Goodluck Jonathan Stoned By Crowd In Uganda, Police Kill One Attacker

KAMPALA, UGANDA—Ugandan police shot at a crowd in the capital Kampala after it attacked a car carrying Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan who had attended President Yoweri Museveni's inauguration, a government spokesman said.

At least one person was killed in the incident.

“The car belonging to Goodluck Jonathan was stoned by mobs,” said Fred Opolot, director of the government media centre. “The security shot around the area, and one person was shot dead.”

The 25-year leader was sworn in to a fourth term.

Opposition leader Kizza Besigye over the last month has been leading “walk to work” protests over the rising cost of food and fuel. Besigye, whom Museveni defeated in his February re-election win, said the marches are also to protest government corruption.

Those marches have been the most serious unrest in sub-Saharan Africa since protests swept out leaders in Egypt and Tunisia. Museveni says he will not be swept from office by Egypt-style protests.

A 21-gun salute rang out before a crowd of thousands who watched the country’s chief justice administer an oath to Museveni. Leaders from Kenya, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe attended the ceremony.

Museveni appeared to make reference to Besigye in a speech, saying that opponents wanted to cause chaos but that their “disruptive schemes” will be defeated.
Museveni said the country would begin pumping oil within three years, and that Uganda would no longer need to rely on imports.

He also sought to highlight the country’s progress in the last 25 years, saying that 8 million primary students are in school today compared with 2.5 million in 1986. He also promised to fight corruption.

Museveni also indulged in a moment of self-congratulations, saying: “I thank the Ugandans for overwhelmingly voting for me with 68.3 per cent.”

Although official returns showed Museveni winning that amount, Besigye says the results were falsified, and that Museveni and Besigye both received a bit under 50 per cent of the vote, an outcome that would have required a runoff.

Uganda has seen sharp spikes in food and fuel prices the last several months, making car or bus travel unaffordable for many. Anger over the increases has fuelled Besigye’s protests, and security forces have clashed with protesters around the country. Human Rights Watch says government forces have shot and killed nine people during crackdowns on protests.

Museveni, an ex-rebel commander who seized power at the head of a guerrilla army in 1986, once criticized African rulers who clung to power. In 2001 he promised to retire from politics despite lifting a two-term limit on the presidency so he could run again in 2006. But now Museveni says he is fostering peace, stability and growth.

African strongmen of old are under increasing pressure. Moammar Gadhafi, who has ruled Libya since 1969, is battling attacks from Libyan rebels and NATO. Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, who attended Thursday’s inauguration, has been in power since 1980. He has refused to accept a 2008 election defeat.

With files from the Associated Press.

Thieves ransack Emir Ado’s bedroom

Thieves broke into the palace of the Emir of Kano Alhaji Ado Bayero on Tuesday night and carted away large amounts of money, Daily Trust learnt from police and palace sources in Kano yesterday.

The thieves gained entry into the monarch’s apartment and removed money believed to be in millions while the emir was away in London, a palace source said.

A source said the thieves broke many wardrobes, trunk boxes and drawers and truned the whole apartment upside down.

More than a dozen persons have already been arrested by the police in Kano State over alleged complicity in the theft, among them one of Alhaji Ado Bayero’s sons and a lady, the sources also said. The suspects are being held at Kwalli Police Division in Kano metropolis. Also in the custody of the police are palace guards and other individuals accused of having a hand in the alleged theft.

The theft was said to have taken place late in the night at a room in the palace used specifically for keeping the emir’s valuables, including money. The suspected thieves did not break or damage any of doors in the apartment while making their way to the vault located in the highly guarded section of the palace, said the source, who further disclosed that the development raised suspicions of an insider job.

A source said ten palace guards are deployed on a daily basis to secure the said room. Police sources also said the emir’s son was suspected of having hand in the crime because was seen at the palace on the day the incident occurred, even though he is a Customs officer based in Kaduna. “This person left a day after the theft and when our officers trailed him to Kaduna, he was on a spending spree. So they arrested him and brought him to Kwalli Division,” said the source.

The only lady among the suspects was said to have been picked by the police because of the free access she enjoys around the palace. Others suspects in police net include senior palace guards, known as Dogorai. The source told Daily Trust that the arrests may not yet be over.

When contacted yesterday, the spokesperson of the Kano Emirate Council Professor Isa Hashim said he was not aware of the case. He said he had just returned to the country from Cairo, where he went for medical check-up. All attempts to speak to the Kano Police Command’s spokesperson ASP Musa Magaji Majiya on the issue failed.

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Bankole survives suspension over secret loan

Speaker Dimeji Bankole yesterday survived moves by some members to suspend him over allegations that he took a loan of about N10 billion without approval of the House.

Bankole, who appeared at the House as demanded by members, forced the House into a closed session as several members insist that the matter should be discussed in the open.

At the end of the session, the Speaker said “the House in closed session discussed issues concerning the House and the Speaker offered explanation satisfactorily. Payment of emoluments to suspended members is being resolved.”

Several members protested the position by shouting ‘no’ but when the question was put by the Speaker; majority voted that they were satisfied by the explanations offered by Bankole on the contentious issues of House finances and the loan.

But a member who spoke to Daily Trust on condition of anonymity said the Speaker revealed that the House is indebted to some banks but that the issue is being resolved and members emoluments will soon be paid.

He said “I am surprised because the Speaker said he took the loan in May last year. I thought the loan was taken this year in view of the fact that the budget has not been signed so that when the budgetary allocation comes, they will use it to settle the loan. But that was not the case.”

The members said “the loan was collected May last year to subsidise House spending in anticipation of budgetary releases. When the anticipated money failed to come they now started rolling it over and over. In my own estimation this loan of about N10 billion is stealing.”

Senate: No contest against David Mark

There is no contest for the office of the President of the Senate to warrant any change of rules as the incumbent Senator David Mark is on the verge of emerging as an unopposed candidate for the top job, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Senator Ayogu Eze said in Abuja yesterday.

Speaking on the outgoing Senate’s controversial moves to amend the Senate Standing Rules in order to shut out all new senators from eyeing the presiding and principal officers positions in the Red Chamber, Eze said there was no contest in the first place to warrant any rigging of the rules.
He said, “I want to say that the issue of ranking senators taking precedence on matters of presiding officers down to committee chairmanship is already in our rules. Section 97 (1f) of the rule is clear on that. What we are doing now is just to make clarification, which is not provided in the present rule.”

Eze denied any selfish motive behind the amendment saying, “it is not about David Mark or any other individual in the Senate. It is about deepening our democracy. It has nothing to do with Mark as a person, it is all about institutional integrity on how to stabilise our democracy.”

He said the incumbent Senate President has performed well enough to earn a return. “Do you really think there is a contest? There is no contest to warrant amendment for any individual,” he said.

Eze also said the proposed amendment is in line with Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution which empowers each chamber of the National Assembly to regulate its own proceedings. “You may be aware that some people that have not even come to the chamber are thinking of going to court to challenge our ability to exercise Section 60 of the Constitution,” he said.

He said experience matters much in the task of presiding over the Senate, saying “as a second term senator, if you make me a presiding officer it will be a major challenge, not to talk of someone who is just coming for the first time.”

Meanwhile, a meeting of all senators-elect has been scheduled for tomorrow in Abuja to further iron out the issues surrounding selection of presiding officers, principal officers and committee chairmen before the inauguration of the new Senate.

Sources among the incoming senators, who will form a majority in the next Senate, told Daily Trust yesterday that they are moving to throw overboard the controversial amendments being pushed by outgoing senators to the Senate rules in order to railroad a second tenure for David Mark. An incoming senator said, “they [the outgoing senators] are labouring in vain. They were there for four years and they did not amend the rules, until most of them were defeated in the elections and they are just about to depart. Mark is using them for his rigging plans, but it won’t work. We will throw out the new rule first thing in the new term.”