ANPP BoT to Ratify Merger Plans

National Chairman, ANPP,   Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) will tomorrow meet in Abuja to consider issues relating to the party’s participation in the ongoing merger talks with other opposition political parties in the country.

THISDAY gathered that the BoT members were to meet in Calabar,  Cross River State, but that their meeting was later rescheduled for this week in Abuja due to cost implications.

Top on the agenda of the BoT headed by the former Governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, is said to be on strategies and condition that would be applied in the negotiations.

A top member of the party told THISDAY Sunday  that the board is also expected to consider members nominated to serve on the merger committee of the party.

The national leadership had earlier constituted a six-man committee headed by a member of the BoT, Admiral Lanre Amosu (rtd) but later expanded it to 20, with the inclusion of all the serving and former governors.
It was learnt that at the meeting of the party’s National Working Committee  (NWC)  held last Thursday, the national officers had a heated session when the national chairman, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, brief them on the talks with leaders of other opposition parties.

Most of the officers were agitated over the seeming back-seat ANPP appeared to be taking on the merger talks.

They worried over the delay in inaugurating the committee on merger which had to wait following the chairman’s trip abroad.

Majority of the NWC were  however calmed down after Onu had tried to allay their fears that the party was indeed holding out it own as far as the engagement with other opposition parties is concerned.

Onu had said the reason for the expansion of membership of the contact committee on merger was to ensure that people with  experiences would be made to impact on the search for a viable mechanism for opposition alliance.

Onu who said the leadership of the party has been exploring ways of restoring the party to a position of eminence, also informed members of NEC that discussions are already underway with  chairmen of leading opposition parties on how to achieve common political interest.

“We have also set up an  inter-party contact committee that will hold talks with other opposition parties with the aim of strengthening platform that will help us win elections at all levels of government.  The membership of the committee will be enlarged to include as many as twenty leaders so as to fully tap the vast experience within the party for the good of all,” he said.

ThisDay

ONDO GOV ELECTION Mimiko ’ll win by landslide - Tunde Bakare

by Soji Ajibola

Mimiko

THE Senior Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly and vice-presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 general election, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said on Sunday in Lagos that Dr Olusegun Mimiko would win by a landslide victory in the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State.The victory of Governor Mimiko, according to Pastor Bakare, will usher in a new wave of leadership in the South-West, adding that leadership is not by birthright but by living right.
Briefing newsmen on the forthcoming election in Ondo State, Pastor Bakare said, "Mimiko will win hands down in Ondo State and nothing would happen. Thereafter, he will muster strength and there will be an alternative party as people would begin to see leadership by living right and not by material acquisition of flying jets over the people that you want to vote for you, without letting us know how you come about the jets when you have little or no money in your pocket when you became the governor.
"The people of Ondo State should be vigilant and be alert and make sure that they defend their vote. They should vote for the candidate of their own choice.
"I want to remind those who said they will win at all costs what Samuel Akintola said in the election that led to 'Operation we ti e', that if people did not vote for them, angel will vote for them and we know the consequences of that. If anybody thinks they can perpetrate any violence in Ondo State, violence will consume the perpetrator of violence,” he said.
“I speak for no political party because none of them is big enough to buy me. In 2007, the South-West was visited by a powerful hurricane called PDP. The party, under President Olusegun Obasanjo swept almost all the entire South-West because people believed him that he was just trying to be limited to the presidential election. But to their chagrin, their states were swept off and we had PDP in Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states. They received some through court proceedings, verdict and judgments.
"But God preserved Lagos State in the midst of that hurricane. Through Lagos that was preserved, Ahmed Tinubu, who became the leader of ACN, alongside the leadership of the party, began to muster strength that they were able to secure the South-West from the PDP. It was a breath of fresh air. But the same group opened the door to PDP to sweep the polls during the presidential election in 2011. In the midst of all that, God, also, to teach lessons, preserved a state to be neither ACN nor PDP just as He preserved ACN in Lagos.”
On the proposed integration of the region by the ACN, Pastor Bakare noted that, “no destructive means can bring about constructive ends. If indeed as claimed by them that they want to have economic integration in the integration, it should be preceded by enabling legislation that the house of assemblies of states in the region should pass into law and that will empower their governors to do such.”

Nigerian Tribune

24 hours to deadline, FG yet to file Bakassi review

 by John Ameh, John Alechenu, Olalekan Adetayo and Ihuoma Chidozie

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN)
| credits:

Barely 24 hours to the expiration of  the  deadline for Nigeria to appeal for a review of the International Court of Justice judgment on  the Bakassi Peninsula, there is no indication that the Federal Government has done so.

The 2002 judgment  had ceded the oil-rich peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon. And Nigeria, in compliance with the judgment,  signed the Green Tree agreement  with Cameroon in 2006, thereby formally handing over the area.

But the Bakassi people alleged unfair and inhuman treatment in the hands of the Cameroonian authorities and  mounted  pressure on the Federal Government to file  a suit for a review of the judgment.

Under Article 61 of the ICJ Statute, a party to a suit can file for a review within 10 years if new facts not known at the time a judgment was delivered surface.

Nigeria  has till Tuesday(tomorrow} to  file a suit for the review .

President Goodluck Jonathan had set up a committee last week to advise him on how Nigeria would approach the case; but as at Sunday, it could not be established if a report had been laid before  him.

It was gathered that part of the committee’s assignments covered  suggesting a formidable legal team that would  draft and file the case.

The committee is under the watch of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that the matter had left its table and was now under the control of the presidential committee.

The spokesperson of the ministry, Mr. Ogbole Ahmedu-Ode, told one of our correspondents that until the committee’s  report was submitted, there was nothing much the ministry could do.

He said, “As you are aware, the President has set up a committee to look at the issue and advise him appropriately.

“I suggest we all wait for the outcome of the committee’s work and we will take it from there. The committee  still has a day or so to complete its work, let us wait.”

Efforts by one of our correspondents to get Adoke to comment on whether Nigeria would file the appeal failed on Sunday.

The minister did not answer calls to his mobile telephone. He also  did not reply an SMS sent to him.

Also, the Chief Press Secretary to the AGF, Mr. Ambrose Momoh, did not say whether the government would seek a review or not.

When contacted, Presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, told one of our correspondents that Adoke would address a press conference on Monday (today) to give Federal Government’s stand on the ICJ verdict.

Abati said contrary to media reports, the Federal Government was not appealing the verdict.

He said the ICJ does not give room for appeal but only a review or the interpretation of the verdict.

He said, “What the Federal Government has been asking for over the years is the interpretation of the verdict which has not been forthcoming.

“But by tomorrow (today), the AGF will speak comprehensively on the issue and give Federal Government’s position in a press conference.”

The PUNCH had in its earlier report said government would seek a review and not appeal the judgment.

The House of Representatives, which last week passed a resolution asking the government to file for a review, was at a loss on the direction of Nigeria on Sunday.

The Chairman House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms Nnena Ukeje, whose committee investigated the issue and recommended a review of the case based “fresh facts”, advised.  “Nigerians should cross their fingers.”

Ukeje stated that since there was no categorical statement from government as at Sunday, the “best bet is to wait till Monday (today).”

She added, “The National Assembly passed a resolution backing a review of the judgment.

“I am aware that Mr. President set up a committee to advise him; the committee met a couple of times up to Friday.

“For now, we don’t know what the committee will come up with. This is a weekend, so we wait till Monday.

“Whatever we say now will be mere conjecture; all I can add is that as a legislature, we took a position. Our position is that Nigeria should enter for a review of the judgment on the strength of new facts on the ground.”

The Senate had also passed a similar resolution.

 Punch

Mubi Killings: Let’s Tell The World Our Bitter Story

PEMBI STEPHEN-DAVID and MUAZU ABARI

Worried by the various interpretations given to the killings of over 40 people, the authorities of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa State, have formally written to President Goodluck Jonathan seeking his permission to make public their findings.
In the aftermath of the killings on Monday last week, the top management of the institution met and resolved to write the letter which was routed through the office of the minister of education.
A copy of the letter according to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY findings reads in part: “The incident that occurred in Mubi is not hooliganism and it is not cultism, neither is it linked to the post Students Union Government (SUG) election violence.
“From the school’s findings, six students of the institution were killed and four were injured. More so, the incident occurred outside the school and those who committed the act are not students as widely reported in the media.”
The letter, which was signed by the rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Sadiq Girei, and dated October 4, 2012, LEADERSHIP SUNDAY learnt, also solicited the permission of the Ministry of Education “to make public the findings of the institution”.
The school authorities, according to the letter, are stating that the scene of the attack was at the ‘students’ village’, some 2 kilometres away from its campus, which also hosted students from other institutions.
They also informed the federal authorities that the gunmen used sophisticated weapons during the attack.
Even as the institution is counting its losses, the Non-Academic Senior Staff Union of Polytechnics has decried the inability of the governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Muritala Nyako (retd), to personally visit the institution after the massacre.
Its national president, Reverend Sunday Sabo told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY: “It is sad that the governor of Adamawa State, Admiral Murtala Nyako, as the host governor has not done well as he did not visit the school, but only sent his deputy, Barr. Bala Ngalari, on Thursday, three days  after the incident, while the governors of Akwa Ibom, Gombe and Taraba states sent buses to evacuate their indigenes. These governors must be commended for their quick response.”
Last Monday, unidentified gunmen attacked locations in Mubi town where some students of tertiary institutions sited in the town reside and killed about 40 persons, while an unspecified number were wounded.
Police said it had made arrests of some persons following the attack.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola, have expressed  concern over the activities of some miscreants who always trespassed into the school through illegal routes to harass students and engaged in smoking and selling of marijuana or ‘Indian hemp,’ among other illegal acts, within the school campus. These acts, the school said, have been threatening the peaceful academic environment of the institution.
Addressing journalists yesterday in his office, the rector of the polytechnic, Prof. Bobboi Umar, blamed some hoodlums residing close to the school as being responsible for terrorising the students. According to him, several of them were arrested in the past and handed over to the police, but they continued with their illegal acts.
The rector, however, challenged the police to bring the culprits to book.
He said that the institution had written several letters to the police authorities in the past, all to no avail, pointing out that the institution had taken several security measures to checkmate the activities of the hoodlums without any positive result.
2 Dead, 8 Injured As Explosion Rocks Taraba
A bomb explosion yesterday rocked an area in Gindin Doruwa along Abubakar Barde Road, near a state television studio in Jalingo, Taraba State.
Though the details of the blast were sketchy as at press time, two people were feared dead while eight people were said to have been injured during the explosion.
The blast reportedly occurred in an area known for trade in locally brewed beer, Burukutu
It was the second blast in Jalingo in two days as a blast at an outdoor bar had killed at least one person and wounded 14 people on Thursday.
Reuters also reports that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Yushua Shuaib said by text message that a woman and five children were among the wounded, alongside two others.
Witnesses said at least two people died in the blast while several others received injuries.
Leadership

Reps back NJC to recall Salami

House of Representatives members have affirmed that the power to reinstate the embattled and suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami rests on the shoulders of the National Judicial Council not President Goodluck Jonathan.
The lawmakers also kicked against the move by president Jonathan to elongate the tenure of the acting PCA, Mr. Dalhatu Adamu, asserting that it contravenes the 1999 Constitution.
Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, maintained that the Judicial council was correct on its stand.
He said, “NJC is absolutely correct. The President is precluded under the provisions of the constitution from further extending the appointment of the appeal court chief justice as he purports to do,” he said.
Also reacting, Mr. Sampson Osagie, the Minority Whip of the House, has urged the NJC to go ahead and recall the suspended Salami, stressing “there is no provision legally for an acting PCA after three months.”
Osagie disclosed that the appropriate thing to do was to recall Salami with immediate effect since there’s no legal backing for an extension of the tenure beyond three month.
Osagie said, “The NJC should go ahead and do the right thing because it was the NJC that kick-started the whole process in the first place.
“The NJC should take this debate over who has the power or no power out of the public domain because it does not portray the judiciary in good light.”
The Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Mr. Aminu Shagari, on his part said that since that matter has already been settled in court, he advised that the judgment should be obeyed.
“There is a court judgement on the issue already. The court is the final arbiter on any dispute; so, the law should be obeyed,” he stated.
It will be recalled that the NJC earlier in August 2011 had written Jonathan to approve Salami’s suspension, which the President immediately conformed with.
However, the council wrote Jonathan to lift suspension, but the President withheld his approval, which sparked controversy among the lawmakers who insisted that they would no longer wait for Mr. president to approve Salami’s reinstatement.
 DailyPost

DailyPost Editorial: Murder of UNIPORT students: Questions Aluu Community must answer

“How much is life worth in Nigeria?” was the question the publisher of DailyPost asked, when some pictures were sent to our news desk from the scene of the gruesome murder of three students of the University of Port Harcourt, namely Ugonna, Tekana and Chidiaka.
No. They were not Boko Haram militants and they were not suicide bombers either. If you care to know, they were also not armed, and they didn’t kill or harm anybody. Aside the sketchy information we got that they stole a laptop and a phone, the only thing we could see as presented pictorially, was a group of jungle justice executors, heinously and reprehensibly smashing the heads of some promising young boys, placing tyres round their necks and going ahead to set them ablaze.
There is no doubt that Ugonna, Tekana and Chidiaka will curse the day they were born, considering their exit which DailyPost considers most painful. It was a painful death.
DailyPost like other media organizations, abhors in totality pilfering or any kind of societal crime. We have been in the vanguard of the campaign against crimes in Nigeria, especially as found amongst our young men and women. We are also not oblivious of the fact that “stealing is stealing”, no matter what was stolen, and whoever that is found guilty of such crime must be brought to book by the law.

However, the law says, “every criminal remains a suspect and innocent until proven guilty of the said crime. This is what the law says. It’s the law that guides us, hence we must all abide by it.

It is against this backdrop that DailyPost wishes to state that the human community is not a jungle; hence all the laws of that guide the society must be applied as against the animalistic justice of the jungle.
It is with this submission, that we advocate that those behind the gruesome murder of the 3 students of the University of Port Harcourt at Aluu community in Rivers State, deserve to face the wrath of the law.
It’s is totally unacceptable and completely out of the ordinary, for some people to have taken the laws into their hands in such a barbaric way. The question bothering us is, why will our country degenerate into such barbarity, brute and sadism? Why has it now become a norm in our country that when a crime is committed, the individuals become the police and the jurists themselves? Why have the streets and the market square become our law courts?
What we saw in the case of the three murdered students of the University of Port Harcourt, was a setup where some group of people organized themselves into Court officials, lawyers, judges and the police. They were clearly engaged in the most terrifying and horrible kind of investigation and apprehension which led to a hasty trial and the eventual execution of the poor students, and we ask again, how much is life worth in Nigeria?

You would like to take a second look at the picture, and the faces of those who gathered round the supposed criminals. To them, it was only a horror street theatre staged to get them entertained. No one seen in that picture was uncomfortable with the injustice of that moment. They were cool with their actions. We are sure that the footage, if there is any will explain better how the people might have celebrated their victory at the end. We ask again, how much is life worth in Nigeria?

We want to ask: Are punishments not meant to be reformative? We had thought that the essence of punishment was to ensure that there is a change in character or attitude, or a general way of life. If every punishment is done in the cruelest manner without the consideration that human beings can change, then we had better referred to ourselves as animals.

It is irrational, absurd and a parody of justice for anybody to punish, brutalize and or unlawfully take the life of another Nigerian.
In all earnest, the Aluu people have done what they felt was the best treatment criminals deserve, and proudly, they had syndicated the pictures around the country for people to celebrate their victory with them.

On the contrary, DailyPost would wish to appeal to the Rivers State government, and the government of Nigeria to bring the perpetrators of the act to book. We strongly believe that there is more to the murder of those young men than just phones and computers theft. The community leaders and those seen in the pictures, that have already gone viral on the internet clearly have some questions to answer, as they have little or nothing to prove that those they killed were the actual criminals.
Where are the stolen laptops and the phones? Where were they caught? Were they armed? Were the police contacted? Were they handed over to the police? Even if they carried out the act, were they given the opportunity to defend themselves? Those guys might even be guilty of the case and might have been killed innocently.
Our last questions; is the Aluu Community human community or Animal community? Is the community in tune with modernity? Are they still living in a no justice era?
From where did they get the authority to kill? These questions they must answer in no distant time as we believe that justice will take its full cause against these heartless set of animals.
We call on all well-meaning Nigerians that the time has come when we should all stand against all justices emanating from the jungle. We call on the students of the University of Port Harcourt to begin to ask questions, before they are all wiped out from the said community. We call on President Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan (GCFR) to give an immediate order for the arrest of those involved in the killing of the students. We also call on the Rivers State’s governor, Rotimi Amechi to swing into action and ensure that truth behind the murder of the students is unraveled. We cannot turn our country to a wildlife reserve where the ecosystem totally disfavors the lower animals. We cannot fold our hands, and seal our mouth seeing some lawless people taking over cities, towns, and communities.
It’s high time we stood against this senseless act. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

2015 presidency: Plot to stop North thickens

Ahead of the 2015 general elections, top political players and groups in the South-East, South-South and North-Central geopolitical zones have lambasted the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) over a recent comment on who takes the mantle of leadership in 2015.
National Publicity Secretary of the Northern apex political group, Anthony Sani, was recently quoted to have said that zoning has gone into oblivion in the country after electing president Goodluck Jonathan who’s a southerner in 2011.
However, all the groups and politicians have dismissed Sani’s comment, saying that it is uncalled for and unpatriotic.
Describing ACF’s assertion as whistle of the wind, top members of apex sociocultural organisation of the southeast, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, have vowed that it is Igbo or nobody in 2015.
Some Igbo front-line leaders such as president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Ralph Uwechue, and the Owelle of Onitsha, Chief Chukwuwa Azikiwe-the first son of the first President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, and a former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu have insisted that in line with equity and fairness, zoning should be rotated among the six geopolitical zones and not between not and south only.
Uwechue recalled that in 2007, all the three organs of the Federal Government were headed by Northerners, who emerged on the basis of zoning along the lines of the six geopolitical zones and not between the North and South.
He maintained that the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, Senate President David Mark and Justice Idris Kutigi, all Northerners, were spearheading both the executive, legislature and the judicial arms of government on the ground of zoning.
He said: “Nigerians, irrespective of their political associations, have accepted the six zonal arrangements and not the conflict-prone demarcation of the North and South.
“The problem we have, and it is important to take note of this, is that Nigeria is still not where it should be in terms of national integration. We have not arrived there. We are in the process.
“If we pretend that we have arrived, we will be like somebody moving into a house without a roof, thinking that the house is completed. Until the roof comes on the house, it cannot give you the needed protection. We still have sectional interests in this country,” Uwechue said.
Also reacting, Azikiwe insisted that a southeasterner should also be given the mandate to pilot the affairs of the country.
While recalling that his father, the late Nnamdi Azikiwe was a ceremonial President, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi was an executive head of state only for six months, he made a clarion call to all Ndigbo to put all hands on deck in order to achieve the 2015 presidential ambition. “we must realise that this thing is got by give-and-take, negotiation and diplomacy. It is not by force.”
He said, “I think we should put our best foot forward; find those of our people that have good relations with the other zones; those who are trusted; listen to them in order to get Igbo president.
“And also, the timing should be right. We will try as much as possible to get it soonest. But let’s be careful so that we don’t antagonize some other zones.”
Speaking further, Azikiwe noted that: “Forty-two years after the Civil War, it is an insult for somebody to tell you that the Igbo cannot be president. If all these tribes can be president, who among them is more qualified than an Igbo man? We are the salt of this nation; we are the best thing that has happened to this nation.”
A former National President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing, Mazi Bismark Orji, supported Azikiwe’s stand, stressing that, “This time around, we are very wise and we would not sing in discordant tunes again so that we don’t miss this opportunity.”
He debunked the recent media reports that the Igbos are not ready for their quest for 2015.
“That is just a figment of some people’s imagination. Whether they like it or not, we are more united now than ever ,” he said.
Joining the league, organizations in the South-South, viz. the South-South Peoples Assembly and the Ijaw National Congress, have faulted the ACF’s new position on zoning.
The National Secretary of the SSPA, Chief Anyakeme Whiskey, described the ACF position as both sham and criminal.
Whiskey said that the South-South would rule the nation for eight years despite the zoning hullabaloo.
He reminded the ACF on how they had enjoyed power for 38 year since the country’s freedom in 1960.
Whiskey said: “Chief Olusegun Obasanjo came in 1999; whether he performed or not, Nigerians gave him eight years. If the ugly arms of death did not claim the life of former President Yar’Adua, nobody would have stopped him from staying in office for eight years,”
However, the Ijaw National Congress (INC) has said that it was early to start talking about 2015 Presidency which is about 3 years from now.
The National Secretary of the group, Mr. Robinson Esite, said those talking about 2015 are not serious minded people. He said they wanted to distract the current administration.
He maintained that our leaders should confront the devastating flood and the Boko Haram insurgence which have claimed many lives instead of singing 2015 song.
He said, “Our position is that this is not the time to talk about 2015 election; it is too early
“At the appropriate time, it is only Nigerians who can decide on who would rule them, it is not the duty of individuals or a group of people to decide who would become president. Nigerians are yearning for dividends of democracy and nothing more.
Also, the President-General, Afonja Descendants Union in Ilorin, Alhaji Olola Kasumu has thrown his weight behind leaders of the South-East geopolitical zone for their quest to mount the nation’s throne of leadership in 2015.
He said: “Arewa is destroying the spirit of this country. The group is an empty organization, they have no chance again. I am a lover of unity. I do not want this country to break.

DailyPost