₦airaland Forum

Beaf:
[size=14pt]CPC Justifies Killings[/size]
10 May 2011
By Tobi Soniyi and Adebiyi Adedapo in Abuja

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Monday justified the post-presidential election riots and killings in parts of the North, describing them as a consequence of the win-at-all-cost mentality of the incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

It has also emerged that the CPC may be heading for a showdown with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over access to the electoral materials with which the party wants to prove its allegation of rigging.

The party also finally commiserated with the relatives of those who lost their lives and property as a result of the violence that occasioned the April 16 presidential election, which led to the death of 10 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Addressing judicial correspondents at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, CPC Legal Adviser, Abubakar Malami, said: “To us in the CPC, it is our belief that the breakdown of law and order that ensued after the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan as the president-elect on the basis of concocted results was the by-product of the determination to win elections by incumbents by any means which has always characterised such actions by historical antecedence.

“Our national history has however taught us that the determination to win elections by incumbents by any means has always given birth to spontaneous reactions in the form of breakdown of law and order.

“We recall the anger of the people of the Western Region in 1965 and the people of Ondo State in 1983 against the use of federal might to dislodge opposition governments in the South-west in favour of the ruling parties at the federal level with concocted results.

“The people spontaneously rose against these barbaric actions of the government. Police stations and houses of prominent NNA and NPN supporters were burnt and many people killed. In the case of Ondo State, the judicial decision that ceded Ondo back to the UPN came within the context of citizens’ determined effort to protect their votes.”

He said CPC believed that the declaration of false results assembled in places other than the polling units during the presidential election was another reminder that the political class “ruling and ruining Nigeria” was not ready to allow electoral reform to work.

Malami said CPC could not sit by and allow electoral misdemeanours wreaking the very foundation of the country’s stability, prosperity and unity to continue unchecked forever.

He observed that since independence, the major political problem of the country had been elections.

According to him, transiting from one government to the other through the ballot box had always been the most difficult aspect of the nation’s democratic experiment.

He recalled that on the two occasions the military took over the reins of power from civilian regimes in 1966 and 1983, election malpractices were cited as justification.

“Yet, till date, we do not seem to have learned our lessons. With every election, including the last presidential election, the electorate continue to lose confidence in the ability of the ballot box to express their will. This is a dangerous trend that must not be allowed to continue, lest we find our country sleepwalking into a disaster that we may not come out of,” he said.

Ironically, CPC won the presidential election in Kaduna and Bauchi – two states where killings and violence erupted after the poll.

Malami cited the polling unit where Jonathan voted to illustrate what he called the level of electoral fraud allegedly perpetrated.

According to him, Osazi Playground Polling Unit had a total number of 908 registered voters. On the April 16 election, only 424 voters turned out to cast their votes, with 413 voting for the president, while 11 ballots were invalidated. This, he said, represented a total of 47 per cent voter turnout in that unit. However, for the rest of Bayelsa State, the total voter turnout as recorded by INEC was 87 per cent with a total of 96 per cent voting for the president.

He said: “One would have expected that if there was going to be a massive voter turnout, no other place would have surpassed the president’s own unit. Because this unit comprises his close and distant relatives – his parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, childhood friends, etc.

“But surprisingly, not half of these came out to vote for their own, yet the rest of Bayelsa and the South-south turned out over 90 per cent to vote for their son.

“The truth is that the president did not want anything to cause problem in his ballot box which would have embarrassed him politically. So that box was guarded against any malpractice and so what came out of the box was actually what transpired; but the rest of Bayelsa and others can do as they pleased. This is electoral fraud personified!”

He recalled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government rejected the recommendation from the Electoral Reform Committee it set up that the new INEC should be appointed through an independent process anchored on the National Judicial Council (NJC).

He said in the life of a society, there would come a time when a group of people must have to stand up and point out when the leadership was destroying the nation; explain why things were going wrongly; demonstrate how things could be done rightly; and work towards making a clear difference.

He said this was why the CPC had to go to the tribunal. He noted that in the past, lack of evidence did not allow election petition to succeed.

This, he said, explained why the party was relying on scientific ways, means and methods as the best and most effective platform to prove its case.

He said since there were no two people with the same fingerprint, every fingerprint could be scientifically verified basically through biometrics/forensics methods. (This is a good development. Riggers should be jittery wherever they are right now)

Malami also said if at the end of this case, the truth was undeniably established and it was found out that the allegations of the said electoral fraud were true, then the blame of the post-election violence should be squarely put on the perpetrators of the fraud – for they are the real cause of the violence, which will then be the natural principle of cause and effect.

On the other hand, he said: “If it was established that the PDP got its votes as announced authentically, then our presidential candidate (Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari) will lead us to the Villa to formally congratulate the president and his deputy to the advancement of democracy, unity and stability of Nigeria."

Meanwhile, a legal crisis is brewing between CPC and INEC over whose duty it is to gather electoral materials used for the presidential election for the purpose of inspection.

CPC had written to INEC asking it to produce materials used for the presidential election for the purpose of inspection and to subject them to forensic test.

In its reply, INEC directed the party to go to the various states where the materials were located.

This, however, did not go down well with CPC. It therefore refused to follow INEC’s directive of approaching its state secretariats to retrieve the materials.

CPC was irked by the fact that INEC had earlier agreed to avail the party all that it required from it (the commission) only to change later and directed the party to go to the states.

The National Chairman of the party, Prince Tony Momoh, said the CPC would not abide by the directive given by INEC that it should go to the state electoral offices for the required materials.

He said the party would insist on examination of the documents at the INEC’s National Headquarters in Abuja. (this i also believe should be the right thing since its a national election)

He said: “We will not accept any diversion being introduced into the matter by INEC asking us to go to their state electoral offices in the country.

“We will insist on examination of the documents at the INEC’s National Headquarters. We are aware that the original of forms EC8D and EC8E are with INEC here in Abuja; form EC8D is the summary of results of all local governments in each state, and form EC8E is a summary of results of all the states in the federation and FCT.”

Momoh said the party was ready to submit all the materials stated above to forensic examination in order to buttress the claims of substantial non-compliance with the provisions of Electoral Act 2010 during the April 16 presidential election.

CPC, in another statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary Rotimi Fashakin, also accused INEC of not responding to the party’s demand in good faith.

Fashakin explained that the commission had in response to the party’s request promised to make the materials available to it, only for INEC to later direct CPC to the INEC secretariats in the affected states.

He said: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had promised in a letter dated 18th April, 2011 (in response to our letter dated same day) to make available all ballot papers and result sheets, which are in safe custody, upon request and payment of necessary fees. The INEC Headquarters that, had all along assumed responsibility, now directed us to liaise with the various State INEC, in pursuant of this noble objective.”

He stated further that the party was ready to meet the necessary financial condition as required by INEC, but according to him, the commission is reluctant to give details of payment.

“We demanded the amount of the fees to be paid and to which account.”

CPC had on Sunday filed a petition seeking to nullify the declaration of Jonathan of the PDP as winner of the April 16 presidential election by asking the court to cancel results in 24 states.

Those in contention are all the states in the South (17); Sokoto, Kaduna, Plateau, Kwara, Benue, Adamawa and Nasarawa in the North, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/cpc-justifies-killings/91097/

chino11:
I think you are clueless about what your talking about. I did my nysc in your delta state. Though I sparingly stay their due to the harsh weather and environment cos I was already working in Awka. This places you mentioned above are not what it is. Warri, ughelli, sapele even up to asaba are all plan-less, with the attendant poverty driving the youths into negative things. Though I know that delta attracts enough allocation from FG, but we are yet to see its impact on the masses and environment.

texazzpete:
Then you haven't been following my posts on Nairaland.
I always concede to Logic that i see as superior to mine. Changing my opinion and stance on things is not a problem for me. For example

I castigated Bakare for Joining politics. Now I defend him
I used to be pro-GEJ up until late last year then his poor displays turned me off
I once used to post in support of Dora Akunyili. Now I despise this greedy, scheming, two-faced woman.
In January I was fervently in support of Jega. After his inconsistent and wasteful display, i'm merely lukewarm on this fellow (Still an improvement over Iwu that I hated!)

There are lots more cases too.

The fact that you're lionizing people like Beaf and Odunnu tells me this is mainly about the recent Presidential elections. If so, my stance still remains that with the exception of a few isolated cases, the PDP is a scourge on Nigeria

I have a rewarding family and work life outside Nairaland so I NEVER take anything personal.

chino11:
Yorubas are senseless. They keep going back and forth. Was it not the same people that congratulated the winners. Foolish people.

Beaf:
[size=14pt]Lagos to run on deficit budgeting till 2013[/size]
On May 5, 2011 · · In News

By Olasunkanmi Akoni & monsur Olowoopejo

Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze, has said that the state will continue to run a deficit budget till year 2013.

He, however, added that after the estimated year, there might be an improvement in its budgets.

The Commissioner, who gave the indication, yesterday, while presenting his ministry’s achievements to journalists at Ikeja, said that the state might be high in debt for a while.

He, however, stressed that the state has no need to borrow at the moment but only to finance capital project.

He cautioned against giving wrong impression about volume of the state’s debt, but the capacity to accommodate such a profile.

“America is about the most indebted nation in the world, but the size of its economy is such that can be compare to very few countries. Borrowing in itself is not wrong, it is what you do with the borrowed-money that mattered,” Akabueze said.

Noting that Nigeria, as one of the N-11 (Next 11 after the OECD) countries, owes just about $9 billion out of the over $11 trillion debt profile of the N-11, as against that of South Korea’s $314 billion, “but the reality is that the Korea’s economy is bigger.”

He assured on the state’s capacity, through its budgetary provisions, to sustain the servicing of its debt profile.

“Lagos State is the only state in Nigeria that the World Bank granted budget support facility because of its transparency in its public finance,” he said.

Akabuexe also disclosed that the project contract sums submitted by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) running to 1,455 for 2010 was scaled down to N286.5 billion from N343 Billion.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/05/lagos-to-run-on-deficit-budgeting-till-2013/

reindeer:
If there was ever an award for a useless Govt, i think GEJ is on the way to winning the awards.
Why cant he just give a little more money to existing universities, they will probably employ a thousand more per session.
Well it was just for the galleries, we'll see where those 'univeristies' are in 10years.
Dumb govt, hailed by like-minded people.

Donlittle:
The National Association of Nigerian Students, Zone D gave a pass mark to the Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC} over the weekend for conducting violence-free and fair elections. According to the students, in view of this record, they have decided to endorse him as the president in 2015 if he shows interest.

The zone, which comprises Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti states, said this at a press conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, via the Joint Campus Committee chairman, Clement Olusegun.

"The students in general are using this opportunity to appreciate Professor Jega for the successful conclusion of the election. We must say seriously that Jega is a great ambassador of Nigeria, because he has conducted the most credible election so far in the history of Nigeria," he said.

Mr Olusegun, accompanied by other executives of the association, added, "We hereby challenge the federal government that if Jega is interested in 2015 election he should be given an opportunity to do so. Jega you are a great leader."

The association, however, condemned in totality the attacks inflicted on youth corps members and the destruction of properties in the northern part of the country, arguing that people should always address issues legally rather than engage in extralegal activity.

The leaders of the student group similarly commended the incumbent governors in the southwest region of the country for creating and enabling the environment for free and fair elections within their various states.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5696898-146/story.csp

houvest:
Well done beaf. You led. Many of us also did our small part. I just hope that GEJ will not let the cabal to re-organise. Those close to him must insist on SNC or at least Restructuring the federation to practice true federalism. He must not let our efforts be in vain.

banom:
Hello beaf, i must congratulate you for your hard fought battle for the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan and the fresh air movement for a better Nigeria,

The day i saw Jega announcing that result , the first person that came to my mind was Beaf, wow you really beafed them 22million strong. i could have posted this for long but i was busy running the campaign for the re-election of a state governor i worked as his chief campaign strategist, and we were successful too, i am free now as i am back home,

Congrats man.

Asanni5:
I wonder what all these is for? Poster, where were you when Babangida annulled an election that was internationally acclaimed free and fair? Where were you when the Shagari's made promises and left us with austerity measures? Where were you when we were promised the seven point agenda not a point was delivered? Look, let's all pray that this guy succeed than wait for him to fail, either you like it or not, his failure is our failure. I wonder if any of leaders get the same horrible treatment we all get around the world and yet we take our hands to write on the pages of the internet some nonsense in the name of criticism. Are we trying to incite those blood shedding "demons" to take to the streets again? Anyway, criticizers are always at the back blocked from seeing anything good ahead.  All those waiting for GEJ's failure can go hug a 33 kva transformer till he is through with his tenure. RUBBISH and NONSENSE.        

noblefada:
@ Epoma
I agree with you that Buhari was not there wen they were registering, but to tell me that cpc did not know that under age will vote in the north is akin to me telling you dat i don't the difference of living in the south and living in the north, as i said earlier for them its normal, its their right. The truth is that that you can accuse some in court for committing a crime, wen you were an accomplice! in layman words, i cannot charge my friend to court for not sharing the money we both robbed from a bank equally.

For your 2nd question, which you've answered already, nigeria don't have the will power to do it. b4 a southerner will walk as a free man in the north, he go tey well! well!!. See during the last crises, after we were almost attacked, one of my neighbor an Ibo chap was so afraid and unsettled, He only calm down wen he finally got into the barracks, in his words "i'm not afraid of dying, but wat scares me to death is dying at the hands of hopeless children with no way to defend myself", Its the same feeling that many people leave the north during this crises never to come back! You may never feel secure here, becos its truly an hostile enviroment!

agabaI23:
I am sure with

1 state governor
5 senate seats
and 30 rep seats

Buhari will be thinking very hard about going to the tribunal. It will be very difficult to get anything done in such a house especially with PDP slight majority and it is not like the silly opposition could come together for anything good.

agabaI23:
^Who registered the under aged voters? The same people who forced them on corp members registered them.
And I am sure you have seen the consequences of refusing to dance to their music= knife on your throat like a cow.

mbulela:
earlier than he did and with more media coverage.
Also, he should have done it outside the context of him contesting election results.