Demonisation and Blackmail as Official Policy

Postscript  By Waziri Adio;   waziri.adio@thisdaylive.com

After the publication, last Monday, of a so-called rejoinder to one of my articles on this page, my initial reaction was not to dignify such claptrap with a response. But I changed my mind. And I did for two reasons. One is the need to set the record straight. The other is the imperative of properly outing the incipient but vigorous stratagem of this regime to frame, demonise, and blackmail those who express contrary views. The regime’s initial goal might be to censor those not parroting its favoured lines. But if not checked, this authoritarian streak could metamorphose into something more sinister, as the world has learned from the dangerous exertions of Joseph Goebbels in Germany and Joseph McCarthy in the United States. 

Mr. Henry Omoregie, supposed author of the rejoinder, said he was responding to my article entitled “Dasuki, Metuh and Boko Haram.” In case you missed it, my article contrasted Chief Olisa Metuh’s pathetic witch-cried-yesterday-child-dies-today logic and his potentially anti-Islamic and Islamophobic rhetoric on behalf of the ruling party with the “all-of-society” approach to fighting Boko Haram recently unveiled by Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), the National Security Adviser. Here is the link to my article: http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/dasuki-metuh-and-boko-haram/174452/.

Curiously, Omoregie said the centre-piece of my article was Reno Omokri’s alleged link to Wendell Simlin. I do not want to believe Omoregie is ‘dyslectic’. But someone who has a plum hatchet-job will safely choose to read a text upside down or even read it with eyes closed. One does not need to be an expert in text or discourse analysis to see the clear link between the opinions hawked by ‘citizen journalist’ Omoregie in his ‘rejoinder’ and the publicly expressed views of Metuh, Omokri and Simlin. He left it all hanging out, without even a lazy attempt to pass off the spit as his own. 

The rejoinder featured a cocktail of allegations against me, tendentiously tossed together to project me as a partisan and to blackmail me into silence. I do not owe flunkies like Omoregie and his bosses any explanations, but I will address those allegations nevertheless, and here we go. They said I am a long-term, paid consultant to Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. I am not. I run two businesses: a consulting firm and a publishing company. My consulting firm worked with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on public communication between August and November 2009, and that was it. When Sanusi was installed as the Dan Maje Kano in 2012, the organising committee asked my publishing company to coordinate the publication of a commemorative booklet on him, and that was it.

Of course, I know Sanusi in personal capacity. But I am not his long-term consultant, paid or otherwise. They said he “coincidentally” graced the cover of the magazine I publish. Yes, he is on the cover of the current edition of Metropole. But what Omoregie failed to disclose (since they have the means of finding out) is that despite my ‘closeness’ to Sanusi I had to run after him for more than a year to get him to grant the interview. And when he finally agreed, the interview was rescheduled three times and my photography team and I had to chase him from Abuja to Lagos before we could secure a rushed photo-shoot, all at my expense. But these minor details would not advance the sexed-up line of ‘long-term, paid consultant’ that Omoregie and those behind his mask want to trumpet.

They said I organised a media meeting for Sanusi in a $500 a night hotel in Lagos. Yes, I did. Before going more into this, I am curious why how much guests pay a night to stay at Intercontinental Hotel is an issue. But for pure mischief, does it matter if the meeting was held at Sheraton Lagos, Eko Hotels or even in a private residence? Anyway, back to the meeting. Long before his suspension, I discussed with Sanusi that he risked being remembered not for his achievements but for his many controversies and that he needed to start shaping the discussion about his legacy. He said some people were already working on something, but he agreed to a meeting with editors and asked me to facilitate it.

During the meeting, he spoke largely about his achievements as CBN governor, about how and why he got into the NNPC issue, and about his position on the allegations against him. No one was asked to report or write anything out of the meeting. And despite that the meeting was completely off-the-record, one publication ran the discussions verbatim. But since Omoregie and his bosses are obsessed with people ‘disrespecting the president’ they have to manufacture a convenient reality.

I facilitated the meeting for him as a friend, not as a client and I was not paid anything for doing it. Is it a crime for Sanusi to meet with editors or a crime for someone to facilitate such a meeting for him? As a columnist, I have deliberately not written a single word on Sanusi’s removal or his issue with the Financial Report Council (FRC). The last time I saw Sanusi, spoke to or exchange messages with him was on the night of that Lagos meeting. All these they can verify since they have their sources and they have resources for snooping.

They said I am “a core member of APC.” I am not even an ordinary member of APC, not to talk of being a core one. They said I participated in APC’s national summit in Abuja as a delegate and I coordinated event for the party. I was invited to the APC summit, and the invitation letter sent to me was the same as the one for other editors and columnists invited to the event. Is it a crime to attend the public event of a party and does attending such confer automatic membership? I did not participate in the summit in any way and I did not coordinate anything for APC. Omoregie and his bosses have the means of finding out the truth. But sharing the truth will not be sexy enough and will not help their demonisation game.

And in what they think is their trump card, they said I desperately lobbied the Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, to head the Consumer Protection Council (CPC). Yes, I expressed interest in the CPC job because I believe it is an obscure but important agency where I could make a mark in the service of customers, fellow citizens and my country. Those who know me closely know that since 2003 I have been a firm believer in the centrality of the public sector to the growth and development of Nigeria. But that does not mean I am desperate for any job. I am not jobless. I have never been. In fact, I have been offered, and I have turned down, many public sector jobs that many will kill for.

This is what happened on CPC: a friend who is close to Anyim told him that he thought I would be a good candidate for the job. He later told me the SGF said he was surprised I didn’t mention it to him given that we had known for a long time and we had worked together before. We went to see the SGF and he pointedly told us the matter was out of his hands. Eventually, a name was announced out of the about eight people shortlisted for an interview that never held. So where was the immorality and where was the lobby and where was the desperation? Why would anybody lobby desperately for what would clearly amount to a pay-cut for him, or desperately lobby to head an under-funded and little-supported government agency? And what is there to be sour about?

And more importantly, does it mean that a citizen can no longer express his/her views again about his/her society because s/he has a relationship with someone, organised a meeting with editors for someone, attended the summit organised by a political party and once expressed interest in a job meant for Nigerians? If this is not blackmail, then nothing else is. Sadly, it falls into a clear pattern. Demonisation and blackmail are the default reaction and weapons of choice of this regime.

Instead of focusing on governance, they are thrashing about hunting for dirt on those with contrary opinions and they have an online army that targets dissenters. (One of them, remarkably named Fairgame, will make unrelated comments on my articles; another one called me a supporter of terrorists on Twitter.) But I have news for them: some people cannot be intimidated. I will continue to express my views here and elsewhere without let. Besides, they need to get over themselves. Not all those who disagree with them do so for pecuniary or political reasons. And while it may be irresistible, the paranoid impulse that sees every criticism as enemy action has little utility for them and for our country.

In his scatter-gun demolition job, Omoregie insisted that Omokri knows nothing about Simlin. Great effort.  But even Omoregie-Omokri cannot make the accusations against Reno Omokri go away. It is only Omokri that can say what Omokri knows or doesn’t know. And since he claims to be a pastor, I beg the real Omokri in the name of God to please say what he knows about Wendell Simlin. Thank you.

ThisDay

Why This Mess Won’t Go Away

The Pendulum By Dele Momodu, Email: Dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Fellow Nigerians, I have come with my lamentations again. I wish I could spare you this ordeal but something in me makes it impossible to do so. God knows I write not because I expect our country to change from mere writing. I know how difficult it is for a pen to achieve what we couldn’t accomplish under the barrels of guns. I’m not writing because I expect everyone to accept my views. Writing for me is therapeutic. I pity those who can neither read nor write. They belong in another world and no not what they miss. Just imagine how many eyes are reading this right now, everywhere in the world. Many are sipping in the points while some are cursing various reasons I won’t mention. It takes some magic to arrest their attention perennially while lamenting like Jeremiah. Nothing is more thrilling and fulfilling than being able to express your inner feeling. It reinforces your manhood. And preserves your legacy for posterity.

The writer is often an oracle. He sees what ordinary eyes cannot see. He says what fickle tongues cannot express. He defends the rights of man at greater risk to his own. He carries the sins of the world and bears the burden and scars alone. Many of the critics’ critics actually love him but pretend otherwise. Why read the so-called garbage week-in week-out if you’re not addicted to roughage? I will never waste my time to read what I don’t like. I can’t even imagine commenting on what I dislike venomously when I can write my own. But I love my readers, especially my perpetual faultfinders. They help sharpen my brains and thought process and prepare me for the next one.

Let me confess that it is not easy to write every week. I would rather spare myself the agony. But trouble is our country is in a big mess. That is even now stale news, if not an understatement. Those wishing for a miracle under the present arrangement are deluded day-dreamers. Please, feel free to quote me. I have come to the sad conclusion that our journey is still very far. And the roads are ominous, long-winding and bumpy. I will explain my pessimism in a jiffy.

I’m used to people saying we only grumble but provide no solution. That is not true. It does not require rocket science to fix Nigeria. We should stop making a fetish of nonsense. Every Nigerian knows the reasons for our intractable problems. It has been a vicious cycle without end. I will like to describe our collective folly like this to create a graphic picture of our woes. Just imagine your son or daughter in school for a course of seven years. The best facilities have been provided in order to create a good atmosphere for learning. He sits for his examination but flunks mercilessly. The indignant parents advise him to repeat it and try again. The result this time is even worse. The frustrated parents insist on yet another repeat but the result is more calamitous.

The elders gathered to discuss the way out of this monumental embarrassment to the family. Exam papers for the three sessions were requested and scrutinised. To their utter shock and befuddlement all questions were repeated verbatim on all occasions. So why was it so difficult to pass? Answer papers were also requested and graciously granted by the school authorities. The parents simply fainted. Their recalcitrant son had repeated same answers to same questions on all three occasions. They were saddened by the revelation that their son was such an incurable moron. How did he expect to pass when he never changed any of the answers that made him fail on two previous instances? Only a certified fool would repeat the same mistakes and expect different results.

That is the sad story of Nigeria. We knew why we’ve been failing woefully. We know we must change the answers to over-recycled questions for us to be able to succeed. But no one is ready to try what it would take to achieve this miracle. There is nothing new under the sun is a popular cliché we ought to imbibe. Too many countries are our seniors in failure. Some were even far worse than ours. We have many centuries of human existence and experience to learn from. All we needed was to dub their template and adapt it to our local temperament. That is the way to go in the absence of originality. That is it.

Our mess will not leave us soon for failing to submit ourselves to the best solutions. We can start from the simple to the sublime. The number one solution to our myriad of complexities is good leadership which I don’t believe will come easily.  The way Nigeria is presently configured makes it almost impossible to throw up the leaders that can speedily energise our nation. Everyone knows that any of Godswill Akpabio, Donald Duke, Aminu Tambuwal, Adams Oshiomhole, Babatunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Emmanuel Uduaghan, Nasir El Rufai, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla, Oby Ezekwesili,  Rabiu Kwankwaso and others would instantly catapult Nigeria to a greater height, but none of them is likely to be considered in the next Presidential election as a lead candidate. I’m basing my confidence in them on what they’ve been able to achieve in various places and dispensations. But the godfathers will never pick from the pool of our best fishes.

There are other impediments towards having some better leaders. Money is very crucial in fighting elections anywhere in the world. A good leader cannot rely on small donations from Nigerians like the Americans do. Our citizens believe politics is the exclusive preserve of those who have looted the treasury and are ready to blow it recklessly. Good leaders are not likely to have access to loads of cash. Most donors often prefer to work with the bad guys who won’t disturb the flow of their illicit business. The good man who compromises his principle in order to win election would also find it difficult to fight his patrons on attaining power. It would even be morally wrong to do so. This is the dilemma of a change agent.

What are the other options to explore? The good man is not necessarily a saint but a performer. He has his blueprint for development ready. He scans the existing political landscape but cannot derive joy and inspiration from most of the existing platforms. The idealist decides to form a new party like CPC or join supposed progressive party like Labour or National Conscience. I was under such illusion but soon discovered that Labour was radical in name but more ultra-conservative than even the PDP in reality. I had thought the party was controlled by the powerful unions and this would have served as a veritable springboard for launching a blistering campaign nationwide. But the Labour Party underrated its own potential and chose to be an alter-ego or megaphone to the ruling party. All the lofty dreams of linking up with the British Labour Party for expert advice and policy formulation which I had laboured to set up went up in smoke. My leaders were not interested in ideological excursions and adventurism. They were content with managing whatever the rat race had to offer.

I ran to the National Conscience Party that once fielded the great Gani Fawehinmi as its Presidential candidate. It is instructive to note that no man ever went to prison as many times as Gani did on behalf of the Nigerian masses. He broke in the class of radicalism. You would have expected the massive poor community he so fervently protected to support their greatest benefactor but that never happened. We tried our best against all odds to carry on from where other great party members had taken the party. We were proud to have another legal luminary, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, as our National Chairman. He was also a veteran of Nigerian prisons and gulag-archipelago. The great man almost spent himself blind to build the party. Yet the same people who cried for change did not mind us. We fought gallantly but our strength could not carry us far. Some people who did not appreciate the magnitude of the Nigerian problem sat in the comfort of their homes to throw darts at us. These emergency analysts knew those qualified to rule Nigeria and we were completely ruled out. Even some of our colleagues preferred to support the same recycled politicians and their proxies. Everyone was qualified –police officer, customs officer, teacher – but not a Publisher.

When people told me I had no experience in the last election, I did not take offence because I understood the language of politics in our clime. I was expected to have gone through the windmills of corruption, looting, profligacy, and cap it up with incompetence. It wouldn’t have mattered if I was a pardoned ex-convict. No one cared to lecture me on the brilliant achievements of their experienced and God-sent Messiahs. I simply concluded that we were not ready for credible change in Nigeria and that all the issues I’m about to mention below would continue to elude us for as long as we enthrone mediocrity. 

Once we find that leader of our dream, he/she knows what to do immediately. The first problem to face very squarely is how to develop and fertilise the minds of our youths in particular and the rest of us in general. A dead soul is worse than a dead body. Once the soul is alive there is hope for the whole body. These can only be done through quality education not the wishy-washy system we presently operate. Those who killed our education practically ruined the future of Nigeria. You need to go on social media or organise job interviews to see and appreciate the unacceptable level of the rot. Nigeria will never get out of this mess unless education takes priority over our current frivolities. Education is the ultimate leveller in the world today. It is closing the gaps between the poor and the rich. It is breaking down age-old barriers and walls of superstitions.

Education is too crucial to be left in the hands of hard-core politicians. By now one would have expected a serious nation to gather the biggest egg-heads and other stakeholders in the country to declare a state of emergency in education and come up with practical steps towards restoring order and sanity in that sector. But what we have at present is the same politicisation and continuation of our lukewarm attitude to what is clearly a terrible state of tragic proportions. One cannot see the sense of urgency needed to tackle the matter at all levels. At best the sector continues to haemorrhage to death while our politicians murmur their mumbo jumbo.

Who does not know that something drastic has to be done to reverse the ugly trend which has forced our kids to run in all crazy directions in search of good education? We have put many of these kids at the mercy of scammers while the best among them are voluntarily donated and permanently lost to foreign lands and territories. Who wants to tell me that the problem has endured because we don’t know what to do? No. The issue at stake is that politicians have decided to share and allocate everything including the future of our kids. That is why industrial strikes can go on ad infinitum and no one really cares.  

The second answer is wealth creation through provision of jobs, directly or indirectly by governments of Nigeria. Our students must acquire entrepreneurial skills as part of school curriculum. Everyone can’t be waiting for employments on Fantasy Islands. The time has come to put an end to being too picky about jobs. Why can’t we simply agree to see dignity in labour and accept the same menial jobs we do abroad at home? Why can’t we improve our technical skills and upgrade our vocational training? Nigeria is currently understaffed without any shade of doubt in my mind. The country is massive enough to absorb most of our youths roaming the streets today if and when we decide to put up our thinking cap. All it takes is to reactivate and rejuvenate all our dead sectors, especially in the area of agriculture, manufacturing and aggressive industrialisation.

The second is naturally dependent on the third which is power. I must commend the current effort of President Jonathan’s administration in this sector but he needs to do much more to ensure the gains are not frittered away in our typical manner. My palpitation is predicated on the way the discos are looking more like scenes out of Saturday Night Fever. Our businessmen are all running Yo-yo to acquire what they least understand just because they see it as the latest fad. We’ve now moved from oil to telecoms to discos. And the rat race continues. Until we tackle power, it would be difficult if not impossible to achieve anything tangible. Again our solution lies in the political will to take on the many demons that litter the path to our recovery.
Once we can get to this stage, the rest would be easier to handle. But tell me who will bell the cat.
If you know, please give me a shout.    

ThisDay

Edo APC: Go! Desperadoes Go!!

All Progressives Congress

                                     Edo State Chapter           

Office of the State Publicity Secretary

E-mail: apcedopublicity@yahoo.com          Tel. 08073707846, 08033905725, 08023521620

Your ref…………….........         Our ref……………………….. Date…25/4/2014………

The attention of the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State Chapter, has been drawn to an unsigned text of a press statement made public by so-called Alaghodaro group in the party yesterday.

APC would have preferred to ignore this tissue of lies which even the authors feared to sign or identify themselves in as a script of a cacophony crafted by a group of political desperadoes but, for the fact that the leader of this group, Barrister Osagie Ize-Iyamu whose desperation for political power is driving this Alaghodaro militancy, is a pastor of a famous church.

We had expected that those who truly loved Pastor Ize-Iyamu of the Redeemed Christian Church would have by now been fasting and praying to God for forgiveness for him for leading his entire congregation to impersonate at the rescheduled Ugboko-Ward congress at Ugbokoniro on April 12.

We have video records of complaints by several members of the church who, frightened by a commotion that was almost resulting in violent fight, grumbled aloud that they only went for an all-night vigil on Monday April 11 in their church in Benin City only to be forced into over twenty waiting buses the following morning and driven to Ugbokoniro about seventy kilometers away to vote with fake party membership slips at the ward congress. The insistence by the opponent on accreditation of voters sent the conscripted church members panicking.

Now that this group has come out openly to propagate the desperation that led the pastor to impersonate with his entire congregation, APC pleads with Comrade Governor Adams Oshiomhole on whom they are trying to rub their sins to forgive them for they know not what they do.

Here is a point-to-point reply to the anonymous text:

1.     It is not true that this group voluntarily supported Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to librate Edo State from political oppression in 2006. Rather, they were failed rebels known as “grace group” who were deregistered from PDP as punishment for their rebellion against Chief Tony Anenih, who they are now shamelessly begging to harbor them. It was after they were rejected and ejected from PDP that they went to beg Comrade Oshiomhole who had already gained ground politically on a joint platform of ANPP and LP. Now that this disgraced group is set to eat its vomit by begging Chief Anenih whom they once taunted with “no man is God” slogan it is certain that they will again shamelessly return to beg Comrade Oshiomhole for bread once their leader had squandered the billions of naira he has received from PDP for their defection which is scheduled to take place during the forthcoming visit of President Jonathan to Benin City. Sure! After their defection, they will face PDP prosecution until they recant publicly that “the PDP leader is God”. What a shame!

2.     It is not true that Comrade Governor Oshiomhole has hijacked APC or manipulated its membership registration and congresses. The truth is: It is Pastor Ize-Iyamu who desperately wanted to hijack the party and manipulate the process for his governorship desperation. The following few instances will surfice:

a:       Shortly after the registration of APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu had attempted to single-handedly nominat Chairman and members of the State Interim Committee as a ploy for manipulating the party structures towards his governorship desperation. When he failed to achieve his selfish goal that night, he stormed out of that meeting to a waiting meeting of PDP leaders in the residence of his friend along Aiguobasimwin Cresent, GRA, Benin City, where he told them to prepare for his return to PDP. By 6am that same morning, PDP was already celebrating in social media that APC was crumbling and that their evil genius was returning to their fold.

b:       Several months before commencement of registration and having had the privilege of seeing samples of the registration documents, he had commenced secret pre-registration of party members across Edo State.

c:       When the actual materials eventually came for registration, he was disappointed as the Comrade Governor made it impossible for anyone to hijack them. Unconsciously, Pastor Ize-Iyamu incurred the wrath of vast majority of the party leadership at ward and Local Government levels when he fought for only his clique to handle the registration, especially in Orhionmwon Local Government Area; his newly acquired constituency instead of caring for all as a leader. Again the party leadership foiled this attempt to hijack the registration process. The result of his disregard for the majority, promotion of fractional strife, peddling of false rumors which have often backfired, is the woeful defeat of his group in the congresses so far.

d:       A former National Officer of ANPP, Alhaji Saliu Momoh from Owan East and the undersigned, former State Chairman of CPC are Secretary and Publicity Secretary respectively in the five-man State Interim Management Committee.

Therefore, their claim that Governor Oshiomhole excluded ANPP and CPC from the interim EXCO is an explosive lie which can only be told by a pastor who uses his congregation to impersonate as registered voters in foreign land.

e:       Why did Pastor Ize-Iyamu wait till his group lost woefully at the congresses before complaining of the party membership registration done several months earlier? It takes only Ize-Iyamu kind of pastor to lie so shamelessly after he had, at a peace meeting of APC Orhionmwon LGA leaders held in the residence of Chief John Oyegun, demamded that the Chairmanship of the party in the local government area be given freely to his group. Even Chief Oyegun screamed at their provocative demands and noted that what the group was doing to the sitting Deputy Governor, Dr. Pius Egberanmwen Odubu, was unfair and could not be tolerated elsewhere.

f:       Pastor Ize-Iyamu only complains of violence where his “army” is overpowered. It is not in his interest to draw us into exposition on this issue, at least because he is a “pastor”.

g:       Since when has Pastor Ize-Iyamu become an advocate of party internal democracy after he single-handedly handpicked Local Government Chairmanship candidates for Oredo and Orhionmwon?

h:       The demand of his group for the cancelation of the ward and local government congresses after they have been defeated despite their boasting that they were more on ground than others can only be seen as the ranting of a crumbling political block. They boasted that their group would win the congresses. After losing, they tried to blackmail the Govvernor into reversing their defect to victory. When the governor refused to reverse their defeat, they turned round to accuse him of manipulation.

Conclusively, here is the truth of the predicament of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and his (dis) Grace Group also known as Alaghodaro:

Few hours after the first inauguration of Comrade Governor Adams Oshiohmole as the Governor of Edo State on November 12, 2008, an overzealous leader of the then AC (named withheld) took Pastor Iyamu to the then AC godfather where they proclaimed the pastor as the one who would succeed Comrade Oshiomhole in 2012. They boasted that Comrade Oshiomhole would only be allowed to serve a single term. From that moment, the pastor started assuming the role of an incoming Governor. They spread the news of his anointing to political jobbers who started rushing to pay allegiance to him as an anointed Governor. He proposed portfolios, power and contracts to those who impressed him most. But Comrade Oshiomhole was not and is privy to his anointing. Yet the pastor wants Governor to uphold his undemocratic anointing by barring every other governorship aspirants even in the APC, a new party.

Their plot to defect to PDP where they hope to share more money from the presidential campaign than they can legitimately earn from APC is no news. When their plot to defect to PDP if they fail to hijack APC structures was tabled at a reception held for Pastor Ize-Iyamu at the residence of  Hon. Adesotu, PDP Deputy State Chairman few months ago, APC did not expect that they would delay their defection till now.

But their waiting for Mr. Fix to pronounce forgiveness on them for old sins kept them till this date. We will surprise if the duo of Osagie and Chief Tony Omoaghe expect genuine forgiveness from Mr. Fix.

On our part, APC women’s wing has been praying God to flush out from the party scatterers, economic wolfs and infidels who would constitute obstacles to the developmental strides of Comrade Governor. We can only now thank the women wing for the efficacy of their prayers.

We advise the Comrade Governor not to submit to their blackmail.

On their demand for apology from the Comrade Governor to Chief Oyegun, we submit that the Ize-Iyamu group dragged the name of the Leader to the mud by rebuffing all his entreaties for peace and harmony in Edo South, especially in Orhionmwon Local Government Area.

Governor Oshiomhole has shown more respect for Chief Oyegun than Pastor Ize-Iyamu group that has tried to portray Oyegun as their factional leader. If they believed that the Governor owned Chief Oyegun apology why did they not say it at the meeting where the alleged offence was committed?

Edo APC will be better off without traitors and desperadoes in its midst.

Comrade Godwin Erhahon

Interim State Publicity Secretary 

Male passenger 'groped sleeping woman's breast for FIVE MINUTES' on British Airways flight from London to San Francisco

• The woman, who hasn't been identified, was napping when Vinay Pochampally, reached over from behind, placed his hand down her shirt and made 'skin-to-skin contact'
• Other passengers told crew they witnessed the alleged molestation but didn't stop it, according to a U.S. District Court criminal complaint
• The incident occurred about two hours into BA Flight 285 on April 15 and Pochampally was allegedly intoxicated at the time
• The man's hand was 'underneath the passenger's shirt and undergarments for approximately four to five minutes
• Pochampally was charged with simple assault in a misdemeanor complaint filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court

By HELEN POW

A male passenger was caught groping a woman's breast for five minutes while she slept on a recent British Airways flight from London to San Francisco, police said.

The woman, who hasn't been identified, was napping when Vinay Pochampally, reached over from behind, placed his hand down her shirt and made 'skin-to-skin contact' while other passengers watched, according to a U.S. District Court criminal complaint.

The incident occurred about two hours into BA Flight 285 on April 15 and Pochampally was allegedly intoxicated at the time. 

+2

Mid-air molestation: A male passenger was caught groping a woman's breast for five minutes while she slept on a recent British Airways flight from London to San Francisco, police said. (Stock photo)

The victim was sitting in row 37, which on a Boeing 747 has a 'bulkhead of the galley and restroom area' behind it. 

Pochampally, who was assigned to seat 36G, positioned himself in the gap behind row 37 and in front of the bulkhead, FBI Agent Bianca Betz wrote in a sworn affidavit, obtained by The Smoking Gun.

'While in that gap, Pochampally inserted his hand, palm-side down, into the shirt of the sleeping female passenger,' Betz said. 

 

More...

• Which is America’s rudest airline? Major poll ranks cabin staff on how polite they are
• Mom held in airport for hours after refusing to let TSA x-ray her breast-milk gets $75,000 in legal settlement

The man's hand was 'underneath the passenger's shirt and undergarments for approximately four to five minutes, making skin-to-skin contact in the breast and upper chest area.'

When the victim woke up to find Pochampally fondling her, he quickly removed his hand and fled down the aisle of the aircraft. 

According to the criminal complaint, 'multiple passengers witnessed the incident' and told attendants what had happened. It appears no one attempted to stop the alleged assault as it occurred, however.

+2

Interior: The victim was sitting in row 37, which on a Boeing 747 has a 'bulkhead of the galley and restroom area' behind it (stock photo)

British Airways staff confronted Pochampally upon learning of the molestation from passengers, police said.

They ordered him to move to a different seat for the remainder of the 10-hour trip and contacted law enforcement upon landing at San Francisco International airport.

Pochampally was charged with simple assault in a misdemeanor complaint filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court. It's not clear if Pochampally is a U.S. citizen. 

A spokeswoman for BA told MailOnline: 'Police officers were called to meet flight BA285 on its arrival in San Francisco after a report of an incident on board.

'Due to the Data Protection Act we do not comment on matters relating to individual customers.'

She added: 'The welfare and security of our customers is always of paramount importance.'

Read more:

• Sleeping Woman Molested During Airplane Flight

MailOnline

State of Emergency: Enough Of These Jonathan’s Half-Measures By Ifeanyi Izeze

“I pledge to Nigeria my country to be faithful, loyal and honest; to serve Nigeria with all my strength; to defend her unity; and uphold her honour and glory, so help me God.” This is our national pledge and all genuine Nigerians including President Goodluck Jonathan make this enchantment every now and then. If so be it, then there is no sitting on the fence concerning the current spate of senseless killings of innocent, harmless and defenseless Nigerian women, under-age  and school children, young men and those that could be called matured.
Let’s even look at it: what would happen if Jonathan through due process declares and implements full state of emergency in the troubled northeast states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe where we are beginning to see signs that after all what we have been calling insurgency by Islamists may have been a creation of political leaders in these areas? My brother, nothing and I mean nothing would happen!
If as a nation we are serious with stopping these everyday senseless bloodsheds in our land especially in the northeast and now gradually in the north central, then we should be able to take drastic, honest and patriotic actions devoid of any partisan politics. Public pronouncements of some political leaders in these “troubled” areas clearly show they know more than they want us to believe for “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
The utterances of some political leaders in the northeast clearly confirm the insinuation in my last analysis of the state of insecurity in the northeast and north central sections of the country captioned: “State of the Nation and the Subterfuge Fulani Herdsmen.”
If the Adamawa state governor, Murtala Nyako despite his firm knowledge of the nation’s present security challenges could openly accuse the President of embarking on ethnic cleansing of the Fulanis of the north, he outrightly confirms what I earlier said that using the brand name “Fulani Herdsmen to refer to merciless insurgents was a deliberate ploy by those involved to make the spate of senseless killings of our people especially in the northeast and north central look as ordinary as just a mere disagreement over grazing rights. The term “Fulani Herdsmen” was deliberately adopted so that those who packaged it could easily whip- up the ethnic cleansing sentiment to smear the federal government on what they would now be describing as the use of excessive force to target a particular ethnic group. The “Fulani Herdsmen” analysis (article) was just published barely two weeks ago and now a serving governor and former chief of Naval Staff has publicly confirmed it. Do we still need to ask further those actually behind the insurgency in those sections of our country?
If the Federal Government suspends all democratic institutions in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states to allow the military have full control of the states until peace and order return what would happen? Nothing! And I mean nothing! Truth be told, if the troubled states are under full emergency rule, the callousness of these terrorists would have been tremendously contained, if not then, we can ask the military taskforce “how far.”
In our 1999 Constitution, is there anything like partial declaration of a state of emergency? Check out Section 305(c) of the 1999 Constitution, you will see the Constitution stipulates outright recourse to ‘extraordinary measures to restore peace and security’ where there is ‘breakdown of public order and public safety’ in the country. Is the current situation in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states not going even beyond a complete breakdown of safety and security of lives and property of Nigerians? So what are we saying?
Several self-acclaimed political leaders like Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Senator Zanna Ahmed from Borno State have devoted more malevolent energy to condemning the counter-terrorism military task forces than condemning the terrorists. They even had the effrontery to allege that the soldiers are the Boko Haram killers in disguise. Even the Borno state governor the other time told the whole world that the Boko Haram insurgents have overpowered the Nigerian military who are under-equiped and under-maintained in the field. Haba!
As said by a forthright analyst from the north in his comment on the issue, “Responsible and sensitive leaders should have no hesitation to condemn evil doers. But because the military are soft targets, thanks to the rules of engagement, they are on the receiving end of hostility from conspiracy theorists like Nyako and Zanna Ahmed. Undermining national security by politicians who seek comfort in shielding terrorists with the absurdities of conspiracy theories is disgraceful and such leaders are unfit to hold office. They have betrayed public trust by choosing to be on the side of barbarism at the expense of people's lives.”
How do you for instance reconcile the callous statements attributed to the Adamawa state governor, Murtala Nyako that the Jonathan administration is carrying out “genocide” against the North?
How can he as a leader (governor, former chief of Naval Staff and an elder statesman) publicly accuse the President of encouraging and sponsoring genocide in the country?  As rightly asked by the former military administrator of Kaduna state, Col. Abubakar Umar, What is his (Nyako’s) aim in accusing the President of encouraging and sponsoring genocide against the North, a section of the country he swore to ensure to defend its peace, safety and security of lives and property? Is it not to incite northerners to pick up arms against the federal government or against Jonathan and/or Nigerians from other sections of the country?
Does anybody need to remind the Adamawa state governor that his statement can throw Nigeria on fresh fire even while we are yet to fashion a single idea on how to quench the raging one (insurgency)? Does it augur well for national stability and the unity of the country? Are these the kind of comments that should be coming from leaders who are genuinely concerned that their houses are on fire?
The same Adamawa state governor and some political leaders from sections of the northeast, as widely reported in the media few weeks ago, outrightly accused the military of complicity in the boko haram menace. Haba!
For the benefit of doubt, maybe the northeast Governors know what the ordinary Nigerians do not and if these governors feel because of the divide between the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC), they have become bigger than the President of the entire country and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and thus cannot ‘bring themselves down’ to channel relevant information and/or grievances through the appropriate quarters to the President, then they should give way for the military to take full charge of the administration of the various states to properly execute the counter-insurgency operation in the three states at least let’s see if we can achieve a different result. A state of emergency should be a full state of emergency not half measures of it. It was done in Plateau and Ekiti states under this democratic dispensation and heaven did not fall so what would happen if it is done in the three states? Nothing!
(IFEANYI IZEZE is an Abuja-based Consultant and can be reached on: iizeze@yahoo.com; 234-8033043009)

Saharareporters

Security Council Holds 7-Hour Meeting

Bayo Oladeji, Chibuzo Ukaibe, George Agba, sola adebayo

President Goodluck Jonathan, state governors and service chiefs yesterday rose from the expanded national security council meeting that lasted more than seven hours, with a condemnation of the memo by Adamawa State governor Murtala Nyako to northern governors in which he accused the federal government of sponsoring genocide against the rorth.

The meeting which began at about 12:13pm at the council chambers of the presidential villa, Abuja, ended at about 7:15pm.

Briefing journalists after the meeting alongside his Niger, Borno and Ekiti counterparts as well as defence minister Aliyu Gusau and presidential spokesman Dr Reuben Abati, the Abia State governor Theodore Orji stated that the expanded national security council meeting unanimously condemned Nyako’s memo.

He said, “The memo written by one of our colleagues, Adamawa State governor Murtala Nyako, was discussed and there was a very unanimous condemnation of that memo. All officers and people in positions of authority were advised to be cautious of what they say, that is, what they say should make us know that this country belongs to all of us and not something that will demoralize us; not something that will excite or incite people to go the negative way”.

Orji noted that the meeting recognised the fact that the issue of security should not be left for the federal government alone, and that cooperation at every level was needed among the federal, state and local governments.

He said, “When there is a synergy, obviously progress will be made. The meeting also agreed that at the state level, governors who are chief security officers have to do a lot to help because that is where the security issue is. In so doing, the state governors should mobilize their radio houses in other to sensitize the people in the state so that they will beware of this security situation.”

Governor Orji further stated that the council agreed that the Boko Haram insurgency was not a religious war “because both Muslims and Christians are being killed. It doesn’t discriminate against any person”.

On his part, Niger State governor Babangida Aliyu told journalists that after Nyako’s memo was discussed, the meeting agreed that there was the need to show restraint is making statements in order not to embolden the insurgents.

“There is no need to be giving the terrorists the impression that they are succeeding because terrorists want to know that they are making impact,” Aliyu added.

On his part, Ekiti State governor Kayode Fayemi said the meeting harped on the need for information sharing between security agencies.

“Data should be shared across the board amongst security agencies. Holistic approach in curbing terrorist activities including the anti-poverty approaches,” he said, noting that the meeting also focused on Chibok, with security agencies pledging that they will do everything possible to ensure that the abducted children are rescued.

Fayemi further said the meeting stressed the importance of ensuring capacity building of media organisation so that security sensitivities of those issues are addressed.

According to the defence minister Gen Gusau, the meeting discussed the overall security of the country, the operation in the northeast, kidnapping and criminal activities that warrant government’s attention.

He also emphasized that security is everybody’s responsibility, and that everyone should be security conscious, adding that the meeting also harped on the need for massive public security awareness.

Apart from Lagos State governor Babatunde Fashola, other All Progressives Congress (APC) governors were in attendance. The governors of Rivers, Kano, Imo, Edo, Ogun, Yobe and Jigawa sent their deputies. Plateau State governor Jonah Jang sent his deputy.

The composition of the expanded national security council meeting took a more enlarged dimension with the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Saad Abubakar III and the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in attendance.

The state governors in attendance were those of Anambra, Abia, Benue, Bauchi, Kwara, Cross River, Ebonyi, Delta, Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto, Adamawa, Borno, Taraba, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Ogun, Kebbi, Niger, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Oyo, Osun and Ondo.

All the service chiefs, including the inspector-general of police (IGP), were in attendance. From the federal government side were the secretary to government of the federation (SGF), minister of defence, national security adviser (NSA), minister of justice, FCT minister, and police affairs minister among others.

Insurgency: Generals Storm Maiduguri for Abducted Girls

…As Fani-Kayode spits fire over insurgency

Not fewer than 20 generals are among top intelligence officers who have stormed Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, primarily to rescue the abducted final year female students of the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok, whose kidnapping is still causing disaffection in the polity, even as Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has urged all right thinking Nigerian to rise up against the insurgency.

Borno State women had threatened to storm the dreaded Sambisa Forest if the remaining students are not set free; however, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, has ordered his intelligence officers across all the security agencies to intervene with a view to freeing the girls within a few days.

Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja yesterday, a senior military officer disclosed that senior intelligence officers had arrived Maiduguri since Wednesday and were combing everywhere suspected to be the hideout of the insurgents.

“It is a pity many critics are not ready to find out what we are doing; they think the CDS and his team are sleeping and doing nothing about the students that were kidnapped on April 15. There is nothing some of them have not said against the military despite all the sacrifices we make on daily basis over the insurgency.

“If I may let you know, most of our very senior intelligence officers, including about 30 generals across all the forces and security agencies, have been in Borno State since yesterday (Wednesday) and their primary function is to set those girls free wherever they may be, as ordered by the CDS,” the source said.

Meanwhile, Fani-Kayode, has urged all patriotic Nigerians to collaborate with the security agents who are working hard to rein in those trying to Islamise the country before they would dismember the country.

Writing on his Facebook wall with a caption ‘The Choice Is Ours’, Fani-Kayode traced the insurgency to the failure of the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to deal with the protagonists of the Sharia system when he was in power.

He began the write-up with the statement attributed to the Government of the Cameroons that “Nigerian Muslim clerics living in the border towns of Cameroon and Nigeria are recruiting Boko Haram members in their mosques.”

He noted that it was those who encouraged Sharia Law in order to destabilise the government of Obasanjo, in which he served as a presidential aide and later as minister, who should have been dealt with, saying they are still backing the insurgency agenda.

“The same forces encouraged political Sharia in order to destabilise President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government and undermine his leadership between the years 2000 and 2003. This battle should have been fought and won then but Obasanjo failed to fight it and he handled it with kid gloves, claiming that it would ‘fizzle out’. Well ‘fizzle out’ it did not, and like a cancerous sore, 10 years later it has come back to haunt us in the form of Boko Haram with all its attendant violence, horror and bloodshed.”

Fani-Kayode noted that in the last three years, no fewer than 10,000 Nigerians have been killed in the insurgency and hundreds abducted, saying the problem could spread across the nation if not halted now.

Clashes: Northern Govs, Cattle Breeders, Farmers Parley

Northern governors under the aegis of the Northern Governors Forum are locked in a meeting with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN).

The meeting between the northern governors and state chairmen of the MACBAN over the incessant clashes between them and farm owners in the north.

Governors of Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau (deputy), Kogi, Benue, Bauchi, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kano (deputy) were at the meeting.

The governors started arriving at 7pm.The meeting is targeted at finding lasting solutions to the incessant crises between herdsmen and farmers in the region.

Leadership

ABU records breakthrough in refining petrol

Posted about 2 days ago | 0 comment

Cherry news of a major breakthrough in the local refining of heavy crude using wholly locally sourced raw materials has come from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

A statement from Head and External Relations of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Kalu Otisi, quoted ABU’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, as saying that the feat was the outcome of a four-year intensive research on the production of zeolite catalyst using clay by a team of researchers led by the chair holder of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) Endowment in Chemical Engineering at the University, Prof. Abdulkarim Ahmed.

Zeolite catalyst is an essential additive in the conversion and refining process of heavy gas oil into usable gasoline and petrochemical products in refineries.

Mustapha revealed this development at the 2014 Yearly Lecture of the PTDF Professorial Chair in Chemical Engineering.

He said the design and fabrication of the pilot plants for the production of Zeolite Catalyst has reached advanced stage with a view to commissioning a prototype refinery in November this year.

The Executive Secretary, PTDF, Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, commended Ahmed for his high sense of commitment to actualising the research goals for which the university was endowed. He described the outcome as fundamental to the sourcing of local raw materials like kaolin in producing Zeolite Catalyst, with the economic implication of reducing the huge capital flight on the importation of the raw materials for use in local refineries.

He added that in 2011, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refineries imported Zeolite Catalyst worth 12 million dollars, saying: “The application of novel techniques in Zeolite Catalyst production will not only offer huge opportunities for entrepreneurial development of sustainable refinery and petrochemical products but would also create job opportunities for Nigerians. PTDF has keen interest on enhancing refinery and petrochemical operations in Nigeria as seen by the various research programmes we are funding.”

Also, Ahmed explained that the characterisation tests conducted abroad on the locally-produced Zeolite Catalyst using Kaoline obtained from Kankara in Katsina State indicate a 75 per cent viability in outperforming the commercial catalyst currently being used by NNPC refineries.

Speaking on the feat with The Guardian yesterday, Ahmed said that the catalyst needed by refineries in the country was developed from local clay and would make the cost of producing petroleum products from crude oil more cheaper and faster.

Ahmed, who is a former Head of Department of Chemical Engineering at ABU, explained that presently, the nation’s refineries have to source for catalyst overseas for the production of petroleum products at a high cost in foreign exchange.

He further remarked: “We have now developed a catalyst locally. Catalyst is what we use in refining crude or raw petroleum.

“If you do a straight run of raw petroleum, you will get a small fraction of gasoline. The entire demand of gasoline worldwide is expensive. The catalyst was got from clay and pure chemicals. I am actually working as the PTDF chair at ABU. So, we have been able to develop this catalyst from our own local clay in Nigeria.”

He added: “When we tested our own catalyst with the imported one being used by the Kaduna Refinery, ours out-performed the foreign one. We presently buy some of the materials from abroad but if we are now producing it in the country, our foreign exchange would be saved and more people will be employed. And from the local catalyst, we will be able to produce other chemicals, all from clay. So, it is going to be an expansion for chemical production. And this will have positive impact on other sectors of the economy.”

Reacting on the development, an industry source said: “I think this discovery of using local raw material for refining purpose has vindicated both the Petroleum Minister and President Goodluck Jonathan that empowering Nigerians to take active role in the hydrocarbon industry is the surest way of getting Nigerian economy out of the woods.

BusinessDispatch