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THE NATION TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015<br />
NEWS<br />
Ex-Speaker faults<br />
Olanusi’s removal<br />
FORMER Speaker of the<br />
Ondo State House of<br />
Assembly Victor<br />
Olabimtan has described the<br />
impeachment of Deputy<br />
Governor Ali Olanusi as a<br />
slap in the face of the All<br />
Progressives Congress<br />
(APC).<br />
He described the development<br />
as the cowardly act of<br />
Governor Olusegun Mimiko.<br />
Olabimtan, an APC chieftain,<br />
said if not for Olanusi,<br />
Mimiko would not have<br />
been governor.<br />
His words: “Olanusi’s defection<br />
should not have been<br />
a licence for his impeachment,<br />
it shows the type of<br />
person Mimiko is.<br />
“The people should note<br />
that Mimiko’s action has<br />
reached a crescendo, his continued<br />
stay in power is inimical<br />
to the state’s growth.<br />
“We can’t continue like<br />
this, Mimiko’s acts must be<br />
resisted.<br />
“We will follow the rule<br />
of law and I am certain that<br />
no matter how long Olanusi<br />
will be vindicated.<br />
“The act will not go unchallenged;<br />
we will follow due<br />
process to achieve our objectives.<br />
Supare-Akoko, Olanusi’s<br />
home town, was in a pensive<br />
mood yesterday.<br />
One of his kinsmen, Ebenezer<br />
David, said: “Olanusi is<br />
one of the pillars in the community,<br />
who brought development<br />
to the area.”<br />
Ikare-Akoko people were<br />
jubilating over the appointment<br />
of Lasisi Oluboyo as<br />
the new deputy governor.<br />
Jonathan sacks<br />
NHIS Executive<br />
Secretary<br />
•Peter Obi is SEC Chair<br />
PRESIDENT Goodluck<br />
Jonathan has sacked<br />
the Executive<br />
Secretary/Chief Executive<br />
Officer of the National<br />
Health Insurance Scheme<br />
(NHIS), Dr. Femi Thomas.<br />
In a statement by his Special<br />
Adviser on Media and<br />
Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati,<br />
the President has approved<br />
the appointment of Mr.<br />
Olufemi A. Akingbade as<br />
Acting Executive Secretary/<br />
Chief Executive Officer of<br />
the NHIS.<br />
No reason was given in the<br />
statement for Thomas’ removal.<br />
“Akingbade, who hails<br />
from Ekiti State and holds a<br />
Bachelors Degree in Computer<br />
Science as well as a<br />
Masters in Business Administration,<br />
was the General<br />
Manager, ICT in the NHIS<br />
until his new appointment,”<br />
it added<br />
The statement also said<br />
Jonathan has approved the<br />
confirmation of Mounir Haliru<br />
Gwarzo as Director-<br />
General of the Securities and<br />
Exchange Commission<br />
(SEC).<br />
“ Gwarzo who has been<br />
acting as director-general of<br />
the commission, was appointed<br />
as Executive Commissioner<br />
in January 2013,”<br />
the statement said.<br />
On the appointment of the<br />
former Anambra State Governor,<br />
Peter Obi, he said:<br />
“The President has also<br />
approved the appointment<br />
of the former Governor of<br />
Anambra State, Mr. Peter<br />
Obi, as chairman of the<br />
SEC.”<br />
•Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun (second right), Secretary to the State Government Taiwo Adeoluwa (right), Chairman, China Civil Engineering<br />
Construction Company (CCECC), Cao Bao Gang (second left) and Chinese Consul-General in Lagos, Lin Kan at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding<br />
(MOU) on the Light Rail Network project for Ogun State at the Governor's Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta...yesterday. Story on page 11<br />
Troops still in Sambisa forest, says DHQ<br />
THE Defence Headquarters<br />
yesterday denied<br />
media reports<br />
that troops have retreated<br />
from the Sambisa forest,<br />
which has served as the<br />
main operational base for<br />
Boko Haram insurgents.<br />
A statement by the Director<br />
of Defence Information,<br />
Major-General Chris<br />
Olukolade, said operation<br />
was progressing and gaining<br />
increasing momentum<br />
towards clearing all terrorist<br />
hideouts in the forest.<br />
“It is noteworthy that it is<br />
becoming common for sto-<br />
THE Lagos State government<br />
has said the<br />
Independent National<br />
Electoral Commission<br />
(INEC) is responsible for its<br />
inability to conduct local<br />
government elections.<br />
Commissioner for Local<br />
Government and Chieftaincy<br />
Affairs Ademorin Kuye<br />
said it is still impossible for<br />
the government to state<br />
when the elections will hold<br />
as INEC was yet to make the<br />
voters register available.<br />
Kuye said: “I cannot say<br />
when the elections will be<br />
conducted. There is no way<br />
From Gbade Ogunwale,<br />
Assistant Editor, Abuja<br />
ries of attacks on some remote<br />
settlements to be fabricated<br />
and attributed to<br />
anonymous or unidentifiable<br />
source in remote places.<br />
This is apparently the<br />
work of terrorists’ sympathisers<br />
or propagandists.<br />
“Military operations to<br />
eliminate all terrorist hideouts<br />
are going on well and<br />
the terrorists are being seriously<br />
decimated. They will<br />
continue to be pursued and<br />
prevented from constituting<br />
danger to civilian population<br />
in their desperation for<br />
survival, suicide or publicity,”<br />
Gen Olukolade added.<br />
He debunked reports<br />
claiming that terrorists are<br />
now in control of Mafa in<br />
Borno State, saying that attempts<br />
by a group of fleeing<br />
terrorists who strayed towards<br />
the town and engaged<br />
typical suicide attacks were<br />
duly repelled by troops.<br />
He continued: “Similarly,<br />
the claim by some media<br />
organisations that terrorists<br />
chased out troops and took<br />
over Marte cannot be verified<br />
as troops were busy elsewhere<br />
during the said attack.<br />
“However, efforts to track<br />
the terrorists who were reported<br />
to have attacked the<br />
town have not indicated<br />
their presence as claimed.<br />
“Surveillance activities are<br />
however ongoing although<br />
there has been no indication<br />
of the large number of terrorists<br />
as being claimed in<br />
some reports attributed to<br />
anonymous sources.<br />
“The terrorist are certainly<br />
no longer capable of that<br />
level of coordinated action<br />
by thousands of terrorists as<br />
Lagos: INEC to blame for delay in council polls<br />
PENSIONERS of the Nigeria<br />
Social Insurance<br />
Trust Fund (NSITF)<br />
yesterday shut down activities<br />
at the Fund over nonpayment<br />
of their 58 months’<br />
arrears.<br />
The pensioners, who<br />
blocked the entrance at 8am,<br />
disrupted visitors and vehicular<br />
movements in or out of<br />
the premises.<br />
They alleged that the<br />
Fund’s management neglected<br />
and refused to pay the<br />
approved increase by the<br />
Federal Government since<br />
July 2010.<br />
The protesters said the<br />
NSITF should pay the arrears.<br />
Otherwise, they insisted,<br />
they would continue the<br />
protest and seek support<br />
from the Nigeria Labour<br />
Congress (NLC) and the<br />
Trade Union Congress<br />
By Miriam Ekene-Okoro<br />
the electoral commission<br />
can conduct any election<br />
without having the appropriate<br />
voters register. And<br />
this register is still in INEC’s<br />
custody.<br />
“It has not been released<br />
to the state. The moment it<br />
is released to the<br />
government, then we can<br />
start planning on when the<br />
elections will be held.<br />
The commissioner<br />
blamed the recent loss of the<br />
All Progressives Congress<br />
(APC) to the opposition in<br />
(TUC).<br />
Some of the protesters carried<br />
inscriptions such as<br />
“Pension Matters: Board approved<br />
N350 million, Trust<br />
Fund received N200 million,<br />
Balance N150 million. Dr.<br />
Ngozi Olejeme, where did<br />
you keep NSITF Pensioners’<br />
N150 million? Alh. Munir,<br />
Do you know?”, “Mr. President,<br />
is Dr. Ngozi Olejeme<br />
above the law?” Dr. Ngozi<br />
Olejeme and NSITF Management,<br />
pay your in-house<br />
pensioners their entitlement.”<br />
The Deputy General Secretary,<br />
Nigeria Union of Pensioners<br />
(NUP), Chief Joseph<br />
Okunade, said the protest<br />
was held against maltreatment<br />
of NUP members.<br />
some local governments to<br />
money and ethnic politics,<br />
saying the performance of<br />
the council executives has<br />
nothing to do with the loss.<br />
“The allegation that lack of<br />
performance led to the APC<br />
losing five House of Representatives<br />
and eight House<br />
of Assembly seats is not true.<br />
“This was because the last<br />
election was dictated and<br />
influenced by money politics.<br />
President Goodluck<br />
Jonathan was in Lagos several<br />
times abandoning his<br />
office in Abuja.<br />
Okunade said: “You can<br />
imagine the NSITF owing<br />
the pensioners 58 months<br />
arrears of pension increase.<br />
If the Managing Director<br />
does not take his money in a<br />
“Another factor was ethnicity.<br />
One will notice that<br />
in the area where the APC<br />
lost, they were areas dominated<br />
by certain tribes.<br />
The commissioner said the<br />
boundary and land dispute<br />
involving the Onilogbo of<br />
Ilogbo-Eremi in Olorunda<br />
Local Council Development<br />
Area in Badagry Division<br />
was resolved by the ministry.<br />
He also said boundary dispute<br />
between Agege, Ikeja<br />
and Orile local governments<br />
was also resolved.<br />
Protesters shut down NSITF over 58-month arrears<br />
From Olugbenga Adanikin<br />
and Jummai Kpoga, Abuja<br />
‘We have talked<br />
to them, written<br />
to them and taken<br />
different approaches<br />
but<br />
they turned a<br />
deaf ear, that is<br />
why we are protesting.<br />
We will<br />
continue to pester<br />
and picket<br />
them’<br />
month, you know how he<br />
will feel.<br />
“We have talked to them,<br />
written to them and taken<br />
different approaches but<br />
they turned a deaf ear, that<br />
is why we are protesting.<br />
“We will continue to pester<br />
and picket them. You see<br />
they cannot go in and come<br />
out.”<br />
NSTIF’s NUP Chairman<br />
Aham Mbazigwe-Akonye<br />
said the organisation did not<br />
cater for welfare of workers.<br />
According to him, he<br />
worked for about 23 years<br />
but after the new pension<br />
approval, NSITF was yet to<br />
effect the changes.<br />
Asked if there were commitments<br />
from the NSITF<br />
management on the pension,<br />
he said several appeals were<br />
made but yielded no positive<br />
results.<br />
9<br />
reported.”<br />
Gen. Olukolade advised<br />
the media to ignore what he<br />
described as “fabrication<br />
being churned out by some<br />
terrorists sympathisers trying<br />
to encourage the terrorists<br />
who he said were in disarray”.<br />
“The truth is that the operation<br />
to decimate them from<br />
Nigerian territories is progressing<br />
well. The military<br />
will not be dissuaded by the<br />
resurgence of false reports<br />
on the operations. The<br />
progress will be prosecuted<br />
as necessary”, he said.<br />
Oyo Tribunal<br />
gets 12 petitions<br />
From Oseheye Okwuofu,<br />
Ibadan<br />
THE Oyo State Election<br />
Petitions Tribunal<br />
yesterday said it has<br />
received 12 petitions - 10<br />
House of Representatives<br />
and two senatorial.<br />
At the State High Court,<br />
Iyaganku, Ibadan, where<br />
Courts 15 and 21 have been<br />
assigned to hear the petitions,<br />
a tribunal official, who<br />
pleaded for anonymity, said<br />
it was too early to give details.<br />
He said the two senatorial<br />
petitions received were in<br />
respect of Oyo Central and<br />
Oyo South districts.<br />
The tribunal official said<br />
the 21-day period allowed<br />
for filing of petitions had<br />
lapsed in respect of the presidential/National<br />
Assembly<br />
elections.<br />
The court official said<br />
hearing might not begin until<br />
next week when, according<br />
to him, “it is expected<br />
that all the necessary filings<br />
would have been completed<br />
and those expected to be<br />
served would have received<br />
the papers”.<br />
It was gathered that petitions<br />
in respect of both the<br />
governorship and State<br />
House of Assembly elections<br />
held on April 11 could still<br />
be entertained.<br />
The All Progressives Congress<br />
(APC) made a clean<br />
sweep of the National Assembly<br />
election, winning 12<br />
of the 14 House of Representatives<br />
seats and all the three<br />
senatorial seats.