Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Thugs chase, kill INEC staffer in Jos

Gov. Jonah Jang
A group of hoodlums yesterday chased and killed an ad hoc staffer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while two soldiers who were trying to save him were badly injured at the Tina Junction in Jos North local government area of Plateau state. Our correspondent reports that the victim, Murtala Ibrahim, a law graduate, was attacked and killed when six INEC ad hoc staffers went to the area to collect registration materials for their ward in preparation for the voter registration exercise.
According to an eyewitness, Umar M. Adam, who was among those who escaped the mob attack, they went to the area early in the morning to collect the materials when they were surrounded by a group of youths who attacked them.
Adam said the initial place where they used to collect the materials during every election or voter registration exercise was at Baptist School, but during this exercise the venue was shifted to St. Philip Academy. He said, “At first, we were reluctant to go there considering the nature of what is happening in Jos, but we were assured by the Electoral Officer (E.O) that nothing will happen to us.”
He said despite the fact that they were accompanied by some soldiers, they were still attacked, and that the two soldiers that were accompanying them sustained injuries on the leg and head respectively, after rescuing them.
According to Adam, four of them, including Murtala Muhammed, Salisu Husaini and Abdul Salam Yusuf were hidden in a classroom by one police woman, while Jamilu and the deceased (Murtala Ibrahim) hid inside one of the soldiers’ outposts in the area. He said, “Jamilu narrowly escaped, while Murtala (the deceased) and the two soldiers who were trying to control the youths were overpowered and in the end Murtala was killed and the two soldiers were injured”.
Adam added that it took the intervention of two armoured tankers and two Hilux vehicles filled with soldiers before they were rescued, adding that one of the vehicles belonging to the soldiers was badly damaged by the rampaging youths.
The Special Task Force (STF) spokesperson Captain Charles Ekoacha confirmed the incident to newsmen. Although this aspect was not confirmed by the STF, Daily Trust learnt that two of the hoodlums were killed while some of them were injured in the struggle to rescue the INEC ad hoc staff.
Meanwhile, the Special Military Task Force on the Jos crisis [STF] yesterday received orders to fire at any person or group of persons attempting to kill or to burn a public building in the state.
STF spokesman Capt. Charles Ekeocha said the order was received yesterday in reaction to the unrest at Tina Junction where an INEC staff who took cover in the tent of the soldiers while a mob was pursuing him was killed and his body was set ablaze while the soldiers watched helplessly. Ekeocha said the order took effect from yesterday. He said any act of violence from any individual or group henceforth would be met by force.
“We have been ordered to shoot and kill anybody trying to kill another or anybody trying to burn down a church or a mosque,” he said. The STF spokesman cautioned elders and parents in the community to talk to their wards not to take the laws into their hands, saying the kind of scenario that played out on Monday where an official on duty was killed right under their nose would not be allowed to happen again.

Govt may withdraw privileges over voters’ card – INEC

Prof. Attahiru Jega
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has hinted that government may deny eligible Nigerians certain benefits if they failed to register and obtain voters card. The INEC Resident Commissioner in Lagos Adetokumbo Ladipo dropped the hint at a voter’s registration sensitization seminar/workshop for traders in Lagos.
Mr. Ladipo who recalled that such punitive action against citizens who failed to do their civic duties had been done in the past said it could still be meted out by government if it so desires.  He also announced that anybody caught to have registered twice will face the law and risks one year jail term or fine or both.
He encouraged the traders and indeed Nigerians to come out and register and vote for their preferred candidate assuring that their vote will count.   The one-day seminar put together by Traders Right Protection Initiative in conjunction with Traders Voice Newspaper and INEC was to encourage traders to be fully involved in the elections activities.

Monday, January 17, 2011

PDP Convention - More protests in Kaduna, Bauchi

protesters burning umbrellas and PDP flag
Protests began by youths in some Northern cities to protest the outcome of the Peoples Democratic Party’s [PDP] presidential primaries of last week spread yesterday to Kaduna and Bauchi states, with protesters burning the party flag and causing commotion in the streets. Vice President Mohamed Namadi Sambo also had to cancel his planned visit to Kaduna yesterday to participate in the voter registration exercise.

Pandemonium had broken out along the busy Muhammadu Buhari/ Waff Road in Kaduna metropolis yesterday when youths numbering about a hundred set ablaze the flag of the ruling PDP. They said they were protesting the outcome of the party’s presidential primaries held in Abuja last Thursday.
The youths, who barricaded the road for some time, created tension in the area as passersby scampered away for safety.  The youths who came on motorcycles were chanting “Ba muson PDP,” meaning they don’t want PDP.
They destroyed several umbrellas [the PDP symbol] as well as the party’s flags and banners. They also attempted to enter the Kaduna secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) but the chairman of the state council, Alhaji Yusuf Idris quickly ordered for the closure of the secretariat.
Speaking to our correspondent, one of the protesting youths, Adamu Mohammed, said they decided to denounce the PDP following the way that last Thursday’s primaries was conducted.
He said, “We are doing this to show our displeasure in the sham primaries they conducted. There is no internal democracy in the party at all. For them to dump zoning, we are also dumping the party and we are going to work against them.’’
Chairman of the Kaduna council of NUJ Alhaji Yusuf Idris said they decided to lock the secretariat because the press centre was not meant for protest. He also said the protesters did not tell the NUJ leaders that they were coming.
Meanwhile, Daily Trust gathered that Vice President Sambo decided to postpone his voters’ registration in Kaduna because of “unfavourable security reports.” The Vice President had been expected to perform the civic responsibility at a special polling unit at Shooting Range, near the Almanar Juma’at Mosque Close, a stone’s throw from his Kaduna residence.
Dozens of security men were drafted to the area. All roads leading to the shooting range polling unit were fortified by security men. The VP’s advanced team had arrived the Shooting Range polling unit around 2.pm.
Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media, Alhaji Sani Umar had told our correspondent that the VP would be coming to the state for the voter registration. Newsmen from both electronic and print media houses waited for hours at the Shooting Range. The news of the cancellation of the VP’s trip was broken to the newsmen at 4.10 pm.
Meanwhile, in Bauchi state, the police had to disperse a group of youths who were protesting over the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2011 presidential election.
Our correspondent who monitored the protest reported that the youths took over Nasarawa and Ran roads chanting bamuso, Bamuyin Jonathan, meaning “we don’t want”, “we are not doing [i.e. supporting] Jonathan.” They burnt several PDP flags and an umbrella. Men of the Special Anti robbery Squad as well as soldiers in an Army Hilux truck followed the protesting youths along the streets and dispersed them before they could hold a rally.
Leader of the protesters, Comrade Aliyu Ladan, said they were disappointed with the northern governors who they said compelled their delegates to vote for Jonathan. Ladan threatened that they will decamp from PDP and would do everything to frustrate Jonathan’s election in the North.
He said the PDP national leadership did not follow the zoning formula of allowing the north to produce the party’s next presidential candidate. He said, “They should have allowed the northern part of the country to complete its four years before going for any negations. Already, the south have finished their tenure through Obasanjo, so therefore it is now is the turn of north to rule for eight years. All our elders, women, and youth in the state are going out of the party (PDP), because the youth are the majority of Nigerian voters.”
Bauchi State Publicity Secretary of PDP Sani Al’amin Mohammed however said PDP youths don’t take laws in their hands and advised the protesting youth, “if they are genuine PDP members,” to come forward and express their grievances peacefully.

Jonathan says Nigeria doomed without unity

President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that without unity Nigeria’s development as a country will be doomed.

He decried the incessant crises in the country which led to the death of personnel of the armed forces and other security agencies thereby bringing untold hardship to their families. President Jonathan spoke at the 2011 Armed Forces Remembrance Day held at the National Christian Centre amidst tight security yesterday.
He called on the congregation and Nigerians to pray for the country’s armed forces and other security agencies as their work has continued to keep the nation together.
He said the nation’s diversity should not be seen as a hindrance but resources that can be exploited for the development of the country.
President Jonathan, who noted that Nigerians sometimes seem to dwell more on the excesses of some personnel thereby not giving them kudos for efforts made to sustain our democracy and security, called on Nigerians to remember them in prayers as they are people who have sworn to die for us to live.
“Today we remember those who have passed on and call on all Nigerians to pray for them, their widows, children and dependants that God will provide a window for them to cushion the suffering of those whose husbands paid the supreme sacrifice for this nation,” he said.
In his sermon titled “Leadership that stands out”, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, using Prophet Nehemiah as an example, said “a leader that does not fear God would make himself god. A leader that does not fear god becomes a master instead of a servant”.
Oritsejafor also said Nehemiah identified with the people, adding “a good leader would sit where the people sit, feel what the people feel so that he would know what the people need and therefore be able to do what is right.”
Others who attended the service were the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, the President’s mother, representative of the Senate President, the ministers, the Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs, and heads of other security agencies and the  representative of the Inspector General of Police.

Northern consensus group meets without Saraki, transforms to G3

General Ibrahim Babangida
The northern consensus group (G4) consisting General Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, General Aliyu Gusau and Governor Bukola Saraki met yesterday in Abuja without the Kwara State governor to discuss the outcome of last Thursday’s presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Details of the meeting could not be obtained at press time but a source told Daily Trust that the “G4” might have transformed to “G3” “with Governor Bukola having moved over to Jonathan, leaving General Babangida, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and General Aliyu Gusau.”
However, when asked why he did not attend yesterday’s meeting, Saraki who spoke through the spokesman of his campaign organisation, Garbdeen Mohammed, said the Kwara State governor did not deliberately boycott the meeting.
He said the meeting was earlier slated for today (Monday) but later shifted forward to yesterday, pointing out that Saraki received the notice at a very short notice when he had already given a commitment to other state matters. Garbadeen said being a state governor, Saraki was also overwhelmed by the ongoing registration exercise the start of which was greeted by some hiccups.
Members of the G4, all PDP presidential aspirants had submitted themselves to a consensus arrangement worked out by nine ‘wise men’ headed by elder statesman Malam Adamu Ciroma in which Atiku emerged as the consensus.
However, only Governor Saraki could not deliver his state to Atiku in last Thursday’s primaries, something which appears to have raised some level of suspicion since both Babangida and Gusau delivered their respective states of Niger and Zamafara in accordance with their pledge to support Atiku after the result of consensus.
The former VP’s camp also said it was unaware of the reconciliation moves widely reported to have been initiated by President Jonathan.
The president’s spokesman Ima Niboro was quoted on Saturday as saying that Jonathan is meeting with Atiku, IBB and Adamu Ciroma in his effort to mend fences with the trio and their supporters because of the wounds inflicted in the build up to the presidential primaries.
When contacted, Atiku’s media aide Garba Shehu said: “We too read about it in the press.”

Shekarau wins ANPP ticket

Governor Ibrahim Shekarau
Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State recorded a landslide win early Sunday morning to emerge as the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) at the Eagle Square, Abuja.

Shekarau polled 4,178 of the total 5,315 votes cast to defeat the three other aspirants. Chairman of the ANPP National Election Committee and the party’s Returning Officer, Senator Maina Ma’aji Lawan, who announced the results and declared Shekarau winner, also declared that the former Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman and three times presidential aspirant of the party, Chief Harry Ayoade Akande, came a distant second with 708 votes. Former Education Minister Alhaji Dauda Birmah scored 148 votes while Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa garnered 139 votes. 142 votes were invalidated.
In his acceptance speech, Malam Shekarau said he was gratified to witness a free, fair and transparent primaries that led to his emergence and he promised to tackle corruption if elected president. He said, “Election symbolised the answer to the dreams and aspirations of fellow Nigerians to work out actual ways of national development and bring Nigeria among the top 20 economies of the world.”
The four aspirants had earlier undergone thorough screening and were cleared by the Senator Ahmed Sani-led screening panel to contest.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had fixed January 15 as the deadline for the conclusion of primaries and submission of candidates for the April polls, but it extended the deadline for the ANPP following the party’s inability to hold its special 2011 presidential convention at the Eagles Square, Abuja on Saturday due to the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration that was held there.
Chairman of the convention committee and former Edo State governor Chief John Odigie Oyegun, who told newsmen of the deadline extension by INEC said, “We wrote to the electoral body on the challenges we were facing concerning the venue of the convention. They reasoned with us because we have published the date of our convention in the media but we could not hold it that night because of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day. We have respect for our military, our country and our president that is why we have to conduct the primaries today (yesterday) using the same venue. We have that agreement in writing that even if there is a slippage into January 16, INEC will accommodate us because what happened was totally outside our control.”
He said the military, police, State Security Services (SSS), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) sent 500 men each to the convention, in addition to 200 federal highway patrol men.
ANPP’s National Chairman Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, while declaring open the convention, said the party has been in opposition for too long and that it will take over power from the PDP. “We therefore advise the ruling party to start preparing to play the role of the leading opposition political party in Nigeria,” Onu said.
Each of the four aspirants was given five minutes to address the delegates before the voting commenced. Shekarau, in his speech, said the occasion was a day of great of history, a great moment of change for ANPP and for the country as a whole and that the expected change in Nigeria would come with the election of a credible and experienced leader to lead the way.
While decrying the slow pace of development in the power, education, energy and agricultural sectors, he promised an accelerated change in the country. He said, “The change I am talking about is the restoration of trust and confidence in the running of government in Nigeria. This is the foundation of good governance in Nigeria.”
Chief Akande, on his part, expressed regret on the dwindling fortunes of ANPP from nine governors in 1999 to three today, saying the party needs a rebirth and that he was presenting himself as the pivot of that rebirth.
Alhaji Bashir Tofa advised the delegates to see the convention as the last chance for ANPP to progress and give Nigerians the best, saying “Nigeria yesterday was always better than today’’, hence the need for change. “Nigerians and Nigeria just need to change or be short-changed,” he said.
Alhaji Dauda Birmah lamented the backwardness of the country due to bad leadership and promised to give good leadership to redress the injustice of the past. He also promised to bring about positive change in education, agriculture and power sectors, among others, while recalling that he stepped down eight years ago for Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. He who fights and runs, lives to fight another day, he said.