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A British judge
granted bail of 200,000 pounds ($317,400) on Tuesday for the release of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, wanted in Sweden for alleged sex
crimes and the target of U.S. fury over the release of secret
diplomatic cables. Prosecutors, representing Swedish authorities,
quickly said they would appeal against the bail decision and Judge
Howard Riddle said Assange must remain in custody until a new hearing
is held within 48 hours. Riddle had earlier ruled that, pending a
hearing on January 11, Assange could be freed under strict conditions
including electronic tagging and a curfew. He would have had to report
to police daily and post a 200,000 pound bond, to be put up by wealthy
backers. The 39-year-old Australian, who has spent a week in London’s
Wandsworth prison, is fighting attempts to extradite him to Sweden for
questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct made by two female
WikiLeaks volunteers, accusations he denies. Mark Stephens, a lawyer
for Assange, said Swedish authorities would clearly not spare any
expense to keep Assange in jail.

“This is really turning into a show trial and we will be in court again within the next 48 hours,” he told reporters.

He called Assange
“an innocent man sitting in Dickensian conditions, Victorian conditions
in Wandsworth jail.” Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that
U.S. prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage over
WikiLeaks’ publication of the documents. Riddle denied Assange bail a
week ago on grounds he might abscond but said he had changed his mind
because Assange had provided a British address and because
discrepancies over his passport and right to stay in Britain had now
been resolved. Prosecution lawyer Gemma Lindfield, acting for the
Swedish authorities, said nothing had changed.

“He remains a significant flight risk and no conditions that court can impose could prevent his flight,” she told the court.

Impassive Assange

Assange, wearing a
navy suit and open-necked white shirt, spoke only to confirm his name,
age and address. He sat impassively behind tall panels of thickened
glass during the hearing, which lasted a little over an hour. His
supporters in the court included Bianca Jagger, the former wife of
Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger. One of the main conditions of his
bail is that he lives at Ellingham Hall, a country mansion in Suffolk,
eastern England that is the home of a former army officer and Assange
supporter, Vaughan Smith. Assange has long been a thorn in the side of
Washington. U.S. anger reached new heights after WikiLeaks began
publishing part of a trove of 250,000 secret diplomatic papers. Two of
Assange’s supporters took the witness stand to offer 20,000 pounds each
to act as a surety. Restaurant designer and catering company boss Sarah
Saunders told the court: “I believe he would not let me down.” Smith
called him as a “very honourable person, hugely courageous,
self-deprecatory and warm.” Assange, who handed himself in to British
police last week after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant,
remained defiant.

In a statement
released by his mother on Tuesday, he denounced the firms that
suspended payments to his website as instruments of U.S. foreign policy
and calling for help in protecting his work from their “illegal and
immoral attacks. My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the
ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them,”
Assange said, according to a written statement of his comments supplied
to Australia’s Network Seven by his mother Christine.

“We now know that Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others are instruments of U.S. foreign policy,” he said.

“I am calling for
the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and
immoral attacks.” Internet activists launched “Operation Payback” last
week to avenge WikiLeaks against those perceived to have obstructed its
operations, temporarily bringing down the websites of credit card firms
Visa and MasterCard, as well as that of the Swedish government.

An ABC
News/Washington Post poll released on Tuesday showed that a majority of
Americans — 59 percent — believed the United States should try to
arrest Assange and charge him with a crime related to the disclosure of
the cables.

Sixty-eight percent
of the 1,001 U.S. adults polled said WikiLeaks’ actions harmed the
public interest, while 20 percent said the disclosures served the
public interest.

Vice President
Namadi Sambo has advised the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)
not to allow maintenance of power plants across the country interrupt
the supply of electricity to Nigerians.

Speaking during the
weekly meeting of the Presidential Task Force on Power in Abuja,
yesterday, Mr Sambo also said there should be a synergy between the
Ministry of Power and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to
avoid a drop in gas supply during maintenance operations. He directed
the Power Holding Company to prevail on its staff to desist from the
act of shutting down power plants whenever they make demand, adding
that adhoc staff be trained to handle power plants against subversive
elements in PHCN.

While emphasizing
transparency and accountability in the sector, Mr Sambo said Nigerians
should be informed on the efforts of government to provide adequate
power supply by settling labour issues, benefits of the planned
privatization, and the subversive activities of labour union which
militate against the attainment of this goal. The vice president
further set up a committee to resolve any impending issues with labour.
Members of the committee include the Ministries of Power, Labour,
Finance, National Planning, Justice, and the Head of the Civil Service
of the Federation.

Unhappy unions

Minister of State
for Power, Nuhu Wya, gave highlights on Geregu, Ibom, Jebba and Egbin
Power Plants. According to him, the Geregu Power Plant suffered from
gas interruption last week due to repairs carried out by Nigeria Gas
Company over a pipe leakage on Oben-Ajaokuta Line. He also noted that
the Ibom Power Plant is experiencing low gas pressure and has been out
of operation since December 10, while Egbin is undergoing repairs on a
broken cold reheat pipeline that occurred immediately after the system
collapse of December 8, 2010.

He was, however, optimistic that the repairs would be completed by
December 17 to restore 200MW to the system. Mr Wya said the PHCN
in-house union had given notice to the Ministry of Power and the
management of the company on its plan to embark on a “sensitization
exercise” on December 16 against the proposed privatization exercise in
the power sector. He also stated that 791 staff, representing 1.20
percent, are yet to be cleared for payment of monetisation benefits
while 44,035 (97.41%) staff have been paid.

John Abraham
Godson, a Polish citizen born and raised in Nigeria, has been sworn-in
as the first black member of Poland’s parliament.

Mr. Godson had
served as a councillor in the city of Lodz before taking up a
parliamentary seat, vacated by a party colleague after local elections.
His entry into parliament has created a media stir in the mainly white
country.

He came to Poland
in the 1990s, opening an English language school, and working as a
pastor in a Protestant church. He has since married a Polish woman and
the couple have four children.

Beaten up twice

A member of the
centre-right Civic Platform Party, he was appointed to the seat vacated
by party colleague, Hanna Zdanowskaafter, after she became mayor of
Lodz.

Racism is still a
problem in Poland, where it is not uncommon for well-educated people to
make racist jokes and it is still quite rare to see black people even
in the Polish capital, Warsaw, Poland’s most cosmopolitan city.

Mr. Godson was
beaten up twice in the early 1990s, but he says attitudes to black
people in Poland are changing for the better, particularly since the
country joined the EU six years ago.

Speaking earlier to Polish radio, Mr. Godson said:

“I am from Lodz, I will live here, I want to die here, and I want to be buried here.”

The House of Representatives, on
Tuesday, readmitted another suspended member, Doris Uboh (PDP, Delta)
to the House as part of a gradual reintegration of the sanctioned
‘progressive’ lawmakers back into the House. Gbenga Oduwaye (PDP, Ogun)
and Austin Nwachukwu (PDP, Imo), who were also on suspension, were
pardoned last week. They attended yesterday’s plenary session. Also in
attendance were arrowheads of the group, Dino Melaye, Independence
Ogunewe, Solomon Awhinawhi, Abas Anas Adamu and Bitrus Kaze.

Messrs Melaye and Awhinawhi had, last
week, stormed the House’s chamber during a plenary session to enforce a
court ruling that their suspension was illegal, prompting deputy
speaker, Usman Nafada, to announce that the House was a law-abiding
institution and would therefore respect the decision of the court. It
was, however, gathered that the presence of Mr. Melaye and the others,
led to the temporary delay of the commencement of the plenary session
as the chamber was locked for about an hour allegedly to prevent them
from going in. But the doors to the chambers were opened at about
11.15pm after some of the lawmakers, who were hanging around the lobby,
expressed their anger over the development.

Obeying the court

In announcing the re-admittance of Ms.
Uboh, who had also gone to court to challenge her suspension, Mr.
Nafada, in the course of making the day’s announcements, informed
members that: “I received a communication in my office this morning on
the case by Doris Uboh that the Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled
that she be recalled back to the House. Uboh is hereby re-admitted.”

The lawmakers were suspended in June after they accused the leadership
of the House of corruption and threatened to remove the Speaker, Dimeji
Bankole if he did not resign as demanded. The lawmakers were forced out
of the House during a fracas at a plenary and were indefinitely
suspended by their colleagues. They has struggled most of last week to
have the judgment of the court overturning their suspension accepted by
the House leadership.

Wrongdoing in
society must be identified and punished to avoid the development of a
culture of impunity, President Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday during
a meeting with the leadership of the Evangelical Church Winning All
(ECWA).

Responding to a
call on government to take radical steps to ensure that individual
votes count in 2011, Mr. Jonathan said perpetrators of electoral
offences such as “changing figures of votes cast”, which is forgery,
would face the full wrath of the law, since “any crime that goes
unpunished leads to a culture of impunity, which does not augur well
for law and order.”

He also re-stated
his commitment to the conduct of free and fair elections in 2011,
adding that, “until people can elect those they want as their leaders,
democracy will not take root in Nigeria.”

Clarifying his
position on the militants and anti-social conduct in the Niger Delta,
the president said genuine militants who had embraced the amnesty were
being taken care of, but all those who have engaged in criminality
would be treated as criminals. The president further commended ECWA for
their role in partnering with government in educational, health and
rural development and congratulated them for celebrating their
centenary this year.

Laws on electoral offence

The president of
ECWA, Anthony Farinto, who led a delegation of the church to the State
House, called for laws to criminalise electoral malpractices.

“The current situation whereby some state governors,

federal and state
lawmakers occupy office for about three and a half years only to be
rooted out of office by competent courts is definitely not good for our
democracy,” he said.

He commended Mr.
Jonathan’s commitment to free and fair elections in 2011, his
determination to improve power supply and the establishment of six new
federal universities.

The ECWA president expressed concern at the incessant religious
crises in the North andcalled for a serious check on electoral
malpractices, as well as for a return of mission schools taken over by
government to their original owners.

Bolaji Akinyemi,
the former minister of foreign affairs, has called for a code of
conduct for Nigerian journalists. Speaking in Lagos yesterday, at the
launch of a book, “A decade of democracy,” written by Sanya Onayoade,
the former minister called on journalists to stop publishing pictures
of dead bodies in the media. He also decried the practice of the police
parading crime suspects in the media. He said, “Even if the police do
it [parade crime suspects], the media, knowing better, should not do
so.” Mr. Akinyemi commended the author of the book for taking the pains
to document a detailed record of Nigeria’s democracy in the last 10
years. He said Nigeria’s is bedevilled by incorrect details, especially
where it concerns the dead whose accounts are often misrepresented by
the living.

Distorted facts

The former minister
who spoke as the chairman at the book launch said: “What we have today
is people coming up with manufactured and twisted facts to suit their
own intentions, especially because some concerned people, who can
corroborate the facts, are already dead. A nation that cannot agree on
its history is a nation in crisis.”

He called for a concerted effort, from journalists and historians, to ensure Nigeria’s recent history is documented in earnest.

Alex Akinyele, a
former information minister, also backed the call for a code of conduct
for journalists. In his remarks, Fredrick Fasheun, the founder and
president of the Oodua Peoples’ Congress, reiterated the agitation of
the Yoruba ethnic nation for a sovereign national conference and true
federalism. He pleaded with all Nigerians to ensure they register and
vote in 2011, while also chiding the National Assembly members for
their recent unruly acts.

“Democracy where people have turned the chambers into boxing ring is no democracy,” he said.

Mr. Onayoade, the
author, said he decided to write the book to preserve the history of
the last 10 years for young Nigerians whose minds are prone to warped
tales from politicians.

“I don’t want my kids growing up reading wrong historical facts,” he said, recommending the book to all Nigerians.

Dele Alake, a
former information commissioner in Lagos State, who launched the book
said the book is a must-read for everyone aspiring to be leaders in
Nigeria. “Nigeria needs a leader who has knowledge, vision,

and will but we
have not been fortunate to have a president in the last decade that has
the three qualities. This book should be read by aspiring leaders in
Nigeria,” he said.

He described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the most
courageous president we have had but one that lacks the prerequisite
knowledge and vision and the late President Musa Yar’Adua as the exact
opposite of Mr. Obasanjo.

The National
Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
was forced to adjourn yesterday after about 40 minutes following
disagreement among its members on the amendment to the Electoral Act
2010, designed to include members of the National Assembly in their
parties’ NEC.

The meeting, which
began at about 1.47 pm at the Wadata Plaza came to an end at about
2.20pm after the party’s national Legal Adviser, Olusola Oke hurriedly
moved a motion for the adjournment of the meeting till Thursday. The
motion was seconded by a member of the House of Representatives, Shehu
Garba Matazu from Katsina State.

Sources at the
meeting said things started getting out of control when the PDP
national organizing secretary requested that the party chairmen from
Anambra, Ogun, Enugu and Oyo States should leave the venue of the
meeting.

Some of the
governors were said to have resisted the order, thereby prompting the
National Chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, to call for the adjournment of
the meeting, after consulting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

The governors, at
their different meetings in the last three days in Abuja, have kicked
against the amendment and had reportedly asked Mr Jonathan not to
assent to it when passed by the National Assembly.

Following the
adjournment, some top members of the NEC subsequently moved to the Aso
Rock Villa for a meeting, apparently to resolve the controversy on the
Electoral Act and other issues.

Those who moved to
the Aso Rock Villa were President Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo
and the entire leadership of the National Assembly.

Others were all
former national chairmen of the PDP, former chairmen of the Board of
Trustees, and all the governors. They were still meeting at press time
yesterday. The minister of Women Affairs, Josephine Anenih also held a
closed-doors meeting with women members of the NEC at the PDP
secretariat while state chairmen of the party also moved to an
undisclosed venue for their own parley.

Meeting adjourned

In a statement he
issued shortly after the meeting, the party’s national publicity
secretary, Ahmed Rufa’i Alkali said the NEC adjourned till Thursday to
give room for further consultations, adding that it became necessary
because of the need to include all stakeholders in the process of
arriving at acceptable decisions.

“At the 54th
meeting of the National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic
Party held today at the National Secretariat of our great Party, NEC in
a brief session resolved that in view of the critical importance of
issues to be deliberated upon, the meeting be adjourned till Thursday,
16th December, 2010 to give room for further consultations,” Mr Alkali
said.

However, before the
meeting dissolved into closed-doors, Mr Jonathan, in an apparent
reference to the tension generated in the party over the Electoral Act
and election timetable/guidelines, urged all members of the ruling
party to work together.

“It is a period that the atmosphere is charged and everybody is
stressed about one thing or the other. This period is very critical not
for PDP alone, but for the whole country,” he said. “But PDP is on top
because anything about PDP we set the agenda and everybody knows that
and that is why they concede to us and that is why other parties want
to participate in our primaries. Even though we don’t know when they
conduct their own primaries but they want to be involved and witness
our primaries. No matter what anybody says, we are the ruling party.