₦airaland Forum

Atiku, as a traitor, should be made to face serious charges after his disqualification (or losing out in the pools). The posibility of a president atiku is bleak. He should stop whinning.

Yet another attack by the militants. Will the government wait until these miscreants wipe out our military and police?



http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-02/09/content_5721411.htm

PORT HARCOURT, February.9 (Xinhua) -- Militants on Friday killed two men of the navy and abducted a foreigner whose identity is yet unknown in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta, reports reachinghere said.

    According to local residents, the heavily armed gunmen had traced the victims from the Ikwerre road axis of Port Harcourt city, the capital of Nigeria's southeastern Rivers State, before accosting them around Eliparawo road, also in the state capital.

    Trouble began when the militants attacked the Toyota Hilux van carrying the foreigner and the naval men, shooting and killing everybody, excluding the foreigner.

    While running away with their catch, the militants attacked a police station along Iwofe Jetty road, killing an innocent civilian suspected to have been at the police station to affect the release of a detained relative.

    Checks around the scenes of the incidents showed stains of blood and battered vehicles as a result of gunshots as the victims were said to have been deposited in the morgue.

    Sources said that the militants went out of the city through the Iwofe jetty, with an already waiting speed boat and abandoned a Hiace bus which they used during the operation at the jetty.

    In a related development, a few hours before the militant attack, a commercial bank located along Ikwerre road in Port Harcourt city was attacked by armed robbers but the attempt was foiled by strong resistance put up by two bank's security men on duty.

    Eyewitnesses said the robbers numbering seven met strong exchange of gunshots from the bank's security, which eventually led to the gunning down of two robbers.

    In a clear show of doggedness, the defeated robbers terrorized the entire area with gunshots and made away with the corpses of their fallen colleagues.

    The Rivers Police spokesman Ireju Barasua confirmed the two incidents but said her office had not received full details of the issues.

    She said police have dispatched its men to the affected areas to ensure safety of the residents and urged them to go about their normal duties.

Americans don't have such rights to tell us how to run our country.
They should instead ask Bush to explain to Obasanjo why he went to Iraq.

This our America-philic tendencies drive me mad.

America has already predicted the break-up of nigeria before 2015. All their effort is garnered towards the fullfilment of their doom prophesy. CNN is the voice which America uses to stabilize african countries.

Ever watched a positive programme about africa in CNN? Or is there nothing good in our continent?

MEND is evil. It is a terrorist group that should be confronted with vigour. It represents extortion and greed .

McKren:
That does not seem to me as disqualification, another irresponsible headline.

What seems to you like disqualification? Unless the content of the article is false, which is not unlikely in nigeria, you don't have any bases for the comment you made above.

"The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday went against its earlier position that it would not disqualify any candidate by declaring the Vice President and presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ineligible for the April polls.
INEC, according to a top official last night, has disqualified Atiku and five other presidential candidates for their inability to scale through the screening to qualify them for the April 21 polls.

Does the above statement seem to you as disqualification?

The last is yet to be heard in the feud between obj and atiku.
At last atiku is disqualified.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=70129

"The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday went against its earlier position that it would not disqualify any candidate by declaring the Vice President and presidential candidate of the Action Congress (AC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ineligible for the April polls.
INEC, according to a top official last night, has disqualified Atiku and five other presidential candidates for their inability to scale through the screening to qualify them for the April 21 polls.
Three other parties would also not participate in the election. The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and the Peoples Mandate Party (PMP) are barred for failing to field running mates while the vice presidential candidate of the Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN) was disqualified because he was 32 years old.
Other candidates who did not secure INEC nod alongside Atiku are Lawrence Famakinde Adedoyin of the African Political System (APS); Ambrose Owuru of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP); Issa Odidi of the New Democrats (ND) Aminu Abubakar and Prof. Kingsley Ibe (National Unity Party, NUP).
But where Atiku failed, Abia State Governor Orji Kalu, presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) who is listed in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) list of indicted candidates, scaled the INEC hurdle alongside 17 others, including Maj-Gen. Muhammad Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
THISDAY checks revealed last night that Atiku’s failure to pass the verification exercise was due mainly to petitions against his candidacy and on-going litigations surrounding his indictment by a Federal Government Admini-strative Panel of Inquiry based on the EFCC report which accused him of corruption and abuse of office in the Petroleum Technology Deve-lopment Fund (PTDF) affair.
A senior INEC official told THISDAY last night that the Commission had no option but to stay action on clearing the vice president “for now” pending the determination of the court cases and resolution of the investigations against his candidature.
The source added that the non-qualification of Atiku to contest the presidential polls was the high-point of deliberations over findings of the Commission from the verification of candidates’ credentials and claims embarked upon last month.
Atiku and Kalu were prominent on a recent list compiled by the EFCC as candidates of parties who are unfit to hold public office on account of alleged corruption.
Though the anti-corruption agency said the list was advisory, the Federal Government constituted a panel of inquiry for those accused on the list to defend themselves.
Kalu, however, made the INEC list of those cleared to contest the election. The others are Buhari of the ANPP, Pat Utomi of the African Democratic Congress, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and Chief Emmanuel Okereke, All Peoples Liberation Party.
Others are Adebayo Adefarati, Alliance for Democracy; Godswill Nazi, Better Nigeria Progressive Party; Maxi Okwu, Citizens Popular Party; Attahiru Bafarawa, Democratic Peoples Party; Chris Okotie, Fresh Democratic Party; Umaru Yar’Adua, Peoples Democratic Party; and Habu Fari, National Democratic Party, NDP.
Also cleared are Osagie Obayuwana, National Conscience Party; Princess Vivien Ijoma, Nigeria Peoples Congress; Dr Akpore Solomon, National Majority Democratic Party; and Sunny Okogwu of the Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN).
The INEC had insisted on screening the candidates in spite of an outcry of opposition, based on the argument that it needed to verify the credentials and claims against the provisions of the constitution on criteria for qualification and disqualification.
The Commission had however, clarified that it was not embarking on the exercise to disqualify any candidate but to call attention of sponsoring parties where discrepancies existed.
But with the latest decision, it would seem the vice president has another legal hurdle to cross for him to realise his ambition to rule Nigeria after President Olusegun Obasanjo."

Information from Tribune (tomorrow's)

I (we) demand the immediate release of the 'missing' names.

We (I) also call on other political parties to drop all those implicated (indicted) in the report. They are all thieves (rogues) as we all know.

EFCC Corruption List: 5 govs’ names removed - One deputy gov’s, one senator’s names missing

Jacob Segun Olatunji and Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 09.02.2007

THE last may not have been heard of the recently released corruption list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as unconfirmed reports said the final list was doctored. Nigerian Tribune findings revealed that the list submitted to the presidency was not the one finally released as some prominent pro-presidency names were said to have been removed before publication.

The presidency had on Wednesday denied any involvement in the report released by the EFCC, with the Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Mallam Uba Sani, asserting that those on the list should defend themselves rather than accuse President Olusegun Obasanjo. Latest report, however, suggests that the original report was first submitted to the presidency which later authorised its release after allegedly removing the names of some top loyalists of the president, including leading gubernatorial contenders of the ruling party.

A breakdown of the EFCC list shows that the PDP has 53 members while the AC has 27, the ANPP 39 while 19 members of other parties were also axed by the commission. Names reportedly excluded from the final list include a presidential candidate of one of the parties who is currently a state governor and a presidential running mate .

Others are four gubernatorial candidates of the ruling party who are also serving governors in their respective states. A senator, who is also a top legal luminary, was listed. Financial crimes allegedly committed by the politicians whose names were said to have been deleted include diversion of state funds, illegal deals on importation of goods and other crimes committed in their private and official capacities.

It was learnt that more of the names missing on the list were still being compiled with unconfirmed reports indicating that more big names were still being shielded from the public. The Peoples Democratic Party has, however, dropped 52 of its candidates listed in the report, challenging other political parties to do the same.

The spokesman of the PDP, Mr John Odey, said “we have 52 members on that EFCC list and as a law abiding party, we cannot go ahead and field people who have been indicted“ Report indicated that the leaders of the ruling party were already meeting in Abuja over the report even as the opposition leaders insisted that the EFCC was engaged in a witch-hunt of opposition leaders ahead of the April polls.

Spokesman of the AC, Lai Mohammed, repeated the party‘s earlier accusation that the EFCC was breaching the constitution by passing judgment on opposition leaders even when it had no such powers. “We won’t drop any of our candidates because we know this is a deliberate ploy by the PDP to stop our candidates from contesting in April. We will use all legal means to defend our rights in this electoral process,“ he said.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government described the allegation as false, saying that nobody doctored the report. Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Public Affairs, Uba Sani, said the government could not have doctored the report “when in fact the PDP has the greatest number of the candidates indicted.

“Even a child in Nigeria knows that EFCC can investigate criminal offences and come out with a position. The EFCC is covered by law to do that. “Anyone who is indicted should go and face the EFCC and clear himself. They should leave the Federal Government out of it.

“Is it not true that there are corrupt people in different establishments in Nigeria? Why should people be crying wolf where there is none?” he said. When contacted on the telephone, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, refused to comment on the matter.

“Call the EFCC and ask them,” she said. The Public Relations Officer of the EFCC, Mr. Osita Nwajah, did not answer calls to his mobile phones and did not reply the text message sent to him on the matter. Also, the Minister of Information and Communication, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr., did not reply to the text message sent to his mobile phone on the matter.

In a related development, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has explained that the commission decided to forward the list of candidates to the leadership of the various political parties to prevent them from fielding unfit candidates in the forthcoming elections. The explanation of the EFCC boss was contained in a covering letter with reference number EFCC/EC/GC/031/848 and dated February 5, which accompanied the list of the indicted candidates, dispatched to the chairmen of the political parties. The Nigerian Tribune has seen a copy of the letter.

Mallam Ribadu made it clear that the list was made available to the leadership of the political parties to save their parties from the untidy decision of needing to field candidates mid-stream in the event of an unexpected disqualification.” He said that the list was meant to assist the political parties in their ongoing internal party review of the names of their candidates in the forthcoming elections.

The EFCC, in the letter, assured the leadership of the political parties that the commission’s team of investigators and intelligence officers would be available to engage in further discussions with them should they need further clarification on the list. He said the commission had a data-base through which “it develops intelligence packets in support of a redoubtable law enforcement programme in the country.”

The EFCC chairman revealed that 130 candidates in six political parties ranging from presidential, through gubernatorial and federal legislative to state legislative office seekers were investigated and indicted. The commission had on Monday night forwarded the list of the investigated and indicted candidates to the chairmen of their various political parties and this had generated heated reactions from the political parties.

How do we define education here?
Do we mean Western education, african education or religious education (etc)?

What criteria are being used for assessment?
Completion of kindergaren, medium and high school, undergraduate, postgraduate, post-doctorate (etc)?

davidylan:
In terms of education, i think it is fair to say yoruba's are the most educated Nigerians for a fact! JAMB admission statistics cannot be used as a correct estimate of how educated our population is. Besides we have not accounted for the fact that not all who get in finish anyway.
Yoruba's can be grateful for western free education in the '60s.

During my NYSC in Ogbomoso, we paid a visit to the Sohu (the younger one) who lamented the high-school dropout rate in the oyo state. He cited the example of the east as a region where there is presently education boom. The guy is educated and he is known for his strong passion for education. His message has always been to appeal to youths to go to school.

What am I then saying? Education is nobody's exclusive reserve. It is available to all those who can afford it (I mean the western type). The SE is doing extremely well while the SW is not lagging either. But the gospel is this: in this present time, the SE is no longer 2nd to SW in terms of access to western education. I have had the opportunity to transversed almost every zone in nigeria. I studied in the east and north, and my NYSC was in the west.

Instead of fighting over who's the most educated, let us continue to encourage our younger ones to go to school, not to add to our state or regional profile in JAMB website, but to get them equipped for the 21 century.

Free education of the 60's was in the last millennium. This is 2007 and there is no scholarship in nigeria any longer.

Just wondering why Akala's name was 'mistakenly' omitted.

Hope the parties will retrieve their tickets from these criminals fast fast.
Kwankwaso and some friends of Asorock indicted? May be EFCC is not that selective.

Nigeria oil gunmen seize Filipino

Gunmen are holding 30 foreign oil workers
Gunmen have kidnapped a Filipino oil worker and killed his police escort in Nigeria's main oil region, police say.
The Filipino was travelling south from the south-eastern city of Owerri to Port Harcourt when the gunmen attacked.

The gunmen reportedly blocked the road with a van and shot dead the policeman who tried to stop the kidnapping.

The latest kidnapping brings to 25 the number of Filipino workers being held by militant groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta creeks.

Airport closed

Nigerian police authorities confirmed the shooting but said details were still sketchy.

"It has been confirmed that a Filipino was taken away and a policeman killed near Owerri airport," Rivers State police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu told the BBC.


Port Harcourt airport has been closed since last August for maintenance, so people travelling to the city by air have to fly to Owerri in Imo State and drive another two or three hours to get to Port Harcourt.

Foreigners driving from Owerri to Port Harcourt often take armed police escorts for protection.

As well as the 25 Filipino hostages, two Italians, a Briton, an American and a Lebanese are being held by militant groups fighting for greater local control of the oil which comes from the region.

On Sunday, nine Chinese workers were released after spending 11 days in captivity.

The seizing of the 24 Filipinos on 20 January prompted Philippine President Gloria Arroyo to bar Filipino workers travelling to Nigeria for employment.

Last week, some militant groups in oil-rich region warned that unless their jailed leaders were released abduction of foreigners would continue.

Most abductions are resolved by the payment of ransoms that are often denied, a trend that has given rise to copy-cat abductions as kidnappers have made money from them.

A fifth of oil production capacity from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter of crude, has been shut down for a year because of militant attacks on oil facilities

Yet another kidnap in a cascade of several. I really wonder what our country is turning into. A country where anarchy looms.

The way the militants are going about the whole thing is weird. I have a conviction that even if the government decides to release alamesiegha and asari, hostage taking will still continue. I have a feeling that even if the government builds the delta like rome, the hostage talking will stop. Hostage taking has come to stay with us for good.

Asari was in court yesterday, calling the presiding judge all sorts of names, threatning his family with bombs and rockets. This is in fact a very issue that we need to resolve now or else, nigeria will have no peace again.

How can a terrorist group hold an entire country to ransom? This is worrisome and should be tackled with matching force.

insert your quote propertly next time else you would be prosecuted for plagiarism. you should have given the link as well. eg
http://www.nigeriansinamerica.com/articles/719/1/Why-Nigerians-Cannot-Pay-International-Prices-for-Oil.html

A Sqeamish picture of a wounded Akala faithful when his group clashed with Lodoja group.

Who lost? Ladoja and Akala are still alive, eating ewedu soup with amala and the man is dead.

Possibility is that Ladoja and Akala will become good friends in future. Who lost? The dead men, Akala or Ladoja?


We will continue to see many more pictures like this unless thuggery seizes to be part of our political system.

What a horrendous act!

Adexatom:
Please niralanders, how can i make chalk as a business

what is it used for? to teach? don't tell me chalk are still being used to teach in nigeria. just kidding

Atiku's vaulting ambition will definitely ruin him. The declaration of Yar' Adua as the prince of cumberland is just too much for him to bear, but instead of allowing fate to crown him if it will, he has resorted to the Macbeth option- murder king Duncan at all cost. My advice to him is this; those who murder sleep will sleep no more!

We don't need Sherlock Holmes on this forum to tell us that Atiku has become a security task to the nigerian government. Something ought to be done about him.

Dress Atiku like mother Theresa, I still don't see him as the best option for asorock what with his recent utterances.

http://www.thenewsng.com/modules/news/

Atiku must have goofed to believe that Buhari would step down for him.
I wonder why is staking his life for presidency.
I hope he doesn't lose it.

The much talked about alliance between the Action Congress (AC) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) has collapsed. The final nail in the coffin of the alliance was driven in this morning in Abuja when Vice President Atiku Abubakar declared that he would contest the April presidential election. There had been speculations that either Atiku would step down for Major. Gen. Mohammed Buhari, the ANPP presidential candidate or vice versa during the presidential election. But the vice president put paid to all the speculations at the formal opening of his campaign headquarters in Abuja this morning when he declared that he would not step down for anybody during the elections

pre-degree in unijos used to be for only science students. i don't think it has changed. never heard of remedial studies in psychology before. you could consider diploma if it is still being run, or re-write jamb.

Affoxpope:
() sincerely speaking, presently we have Buhari, Yar'adua, Atiku and other guys going for April 21 2007 presidential race. I'm telling u guys, Buhari still stand as the best candidate, followed by Atiku before u can now talk about Yar'adua.

what achievements of buhari and atiku place them in the 1st and 2nd position to yar' adua. is your opposition to him based on the fact that he in not his brother?

belloti:
Donny, i am not telling anyone to vote for Buhari and i am not campaigning for him,

javascript:void(0);
Insert Quote

Definitely you are not campaigning for him, from the tone of your thread.

but i know that what we have on our hand now is either PDP or ANPP

We are not talking about parties here, but individuals. Are we?

and we all know that anything PDP is an extention of OBJ government

If the above premise holds true, then?

So its up to you guys. Buhari is not an angel, he is a nigerian like all of us. Some of us here are even worst than him

Is this then your conclusion?

Have you tried "chemistry made simple"?

Iconoclast is not always a positive term as far as I'm concerned.

then apply for admission

i studied in sweden myself. what you need to do is to present an account that has the said money in it. unfortunately, you won't get a visa if you are not able to do this. swedish immigration is very straightforward. meet your uncles or anybody who can't give you a financial statement and a letter of sponsorship. that's the only h ope. there is no scholarship for free-mover students in sweden.

----omofineboy


I read with horror, your above piece. Wole is an ordinary man just like you and me. He is no god.

Everybody is entitled to his own opinions. This is democracy. If I feel Wole would not make a good president, I shouldn't be crucified for voicing my opinion. Should I?

Wole himself talks about other people. Yar' adua yesterday described comments credited to him regarding his candidacy as “a curious amuse” . He feel Yar' adua is Obj's stooge. That is his opinion. Yar' adua doesn't feel the same way. So you can see we all have varied opinions? That is the beauty of democracy.

Wole is a literary icon, no doubt about that. Greater literary icons will be born even after his death (he's 70?). So let's not worship him. He's no god. I have read some of his work. I have read THE MAN DIED (the man dies who keeps silent in the face of tyranny). Good piece, but that doesn't make his contribution to the political development of nigeria of more relevance than ours. We all fought for this democracy. Radio Kudriat did not force Abacha out of Aso rock. Our juju men did.

No need to cry over spilt milk. The guy has been hanged.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6300989.stm

This is a lesson to others in the business. The arm of the law is long.

Singapore executes drug smugglers
Vigil outside Singapore's Changi Prison
Activists hung up a football shirt to mark Tochi's love of the game
Singapore has executed two African men for drug smuggling after rejecting appeals for clemency by Nigeria's president, the UN and rights groups.

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, 21, of Nigeria, and 35-year-old Okeke Nelson Malachy, a stateless African, were hanged at dawn.

A small group of activists held an overnight vigil outside the prison.

Singapore has some of the strictest drugs laws in the world and a long history of ignoring pleas for clemency from foreign governments.

Tochi was arrested at the airport in Singapore in 2004, carrying almost a million dollars worth of heroin.

Malachy was convicted as the intended recipient of the drugs.

'Duty'

Both men were hanged at around 0600 (200GMT) at Changi Prison, officials said.

About 10 activists held an overnight vigil outside the prison compound, hanging a football shirt on the wall as a mark of Tochi's love of the game.

He maintained he had gone to Singapore to take part in a football tournament.

On the eve of their execution, the Singapore government released a letter Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had sent to Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo.

"Mr Tochi's family will find Singapore's position difficult to accept, but we have a duty to safeguard the interests of Singaporeans, and protect the many lives that would otherwise be ruined by the drug syndicates," he wrote.

Mr Obasanjo, along with the UN and human rights groups, had appealed for restraint.

Singapore is believed to have one of the world's highest rates of execution per capita, the BBC's Andrew Harding reports from the tiny city state.

Just over a year ago, the Australian government angrily condemned the hanging of one of its citizens convicted on drug trafficking charges.

Buhari and Yar' adua are apparently incorruptible.

Atiku can't distance himself from all the allegations of corruptions being heaped on him. His new found love for democracy should have taken precedence right from 1999. He should have resigned on principle when he realised that his master was engaging in gross "corruption".

Left with the options of Buhari and Yar' adua, i would go for the latter. Why? because he has not been black-spotted in any attempt to derail democracy unlike Buhari. Our excuses for hating him- his kidney infection and his backing by Obj are baseless. He is a grown up that will take his decisions when the time comes. And remember, he is more educated and diplomatic than obasanjo. Those that have heard him speak can correct me if i'm wrong. A man of such intellect won't allow an ex-military man to remote-control him.

In conclusion, i would opt for Yar' adua if the trio are presented on a sauce pan.

Mariory:
The papers this morning said there was a massive turnout of voters looking to register in some States in the North. When they vote and their own choice surpasses that of yours, are you still going to come here and complain?

why are we still surprise at the outcome of last year census? when massob was kidnapping census officials during the head-count, did we raise any alarm?. when there was general apathy in the south throughout the exercise, did we raise an eyebrow?

i'm not surprise that northerners are coming out en masse to register for election. they are at least, more politically aware than the south.

xkape:
No Donzman, more like Wole Soyinka, the Kutis and countless other in banking academia business etc. U fill in the gaps.

By the way, Obasanjo is a slowpoke

what about thinking like the emeagwalis, iwealas, soludos, akunyilis, achebes etc? did these men/ladies learn the art of thinking from soyinka and fela?

Get yourself a JAMB brochure; you can borrow it from your friend.

Jos university is ok in nigeria standard of today. They have got good lecturers in psychology.

9ja4eva:
, Well i know this year holds so much for us too as top thieves will go and many more evil people will join them.Well for me if am asked to pick i did pick Pat because hes young and am convinced he will take us dere.

will you opt for pat because of his youth or your convinction in him? convinced in his what? capability?

if you talk of youth then yar' adua, okotie et al should be included in you lot.