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Bizman jumps into raging fire, dies in Kano Saturday, 13 March 2010 00:00 Ted Odogwu
At least nine traders were feared dead and over 2,000 shops razed as fire gutted Kano, the biggest textile market in West Africa, located at Kantin-Kwari area of the state. One of the deceased was a businessman who jumped into the fiery fire in a bid to retrieve money from his shop.


The inferno, which occurred in the wee hours of the day, was said to have consumed goods estimated at N25 billion.
According to eyewitness account, the fire started at about 1.00 a.m. from a three-storey building located within the market in the ancient city of Kano.


However, a source close to the traders said the fire started when a transformer, located at the premises of the three-storey building, suddenly exploded after electrical power was restored to the vicinity by Power Holding Company of Nigera, PHCN. According to the source, the fire quickly spread to adjoining shops, which were clustered in the area.
The inferno, described as mysterious by some onlookers, did not evenly spread, as expected but avoided some shops and affected others.


As the fire raged, one of the affected traders suddenly escaped from the grip of sympathizers and rushed into his burning shop in an attempt to salvage large sums he said he withdrew from the bank a day earlier. Unfortunately for him, it was a journey to the great beyond, as balls of the raging fire consumed him in the process, and as the time of going to press, his body was yet to be retrieved from the inferno.
Another trader, who successfully climbed to the third storey of the building housing his shop, got trapped in the process. In his desperate attempt to escape from the heat generated by the fire, which had hit about 300 degrees, he jumped to the ground floor and was immediately stretchered to the hospital in a state of unconsciousness.


Thousands of traders who besieged the area made successful attempts to salvage some of their wares, while the fire fighters were busy battling to curtail the fire which had been on for over 13 hours at press time.
The intensity and magnitude of the fire overstretched the capacity of the State Fire fighters, prompting other private companies, namely, ASAH Transport Company, Borini Prono, Al-USABS Construction Company, Dantata & Sawoe, and Standard Plastics to render a helping hand, using their state-of-the-art fire fighting equipment to combat the fire. However, the fire wasn’t quenched.


Kano State Chief Superintendent of Fire Service, Adamu Kawo, who said he arrived the scene, shortly after he was contacted at about 2.30am, immediately swung into action, stressing that his fire fighters encountered difficulty gaining smooth access to the affected buildings. He explained that it was due to the clustering nature of the buildings in the area.
State Director of Emergency Relief Agency, Alhaji Ibrahim Alkassim Ungogo, disclosed that he contacted NEMA Director-General in Abuja , Alhaji Audu Bida, who promptly dispatched a helicopter to the scene, which helped to combat the fire from the sky.


Banks within the vicinity temporarily closed shop, while their security operatives were on red alert keeping vigil at their premises to avoid the infiltration of miscreants into their premises.
Despite police presence, some hoodlums had a field day, as they carted away goods and other valuables, mostly textiles, and other assorted goods.
The State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Aji Gano, personally visited the scene, during which he immediately, ordered the deployment of six units of armed mobile police units to beef up security in the area Amsalco, a popular textile merchant lost goods, worth over N200 million.


http://www.compassnewspaper.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43325:bizman-jumps-into-raging-fire-dies-in-kano-&catid=672:top-stories&Itemid=794

Why we carried out the attacks –suspects
By JUDE OWUAMANAM, Published: Saturday, 13 Mar 2010





L-R, Dahiru Adamu and Haruna Ibrahim


Three of the people suspected to have carried out the attacks in which more than 500 residents of three communities in Plateau State were killed tell JUDE OWUAMANAM why they participated in the operation. I killed only three of the residents –Dahiru Adamu, 25-year-old cattle rearer



Why were you arrested?



They said that we went to Dogo Na Hauwa to kill people.



Is it true that you killed people?



Yes.



How many people did you kill?



I killed three people.



Were they men, women or children?



They were adults; one male and two females



How did you kill them?



I used stick to hit them and when they fell I cut them with knife.



What type of knife did you use?



A sharp knife.



Why did you go there to kill them?



During the last crisis, they killed people and cows, so we went to retaliate.



Were they sleeping when you got there?



Some of them were sleeping and some were awake. We first set the houses on fire and when they run out we killed them.











We planned the attack at Fobur –20-year-old Haruna Ibrahim



Where were you arrested?



Dogo Na Hauwa



Why were you arrested?



I was arrested because many people were killed in Dogo Na Hauwa.



Is it true that you killed people?



No.



Did you see people being killed?



No.



Did you see bodies of people that were killed?



No. We shared ourselves into groups. I only killed pigs.



Is it good to kill?



No.



So why did you kill?



I did not kill; I only went there.



Why did you go there?



I went there to tell them to release the cattle they seized from us if they were not ready for trouble.



Who organised the attack?



We met at Fobur (Jos East) and decided on the attack.



How long did it take to plan the attack?



It took some time, but I only attended the meeting once.



Did they tell you they were going to attack?



I used to rare my cattle on Thursdays. So on Friday, I met two people who asked me the venue of the meeting for the attack on Dogo. I told them I did not know about the attack. They told me about the plan and I volunteered to take part. When I went there, I saw a lot of people, but I could only recognise Zakari



Were you told that people were to be killed at Dogo?



No. But they killed our people and our cattle during the January crisis and I know that there was going to be a revenge mission at Dogo.











We struck because they killed our people



–25-year-old Zakari Yakubu



Why did you go to Dogo Na Hauwa?



They killed our people and cattle and we went there to revenge.



Were you paid for the attack?



No.



Were you part of the meeting where the attack was planned?



Yes.



How many times did you attend the meeting?



Many times. I cannot remember.



Who organised the meetings?



Some of our leaders. But I don’t know them.




http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100313347389

goodnews, nobody is above the law afterall;; dangote is so greedy ooo, more powers to the elbows of the judiciary

Court nullifies Dangote’s election as NSE president

By Odunayo Abiodun


March 12, 2010 08:39PM
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A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Friday nullified the election of Aliko Dangote as the president and chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). This was the ruling in a suit filed by some aggrieved shareholders of African Petroleum (AP).

“An order is hereby made nullifying, vacating and setting aside all steps taken by the 13th defendant (NSE) in purporting to elect the 11th defendant (Mr. Dangote) as the president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, including but not limited to the entire purported election held on the 6th day of August 2009, during the pendency of this suit and in disregard of the positive order of this court made on 4th of August 2009,” the justice, Akanbi Lambo, said while delivering the judgement.

Aggrieved shareholders

15 shareholders of AP had filed a legal action against Mr. Dangote, Nova Finance and Securities Limited and 12 others over an alleged massive manipulation of AP shares. In addition to their originating summons, the applicants urged the court to grant an order of interlocutory injunction.

Accordingly, the shareholders approached the court for an order restraining the NSE and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) from retaining Mr. Dangote as the 1st Vice president and member of the council of the NSE, pending the determination of the suit. They also sought an order restraining Mr. Dangote from remaining the 1st Vice President and member of the council of the NSE.

However, during the proceedings in the suit on 4 August, 2009, the court presided over by Mohammed Liman ordered all parties to maintain status quo pending the hearing of the suit.

Noting that Mr. Liman could not continue in the matter because an allegation of bias was levied against him by the defendants, the suit was transferred to Mr. Lambo, who is now presiding.

Election despite court order

At the next court hearing, the applicants filed a motion on notice praying for an order of court nullifying the election of Mr. Dangote as president of the council of the NSE, during the pendency of the suit by the aggrieved AP shareholders. The election was allegedly conducted on 6 August 2009, before the next court sitting.

The motion of the applicants was predicated on the fact that despite the order of the court asking all parties to maintain status quo, the defendant went on to elect Mr. Dangote as its President.

Ruling

While ruling on the motion filed by the applicants, the court held that there was indeed a positive order of this court made on 4 August 2009 commanding parties to maintain status quo. Mr. Lambo held that the 13th and 14th defendants deliberately defied the order of the court.

“The 13th and 14th (SEC) respondents, in spite of that order and in flagrant and reckless disregard of same, went ahead not only permitting the 11th respondent, Alhaji Aliko Dangote as a member of the council, but also putting him up to contest election as the National President of the council. That is certainly a deliberate and contemptuous disregard of the order of the court.” Justice Lambo said.

He added that “I see the deliberate act of officials and executives, who operate the NSE and SEC as a subtle strive and exploration by devious or dubious way to circumvent and render nugatory the true intention of the order of the court.”

In the ruling, Mr. Lambo urged the government to look for ways to punish any of it agents that default in carrying out court orders.

“The government should also look inward for a way to sanction domestically, any government functionaries found in disobedience of the court’s order,” he said. “This is the only way ‘the boys’ and those claiming to be close to power and who are laws unto themselves can be checkmated, so that genuine desire of the present administration to enthrone true and genuine democracy can be attained.”

After the ruling, the matter was adjourned to 16 March 2010, for continuation of the substantive suit filed by the shareholders.

Reactions

Sunny Nwosu, national coordinator of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), while reaction to the ruling, described the removal of Mr. Dangote as triumph for the rule of law.

Fola Sowemimo & Co, the law firm representing Mr. Dangote, in it’s reaction to the court ruling, said “Our client is obviously dissatisfied with this ruling. His position remains that he believes in the Nigerian judicial system and what it stands for, and he is confident that justice will be served and he will be vindicated. Tempting as it is to join issues and give the background to some of our concerns, the dignity of our profession requires that we follow a certain course of action. We will abide by that and as such a notice of appeal as well as application for stay of execution of the order has been filed this afternoon. We look forward to justice taking its course.”


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http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Crime/5539967-146/court_nullifies_dangotes_election_as_nse.csp

Fire razes textile market in Nigeria
March 12 2010 at 02:22PM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za



Kano, Nigeria - An overnight fire razed northern Nigeria's largest textile market, consuming goods valued at billions of naira and some cash, traders said on Friday.

Firefighters were battling on Friday to extinguish the inferno which started around 12.30 in the morning at Kantin Kwari textile market in Kano, they said.

"The fire was caused by a spark from a nearby transformer when power was restored after a blackout," Liti Kulkul, a spokesman for the traders said.

"Fire is still raging but firefighters are battling to contain it," he said, adding that the state-run National Emergency Management Agency was trying to use a helicopter to put out the inferno.
Continues Below ↓








He said more than 500 shops and hundreds of stalls owned by Nigerian, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese traders and textile goods and materials valued at billions of naira were destroyed by the fire.

"A particular trader lost 150 million naira (about R7,4-million) in cash in his shop. Other traders had to grab him when he attempted to run into the fire," Kulkul added. - Sapa-AFP



http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20100312141226360C777064


sorry for loss, but blame the gov for not build a reasonable shops overther,

US lists more Nigerians, Yemenis on no-fly-list
By AGENCY REPORTER, Published: Friday, 12 Mar 2010








With names largely drawn from Nigeria and Yemen, the United States government is said to have nearly doubled the number of individuals who are now on the no-fly-list since the last Christmas Day terror attempt, by Nigerian terror suspect, Umar Abdulmutallab, Empowered Newswire reports.



Local media reports the US based on an Associated Press news story stated that a US government “intelligence official says the government had nearly doubled the number of people on the no-fly list since the attempted Christmas Day attack near Detroit.”



The report added that “the list expanded, in part, to add people associated with al-Qaida’s Yemen branch and others from Nigeria and Yemen with potential ties to the alleged would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.”



It is believed that much of the addition to the list were recorded almost immediately after the December 25 terror attempt.



The news that names of more Nigerians are now on the list is coming less than a week after the US flew in a captured suspected terrorist from Nigeria to the US last Saturday.



The trial of the suspect is to resume on Monday in New York.



The AP report quoted an official saying that ”since a Nigerian man tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane, the government‘s list of suspected terrorists banned from flying grew from about 3,400 to 6,000.”



However, a much more public version of the no-fly-list, which is made public has more names.



A quick check by Empowered Newswire on the public version of the no-fly-list, on Thursday showed that the list had increased to 79,831. The list is updated daily and showed that seven new names were added to the it on Thursday, while 125 were added this month and 692 added this year.



Reviewing and updating the no-fly list were among President Barack Obama‘s immediate responses to the foiled attack.



It will be recalled that Empowered Newswire reported earlier in the year that the US government may soon begin rejection of Visa applications by some categories of Nigerians and also outright cancellations of visa privileges for some Nigerians.



Although a statement by the US State Department did not mention the categories that would be affected, it added that visas already issued to some people might be revoked.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201003120533265

No more pension for past military leaders

By Emmanuel Ogala


March 12, 2010 04:21AM
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Ever since the current political debacle began 23 November last year, when President Umaru Yar’Adua was evacuated to Saudi Arabia, Nigerians have made it clear that they do not want a military intervention. The Senate pointedly increased the tempo of such calls yesterday.

Former Generals, Yakubu Gowon, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and others who illegally took over the reins of government in Nigeria, have been excluded from a pension scheme designed to honour past leaders.

This was the consequence of a bill that the Senate passed into law yesterday. The thrust of the bill is to ensure that only democratically elected former presidents benefit from the pension package for former leaders. The bill also amends Decree 32 of 1999 and automatically excludes all former military heads of state who usurped power through the barrel of the gun.

“This is to discourage other unconstitutional means of getting into power,” David Mark, the senate president, said. “The only way recognised by the constitution is through (the) ballot and not the barrel of a gun.”

Ernest Shonekan, who headed an interim government that was later declared illegal by a Lagos High Court, is also affected by the law.

Enhanced pension package

Currently, the constitution provides pension for only the president and the vice president, which, according to the 1999 Constitution, would be equivalent to the salary of the incumbent president.

However, the new law introduces the chief justice of Nigeria, the senate president and his deputy, and the speaker and his deputy, into the league of past leaders to benefit from the pension.

But leaders who leave office by impeachment, or those who were forced out of office for breach of any provision of the 1999 Constitution, are not eligible for the remunerations contained in this bill.

The legislature also increased the pension that eligible former presidents currently earn.

It added an upkeep allowance to the pension entitlement of the president and vice president as stipulated in Section 84(5) of the 1999 Constitution. The entitlement is expected to be reviewed upwards from time to time, but subject to the approval of the National Assembly.

There is also a provision in the bill which entitles the family of deceased ex-presidents and vice presidents to an annual payment for the upkeep of their spouses and education of their children up to university level. However, this spousal upkeep allowance will cease the moment the last spouse of the deceased passes on.

The law, however, restricts anyone eligible for the perk who has held two offices to only enjoying the benefits for one.

“Any person who has held two or more public offices shall be entitled to only the benefits accruing under this act to the highest of those offices which he has held in order of national precedence,” the act read.

History

This legislation was passed by the last session of the National Assembly and presented to the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo, for approval. However, due to unexplained reasons, the former president did not sign the act into law.

The bill was therefore re-presented to the current session of the National Assembly for passage and representation to the president.

NEXT had on January 4 reported the plan by the Senate to review the pay of all former leaders. In the initial plan, the former leaders’ package would have been increased from N250 million proposed in the 2010 budget to about N2 billion This was said by the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on appropriation, Ayo Adeseun.

According to him, the money was meant to take care of the former leaders’ pension, medicare, yearly vacation abroad, offices and general maintenance. This is besides the N500,000 each of the former leaders is reportedly paid whenever they attend the Council of State meeting, which is held periodically.

Under the old deal, those who would have benefited were Yakubu Gowon (1966-1975), Olusegun Obasanjo (1975-1979 and 1999-2007), Shehu Shagari (1979-1983), Muhammadu Buhari (1983-1985), and Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993). The others were Ernest Shonekan (Aug 1993-November 17, 1993), and Abdulsalam Abubakar (1998-1999).

Mr. Adeosun had defended the action then by saying, “We think we should review the allocation to about N2 billion. This money is meant to take care of their accommodation, vehicles, medical expenses and other allowances. These are people who have served this nation and they should be properly taken care of.”

The matter of welfare

Allocations for former leaders’ welfare began in 2005, when a total of N140 million was set aside for them in that year’s budget. Subsequently, the following allocations were made - N105 million (2006); N24 million (2008); and N250 million (2009). However, no allocation was made in the 2007 budget. It may have been integrated into another item under the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Until 2008 when the allocation was brought under the office of the SGF, it was treated under the Presidency or State House.

The emolument is different from that of the sitting president, who takes home N3.5 million annually. The president also earns various allowances.



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http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5539503-146/no_more_pension_for_past_military.csp

Uwais panel report:Jonathan throws out Yar’adua’s review
Written by Muideen Olaniyi, Abdurrahman Abubakar & Nasidi Adamu Yahaya
Thursday, 11 March 2010 06:07
Mahmud Yayale Ahmed (right) addressing the Save Nigeria Coalition rally in Abuja yesterday.
An “unedited” version of the Justice Mohamed Lawal Uwais panel report on electoral reforms was sent to the National Assembly by Acting President Goodluck Jonathan two weeks ago, Secretary to the Government of the Federation Mahmud Yayale Ahmed told demonstrating members of the Save Nigeria Coalition (SNC) in Abuja yesterday. It indicated a major reversal of course by the Federal Government, since the Federal Executive Council [FEC] under President Umaru Yar’adua issued a white paper last year that rejected several key aspects of the panel’s recommendations, notably on the appointment of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] chairman by the National Judicial Council. Addressing the protesters in front of his office, Yayale said with respect to their demand for electoral reforms, “We are aware of your concern regarding credible elections in this country. Only two weeks ago, the Acting President handed over again Uwais committee report unedited to the National Assembly. I will like to assure you that the National Assembly would do the necessary legislation in terms of reviewing the electoral act and the Constitution in order to have a better electoral process.”
However, both chambers of the National Assembly denied yesterday that they received such a document from the Acting President. Some members of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review (SCRC), which was said to have received the copies of the report sent by the Acting President, said they received nothing of the sort.

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) told Daily Trust on phone last night that the National Assembly has copies of the Uwais report sent to it by President Umaru Musa Yar’adua last year. He said, “We have copies of the report for a long time. There has not been another version of the Uwais report. The only reports sent were those by Yar’adua.”

On his part, SCRC member from Rivers State Senator Lee Maeba said he was not aware of any such transmission by the acting president. He said, “I am not aware. Maybe if I get to the National Assembly tomorrow I will ask my colleagues.” Chairman of the SCRC, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, said the committee will present its report to the whole Senate this month for further consideration.

The House of Representatives also said it did not recently receive “unedited” copies of the Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais report on electoral reform as claimed yesterday by the SGF.

Chairman of the House committee on Media and Public Affairs Rep Eseme Eyiboh (PDP, Akwa Ibom State) told Daily Trust on phone last night that the House “is not aware of the presence of Justice Uwais report in its domain”.

He said, “As I am speaking with you, the report is not sent to the House. I know it is not a secret document, and when it is sent to us, we will do all that is possible to ensure electoral reform”. He said the House was ready to pursue the reform to its logical conclusion, saying however that they would also ensure relevant sections of the constitution are altered during the constitution review.

President Yar’adua had sent six bills on electoral reform to the National Assembly for consideration. After the lawmakers requested for it, the president also sent unedited copies of the Uwais panel report for consideration alongside the electoral reform bills.

The demonstrating members of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) had submitted a petition to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan demanding invocation of Section 144 on the health of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua and the dissolution of the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF).

The petition, read by Pastor Tunde Bakare during a rally which started at Unity Fountain Abuja, was handed over to Alhaji Yayale Ahmed for onward delivery to Acting President. The group also asked for the implementation of the Uwais Report on electoral reform and the sack of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu as well as the reconstitution of the commission.

They said “The refusal of President Yar’adua to resign from office on account of his deteriorating ill-health and failure to transmit a letter of vacation on time as required by the Constitution has resulted in a severe but avoidable constitutional crisis.” They also demanded for a “Quick and thorough implementation of the Uwais Report on electoral reform starting with the immediate removal of Professor Maurice Iwu as Chairman and the reconstitution of the INEC with persons of impeccable integrity and competence.”

However, a Pro-Yar’adua group under the aegis of National Coalition of PDP Youths staged a separate rally at Eagle Square yesterday and said the ill health of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua is a natural occurrence and should not be used to disparage his integrity.

Addressing the rally, the National President of PDP Youth Development Front, Musa Yakasai, faulted the motive of the anti-Yar’adua protests.

Yakasai said that “the Acting President is the legitimate Commander- in - Chief whose ability is not in doubt”, adding that “the three arms of government are functional, an indication that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is in charge.”



http://www.nigeriannews.com/

Islamic Republic uncovered in Ibadan
From YINKA FABOWALE, Ibadan
Thursday, March 11, 2010


Akala
Photo: Sun Publishing

More Stories on This Section
Barely a week after the gory massacre of 500 souls in Jos, Plateau State, some Islamic fundamentalists are again at work to stage a similar pogrom on Christians in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
Daily Sun investigation shows that some people have been distributing and dropping anonymous and inciting leaflets, calling for Jihad and attacks on Christians, in mosques within the volatile capital city and its environs.

Aside of this is emergence of a fanatical Islamic sect in Beree, a suburb of Ibadan in Oluyole Local Government Area, which is now under close watch of security agencies in the state due to its intolerance of other religious groups in the area.

The group was said to have established a village called ‘Madina’ about six years ago, where its followers camped.
It was learnt that the group was fond of destroying and defacing Christian crusade/revival posters in public.
Last Thursday, the extremists were also said to have threatened to attack Ogun (god of iron) worshipers in the community while the latter were celebrating their festival.
It took the intervention of elders of the community to pacify them and put the situation under control.
A police source told Daily Sun that the command has set up a dragnet for the group’s leader.
One of the inciting leaflets circulating in mosques urged Muslims to rise up against Christians in a holy war on the ground that they were losing their brethren to Christianity.
It said the attack must be carried out on a Sunday when their targets would be in church to worship.
One of the grouses of the author of the leaflet is that the ‘most educated’ Nigerians and ‘hypocrites’ in the country are Christians.
The leaflet writer regretted that Muslims in the southern part of the country had not been as militant as their counterparts in the North, stressing that they must now take a cue from past Jihadists in Kano and other northern states.
Intelligence reports on the development, Daily Sun learnt, was responsible for an emergency meeting the state Commissioner of Police, Adisa Bolanta, had with leaders of religious groups in the state last week.
At the meeting were: Rev. Bola Ajibike, who represented the Chairman of the State Chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN); Archbishop Akinfenwa; leader, National Council of Muslim Youth Organizations (NACOMYO) Alhaji Kunle Sanni; Dr. Dawood Alaga; Serikin Hausawa and representative of the Chief Imam of Ibadan, Alhaji Busari Suara.
The police boss was said to have intimated them on the existence of the hate letters and warned them against acts that could cause disharmony and crisis within the state.
Daily Sun learnt that the Muslim delegation complained about a certain Christian home video, featuring a Muslim called ‘Alfa Sule,’ it claimed, was provocative.
To this, the CAN leaders were said to have declared the body’s efforts at disciplining its erring members but called for maturity on the part of viewers of such productions.
The police commissioner calmed frayed nerves but reminded the meeting of constitutional freedom of expression and worship.
He, however, promised to request the film censor board to look into the complaint, adding that the video producer would be invited and cautioned.
The meeting ended with a resolution for the setting up of an inter-faith committee to meet quarterly to resolve issues of conflicts that could breach public peace



http://www.nigeriannews.com/

Nigerian sentenced to death for drug dealing
By Chen Hong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-11 07:08 Comments(10) PrintMail Large Medium Small



Osonwa Okey Noberts, a Nigerian who was charged with drug trafficking, stands trial with his girlfriend, Zhang Dongxiang, and two others accused of the same crime at Dongguan Intermediate People’s Court last June in Dongguan, Guangdong province.[Fang Guangming/China Daily]



SHENZHEN: A Nigerian man received the death penalty Tuesday in Dongguan, Guangdong province, after being convicted of drug trafficking. Experts say it is the first case in the southern manufacturing city in which a foreigner has received a death sentence for drug trafficking.

Related readings:
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China cracks more drug trafficking cases
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His sentence was handed down from the Guangdong Higher People's Court. The execution still needs the review and final approval of the Supreme People's Court.

Osonwa Okey Noberts, 37, was found trading nearly 6 kg drugs to Chinese drug dealers at his rented apartment in Baiyun district of Guangzhou from February to April 2008, according to the investigation.

"Osonwa Okey Noberts took the drugs from the suppliers and sold them to the lower-tier buyers in China. The amount of heroin reached 5,978.1 grams. He deserves the most severe punishment," said a press release by the Intermediate People's Court of Dongguan, where the final verdict was announced.

Zhang Dongxiang, the 27-year-old Chinese girlfriend of Noberts, received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for assisting the illegal trade.

They lived together starting in July 2007 but when she discovered almost six months later that the Nigerian was trafficking drugs, she rented another room next to their apartment to facilitate the trading and provided necessary help.

Two other Chinese drug dealers, Wu Xianjun and Jiang Xuzhi, also received death sentences with two-year reprieves for drug trafficking and employing people for the illegal activities. Policemen found guns and bullets in their homes when they were arrested in April 2008.

The Guangdong Higher People's Court upheld the convictions of the first trial at the Dongguan Intermediate People's Court in June last year but reduced the sentences on four of the convicts after taking into consideration their appeals, the report said.

According to China's criminal law, trafficking of more than 50 grams of heroin can warrant the death penalty.

Official statistics showed that drug trafficking by foreigners is becoming rampant in Guangdong.

Four foreigners, along with five other suspects, have been in custody since they were caught in Shenzhen for allegedly smuggling 144.5 kg of heroin from Pakistan in September 2009.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court heard eight drug-trafficking cases, involving nine Africans, were involved, in November 2008. Eight received a stay of execution, while the ninth person was sentenced to life imprisonment.



http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/11/content_9570200.htm?

Nigerians march to demand ailing leader's appearance

By Joe Brock


March 10, 2010 01:50PM
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Hundreds of Nigerians gathered in the capital Abuja on Wednesday for a march to the presidency to demand the appearance of ailing leader Umaru Yar'Adua, two weeks after he returned from a Saudi hospital.




The 58-year-old leader has not been seen in public since being flown back after three months of treatment in Jeddah for a heart condition. There have been no announcements on his health but presidency sources say he remains in intensive care.

His return while still too frail to govern raised fears that his inner circle of aides, led by his wife Turai, would fight to maintain their influence over Africa's most populous nation and seek to undermine Acting President Goodluck Jonathan.

A power struggle at the top of the OPEC member nation of 140 million people could bring paralysis in government decision-making, threatening an amnesty programme in the oil-producing Niger Delta and stalling momentum on reforms.

Several hundred people, many wearing T-shirts with "Save Nigeria Group" on the front and "Enough is Enough" on the back, gathered near to a city centre hotel under the watch of police officers lining the avenue.

"We want the invisible president to be revoked. We are tired of a president we can't see, who can't govern. We want to see him," Babatunde Ogala, a politician from the commercial capital Lagos, told the gathering crowd.

"If we can't see him we want someone else who is allowed to govern. Why is a cabal controlling our country," he said.

Officials organising the march said they planned to walk to Aso Rock, the presidential villa, and hand a letter of protest to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who co-ordinates between the presidency and government ministries.

"Turai, leave Nigeria alone" and "Jonathan get decisive now" were among the banners held up above the crowd.

A police spokesman addressed the protesters, pledging that the security forces were there to protect them and would help them carry their message "in a peaceful manner". He said officers were not carrying tear gas or weapons.

Such political demonstrations are relatively rare in Nigeria, where the vast majority of people get by on $2 a day or less and feel politics is a game played by multi-millionaires whose outcome has little effect on their daily lives.

Similar marches in recent months have passed peacefully.

Should Yar'Adua be formally declared too sick to govern, or resign or die, Jonathan would be sworn in as head of state and complete the unexpired presidential term, which runs to May next year, with a new vice president.

The demonstrators are also demanding electoral reforms to avoid the sort of chaos seen in the 2007 polls which brought Yar'Adua to power, a vote so marred by ballot-stuffing and intimidation that observers said it was not credible.


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5538411-146/nigerians_march_to_demand_ailing_leaders.csp

Jonathan to run with IBB
By The Sun Publishing
Wednesday, March 10, 2010


Photo: Sun News Publishing
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A very dependable source told Daily Sun: “Jonathan was made to understand that there is no way the North would not feel short-changed if another Southerner becomes president in 2011 after eight unbroken years of Obasanjo presidency. In any case, Jonathan is still seen as a light-weight politician, his acting presidency position notwithstanding. As a form of compensation for him, the group moved to persuade IBB to run with him.”

Babangida’s candidacy is being advocated specifically for the same reasons Obasanjo was made president in 1999. According to our source, because these are very testy times, “We don’t want a trial and error scenario. We need a man who has been there before, a man who knows the challenges of the office. A stabilising figure, who is reasonably accepted in different parts of the country. Of all the former heads of state, IBB appears the most acceptable.”

However, the group pushing for the IBB/Jonathan 2011 ticket appears split down the middle. While a rump of the Yar’Adua group appears to favour an IBB presidency, they are not favourably disposed to Jonathan in the political calculation. Some powerful political gladiators, Daily Sun further gathered, are vehemently against a Jonathan presidency or vice-presidency beyond 2011. Their grouse, according to our source, stems from the ‘untidy’ manner the Acting President allegedly handled the Yar’Adua issue. His words: “Jonathan behaved double-facedly in the issue of the ailing President. While, on the one hand, he pretended to be in sympathy with the embattled President, on the other hand, he was stoking the fire and engineering the processes leading to his eventual declaration as Acting President.”

Another group in the power calculus also appears favourably disposed to a Babangida/Orji Kalu ticket n 2011 or Babangida/Peter Odili pair. The reasoning is that both Kalu and Odili are consummate grassroots politicians with a large following and acceptability in different parts of the country. But Jonathan is likely to clinch the vice-presidency ticket under Babangida because of the powerful forces in the Advisory Council rooting for him.
The Yar’Adua group seeking a soft-landing for its members are also sharply divided over who takes over from the ailing leader if he eventually makes it to 2011. While some key members of the group feel comfortable with a Babangida presidency, other strong voices would prefer a serving Northern governor as presidential candidate, with Chief James Ibori, former Delta governor as running mate.

Even though he’s yet to make a public pronouncement on his rumoured presidential interests, Daily Sun investigations reveal that the former military president may have braced up to the challenges of running for the exalted office in 2011. He has been consulting different interest groups as well as Nigeria’s foreign allies who seem disposed to his return to the office he left 17 years ago. Towards this end, Babangida is expected to travel out of the country this weekend on a routine medical check-up. “But he will be consulting with some Western powers on the way forward for Nigeria and his role in the post-Yar’Adua era,” our source confided.
How these contending forces and power-§play would play out before Nigeria’s crucial 2011 elections remains to be seen. And Nigerians, stupefied at the game of wit and intrigues hovering around the power circuit, watch with bated breath.




http://www.nigeriannews.com/

Senate paid David Mark N30 Million to attend OBJ’s Birthday
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 01:14 David Gbong Dear Editor,

You posted on elombah.com about Nigeria lawmakers carting home 11 million per annum. I don’t think that is the correct figure. The federal lawmakers fought against FOI bill so that the public will not get to know their allowance. But I tell you, a senator in Nigeria is earning more than Obama, Sarkozy, and Gordon Brown combined. I know what I am saying because I am very close to many of them.

Yes I read your articles and I am ok your write up. But the enormity of their criminality is annoying. My senator has 30 million allocated for him for his estacode to Ogun state to attend OBJ birthday. Not any state function. You can’t believe this, but they continually keep Nigerians in the dark.

That Senator is David Mark

Remember that on that Friday in Abeokuta, at his 73rd birthday ceremony, which featured a book presentation and an annual lecture of the Centre for Human Security of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, the former President said no section or group had the right to appropriate the nation.

Responding to the speeches made in his honour, Obasanjo added that some people were playing with the destiny of Nigeria for selfish interest.

He said,”No group or section of the country has the right to appropriate Nigeria; every group has a stake in running this country.

”People will say I‘m always talking. At this age, what else will I do if I cannot say the truth? Whatever needs to be done or said must be said and done in order to move the country forward.

”I cannot say I want to go to the Senate otherwise, people like David Mark will be afraid. Iyabo (his Senator daughter) is here. If I die now, she will call everybody to eat and kill cow. So, why should I be afraid to say what I have to say at this time? So, no one group or section, whether ministers or section have the right to appropriate Nigeria. We must say what we have to say in order to move the nation forward.‘‘

Obasanjo was apparently referring to the succession crisis that is raging since February 9 when the National Assembly in two separate resolutions made the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Acting President of the nation because of the prolonged illness of Yar‘Adua.

Before he spoke, the president of the Senate, David Mark, had charged Jonathan to take the driver‘s seat and move forward effectively, saying that the Acting President had no excuse not to begin to move the ship of governance forward.

Mark, who was the guest of honour at the birthday anniversary, book presentation and annual lecture, said the nation was passing through a critical phase and as such, the politicisation of sensitive national issues was unnecessary.

Deviating from his prepared address, the senate president, who described Obasanjo‘s passion and patriotism as unparalleled in the country, said the upper legislative house would not be swayed by politics, but would be committed to doing what the Constitution of the country dictated in charting a great path for the country.

Mark said, ”We now have an Acting President, who has been empowered by the country to function as the head of government. The issue is now resolved. So, the Acting President now has no excuses not to perform, but begin to move forward.”

He nevertheless believed that the prevailing political situation was a harbinger of goodness for the country.

”We are going through a critical season in our history as a nation. We are at the threshold of an emerging era. The unfolding events are for our good and they provide good lessons that will make us stronger. They will provide the catalyst for us to re-organise ourselves for the challenges that will crystallise us into a virile nation.

”At the moment, we have an Acting President and he can move the nation forward; he needs our support. We should, therefore, not dissipate too much energy talking about Mr. President‘s health,” Mark added.

Mark, who said that Obasanjo had usually plunged into trouble because of his love for the country, noted that he sometimes”says the truth at the wrong time.”

He added, ”More than anything else, his roadmap for the country is anchored on the pillars of integrity, truth and service. Sometimes, it is the truth said at the wrong time. However, he believes the truth must be the truth and must be said not minding whose ox is gored.”

The Senate president, who said the National Assembly, especially the upper house would not shy away from the responsibility of providing legislation on what concerned Nigerians, especially the man on the streets, added that the NASS was about deliberating on the Electoral Reform Bill.

David Gbong wrote in from Abuja


http://www.elombah.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3074:senate-paid-david-mark-n30-million-to-attend-objs-birthday&catid=25:politics&Itemid=92

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code: 180988 Date: 2010/03/10 source: Allafrica print

Nigeria: Don't Tag All Muslims As Terrorists - Sultan

Lagos — The Sultan of Sokoto and President, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Alhaji Saad Abubakar has said it is not right to generalise the entire Muslims as terrorists whenever an individual among them does something wrong.



Sultan Abubakar, who spoke in Lagos at a fund raiser for the Najah Joint Muslim Organizations (NAJOMO) mosque at the weekend, said rather than accuse all Muslims of terrorism, the acts of the United States and its agents should as well be examined.


He alleged that violent acts being perpetrated all over the world were being carried out by non-Muslims, including American citizens and agents of the American government. According to him, many Christians and Jews perpetrate terror acts on a daily basis but they are not tagged terrorists by the US and the media.

"Our dear brother, the Baba Addini of Egba Land (Adegbite) was correct when he said Muslims are not terrorists and that Islam is a religion of peace. Let me add here that some people somewhere are known for their lies against Islam and Muslims. Violent acts are perpetrated all over the world by adherents of different faiths and not only Muslims commit them.

Let me say here that it is unfair to Muslims and Islam for the US government to rush, as it used to do, to tag Muslims as terrorists whenever they commit any violent act. It is sad that if an adherent of any other religion commit any terror act the US and the media would not call such a person a terrorist, the US and the media must change this.

"I make bold to say that if we should put all violent acts being perpetrated all over the world by Americans and the ones Muslims commit on a scale, we would surely see that those being committed by the US citizens outweigh those they claim Muslims committed. But as Muslims we should try to change this negative attitude they have towards us. We can change this by showing them the beauty of our religion", he said.


http://www.abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=180988

My role in Nigeria-Biafra war —Gowon
09 March, 2010 03:55:00 RAYMOND GUKAS, Jos
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Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd), Former military Head of State

Former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) has explained why he had to use military force to bring the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to an end.

He spoke yesterday in Jos the Plateau State capital while addressing the inaugural meeting of the peace building conference, put in place by the Institute of Governance and Peace.

He said: "Those who know me know that I have always been on the side of peaceful resolution of all conflicts. If you will recall as Head of State, I did all that was possible to secure a peaceful resolution of the Nigeria crises in the 2nd half of 1960. Unfortunately because of circumstances beyond my control, I had to use force to preserve the unity of our nation.

"I hereby declare my support for all peaceful means of resolving conflicts at all levels in the federation. I also support all peaceful means targeted at achieving peace in Jos and else where in the federation."

He added that he was delighted to be the chairman of the peace building conference and to be among eminent Nigerians assembled to find ways to arrest the cycle of violence in Jos Niger-Delta and Nigeria as a whole.

The conference which came a day after about 500 people lost their lives in an attack on Dogo Nahawa village by suspected Fulani herdsmen was attended by two other former President of Nigeria including Shehu Shagari and Chief Ernest Shonekan.

It was organised by the chief executive, Institute for Good Governance and Social Research (IGSR) Prof. Isawa Elaigu in collaboration with the United States Department for International Development (DFID) and supported by the Plateau State government.

Gowon said: "We are here basically to discuss the imperative of peace in Jos, the importance of peace in Nigeria as a whole, Jos and other trouble spots in Nigeria, the Niger Delta and eastern parts of Nigeria.

"The question is how did we get to where we are. There is too much insecurity of lives and properties in this country. We need to stop, analyze where we have come from, asses our strategies of moving forward and summon the political will to deal with it and forge ahead."

He said Plateau State is a microcosm of Nigeria and Jos has always been a metropolitan city with amiable weather and serene environment to calm ones nerve. This is why people of all ethnic, racial, religious and other divides have been leaving there in peace.

He pointed out that violence has now become a preferred technique of solving conflicts of inter-personal and inter-group relations.

"The serenity of Jos has evaporated while the cosmopolitan qualities stand threatened."

Shagari in his remarks said present leaders of this nation have failed to maintain the unity of the country fought for by past leaders.

Others who attended the conference include Senate President, David Mark, Chief Solomon Lar, Deputy Governor of Nassarawa, Bauchi State, representative of Sultan of Sokoto and Hon. Bistrus Kaze who represent the speaker of House of Representatives, Demaji Bankole and host of others.



http://www.champion.com.ng/index.php?news=28951

Yar’Adua
It’s not over
•Pro-constitution lawmakers, lawyers, groups say no to indefinite Ag. Presidency
•Why Yar’Adua was spared
From NOSIKE OGBUENYI, Abuja
Friday, March 05, 2010


Goodluck
Photo: AFP
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There were indications yesterday that the last has not been heard about ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Acting President Goodluck Jonathan as a group of pro-constitution lawmakers and civil society groups, including the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) are said to be spoiling for a showdown to ensure that section 144 of the 1999 Constitution dealing with incapacitation of the president or vice president is fully explored.

Also members of the National Interest Group (NIG) in the Senate and the House of Representatives and the SNG met separately Wednesday night and resolved to ensure that nobody or group sweeps the Constitution and national interest under the carpet to protect President Yar’Adua or sectional interest.

Sources gave these hints to Daily Sun yesterday just as more clues emerged as to why the move to declare President Yar’Adua incapacitated in line with the provision of section 144 was foiled by the Governors’ Forum and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the last minute. The sources hinted that they intervened to halt growing negative and divisive sentiments being spread in a section of the country against the other section. It was also gathered that the move was aimed at stopping incitement of the military by the disgruntled politicians to move against the democratic order.

A source also said some politicians had gone to the extent of collecting signatures from Senators and members of House of Representatives especially those from a particular section of the country against the impeachment of President Yar’Adua. According to the source, the rate at which the forces whipping up sentiments in the north were going was very worrisome to the governors and the PDP leadership, thereby compelling them to make the moves they made on the eve of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

Meanwhile, various civil society groups including the SNG leaders and leaders of some opposition are now converging in Abuja for more meetings to fine-tune strategy on how to address what they perceived as the latest assault on the Constitution and national interest. “This travesty of democracy and coup against the Constitution of the Federal Republic cannot stand. We cannot have two Presidents and Commanders-in-Chief in the country at the same time. It is either Yar’Adua shows up as a healthy man or else be declared unfit and removed totally from office in line with the provisions of section 144. There is no middle way about it,” a Senator, who is a member of the NIG, told Daily Sun on the condition of anonymity last night.

An SNG leader, Alhaji Buba Galadima, yesterday accused the governors and the PDP of promoting illegality and unconstitutionalism. He promised intense action to protect the Constitution and national interest.
It should be recalled that prior to the intervention of the governors and the PDP, there had been so much tension and anxiety in the land ahead of Wednesday’s FEC meeting. It was speculated that the meeting might initiate a process under Section 144 of the Constitution to oust Yar’Adua who had been out of office due to ill-health since November 23, 2009. However, the move to invoke the section was aborted by the state governors.

Speaking through their chairman and Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, they declared that the status quo in the Presidency must be maintained. Also on Tuesday, the PDP said it would retain its power rotation arrangement in next year’s general elections and produce its presidential candidate from the North. The party’s National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, made the statement. He spoke after a meeting between the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), and the governors at the Kwara Lodge

http://www.nigeriannews.com/

EMPOWERED accordingly by a federal high court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has seized over N50 billion, 18 companies and 15 houses from the sacked Group Managing Director of Bank PHB, Mr. Francis Atuche.
Atuche was sacked along with heads of other nine banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the wake of the discovery of alleged fraud in the banking sector running into one trillion naira.

Seventeen bank accounts belonging to him were also frozen.

In one of the accounts domiciled with the bank, N25.95 billion cash was said to have been found.

The commission will also this morning commence the sealing off of all the houses traced to him.

Commission’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed the commencement of the exercise.

The commission had attached all the property traced to Atuche, who is standing trial for his alleged role in crippling the bank, to the Notice of Attachment placed before the trial judge, Justice A.O Ajakaye, who issued the order of temporary forfeiture on March 1, 2010.

Apart from the cash found in his bank account, Atuche also reportedly invested N1.5 billion in Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, N305,889,418 million in Arik Ltd and 500 million units of shares in Afribank Plc.

The houses traced to him are in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Surulere, VGC Lekki, Ibusa, Delta State, Asokoro, Abuja, with a sole property at 59, Avenue Close, Avenue Road, St. John’s Wood, London.

Some of the companies listed as alleged fronts in siphoning depositors’ funds included, Guesstrade Services; Sentron Trading; Montra and Investico; Claremount Asset Management Limited; Arabian Probity Management; Clareville Trading and Service Limited; Commerical Trading and Services Limited; Afco Associates Limited; Trenton Trade Limited and Consolidated Business Support Limited.

He was also said to have used 15 fronts, including his wife, children and relatives.

The names listed in the court order included Elizabeth Atuche; Grace Atuche; Victor Udeh; Michael Atuche; Anthony Grace; Joseph Atuche; Nkeolisakwu Atuche; Mrs. Mariam Okonmah; Patrick Atuche and Kemi Ojelabi.

Some of the frozen accounts are SA-400221000004, 2190001272, 1160000011, PNA 0010184100002 and CA 001040100000, all domiciled in Bank PHB as well as A/C Nos; 10100061705 and CA 001020102315 belonging to Elizabeth Atuche.
Some of the houses are 2b Falomo Close, Ikoyi; 21 Kingsway Road, Ikoyi (hotel known as Clonades), 41B Anifowoshe Street, V.I, 11 Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi, 2000M 2 Plots of land at Ibusa, Delta State, 46 Mamman Nasir Street, off T.Y Danjuma, Asokoro, Abuja, among others.

http://www.nigeriannews.com/

Theophilus Danjuma, former Minister of Defence. Photo: NAN


Be aggressive, Danjuma tells Jonathan


NEXT


March 4, 2010 04:21PM
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The chairman of the presidential Advisory Committee Theophilus Danjuma (RTD), GCON, has advised the Acting President Goodluck Jonathan to act fast and aggressively effect the needed transformation in the country.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the 25-man committee which was held at the council chambers of the presidential villa, today, he urged Mr. Jonathan to make the fight against corruption pro-active rather than reactive.

“This is a decisive moment in our history,” he said. “At such moments God always ensures that a nation possesses significant personalities who are to act as his agents for change. You, Mr. Acting President, are the significant personality that God has chosen at this time to take your place at the front in the struggle to save our country. Because the times are extra-ordinary, the measures that need to be taken are not only urgent but also extra-ordinary.”

He added that “unless you take those measures quickly the goodwill which you now enjoy may be lost.”


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5535872-146/be_aggressive_danjuma_tells_jonathan_.csp

Jonathan bars ministers from making public comments
By Chiawo Nwankwo, Abuja, Published: Thursday, 4 Mar 2010





Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan


All the 42 ministers in the Federal Executive Council have been barred from making public statements, our correspondent has learnt.

Also, regional or group meetings of ministers, which flourished since cracks appeared in the cabinet, have been outlawed.

The order was handed out at the FEC meeting by Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday.

However, Jonathan told the ministers that if it became imperative for any of them to make a public statement, then his approval must be secured, a source in the Presidency told our correspondent.

The directive came against the background of concern expressed by governors on Tuesday in Abuja over public utterances of the Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, in which she criticised the cloud of secrecy in the Presidency concerning President Umaru Yar’Adua’s health.

Akunyili had in an interview granted many newspapers on Sunday claimed that a cabal existed in the corridors power.

According to her, the cabal’s hold on government must be broken if the secrecy around the President’s health should become a thing of the past.

Also, Jonathan frowned on regional or group meetings of ministers, which seemed to have characterised Yar’Adua’s 93-day medical sojourn in Saudi Arabia .

According to Presidency sources, the ministers tended to confer along the North and South divide.

The most noticeable members of the ministerial cliques were the Minister of Special Duties, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa; Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba-Ruma; and Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu.

Before Jonathan entered the Council chambers for the FEC meeting, a Presidency source said the ministers were jittery, following an earlier information that he would dissolve the cabinet.

But the Acting President had a last-minute change of mind on the dissolution.

He reportedly told the ministers that he had suspended the idea and enjoined them to face their jobs squarely and avoid divisive tendencies.

“At the FEC meeting, the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, ordered ministers to stop making public statements.

“He also warned against regional or group meetings of ministers, which was the rule rather than the exception during President Umaru Yar’Adua’s absence.

“Henceforth, ministers wishing to make any public statement must get clearance from the Acting President.

“The order was given because of comments of some ministers that were thought to be heating up the polity. Again, he told the ministers that cabinet dissolution had been put on hold.

“He seems to have gauged the political temperature and realised that such a measure now would have fractious consequences on the Presidency.”

Despite Jonathan’s assurance to the ministers, a cabinet source said the feeling that their days were numbered pervaded the Council chambers.

Besides Akunyili’s memo to FEC on the need for Yar’Adua to comply with Section 145 of the constitution, which attracted an unusual focus on the FEC, Aondoakaa’s unguarded attacks on her dragged the cabinet in the mud.

Aondoakaa has since apologised to Akunyil
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100304228920

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Living in bondage

By Chinedu Ozordi


February 27, 2010 09:41PM
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After an uninterrupted 11-year stay in Spain, Teniayo Martins visited Nigeria, and gamely offered to stay with her elder sister, Bisola, in the two rooms that she lives in the slums of Ijesha, a suburb of Lagos.

“Even before I came back, I knew it wouldn’t be easy staying in such a place, but I wanted to spend time with my only sister and not go and waste money in some hotel,” she said. “I wanted to show her that my love for her is greater than whatever discomfort I might face in living there.”

But Ms. Martins bravely endured the living conditions of tenants of the building for two days, woke up to find rashes all over her body on the third day, and then fled to a nearby hotel.

The house is one of the slums that dot the metropolis resulting from the massively growing population of the city and its attendant effect on the rent rates.

The buildings in these slums are usually constructed in such a manner that as many single rooms as possible are crammed into a building, often with a single toilet and bathroom. Some of these buildings have no kitchens, and tenants cook inside their living rooms in some cases.

“The living conditions in these ‘face me-I face you’ arrangements are quite awful,” said Elizabeth Kadiri, an estate agent. “But the fact is that they are very important for the low-income earners. For one to be able to afford living in at least a three-bedroom flat, that person definitely needs to earn a decent wage in this city.”

Tenants of such living quarters have had to devise ingenious means of adjusting to the harsh conditions of living in these public ‘compounds’.

The communal life

For one, residents living in such close quarters are forced to adopt a communal life; often with undesirable consequences.

“My room is the first room as soon as you enter the compound, and as long as my door is not locked, everybody wants to greet me on his way out or in,” said Amechi Emecheta who lives with thirty-seven other tenants in a twenty-six room bungalow in Ojo. “Sometimes I will be asleep, and because my door is always open because of the heat, people will just disturb because they simply want to greet you. It always gets on my nerves.”

For 15-year-old Henrietta Odewale (not real name), the communal spirit which resulted in undergoing errands for every older resident of the 24-room one-storey building in Ijesha, Surulere, resulted in her being allegedly raped serially by a middle-aged co-tenant who frequently lured her into his room by sending her on errands.

“The worst thing is that the idiot is a (member of) Chosen (Charismatic Church), and was always preaching to neighbours,” said Henrietta’s mother, when contacted by NEXT. “I never suspected anything initially. It was after my daughter started walking somehow that we suspected and asked her.”

The chairman of the tenants’ association, Anthony Okoye, invited the police to take over the case; but was surprised at the consequence of his actions.

“To my utmost surprise, they came and started insulting me for taking the man to the police,” he said. “They said I was too rash. What else should I have done when the man confessed to rape? They eventually settled the case when he agreed to pay N60,000 to the girl’s mother.”

The hazards

Fumes from generators, inadequate ventilation arrangements, overcrowded rooms, and filthy toilet facilities are some of the dangers that tenants of such houses face.

“Me and my wife sleep on the floor, and our three children sleep on the bed,” said Chinedu Oguejiofor, a refrigerator seller who resides in a one-room apartment with his family at Odo-eran, Ijesha; shrugging like this was only a fact of life.

Paul Udemba and his family have a slightly better living arrangement; they live in two adjoining rooms in an eighteen-room public building at Mushin. However, there is a catch: the toilet facilities are so dirty that Mr. Udemba and his wife have not used the toilet in their home since 2005. Their two children, ages four and three, use plastic buckets behind the residence.

“I make sure I leave the house as early as 6am, and usually use the toilet near my office (at Lawanson, Surulere where he trades in fairly used microwave ovens),” he said. “My wife also leaves early, and uses the toilet at her own office. The toilet is not conducive for a reasonable man to use in discharging his duties.”

Yearning for better digs

If there is one thing that tenants who live in such conditions share, it is a desire for escape. Unfortunately, many have struggled with raising the required amount to meet the stiff rent charges associated with the metropolis for years.

The average rate for a three-bedroom flat in the city is N300, 000 per annum; and most property owners demand for two or more years’ rent in advance before letting out their property.

However, for low-income earners like Sheriff Ade, a generator repairman, leaving is not an easy option. “I used to live with my uncle and his wife in a single room (apartment) for three years, but now I live in my own room,” said Mr. Ade, a generator repairman. “By God’s grace, I will move into two rooms before I marry.”

Still, there are those, like Ms. Martins’ sister, who have turned their quarters into such comfort zones that they are loathe to move into better accommodations. “I tried to get her to move into a flat but she asked me what she will be doing in a flat,” she said. “I don’t understand how people can be suffering like this and happy.”


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/5531664-146/living_in_bondage___.csp

I regret being part of Obasanjo's regime—Yuguda
28 February, 2010 04:41:00 Selya Yarnap, Bauchi
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Our years after he was dropped as a Minister under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda weekend in Misau declared his regrets serving in the administration.

Yuguda also took a swipe on the eight-year administration of the immediate past governor of the state, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu declaring also that he regretted associating with the administration because the administration has nothing to show to the people.

Isa Yuguda who served as a two-term Minister under the Obasanjo administration, said, "I must say that I am associated with the past administration and I am also part of it but I am guilty of what happened in the administration for allowing our institutions, our hospitals, in fact all our facets of development were left to collapse."

The governor, who spoke at the commissioning of the multi-billion naira AD Rufai College of Legal and Islamic Studies further said, "I am guilty because I served in the administration as a Minister for five years under a PDP government and all of us then appointed or elected officials that served that administration either at the National Assembly or State Assembly or working in the government and were watching what was going on then stand guilty."

He added that, ‘we are guilty because we stood and watched a government to manage our state to failure and we did not have the courage to come out and challenge that government after all we voted the government into office. So, like I have said, I am guilty and all of us that served under that government were guilty".

He however took solace in destiny saying, "but we always know, when Allah destines something to happen, it must happen. It was destined that we pass through a government that will bring down the quality of education, the quality of health care delivery services, security situation in the state and several other things that I don’t have to mention here particularly youth unemployment and several others."

Yuguda then said that, what his administration has been doing since it came on board three years ago was to reshape the scheme of things and work for the good of the people of the state adding that gradually things are now taking shape for the better in all the erstwhile dilapidated sectors particularly health and education.

The governor then called on both administrators and students of state-owned tertiary institutions to return back to the culture of maintenance which he said will enable them enjoy for a very long time all facilities provided by government. "I only hope that during the coming raining season, when pass by here, I will not see teachers and students planting maize and other farm produce within this beautifully looking environment", he added.

He however gave them the permission to plant groundnuts and or beans, "so that the College environment would not be distorted and would not serve as a habitation or breeding place for mosquitoes, which will in turn, breed diseases on the students living on campus."

It would be recalled that Isa Yuguda during the first tenure of the Olusegun Obasanjo led PDP administration served as Minister of State for Transport from where he was reappointed the substantive Minister of Aviation before he was dropped then contested and won the gubernatorial seat under the then opposition ANPP when he lost the PDP ticket. He has since defected to the PDP shortly after he married one of the daughter of the First family.



http://www.champion.com.ng/index.php?news=28645

Off to see the king

By Elizabeth Archibong


February 23, 2010 02:44AM
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The six-man team of ministers that was last week raised by the Council of Ministers to visit Saudi Arabia is travelling to the country, but not to see the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua. Their mission is rather to thank the Saudi king for his generosity towards their employer.

Foreign affairs minister Ojo Maduekwe confirmed to State House correspondents on Monday that the ministers’ mission was not to ascertain the state of the president’s health.

Mr. Yar’Adua left the country on November 23 last year for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for an ailment his personal physician, Salisu Banye, described as pericarditis. He has not been seen in public since and has not received any visitor from Nigeria except his wife, Turai.

The ministers’ trip was rescheduled from Monday morning to evening due to what Mr. Maduekwe called a “normal issues of process.” The Foreign affairs minister also said the Federal Executive Council delayed its decision on Mr. Yar’Adua because it “did not know the president’s trip would last that long.”

‘We come with thanks’

On the purpose of this visit, he emphasised that his team will only be thanking the Saudi king for taking care of Mr. Yar’Adua.

“We will be expressing our deep appreciation to the King of Saudi Arabia for the excellent and generous attention the government and people of Saudi have given to our president, who unfortunately has been away for almost three months now for medical treatment, and it’s enough reason for a strong team from the government to go,” he said. “We didn’t know that this thing would last two weeks, and it’s close to the third month. We couldn’t have done it much earlier because we thought it was just for a few weeks, but it’s entering the third month. So we felt there is need to be on record. We don’t want it to be on record that when our president comes back, that for the three months he was there we didn’t go to Riyadh to thank the king. It is better to go physically to do the thanking. We can write a letter to thank him, but this is the king of Saudi Arabia and nothing less than what we are doing is adequate, that’s all.”

Mr. Maduekwe explained that the team could not travel earlier because of the arrangements it had to make.

“We are leaving in the next few hours,” he said late last night. “You don’t fly into other people’s countries without getting all the facility clearance. There are things to be sorted out. Remember the request was made close to weekend, and the offices opened on Sunday. Your request to come into a country is received, is processed and we have a very good relations with the Kingdom and there is no problem and our desire to be there is accepted.”

He said the team received its travel papers close to midnight on Sunday. “So, we couldn’t continue because we have to get the people on the delegation to know. You don’t just tell them five minutes to the time that you have got to leave. So there is no problem and the Saudi have responded to our request very promptly, with a lot of speed,” he said.

What’s going on?

The decision to send a delegation to Saudi Arabia for an update on Mr. Yar’Adua’s health in the first place had generated mixed feelings, considering that previous efforts failed.

Mr. Maduekwe, however, said the ministers’ trip would not suffer the same fate. “We are not going as private citizens; we are going there as government officials and on the basis of reciprocity, like if the Saudis come to Nigeria they will be properly received at the airport. So, when we go, we will be properly received at the airport,” he said.

He added that more details will be released when the team returns from the trip.

He however made it clear that Nigerians should not expect that the team will be coming back with report on the president’s health status. “We are not a medical team. We are not a medical panel,” Mr. Maduekwe said; adding that the presence of the minister of health does not make the team a fact finding one.

He said: “The fact that he is the minister of health does not make him a member of a medical panel. An engineer can be minister of health; even a lawyer like me can be minister of health. The only position in the executive council, which by constitutional provision requires a particular profession to head that ministry, is that of the office of attorney general; it must be a lawyer. The fact that the minister of health is on this team does not automatically mean that he is going there as a medical doctor.

“The purpose of this visit is exactly what I have told you: to express appreciation to the King of Saudi Arabia and also express our solidarity with the first family and register our prayers and the best wishes for the rapid recovery of the president and of course give assurances that under the dynamic leadership of the acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, governance is going on. The Executive Council remains focused, united and that every issue whether it is infrastructure, health care or education or even diplomacy has been proceeding normally.”

He also said the trip will not last a week. “We leave tonight and we are not going to be there all week. As soon as we carry out the purpose of our going there, we start coming back,” he said.

Has someone seen the president?

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdulla Aminchi, said in an interview in Jeddah on Monday that he has seen the president, adding that the previous failure to see Mr. Yar’Adua had been based on the decision of the medical team attending to him.

Mr. Aminchi said he visited Mr. Yar’Adua last Saturday and that the condition of the president, who has not been seen in public for three months, was improving after treatment for a heart ailment.

“I saw him the day before yesterday , He’s really feeling better now,” Mr. Aminchi said.

In the last few weeks, several delegations to see the president have been turned back. A delegation from the House of Representatives was not allowed to see Mr. Yar’Adua, while another led by the chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, Vincent Ogbulafor, was also not allowed to see him.

The refusals were said to be at the behest of the Saudi authorities who have allegedly taken over the security of the president.

However, a source told NEXT last night that the ministers’ itinerary had to be changed because the Saudi King at the weekend sent a letter to the federal government informing it that Mr. Yar’Adua was not in a state to receive any visitors.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Politics/5530492-146/off_to_see_the_king_.csp

10,000 prostitutes overwhelm Nigerian Embassy in Italy Monday, 22 February 2010 00:00 Nigerian Compass
OVERWHELMED by the challenge in stamping out the illicit sex trade involving more than 10,000 Nigerian girls in Italy, the Nigerian Embassy in Rome said its major headache was how to convince the prostitutes to look for an alternative business.


The embassy claimed that the regular enlightenment programmes it was holding with the ‘bad ambassadors’ had not yielded positive results over the years as more girls continued to embrace the trade.

Sex hawking as a trade had always been a booming business in Italy and more than 90 per cent of Nigerian girls in the trade were from Edo State and its environs.

Investigations showed that the driving force for the prostitutes was the fear of the future and the responsibilities of those involved in it to their families in Nigeria.

A senior official at the Consular Section of the embassy, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that campaigns by the embassy and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) against the trade had yielded little or no results.

The official said: “After some serious discussions with embassy staff, one question we have not been able to answer that the girls often ask is about what else they can do, since there are no jobs here and the situation is worse at home.

“They make us to understand that going home for them was worse and because of their poor level of education and the responsibility on their shoulders, we have not been able to talk them out of the illicit trade.’’

The official also confirmed that there was a strong racket between the Italian embassy in Nigeria and the people behind the illicit trade.

According to the official, most of the girls have documents to stay and “we begin to wonder how they got those papers from government officials in Italy.

He said: ‘’The girls are not into serious crime, but they continue to embarrass us by the way they cheapen themselves and bring bad image to the country.

‘’It is not that the Italian community cares about what they do, because they need the services of these free girls, but the way they debased them is a source of concern to us.

“The Italian men do not show them respect, they do not take them to hotels, they do it at any available place and pay and move on. It could be in the corner, car or bush even during day time.”

Mercy Uyi Antonio, a resident of Rome from Edo, said she saw nothing wrong with the business as the girls were just trying to survive.

Although she said she left Nigeria as a desperate person who did everything, including prostitution, to survive, she had left the trade and married an Italian.

Her words: ‘’I am happier now with a baby girl. I know what I passed through. There was no help from anywhere and home and back here I became a bread-winner for my siblings.

‘’What I think the young girls need is not condemnation but good policies that can encourage them to come home. We hear all kinds of stories from home that things are not working, there is so much suffering.

‘’So, it is better to suffer here by prostituting and help people at home. It is not an easy job but it is done with a lot of stress and fear of diseases. It is risky. I thank God I survived it.’’

Antonio said her husband was one of her customers before they got married and that they have been living happily together.

Also speaking, a Nigerian resident in Rome, Mr. George Ugwu, said the trade had remained the moral burden that Nigerians in Italy had to cope with.

Ugwu said: ‘’We are all hustling to make ends meet. The girls say they are using what they have to survive the harsh economic realities in the country. Even now the problem has increased as there are no jobs in Europe because of the economic meltdown.

‘’In fairness, the girls are not disturbing anybody. The Italian men say they like our women because they are sexy, friendly and affordable. Many of them have papers to stay and the sex trade is restricted to rural areas.”

According to him, the illicit sex was being driven by the fact that an average Italian was scared of marrying their women because of the high rate of divorce which favoured the women.

He said: ‘’Because they can get cheap sex from our people, they enjoy it and avoid their own women who are very serious when they are in a relationship and usually not for money but for real love.

‘’When you mess up, they sue for divorce and the law protects the women more.”

Another embassy worker said NGOs from Nigeria and other concerned groups “have been working with the Nigerian mission in Italy on ways to solve the problem but what will the girls do that will bring them huge money like the sex trade remain the question.

‘’Some came crying that they were tricked, we tried to intervene, but they had huge debts to pay and were unwilling to go back.

‘’There was a particularly case of two undergraduates who claimed they were tricked to come and work in a saloon and restaurant in Rome, only to find that it was the sex trade.

‘’The embassy intervened and offered them ticket to go back home but they refused.”

More than 30,000 of the 80,000 Nigerians residents in Italy have valid documents.

http://www.compassnews.net/Ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41761:10000-prostitutes-overwhelm-nigerian-embassy-in-italy&catid=672:top-stories&Itemid=794

Ex-EFCC Investigator Killed in Abuja
02.22.2010

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Suspected gunmen in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja yesterday shot and killed a former top investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Danjuma Mohammed, when they stormed his home.


Sources told THISDAY last night that the slain former EFCC officer was a Deputy Superintendent of Police who worked as an investigator with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and was a close associate of the exiled former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.


Details of the circumstances surrounding the dastardly act were sketchy as at press time.
Mohammed was said to have been sent back to the Police Force, along with several other investigators, including Ibrahim Magu, upon assumption of office of the current chair of EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri, three years ago.


When contacted on the incident, EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said he would not be able to comment on the incident since the deceased was no longer in the service of the anti-crime agency.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=166997

Nigerian police arrest Iraq war protesters
By Tom Burgis in Abuja

Published: February 21 2010 23:04 | Last updated: February 21 2010 23:04

Nigerian police on Sunday detained a leading human rights activist and other protesters in the capital Abuja during a visit by George W Bush, the former US president, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister.

Shehu Sani, president of the Civil Rights Congress and author of several books including studies of Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, was held along with dozens of other people demonstrating against the Iraq war.

Mr Blair, Mr Bush and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state in the Bush administration, are scheduled to attend an awards banquet later on Sunday with Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s acting president, to honour eminent figures from its 50 years of independence.

“We called a protest to register our objection to the legacy of war and violence that was left behind by Tony Blair and George Bush,” Mr Sani told the Financial Times from an Abuja police station. “The police came in and rounded us all up.”

Associated Press quoted a police officer saying Mr Sani had been detained outside the Hilton hotel where Mr Blair is staying because he was too close to the road down which the former British premier would travel.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stirred resentment among many Nigerian Muslims.

Mr Blair has worked as an envoy of world powers to the Middle East as well as commanding generous speaking fees since he stepped down in 2007. Last month he told a UK inquiry into the Iraq war that he had “no regrets” about toppling Saddam Hussein despite the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction that were used to justify the invasion.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ace27580-1ef8-11df-9584-00144feab49a.html?

this is becoming really interestint, ijele part 3, bunch of idiots, oooohhh ---- this is hopeless gaint of africa, sorry gaint of abuja not africa.

Yar’Adua: Saudi authorities deny ministers landing clearance
By Semiu Okanlawon, Published: Monday, 22 Feb 2010





President Yar’Adua.


Indications emerged on Sunday that members of the Federal Executive Council who were delegated to visit President Umaru Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia had been denied landing clearance by that country’s security.

Reliable sources told our correspondent on Sunday night that while members of the team were set for take-off at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, information came in that the Saudi Arabian aviation authorities had denied the presidential jet, which was to convey the visiting team, landing access at the Jeddah airport.

Although information was sketchy on the development as at 10pm, sources close to the team disclosed that the trip “had been postponed.”

A reliable source that is very close to the Presidency disclosed that each of the five ministers and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation was supposed to travel last night with two aides.

The source said, “Everybody was shocked when the information came from Saudi Arabia that the team had been denied landing clearance for the trip on Sunday night. They were supposed to leave at midnight on Sunday and everything was ready until the information was communicated to the ministers.

“Although no official reason was communicated, all I can tell you is that the refusal to grant landing clearance to the presidential jet may not be unconnected with the growing strained relationship between the Nigerian government and the Saudi authorities over the continued stay of President Yar’Adua in the Saudi hospital.”

The source added that because the President’s wife, Turai, had expressly requested for a “non-disclosure order form,” which forbids the King Faisal Specialist Hospital from either releasing information on the President’s health or allowing visitors, “the Saudi authorities are not comfortable with the fact that the people are beginning to think as if they are holding President Yar’Adua hostage. They are only following the instruction from the President’s wife.”

The FEC had on Wednesday February 17, raised the six-man team to visit the President with a view to ascertaining the state of his health.

The trip, which critics believed was devised as an escape route to avoid setting up a medical board to investigate the President’s health, had caused sharp division among members of the FEC.

While some FEC members believed the visit could reveal the true situation of the President’s health and consequently culminate in the invocation of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution, others were of the view that the FEC could declare Yar’Adua incapacitated, without going through the trouble.

Members of the team are the Minister of Health, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kayode Adetokunbo; Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sayyadi Abba-Ruma; and Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe.

Others are Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Rilwanu Lukman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed. Four of the ministers are known to be die-hard loyalists of the ailing President.

The make-up of the team had compelled many to conclude that they would return to the country without giving a true account of the President’s state of health.

The delegation by FEC was the fifth to Saudi Arabia.

Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Muhammed Abba-Aji, had, two weeks ago, claimed that Nigerian government officials and others interested in visiting Yar’Adua in Saudi Arabia could not do so because the Saudi Arabian royal family was in charge of his protocol and security arrangement.

He had stated that the Saudi royal family’s handling of the President’s protocol and security arrangement was because of the fact that the section of King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, where Yar’Adua is on admission, is the same reserved section where the King of Saudi Arabia stays whenever he is receiving medical attention.

Consequently, Abba-Aji said any information from the President was passed through Yar’Adua’s Chief Security Officer, Mr. Yusuf Tilde, and his Aide- de- Camp, Col. Mustapha Onoyiveta.

Abba-Aji had stated, “So, the security and protocol arrangements are controlled from the King’s Palace in Riyadh; so it is not like a general hospital that you can walk in or walk out of.

“Because of this, we are communicating regularly through the ADC and the CSO and he is aware of everything that is happening in the National Assembly.”

On November 29, 2009, Governors Bukola Saraki (Kwara); Gabriel Suswan (Benue); Alhaji Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Alhaji Isa Yuguda (Bauchi) and the Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Taminu Yakubu, had travelled to Jeddah without seeing the President.

Also, on December 26, 2009, the President’s Principal Secretary, Mr. David Edevbie, was reported to have taken the supplementary budget to Yar’Adua for his signature.

Also, on February 9, a delegation of members of the House of Representatives comprising Mr. Baba Shehu Agaie, Alhaji Ali Ndume, Mr. Patrick Ikhariale, Alhaji Moruf Fatai and Alhaji Jibril Adamu had travelled to Saudi Arabia. They returned to Nigeria after spending four days without seeing the President.

The Peoples Democratic Party had also on February 11 sent some of its leaders, including its National Chairman, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor; Deputy National Chairman, North, Dr. Bello Mohammed; National Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, another official, Dr. Musa Babayo, Yuguda and Saraki.

They were all reported to have failed to see the President.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100222631184

Security agents uncover plot to poison Jonathan Sunday, 21 February 2010 00:00 Olusola Sanni
•Ex-gov, ministers vote N30b for project
A plot to kill the Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, through poisoning, has been uncovered by security agents.


The plot, which is allegedly being driven by forces opposed to the emergence of Vice-President Jonathan as the acting president, has a budget of N30 billion, the Nigerian Compass also gathered.
The plot was said to have been uncovered by security agents last week.

It was learnt that a report by security agents alleged that two serving ministers from the North and a former state governor in one of the Niger Delta states were behind the plot.

The arrowhead of the plot is said to be a minister from the North-East geo-political zone.
Sources told the Nigerian Compass that security agents are keeping a close watch on the movement of those allegedly behind the plot.

It was learnt that the idea was to poison Jonathan through those who are close to him.
Those behind the plots are also said to be considering using women to reach Jonathan.
It was gathered that this was one of the reasons the acting president banned solidarity visits to the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

A source said, “Their thinking is that they can apply the late General Sanni Abacha formula by using women to poison him.

“Unfortunately, this plot has been blown open and the acting president, also unfortunately for them, is a very quiet man who does not go after women.”

Many of the suspects to the plot, who are government officials, have been identified as people who are “unhappy with the emergence of the vice-president as acting president.”

Although a source who spoke with the Nigerian Compass under strict condition of anonymity gave the identities of those behind the plot, he, however, said, “Government is keeping the chase game to its chest until the suspects are caught in their act.”

The source also informed that the suspect would be charged for treason when arrested.
It was gathered that while a minister involved in the plot was disposed to the assassination of the acting president, another minister prefers the option of killing through food poisoning.

The source said those involved in the plot have started approaching close associates of Jonathan with monetary offers.

It was learnt that a prominent family from the South-East was approached by those behind the plot due to the closeness of some of its prominent members to Jonathan.

The source said that the plot was uncovered through one of such close associates of the acting president who was contacted for the plot but decided to spill the bean.

The source said, “Security agents are already trailing those suspected to be behind this plot.
“We have adequate information about their activities and we will bid our time before we make their arrest and charge them for treason.”

The Nigerian Compass also gathered that the development formed part of the reasons why Jonathan banned courtesy visits.

Another security source had earlier told the Nigerian Compass that the decision of the acting president to stop courtesy visits was because “some of the so-called visitors could be agents of security breach,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the Presidency is said to be considering a preemptive step in the likelihood of the government of Saudi Arabia preventing the Federal Government delegation from having access to the President, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had, last week, mandated six ministers to visit the President.
The six ministers have reportedly been granted visas.

Sources told the Nigerian Compass that the Federal Government has started oiling its diplomatic machinery in preparation for the challenge of the position of the government in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.compassnews.net/Ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41709:security-agents-uncover-plot-to-poison-jonathan&catid=672:top-stories&Itemid=794

YOU DARE NOT
Northern Reps threaten Jonathan over ministers
From JAMES OJO, Abuja.
Thurday, February 18, 2010


•Acting President Goodluck Jonathan
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Over 60 members of the Northern Caucus in the House of Representatives met Tuesday night at the Apo residence of former House Leader, Hon Abdul Ningi and resolved to withdraw support from Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, if he dissolves the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

However, the meeting pledged support for the leadership of the House and cautioned those looking for a platform to plot the sack of the leadership to look elsewhere. A source, who attended the meeting in Abuja disclosed that security reports made available to the caucus revealed that the Acting President had bowed to pressures to sack the cabinet and constitute a new one.

The same security reports, it was gathered, named some groups in the House that had been going around to recruit members to buy into the plot to destabilise the leadership.
Sundry allegations on disrespect to colleagues and favouritism were levelled against the Dimeji Bankole-led leadership.

But at the meeting, which lasted for about four hours and attended by House principal officers from the North, with the exception of the Deputy Speaker, Bayero Nafada, deliberated on the security reports and agreed that there was no need to sack the cabinet put together by President Yar’Adua who had been away from the country for 86 days.

“We can’t reverse what we’ve done. We look at all the issues holistically and we agreed that we made mistake, but it was intentionally done to defend our democracy. We all believed that we breached the Constitution, but if Goodluck Jonathan makes moves to dissolve the cabinet, we will surely move against him and it will start from the House, this is part of our resolution,” the source said.

According to the ranking member from the North West zone, more meetings of the caucus had been lined up to keep abreast of political developments and respond accordingly. He said a meeting will hold today in one the residences of the leaders, adding that of new members in the House even blamed the old ones for not calling such meetings earlier.

“Let me reveal to you that we are meeting again tomorrow [Thursday], we want to get ourselves ready, we have been caught unawares, but next time, we will not. We will meet to strategise. We will meet to protect the interest of our people.

“For anything coming, we will look at it critically, we will examine it, we will look at what is good for the North and if there is nothing to take back home to our people, you can be rest assured that we will oppose it. The North will not accept it and the whole North will rise against it,” the member vowed.

The caucus exonerated Bankole from all allegations raised against him by some groups within the House, whose members contacted some caucus to rattle the house leadership. “We will not be allowed to be used to destabilise the House. This caucus was briefed about some moves made to remove the Speaker. We will not be a party to such plot,” he stated.

At the meeting, contact groups were named to open discussion with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and All Nigeria Peoples party [ANPP] on how to strengthen the position of the North in the political terrain and defend the regional interest.

The kitchen cabinet of President Yar’Adua was blamed for mishandling the issue of the president’s health, which led to political logjam and the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President.



http://www.nigeriannews.com/

Man of the Year:
This award’ll set fire to my heels –Fashola
From JAMES OJO, Abuja.
Thurday, February 18, 2010


•Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola
Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section
The reward for hard work is more work, says Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State, who receives The Sun Man of the Year award at a colourful ceremony on Saturday.

At an interview session with senior editors of the newspaper publishing house on Tuesday in his office at Alausa, Lagos, Fashola had been asked how he sees the award, which he won alongside Guaranty Trust Bank Managing Director, Mr ’Tayo Aderinokun. He responded:

“All my life, I’ve been a very private person. This is a new ball game for me, I must be honest. But because of the office I hold, as a goldfish, you have no hiding place.

“But like I tell my colleagues, the responsibility we need to show our people is how we have made their lives better. Whenever something like this award happens, what we say is; ‘the reward for hard work is more work.’ So, it raises the bar of expectation on us, but we see that bar of expectation not as a burden, rather, it is a vote of confidence in our ability to do it.”

A battery of accomplished politicians, technocrats, bankers, captains of industry, governors, ministers, and other illustrious Nigerians, will file out on Saturday to support Fashola and Aderinokun as they receive the award. Fashola had won for outstanding performance in the public sector, while the GTBank boss is being garlanded for leading a bank where integrity is the watchword, and where corporate governance is scrupulously adhered to.

Governor Fashola equally reacted to the recent report of the Economist Intelligence Unit, which rated Lagos as the 5th worst city to live in the world. His words: “We’ve stopped seeing problems in this government, we’re looking for solutions. Every criticism that we get invites us to a realisation that there’s an urgent need to do more.

We don’t expect that the decadence, the deficit of infrastructure for about three decades can be turned around in just two years, or even eight years. But what is important is that there has been some stability, an effort which started since 1999. After we have gone, the problems will still remain. The intensity and the scope will be what will differ. The world over, there are health issues.

Even in the most prosperous economy, there are education issues, security issues, even of more complex nature than we have to deal with. These problems, as long as the human race remains, will task the minds, the skills, the intellect of leaders across the world. It’s a problem of humanity. But the upside to the report is that 140 cities were ranked across the world. In Nigeria, Lagos was the only city mentioned. So we see that as an upside.”

On the Lagos of his dream, Fashola declared:
“I wish to leave behind a Lagos that will be able to actualise its huge potentials, a safe home for all those who choose to make it home, a city-state that will retain its pre-eminent position in the country, in the sub-region, in the continent, and even globally. A city that will also be able to provide for all those who served her, when we’re no longer able to fend for ourselves.”

Keynote speaker at the Man of the Year award is former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, while the event will be chaired by former Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Alhaji Maitama Sule.

Billed for the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel & Suites by 5.00pm, the ceremony will be graced, among others, by three governors, who were past award winners. They are Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, who won in 2008, and Governors Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi of Anambra and Rivers states, respectively, who were joint winners in 2007.

Watch out for full text of the Fashola interview on Saturday

http://www.nigeriannews.com/