Abia Intensifies Search for U-17 Players

In an effort to catch footballers young, Abia state Ministry of Sports has organized a football tournament in the 17 Local Government of the state which will culminate in the finals in Umuahia, the state capital.

The tournament known as Ochendo Unity competition,being sponsored by a philanthropist, Chief C.Y. Nwankwo is aimed at sourcing for talented young footballers from the rural areas.

The tournament will also have the input of the state director of sport, Mr. Ejikeme Ikwunze, who will coordinate the tournament at the state level. Already, Chief Nwankwo has donated footballs, jerseys, banners and N1.7 million to the 17 Local Government Areas to enable the Local Government Sports secretaries to kick-start the tournament.

According to him, winners of the tournament will get N2 million, runners-up will get N1 million while the third place winner gets N.5 million.

Nwankwo said in addition to fishing out young talents from the rural areas, the tournament will also forester peace and love which he said is what the present government represents.

Addressing the secretaries Tuesday, shortly before the materials were handed over to them, the state commissioner for sport, Mr. Matthew Ochiobi charged them to take the competition serious, saying that Governor Theodore Orji has interest in it.

According to him, he would motivate the secretaries by instituting some awards for the best of them.

He warned them against using mercenaries, saying that tournament is meant amateurs only.

Pension arrears: Time bomb waiting to explode – Senate

By HENRY UMORU & INALEGWU SHIBU
STRONG indications emerged yesterday that heads may roll at the office of the Head of Service following allegations that part of the funds earmarked for the payment of pension funds in the country may have been diverted into private hands.
The Senate has also warned that if urgent solution was not found in the management of the pension scheme, it was capable of throwing the country into a serious crisis as it has become a time bomb.
This was made known to Journalists yesterday in Abuja by the Chairman, Senate joint Committee investigating the management of N700 billion pension fund, Senator Aloysius Etok while speaking on the Journey so far on the comprehensive Investigation of Pension payment, management and Administration of Pension Funds in Nigeria.
According to him, at the end of the Committee’s tour of all the geo-political zones of the country, the Committee would have to question the office of Head of Service to ascertain what happened to the funds.
Senator Etok who disclosed that the entire pension funds in the country has been put at N4.23 trillion, said that in the course of the Committee’s investigation in some of the states, it was discovered that many states owed their retirees billions of naira in pension arrears, thereby causing pains on them and their immediate families while many have died, adding that one state alone in the country was indebted to pensioners to the tune of about N10-15 billion.
Senator Etok, PDP Akwa Ibom North West and Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Services noted that out of the N24 billion for the Police Pension fund, only N3 billion was paid, even as he said that N21 billion Pension fund was traced to a Commercial Bank.
Flanked by Chairman, Senate Committee on States and Local Government, Senator Kabiru Gaya, Senator Etok said, “What we discovered on ground in respect to pension payment and management is a time bomb that we must address immediately or else when it explodes, it will be disastrous because we have had some states owing N8 to N10 billion for only state pension.
“If you include the local government pension, you realize some of the states are owing N14 to N15 billion. Therefore it is impossible that such states will be able to pay considering the fact that people are retiring every month and they are adding to that number. We have discovered that and we will look for a way to make sure that such arrears are cleared and to make sure we have a clean slate to commence the next phase of pension administration.”
‘’In Benue state we were told how they traced some amount especially funds which were to be paid to retired police officers as pension about N21 billion. Again we also discovered that a lot of more money have been traced to commercial banks which are meant to be paid as pension to retired officers while the retirees are roaming the street.
‘’We also realized that there are so many pensioners who have not been captured. They said the task force added more insults to injury by excluding more people.”

Gunmen kill four policemen at IG’s house

GUNMEN suspected to be members of the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on Thursday killed four policemen and injured another two near the house of the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar.
In Minna, Niger State, some gunmen suspected to be members of the sect similarly killed two policemen.
Also, a bomb suspected to have been planted by the sect was discovered at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, located on Church Road, Minna, by members who attended the Ash Wednesday mass.
On Christmas Day last year, Boko Haram bombs killed 44 parishioners at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, also in Niger State.
The incidents coincided with a comment by a senior United States diplomat that the country would not provide military assistance to Nigeria in its battle against Boko Haram.
The US ambassador, Terence McCulley, who spoke to the Associated Press, said he would rather encourage the Federal Government to reach out to residents in the affected northern states while using security forces to target and apprehend terrorists.
The Kano attack took place during the morning rush hours along BUK Road.
Eyewitnesses’ accounts indicated that the gunmen, riding on four motorcycles, opened fire on the policemen said to be guarding the residence of the IG and killed four of them.
A statement by the spokesman for the Kano State police command, Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident but said only two policemen were killed in the attack.
Majiya said 15 suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack.
The statement reads, “Today Thursday 23rd February, 2012 at about 0830hrs along BUK Road by Island after Gidan Murtala, unknown gunmen on four motorcycles attacked our policemen on foot patrol.
“As a result of the attack two died on the spot while two were injured and are now receiving treatment at the hospital.”
The statement adds that the area of the attack has been ‘thoroughly combed” and that investigation into the incident has commenced.
Our correspondent in Kano reports that shortly after the attack, surveillance helicopters hovered above the area.
In the Minna incident, THE PUNCH learnt that the gunmen, also riding on motorcycles, opened fire at two policemen at a point near a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation mega station.
Two of the policemen reportedly died on the spot while another sustained injury and was rushed to an undisclosed nearby hospital.
The injured officer, eyewitnesses said, only escaped death by a whisker because he had gone to buy sachet water when the attack occurred.
“Two men who were on a motorbike on sighting the policemen shot directly at them and killed two of them instantly. They carted away their rifles but other policemen ran to safety. One policeman who was coming back from where he went to buy sachet water was injured,” an eyewitness told our correspondent on Thursday.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Richard Oguche, confirmed the attack and said the police were on the trail of the killers. He added that the attackers were not members of Boko Haram but members of an aggrieved group out to avenge the detention of their members arrested after the prison break in Kogi State.
The explosives found at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Suleja were reportedly kept inside a Ghana-Must-Go bag and hidden in a corner of the church premises. The bag was said to have been discovered by a member of the church who then raised the alarm.
Residents of Church Road told our correspondent on Thursday that the discovery of the explosives caused a stir in the area and it took the police anti-bomb squad searching the area to douse the fear of the residents.
Meanwhile, Terrence said the US was also considering opening a consulate in Kano to improve the country’s image among a people still suspicious about Western influence. Boko Haram means ‘Western education is evil.’
However, he was unequivocal when asked in the interview with the Associated Press whether U.S. troops should be deployed in Nigeria.
“That’s not on the table. No, absolutely not,” McCulley said.
The ambassador said the issue of Boko Haram was of great concern to the US.
“It’s of a great concern to us. We’ve seen an increase in sophistication, we’ve seen increased lethality. We saw at least a part of the group has decided it’s in their interest to attack the international community” he said.
McCulley said the U.S. was already working with the Nigerian police to help them learn how to carry out forensic investigations, while a bomb expert from the FBI has been working with authorities on how to detect explosives planted by the group before they detonate.
He said, “The U.S. also would be open to training Nigeria’s military in counter-terror techniques, though the country hasn’t asked for that assistance.
“It’s not going to be solved exclusively by treating it as a security issue. It needs a holistic solution.
“Government needs clearly to have a targeted approach on security that targets the bad guys, that targets perpetuators of these horrible attacks and doesn’t injure innocent civilians or damage property.”

Halliburton: US CEO gets 30 months jail for bribing Nigerians

NEW YORK  (AFP) – The former head of US construction company KBR was sentenced to 30 months in prison over the bribing of Nigerian officials to win contracts, the US Justice Department said Thursday.
Albert Stanley, the former chief executive officer of the engineering giant, also must pay his former company $10.8 million in restitution under the judgment handed down in a Houston federal court.
Stanley, 69, pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
KBR and its parent company, Halliburton, have also agreed to pay a $579 million fine after pleading guilty to corruption charges in Nigeria.
Stanley was accused of participating in a bribery scheme between 1995 and 2004 to obtain construction contracts worth more than $6 billion, according to a US Justice Department statement.
KBR was part of joint venture TSKJ — which also included French firm Technip SA, Dutch and Italian firm Snamprogetti Netherlands BV and Japanese firm JGC Corporation — to build a liquefied natural gas facility on Bonny Island in the Niger Delta.
The joint venture allegedly paid $183 million in bribes to a variety of Nigerian government officials, according to the Justice Department.
Stanley, who was fired by Halliburton in 2004, cooperated in the investigation in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The case sparked criminal investigations in France, Switzerland, Nigeria and Britain.
Two British men, attorney Jeffrey Tesler and businessman Wojciech Chodan, also were sentenced on criminal charges by a Houston judge. Tesler is getting 21 months in prison while Chodan is sentenced to one year of probation.
Last month, Japanese trading house Marubeni, which the TSKJ joint venture hired to help get the engineering contracts, agreed to pay a $54.6 million fine in the United States, the Justice Department said.
In 2010, Technip and Snamprogetti each agreed to pay $240 million fines while JGC settled for a nearly $219 million fine.

World Bank assisted Nigeria with $500m loan to combat global financial crisis’

By Omoh Gabriel
The World Bank extended a loan of $500 million for support to Nigeria during the global financial crisis.
This fact is contained in the just released Independent Evaluation Group report of the World Bank. According to the Bank “Nigeria faced serious fiscal issues at the onset of the crisis and the funds were given to Nigeria in the form of budgetary support to the government, for undertaking policy reforms, both in the areas of fiscal management and financial sector reform.
In terms of the content of policy reforms, there were some positive areas, however some other longer term opportunities for reform may not have been seized and overall, the programme was moderately satisfactory in terms of its achievements.”

World shouldn't stay silent in face of Syrian regime's brutality

Editor's note: Nader Hashemi is an Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. His most recent book is "The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future" (Melville House, 2011).

(CNN) -- Syria, we are told, is not like Libya. The factors that coalesced to allow for international intervention in the latter do not apply in the former. There are clear differences -- in geography, topography, the role of neighboring states, the existence of liberated territory and the posture of the U.N. Security Council -- that mitigate against external intervention.
The problem with this narrative is that it ignores the most salient factor that should guide our thinking and the international community's response to events in Syria today. That's the ongoing crimes against humanity visited upon the people of Syria by the Bashar al-Assad regime and the human rights catastrophe that is unfolding before our eyes.
While many governments repress their populations and respond with violence to public demands for change, what distinguishes the Syrian case is that all the leading human rights organizations -- Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the U.N. Human Rights Council -- have unanimously characterized the policies of the Syrian regime as "crimes against humanity."

Nader Hashemi

This means the mafia state the Assad family has been running for 42 years belongs in the same moral category as Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Rwanda's Hutu generals.
Speaking last week in New York, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay affirmed that the "nature and scale of abuses committed by Syrian forces indicate that crimes against humanity are likely to have been committed since March 2011. Independent, credible and corroborated accounts indicate that these abuses have taken place as part of a widespread and systematic attack on civilians.
"Furthermore, the breadth and patterns of attacks by military and security forces on civilians and the widespread destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure indicate approval or complicity of the authorities at the highest level."
The merciless brutality of the Syrian regime comes as no surprise. A comparison of the human rights records of member states of the Arab League places Syria at the extreme end of a spectrum of repression. Arguably, only Saddam Hussein's Iraq was worse.
While the 1982 massacre in Hama is frequently mentioned to highlight the viciousness of the Assad regime, less well-known are the horrors of Syria's prison system. Tens of thousands have passed through its doors. Untold numbers never made it out.
A Human Rights Watch report on the notorious Tadmor prison describes "deaths under torture" and "summary executions on a massive scale." One former inmate described the place as a "kingdom of death and madness" and emaciated prisoners were compared to "survivors of Nazi concentration camps."
But this was just one jail in a veritable archipelago. One day the full story of Syria's prison system and internal human rights nightmare under the Assad family will be told. When the truth emerges, it might rival the horrors chronicled in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago."
In thinking about how to respond to events in Syria today, the colossal scale of human suffering -- past and present -- should be foremost in our minds.
Any discussion of external intervention should be guided by what the Syrian people actually want from the outside world. This requires listening to the Syrian democratic opposition.
The opposition is divided on the issue of foreign military intervention, a chasm that is diminishing daily as the atrocities increase. Until there is a broad consensus, the following nonmilitary steps can be pursued immediately. They would be a huge boon of support for the opposition and would be endorsed by all Syrian democrats:
-- Officially recognize the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
-- Establish a special U.N. Commission of Inquiry along the lines of Darfur.
-- Refer the senior leadership of the al-Assad regime to the International Criminal Court.
-- Provide humanitarian air drops of food and medicine to besieged communities.
-- Keep the global spotlight on the Assad regime and its atrocities.
There is a historic struggle for democracy under way in Syria today. It represents the aspirations of a people to free themselves from the tyranny of one the most brutal regimes the developing world has ever seen. Claims that the conflict has now turned violent ignore the overarching reality that for most of the past 11 months the protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful, and notwithstanding the emergence of the Free Syrian Army, most of the protests continue to be nonviolent today.
What is truly amazing about the spread of the Arab Spring to Syria is not that some people have taken up arms in the face of a brutal crackdown but that is it didn't happen sooner, given Assad's crimes against humanity and that violent tactics haven't been adopted by more people.
The very fact that an indigenous internal struggle for democracy could emerge in one of the worst police states in the Arab world and be sustained for so long is both mind-boggling and inspiring.
The heroic struggle in Syria today represents the best of the human spirit. It is fundamentally about the most basic political value we take for granted in the West, the right of a people to self-determination. It deserves our full support.

Omotola clears up pregnancy rumours

There were rumours recently that the screen goddess is expecting her 5th child with her pilot husband, Matthew Ekeinde, but Omotola says it ain't true.