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The Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday that it finds no
reason to doubt the number of registered voters which it certified last
month, as criticisms continue to trail the figures few days to the
start of the election.

Opposition parties
have criticised the final number of registered voters released by the
commission last month. They have also expressed concerns over the
credibility of the polls.

But the electoral
body insists that the current total number of voters across the country
stands at 73,528,040 – which was the final figure it released last
month – beating earlier projections that put the figure tentatively at
67,664,384.

After discounting
for double registration, which the commission finally admitted stood at
870,612,some critics have said the total declared figure should have
dropped instead of increasing. Again, the commission has been derided
for two distinct cases concerning Niger State where, in spite of
recording the highest duplicates, experienced the widest leap between
the provisional figure and the final one – more than one million – and
Osun State, which has 14,762 cases of double registration and still has
the same provisional and final figure.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) denounced the figures, saying its analysis does not
conform to the details given by the electoral body.

“We are very
uncomfortable with those figures and until INEC comes up with rational
explanations about those figures, then there is cause for serious
concern,” Lai Mohammed, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN
told NEXT days after the figures were published. The party has
maintained its opposition to the data after.

Standing by its figures

INEC yesterday said
it stands by its earlier explanations concerning the figures and
insisted that the data were “credible” and do not foretell questionable
elections.

“I don’t know the
basis for their argument,” said Kayode Idowu, the spokesperson to the
chairman of the commission, Attahiru Jega. “The register has been
certified by INEC and we have explained severally the reason for the
differences. The register is credible. It provides a credible basis for
the elections.

“We have said that
at the time we provided the first figures, the figures were
inconclusive. We were working under pressure and our staff just sent
what they had at that time. The software was run at the state level and
not the federal level.”

New Director for Oyo INEC office

Meanwhile, the
national headquarters of the commission has deployed a director to take
over the data bank management of its Oyo State office.

The action followed
the arrest of Yinka Osuola, head of ICT in the Oyo State office, who
was caught for alleged possession of DDC machines in company of some
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members last weekend.

Ayodele Folami, Oyo
INEC’s head of public affairs, confirmed the deployment of the
director, but said he was not privy to the specific mandate he was
given from Abuja.

Meanwhile, the REC
of Oyo State, Ayo Adekeja was not seen within the premises as he was
said to have been summoned to Abuja for explanation on last week’s
recovery of the DDC machines.

NEXT also gathered that five other members of staff of the state INEC allegedly involved in the ‘deal’ had been apprehended.

The commission was
to hold a briefing with journalists on Tuesday, but the public affairs
officer had to call it off for undisclosed reasons.

ACN on Tuesday, called for complete overhaul of the staff strength
of the Oyo State INEC, while Rasheed Ladoja, former governor of the
state and governorship candidate of the Accord Party, added his voice
to the call for immediate redeployment of Mr Adekeja.

The Special Task
Force in Jos discovered extensive bomb making equipment in a house
located at the Millionaires Quarters, around the city centre,
yesterday.

Military officers
on a routine check stopped two men, Damtala Babawo and Peter Gotung,
who claimed to be commercial motorcyclists, and found bomb making items
in their polythene bags. Parading the suspects before journalists at
the task force headquarters, spokesperson of the force, Charles Ekeocha
said the hideout was discovered following the arrest of the two men.

“Our men arrested
two men at the Lamingo junction (Jos North area) with some items in a
black polythene bag. When they examined the content, they discovered
they were bomb manufacturing instruments,” Mr Ekeocha said. “The two
men were arrested, and when we interrogated them, they made statements
that led us to this house at Millionaires Quarters where we discovered
these items you are seeing.” Mr Ekeocha said the military had to go to
court to get a search warrant before it launched the search.

“It was a cordon
and search exercise and we discovered various equipment of bomb making
value there. The real suspect, one Frank Anyor, had escaped before we
got there. But we are holding one Terdo Anyor, his junior brother, whom
we found in the house,” he said.

Shocking discovery

The equipment
recovered, according to Mr Ekeocha include: A detonating cord, 33
electric detonators, a PH temperature monitoring metre, one briefcase
containing PH metre, a handy lab, one conical flask, and two titronic
machines. There were also an electrode, ERSA test tube, a briefcase of
tubes for bomb making, an instructional manual on bomb making, a
pamphlet on bomb making and a Hameg counter for timing.

Mr. Ekeocha also
mentioned the discovery of four axis oster telescopes, extension wires,
battery chargers, Imasol cleaning oil for telescope, measuring wheel
for lamp cord, a carton of dynamite, theodolite, one safety fuse, and
27 detonators.

He said the
suspects will be handed over to the police for further investigations
and announced that the task force have received more reinforcement,
especially security patrol vehicles, from the defence headquarters
yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, an
attack on Baten village in Wereng district of Riyom Local Government
Area Monday night left two women and two children dead. The assailants
escaped as the villagers mustered an immediate counter attack.

A lingering crisis

The build-up to the
Jos crises which have lingered on for years took a morbid twist in
March 2010 when unidentified herdsmen attacked a village; Dogo Nahawa
in the early hours of the day and killed hundreds of children and
women. Ever since, there have been series of similar killings across
Plateau State, with few suspects jailed.

The crisis seems to
have both ethnic and religious dimensions with ethnic issues paramount
as ethnic groups: the Berom, Anaguta, Afizere and the Hausa-Fulani, all
claiming pre-eminence and the question of who was “indigene” or
“settler” causing serious problems.

Religion was
infused into the crisis during the last Christmas eve when three bombs
were detonated across different locations in the state as Christians
were busy shopping for the event. The explosion claimed about 40 lives
with a number of others injured. However, religious leaders, such as
the Sultan of Sokoto; Sa’ad Abubakar and president of the Christian
Association of Nigerian; Ayo Oritsejafor, immediately called a press
conference and insisted that the conflicts in the Plateau State capital
were not religious, but political.

The state governor,
Jonah Jang in a state wide broadcast alleged that, “the aim of the
masterminds is to put Christians against Muslims and spark up another
round of violence.” He claimed that it was part of the calculated
attempts to scuttle the peace achieved from the efforts of the state
and federal government.

Both the state
government and federal government have set up a number of panels to
look into the root causes of the crises and a number of reports have
been issued by the committees whose recommendations were not
implemented.

Three lecturers in the University of
Calabar have lost their lives in the last three months and the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution has blamed the
unfortunate development on hunger, starvation, and poverty.

The chairman of ASUU, James Okpiliya,
said the hardship facing academic and non-academic staff of the
university was such that most staff can ill afford three square meals,
let alone foot medical bills whenever knocked down by illness.

Speaking at the commendation service of
a one-time chairman of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Cross River
State chapter, Victor Onoyom Ita, Mr. Okpiliya said there was so much
suffering in the academia that staff were dying in droves, and called
for payment of better wages.

“Our members are going into extinction.
How do we replace them in a situation of hunger, starvation, poverty,
oblivion? We are dying everyday because of poor condition of service,”
he said.

He revealed that despite the fact that
the union has drawn the attention of the federal government to the
deplorable teaching and learning conditions and the alleged inhuman
environment which its members were subjected to, “surprisingly, they
are calling us names such as a group of self seekers, rascals, among
others”.

According to him, ASUU has been on the
vanguard of repositioning the Nigerian university system for improved
ranking among the universities in the world, but “the union will
continue to carry on the struggle for the survival of the university
system.”

The union leader said the struggle will
continue to bring about improvement in the condition of service,
increased salaries, funding of the universities with all the necessary
facilities that will make teaching by lecturers and learning by the
students conducive, as well as the issue of university autonomy.

Great loss

In his tribute, the vice chancellor of
the university, James Ekpoke, said the death of Mr. Onoyom-Ita was not
only a rude shock to him and the university community, but also a great
loss to the institution, the state, and nation at large because of his
numerous contributions to nation building.

“The students will miss him, and he
will be remembered not only for innumerable contributions to knowledge,
but also for his sense of humour, for which he was well known. He was a
jolly good fellow and an elder with a difference and a man of the
people,” the vice chancellor added.

The leader of Cross River State
community, University of Calabar, Patrick Egaga, of the Department of
Political Science, in his farewell message, said though death is a
compulsory appointment to be kept by all mortals, that of Mr.
Onoyom-Ita was another death too many, as “within a period of three
months, three of our members – Akomaye Oko, Bernard F.B. Oko and now
Onoyom-Ita – have been buried.”

He described the death as devastating
to the university community and the state, noting that the
commendation/funeral ceremony was to celebrate the deceased’s
achievements.

The state chairman of the NMA, Ofem
Enang, said the vacuum created by the death of their late colleague
will be difficult to fill, considering that the late Onoyom-Ita was the
chief consultant ear, nose, and throat of the University of Calabar
Teaching Hospital.

The Ondo State
police have arrested five persons in connection with the kidnap of Mafe
Ibrahim, the mother of Jimoh Ibrahim. According to an assistant
commissioner of police who prefers anonymity, the suspects were
arrested in the environs of Igbotako and are helping the police in
their investigations. The police officer told NEXT that the kidnap was
not politically motivated.

The state police
command had recently announced that the case has been transferred to
the Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation.

Playing politics with the kidnap

While the PDP, Mr
Ibrahim’s party alleged that the ruling Labour Party was behind the
abduction, the state government advised Mr Ibrahim and his party men to
look within themselves for the kidnappers.

The state
government through the commissioner for information, Ranti Akerele,
accused Mr Ibrahim of “playing politics” with the kidnap of his mother.

The commissioner
faulted Mr Ibrahim’s account of the kidnap saying, “Ibrahim presented
the case as if the kidnap was masterminded and executed by the state
government, hence his demand for the declaration for a state of
emergency in the state.” Mr Akerele added, “the security agencies that
have already been drafted to effect the release of this woman should
look beyond the ordinary and search the confines of Jimoh Ibrahim’s
household.

“They should look
among his political associates who seem to be rejoicing at the sad
development and his myriad of business associates.

“It is the height of immorality for anybody to think of scoring cheap political goals with the kidnap of a 65-year-old woman.

“If a beneficiary
of the kindness and love of one earlier victim could organise and
mastermind the kidnap of his benefactor, who says desperate political
rookies cannot plan and execute the kidnap of a poor old woman?” He
asked.

The commissioner
also noted that the act could be carried out by the PDP, “in order to
create a band of phantom stakeholders whose only tangible solution to
the incident is to call for a state of emergency in Ondo State.” He
said: “With all the powers at the disposal of the peace-loving
government of Ondo State, issues of security have been pursued with
unprecedented focus since April 2009. Such that in all the reported
cases of kidnap, not only have the victims returned to safety but the
culprits have been apprehended to the eternal shame of those who cry
wolf when there are none.”

They wanted Jimoh out

But the PDP in a
statement by its Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka, alleged that the
Labour Party carried out the act, “to discourage Jimoh Ibrahim from
further participating in politics.” Mr Fadaka said, “Our attention has
been drawn to the kidnap of Madam Ibrahim, the mother of Barrister
Jimoh Ibrahim who is a solid pillar of our Party both in this state and
nationally. It will be recalled that our state has been going through
lots of security challenges in recent weeks and this is occasioned by
the garrulity of Labour Party leaders and rank and file whose concept
of politicking is to stand the laws on its head and use under the table
tactics to secure victory. Their approach so far has led to the death
of Emmanuel Adebayo in Ose and scores of brutalised and wounded people
across the state. Their latest action is the kidnap of this old woman,
this development is not only evil, but sadistic, comprehensively wicked
and unacceptable.

“In their
imagination it is the needed trump card that is needed to disorientate,
disorganise and discourage Jimoh Ibrahim in his quest to join others in
leading the party to victory in the forthcoming elections in Ondo
State. But we want to assure them that their calculation is not only
shallow but will fail to achieve their desired goal.” Mr Fadaka called
on the law enforcement agents to treat the matter with urgency, adding
that the culprits and their sponsors should be brought to book.

Mr Ibrahim’s
mother was kidnapped from her Igbotako home on Sunday evening by four
unidentified gunmen. It was gathered that the gunmen arrived at the
house, a one-storey building located in the outskirts of the town
around 8pm, and pretended to be customers who wanted to buy some
locally made mats which the woman was selling.

The Ondo State
governor, Olusegun Mimiko on Tuesday restated his administration’s
determination to tackle youth unemployment through modern agriculture.
He made this declaration while inspecting facilities at the state’s
Caring Heart Agric Village, Ore in Odigbo Local Government Area of the
state.

Mr Mimiko, who
disclosed that two of such villages will soon take off in other parts
of the state, advised the 1500 graduate resident farmers who are the
first batch of over 10,000 graduate farmers expected to be accommodated
in the village, to be focused and show seriousness.

“Everything you are
seeing here today has been put in place in the last three months,” the
governor said. “I want to encourage all of you young graduate farmers
that this is about you. It is about the future of this state. It is
about a task to be chosen by a nation if it wants to get out of the
poverty. Through your activities here, I believe that Nigeria will come
to learn that farming is a profitable venture and it is one avenue that
we can explore to ensure that we defeat youth unemployment in Nigeria.”
He said the state government decided to make the village comfortable
for its inhabitants so that they can also concentrate on their job.

“All the crop
farming activities here will be tractor-driven; your weed control will
be chemically done; each of you will be empowered with facilities for
crop farming, fish farming, poultry farming, mushroom farming and I’m
sure five months down the line, you will be the envy of your colleagues
because your income will be much more than what you will earn if you
get government job,” he said.

“So I want to
encourage you to put your heart into what you want to do here. Like I
said, you are pioneers. We are building three other villages, two
others like this in the first phase. The second one is going on in Epe,
Ondo East Local Government while the third one is in Auga, Akoko axis,”
the governor said.

Work the farms

Mr Mimiko, who said
there will also be cattle ranching in Auga Akoko, said he will still do
a formal commissioning of the village when the farmers are all settled
in. “When I come to commission it, I want to see your farms. I want to
see how you are doing with your farms, I want to be able to assess your
income,” he said.

Chairman of the
State Wealth Creation Agency, Bisi Adegoke said 47 hectares of maize
have been harvested, 80 hectares of cassava planted and ready for
allocation to participants, while 15 kilometres of new internal farm
roads have been constructed at the village.

He added that
government has constructed 300 fish ponds, planted 800,000 oil palm
seedlings while 70 self-contained housing units and poultry farms have
been completed.

Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, yesterday blamed the Senate
over the non-resolution of the crisis in the Ogun State House of
Assembly. Mr Bankole said this while speaking in an interactive session
with journalists, tagged “An Evening with Mr Speaker” held at
Iwe-Iroyin Press Centre, Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital.

“If the House of
Representatives passed a resolution and the Senate failed to support
such, the resolution cannot be effective. It is our duty to make laws
for good governance but not to enforce those laws and even in making
laws; we also have our hindrances and limitations.” He said.

The Speaker
recalled that a resolution was reached by the lower house on the issue,
but the upper chamber failed on the implementation.

Other states with similar problems

The Speaker also
noted that apart from the Ogun State House of Assembly, same crises
were witnessed in Edo and Ondo States, adding that the House of
Representatives acted promptly by passing resolutions but the Senate
also failed to act on those resolutions.

The Ogun State
House of Assembly was shut on September 6, 2010 following the
directives of the office of the Inspector General of Police over crisis
between the two factions of the lawmakers known as G-15 and G-11
respectively. Consequently, Tunji Egbetokun, the Speaker of the
Assembly, addressed a letter to both the Senate and the House of
Representatives seeking the National Assembly’s intervention in the
crisis in the Assembly and in ensuring the reconvening of the House
under his leadership.

Niger Delta youth
in Akwa Ibom State have demanded for compensation for oil spillage from
Exxon Mobil. The youth who held a protest march to Edoho platform in
Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State yesterday, claimed that they had won two cases
against Mobil in the Federal High Court, Yenogoa and the Appeal Court,
Lagos, leading to their demands for the compensation.

Alleging that
Mobil had deliberately failed to adhere to the court directive
compelling it to pay compensation money for oil spills that occurred in
1998, 2003, 2004 and 2005 in the region, the youths noted that they
embarked on the peaceful protest to present their grievances to the oil
company against the delayed payment of the compensation worth millions
of naira.

The protesting
youth numbering about 2,500 were from four organisations namely: Ijaw
National Congress (INC), Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Ijaw Survival
Movement of the Niger Delta ( ISMOND) and Movement for the Survival of
Ethnic Nationality in Niger Delta (MOFEND) came under one body to
canvass for the attention of Mobil.

They are made up
of all aggrieved parties relating to the oil spill issue drawn from the
seven Niger Delta states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River,
Edo, Delta and Ondo.

No court order

However, a
management staff of Mobil, who did not want to be named, insisted that
they had not received any court directive. “There is no court case
against us on this matter. What they are saying is that this matter has
been on for so long. We even asked them today because we met with them
and we asked them to show us the court case; they don’t have. I even
argued that if there was a court case, the bailiff will be the one to
enforce the court judgment not the plaintiff. There is no court case on
this matter.” He said. As at the time of going to press, Mobil was yet
to come out with an official statement on the issue as they had
promised.

Mobil lied

Speaking to NEXT,
the leaders of the youth groups: Erekosima Tariah, National President,
MOFEND; Godwin Robert, Chairman, Akwa Ibom Youths, MOFEND; Victor
Obioso and Godwin Idim, co-coordinators for Okobo and Esit Eket and
Onna local government areas respectively said: “We had a court ruling
in our favour which said Mobil should pay us the 2008 oil spillage
compensation. Since 2007, we got the court ruling, Mobil lawyers have
been coming to court and keep telling the court that they will settle
out of court for two years now. We can no longer continue that way
because we don’t see them as a multinational that is ready and willing
to obey the rule of law and we decided to embark on the peaceful
protest that we did embark on today.

“There is a court ruling which we will prove to them, but the court
did not actually tell them to pay us a certain sum. The payment will be
in three different forms. There are some claimants that filed their
cases in court that they call individual suits or personal claims,
there are some that are under the communities and there are some that
are under the communities.” They explained.