Ajimobi’s wife denies money laundering arrest in London

Wife of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, Florence
| credits: www.mrsfajimobi.com

Wife of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, Florence, has denied reports of her arrest by the Metropolitan Police in London.

Speaking with journalists in a telephone interview on Tuesday, the governor’s wife described the news of her arrest as the handiwork of the opposition trying to discredit the Ajimobi-led administration in the state.

An evening newspaper had, on Tuesday in its online version, published a report entitled ‘Anxiety over Florence Ajimobi’s alleged arrest in UK.’ An online agency, Newsleak,also claimed that the wife of the governor had been arrested in London for money laundering.

Asked if she was invited by the police since her arrival in London, she said, “No, not at all. I came back with my daughter on Sunday. Now, I am getting ready to come back home. I have not been invited by the police and I don’t know what all this is about.”

On the reason for her latest trip abroad, she said she took her 14-year-old daughter back to school after her holiday.

She said, “I have a 14-year-old daughter who has been here since 2007. She came to Nigeria for two weeks; we left Nigeria on Sunday morning. That is my mission here.

“I read the report here in England. I was shocked. I read it but there is no iota of truth in everything they wrote. I’m sure it is the work of the  opposition and I am surprised that some people can descend so low to write falsehood.

“I am expected back in the country tomorrow (today) morning.”

Asked to confirm the allegation that she had since the inception of the administration travelled for 52 times, she simply said, “It then means I am not living in Nigeria. Maybe, when I travel back, I will show you my passport to count how many times I have travelled.

“I want you to deal with facts. If you look at my passport since 2007 and compare the way I travelled then with the way I travel now, you will discover that I travel less now.

“My daughter is complaining that I am not regular here. I make her come to Nigeria more because I can’t afford to spend 10 days or more over here.”

Meanwhile, the governor has instituted a N1bn suit against the Independent Communications Network Limited, publishers of PM News for the report.

One of the governor’s aide, who preferred anonymity, said, “So far the governor has spent 68 weeks. How do you reconcile the claim that the First Lady has travelled 52 times since the inception of this administration? Does it mean that she travels every week?”

Don’t abandon people with disabilities in flooded areas —CCD

OCTOBER 31, 2012 BY SODIQ OYELEKE 1 COMMENT

A non-governmental organisation, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities, has called on the government at all levels and stakeholders in the country to extend their support to people with disabilities in the flooded parts of the country.

The Executive Director of the group, Mr. David Anyaele, made this call on Tuesday in Lagos at a press conference on Nigerians with disabilities at the camps set up for people displaced by flood across the federation.

He said the group had received numerous distress calls from persons living with disabilities in some parts of the country flooded in the past one month.

He added, “Unfortunately, under emergency situations, it is the vulnerable groups like women, children, persons with disabilities and the aged that suffer the most. This is because they are usually too weak, poor, voiceless and helpless to have access to the general emergency response that is made available by government, development institutions and individuals.

“In humanitarian emergency situations, persons with disabilities are amongst the most vulnerable groups of the society and tend to be disproportionately affected by the impact of disasters.

“At the same time, they often remain invisible, even though their number statistically makes up approximately 10 per cent of any population. Persons with disabilities, be they of physical, sensory, intellectual or psychological nature, are most often not included in the various stages of disaster response and in disaster preparedness measures, neither as recipients of aid to meet their basic as well as specific needs, nor as active stakeholders and designers or planners of aid measures, voicing their own needs and opinions.”

The group, in its recommendations, urged state and other agencies involved in the emergency management process to take adequate measure to ensure that relief materials and other supports to displaced persons are distributed without discrimination against persons living with disabilities.

Some of the recommendations read, “The state and other emergency management agencies should ensure that all mechanism for data capturing and impact assessment are designed to reflect the needs of persons living with different forms of disability.

“All emergency management institutions should ensure that water and sanitation measures at the relief camps include options that are easily accessible to persons on wheelchairs, the visually impaired and those with other forms of disability.

“The state and other agencies for emergency management should pay adequate professional medical attention to newly injured or disabled persons to avoid medical complications, secondary disabilities or even fatal outcomes, and avoid aggravation of injuries or new disabilities by inadequate transportation of injured persons during evacuation.

“They should equally pay adequate attention to the emotional and social needs of disaster victims to help them overcome normal trauma symptoms, including providing professional psychologists to handle disaster victims that are displaying severe traumatic symptoms to avoid long-term psychic disability.

Racism, Obama and the US presidential election

Viewpoint illustration
| credits: Bennett Omeke

In exactly six days — Tuesday, November 6, 2012 – Americans will go to the polls to cast their votes. In practice, they will elect the next US president; but in reality, all they would be doing is elect Presidential Electors who, in turn, will cast their ballots on December 17, 2012 at the Electoral College. Unlike in other presidential systems around the world, the US Constitution does not allow Americans to directly elect their president and vice-president. This constitutional peculiarity is enshrined in Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, and also in the 12th Amendment.

Because of this seeming constitutional anomaly, it is possible for a candidate to win the nationwide popular vote, but still lose at the Electoral College. This scenario has happened four times in the US history – the most recent being Al Gore, in 2000. Historical records show that in 1824, Andrew Jackson received more popular votes, but John Q. Adams went on to win at the college. Samuel Tilden won the popular vote in 1876, but Rutherford B. Hayes went on to win the Presidency. And in 1888, even though Grover Cleveland won the most votes, Benjamin Harrison went on to beat him at the college.

As Americans ready themselves for the November election, a majority of my social and political friends believe that President Barack Obama will lose – if not the popular vote — but certainly the Electoral College ballot, to Governor Willard Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger. This would make Obama a one-term president. One-term US presidents are George H. Bush (1989-1993), Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Gerald Ford (1974-1977), Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), William H. Taft (1909-1913), Benjamin Harrison, Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, John Quincy Adams, and John Adams.

There are 538 total votes in the Electoral College and a candidate must win a majority: at least 270 electoral votes. The strangeness of this system means that a candidate who wins 11 of the 12 prized states, while losing 39 other states, can be elected president. The prized states are Georgia, California, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and North Carolina. The idea that President Obama may lose this election is what is baffling many political observers and commentators in and outside of the United States.

To understand why Obama’s defeat will reverberate around the world, one must understand where the US was during the George W. Bush’s Presidency. He had committed America to two financially bleeding wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. And especially in the last three years of his Presidency, the economy was in a shamble. For instance, unemployment was very high, and the housing market had collapsed. There was problem at Wall Street and Main Street. In many foreign capitals, America became a joke. The psyche of the everyday American was also severely affected. This, in a nutshell, was the condition President Obama inherited.

Slowly but steadily, President Obama has guided the country out of the doldrums. If he was a Republican President — considering how far he has moved the country away from the abyss — he would have won this election by a landslide. And in fact, his place in history would have been assured owing in large measure to his foreign policy and national security achievements. After all, this is a man who killed Osama bin Laden (along with hundreds of his followers), and in the process made America safer. In four years, this President has done far more for America than Bush did in eight agonising years. Yet, the Republicans and millions of Americans do not seem to appreciate his competence, brilliance, forward-looking nature and programmes.

If Obama loses this election, it would be because of one single issue: Race! Racism and racial inequality are still very much a part of the American experience. That is to say that 147 years after the end of slave trade, America has yet to overcome its sordid past. Many Americans, over the age of 60 – especially if they are Republicans and reside in the southern part of the country – cannot bring themselves to accept a Black man as the leader of the free world. For them, it is incomprehensible: a young Black man born of a Kenyan father? Oh no!

What hasn’t this President done in the areas of health care, immigration, welfare, work and retraining programmes, and institutional reforms? He has championed children and women’s issues; been an advocate for the Middle Class; a supporter of the poor, the needy and the disenfranchised; helped the homosexual community; helped with student loans and housing programmes. And even his Supreme Court appointees are not extreme. In fact, nothing about this President is extreme or irrational. Except in few places, he has raised America’s profile and reestablished its prestige around the world. As they say, Americans are back in the game!

Again, if President Obama loses this election, it will have nothing to do with his character or intelligence; or because he is limited in his worldview and vision for the country. No! It will boil down to one thing: his skin colour! Millions of older Americans are still stuck in the slave owner mindset. According to the Associated Press (October 27, 2012), “Racial attitudes have not improved in the four years since the United States elected its first black President.” Frankly, race relations and racial inequality are not likely to improve significantly anytime in the next six decades.

The AP went on to report that, “In all, 51 per cent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 per cent, up from 49 per cent during the last presidential election…Those views could cost President Barack Obama votes as he tries for re-election.” The saving grace – the only saving grace – is if millions of young White Americans forsake their parents and grandparents and align with other liberal, progressive, and independent-minded Americans to do what is right for their country and for the international community.

Hurricane Sandy fallout may affect Lagos –Govt

Lagos State Commissioner for Waterfront Development and Infrastructure, Mr. Adesegun Oniru

The Lagos State Government on Tuesday warned residents of the state to prepare for the ripple effect of Hurricane Sandy in the state.

 Hurricane Sandy is a 2012 late-season violent tropical storm that has affected Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the eastern seaboard of the United States of America.

The Commissioner for Waterfront Development and Infrastructure, Mr. Adesegun Oniru, said the government was projecting that within seven to 14 days, the state would experience the ripple effect of the hurricane in its coast lines.

 He explained that the government based its projection on, “experience, records and study of past happenings” and had started taking precautionary measures.

 Oniru said, “This warning is not to cause panic in Lagos, but to place us all on alert that if we notice anything unusual in our coast lines, we should not go near the waters but rather call government attention.

“This storm has hit the Caribbean and is now in USA. We always get a ripple effect of such happening in Lagos.

“This wind started in Africa, went west gathering more wind and later turning to hurricane. We expect a splash back effect. It could be on our coast lines and shore lines, it could be more than that. And it may not happen at all. Everybody must be vigilant. Let us be careful around our oceans and lagoons.”

The commissioner said the government was planning to protect Kuramo, Oniru, Majidun, Alpha beach and other areas affected by the last ocean surge in the state.

The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on the Environment, Dr. Taofeek Folami, urged the residents of the state to avoid flooding effect of the storm by refraining from dumping their refuse into drainage channels.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, urged the  state residents not to  panic, saying the alert was for them to know what to do to prepare for such occurence.

I climbed a chair to see the President

 BY MAUREEN AZUH

Ignore whatever other Punch journalists are doing there,” the News Editor, Mr. Ademola Oni, bawled at me. “Whether they are talking to officials or any other person, don’t bother. Just get the human angle to the story. Speak with the residents, especially those who escaped from their houses.”

The instruction came immediately I entered the newsroom. That was around 4 pm on Sunday. As a feature person, I had some other stories I needed to tidy up for Monday edition. At such a critical moment, I had no reason to give an excuse.

As I set out, I started calculating how to get to the usually traffic-ridden area without wasting time and missing any story in the process. At Berger, I asked a motorcycle (okada) rider to carry me there, but he refused, despite the fact that I was ready to pay whatever he wanted. Others I approached also declined.

“There’s heavy traffic on that road. We were told a plane landed on someone’s compound,” one of them told me.

So, I had no option than to take a bus to Ogba, from where I boarded a motorcycle to Ishaga. Ishaga was in a terrible state when I arrived there. It was like all the residents of Lagos were asked to gather there. It was not difficult locating the crash site. The crowd led and I just followed.

At the site, it was quite difficult to see or hear anything meaningful. People were everywhere; every available space was taken over. At that point, I jumped over a low fence, after wading through the crowd and approached a man. Fortunately, he witnessed the crash. He also directed me to a house beside the affected buildings, where he said I could find people to speak with.

But just as I was about to leave for the house, a Navy helicopter flew towards the compound, causing everyone to scamper for safety. The stampede and the dust raised by the helicopter was so much that I had to hide my head under the shirt of a young man who was also struggling for safety too. It was good that the guy did not mind as I grabbed his shirt. In fact, he did not even notice until the helicopter landed. With dust all over my body, I still managed to speak with more eyewitnesses.

Day two was better. It was Monday and the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, was expected at the scene. So, the crowd was managed by heavily armed soldiers and riot policemen. On arrival, I boldly approached one of them holding a sniffer dog.

“Yes?” he barked.

“I am a reporter with The Punch,” I told him.

“I have admitted over 15 Punch people into this place. Na everybody for una office wan come here?” he retorted. At the end, he allowed me to pass through the barricade.

I spoke with more residents, who were not evacuated from their homes. By 1pm, the President’s arrival was announced. All journalists were asked to stay in a place, guarded by armed soldiers. At last the President decided to address us. I had always thought I was tall enough for a woman but I was proved wrong when I could not see the President and his entourage. I quickly looked for a chair which I stood on to have a clearer view. But trust gentlemen of the press, I shared the chair with two other journalists.

Tuesday, being the third day, was much better. The evacuation of victims was over and the officials were more relaxed and friendly. Getting them to speak was easier as some of them even spoke without much prompting.

In all, it was a memorable experience – hectic and terrifying too. The corpses I saw in a day were more than the number I had ever seen in my life. But it was not all about tears and agony. Trust Nigerians to find humour in everything. A young man approached me and asked me to interview him.

“I witnessed it. I was drinking beer across this street when the plane crashed,” he said.

But from experience, I know people do not usually volunteer to give information to journalists. I later found out that he was a reporter. like me.