Companies belonging to Total in Nigeria, made up of units in both the upstream and downstream sectors of Nigeria’s oil industry, have boosted the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease in the country with the donation of five brand new vehicles to the cause.
The vans, of the Ford Pick-up specifications and with electronic fueling cards, have been handed over to the Ebola Emergency Operation Centre, Yaba, Lagos.
The company said the donation of the vans is part of its support to complement efforts by the Federal Government and a number of state governments to curb the spread of the disease in the country.
Deputy managing director of the firm, Charles Ngoka, represented the managing Director of Total E&P Nigeria Limited, Elisabeth Proust, at the event, saying as corporate citizens, the Total Companies in Nigeria had opted to be part of the efforts to fight EVD.
“This prompted the companies to send representations to this centre earlier this month. The recommendations submitted necessitated the decision to do something urgently.
“This is why the Total Companies in Nigeria decided to provide these vehicles as a means of mobility for this centre because of the obvious need to transport cases from wherever they are in this vast state to the centre and back to their homes after treatment,” Ngoka noted.
In the same vein, managing director of Total Nigeria Plc, Alexis Vovk, disclosed that with the electronic fuel cards, the centre could refuel the vehicles at any Total filling station nationwide.
Project Director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi, thanked Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria for the donation, stating that the pick-up vans would enhance their movement and speed of response to investigating suspected cases of infection before isolation.
“I’m pleased to receive these brand new vehicles on behalf of the Federal Government. I thank Total Companies in Nigeria for this kind gesture, which comes at a time we are facing a national emergency on the Ebola Virus. “Before now, we have had to rely on hiring taxis and deploying private vehicles, with the attendant impact on our activities. We will put the vehicles to good use to improve our operations,” Nasidi said.
Three people lost their lives while one person was reported injured late Tuesday as a helicopter belonging to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) crashed.
Information released to the press by the the mission indicate that three members of the crew aboard the helicopter died while another was wounded when the crash occurred in the Unity State area of South Sudan.
The location of the crash is near Bentiu, the capital where government troops have been locked in intense fighting with rebels led by former Vice President, Riek Machar.
“The United Nations Mission in South Sudan confirms that one of its MI-8 helicopters has crashed about 10 km south of Bentiu in Unity State,” the mission said.
UNMISS reported losing contact with the helicopter, which was on a routine cargo flight from Wau to Bentiu at 14:28 hours on Tuesday.
The mission dispatched a search and rescue team to the site of the incident shortly after news of the incident surfaced, adding that “Investigations regarding the cause of the incident will begin as soon as possible.”
A conspiracy theory has it that the helicopter might have been targeted by the rebels although it has been neither confirmed by the South Sudanese government nor the UN mission.
The incident took place only one day after the South Sudanese government and the rebels reached a fresh truce in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), who mediated the truce, gave the warring parties 45 days to reach an agreement on the formation of a transitional government of national unity.
Nigeria has successfully reduced the number of Ebola cases in the country to one, the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, has said.
As of Tuesday, only one Ebola patient remained in isolation in Nigeria, down from the 13 cases the country confirmed since the outbreak of the virus in July, Mr. Chukwu said at a press conference. The deadly virus was first brought to Nigeria 38 days ago by a Liberian-American man, Patrick Sawyer. Mr. Sawyer later died, but after health workers who treated him had contracted the virus.
Mr. Chukwu said so far Nigeria has had 13 cases including the index case. Five of those infected died, while seven have successfully recovered and were discharged. Two of the nurses who managed Mr. Sawyer were discharged Monday at the isolation centre in Lago, Mr. Chukwu said. He said Nigeria has been able to curtail Ebola in the country.
All the 129 people who were under surveillance have completed the 21day observation incubation period and only one person was found to be symptomatic and is still being observed, he added.
State Security Services, SSS, agents on Tuesday arrested the Chairman of the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, Aminu Maigari, halting the federation’s meeting scheduled to take place in Abuja.
Mr. Maigari was arrested alongside Musa Amadu, the NFF Secretary-General, and Chris Green, a board member.
The NFF has been rocked by leadership crisis for months. The Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Tammy Danagogo, was quoted Monday as saying that the tenure of Mr. Maigari had ended.
The embattled NFF chairman was first arrested in July as he returned from the World Cup in Brazil. The arrest followed an order issued by a Plateau State court asking the NFF executives to step aside. Mr. Maigari’s removal as the NFF chairman led to the suspension of Nigeria by world football governing body, FIFA.
The suspension was lifted after Mr. Maigari was reinstated but he was controversially impeached thereafter, accused of financial abuse and corruption.
Shortly after the impeachment July 31, Mr. Maigari was again whisked away by SSS operatives from the Serob Legacy Hotel, Abuja where the NFF held a congress. He was again reinstated after the intervention of FIFA.
The Board of United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) Monday announced the appointment of Mr. Tony O. Elumelu as Chairman, succeeding Ambassador Joe Keshi.
The announcement was made in a statement signed by the Divisional Head, Marketing and Corporate Relations, UBA Plc, Charles Aigbe.
Elumelu is Chairman/CEO of Heirs Holdings, the pan-African proprietary investment company he founded in 2010, which holds stakes in a number of leading African businesses, including Transcorp, Nigeria’s largest listed conglomerate by market capitalisation, as well as UBA.
Elumelu retired as Group Managing Director and CEO of UBA in 2010, following the introduction by the Central Bank of Nigeria of 10-year tenure limits for bank CEOs.
He had served as CEO of the UBA Group for 13 years, where he was responsible for the creation of today’s UBA, a financial services institution that built a reputation for innovation and the democratisation of banking services and now spans Africa, providing services to more than 10 million customers, across the continent and in London, Paris and New York.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential business leaders in Africa, Elumelu has developed a reputation for identifying value and bringing a long term investment orientation and discipline to sectors critical to Africa’s development, including financial services, power, oil and gas, agribusiness, real estate and hospitality. As the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropy, Elumelu is committed to the promotion of entrepreneurship in Africa, based on his championing of Africapitalism, the philosophy that the African private sector is the critical enabler of the continent’s economic and social transformation.
The Chairmanship of UBA will complement Elumelu’s existing positions with other Heirs Holdings’ portfolio businesses, including the Chairmanships of Tenoil Petroleum & Energy Services Limited and Seadrill Limited.
“Tony Elumelu’s track record at UBA speaks for itself,” said Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director/CEO UBA. “His return to the Board brings a depth of knowledge and experience in the African financial services industry that is second to none. We are privileged to have him lead the Board at this critical stage in our development.”
Analysts and leaders of shareholder groups also welcomed Elumelu’s return. “Banking in Africa is a dynamic, exciting and an increasingly competitive and challenging industry,” said economic and financial analyst, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, Chief Executive of Financial Derivatives. “Tony is visionary, courageous and has shown an ability to both, think for the long term, and to create significant shareholder value. The drive, dynamism and competitiveness that we saw during his period as CEO of UBA, was one of the catalysts of the enormous changes in the Nigerian banking sector.”
President, Association for the Advancement of Rights of Nigerian Shareholders (AARNS), Dr. Farouk Umar, said, “We are delighted with this appointment. It bodes well for UBA and the banking industry, now and in the future. Elumelu is a transformer and value creator for shareholders. We are excited about his return.”
With operations in 19 African countries and presence in New York, London and Paris, UBA is one of the largest financial services institutions in Africa. The Bank recently unveiled its Project Alpha, a three-year roadmap of key transformation initiatives, designed to consolidate the Group’s strategic positioning and fully exploit the opportunities provided by Africa’s economic renaissance and the UBA Group’s unique platform.
“I am very much looking forward to returning to the Group – UBA represents a tremendous investment opportunity, and is at an inflection point in its growth path. We have an extremely powerful executive team and I am looking forward to bringing my experience and energy, to guide UBA’s long-term strategy.
“Financial services remain one of the key drivers of African growth, both in terms of social inclusion and regional integration, and the UBA Group provides a unique platform to deliver both extraordinary value and drive Africa’s economic success.
“I would also like to thank my predecessor, Ambassador Keshi and the entire board for their contributions to the growth and development of the bank,” Elumelu said.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Tuesday warned security officers in the state against consuming banned substances and hard drugs.
The Principal Staff Officer (PSO), Drug Demand Reduction Unit of the agency in Ekiti, Mr Peter Njoku, gave the warning at a seminar organised for Nigeria Immigration Officers and Federal Road Safety Corps in the state.
He said some of the factors which normally led to unlawful assault by security agents on people are mostly caused by illicit drugs taken by the officers on duty.
NJoku said apart from assault, regular intake of banned drugs could result to brain damage as well as affecting the job performance of the officers who indulge in such acts.
He advised security officers of the various agencies to be self disciplined and avoid patronising restaurants and joints where people smoke Indian hemp or take drugs like cocaine and tramadol, among others.
Njoku warned them to avoid friends that were addicted to drugs in order not to jeopardise their active performance in their offices.
He advised them to engage in recreational and religious activities to keep themselves busy during their leisure time instead of indulging consumption harmful substances. (NAN)
Mr William Pooley, 29, the first Briton to contract the Ebola disease in Sierra Leone has started receiving treatment in London.
Pooley, a volunteer nurse was flown in a military aircraft on Sunday to the Hampstead Royal Free Hospital, where he is being treated in a specialist isolation unit for highly infectious diseases.
The Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Pooley had worked as a volunteer providing palliative care at The Shepherd’s Hospice in Sierra Leone from March to July.
He then requested to be relocated to the Kenema Government Hospital to serve on the Ebola treatment ward, following reports that patients were being abandoned when health workers died from the virus.
Pooley has been described as a hero for his selfless service.
NAN quotes a BBC report on Mr Gabriel Madiye, the Executive Director of The Shepherd’s Hospice, as saying, “Pooley had been aware of the risks, but was determined to work there.
“We consider him a hero, somebody who is sacrificing to provide care in very difficult circumstances – when our own health workers are running away’’. Madiye said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Jonathan Ball, a virologist at Nottingham University, said there would be immediate testing to ensure all Pooley’s organs were functioning.
“He really is in the best place and will have the best possible care’’, Ball said.
The World Health has put the death figure from the Ebola outbreak to over 1500 mostly from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea (NAN)
The Enugu State House of Assembly has removed the state’s Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi, from office.
The Assembly voted Tuesday morning to sack Mr. Onyebuchi from office.
Details of the impeachment session is still sketchy but the deputy governor’s removal is believed to have been masterminded by Governor Sullivan Chime.
The Assembly accused Mr. Onyebuchi of operating a commercial poultry at his official residence and of disobeying Governor Chime, charges that, under the law, do no qualify as impeachment offences.
The impeached deputy governor had told the impeachment panel set up by the state’s chief judge that Mr. Chime also operated piggery farms at the Government House.
Giving evidence before the panel last Wednesday, Mr. Onyebuchi said the governor’s poultry was hurriedly evacuated shortly after the panel commenced sitting.
Mr. Onyebuchi revealed that the state government had budgeted for the maintenance of the poultry since 2011.
The embattled deputy governor, who tendered the state’s budget between 2011 and 2014, said funds had always been provided for the poultry he operated.
He insisted that he did not commit any offence that could warrant his impeachment and that the poultry farms he and the governor were operating were there before they assumed office in 2007.
The vision to establish a state-owned investment company in Ogun State originated under the military administration of Brigadier Oladipo Diya as state governor between (1984 and 1985). The late Chief Olawale Otesile, the then Permanent Secretary in the Civil Service, was seconded to the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC), at inception to midwife its take-off. Chief Otesile and his team of vibrant Ogun State indigenes first wore the mantle of OPIC leadership on September 1, 1984. Otesile’s team then commenced OPIC operation with very strong volition to succeed with the mandate to fully explore the potentials and opportunities that abound in border areas of Ogun State in particular and, by extension, other parts of Nigeria.
Equipped with Edict 10 of 1985 under the then military administration of Ogun State, the shrewd OPIC pioneers rose to the challenge of their callings, setting the pace of the growth of the newly-born OPIC, right from its cradle to mighty estates in Agbara, Isheri, Ikeja in Lagos, Abeokuta hill top while breaking new grounds in Makun New City by Sagamu Interchange on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The self-sustaining government-owned statutory corporation has not only stood firm on the ladder of revenue generation, and reaching the peak of the rungs at 30, OPIC is beaming smile of great promises to all and sundry. Its core objectives and responsibilities are centred on establishing residential and industrial estates that offer affordable accommodation.
The infrastructure provided over the years in OPIC estates and commercial buildings spread all over now serve as economic poles of attraction for Ogun State investors. Notable of these estates and commercial buildings are OPIC estates in Agbara (off the Lagos-Badagry Expressway), Isheri (off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway), Abeokuta (along the Abeokuta-Sokoto Expressway, and commercial plazas in Abeokuta headquarters, Isheri and Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way, Ikeja.
In furtherance pursuit of the goal to reposition OPIC, Governor Ibikunle Amosun appointed Babajide Odusolu as his Special Adviser on Properties and Investments with Management responsibility for OPIC as its substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive.
At the inception of this present administration, OPIC had a review of operations that culminated in a focused re-orientation and overhaul of the Corporation’s operating strategy and institution of new business direction.
To ensure enhanced performance, OPIC’s operation were merged with those of Gateway City Development Company Limited (GCDCL) in 2013. Through this merger, OPIC regained operational control over 22 hectares of land located at Isheri now christened Isheri Commercial City and 750 hectares located at the Sagamu Interchange, now known as New Makun City.
Odusolu embarked on series of developmental projects aimed at making life more meaningful for residents and industrialists in OPIC estates. These include housing units to help reduce massive housing deficit in the country. In the last three years, OPIC has witnessed institutional re-orientation and empowerment, urban recreation and infrastructure and new business initiatives.
As part of the institutional re-orientation and empowerment, ushered in by the present administration since May 2011, a panel of enquiry was set up to investigate OPIC’s operation in addition to comprehensive audit of OPIC activities. The audit exercise has been a periodic one and OPIC procedures in due process has always been found a ‘crystal white operation’. The GCDCL/OPIC merger occurred in this process and has been of no regret.
This institutional re-orientation and empowerment policy has further encouraged OPIC to invest more on staff training and re-training, office renovation and re-designing, resolution of various security challenges and lapses across OPIC estates, particularly Agbara; crackdown on land encroachers, land grabbers’ arrest and prosecution; sensitisation and regeneration of cordial relationship amongst OPIC residents, industrialists and the host communities. The enumeration of remaining illegal structures for amnesty in OPIC estates Agbara/Igbesa is also a notable re-orientation.
The partnership with Ministry of Housing/ROTH Inc. for development of a 650-hectare industrial park in Agbara, effective March 2012, is a confirmation of harmonious work relations that exists amongst government agencies in Ogun State. This synergy is gratifying in the review of project designs and creation of development guidelines; demolition of illegal structures within OPIC estates, Agbara/Igbesa after issuance of notices; completion of 18 bungalows at OPIC estate, Agbara/Igbesa between October 2013 and January 2014.
In addition, ongoing projects from January 2014 to date include the almost completed 5kms residential and 5kms industrial grade roads that commenced in January 2014 and 30 units of two- bedroom terrace bungalows in OPIC estate, Agbara/Igbesa that commenced in April 2014.
Other parts of the states are not left out in this infrastructural rebirth: the OPIC Orange Valley Estate, Presidential Boulevard, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta that commenced simultaneously with Agbara road construction project in January 2014 is already beckoning to prospective residents to tap the serene and scenic green living of OPIC estates. The estate’s first phase displays 58 semi-detached duplexes, 28 luxurious flats and recreational facilities.
The New Makun City, located at Sagamu Interchange along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, is show-casing Ogun State’s business-friendly potentials to the whole world.
It is a thing of joy that the strong volition sown 30 years ago by the pioneers of OPIC has grown to deliver a giant Ogun State Property and Investments Corporation ( OPIC ) with great achievements and projections that swing with the housing revolution policy of the present administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
By Adebisi Adeyemi-Adesina (journalist and public relations consultant)
