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Abia State
commissioner for information and strategy, Anthony Agbazuere, has
debunked insinuations that two parallel Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
primaries that produced Theodore Orji and Ikechi Emenike as candidates
held in the state.

Briefing the media
on Tuesday in Umuahia, the information commissioner said that the only
recognised PDP executive in the state was that led by Emma Nwaka, which
returned the governor.

Mr. Agbazuere said
that only three aspirants attended the screening in Enugu, after which
the state governor and Tony Enwereuzor were cleared.

He said that Mr.
Emenike was never an aspirant on the platform of PDP as he alleged and
did not participate or appear for the screening prior to the primaries.

“It is equally
important to state that the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) monitored the exercise that produced Mr. Orji, so any other
primary could not have held,” he said.

Chilly weather,
accompanied by strong winds, is disrupting normal life in Kano
metropolis, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Investigation by
NAN correspondent on Wednesday revealed that most residents of the
commercial town have changed their life patterns to cope with the cold
weather which set in about a week ago.

NAN gathered that
many of the inhabitants, especially children, the sick and the old, now
remain indoors for most part of the day because of the harsh weather.

Many others, the findings showed, had not taken their bath for several days for fear of the effect of the intense cold weather.

One of them, Sa’adu Mohammed, admitted that he had not had his bath
since Friday, when he cleaned up and went to the Mosque for prayers.

The Imo State
directorate of the NYSC on Wednesday charged corps members being
trained for the January 15 voter registration to take the challenge
seriously despite the constraints in various training centres.

Emeka Ukwu, public
relations officer of the directorate, told the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) in Owerri that NYSC is poised to actualise the federal
government’s plans for free, fair and credible election.

He said all the
corps members in Imo State were deployed to various training centres to
acquire relevant skills and knowledge to discharge the assignment.

The training is
being conducted simultaneously in the various centres, mainly Federal
University of Technology, Owerri; Federal Polytechnic, Nekede; Evan
Ewerem University; and Federal Government College, Okigwe.

“The Federal Government expects us to engage 10,569 corps members but we have very few training centres,” he said.

President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday emerged from the People’s Democratic Party
presidential screening session after about one hour with the panelists,
to describe the exercise as “rigorous.” Mr Jonathan arrived at the PDP
national secretariat in Abuja at about 12.40pm accompanied by his
deputy, Namadi Sambo, state governors, ministers and officials of the
Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation and went straight to the office of
the national organising secretary where the screening was conducted. He
emerged from the exercise at exactly 1.32pm.

“The exercise was
rigorous,” the president told journalists who wanted to know how he
fared during the screening. On crisis trailing the party’s primaries
across the country, Mr Jonathan said: “Whenever you have a general
election in a party as big as PDP, across the states, be it House of
Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate, gubernatorial or
presidential primaries, there is bound to be disagreement. We have some
flashpoints that the party is looking into but, on the average, I think
it went down very well.”

Governors who came
with the president were Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, Timipre
Sylva of Bayelsa State, Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State and Liyel Imoke of
Cross River State. Information and communication minister, Labaran Maku
and his petroleum resources and finance counterparts, Diezani
Allison-Madueke and Olusegun Aganga, were also among the president’s
entourage. The director-general of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign
Organisation and former works minister, Tony Anenih, also came with Mr
Jonathan.

Atiku, Jibril are satisfied

Atiku Abubakar,
former Nigerian vice president and another presidential hopeful, told
journalists after his screening that the exercise went well, just as he
dismissed speculations that he would be disqualified. Mr Abubakar
arrived at the PDP secretariat in a black Lexus jeep at 1.54pm and left
at about 3.50pm. His entourage included a former Senate president, Ken
Nnamani; former minister of state for foreign affairs, Dubem Onyia;
former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Chukwuma Soludo; and former
special adviser on women’s affairs to ex-president, Olusegun Obasanjo,
Titi Ajanaku.

“I was asked about
my return to the party,” Mr Atiku said. “It went well. I was asked many
questions. I was asked how would I unite the party. I was asked about
the critical comments I made about the PDP in the past and so on and so
forth.”

Asked about his impression of the Aminu Wali-led panel, Mr Abubakar said: “I think the screening panel is a good panel.”

On what he would do
if disqualified, the aspirant responded: “No, they cannot disqualify me
because they don’t have the power to do that. They asked me questions
about my person, but they are not a court, they are not a tribunal,
they are not a panel of inquiry and they are not competent to do that.”

The PDP’s only
female contestant, Sarah Jibril, told journalists after her screening
that the “the exercise was detailed and thorough.” She said that the
panel asked her why she wanted to be president and questioned her on
the sincerity of her ambition, adding that there were other technical
and political questions.

Dissatisfied Dutsinma

Another contestant,
Sani Aminu Dutsinma, however shunned the screening. Mr Dutsinma, who
showed up at the PDP Headquarters at about 4.30pm but declined to
appear before the panel, said he had gone to court to seek an
interpretation of Section 7.2c of the party’s constitution. In a letter
to the PDP national chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, which Mr Dutsinma also
gave to journalists, the contestant described the screening as a breach
of the party’s constitution and other laws. He accused party officers
of not adhering to what he called the party’s “policy of zoning and
rotation of party and public elective offices.”

“However, should you decide to drop Dr Goodluck Jonathan from the exercise, I will be most willing to participate,” he said.

The attempt by the
leadership of the Ogun State Chapter of Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN) to impose State House of Assembly and House of Representatives
candidates, under the guise of consensus, has yesterday resulted into a
protest by party members.

Trouble started at
the party secretariat, located on Moshood Abiola Way, Abeokuta when the
national youth leader of the party, Segun Adesegun who claimed to be
representing the party hierarchy, started announcing the names of the
approved flagbearers for the race.

Mr Adesegun was
mid-way into announcing the list when tension from the restless party
supporters, mainly the youth, rose and started throwing stones into the
hall in protest against the arrangement said to have been concluded by
some leaders.

The protesters
disrupted the exercise, smashing the chairs, windows and the doors.
Sensing further danger, the party chairman, Tajudeen Bello and other
party leaders sneaked out through the back door to escape being lynched.

The presence of the
police at the venue did not stop the angry protesters from carrying out
their action, as the policemen just stood by watching the protesters.

Undemocratic arrangement

Some of the
protesters argued that the arrangement was not democratic and that they
will resist it till the state leadership of the party carries out a
proper congress.

‘We will not agree
with this ‘Baba sope’ arrangement,” one of the protesters said under
condition of anonymity. “We are at another level in politics and we
should make everything democratic, else we shall work for the
opposition party in the forthcoming elections by embarking on protest
votes.” Meanwhile, Next learnt that an arrangement to pick a consensus
governorship flagbearer for the party was going on as at the time of
this report through a meeting convened by the party leadership, with
all aspirants in attendance.

Thirteen people
were killed in Wereng village, Riyom local government area near Jos, by
men wearing military uniforms in the early hours of Tuesday, according
to officers of the Plateau State Police Command.

The police also
confirmed that attacks were also reported in Fagawang where two persons
were killed, and Nyarwai, both in the Barkin Ladi local government
area, where three persons were killed.

According to a
police statement issued yesterday, 11 houses were burnt during the
attack in Nyarwai, and three in Fagawang villages, while a church was
burnt down in Ding village. A police source who preferred to remain
anonymous confirmed that the attackers used weapons including guns,
machetes, daggers, bows and arrows to attack their victims who were
reportedly taken unawares.

Cold blood murder

According to the
police source, the dead, who were slaughtered and left lying in their
own blood, had several knife cuts on their bodies. The corpses still
lay out in the open in the villages Tuesday morning as government
officials were awaited. An official statement by Obinna Simon for the
state police commissioner, Abdurrahman Akano, said no arrests had been
made, but urged “all those concerned to refuse burial until we perform
the autopsy.”

He said that the
autopsies would help authorities ascertain the source and types of the
weapons used. This, he said, would aid investigations and help
ascertain whether the attackers were real military officers.

A city shuts down

Meanwhile, business
activities were non-existent in the city as banks and other businesses
remained closed throughout Tuesday. With freezing temperatures around
16°C, the streets have remained empty, with only a few vehicles
venturing along specific routes. The city’s business nerve centre,
popularly known as Terminus, has become a ghost of itself. Ahmadu Bello
Way, Rwang Pam, Church, and Langtang Streets, and Old Bukuru Road,
routes that experience heavy traffic daily, are deserted.

Powerless Special Task Force?

The Ndigbo, the
umbrella body of the Igbo community in Jos, said that it has lost
confidence in the Special Task Force headed by Hassan Umaru, a
brigadier-general.

A statement by the
group’s president-general, Richard Wayas, and its secretary, Serbinus
Anyanwu, said that the Ndigbo condemned the cycle of crises, killings,
and the Christmas Eve bombings and called on the federal and state
governments to initiate urgent measures to end the violence.

“At the last count,
we have well over 40 corpses of our people deposited both at the
Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jankwano, and Jos University
Teaching Hospital mortuaries, with several hospitalised,” the statement
read.

“It is also
regrettable that a luxury bus (EKWOS) carrying mostly Igbo passengers
was attacked and burnt down by the same Hausa-Fulani youth along Bauchi
Road, Jos.”

Simon Mwadkon,
chairman of Riyom local government, described the incident as “very
unfortunate,” saying that injured persons had been taken to the Jos
University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). He said that the attackers invaded
the villages between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Tuesday, setting houses
ablaze and killing the fleeing owners of the houses. Among the victims,
he said, were children and nursing mothers.

The chairman
alleged that security personnel were stationed “just 200 metres to
where the attacks were carried out but they did nothing to stop it. In
fact, a traditional ruler and the councillor, representing the area,
Mr. Victor Davou, rushed to the STF soldiers just by but they bluntly
refused to go to the scene after claiming that they were not given such
an order,” Mr. Mwadkon said.

Mr. Mwadkon,
however, promised that the council would do everything possible to
assist victims of the raid, and called on the state and federal
government to rise to the challenge and “do something drastic about the
incessant crises on the Plateau.”

Averting another crisis

The Bauchi State
Police Command said it has taken steps to prevent a spillover of the
Jos crisis into the state. The command’s public relations officer,
Mohammed Barau, an assistant superintendent of police, told the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi yesterday that security was being
beefed up in all parts of the state, especially in towns close to the
state’s border with Plateau.

“The police have
taken proactive measures to prevent a spillover of the Jos crisis into
the state. We are ready to take action to forestall any breach of law
and order,” he said.

He added that there was now a better understanding between muslims and christians in the state.

The nation’s
inspector-general of police, Hafiz Ringim, urged residents of Jos to
resolve their issues without resorting to violence. Mr. Ringim made the
plea in a statement issued in Abuja by the force’s public relations
officer, Olusola Amore.

“The crisis in Jos
should not be seen as a police/security problem but a
community/political problem which all peace-loving people should strive
to resolve without resorting to rancour,” he said.

“Nigerians should learn to live together in peace in spite of differences in tribe, language and religion,” he added.

The inspector general assured the people of the state and its
environs of 24-hour patrols to forestall the breakdown of law and order
in Jos. He said the police and other security agencies have been doing
their best to contain the crisis and that 15,000 police officers and
other security personnel had been deployed to Jos to restore peace
since the crisis began.

The national chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Ogbonnaya Onu warned the party’s presidential and gubernatorial aspirants screening committee not to clear any aspirant whose victory at the polls could be annulled by the tribunals or courts. He gave the warning while inaugurating the 21-member committee headed by a former governor of Zamfara State and Senate Minority Whip, Ahmed Sani.

The committee is expected to screen the party’s presidential and governorship aspirants ahead of its national convention slated for Friday in Abuja. “This screening is a very important one. We have selected the best people because the assignment is to show to the country that ANPP is serious,” Mr Onu said. “We want ANPP to make history. Our motto is justice and all aspirants will receive similar treatment. Any other matter, we should leave it to Nigerians to decide.

“All matters that will contravene our constitution please bring them out. We don’t want to win election that will be annulled in court. So we need the most qualified candidates.” Responding, Mr Sani noted that the task was a simple one promising that the committee members will be guided by the constitution of the country. According to him, “The constitution of Nigeria is clear on who should contest and who should not.

So, we won’t go outside the constitution.” He added that the committee will work on a zonal basis while retaining Abuja as the secretariat where any of the aspirants who wishes can come for screening.

Battle for Bauchi

Meanwhile, Garba Gadi, former deputy governor of Bauchi State yesterday returned his governorship nomination forms to the ANPP national secretariat. He recalled that as a founding member of the party, he has been committed to the success of the party and has on many occasions politely turned down overtures to him to contest for political offices until he finally agreed then to become the deputy governor. Mr Gadi explaining the reason why he refused to join his former boss in decamping from the party said that “I am committed to sincerity and other good that is expected of a leader that was why I refused to defect with the governor despite intimidations and persecutions.” “I told him (Mr Yuguda) you met me in my house and when you want to leave, good bye.” “Some people have said I am too slow to contest the governorship office and our Senator representing Bauchi Central, Senator Muhammad A.

Muhammad announced his withdrawal only if I am contesting and that he can only contest if I am not contesting,” Mr Gadi added.