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The former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu, and former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, will be the pair to slug it out for the presidential ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria, barring any delayed maneuverings.

While Mr. Ribadu will today pick up his nomination form at the party secretariat in Wuse Zone 6, Abuja, Mr. Bafarawa picked up his form yesterday. The party’s deadline for the purchase of the presidential nomination form is Sunday, April 9. The form is sold by the party for N5 million.

NEXT has learnt that the certainty of Messrs Bafarawa and Ribadu being the final contestants to vie for the ticket is due to the withdrawal of the former national secretary of the party, Usman Bugaje, and Saidu Malami from the presidential race.

“Dr Bugaje has pulled out from the race. He has written us (ACN secretariat) that he is no longer interested in contesting the presidential election,” an official of the party told NEXT.

When contacted, Mr Bugaje declined giving any information about his purported letter. “I will let you know what my decision is at the party primary,” Mr Bugaje told NEXT.

Mr Malami is also said to have withdrawn from the race after several meetings between himself and Mr Ribadu. Both men attended the interactive session organized by the Abuja chapter of the CAN. Both Mr. Malami and Mr. Bugaje are said to have decided to support Mr Ribadu. The party’s presidential primary has been fixed for January 14 in Abuja.

Chairman’s warning

Ahead of the primaries, ACN’s national chairman, Bisi Akande, has urged all members to ensure the best conduct and maintain the highest standards all through the primaries.

Mr Akande in a statement issued on Thursday, charged the party executives, party officials and aspirants to keep to the high standards and behaviour of the party.”

“Our party is a disciplined party and a party that is determined to install democracy and good governance,” he said. ” It will, therefore, not tolerate any corrupt practices or any behaviour that will undermine the integrity of our party and process.”

Mr Akande further warned that a monitoring system is in place to catch any illegal exchange of funds stating that “for the avoidance of doubt, a surveillance system has been put in place to monitor and detect any demands or exchange of funds other than that published in the guidelines. We are determined to ensure democracy and build a strong foundation for good governance,” he stated.

The national
chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Okwesilieze
Nwodo, has declared that the party and its government are determined
and committed to ensuring that the will of Nigerians prevail in the
choice of their leaders during the forthcoming general elections in
April.

Mr Nwodo spoke
while receiving the South African minister of international relations
and cooperation, Maite Nkoanie Mashabane, who paid him a courtesy call
at his private residence in Abuja.

He said that the
on-going electoral process within the ruling PDP is a test for the
party and the country in the democratic journey, adding that the
country’s commitment to democracy is sacrosanct notwithstanding the
teething problems.

Mr Nwodo noted that Nigeria and South Africa have a lot in common as Africa’s leading nations and regional powers.

Earlier, Ms
Mashabanie told Mr Nwodo that she came to deliver a message from South
Africa’s President Jacob Zuma to President Goodluck Jonathan and was
directed to see the national chairman of the ruling party. She invited
Mr Nwodo to the African National Congress (ANC) centenary celebration
in January next year.

Ms Mashabanie also stated that South Africa is disposed to solving
Cote d’Ivoire’s political logjam using ECOWAS rather than the use of
force.

Teslim Folarin,
Senate majority leader, and three other suspects remanded in prison
over the alleged killing of Lateef Salako (aka Eleweomo), factional
leader of the National Union of Road Transport Worker (NURTW), applied
for bail at an Oyo state High Court on Thursday.

An Oyo state chief
magistrate, Shakirat Badrudeen, ordered the four men to be remanded in
prison custody until January 14 when their case would be reopened for
mention.

They were arraigned
on Tuesday on a two-count charge of felony (conspiracy to murder) and
murder of Mr Salako who was gruesomely killed after the local
government congress of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at Ona Ara,
Oyo state, last Thursday.

Though the
magistrate agreed with the argument of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, former
president of the Nigerian Bar Association who led the team of lawyers
defending Mr Folarin and others, that the court lacks the jurisdiction
to hear criminal matters, Ms Badrudeen, still adjourned the case till
January 14, for mention.

The other accused persons are Ramoni Jayeola Bankole, Olaide Raji and Raimi Ismaila.

Filing the bail
application on Thursday, Mr Akeredolu, supported the documents with a
44-page affidavit. In the application tagged M/8/2011, the applicants
joined the state attorney general and the state commissioner of police.

For the whole of
Wednesday, Mr Akeredolu and his team had brain-stormed on the
modalities to hasten the bail of the senate leader, who had been in
custody since Monday when he honoured the police invitation to come and
write his statement on the death of Mr Salako.

The Agodi prison,
where the accused were detained, was still bustling yesterday with Mr
Folarin’s sympathizers. It appeared as though the senate leader had the
support of prominent Ibadan political and business leaders. Prisons
officials faced a heavy volume of visitors calling at the prison
throughout the day to see the politician.

Baba Adisa Bolanta,
Oyo State commissioner of police, has, however hinted that more people
will be declared wanted by the police today (Friday) over Mr Salako’s
death.

Mr Bolanta, who
disclosed this to journalists in Ibadan on Thursday, said the police
are yet to close the case on the murder as many other suspects are yet
to be apprehended. He opined that the command should be commended for
its efforts in unraveling the mystery behind the killing of the
unionist in the past week

Police deny bias charges

In another
development, Lekan Balogun, leader of the opposition against the state
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, announced that he planned to hold a rally
on January 15 to push for the deployment of the commissioner of the
police from Oyo State. Mr Balogun accused Mr Bolanta of corruption and
bias in the murder case of Mr Salako. He said he would ensure that the
police commissioner was transferred from the state to allow for peace.
Denying the allegation of bias against Mr Folarin, the police boss said
the force established a case against him before arraigning him and
three others last Tuesday.

Saying he had given
the Ibadan high chief respect as a senior citizen and a former
lawmaker, he said, “We will not delay in dealing with him [Mr Balogun]
according to the law if he tries to incite the public against the
police.”

Mr Bolanta said
that none of the cases of crime reported since he took over his post in
Ibadan had gone uninvestigated, and that everything he did as police
chief was done with the consciousness that he would give account one
day “where the whole SANs in the world would not be able to defend me.”

He said
investigations conducted so far have shown that the Senate leader and
other accused persons were present at the scene of the incident. He
said the four police officers attached to the senate leader who were
also arrested and detained shortly after the killing of Mr Salako, are
assisting the police in their investigation of the matter.

He also said that Mukaila Lamidi (aka Auxiliary), Mr Salako’s
deputy, was interrogated at the Iyaganku Police station yesterday over
his alleged involvement in the vandalism of a filling station belonging
to Lateef Akinsola Oloruntoki (aka Tokyo), the state chairman of the
NURTW.

The federal
government on Thursday inaugurated an 18-member technical advisory
committee that will articulate and present Nigeria’s position at all
international Information and Communications Technology fora.
Inaugurating the committee, Stephen Willoughby, permanent secretary of
the ministry of information and communications, stated that Nigeria has
not always made adequate preparations before attending international
events and has been unable to reap maximally the gains of such
meetings.

“At the moment our
preparations have not been at par or been not the best,” he said.” We
go into conferences blank…sometimes we defend common interests of
others or even interests that are partisan to others which
inadvertently we do not know. When we try to defend our interests, we
do not articulate and defend them robustly. We must have strong in
positions which we must present and defend at all regional and national
fora.”

Mr Willoughby said
the ministry places great importance in the committee with the hope
that it will assist in advancing the cause and mandate of the ministry
at international fora on telecommunication and ICT.

Coordinating strategy

The committee, he
said, is a result of the recommendations made by the Nigerian
delegation to the just-concluded International Telecommunication
Union’s Plenipotentiary Conference that took place in Guadalajara,
Mexico last year.

“It was discovered
at the conference that Nigeria had no major position of its own for
presentation to the conference. Instead, the country went to the
conference with only the African Common Position at hand to defend
while some African countries that are not of Nigeria standard, despite
the African Common position, went to the conference with their own
in-house prepared positions, which they presented to the conference and
defended those positions with passion,” he said. “A time has now come
that we as a country need to develop our in-house positions, which we
must present and defend at all regional and international fora. We must
ensure that we prepare adequately within the country before going out
to participate in any of the fora. We have to be seen to be taking our
leadership role now in all affairs of the African continent.”

The committee’s
term of reference included coordinating Nigeria’s strategy and input to
meetings on telecommunications and ICT with a view to optimizing the
benefits of such for a to Nigeria.

They will also consider issues that will arise at such meetings and
advise on Nigeria’s preparations, positions, plans and effective
participation in a manner that influences the outcomes of such fora.

Ahead of the
National Assembly congresses of the People’s Democratic Party that is
rescheduled to hold today, some incumbent senators are deploying
desperate last-minute tactics to lobby both delegates and the public.
The senators, who have been lobbying delegates after a legislative
attempt to give them the right of first refusal failed at the national
assembly, have embarked on desperate means of sending across their
messages.

As a last-minute
measure to convince delegates, some of the lawmakers have employed
unusual new media to reach them. While some have taken their last
campaign messages to popular social media networks like Facebook and
Twitter, some are sending unsolicited bulk Short Message Services (SMS)
to random telephone numbers hoping to catch a delegate.

Like most of his
colleagues facing serious re-election challenges, Nimi Bariye Amange, a
serving Bayelsa state senator, in an unsolicited bulk SMS sent to
random telephone numbers, directly solicited for delegate votes. Most
messages were written in the new but informal social media language.

“Dear delegates to
d Bayelsa East Senatorial primary elections,” Mr. Amange wrote. “Ur
vote to Amange will enhance ur brother/sister, daughter/son’s,
educational pursuit. In 3yrs he has paid WAEC/JAMB/NECO for 800
candidates and he will do more.”

Like Mr. Amange,
most senators and other senatorial aspirants base their public campaign
on either the capital projects they executed or attracted to their
communities and promising to do more rather than the effects or
efficiency of the laws they sponsored or supported or intend to sponsor
or support if (re)-elected.

Umoh Edet, a
political analyst with a special interest in the national assembly,
says the elements of these campaign messages are wrong and have the
potentials of misleading ignorant constituents on the core function of
lawmakers. He argues that lawmakers have no business initiating,
executing or promising capital projects except on philanthropic grounds.

“The core function
of the lawmaker is to make laws, not building roads or bore holes,” he
said. “That is the work of the executive arm of government. The
lawmakers are supposed to change the lives of their constituents
through the laws they make.”

The senators,
alongside their House of Representatives colleagues, late last year,
dropped the right of first refusal idea after they were caught in a web
criticism for attempting to insert in the electoral act, a clause which
would have made it mandatory for political parties to put the ambitions
of a serving lawmaker before rookies.

Subsequently, most of the lawmakers are facing strong opposition
from fellow party members who either feel they did not perform very
well as lawmakers or perhaps ogling the perceived fat pay the lawmakers
earn.

The federal
government yesterday took on former vice president and presidential
aspirant of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, over a letter he allegedly wrote
to President Goodluck Jonathan over the country’s economy, stating that
the letter was a desperate attempt to mislead the electorate.

The minister of
finance, Olusegun Aganga, who spoke on the issue, said Mr Atiku had
chosen to deliberately manipulate and misinterpret the economic growth
figures that are provided by the National Bureau of Statistics.

This, he said,
betrayed either a lack of understanding of the data or ignorance of the
economic context in which these various growth statistics were achieved.

“In any case, the
letter fails to point towards the real messages in the NBS data and
again is riddled with inaccuracies,” Mr Aganga said.

The former vice
president had, on January 2, written to Mr Jonathan warning him that
the proposal in the budget could worsen the state of the nation’s
economy. A statement by his campaign outfit, Atiku Abubakar Campaign
Organisation (ACO) in Abuja, also said the president was too ashamed to
personally defend the budget, insisting that the budget of a nation is
too serious a matter to defend through anonymous persons. But Mr Aganga
said he could not believe that such a letter could come from an
individual with aspirations to govern the country.

“Resorting to
outright lies and misrepresentation to seek cheap political points is
regrettable,” Mr Aganga said, adding that the letter may have been
written without Mr Abubakar’s knowledge.

Contrary to claims
by the former vice president that the economy is underperforming, the
minister said not even the global economic crisis was able to stop the
growth of the local economy, as the country had out-performed many
global economies. He said that the reports of the agencies Mr. Abubakar
quoted actually rated the country high, adding that he doubted if Mr
Abubakar actually read the report of the rating agencies he relied upon
to attack the president and government.

Speaking to
journalists at the State House in Abuja, yesterday, Mr Aganga said such
outbursts by the former vice president did not usually translate into a
credible alternative for the future of the economy.

“Nigerians deserve better and would see through the uninformed attack that is guided as a patriotic statement,” he said.

Vote of confidence

Regarding the planned $500million Eurobond, the minister said it had been expected that the issue would be oversubscribed.

“The advice we
received from international investors is that the debut Nigerian
offering is very eagerly anticipated and demand will be strong,” he
said. “Fits of laughter aside, we would advise the author of the letter
that the transaction will be closed only on the most attractive
commercial terms for Nigeria with investors being encouraged by our
strong external and fiscal balance sheet and not by high returns as
claimed in the letter.”

He said that apart
from published research backing investment in Nigeria by leading
investment banks, a leading financial institution, Goldman Sachs also
warned global economic players of the risk of not investing in Nigeria.

“These statements
directly contradict the ‘vote of no confidence’ that the author of the
letter and his advisers would like Nigerians to falsely believe,” he
said.

Mr Aganga also
debunked the claim that the president accumulated the highest level of
debt increase by any president in any given year, adding that this
depicted the failure of the writer to understand the global economic
and financial dynamics of the period 2008-2010, a period he described
as extraordinary for all economies both developed and developing.

“It is regrettable that a letter purported to have been written by a
former vice president should contain such misrepresentations and we can
only assume that he was ill-advised or it was sent without his
knowledge,” Mr Aganga said. “If this is indeed the case, it is clear
that this letter is a desperate attempt by the author to mislead the
electorate and the Nigerian public through the misrepresentation of the
facts and inclusion of inaccuracies with a view to making political
gain ahead of the elections.”

Popular comedian,
Francis Agoda (I go dye) has the intervention of veteran comedian, Ali
Baba to thank for saving his life on Tuesday as military men on guard
at the Warri township stadium venue of Uduaghan re-run campaign almost
beat life out of him and his compatriot, Ogus Baba. According to an
eyewitness, the incident occurred when the two comedians allegedly
attempted to force their way past the stern-looking soldiers into the
stadium. The source added that the security men, who did not care about
their identity, ordered them to retreat or be dealt with.

Before the two
entertainers could make up their minds to withdraw from the gate, the
soldiers descended on them. It took the timely intervention of Ali
Baba, (who threatened to stop the show) for ‘I go dye’ to be released
by his tormentors. By then, he was already reeling in agony, with blood
all over him from the slashes of the horsewhips. The other comedian,
Ogus Baba, who showed some bravery by attempting to save his fellow
comedian from the horsewhips of the angry soldiers, was not spared
either as he also got his share of the flogging. He was said to have
been so badly battered that he had to be rushed to an undisclosed
clinic for treatment.

Also touched by the
brutality of the soldiers was a personal aide of ‘I go dye’ whose name
could not be identified, and another popular comedian, ‘I Go Save’, who
got some bruises on his arms and legs.

Paid to perform

In a telephone
conversation, the Warri-born comedian, Mr Agoda said he came to the
stadium with his entourage with the intention of performing on the
stage as he had been paid by the organisers of the event.

“On getting into
the stadium, I was accosted by one of the soldiers and in an attempt to
answer him, the other soldier unexpectedly slapped me from behind. The
most annoying thing about the whole incident was that when I tried to
explain to their superior officer, a colonel, the former soldier shoved
me aside and immediately, other soldiers descended on me, beating the
living daylight out of me,” Mr Agoda said.

He was later
treated by the medical team at the stadium after being rescued from the
soldiers by Ali Baba, who condemned the act of the uniformed men.

Mr Agoda has demanded for a public apology from the military for
violating his “fundamental human right.” “This must be published in
national newspapers,” he said.

A governorship
aspirant of the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Kano, Mohammed Adamu
Bello, has said that despite recent defections of some PDP members out
of the party, it would still sweep the polls in the state come April
2011.

Mr Bello, who is a
serving senator, declared his ambition to govern the state yesterday at
the NUJ secretariat, saying the development would instead erase the
impression that the country is gradually drifting towards a one-party
state.

“You see, in the
first place, I don’t really agree that there is a mass defection from
our great party, the PDP. Even if it is happening in some states of the
country, it is good for our democracy; at least people would not say
Nigeria is moving towards a one-party state again. It is even funny
that people are now saying the PDP is losing power, they used to say we
were heading to a one-party state,” he said.

“But we have to
open the democratic space for people to participate, which is the
beauty of democracy. You can see what is happening in Kwara state where
father and son have disagreed over who should be the governor of the
state. But let me remind you that as people are defecting from our
party, several others are pitching tent with us and that is why the PDP
is a great party.”

Party to beat

Mr Bello, who
himself defected from the opposition All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP)
said it would take a miracle for any of the opposition parties to dent
the domination of the PDP in the country.

He said he believed
that the people of Kano, who are yearning for development, would have
their interests better served with a governor that belongs to the
mainstream party. He expressed optimism that he would triumph over
other leading governorship aspirants of the party, including Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso and former military governor of Plateau State, Habibu Shuaibu
in the party’s governorship primaries scheduled to hold at the weekend.

Mr Bello promised
to offer selfless leadership if voted to power and enjoined party
delegates to eschew bitterness and work harmoniously to elect a
candidate that is capable of putting an end to the setbacks recorded by
the party since 2003.

“For me, this contest is not a do or die affair, as I believe that
power comes from Allah Who gives it to whomever he wishes. I am
strongly convinced that I am the candidate that can deliver the desired
result. As I look forward to emerging winner at the primaries, let me
intimate the good people of Kano that my administration would be
result-oriented. We shall build on the good legacies left behind by
Kano’s founding fathers,” he said.

The re-run adhoc
delegates elections ordered to be held by the national headquarters of
the PDP, after the cancellation of the December 28 ward congresses, has
ended in more controversy.

Some of the
governorship aspirants, Ardo Umar Kojolli, Joel Madaki, and Senator
Jubril Aminu expressed dissatisfaction with the re-run ward congress,
stating that there was nowhere in the state where ward elections took
place. The politicians described the re-run congresses as “worst than
the first.”

The aspirants
complained that most of the returning officers sent out by the
government were advisers and commissioners of the state governor,
Murtala Nyako’s administration.

“Unfortunately,
from the reports coming throughout the local government areas, no such
elections were held in virtually everywhere. We have several INEC
electoral officers in the various local governments that corroborated
our position,” Mr. Ardo said on behalf of the aggrieved aspirants.

They said since the
indirect option have failed, they want the national headquarters of the
party to order the use of the direct option, popularly known as option
A4, as a way out of the ward congress imbroglio.

According to Messrs
Ardo and Madaki, the re-peat congresse was the worst election ever
conducted in the state, and urged the party headquarters to disqualify
Mr. Nyako, whom they said had “become too partisan himself as a
candidate to allow any credible elections to be held in the state.”

Mr. Aminu, the
senator representing Adamawa central senatorial district and chairman
of the Senate committee on foreign affairs, also joined the call for
Mr. Nyako to be disqualified.

“Mr. Nyako, as the
leader of the party, should be held to account for this kind of thing.
If what we saw last week can be described as absurd, then this is an
outrage. At least the Adamawa people should be treated with some
respect. The officials responsible for these kind of things should be
disqualified,” Mr. Aminu said.

Faulting the ‘charade’

Mr. Aminu said if
the national headquarters of the party wanted to give Mr. Nyako the
ticket, they should go ahead rather than organise this “charade.”

“This is a slap on the face. If you are going to organise a re-run election, then you have got to organise it better,” he said.

He, therefore,
called on the leadership of the party to conduct a repeat congress,
saying if this is impossible, the party should consider upholding the
December 28th ward delegates elections which he described as “nearest
to a true reflection of a congress.”

However, Mai Adamu
Mustapha, leader of the election monitoring panel to Adamawa State,
said the re-run ward congress was conducted peacefully and devoid of
any hostilities. Mr. Mustapha said his panel was satisfied with the
congress which, he noted, was “credible, free and fair.”

He said anybody with complaints over the conduct of the re-run exercise “only wants to be mischievous.”

Both Buba Marwa and
Mr. Nyako each have different results sheets of the last congress,
which they want the national headquarters to authenticate.

NEXT gathered that the suspension of the Adamawa ward congress was
in part due to the confusion between which of the two result sheets it
had to authenticate. Both Nyako and Marwa expressed satisfaction with
the congress.