extremists bolder in Syria leading to the emergence ISIL. It made Russia led by President Vladmir Putin more aggressive and that was how the invasion of Crimea came to pass and stand, till today. It also finally and inadvertently led to the to the invasion of Ukraine, which the EU and the US reacted to with sanctions but which the Russians interpreted as a lack of will to fight, but which now is biting so hard that the Russians have begun the withdrawal of their troops, as confirmed by no less a person than the Ukrainian president himself this week. Now, Russia’s joy in stopping a UN sanctioned US airstrike over Syria has boomeranged into a pyrrhic victory with the rise of ISIL which has seen the US willing to fight along its erstwhile adversary in the region, Iran which also is opposed to ISIL or Islamic State and wants it destroyed by all means – but first in Iraq. Which is where it is attacking the Iraqi government led by a Shia majority whose brand of Islam is from Iran .Hitherto Russia and Iran have been staunch allies propping up the repressive regime and bloody tyranny of President Assad in Syria.

    Now the US and Iran have a sudden convergence of interests in liquidating the Islamic State threat for their mutual security, regional control and peace. The basis for this partnership of strange bedfellows lies in the Obama ISIL war declaration this week in which he asserted that ISIL is not Islamic because Islam does not approve of killing innocent people and is definitely not a state and therefore has no locus to claim any territorial authority. So Iran, familiar with the withering power of economic sanctions over its bid for nuclear weapons has now found some measure of respect for US outlook and values, in spite of the differences of culture and politics, which have hitherto made both nations implacable enemies till now. Similarly, the Russians who have been making merry with Obama’s steady dilemma in going to war, any where, now know that sanctions can bite really hard, while invasions can be costly to enact and very expensive to maintain in the face of a determined and bold EU and US not really willing to go to a full scale war; but ready, crafty and wily enough to impose crippling sanctions which obviously have made the rampaging Russia bear of the brazen invasion fame, to respect international law and withdraw to its borders at least from Ukraine as it happened this week.

    While the US was making the Middle East secure against Islamic State, Britain was fighting a war of unity as the PM and his deputy flew to Scotland to urge the people there not to secede as it were from the UK as the opinion polls were suggesting that this was the direction of the mind of most Scots on the referendum on Scotland’s proposed Independence. David Cameron’s advice that there would be no going back on the yes vote seemed like a subtle blackmail to me as the choice is before the electorate which has had more than ample time to ruminate over this.

    Which ever way it goes, the Scots have their fate and future in their hands I wish them well in choosing either to jettison the Union Jack or not as that would not really end the sonorous singing of popular national anthem – God Save the Queen What is admirable in all these is the fight being put on by the British PM to preserve the unity of the UK even as the choice is before the electorate to decide. Which is quite the opposite in Nigeria where objections have been raised to the way INEC has re demarcated polling booths and given more to the North than the South. Eminent Southerners have cried foul and have asked the INEC Chairman to resign but he has refused but instead has said firmly that he would be around in 2015. Which to me seems he has turned the issue into a do or die affair. Which also is as bizarre as it is unfortunate.

    This is because in a nation in which the army cannot contain an insurgency similar to that the US declared war on this week, even though ISIL is not on its homeland, elections can certainly not be a priority over security and the containment and quashing of the insurgency. In addition by using whatever figures or statistics INEC used for the number of polling booths in the North and South, INEC has opened a dangerous pandoras box over Nigeria’s census figures which have always revealed that the North is more populous than the South. Which also is a fallacy in terms of the steady north- south population migration which is the demographic trend in Nigeria away from the creeping Sahel which makes habitation difficult leading to further migration away from the Sahel to find greener pastures down south.

    But in Nigeria the Sahel States have more population than the southern states to which people are running to from the harsh unsustainable vegetation of the Sahel . When I saw pictures of students being evacuated from the University and Polytechnic in Mubi because of Boko Haram I could not but recall that when I served as a youth corps in Federal School of Arts and Science Mubi, which later became the Polytechnic in Mubi the population of North Eastern state was put at 15m. The state later gave birth to six states namely, Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gongola, Gombe but unfortunately the former NE is now the theatre of war in Nigeria with Boko Haram claiming territories as caliphate on a daily basis.

    Is INEC planning to conduct elections in 2015 in these states especially Borno? And are more polling booths being allocated in these war zones for the 2015 elections? Surely these questions beg for answers as the elections are less than six months away. Again I want to stress that it is bad enough having elections during an insurgency that is intractable, not to talk of adding another headache over polling booths based on questionable census figures that have always generated heated and passionate political contentions and controversies. A word I think is enough for the wise and I urge INEC to show a great sense of responsibility and restraint and rethink the basis of its new polling booths allocation nationwide, if it has any respect for the unity and stability of Nigeria as at presently constituted.

  • UK pork farmers threatened by Russian import sanctions

    UK pork farmers will face pressure to lower prices because of Russia’s ban on food imports from a number of Western countries, say experts.

    The ban is expected to increase the supply of pork on world markets.

    “This will increase competition on global markets,” said Mick Sloyan, director of BPEX, the UK trade body for pork producers.

    “It may have some knock-on effect on the EU market and, hence, the UK,” he added.

    The ban bars imports from countries which have imposed sanctions on Russia.

    The tit-for-tat ban, expected to last at least a year, includes the EU, US, Australia, Canada and Norway.

    Russia imports around 90% of its pork with Canada supplying 40% of that. The ban means that those farmers will now have to find alternative markets.

    James Leavesley, chief executive of Midland Pig Producers, said this could lead to oversupply in the market, with pork exports originally bound for Russia now set to be sold elsewhere.

    “If Russia bans pork from other countries there is a danger it could be dumped into the UK market,” he says.

    Mr Leavesley said the industry had already been hurt by low margins and falling prices.

    Pork prices have already fallen in some regions.

    In Chicago, where one of the main benchmark pork prices is determined, “Lean Hog Futures” have fallen 18 per cent from their  July 7 peak.

    “The Russians are going to leave some extra meat on the market for consumers to absorb,” Terry Roggensack, partner at commodity research firm the Hightower Report, said.

  • Stronger sanctions on Russia, at last

    Stronger sanctions on Russia, at last

    After lengthy and difficult deliberations, the European Union agreed on Tuesday to a new and higher level of sanctions against Russia, including the closing of European capital markets to Russian state banks, an embargo on new weapons sales and the transfer of sophisticated oil drilling technology.

    The United States followed suit shortly with measures meant to match the Europeans’ and further added a Russian shipbuilding firm to the list of companies banned from doing business with Americans.

    These punitive and carefully orchestrated actions go considerably beyond any previous sanctions. They are designed to exact a heavy price from President Vladimir Putin, and deservedly so. Russia’s behavior since the downing of a Malaysian jetliner with the loss of 298 lives has been a string of lies and a sharp escalation of direct involvement in the Ukrainian fray.

    Russia, Mr. Obama said, “is once again isolating itself from the international community, setting back decades of genuine progress. It didn’t have to come to this. It doesn’t have to be this way. This is a choice that Russia, and President Putin in particular, has made.” Compounding the case against Russia are public charges by the United States that Russia has violated a fundamental arms control accord, the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, by testing a prohibited ground-launched cruise missile. According to a report in The Times on Tuesday, Mr. Obama conveyed the finding to Mr. Putin on Monday. So far, there has been no public response from Moscow. The I.N.F. treaty, signed in 1987, bans testing, producing or possessing such missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles.

    Economic sanctions are a flawed and double-edged weapon, but, short of armed force, they are the only tools at the disposal of the West to make President Putin and his revanchist-ruling clique understand that breaking the rules of international behavior carries a cost, and, further, that there can be no business-as-usual when Russia carries out armed aggression against a sovereign state while enabling proxies in eastern Ukraine who shoot down an unarmed passenger plane.

    Europe’s readiness to strengthen its earlier response — which has consisted mainly of restrictions on individual Russians — and to join the United States in striking at the Russian economy shows that Europe’s leaders have now grasped the magnitude of Mr. Putin’s threat. It shows also a commendable willingness to confront that threat despite the difficulty of coordinated action by 28 European Union members, Europe’s heavy dependence on Russian natural gas, and the potential cost in lost jobs and contracts.

    This change of view makes all the more troubling France’s continued determination to deliver at least one of the two Mistral-class warships it is building for Russia for 1.2 billion euros, or about $1.6 billion. The Mistral is not heavily armed, but it is a serious military asset as a forward command post and helicopter carrier. It is, in short, a formidable weapon, and the very idea that France is building two for Mr. Putin at this time is deeply troubling.

    President François Hollande of France and other French officials have reacted angrily to American and British calls for the deal to be suspended. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain has been especially sharply assailed in France for criticizing the French while keeping Britain’s doors open to Russian oligarchs who park a lot of their loot in London. Certainly Britain cannot be exempt from making sacrifices in any future round of sanctions; nor Germany, with its extensive exports to Russia, nor any other European Union member. But financial sacrifice is one thing; arming Russia is another. That is what the French should focus on at this juncture, not the supposed slights of their allies.

    At this point, it appears likely that France will go ahead with the delivery of the first Mistral, the Vladivostok, in October. But Mr. Hollande has left open the possibility of at least delaying the second one, which is due for delivery late next year. One warship less may not hurt Mr. Putin as much as economic measures that shrink his economy and hurt his cronies, but a decision by France to suspend the deal would encourage other European countries to accept whatever sacrifices future sanctions might entail. It would also make a powerful statement about Western resolve not to appease Mr. Putin — and about French honor.

    – New York Times

  • Insurance firms’ CEOs face sanctions

    Insurance firms’ CEOs face sanctions

    The fate of 13 chief executives of insurance companies and broking firms is hanging in the balance following their failure to submit their audited accounts to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

    For this breach, NAICOM has given the affected institutions a seven-day ultimatum to explain why they should not be sanctioned.

    The affected CEOs are the Managing Directors of African Alliance Insurance, International Energy Insurance Plc, Industrial & General Insurance Plc, Capital Express Assurance Limited, Great Nigeria Insurance, NICON Insurance Limited, Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, Staco Insurance Plc, Standard Alliance Insurance Plc, UNIC Insurance Plc, Union Assurance Company Limited and Goldlink Insurance Plc.

    Others are: Alliance & General Insurance, Allinace & General Life Assurance which has been under suspension since 2012,  Investment & Allied Insurance Plc and Spring Life Assurance Plc.

    In a July 21 letter to the chief executive officers, NAICOM requested the 13 CEOs “to give acceptable explanations within seven days on why regulatory actions should not be taken against them for failing to submit their 2013 annual report as required by law”.

    The seven-day ultimatum is with effect from July 21.

    According to the memo, NAICOM stressed that it will be decisive on any of the CEO who fails within the stipulated seven-day period to explain why the sanction should not apply.

    The Insurance Act 2003 mandates insurance companies to file their annual accounts, six months after the financial year.

    The law for filing of annual returns and accounts states that “all insurance and re-insurance companies shall submit to the Commission three copies each of duly audited financial statements and annual returns in prescribed forms.

    “In respect of operation of the company for 2010, returns shall be filed on, or before 30th June, 2011. Failure to file annual returns as prescribed by Section 26 of the Insurance Act, 2003 constitutes a ground for cancellation of operating licence.”

    It states that “an insurer shall be deemed to have failed to file its annual returns if the provisions of Section 26 of the Insurance Act 2003, are not met 12 months after the end of the financial year. For purposes of compliance, accounting period shall run from 1st January to 31st December, 2010,” it added.

    Last week, The Nation reported that NAICOM has stepped up its regulatory duties by releasing information on insurance companies’ financials to the public.

    However, the Commission has not been able to provide data for 2012 and 2013 owing to late, or non-submission of some companies accounts since 2012.

  • U.S. sanctions on Russia over Ukraine would buy negotiating power

    U.S. sanctions on Russia over Ukraine would buy negotiating power

    RUSSIA AND the United States have pursued dramatically different strategies on Ukraine in the 10 days preceding a diplomatic meeting Thursday in Geneva. While loudly denouncing what it has described as direct Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine and threatening tough sanctions, the Obama administration elected not to take any concrete action in the hope that the meeting, which also includes the foreign ministers of Ukraine and the European Union, will produce positive results. The administration also has refused Ukraine’s desperate requests for non-lethal aid for its military as it attempts to turn back the quasi-covert offensive.

    Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, in contrast, clearly is unconcerned about provoking the other side. Russian operatives, who apparently have infiltrated military forces, have been steadily stepping up their attacks on Ukrainian government installations in a dozen or more cities and towns. On Wednesday these forces and their Ukrainian followers managed to turn back a weak effort by the Ukrainian government to retake some of the installations, in one case disarming a column of government soldiers and confiscating their armored personnel carriers.

    Consequently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive in Geneva with considerable leverage. With eastern Ukraine in Russian-induced chaos, Moscow is ready not to negotiate but to dictate terms. “Ukraine,” said Mr. Lavrov on Wednesday, “must be forced to start genuine rather than cosmetic constitutional reform.” By that he means Ukraine should be forced to dismember itself into autonomous regions that the Kremlin could manipulate and ultimately control.

    What chips do the United States and European Union have to counter Moscow’s bald aggression? Little more than vague threats. “We are actively looking at our options,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday. Officials privately say they are working with the Europeans on a modest expansion of last month’s sanctions against Mr. Putin’s inner circle — while holding off on the far-more-potent “sectoral sanctions” that Mr. Kerry said were “on the table” last week.

    The Obama administration is not wrong to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis. But diplomacy can’t succeed when the underlying balance of forces is lopsidedly in favor of a U.S. adversary — and the administration declines to take actions that might create incentives for compromise. That’s as true of Mr. Putin’s Russia as it is of Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, which dismissed the last U.S. effort to broker an accord in Geneva after Mr. Obama elected not to provide significant support for Syrian rebels.

    Administration advocates of inaction argue that Washington should move only in concert with European governments, which have much larger economic interests in Russia and consequently are more reluctant. But as it demonstrated with Iran, the United States has the power to take potent action on its own, especially in the financial sector — and such steps can induce other countries to join in. By waiting for Europe, the Obama administration essentially hands a veto over its response to what it describes as unacceptable transgressions to states such as Cyprus and Malta.

    The Obama administration’s attempt to smooth the way for a diplomatic solution has virtually ensured that the Geneva meeting will fail. Once it does, the president should take action that will give Mr. Putin tangible cause to pull back.

    – Washington Post

  • NBBF sanctions Plateau Peaks, Royal Hoopers

    NBBF sanctions Plateau Peaks, Royal Hoopers

    The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has sanctioned Plateau Peaks Basketball Club of Jos and Royal Hoopers Basketball Club of Port Harcourt for actions inimical to the growth of the game.

    While Plateau Peaks are to forfeit the Week 4 game against Gombe Bulls for abandoning the game and for the action of their fans who switched off the lights at the venue of the game which prevented the visiting team from taking the mandatory free throws awarded them, Royal Hoopers are forfeiting the Week 1 game against Dodan Warriors for not showing up at the venue in their Week One encounter in Lagos.

    The NBBF stated that the action of Plateau Peaks supporters “put the game into disrepute and compromised the safety and security of the visiting team and technical officials”, adding that “by walking off the court (Plateau Peaks) had deliberately abandoned the game and frustrated Due Process and consequently you, by that action, forfeited the game to the visiting team.”

    While acknowledging Royal Hoopers’ prompt response to the query issued them by the NBBF, the federation warned the club that their financial problems were not tenable reasons for not honouring league games and other obligations.The team was warned not to allow a reoccurence in future as more stringent sanctions will be applied.

    Equally Plateau Peaks were strongly warned to ensure that their supporters refrain from actions capable of bringing the game into disrepute “otherwise appropriate sanction will be applied.”

    Meanwhile, the NBBF has put in place the machinery for the All Star Game scheduled to hold in Lagos on April 25, 2014, adding that the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the game shall be announced soon.

  • Mark seeks tougher sanctions against kidnappers

    Senate President David Mark has called for draconian measures against kidnappers. He said they do not deserve to live among normal human beings.

    Mark spoke at the funeral mass for late Chief James Emeka Iloenyosi at the St. Mark’s Catholic Church, Abagana in Anambra State

    Iloenyosi died in the hands of kidnappers.

    Mark, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh, in Abuja, added that “the unabating cases of kidnapping is a big shame. If stringent measure is not adopted, the perpetrators would not stop.

    “It is a big challenge to all of us. The government is there to take responsibilities, but the community cannot absolve herself of basic responsibilities. These kidnappers live among us. It is therefore incumbent on community leaders to fish them out. Today, it is Chief Iloenyosi , who knows the next victim tomorrow?

    “If a traditional ruler, such as Chief Iloenyosi, is kidnapped and died in the hands of his abductors, then who is safe in this community? That is why everybody must vow to say enough is enough and no more to kidnapping in Anambra state.”

    Anambra State Governor Peter Obi said the government would not rest until the last kidnapper was flushed out of the state. Obi urged the people and community leaders to cooperate with the government.

    The daughter of the deceased, Mrs. Ogugua Agagbo, said the family was planning the Chief’s 80th birthday before he died.

    Mrs. Agagbo said the family has been traumatised but has equally taken the incident in good faith, saying “we are consoled that our father lived a life of service to the community, which everybody attested to”.

    Speaking at another funeral service for the late Saleh Ankwa Oyihoma, father of House of Representatives’ member Hassan Saleh in Otukpo, Benue State, a Mark urged Nigerians to be combat ready against terrorists in the Northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

    He said the dimension of the renewed attacks have gone beyond human comprehension but “with cooperation and support of the citizenry, we can savage the situation”.

    He said as a nation yearning for development, security of lives and property as well as infrastructural facilities, every citizen must join the crusade as stakeholders in the struggle to enthrone an egalitarian society “we can all be proud of”.

    He described late Saleh Ankwa Oyihoma as a gallant soldier who served in the Nigerian Army with all his strength saying, “the determination of the our fore-fathers brought out the best in the generation of today.”