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Meet the Gladiators of Kogi/Bayelsa Guber Election

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By Eric Elezuo

As the race for who rules Kogi and Bayelsa for the next four years kicks off, The Boss takes a peep into the world of the contestants. We serve you hot the very details of the men and women who wish to occupy the number positions of the two states. Enjoy:

 

YAHAYA BELLO

Yahya Adoza Bello is the incumbent governor of Kogi State who was thrust unto the position by fate. He was declared winner of the 2015 Kogi gubernatorial election after he was chosen on the platform of the All Progressives Congress as the replacement for the late Abubakar Audu who originally won the election but died before the result was declared.

Born on June 18, 1975 in Okene, Kwara State, Bello is not only the youngest governor in Nigeria, he is also the youngest of six children. He started his early education at LGEA Primary School, Agassa in Okene LGA in 1984 where he first manifested his leadership qualities leading to his appointment as a class prefect of class two and later the school Head Boy in class six.

After his elementary education, he attended Agassa Community Secondary School, Anyava, Agassa-Okene for his secondary education and obtained his JSSCE and SSCE certificates from Government Secondary School, Suleja-Niger State in 1994.

He was admitted to Kaduna State Polytechnic Zaria in 1995 and obtained an Accounting degree from Ahmadu Bello University ABU Zaria in 1999. Yahaya Bello further enrolled for a Masters program in Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria where he obtained Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in 2002. Bello became a chartered fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria in 2004. He is a seasoned businessman.

Having served four years as the executive governor of Kogi State, Bello is seen by many as a failure; not a true representative of the much clamoured ‘not too young to run’ campaign. His administration has been characterised by unpopular policies, incessant political rivalries not forgetting backlog of debts owed the state’s workforce. It is also said that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is aware of his many faults, and that necessitated the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai kneeling before the people of Kogi to beg for forgiveness on his behalf at his campaign ground.

He is presumed to be the well beloved of President Muhammadu Buhari, and that singularly and allegedly presented him the ticket to run for a second term in office. Bello has faced serious opposition especially from the SDP candidate, and except for power of incumbency, his chances of retaining the governorship seat is very slim.

 

MUSA WADA

One of Nigeria’s foremost engineers, Engr. Musa Wada, PhD, FNIS was born on May 17 into the family of Alhaji Wada; a family deeply attached to Moslem values in Odu, Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State. His mother Hajia Awawo hails from Idah Local Government Area of Kogi State.

He began his education at LGEA Primary School, Okura-Olafia before attending Government Secondary School, Dekina, and thereafter proceeded to the School of Basic Studies at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

He had his first degree B.Sc in Building from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and his second degree M.Sc in Transport from Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University). He also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure and a doctorate degree (PhD) in Environmental Science from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He practically traversed the length and breath of the country in search of formal education.

His a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Shipping as well as a Member of many professional bodies including the Nigerian Society of Engineers and Institute of Building. He is an Officer of Igala Kingdom (OIK).

He worked with the Engineering Division of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and rose to become the Chief Port Engineer, Tin-Can Island Port between 2004 and 2007, in charge of general monitoring, overseeing and maintenance of the Tin-Can Island Port facilities and equipment. His zeal for all round performance catapulted him to a position where he was saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the Capital Project of NPA Headquarters as a Principal Manager, Capital Project of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Headquarters in Lagos.

Wada is the younger brother of a former governor of Kogi State and may likely ride on the goodwill of his family to victory. He is contesting on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

 

NATASHA AKPOTI

Natasha Hadiza Akpoti  was born on December 9, 1979. She was educated variously at the University of Abuja and obtained a law degree. She also attended the University of Dundee.

An astute legal practitioner, Natasha also comes around as a determined politician who seems to know what she wants. She also is the Founder of Builders Hub Impact Investment Program and the only woman in the list of contenders for the Kogi government house.

Earlier in 2019, she ran for the post of Kogi Central Senatorial District seat under the Social Democratic Party, the same party she is representing in the governorship election.

Without a care of whose ox is gored, Akpoti calls a spade a spade, and will not spare anyone whose stock and trade is to take advantage of the gullibility of fellow Nigerians. In 2016, she exposed how information was withheld from Nigerians concerning the Ajaokuta Steel Complex as well as those supposedly sitting on the completion of the project.

In a 2016 interview with Kogi Reports, she described herself as follows:

“I am a lawyer, an MBA professional, social entrepreneur and the founder of Builders Hub Impact Investment Program. My father is from Okehi Local Government Area in Kogi State while my mother is a Ukrainian. I have three male siblings and three amazing children. I had my elementary education at Christ the King Nursery and Primary School, Okene and my junior secondary at Government Girls Unity Secondary School, Oboroke, both in Kogi state. Senior Secondary in Federal Government College Idoani, Ondo State; where I was the Head Girl. I obtained my Bachelor of Law from the University of Abuja, attended Nigerian Law school, Abuja and was called to the bar in 2005. Worked for a few years as a legal counsel at Brass LNG Lagos before proceeding to the United Kingdom for my MBA in Oil and Gas management and LLM Petroleum Law and Policies. I have an insatiable appetite for acquiring knowledge and thus, attended a number of international professional courses. However, of all my life achievements, nothing is dearer to me than my desire to impact socio-economically in the lives of poor and ordinary people.”

Akpoti in the run off to the election has put the major contestants on their toes, unleashing one fiery statement after another, suggesting she is not a candidate to toil with. Notwithstanding, it is only the sympathy of the people that can possible see her make a headway in the contest of winner takes all.

 

DOUYE DIRI

Douye Diri has been a seasoned administrator and prolific politician who has managed to remain in the corridors of power. He is the senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District 9th National Assembly and is aiming to take over the state from Seriake Dickson under the umbrella of the PDP.

Diri, who was described as the best lawmaker in effective advocacy holds a Bachelors of Education in Political Science which he obtained in 1990 after a gaining a national Certificate in Education in 1985.

His pedigree in the political and general career landscape include

MEMBER REPRESENTING YENAGOA/KOLOKUMA-OPOKUMA FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY 2015-2019

PRINCIPAL EXECUTIVE SECRETARY TO THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF BAYELSA STATE 2013

DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE GOVERNOR OF BAYELSA STATE 2012

MEMBER GOVERNING COUNCIL UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI 2008-2012

HONOURABLE COMMISSIONER FOR YOUTHS AND SPORTS 2006-2007

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY CENTRE FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT 2000-2002

 

DAVID LYON

He was born on December 20, 1970 into the family of Mr. and Mrs. Arukubu Lyon Ekpeke of Abebiri family of Eubiri compound, Olugbobiri Community in Olodiama clan of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State.

He attended Saint Gabriel’s State School Olugbobiri, from 1978 to 1983, and community secondary school, Olugbobiri, from 1984 to 1988 before proceeding to Rivers State College of Education, where he bagged the National Certificate of Education (NCE).

Lyon is a seasoned technocrat who sits on the board of several conglomerates. He is known to have been doing so since he was a  foreman with Western Company Ltd.

A shrewd businessman with matching acumen, Lyon has been able to stay afloat in the complex oil and gas industry, servicing diverse oil and gas multinational companies.

Lyon’s disqualification from the governorship race and consequent reinstatement may have jolted him a little, abut his entrepreneurial sojourn which faces ups and downs on a daily basis will likely see him through. More so, even as APC seems to be gaining ground in the oil rich state.

 

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Military Releases Pictures, Names of Soldiers Killed in Delta Community

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The Defence Headquarters has released the list of 17 military personnel killed in an attack in Delta State. 

The military personnel were killed last week in Okuama, a community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State after a peace mission.

Days after the gruesome murder, the Defence Headquarters said 17 personnel including the Commanding Officer of 181 Amphibious Battalion, two majors,  one captain, and 12 personnel of the battalion.

“May The Souls of the Departed Rest In Peace,” the Nigerian Army wrote on its X handle alongside a photo collage of the personnel on Monday evening.

The Defence Headquarters gave the names of those killed as:

– Lt Col AH Ali, the Command Officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion, Nigerian Army.

– Maj SD Shafa (N/13976)

– Maj DE Obi (N/14395)

– Capt U Zakari (N/16348)

– SSgt Yahaya Saidu (#3NA/36/2974)

– Cpl Yahaya Danbaba (1ONA/65/7274)

– Col Kabiru Bashir (11NA/66/9853)

– LCol Bulus Haruna (16NA/TS/5844)

– Lal Sole Opeyemi (17NA/760719)

– LCpl Bello Anas (17NA/76/290)

– LCpl Hamman Peter (NA/T82653)

– LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi (18NA/77/1191)

– Pte Alhaji Isah (17NA/76/6079)

– Pte Clement Francis (19NA/78/0911)

– Pte Abubakar Ali (19NA/78/2162)

– Pte Ibrahim Adamu (19NA/78/6079)

– Pte Adamu Ibrahim (21NA/80/4795).

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Glo 1 Cable is the King of Telecoms

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By Eric Elezuo

Available data and recent happenings have proved that it is not by coincidence that leading telecommunications company, Globacom, is the market leader, not only in provision of telecom services, but in being proactive to foresee future occurrences. This is exemplified in its ability to remain running even as acclaimed major networks have temporarily packed up as a result of the main one cable malfunction a few days ago in Nigeria, and some African countries.

Globacom’s Glo 1 submarine cable has literally remained the only hope for internet users covering both banking and browsing usages.

The GLO-1 (Globacom-1) submarine communications cable, which came on board in 2009, is a cable system along the west coast of Africa between Nigeria and the UK, owned by Nigerian telecoms operator Globacom, under the dynamic leadership of Africa’s pride, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr.

The submarine cable system is 9,800 km long, and became operational in 2011 with a minimum capacity of 640 Gbit/s.

A project of Globacom, Nigeria’s 2nd largest telecoms provider, total capacity of the system is now advertised as 2.5 Tbit/s. The cable’s link to Ghana was turned up in April, 2011, meaning that Ghana subscribers are part of the millions still enjoying uninterrupted network experience, the failure of main one, notwithstanding.

It would be recalled that massive internet outages was reported in Nigeria following damage to international undersea cables supplying the country with connectivity.

But Glo was not affected, a testimonial that Nigeria should celebrate the brand as against other networks that buckled under the weight of the underwater cable failure, the humongous money they are making from Nigerians notwithstanding. Those also goes to show that they don’t believe in the country.

Reports show that telecommunications companies and a number of banks which rely on the affected cables for internet services were affected by the outage, and will continue to be partially or completely out of service for the next five weeks if reports emanating from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is anything to go by.

According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and has led to internet downtime across West and South African countries.

The undersea cables affected are the West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3.

However, Glo 1, owned by Nigeria’s leading digital services company, Globacom, was not affected by the damage and has continued to operate normally. Data users, internet service providers and financial institutions which run on Glo 1 have continued to operate normally.

Industry analysts believe the sturdy nature and resilience of Glo 1 International Submarine Cable is the reason the damage did not affect the cable.

It would be recalled that the Glo submarine cable system Glo 1, made a historic landing in Alfa Beach, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2009. The landing marked the beginning of cheap bandwidth which in itself translated into many possibilities in the Information and Communications sectors of the Nigerian economy.

The project jointly executed by Globacom and its partners, Alcatel Lucent gave and continues  to give Nigeria lead in telemedicine, eCommerce and egovernance among other practices that transform economies.

Then, the Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr Adewale Shangowawa, noted that with the landing of the Glo1 submarine cable, Globacom has scored another first and as well has taken a bold step to give Nigeria the lead in the magical broadband revolution in Africa.

The 9800km cable from Bude in UK, connects Nigeria to the rest of West Africa and the UK. It has landing points in Nigeria, London and Lisbon in Portugal. It is deploying 16 branching units to connect countries in West Africa.

The ED added that globally, the tradition is for a consortium of telecommunication companies to team up to set up a submarine cable network to enhance their connectivity and bandwidth capacity. Globacom became an exception to the norm.

Glo is the first single telecommunication company in the world to own its submarine cable. The high capacity Glo 1 optic fibre cable brought functional direct connectivity between West Africa, the UK and the rest of the world. The 9,800 km long cable provided huge capacity on its 2-fibre pair system. The Glo 1 cable also made available excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable.

This will translate into much faster and more robust connectivity for voice, data and video. The cable will connect 14 West African countries through the branching units to the rest of the world. It will boost economic activities in the region, create job opportunities and serve companies in Europe and Africa.

Facts of the submarine cable landing included that Glo 1 provides connectivity from Lagos to Bude in United Kingdom through fibre optic cable laid undersea.

The cable which is of the 32 STM 64 type has virtual infinite capacity and therefore offers sufficient capacity for traffic for the Globacom’s mobile, fixed, and internet telecommunication services.

Last September, the $250 million Glo-1 cable system landed initially in Lagos and in Accra in Ghana. With 2.5 Tbps of capacity, the Glo-1 cable has been ready for commissioning since July 2010.

Mike Adenuga Jr., Globacom’s chairman, while describing the $250 million project, said the Glo-1 cable will provide Nigerian user’s two benefits: become part of the competitive telecom landscape and make broadband access and long-distance voice service more affordable.

As a company with unparalleled vision, and proactive initiatives, Glo in 2018, and in a bid to boost its data services and remain preferred data services provider with clarity and reach, commenced upgrading its undersea cable, Glo 1 capacity by 100G.

Bisi Koleoso, a deputy chief operating officer, Technical, then, which explaining the process said that, in addition the company as well is investing in equipment for more path redundancy for the Glo 1 in case of fiber cut. In 2024, fibre cut occurred, and Glo is still up and running.

“As the innovation leader in Nigeria’s telecom space, Globacom is committed to ensuring that Nigerians were not left behind in the march to a digitalised world.

“We have invested massively in new technologies to introduce these products which we believe will redefine business, social and personal pursuits,” the DCO had said.

The visionary company did not stop there however. Consequently, on April 8, 2011, it followed up the launch of the sub-marine optical fibre cable, Glo I Submarine Cable, which gulped a whopping $800 million, thereby making it the first telecommunication company to build such a high-capacity optic fibre from the United Kingdom to Nigeria with the rolling out of the Glo 2 submarine cable. The submarine optic fibre cables was designed to connect Lagos directly to Southern parts of Nigeria.

The submarine cables was programmed to “contain three fiber pairs. Fiber Pair 1 (Express) will connect Lagos directly to Southern part of Nigeria with terrestrial extension to existing terrestrial backbone.

“Fiber Pair, also known as Omnibus 1, has eight branching units to offshore oil stations and communities. Fiber Pair 3, otherwise called Omnibus 2, contains two switchable branching units southward Africa.”

The Glo II Submarine Cable would boost overall socio-economic development of the Niger Delta, and offer greater bandwidth for local ICT business to flourish and provide backup for the terrestrial fibre route from Port Harcourt to Lagos.

The company further explained that Glo 2 will equally be much more reliable as far as fibre cut is concerned, assuring that Globacom “has put in place workable plans to scale up the network for the future and innovation in products.

A statement on the effect, read in part: “We plan to initiate new data analytic tools to capture subscribers’ experience in real time and also take pre-emptive actions to improve the network. Also new sites would be rolled out into rural areas, banishing digital divide between cities and villages….to increase capacity by giving a congestion-free network and superior quality in voice data. We also plan to swap old equipment in other states with better quality ones, so that our subscribers can have better services.”

Glo’s invincibility in the telecommunication world is nothing short of insightful leadership, clear cut vision and the passion to put customers first in all its undertakings. This is not forgetting that it has done everything to project Nigeria’s ingenuity in the field of telecommunication,  and by extention other fields.

Glo is flourishing under the leadership of the spirit of Africa, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., and the Executive Vice Chairman, Mrs Bella Adenuga-Disu.

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Glo Unveils Korrect Predict Lottery Service, Rewards Subscribers with Cash, Airtime

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A new product, Glo Korrect Predict Lottery has been unveiled by telecommunications services provider, Globacom. Under the new service, any sports lover on Glo network who successfully predicts the final outcomes of football matches played across the world will be rewarded with fantastic cash prizes and free airtime.

“Sports Prediction Market has witnessed significant growth over the years, with a projected value of over $155 billion globally by 2024 and that, the growth is driven by the proliferation of smartphones, increase in online betting platforms, as well as increased sports viewership and adoption of technology”, Globacom said in a statement In Lagos.

This trend, the company explained underscored the unveiling of the new service Korrect Predict lottery, which it said, will give subscribers the opportunity to win cash gifts from predicting match results accurately.

According to Globacom “Subscribers will receive 2 football matches daily for them to predict the correct scores after which those who accurately predict the outcomes of their preferred matches will win amazing prizes from Glo”.

To subscribe to Korrect Predict, you will either dial the USSD Command *7023# or send the keyword “KPRD” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the daily plan costing just N50 or send the keyword “KPW” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the weekly plan of N150. Upon successful subscription, you will receive an SMS with a link to access the service”.

For the first active subscription when they select any of the daily, or weekly auto-renewal plan, Glo said subscribers will enjoy free trial, adding that “This means that a new subscriber can activate the service at no cost for the first twenty-four hours, after which he or she will then be charged for the next renewal cycle. Subscribers who do not want to be charged after the free trial and buy offer will have to cancel their service renewal before the twenty-four hours elapse by dialing the USSD command for deactivation”.

Glo Korrect Predict provides access to two daily predictions on football matches across Africa, Asian, American and European Leagues including Asian League, English Premiership, Italian Serie A,Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 and Portugese Primeira Liga and it can be accessed by all Glo subscribers via SMS, USSD, and Web.

To subscribe to the daily plan costing just N50 subscribers will either dial the USSD Command *7023# or send the keyword “KPRD” to the shortcode “7023” or send the keyword “KPW” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the weekly plan of N150. An SMS with a link to access the service will be sent to the subscribers upon successful subscription.

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