₦airaland Forum

The five-member Anambra State Ward Congress panel of the Peoples Democratic Party, led by Jibrin Ahmed, was, on Sunday, held hostage by the party’s aspirants and stakeholders over its inability to present the original results sheets.

The scenario almost resulted into a free-for-all at the party’s Secretariat at Udoka Estate, when the panel members claimed they left the original results sheets at their hotel room.

The panel members had directed the aspirants, who were contesting the National Assembly elections, and others to converge on the party’s office for briefing before the ward congress, but trouble started when they presented the photocopies of the results sheets.

The development did not go down well with the stakeholders, who insisted that they must bring the original results sheets, adding that this had been the style of the party.

They accused the panel members of trying to run away to Abuja to rewrite and input the names of people of their choice.

But the Chairman of the Congress Committee, Jibrin Ahmed, cited security reasons as the reason they did not come with the original results sheets, which was aggressively resisted by the stakeholders.

The governorship candidate of the PDP during the November 6 election, Mr Valentine Ozigbo, appealed to members for calm, offering his personal security and vehicles to take the chairman to his hotel room to bring the original results sheets.

However, Ahmed declined the offer, insisting that he must go alone.

The panel team and the party stakeholders, including: Tony Nwoye, Lylda Ikpeazu, Noble Igwe, Ndubuisi Nwobu, Romanus Obi, and other stakeholders, were at the party’s secretariat in Udoka Housing Estate, Awka.

Meanwhile, the party thereafter, announced the suspension of the state congress.

The suspension was due to the panel member’s inability to provide the original copies of the results sheets for the the exercise.

The exercise was earlier scheduled to be held on Saturday.

The panel chairman, Jubril Ahmad, who read the letter of the suspension/apology before the aggrieved members, said a new date for the congress would be communicated as soon as it was decided by the national leadership.

Ahmad added that the suspension was also as a result of the insecurity in the state.

He assured the supporters that the panel under his watch stood for transparency and accountability process.

“The PDP regrets the inconveniences the announced suspension of the Anambra State PDP Congress may have caused,” he said.

WhatDoYouMean:
Many things has been said about colonialism in Africa, but there are some evils and crimes committed against indigenous people of Africa, by the European imperialists that has never been told.

While these atrocities in Africa don’t get regular mentions in international sphere, Robert Mugabe championed Land redistribution in Zimbabwe, has dominated international discuss.


In this series AfricanQuarters, in keeping with our objective, we will be unravelling some of these atrocities from the South of Africa to the North . 

Congo Genocide by Belgium King Leopold 1885 – 1908

After the Berlin Conference of 1884 the 905,000 square miles of the Belgian Congo [now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ] became the personal property of King Leopold II of Belgium.

His genocidal exploitation of the territory, particularly the rubber trade, caused many deaths and much suffering. Murder and mutilation were common.

Failure to meet the rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. The Force Publique were required to provide a hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions for hunting food.

As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off hands. Sometimes the hands were collected by the soldiers of the Force Publique, sometimes by the villages themselves. There were even small wars where villages attacked neighbouring villages to gather hands, since their rubber quotas were too unrealistic to fill

Under the control of Leopold II of Belgium numerous crimes against humanity were committed upon the indigenous Africans of Central Africa.  Estimated killed: 10,000,000 The Herero and Namaqua Genocide by Germany 1904 – 1907

The Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) occurred between 1904 and 1907. Eighty percent of the Herero population and 50 percent of the Nama population were killed in a brutal scorched earth campaign led by German General Lothar von Trotha. Between 24,000 and 100,000 Herero perished along with 10,000 Nama.

A copy of Trotha’s Extermination Order survives in the Botswana National Archives. The order states “every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot.

I will no longer accept women or children, I will drive them back to their people [to die in the desert] or let them be shot at.” Olusoga and Erichsen write: “It is an almost unique document: an explicit, written declaration of intent to commit genocide”.

These mass killings were named as the first example of a 20th-century genocide in the 1985 Whitaker Report, commissioned but never adopted by the now defunct United Nations subcommittee ECOSOC

https://www.Africanquarters.com/forgotten-european-attrocities-in-africa

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has travelled to Cotonou, Benin Republic to visit Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, known as Sunday Igboho.

The literary icon was seen at the Seme border around noon on Sunday, crossing to Cotonou, the capital city of Benin Republic.

He was mobbed by a crowd while waiting to complete immigration formalities and he was repeatedly asked where he was headed.

His response was that he was on a visit to Sunday Igboho to break the Muslim fast with him.

Reminded that neither he nor Ighoho was a Muslim, Soyinka asserted that it made no difference.

He said he had wished to see Igboho, so as to sympathise with his predicament.

“Ramadan is as good as any other season to express non-denominational solidarity,” added the Professor.

Igboho was arrested in Cotonou on July 20, 2021, while trying to flee to Germany as the Nigerian government had declared him wanted.

He was arrested with his wife, Ropo, who was later released. Igboho spent eight months in prison before he was released by the Benin Republic government, but he is not allowed to leave the country.

Igboho had been at the forefront of agitation for the Yoruba Nation in Nigeria until his house was invaded by the Department of State Services (DSS) in Ibadan. He managed to flee while some of his aides were killed and others arrested.

Mr Joe Anatune, a strong ally of Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, is dead.

Anatune, who managed the media campaign of Soludo in the buildup to the election, died 11 days after he was appointed MD/CEO of Anambra State Signage and Advertising Agency.

Anatune died on Saturday at age of 62.

In a statement, Mr Christian Aburime, his Chief Press Secretary, issued on his behalf on Sunday, Soludo expressed shock and disbelief over the incident.

“Joe Anatune was one of the foremost Apostles of the Soludo project with an uncommon strength and courage to deliver on any given assignment.

“He stated further that Joe’s personal sacrifices during his electioneering campaign were not only exceptional but highly commendable.

“He spearheaded the Soludo Promoters Forum (SPF) and for two years used the platform to engage the professionals into mainstream politics. The government and the good people of Anambra State will sorely miss Joe Anatune,” the statement read.

It said Soludo has since commiserated with Anatune’s wife, children, the Anatune family and Awa community over the sudden loss.