Jonathan, Tukur and the PDP house

 by: Bolade Omonijo

To Karl Meier, the house has fallen. In his celebrated work, the German contended that Nigeria exists only in name, but, to all intent and purpose, it had long ceased to exist as a state. In other words, it is a failed state. This is contentious. I do not subscribe to Meier’s view. I believe Nigeria does not fall in the category of Somalia. A lot is wrong; very few Nigerians see themselves first as Nigerians before being Yoruba or Igbo. Many Northerners would readily associate more with Nigeriens and Chadians that they would their countrymen and women.

But, there is hope. I believe that Nigeria will survive the current turbulence. The state will not fail, despite the activities of vampires and dealers who have seized the edifice.

In the past few weeks, the actions and inactions of leaders of the ruling national party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has given the impression that the country is at a precipice. People expected to show the direction have abandoned the way and headed for the forest. It is bemusing that, a party concerned about internal crisis chose to employ the services of a partisan to reconcile warring factions. Seriake Dickson, imposed as governor of Bayelsa State by President Goodluck Jonathan, is made chairman of a panel to resolve a crisis threatening the peace of the party.

The arrowheads of the charge in the Niger Delta are Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio and Dickson. They are men who have apparently sworn to defend whatever they perceive to be the President’s interest. When Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi is perceived an enemy, Dickson and Akpabio are instructed to provoke crisis in his territory. They are the men charged with ensuring that only loyalists of the President are in the Central Working Committee. How then could any strategist deem Dickson fit to pretending to mediate a crisis?

Another body, charged with the duty of organizing a convention meant to fill the yawning gaps in the party’s leadership is headed by Professor Jerry Gana. Gana who has been a constant factor in every regime and administration, sees nothing wrong with the powers that be. In recent times, he has led some Northerners on a tour to drum support for the President. On his committee is another Any Government in Power (AGIP), former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu. Saddling these men with these all important tasks is like appointing Patience Jonathan to probe Amaechi. This is obvious to all and is an indication that Alhaji Bamanga Tukur lacks what it takes to play any major role in the country.

When he was ostensibly elected national chairman of the dominant political party in the country, the choice was criticized by the patriotic media on the ground that he was too old for the assignment. This was more so because, at 76, he was deemed too old to be swimming in troubled waters. His supporters dismissed the disparagement, arguing that an elder was needed at such a time. He was presented as a man of experience, one who had managed the Nigerian Ports Authority, was a governor in the Second Republic and had served as President of the Africa Roundtable for years.

However, the manner of his emergence gave cause for concern. He was rejected at the zonal level and lacks a base in his Adamawa home front. Yet, he was imposed on the party by the President who knew the use to which he could put the septuagenarian. Under Tukur’s watch, the PDP has continued to sink. It has no control of governors elected on its platform, its image has been soiled perhaps beyond redemption and every member is on its own.

If the possible consequence of this ineptitude were limited to a controlled implosion of the ruling party, there would be little cause for concern. But, as the largest party in the country today, one that controls 23 states and has support in at least two others, a conflagration of the PDP could consume the country, especially in the drive towards 2015.

On the one hand, an implosion of the PDP would serve the country well as it would weaken its vice grip on the country; on the other, an implosion when the country is in the hands of men desperate to retain power at all cost could bring to pass the Americans’ prediction that Nigeria could join the growing list of failed states very soon.

Meier contends that the house has fallen. He looked at the various sectors- social, economic, political- and concluded that the country lacks the factors needed to pull it back from the precipice. It behooves us all to prove Meier wrong by ensuring that only capable leaders run affairs of the country and the political parties.

TheNation

2015: North’s opposition against Jonathan cracks

by Soni Daniel

…As pro-Jonathan groups warn govs to face region’s problems and forget 2015  …
ABUJA — The attempt by influential Northern leaders to rally support for a consensus presidential candidate to replace President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, has backfired, leading to the emergence of sundry groups flaying the leaders for trying to dictate to them on the way to go politically.

The crack in the north came barely two weeks after the Northern Elders Forum, the Arewa Consultative Forum and three other groups had met in Kaduna and resolved to coalesce into a Joint Action Committee with a view to ensuring the emergence of President in 2015.

Under the plot, which was confirmed to Vanguard by the Secretary of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, the six groups had accepted to retain their identities, but to work as a team with a view to stopping Jonathan’s return to the top post.

According to Abdullahi, the move was deliberately initiated to bring the six groups under one umbrella for easy mobilisation and control as the race to the Villa gathers momentum.

But barely two weeks after the meeting, some northern groups sympathetic to Jonathan, have opposed the NEF and its allies in the north, saying that they did not have the right to dictate to them who becomes the President of Nigeria in 2015.

Apparently drumming up support for Jonathan’s re-election, the groups, noted that the North had never lined up under any particular candidate and would not be forced to do so in the next election.

One of the groups, which calls itself, Coalition of Concerned Northern Youths, CNY, said in Abuja, yesterday, that its members were concerned over the role of politicians in the north particularly governors, who seem to have taken it upon themselves to decide for others who gets the presidency in 2015.

Mohammed Danjuma, who signed the document in his capacity as the National Chairman of the CNY, warned the northern governors to stop meddling into the choice of a president for Nigeria in 2015 but to concentrate on their mandate to provide service to the down-trodden masses in the region.

“As concerned youths, we have found it necessary to state that the governors of the North were not elected to be traversing every nook and cranny of the country in chartered jets for their own personal agenda instead of tending to the constitutional responsibility for which they were elected in the first place.

“We have not only found this behaviour not only appalling but also repulsive, especially when the North is currently suffering from the devastating effect of insecurity, misrule, endemic poverty caused mainly by the lukewarm attitude of the leaders of the zone, who have always taken it upon themselves to tackle problems in other states leaving their home in disarray.

“It is because of these developments that we call on the governors to take urgent steps to concentrate on developing their states instead of wasting task payers’ money on moving around the country.”

Vanguard

Lamido: Our deal with Jonathan

•Hails Clark for apologising to Nigerians

From ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Kaduna

The trouble-shooting efforts by five northern governors, all of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to “save the country’s democracy,” which began on July 20, 2013, with a visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, may have paid off, Daily Sun has learnt.

This is so because President Goodluck Jonathan, who seemed unperturbed by the political situation in the country, judging from the comments of his aides, not only invited the five northern governors spearheading the “Save Nigeria’s Democracy,” campaign for “peace” talks, at the weekend, but also had an audience with Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, whose travails appeared to be one of the sources of the current political tension in the country.

Interestingly, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, had, shortly before the governors’ visit to Obasanjo, warned that the Rivers crisis, if allowed to fester, could truncate the country’s democracy. The governors had also visited military President, Generals Ibrahim Badangida and Abdulsalami last Monday in Minna, Niger State, after visiting Obasanjo in Abeokuta.

Indications also emerged that Jonathan was concerned about the dimension the political situation was assuming first emerged last Thursday, when he met with a delegation from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), who visited him to raise similar concern.

Jonathan, while responding to concerns expressed by the NBA team, led by its president, Mr. Okey Wali, promised to look into the security situations in Rivers, to ensure adherence to the rule of law in the state and maintenance of law and order. The weekend’s meeting with the governors was in fulfillment of the President’s promise to the NBA.

Contrary to media reports, however, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and his Yobe State counterpart, Ibrahim Geidam, were nowhere near the Presidential Villa, Abuja during the meeting, let alone take part in the talks, it was confirmed. This much was attested to by two impeccable independent sources close to the two opposition governors.

But the governors who were at the Villa for the meeting at the instance of President Jonathan were: Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).

When contacted, Governor Lamido confirmed that he and four of his colleagues were at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Saturday, on the invitation of the President.

He disclosed this to Daily Sun at his Abuja residence on Saturday night. This is even as he confirmed that Amaechi had earlier met with President Jonathan, before their own meeting and appreciating Chief Edwin Clark’s statesmanship for offering a public apology to Nigerians, through the media, for what might have been Nigerians’ perceived concerns and anger over his (Clark’s) comments and utterances in recent times.

Hear him: “Yes, we met with Mr. President to discuss the current political situation in the country.

“He invited us, five of us. We discussed all issues, especially the current political trend in the country. The discussions were very frank and honest. We told ourselves the truth. And we were very, very frank with each other.

“He also called a meeting with Amaechi. And from what he (President) told us, they were also very frank with each other. So let’s leave it at that,” Lamido added.

Asked to comment on Clark’s apology to Nigerians, the Jiagwa governor said: “All I can do is to show my admiration, because in our culture, a younger person cannot commend the older one. Therefore, I want to show my admiration for his statesmanship for offering a public apology to Nigerians for whatever might have been their perceived concerns and anger over his utterances.

“And I also appreciate his genuine concern by saying that all he was saying was not meant to threaten the stability and unity of the country. Therefore, again, I appreciate his genuine concern for the stability and unity of Nigeria, that is how leaders and elders should behave. If elders and leaders will own up to their perceived mistakes, Nigeria will certainly overcome all these transitional concerns and grievances,” Lamido declared.

TheSun

Monday Discourse- 2015: The Gathering Storm

Ademola Adeyemo and Shola Oyeyipo paint a likely picture of the 2015 general election and its frightening dimensions
A few weeks ago, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, declared that the 2015 general election will be remarkable and a huge improvement on the 2011 polls. Jega, according to media reports, disclosed that INEC had put in place strategies to ensure that the 2015 elections turn out a sharp deviation from previous exercises, adding that the commission had already done the biometrics of at least 73.5 million Nigerians in order to establish a new register of voters.

“By the time we conduct the 2015 elections, there will be such a remarkable improvement over what we had in 2011 for a general appreciation of our commitment to ensuring that we are indeed one of the best election management bodies in the world,” he had said.
He also informed that his commission had established an independent assessment committee to analyse what the commission did wrongly and what it did rightly during other elections, 2011 especially.

Jega said the commission had gone far with the recommendations of the independent assessment committee to restructure and re-strategise on how INEC could improve on its performance.
But not many observers of the recent political developments in the country are convinced by Jega’s postulations. Away from Jega’s optimism, the unfolding events within the political circle in the build-up to the 2015 general election are frightening.

These range from desperate moves by the politicians to grab power at all cost in 2015 to making reckless and inciting statements capable of dividing the country along ethnic and religious lines. These do not exclude executive recklessness, political impunity and growing state of insecurity in the country and recently, the lawlessness displayed by members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
The current political crisis and the reign of impunity in Rivers State are one apt example of a Nigerian politician and his warped sense of disrespect for democracy. Rather than concentrate on service delivery to the people, political actors are concerned now with whose turn it is to get what within the emerging political equation.

In their quest for power, the political gladiators have spared no rational thought for the people in whose trust power is being held. Despite the public outrage at the political crisis in Rivers, pitting the state Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, against loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan, the situation worsens by the day and seems to be stretching the fragile peace in the land.

What started like mere disagreement on policies such as excess payment on fuel subsidy, the Sovereign Wealth Fund and the battle over oil wells between Bayelsa and Rivers State has now become an ego battle between the presidency and the Rivers State Government. And quite expectedly, the federal government-backed forces have continued to pummel Amaechi.
But it is public knowledge that the crux of the crisis is Amaechi’s rumoured ambition to be running mate to another Northern governor in 2015. The ambition, which Amaechi has denied, is considered a threat to the second term bid of Jonathan, who is from the South-south geo-political zone as Amaechi.

Against the mindset, the anti-Amaechi forces  further alleged that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), which Amaechi chairs, was being run like a trade union as it continues to oppose the federal government regardless that he is a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Drawing strength from the federal government, Amaechi’s opponents went a step further to enlist the support of the PDP leadership in a bid to exact a pound of flesh from the embattled governor who has now being suspended from the party. Although Jonathan claims not to be involved in the crisis, he is pronounced as guilty by many for looking the other way while Rivers boiled.

Another huge threat to the success of the next general election is the issue of insecurity in the country. The menace of the Boko Haram insurgency is so disturbing that the president once described it as “a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state.”

He said this when he declared state of emergency in three North-east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, the stronghold of the Jama’atul Ahlus Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, which has waged a deadly war against the Nigerian state since 2009.

While Boko Haram is apparently the biggest security headache to Nigeria beyond the elections because of its terrorism dimension, it is certainly not the only security challenge.
Pockets of violence in the oil-rich Niger-Delta, the rise of other militias in the Middle-Belt, alarming incidents of kidnapping in the South-east, frequent eruptions of communal violence in Jos, Nasarawa, Benue and other forms of violent crimes also abound.

Crucially, the increase in militant activities has been situated within the larger context of the 2015 general election, on which most of the political elite and their allies are now fixated. Indeed, there are several ways through which militia groups might exercise their influence in the polity. While some may rally around a particular candidate, allowing them to benefit from the mix of legitimacy and fear that such groups bring, others will certainly stand as opposition tools.

And given a country where there is said to be a pool of political thugs from which politicians can draw from to do their dirty job, violent clashes are most likely features of the next elections. Boko Haram in particular, many fear, may attempt to stall elections in the North-east.

Ironically, since many have also condemned a law and order response to terrorism, whether they are co-opted or crushed, there may be further rise of other cells, thus compounding the present insecurity.
Whichever way this is considered, the outcome of the 2015 elections will certainly hold grave implications for political stability and security of the country. Unfortunately, the South has begun to see the menace of Boko Haram as part of the Northern agenda to return to power at all cost in 2015.

The narrative is that Boko Haram is a tool used by disgruntled northern politicians, in the fallout of the PDP power-sharing agreement, to destabilise Jonathan’s government. Though the federal government has taken several steps to containing the Boko Haram insurgency, the stake remains high.

Whilst it is not clear yet whether or not the president will seek reelection in 2015 as Jonathan has persistently maintained that the time is not ripe for such declaration, his body language and those of his supporters point to the contrary.

Much as the president's men have insisted that there is no constitutional barrier against his running, some pundits have taken the discussion further, talking about honest leadership and the moral question regarding his promise in 2011 to serve for just one term. More likely are the many indications that Jonathan is most likely to run, the result of which may change the 2015 permutations.

Sectional Agitation for Presidency

Since the sad demise of President Umar Musa Yar' Adua, the north has not backed down on its clamour to produce the president. The argument is that in view of the power rotation policy of the ruling PDP, the north should be allowed to finish its two-term tenure truncated by Yar'Adua's death.

Yar'Adua's death has made possible the Jonathan presidency and deferred the North's hope to reclaim the presidency.  The north is yet to reverse its agitation for power afterwards. At a point, northern governors categorically stated that they would not support any other person except a northerner in the next election. And that has not changed.

While the north has categorically made its position known, there are fears that the South-west which is currently dominated by the main opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), might move against the president’s re-election. This is as the party enters into a historic merger with four other political parties. And its biggest mission is to oust the PDP in 2015.

This calculation, however, makes the South-west a major factor in the emerging equation. Ironically, the South-south where President Jonathan comes from has maintained that it is either Jonathan in 2015 or nobody.  In fact, militants are already threatening to unleash more attacks on oil installations should Jonathan be forced out of power in 2015. They have also threatened to return to the trenches and stop the nation from accessing the major revenue which is oil.

Ex-militant, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, is unequivocal about this and has continued to threaten the country, saying Nigeria will become history if Jonathan did not secure second term. On the same page with Dokubo is elder statesman and Niger Delta leader, Chief Edwin Clark, who has boasted severally that Jonathan must secure a second term as president. Notwithstanding, they have both come under attacks too.
Possibility of a Third Force
It is common knowledge that the PDP prides itself as Africa's largest political party, boasting the ability to rule Nigeria continuously for 50 years. That pride of place may have been challenged by the birth of the APC and the ongoing machinations as well as the ill-feelings within the PDP. The calculation, therefore, is that if President Jonathan gets the PDP ticket at all cost, some aggrieved PDP members will move en mass to the APC and give their former party a big fight.
The APC is a merger of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a substantial part of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). The prospect of the APC however lies in the fact that the PDP itself is engulfed in unending crisis. From the North to South, East and West, the party is bufetted by crisis on all fronts.
For instance, the party's National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, is at loggerheads with Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako. In Rivers State, the party is in disarray and up in arms against Amaechi. The situation is the same in the South-west, where leaders of the party are locked in a war of attrition for the soul of the PDP.

The Fears, the Anger…

Sule Lamido
The Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, in an interview with THISDAY, expressed his disgust for the way the president's men are going about their call for a second term for Jonathan.

"This country is applying democracy with idiosyncrasies and our own peculiarities. That it is not the turn of the person yet. It is the Nigerian chemistry, which has been hijacked by people who manipulate it with differences that you have to look into. Today, if you go to somebody in South-south he would say 'my son is there, he must be there.' It would not matter whether that man is killing him.

“If you fall into our compartment like South-south, South-east, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani; when before election somebody was saying 'our son must serve a second term' and second term comes after election. It is when you win election but, Edwin Clark would say 'our son must have a second term.' If he said he must get the PDP ticket, you can say so but second term is a factor of election.

“When you say 'he is our son, he must have it,' what you are saying is a factor of election. If you are saying his party must give the ticket, it is okay. They can say so. But it doesn't mean he is going to win the election. But when you say he must win the election, then, what are you talking about? Why then is democracy?  As Nigeria prepares for the 2011 general election, doubts pervaded the atmosphere on whether Nigeria would get it right.”

Tam David-West
Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Professor Tam David-West, while reacting to the seeming deliberate political attacks on Amaechi, said it’s an indication that "2015 will be dangerous". According to him, events that trailed the NGF election and the eventual suspension of Amaechi by the PDP are clear signs that the 2015 elections portend dangers. To that extent, David-West advised Jonathan to be wary of those advising him politically because they were not giving him the best advice.

“The way President Jonathan is handling Governor Amaechi’s issue is exposing him to a lot of ridicule. It cheapens the presidency and brings a great dishonour to him. Jonathan is fighting Amaechi who is his own party man and not an opposition party member. What is even more annoying to me is that Amaechi is Jonathan’s strongest supporter. Jonathan got his highest votes in 2011 from Rivers State and would not have happened if Amaechi had not supported him. Jonathan has got very bad advisers.

“Though I’m a great critic of Jonathan and anytime I met with Amaechi and the issue of Jonathan came up, he always took sides with Jonathan and was always quick to tell me to mellow down,” David-West said, adding that the Rivers crisis was engineered to undermine Amaechi.

"They first destroyed Rivers State PDP executive by bringing people loyal to Wike. They also grounded the aircraft of the state. Amaechi has handled this issue honourably. The reason for which Amaechi was suspended doesn’t even fall under him. The state House of Assembly is the body that can suspend local government chairmen.
“Jonathan believes that PDP governors should be his kitchen boys. Amaechi is intelligent and focused. If he were licking Jonathan’s boots, things would have been different,” he noted.

Adams Oshiomole
Last Tuesday, the national executive of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), led by its General-Secretary, Reverend Musa Asake, paid a courtesy call on Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State in Benin City. The governor who could not hide his feelings seized the opportunity of the visit to express his fears about the 2015 presidency
“For me, Nigeria is treading the ground that might threaten the foundation of our existence. So I want CAN, having shown courage; having spoken out even in the days of military dictatorship, now in a democracy, we need more of that courage, to speak out.

“Things happening around, for me, represent very dangerous signals. There are people who do not wish the country well and unfortunately, these are men and women who cannot claim to have a future and are messing up the future for everybody else. It is the lot of the Christian community to speak out where it matters, so that those who are deaf can hear and those who are blind may have their sight restored, so that together, we will build a country that is God-fearing and where the people will benefit from the resources that God so generously endowed us with.

“We need a lot of activism as we approach 2015 because a country is not like a private enterprise as only the people are permanent, while leaders will necessary come and go and that is the promise of democracy. We need you to help all of us. Right now, many of us are worried about the goings on in the country. I cannot carry out protest now because I will be misunderstood but my heart is in the mood for a protest, so that my children do not inherit the iniquities of the evil we see everyday.”
He therefore appealed to CAN to “speak out against the ills of the society, stand on the path of truth and pray for the country as it approaches 2015."

Kayode Fayemi
For the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the fear for the coming 2015 general election emanates from the threat of insecurity facing the country. Fayemi, who expressed his concerns at an event in Lagos, was of the opinion that the spate of insecurity in the country is not being tackled adequately and therefore expressed worry that the country’s leadership has failed to come up with a lasting solution to the lingering crisis.

“The crisis continued to linger because we have not paid attention to intelligence as much as we should. Up till now, the Police Intelligence Unit is still virtually zero, while the military intelligence is not as impressive as it should be.”
While contending that only the State Security Service (SSS) seems to have what could be seen as intelligence gathering, Fayemi noted the situation is a big challenge to the nation, especially with the alleged United States National Intelligence Agency prediction of impending crisis in 2015. He said the prediction might become a reality, if something urgent is not done to avert it.

“So, we need to make a clarion call to the leadership and to all of us to begin to respond to the situation. It is marshal plan that we need, even if it will mean that we should put half of our resources that we have in the country at the disposal of the afflicted states. We cannot have 10.5 million children out of school and not see the correlation between violence and poverty.

“Poverty and violence are related.  And we must do certain things to break them. But right now, the bulk of what is happening is that, the state of emergency is being paid for by those affected states. And you cannot have development without security just as we cannot have security without development. I think we need human security response to the situation rather than the law and order response. We have to do or work a little bit more in dealing with irrational beings.”
Fayemi also lamented the fact that nobody has been convicted for Boko Haram related offence, saying, “You begin to have the impression that some people are encouraging them by subterfuge.”

Rotimi Amaechi
A central character in the crisis in Rivers State, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, spoke on BBC Hardtalk anchored by Shaun Ley last week where he addressed some of the issues inherent in the Rivers crisis.

“Nobody has a right to bring down a state just because an ambition exists.  First and foremost, it is important to state clearly that it is a bit too early for 2015. Mr. President was elected to preside over the country and I support that. So, let everybody allow Mr. President to preside over the country for the interest of the country. Everybody should allow 2015 to be what it is- 2015.

“The point is that a transition is around the corner and politics is the greatest thing in Nigeria and so, a lot of people whose interest appears to be threatened have come out now to pursue their private- very private interest and as governor of Rivers State, my focus is not on that,” he said.

On the allegation that he called the president a dictator, Amaechi who denied the claim, said the statement being referred to was made in Port Harcourt, when thugs were unleashed on some of the northern governors who had paid him a solidarity visit in the light of the crisis that engulfed the state House of Assembly a few days before the visit.

“I didn’t say the President; I said the people around him. There are people who are abusing power and there are those who have even compromised power. So, when the Financial Times reporter interviewed me in Port Harcourt, I made that clearly. That was the day some hoodlums were hired to stone some northern governors who visited me to show solidarity,” he told Ley.

Amaechi, who spoke extensively on the NGF crisis also denied reports that he was advised, both by the presidency and the PDP to let go of his ambition to re-contest the chairmanship of the NGF, insisting no such advice came from either of the quarters.

“A lot of assumptions are being made here and there by different persons about what they think or what they assume my ambitions are. Nobody advised me not to run; there is no law that requires me to tell him (Jonathan) that I was going to run. I didn’t need to run to the president to say Mr. President I need to run for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. I didn’t need to do that and I didn’t do that.

“And he in turn did not call me to say don’t run, I heard you’re going to run. So I ran and I didn’t see the president on the ballot. The person I saw on the ballot was Jonah Jang,” he stated even as he reaffirmed that he defeated Jang 19 to 16 votes in the NGF chairmanship election.

He also seized the opportunity to dispel speculations about his ambition, saying it begs logic to leave the PDP if indeed he has an ambition, especially that the president is assumed to be nursing a re-election bid, saying his continued stay in the party means he nurses no such ambition and that he would not allow any one frustrate him out of the PDP.

ThisDay

Police abduct, incarcerate Nigerian businessman over online comments about PDP topshot, Emeka Offor

Ogala Emmanuel

Emeka Offor

An online comment about a powerful controversial politician and businessman lands a South Africa-based Nigerian businessman in trouble: police harassment and prolonged detention.

On July 13, four days after arriving Nigeria from his South Africa base, Bonny Okonkwo was attending a business meeting in Surulere, Lagos when his phone rang.

The caller on the other end announced that he was a police officer from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS. The officer ordered Mr. Okonkwo to race back to his Mushin apartment immediately for an arrest.

When he arrived his apartment, half a dozen fully armed and stern looking SARS officers were waiting with AK 47 rifles on their shoulders.

They dragged him from his car, pinned him to the floor, handcuffed and loaded him into the trunk of a waiting SUV and drove off, in commando style.

Defamation arrest

After he was offloaded at an Ikeja police station, a divisional police officer informed him, for the first time since his ordeal began, the reason for his abduction-like arrest.

A Nigerian ruling party politician and billionaire businessman, Emeka Offor, had petitioned the police complaining that Mr. Bonny defamed him in a contribution he made in an online discussion forum.

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, had ordered his arrest and detention after Mr. Offor petitioned the police boss through Fortress Solicitors.

The police dragged Mr. Bonny to the station’s counter, documented, stripped and pushed him into a holding cell where he spent six days in solitary confinement.

Philanthropist or fraudster

Mr. Offor, a wealthy Nigerian oil baron, recently donated $1 million to PolioPlus, an international polio eradication programme promoted by Rotary International.

Mr. Offor, founder and Executive Vice Chairman of Chrome Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in oil trading, biofuels, dredging and logistics, made the donation during the 2013 Rotary International Convention in Lisbon, Portugal.

He had earlier in 2012 donated $250,000 to the humanitarians.

While the global giving community celebrated the emergence of another cheerful giver, Mr. Offor’s gift to the Rotary International sparked a heated debate among his folks, in an online forum for his kinsmen – a group e-mail forum, Mbala Obodo, hosted by an association of Oraifite indigenes known as ocean-anaedo on its website.

A good number of those who participated in the discussion praised Mr. Offor for the donation. Others were however not impressed, nicknaming him “Donatus Portugal” and criticizing him for the donations.

The dissenting voices also made reference to what they called Mr. Offor’s ugly past, especially his alleged history of bank loan abuses, and the poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment that lingers in his ancestral home.

Mr. Bonny fell into the later category.

Bonny Nwankwo

“In part of Igbo where this fella comes from, I am sure there is no clean drinking water,no steady electricity, no hospital,” Mr Bonny said in his post in the forum.

“From my own point of view, this is display of the highest stupidity and wickedness at the international level,” Mr. Bonny said. “If Nigeria is like America or Britain, he will be arrested on arrival and taken to court for fraud. How can a man that defrauded one of the failed banks in Nigeria over 5Billion as loan, but refused to pay this money so that the poor depositors can get their money back, go to another country to donate one million dollar, and some people are clapping their hands for him on this forum? Even though I don’t know his state of mind when he was making such donation, I guess madness like.”

Mr. Bonny’s post stood out from all the dissenting voices in the forum and immediately drew Mr. Offor’s fury.

“Mr. Boniface Okonkwo simply went beyond the usual vulgar abuse characterizing their comments on Sir Emeka Offor to level criminal allegations and make fraudulent imputations against the man,” Godson Ugochukwu of Fortress Solicitors, Mr. Offor’s attorney said.

Mr. Offor got his attorneys to write him, demanding he retracts the post, publish an apology in three Nigerian national dailies and on the web. Mr. Offor threatened legal actions if his demands were not met within 24 hours.

Mr. Bonny, confident he had said nothing new about Mr. Offor, replied the billionaire asking for a date in court.

“All I have said are in public domain and can be defended in court,” he told the businessman.

Mr. Offor was indicted by the senate in one of Nigeria’s largest insider credit abuse that saw 13 banks collapse with N188 billion of depositors’ funds.

The businessman was a director in the liquidated African Express Bank Plc. He unduly used his position to acquire loans totalling N7.5bn, a senate report on failed Nigerian banks said.

Only about N3.6bn of the loan was recovered.

Mr. Offor is also a major financier of Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party and a major contractor with the government.

Anchoff Stronghold Limited, a subsidiary of the Chrome Group, has clients that include Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria, PHCN, Port Harcourt Refinery and Petrochemical Company, PHRC, Warri Refinery, and National Integrated Power Project, NIPP.

Prolonged detention

At the Ikeja police station, Mr. Bonny got nothing close to legal action. “He was denied access to his family and lawyer” Sylvanus Udedibia, his cousin said.

On the seventh day, he was moved to another cell out of Ikeja, where he spent another night before the police shipped him up north, to a cell in Garki, Abuja – Nigeria’s capital city.

After arriving the Abuja cell, on the ninth day in detention, he was given his first breather, a “restricted” opportunity to reach out to his lawyers.

All along, his family was only able to keep tabs on his changing location through snippets of information discreetly fed them by concerned police officers.

On Thursday, 13 days after he was arrested in Lagos, the Abuja police command dragged Mr Bonny before a magistrate court on the outskirts of the city, where he was charged for defaming Mr. Offor.

Mr. Bonny arrived the court in a police van, with police prosecutors, but without his attorney.

“The police did not inform us they were charging him that day,” Mr. Udedibia said.

At the court, Mr. Bonny informed the judge that the police had denied him access to legal representation. The judge suspended the case by 24 hours, ordering the police to allow the victim access to his lawyers.

The following day, his lawyers presented an application for bail. After hearing the bail application in the morning, the judge requested time to consider the case and rule on the application.

Hours later, just before the weekend kicked in, the judge sent a clerk to inform his lawyers and family that he was attending to a pressing matter and could not deliver judgment that day.

Mr. Bonny was dragged back to his cell where he would spend the weekend.

Illegal detention

The Nigerian laws permits the police to hold a suspect for only 24 hours – and 48 hours where there is no court within reach – before pressing charges.

Mr. Bonny was held for 13 days, eleven days more than what is allowed by the law.

But the police have, in several cases broken that law, holding victims for longer days, especially if the victims were up against influential accusers.

When asked about Mr. Bonny’s prolonged incarceration, Emeka Offor’s lawyer, Godson Ugochukwu, who signed the petition on which the police based its July 13 arrest  of the businessman, was evasive.

Mr. Ugochukwu said the victim’s detention was a matter before a court. He also denied Mr. Bonny was ever held incommunicado.

The Federal Capital Territory  police command, which is currently prosecuting Mr. Bonny curiously denied knowledge of the case. Its spokesperson, Altine Daniel, suggested the case was not been handled by her command.

Frank Mba, Force spokesperson also said he was not aware of the case. When pressed for justification for prolonged detentions, he argued that every general rule have exceptions.

“Each case is treated on its individual merit,” he said.

Mr. Bonny’s family and kinsmen in the Oraifite community of Anambra state are deeply saddened by the billionaire’s use of state authorities to intimidate and incarcerate Mr. Bonny, Fidelis Okonkwo, the victim’s younger brother, said.

“Whatever he is accused of, he should have been charged a long time ago,” Mr. Okonkwo added.

PremiumTimes

Show the boys how it’s done: Amaechi’s wife visits the First Lady over her mother’s death

In public, their husbands are menacing, especially towards each other. She has been consistently named as playing a key part in destabilising Rivers, but during the weekend, Rivers first lady, Dame Judith Amaechi and Nigeria’s first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan – let the politics slide as Mrs Amaechi comforted Mrs Jonathan over the death of her mother.

[READ: Report: Patience Jonathan’s mother dies in a car crash]

[READ: Patience Jonathan returns home from Geneva following news of mother’s death]

[READ: Amaechi’s wife expresses her “devastation” over the death of the First Lady’s mother]

Mrs Amaechi, in the company of state Deputy Governor, Tele Ikuru and other top government officials and their spouses, had earlier in the day, received Jonathan at Port Harcourt’s airport.

They paid Jonathan a condolence visit, at the King Perekule residence of the late Charity Obah, the first lady’s adopted mother. Speaking during the visit, Judith Amaechi described the late Charity Obah as a woman who made appreciable contributions to the development of the nation.

Obah died on Monday when her vehicle got involved in a ghastly motor accident on the East-West road. Her death prompted the first lady to cut short her trip to Switzerland and return home.

YNaija

Tension In Edo As JTF Invades Ex-Militant’s Home

Anxiety has enveloped Ajakurama in Ovia South West Local Government of Edo State as operatives of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta stormed the community demanding the whereabouts of a repentant militant, Ojuemi Perediseghabofa.

The security operatives, who reportedly stormed the community at about 1am on July 18, 2013, took away Perediseghabofa’s wife when they could not locate the ex-militant.

Counsel for the ex-militant, Mr. Famous Maka, stated this in a petition to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika.

In the petition obtained on Sunday, Maka said the Ajakurama people had been in fear since the soldiers visited the community and left behind a message that they would again storm the area if the ex-militant did not report to their base at Ajide.

Maka, who urged the Army chief to stop any further invasion of the community, said the JTF operatives could have used the Amnesty Office to invite the ex-militant for interrogation if he did anything wrong.

He said, “During this unexpected invasion, virtually all Ajakurama people slept in the bush. Consequently, one Mr. Bewo Itiphan died due to psychological shock.

“All the ex-militant’s rooms were searched, the window glass were shattered and his 32 inches flat screen television and many other things destroyed. Before they left the community, they left a warning that if the community, within 24 hours, does not produce the ex-militant, they will burn down the community.

“Sir, what is baffling in the whole matter is that the ex-militant leader is one of the persons that embraced the Federal Government Amnesty programme. He can be officially invited by any government agencies to answer any allegation against him.”

Meanwhile, Maka said the soldiers later released the ex-militant’s wife.

When our correspondent contacted the Public Relations Officer in charge of the ‘4’ Brigade Benin, Captain Rosalyn Managbe, she said she was not aware of the invasion.

Naij