Nigeria Content Online

A lawyer standing
for more than 60 militants arrested last month said on Wednesday that
the gang leader and two of his followers were removed from prison by
the secret service last week.

Nigeria’s armed
forces on November 20 arrested ‘Obese’, whose real name is Tamunotonye
Kuna, and more than 60 of his followers who were believed to be behind
the kidnapping of 19 oil and construction workers in the Niger Delta.

Ken Atsuete, legal
council to the arrested militants, said a judge ordered that the
militants be remanded in Port Harcourt Federal Prison on November 29
but last week, officers from Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS)
took Obese and two of his senior followers to another location. “From
November 29 until December 16, nothing whatsoever happened to these
boys, only for the SSS officers to come to the Port Harcourt Prison on
December 16 to take Obese and his second and third in command away to
an unknown and undisclosed location,” Mr. Atsuete said.

“The whereabouts of
Obese and his second and third in command is unknown while the
remaining 62 have been remanded in the Port Harcourt prison.” The SSS
were not available for comment.

Obese, a former
commander in Nigeria’s main militant group, the Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), was one of those who signed up
for an amnesty brokered last year by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Militant groups in
the Niger Delta have said kidnapping and attacks on oil pipelines are
part of a fight for a fairer share of the oil wealth generated in their
backyard.

But the line
between militancy and crime is blurred as gang leaders have grown rich
on the spoils of kidnapping for ransom and the theft of industrial
quantities of oil.

Reuters

The prime minister
of Cote d’Ivoire presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara urged the
international community to consider using force to oust incumbent
Laurent Gbagbo saying it was the “only solution”.

Gbagbo has refused
to quit following a November 28 election that African countries and
western powers say he lost to Ouattara, in a dispute that the United
Nations says has already killed 50 people and threatens to restart a
civil war.

Speaking on French television network I-Tele, Guillaume Soro said Gbagbo had raised the military stakes leaving few options.

“Mr Gbgabo has got
the tanks out … 200 people have fallen under the bullets of Liberian
and Angolan mercenaries … the security situation is very worrying,”
Soro said.

“It is obvious the
only solution to the crisis is the use of force.” Gbagbo has shown no
sign of caving in to the pressure and late on Tuesday invited an
international committee to re-examine the results of the vote, a move
that a Ouattara spokesman dismissed as a delaying tactic.

“I ask the U.N. Security Council, European Union and ECOWAS to consider the use of force,” Soro said.

Ouattara had
rejected also on Wednesday the incumbent leader’s offer of an
international investigation into a disputed election as a political
“game”.

Laurent Gbagbo on
Tuesday invited an international committee to re-examine the results of
the presidential election of Nov. 28 to prevent a bitter power struggle
with his rival from escalating into civil war.

Gbagbo said the
committee could be headed by the African Union and also involve the
West African organisation ECOWAS, the United Nations, the United
States, the European Union, Russia and China, all of whom have
recognised Ouattara as winner.

“We’ve finished with these games,” Patrick Achi, a spokesman for Ouattara’s rival government told Reuters by phone.

International divorce

France, Germany and
Britain advised against travel to the country on Wednesday and urged
their citizens there to leave, a day after Nigeria said it evacuated
diplomatic staff from the country following an attack on its embassy.

France asked its
citizens to leave Cote d’Ivoire and the World Bank froze funding to the
West African state on Wednesday, as a violent power struggle deepened
between incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and his rival presidential claimant
Alassane Ouattara.

World Bank head
Robert Zoellick said funds for Cote d’Ivoire had been cut off, in a
move to squeeze Gbagbo financially. According to the World Bank
website, the global lender has aid commitments to Cote d’Ivoire of $842
million as of January 2010.

“They have already been frozen,” Zoellick said in Paris after a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The European Union
and the United States have imposed sanctions on Gbagbo and members of
his inner circle in an attempt to force him to step down, and African
countries have offered him a soft landing in exile.

But Gbagbo has
shown no sign of caving in to the pressure and late on Tuesday invited
an international committee to re-examine the results of the vote, a
move that a Ouattara spokesman dismissed as a delaying tactic.

Earlier Kader
Coulibaly’s younger brother vanished when gunmen raided his sleepy
suburb in Cote d’Ivoire’s main city last week, and like hundreds of
supporters of presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara, he fears the
worst.

“It was about 6 or
7 in the evening on Saturday. He was out in a local bar near our house
when two pickup trucks of military men drove through the neighbourhood
shooting. There was panic,” he said.

Gbagbo’s camp denies that abductions or killings are taking place and accuses Ouattara’s of trying to soil their name.

The Consumer
Protection Council is making plans to stop the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria from
arbitrary billing of Nigerian consumers of electricity over services
not enjoyed. Its Director General, Ifeyinwa Umenyi, told journalists on
Wednesday in Abuja.

She said a survey
conducted by the council shows that it has become a tradition with the
PHCN to always bill consumers of electricity on what they referred to
as maintenance charges, as far as the consumers are connected to the
PHCN national grid.

“This maintenance
fee is irrespective of whether such consumers use electricity or not.
It also observed that neither the NERC nor the PHCN carries out any
such routine maintenance on the consumers’ meters,” she said. “Nigerian
consumers should be treated with all sense of respect, without which
services and products will not, in the first place be found in the
market place.” She said discussions are ongoing with the NERC over the
issues, as survey carried out revealed that consumers repeatedly keep
making the same complaints over the ill treatment meted on them by
officials of the PHCN.

“The meters are
collected and the consumers made to pay again, the same amount to
obtain new ones. That is where and when they are available,” she said.
“What the PHCN or NERC refers to as maintenance fees will be
eliminated, as there is no basis for such fee since no routine
maintenance is being carried by the agencies.”

No provision for charges

But a senior
official of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, who pleaded anonymity
in a telephone chat, explained that the charge was necessary because
the technology is new and is still being tested.

Asked whether the
company has provision for a refund when meters are not maintained, he
simply said, “there is no provision for that.” Mrs Umenyi however
hinted that the enforcement functions of the council will be restricted
until the National Assembly decides to pass the council’s amendment
bill currently before it into law. She said there are hopes over the
passage of the bill in the nearest future, as it has already scaled
through second reading at the upper chambers of the National Assembly.

“By then, we will be able to carry out enforcement function at optimal level,” she said.

“I am sure it will soon commence. I have taken the pains to speak on
the bill with some law makers. I have met and they have seen reason for
quick passage of the bill.”

he Acting Governor
of Delta State , Sam Obi, on Wednesday presented a budget proposal of
₦240.58 billion for the 2011 fiscal year to the State House of
Assembly.Presenting the budget titled ‘Budget of Consolidation and
Empowerment’ in Asaba, Mr Obi said the government will spend ₦117.85
billion as capital expenditure as against ₦122.73 billion for recurrent
expenditure.He explained that the 2011 budget showed a decrease of
₦91.27billion when compared with the 2010 approved budget of ₦331.86
billion.

He revealed that the decrease is as a result of the militant
activities in the Niger Delta and the declining derivation revenue
allocation to the state.He also explained that the budget is the last
budget of the present administration and that in view of the
transition, emphasis will be on the completion of ongoing projects.

He said, ‘‘we
intend in the coming year to continue to maintain a close watch on our
budget and fiscal management processes accordingly. ‘‘We will also
improve on our existing structures and explore more efficient ways of
doing government business. We shall ensure that these measures will
lead ultimately to greater fiscal discipline and prudence,” the acting
governor said.

He noted that the economic and environmental sectors are naturally
the growth-driving segments of the economy, adding that the budget
proposal will focus on economic growth of the state.These include
agriculture, manufacturing, energy, commerce and cooperatives, tourism,
finance, transport, water resources, urban and regional planning,
housing and sewage.

Balarabe Musa, the National Chairman of
Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), has decried the Independent National
Electoral Commission’s guidelines on primaries, saying most of the
political parties will find it extremely difficult to comply with them.
He said on Wednesday in Abuja that only the People’s Democratic Party
would have all the requirements to hold the primaries for elective
public offices across the country. Mr Musa said PRP would require at
least N42 million to hold its primaries in just one state, stating that
“INEC guidelines are impossible to comply with by most of the 62
political parties because of the amount of money required. “Only PDP
will be able to nominate candidates who can pass through the INEC
screening for all the elections.” He said the electoral system should
be blamed for the lopsidedness which favours the ruling PDP. He however
said it was the responsibility of political parties to call the
attention of the National Assembly to the anomaly before it passes the
Electoral Act for the president’s assent.

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All the 624 PDP
delegates from the North-Central zone have endorsed the President
Jonathan/Sambo presidential ticket ahead of party’s Jan.13 primaries.

The delegates made
the endorsement on Tuesday in Lafia at a consultative meeting with the
president and other stakeholders from the zone.

The News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) reports that motion for the endorsement was moved by
former Minister of Information, Jerry Gana and seconded by former
Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu. A voice vote to that
effect was called by the Senate President, David Mark.

“Given the fact
that the President is effectively responding to the yearnings and
aspiration of Nigerians, I, Prof. Jerry Gana do hereby move that the
North-Central delegates to the National convention of our great party,
the PDP, hereby unanimously agree and adopt President Goodluck Jonathan
as our choice of presidential candidate of the PDP for the 2011
election,” Mr Gana said. Mr Jonathan, who thanked the governors and
people of the zone for the support so far shown to his administration,
said he will not disappoint Nigerians if given the mandate.

He challenged the
delegates to vote for him in the interest of the zone in the
forthcoming PDP presidential primaries in order to help realise the
dream of the zone and the country.

He promised to
tackle kidnapping in the South-East and all other security challenges
if given the mandate in 2011, stressing that “no economic development
can be achieved without security.”

Asking for more

Earlier, while
presenting the delegates to Presdent Jonathan, the North-Central Zonal
Coordinator of the Jonathan /Sambo campaign organisation, the Benue
State Governor, Gabriel Suswam assured him that no delegate from the
zone will vote any other presidential aspirant during the primaries.

He, however,
appealed to the President to make the exploration of the various
mineral resources in the area, especially coal, his focus when
re-elected in 2011 as the resource had remained untapped for years.

Mr Suswan also
appealed for the dualisation of the Abuja – Lafia- Enugu Federal
Highway to ease transportation and enhance the agricultural potential
of the zone.

Aliyu Doma of
Nasarawa State commended the President for the landmark achievements
recorded, particularly, in the areas of power generation, economic
transformation, and infrastructural development.

He also praised the president’s commitment to equity, justice and promotion of unity and peaceful coexistence in the country.