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Rivers
RSBoPP DG Harps On Procurement Plan By Contractors
By Chris Konkwo
The Director-General of the Rivers State Bureau for Public
Procurement, Franklyn Nlerum says contractors who continue to
hide under the canopy of being held back by due process are yet
to recover from the old order responsible for the present
economic woes of the State.
Already neck-deep into operating in a porous economic
environment that put more resources into personal pockets at the
expense of the State, such contractors now find it difficult to
survive in a free competitive environment that requires sanity,
order and transparency, Mr Nlerum alleged.
The Director-General, seen among contractors as excessively
meticulous dropped this hint while interacting with media
executives in Port Harcourt recently.
According to him, the State Bureau on Public Procurement created
under Public Procurement Law No 4 of 2008 was to add value to
government policies and programmes with a view to placing the
State on sound economic footing.
Prior to this, there was a laissez fair attitude in the way and
manner government contracts and businesses were seen and handled
by both public and private partners of government, seeing
government business as nobody's business and being accountable
to nobody.
Having created this Bureau to right these wrongs of the past,
people are yet to re-adjust and because of this inability and
the mindset to do things as usual which they now find difficult,
they have resorted to blaming their deficiencies and failures on
due process as though due process is a monster out to frustrate
development, hence the need for this explanation, Mr Nlerum
explained.
Allaying the fears of prospective contractors, Mr Nlerum said
PSBoPP is rather in business to make things easier for them and
government so as to encourage accountability, transparency and
equity etc.
Besides ensuring that those who do business with government
follow and satisfy laid down procedures, the bureau's
responsibility covers the entire spectrum from identification of
needs through selection of the apt alternative for meeting the
need and meeting it in time and cost effective manner, the DG
noted.
He further explained that this has become necessary as over the
years government business had become characterized by
arbitrariness, lack of transparency, inflation of cost of
projects to outright abandonments etc.
The objectives of the Bureau therefore according to Mr Nlerum
are to ensure planning (contract plan), fitness for purpose,
promote transparency and efficiency as well as secure value for
government money among others.
Mr Nlerum wondered why contractors should keep complaining about
due process when they have capable and competent personnel to
assist them process these requirements in less than no time.
His office, he said is ever ready to assist contractors even to
do a better job and experience has shown that in certain
instances the bureau has ended up approving more money for
contractors for projects they under-estimated in a bid to get
the contract through due process contrary to the misconception
that the bureau is out to frustrate them which is a ruse.###
Lagos:
I Hired Those That Killed My Late Husband
~ Wife
More revelations emerged, Monday,in the on-going investigation
over the gruesome murder of a Lagos business man, Mr. Kazeem
Ademoye,as the principal suspect who incidentally, is the
victim's wife, Mrs. Ngozi Ademoye, disowned her earlier
assertion that she used an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS)
electrical gadget to murder her husband. She reportedly admitted
that she actually hired people to kill her husband.
The Delta State-born mother of three who was said to be popular
among her numerous customers under the Anthony Village bridge
along Ikorodu Road, where she sold local gin (Ogogoro) before
she was introduced to Mr. Kazeem, 10 years ago, was quoted as
saying that she was being hunted by her late husband's ghost to
confess the murder.
Impeccable police sources at the State Criminal Investigation
Department, SCID, where she is still being detained said the
suspected killer-wife allegedly confided in a police woman
(names withheld) that she did not actually kill her husband as
earlier claimed. She was said to have confessed that she got
some people to do it while she was downstairs watching a movie.
We learnt that she begged the police detectives to release the
detained immediate younger brother of the deceased, Kunle
Ademoye; her pastor on whose premises one of her husband's posh
cars was parked moments after the murder incident, and the
prophetess who allegedly gave her holy water.
She was alleged to have said that she wants to suffer for her
crime alone. Crime Alert was reliably told that she allegedly
admitted that the cultism story was cooked-up, and that
policemen actually took the picture of the purported red robe,
live tortoise, a pot of charms and other paraphernalia
associated with cultism in her bed room and not her husband's as
earlier claimed.
Kunle Ademoye, the deceased's younger brother said to be
mentally imbalanced was reported to have told the police that he
did not meet his late brother in any cult robe contrary to
earlier claims by Ngozi that he helped her to pull off the cult
clothes for a better one before being taken to the mortuary.
He also reportedly confessed that he was told at about 7.00am by
Ngozi that his brother had died of heart attack adding that he
got there at 10.00am only to meet all the doors including the
ones to his late brother's room under lock and keys.
Sources told newsmen that Kunle said that the main suspect,
Ngozi, had made several contacts including arrangement for an
ambulance to convey the remains of his brother to the mortuary
before he arrived the house. He reportedly said: “She was the
one who opened all the doors, both those to my brother's room.
Even before I arrived, she had called an ambulance from Ikorodu
and when they came, she told me to drive my brother's Toyota
Camry 2010 model to her pastor's house. She did not tell me the
reason for that.”
Meanwhile, the police have since recovered that car while
arrangements were being perfected to release Kunle, the pastor
and the prophetess as pleaded by Ngozi.###
Enugu:
Burnt Pregnant Wife Recounts Ordeal
 Mrs.
Ifeoma Egeonu, the pregnant mother of two, who was set ablaze by
her husband, last Saturday, has recounted the sad experience
even as she expressed her readiness to forgive the offending
husband. Ifeoma and her two children were set ablaze by her
hubby, Mr. Alexander Ndubuisi Egeonu, popularly called Sagay,
inside his container-shop for undisclosed reason. The husband
had been on the run since the incident happened.
Speaking to journalists on her hospital bed at the National
Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, where she was transferred to from
the Eastern Nigeria Medical Centre, Ifeoma expressed shock and
surprise about the action of her husband.
Also on admission at the hospital were her first son, Emmanuel,
who was crying continuously obviously because of the pain he was
suffering and his brother, Udochukwu. Both children are within
the ages of two and three.
With most of her body wrapped with bandage, Ifeoma, who is
heavily pregnant, said she was surprised that she is still
alive. She told Daily Sun that she could not tell what might
have pushed her husband into the devilish act.
She said she was so confused even at the point when her husband
was pouring fuel inside the shop; “I was asking him what he was
doing but before I knew it there was fire everywhere inside the
container which served as his shop.
“The other woman who sells provisions was the person who pushed
open the door as he tried to close it and ran away.
Ifeoma, who hails from Amuri in Nkanu West Local Government area
of Enugu State, said that she and her two kids were staying with
her mother but decided to visit her husband and celebrate the
Independence anniversary with him.
“When he brought the fuel, I felt he wanted to use it for his
generator but he was telling me that, 'people are wicked; that
the woman who sells provisions opposite owed him and had refused
to pay up; somehow he managed to attract the same woman to the
shop, telling her to talk to me.
“It was all confusing, but the next thing he started pouring
petrol inside the shop and afterwards lit a match but the woman
forced her way out as he tried to close the door on all of us.
It was people around that came to our rescue but I and my
children were already burnt. I thank God that we are still
alive.”
Ifeoma said that her husband, who hails from Mbaitolu in Imo
State, was fond of beating her.
“Most of the time, I will run to my parents' house but he will
always come begging,” she said.
Asked if she can forgive her husband over the incident, she
replied; “If God can forgive us our sins why can't I forgive
other people. I believe in God and that is all I can say for
now. She, however, ruled out the possibility of retuning to the
man's house again, asking; “if it is you that somebody tried to
kill, will you go back to that same person again?”
She called for assistance from both government and other
public-spirited individuals to come to their aid.
“There is nobody to help us now; it is only my brother who has
been trying his best but he can't shoulder this alone. He has
already paid the bills at Eastern Nigeria Medical Centre from
where we were referred to this place; but we are yet to pay for
the deposit in this particular hospital. Of course, there will
be other bills but we have faith in God,” she added.
Reacting to the incident, her brother, Mr. Sunday Ede, lamented
the ill-luck of his younger sister as regards her marriage,
saying he had severally discouraged her from marrying Egeonu.
“This is my immediate younger sister; she was with me during her
secondary school days. But at a time this guy impregnated her
and decided to marry her.
“As time went on, I started seeing the character of the man and
I made up my mind that he was not good for her. Sometimes, she
will return to my house and stay with us but whenever he comes
begging, she will follow him again.
“The last time she retuned was a week before this incident; she
had stayed with me for about a week until the man came and my
sister said she was following him. I could not stop her but I
warned her that she was on her own.”
He recalled how a friend called him on phone on the day of the
incident to inform him of what happened, which he initially
ignored.
“Few minutes later somebody came on a bike and told me that my
attention was needed at the Eastern Medical Centre that my
sister was on admission; that her husband poured fuel on her and
her children and set them on fire .
“Out of anger I said I was not going that they should bury her
if they have finally killed her; but the messenger urged me to
go that they had been referred to the National Orthopaedic
Hospital.”
Mr. Ede said he had never seen something of this nature in his
life and expressed shock that somebody could set his own
children on fire.
Meanwhile, the police in Enugu are still searching for Egeonu,
who had disappeared after setting his wife and children ablaze.
Before the incident, Egeonu was said to be dealing in musical
equipment and at the same time using a part of the
container-shop, located at No 61 Mount Street, Idaw River area
of Awkunanaw Enugu, as barbing salon.
My
Husband Starved Me Of Sex For 2 Yrs ~Wife
A Lagos resident, Mrs. Nimota Mosunmade Arowoshola on Wednesday,
September 28, 2011 told the Grade A Customary Court in Mushin,
Lagos presided by Dr. Abayomi Ipaye, that her husband, Mr.
Muyideen Arowoshola, denied her sex for two years.
Insisting that starvation of sex was the main reason why she
wanted to opt out of the 10- year-old union by all means, Mrs.
Nimota Mosunmade Arowoshola also accused the husband of constant
fighting, lack of care for the children and lack of love.
The petitioner added that they live in a room and parlour at
No.13 Ramoni Street Lawanson, Surulere, adding that for more
than two years, she slept in the parlour while the husband slept
in the room and refused to make love with her which prompted her
to move out of the house with her children.
However, it was a different ball game when the respondent, Mr.
Muyideen Arowoshola was asked by the court headed by Dr. Ipaye
to comment on the allegations his wife leveled against him, He
said he was surprised that the wife could make such allegations
before the court, insisting that they had no misunderstanding or
quarrel.
The 45-year-old printer told the court that he is epileptic and
needs financial assistance, noting that the marriage was
contracted under Islamic rites at Abule Egba, Lagos, on February
17, 2001 and dowry was paid. The marriage is blessed with two
issues namely Moridatu Arowoshola, and Zuliyat Arowoshola.
After listening to both parties the court president, Dr. Ipaye
adjourned the case was to the October 17, 2011 for judgment.### |
