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Nine of the lawmakers rooting for the
impeachment of the speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Olawale
Atilola, at the weekend, petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan to
intervene in the crisis rocking the state legislature to forestall
bloodletting.

Other senior government officials
equally petitioned over the invasion of the state house of Assembly
last Tuesday are: the senate president David Mark, speaker of the House
of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, inspector-general of Police,
Ogbonna Onovo, and the director-general of the State Security Services
(SSS).

Thuggery and intimidation

Miffed by the level of desecration that
occurred at the chambers of the state legislature on the fateful day as
hoodlums from the state chapter of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers (NURTW) unleashed terror on some lawmakers, as well as caused
pandemonium at the premises of the state House of Assembly complex, the
petitioners are asking the relevant authorities to come to the rescue
of the state and preserve the sanctity of its legislative house.

Specifically, Samuel Ademola Adejumobi
(majority-leader); Nafiu Lamidi Baale (deputy-chief whip); Mohammed
Inakoju (chairman, Parliamentary Caucus); Taoreed Abiola, Kazeem
Ayilara, Bamidele Ajibola, Tijani Ademola, Kayode Animashaun, and
Michael Okunlade, who jointly signed the petition wanted full
investigation to the incident and bring all connected to it to book
without further delay. The aggrieved lawmakers particularly called on
the president, and heads of the petitioned security agencies to effect
immediate arrest of the state NURTW chairman, Lateef Salako (a.k.a.
Eleweomo) and his deputy, Mukaila Lamidi (a.k.a. Auxiliary), who led
thugs to the chambers and assaulted some members of the house, stripped
three others naked and injured two others.

Recalling how they had earlier in the
day approached the state police commissioner, Baba Adisa Bolanta, on
the need to beef up security around the chambers to prevent the crisis,
the petitioners said they had got information beforehand that the
speaker had instructed the thugs to “deal with us on sighting us in the
premises of the house.”

Political backing for thugs

The lawmakers, who wanted the speaker
removed over sundry allegations of incompetence and high-handedness,
were suspended same day by the speaker and 15 others members of the 32
member-house. They alleged that despite the assurance on their live
after the earlier report, the policemen deployed by the CP to maintain
law and order around the house, looked the other way when they were
being attacked and chased away by thugs on the order of the speaker.

Accompanied with pictorial evidences,
the three-page petition equally alleged that some lawmakers, who are in
support of the speaker, including Messrs Lekan Ganiyu, Mathew Abioye
and Idowu Akanbi, as well as the state’s deputy governor, Taofeek
Arapaja, the secretary to state government, Olayiwola Olakojo, some
serving commissioners and local government council chairmen, directed
the weapon-wielding thugs to deal with the petitioners mercilessly.

The disgruntled lawmakers said they had
moved out of the state since the attack for personal safety, adding
that the mentioned hoodlums and others like one Sarafa (a.k.a. Oye
Olorun) and Sola Layiwola “are the usual thugs that have been
terrorizing the political elites in Ibadan such as Lekan Balogun and
Alhaji Akinbola of recent.”

Wondering why the police would continue to allow the like of
Elewe-Omo and Auxiliary to continue roaming the state with guns and
other dangerous weapons, the petitioners said, “all efforts to make the
commissioner of police, Alhaji Adisa Bolanta to arrest these thugs have
proved abortive, these thugs now have serious police coverage which is
not safe for the peace of Oyo State.”

The federal
government has concluded plans to develop a database of all unemployed
persons in Nigeria, the minister of labour and productivity,
Chukwuemeka Wogu, has said.

The minister said
registering the unemployed in the country is necessary because nobody
knows the number of Nigerians that are unemployed, and planning
activity has been based on extrapolation. He said when this is
completed, employers will have easy access to labour while the platform
will be very useful for all activities in economic planning.

“Unemployment has
been a major problem in the country and has impeded on economic growth
of the nation,” he said. “It is a global problem now since both
emerging and established economies are battling with problems of
unemployment which has been worsened by the fact of global recession
which has been there for some time now. Inasmuch as we agree that there
is a high incidence of unemployment; nobody has been able to have an
approximate knowledge of the figure not to talk about exactitude though
you cannot have the exact figure. We do not have that. It is only
recently that the minister of finance said it is 19 per cent based on
National Bureau of Statistics information. So because of this
inaccurate data, we now went into registration of unemployed people and
to have a data base on it.”

Mr. Wogu explained
that an implementation committee, which comprises members from
government ministries, private sector and technical experts on ICT, was
set up to articulate this project and had submitted a report which
indicates that the first stage of the project will involve the
designing of an architectural platform that would be the basis for the
data base.

“The essence of the
data base is to capture at least 90 per cent of the unemployed people
through various means of data capturing using facilities that are
already in existence, which are state offices of the labour ministry
and National Directorate of Employment,” he said.

Abuja pilot project

When the
architectural platform is established, the next step will be the
development and deployment of publicity modules, followed by the
recruitment and training of frontline operators and monitoring officers
who do the registration and also help determine the situation of the
unemployed persons.

“The last issues
are output and analysis of the data and issuing of reports. Tied to
this is an outline of major deliverables we intend to achieve. After
this is the major activity which now has a timeline,” he said.

The minister equally said that a pilot of this project will start
off soon in FCT, after which other states will be covered. To avoid
double registration, the ministry said it plans to introduce some
biometrics in the process, even as it indicated its determination to
collaborate with the National Planning Commission and the National
Bureau of Statistics in this project.

The National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Sunday, announced the arrest of a
traditional doctor, Longe Adewale, and six others for peddling illegal
substances tested to be hard drugs.

According to the
agency, the suspects, who were all apprehended at the Murtala Mohammed
International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, included an “unrepentant drug
convict,” Uzoaru Oliver, who tested positive for drug ingestion on
Thursday, June 3, during screening of passengers on Iberia flight to
Madrid, Spain.

Mitchell Ofoyeju,
spokesperson for the agency, disclosed that the native doctor was
caught on June 8, attempting to board Iberia flight to Paris with 77
pieces of cocaine, which he is still expelling.

The suspect, Mr. Adewale, who fortified himself with charms, disclosed that he was surprised that he was found with drugs.

“I am a
traditional doctor and I prepared myself before the trip, so it is
shocking that they were able to detect me,” said the suspect, who hails
from Iperu, Ogun State.

Commenting on the
arrest of the ex-convict, the agency’s spokesperson disclosed that
while on observation, Uzoaru expelled 60 pieces of powdery substance
that tested positive for cocaine, weighing 915g.

“Uzoaru was first
arrested April 9, 2009 while about to board a KLM flight to Holland
with 1.27kg of cocaine in his stomach. He was charged to court and
sentenced to eight months imprisonment after which he regained his
freedom on Friday December 11, 2009,” he said.

The suspect, in a
statement from the agency, blamed his involvement in drug trafficking
on human error and frustration, adding that after leaving detention he
had nothing else to do.

“It is not a good thing to be in this condition, but I was frustrated and could not explain how it happened again.”

One of the lawyers employed by Ondo State governor,
Olusegun Mimiko, to defend him before the election petition tribunal
was quizzed at the weekend by men of the State Security Service (SSS)
over the source of the security report he tendered during the election
petitions tribunal proceedings.

Mr Mimiko, the candidate of the Labour Party,
challenged the declaration of former governor, Olusegun Agagu of the
PDP as winner of the 2007 polls at the tribunal, and successfully had
his victory at the polls affirmed by the tribunal. The lawyer, Remi
Olatubora, who is the chairman of Ondo State Sports Council, was one of
the notable legal practitioners contracted by Mr. Mimiko to plead his
case at both the tribunal and the Appeal Court.

Mr. Olatobora, who confirmed to reporters in Akure
that he was invited by the director of SSS to his office at the
Alagbaka during the weekend, said he was drilled for several hours. He
said he was denied access to his phone immediately he entered the
agency’s offices.

“Straight away, as I got to the SSS office, I was
stripped off my phones and I was quizzed by a team of interrogators
from Abuja, headquarters of the security agency,” he said.

Some members of the PDP in the state had called for
the evaluation of the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal
delivered in the case to test the authenticity of security reports
tendered during the proceedings at the tribunals.

Questions about exhibits

They further argued that the security reports
tendered by Mr Mimiko’s counsel during the course of the litigation
were either forged or fake. Mr. Olatubora, who noted that he was
questioned by the SSS team led by one Mohammed Garba, said he was asked
to disclose the source of the security reports tendered during
proceedings.

“I told them that I was not in the position to know where the
litigant got his SSS reports from, but I admitted that it was parts of
the exhibits tendered at the Tribunal,” he said. “I told my
interrogators that I was not the lead counsel of Mimiko’s legal team
and could not have known.”

The
Speakers of the 36 state Houses of Assembly are scheduled to meet with
members of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review
(JCCR) tomorrow, in Abuja, as part of efforts to fast track the
endorsement of the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Usman Nafada, disclosed this to journalists at the weekend.

The meeting, according to Mr. Nafada, will take a closer look at the amended sections of the Constitution by the 88-member JCCR.

Both the Senate
and the House had, two weeks ago, endorsed the amendment of a total of
78 sections of the Constitution, as recommended by the 14-member
conference committee of both chambers that harmonised reports earlier
tabled by their ad-hoc committees.

The amended
sections will, however, become law if at least two-third (about 24
states) of the state Houses of Assembly approve them.

Mr. Nafada, who
heads the 44-member House ad-hoc committee, said the leadership of the
National Assembly convened the meeting to x-ray the merits and high
points of the harmonised document in order to facilitate speedy
resolution by the 36 state Assemblies in the country.

The Deputy Speaker
said he, alongside the Senate President, David Mark; Speaker of the
House, Dimeji Bankole; as well as the chairman of the Senate ad-hoc
committee on the review of the constitution, Ike Ekweremadu, will lead
the National Assembly delegation to the meeting.

The Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bello Adoke, is
expected to lead the Federal Government delegation to the meeting.

Fast track the passage

The Deputy Speaker
said himself (Nafada) will present the opening remarks detailing the
various stages of the amendment process, to provide a clearer
understanding of how the exercise started and why it took the various
resolutions on all the issues in the amendment; while Mr. Ekweremadu
will give a step by step account of the various clauses in the
amendment.

“The time between
now and the next general election is short, hence the need for the
meeting to fast track the passage of the amendment in order to
strengthen the democratic process,” he added.

He said there was
need to conclude the passage of the harmonised Constitution so that the
National Assembly can concentrate properly on the resolution of all the
issues in the Electoral Act on which work is over 80 percent complete.

Mr. Nafada also explained that since the National Assembly has
resolved to create additional states, the speedy passage of the
Constitution and the Electoral Act will provide enough allowance to
give proper attention to the issue of state creation.

The
presidential ambition of former military leader, Ibrahim Babangida,
came under attack at the weekend as a shadow parliament, convened by
Nigerians resident in the United States, passed a resolution urging the
Federal Government to prosecute him for annulling the June 12, 1993
election.

The parliament,
which unanimously passed the resolution at its second session, held at
the LaGuardia Crowne Plaza in New York, also approved a motion that the
former military president should be banned from holding any public
office in the country for his role in the derailment of what is
believed to be the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s history.

The Nigeria
Peoples’ Parliament in Diaspora, an initiative of the Nigeria
Democratic Liberty Forum, a New-York based pro-democracy group, is a
platform for citizens in the Diaspora to “cross fertilize ideas” and
suggest solutions to the country’s myriad problems. Its first plenary
was in March this year.

The resolutions on
Babangida, at Saturday’s session, deliberately scheduled to coincide
with the 17th anniversary of the annulled poll, followed an extensive
debate on the significance of the 1993 election in Nigeria’s democratic
journey.

After more than
half of the over 80 parliamentarians at the session had spoken, (most
of them paying glowing tributes to the winner of that election, Moshood
Abiola, and those who were killed and incarcerated in the battle to
de-annul the election), the Speaker, Okey Ndibe, a professor of
Literature at Trinity College, Connecticut, called for motions.

Omoyele Sowore,
publisher of Saharareporters.com, an online news medium, and Alex
Kabba, publisher of African Abroad-USA, a New York-based newspaper,
moved “That IBB be banned from public office indefinitely.”

In the motion,
seconded by a certain Bukola Shonuga, Messrs Sowore and Kabba argued
that Babangida had made himself a criminal by derailing Nigeria’s
democratic journey and setting the country many years back. They,
therefore, want him arrested and prosecuted.

“The time has come
for punishment to be meted on the criminals who annulled that
election,” Mr. Sowore said. “We must also find out from Babangida those
who put a gun to his head and asked him to annul the election. They
should all be identified, interrogated, and appropriately punished.”

After the motion
was passed, several others followed in its wake. NDLF’s chairman,
Adegboyega Dada, a physician, moved that Mr. Babangida should be
declared an enemy of democracy and of the Nigerian people while “June
12 should be declared Democracy Day and be so recognised by the
Nigerian government.”

The motion, seconded by a Mr. Dimeji Ayanwale, was unanimously passed.

Then Haziz Ajayi,
who came from Chicago, proposed that to honour Mr. Abiola, his
photograph should replace that of former Central Bank of Nigeria’s
governors on the N1000 note. Gbenga Agbaje moved that the late
businessman-cum-politician should be posthumously declared winner of
the election.

Chukwuma Okadigwe,
Emmanuel Onasile, Dimeji Lawal, Ololade Lacrown, Biliaminu Faleti,
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba, and Mutiu Leshi proposed different motions
asking the government to declare June 12 a national holiday and erect
monuments in honour of Mr. Abiola and other heroes of the pro-democracy
struggle that arose from the cancellation of the election. All the
motions succeeded.

Monitor the elections

Earlier, during the
debate on the anniversary of the annulled election, Mr. Ndibe described
June 12 as “one of those moments that the promise and prospect of
Nigeria as a viable political entity came alive.”

In a prepared
speech he gave before the parliament began its deliberation, Mr. Dada
lamented the annulment of the 1993 election and urged Nigerians “to
renew your spirit in readiness for the task ahead. Together, we can do
new things. Remember, patriots never keep mute.”

Before closing the
session, the parliament received and deliberated on the report of its
electoral and constitutional review committee.

The seven-member
committee, chaired by Bolaji Aluko, a professor of chemical engineering
at Howard University in Washington, recommended that the electoral
system used for the 1993 election should be adopted for the 2011
elections.

The committee also
suggested that the Independent National Electoral Commission should
have an oversight board comprising representatives of political
parties, and that Nigerians in the Diaspora should be eligible to vote.

Another highlight
of the 30-point recommendations urged the National Assembly to adopt
the Justice Uwais report, which stated that the National Judicial
Council, rather than the president, should have the responsibility of
appointing INEC official.

The parliament announced that it would raise a well-equipped team
that would travel to Nigeria to monitor the forthcoming general
elections.

The calm and coolly
articulate man once dubbed ‘No Drama Obama’ chose some surprising
profanity this week to demonstrate a different side of his personality.

Facing criticism
that he hasn’t been involved or emotional enough about the oil leak
that is now the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, President
Barack Obama insisted that he’s working closely with experts on a very
particular goal.

“We talk to these
folks because they potentially have the best answers,” he told our
colleagues at NBC News, “so I know whose ass to kick.” Obama may be
angry the same way that millions of Americans are. An oil-rig accident
that started out bad – with the deaths of 11 workers – has gotten much
worse. It’s become a national catastrophe and media obsession that’s
dragged on for nearly two months.

Polls suggest it’s also now a political problem for the president and that may be a factor in his show of anger as well.

After the
infamously slow emergency effort that followed Hurricane Katrina in
2005, an ABC News/Washington Post poll that found 62 per cent of
respondents thought poorly of the Bush administration’s response.

The same poll now
finds that even more Americans – 69 per cent – have a negative opinion
of the Obama administration’s work since the spill.

There may be something larger happening too.

Americans felt optimistic when they elected Obama president more than a year and a half ago.

Now, under the
pressure of a still sluggish economy and stubbornly high unemployment,
Americans tell pollsters they are angry about the state of the country.
Is it a coincidence that the president’s own persona is beginning to
reflect that?

Obama is not
turning into a ranting populist railing against the oil industry. But
America’s sour mood is being darkened further by the oil coming ashore
on its south coast.

The president clearly doesn’t want to look too cheerful about the challenge.

A recent study by
the World Bank Group, in conjunction with the United Kingdom Department
for International Development (DFID), has unravelled the issues
conspiring to sustain the prevailing difficult operating business
environment in most states of Nigeria. The 176-page report, titled,
‘Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times’ launched on
Thursday in Abuja, as part of the Nigeria Sub-national Investment
Climate Programme, focused on key areas of regulations affecting four
stages of business life cycle in the country, covering starting a
business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, and
enforcing contracts.

The initial study
in 2008 dwelled on quantitative indicators on business regulations in
10 states, including Kano, Anambra, Ogun, Enugu, Kaduna, Sokoto, Abia,
Bauchi, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The 2010 edition
not only documented the progress in the previous study, but also
expanded the scope to all the 36 states and Abuja, comparing their
performances with 183 economies worldwide. The thrust of the report was
to investigate the conditions that enhance business activity, as well
as the constraining factors to the growth of small and medium scale
liability companies. The overriding objective was to provide the basis
for understanding and improving the regulatory environment for business.

Study findings

Findings from the
study, according to the World Bank Group Vice President, Financial and
Private Sector Development, Janamitra Devan, showed that though there
exist wide variations in business regulations nationwide, eight of the
11 states measured in 2008 recorded improvements in at least one of the
four areas above, as a result of various reforms initiated to change
the business environment.

The variations were
attributed to different performance levels of state branches of federal
agencies involved in the different stages in the business registration
process, such as Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), stamp duty
offices, federal and state inland revenue services, as well as state
licensing authorities for business premises.

While it takes only
five procedures, 22 days and about 58.5 per cent of per capita income
to complete the cycle of starting a business, it takes almost an extra
month to complete a similar incorporation process in Bayelsa State,
owing to the high number of processes required to be met. Across the 36
states, starting a limited liability company, the study shows, requires
an average of nine different procedures, 36 days and about 77.7 per
cent of Nigeria’s per capita income of $1,161 (about N174,150).

On dealing with
construction permits, the report says it is easier to obtain all
construction-related permits and utility connections in Jigawa, Sokoto,
Kano and Adamawa States than in Abuja, Lagos, and Ogun. In 32 of the
states, requirements for construction permits include: environmental
impact assessment (EIA), land use clearance, site analysis report and
fire safety report, while Jigawa, Kwara, Kano, Benue, and Sokoto States
do not require such permits for the construction of structures with low
environmental impact.

Completion of the
all procedures for the permits could be as fast as within 47 days in
Jigawa, 52 in Kwara or as long as 148 days in Rivers State or 350 in
Lagos, as a result of the bottlenecks of obtaining building permit and
getting permanent electricity connection, the report shows.

Registering
property, according to the study, has continued to be a slow, expensive
and burdensome process, with entrepreneurs having to go through an
average of 12 procedures over 82 days and having to pay over 16 per
cent of the value of the property to have it registered in the Land
Registry. The involvement of lawyers to register property is a big
impediment to the property transfer process, though not as much as the
requirement to secure the state governor’s consent.

Rating by states

On enforcing
contracts, the study shows that it takes an average of 511 days and
about 36.3 per cent of the claim value in all the states to enforce a
contract, as a result of clumsy court processes. Overall, Jigawa, Gombe
and Borno were adjudged the easiest states in the country to do
business, while Imo and Ogun states were considered the most difficult.

Despite
his insistence that his administration will organise free and fair
elections in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan does nor appear serious
about electoral reform, the opposition Action Congress (AC) has said.

The party, in a
statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, the
party said Nigerians should not be deceived by the president’s
assurances, and should instead judge him by his efforts so far in that
direction (electoral reform).

Backing up its
assertion, the party said from all indications, all the recommendations
made to Mr Jonathan by the sub-committee on electoral reforms of the
Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) have been jettisoned. The party
said highlights of the recommendations, made to Mr Jonathan on May
19th, include that he should invite governors elected on the platform
of opposition parties as well as all opposition presidential candidates
in the 2007 general elections to make recommendations on appointments
into INEC.

The president was
also advised to inform security agencies concerning their role before,
during and after elections; vigorous enlightenment campaigns by the
government using the National Orientation Agency and the media on why
every vote must count and ensuring that electoral materials are ready
long before elections to avoid delays in voting and ensure all voters
vote simultaneously.

“The party regrets
that none of these recommendations has been implemented by the
president, with just a few months to the next elections,” the party
said, as it urges the PAC members to resign or they would be seen as
part of what is increasingly looking like a deliberate effort to stifle
the success of the 2011 elections.

“The general
feeling is that the president is not following PAC’s recommendations in
carrying out the decisions he has made so far, especially in the
appointments into INEC. If this is not so, it is better for the members
to quit instead of soiling whatever reputation they have built over the
years,” the party said.

Look at Uwais report

The party said if
Mr Jonathan is truly committed to electoral reforms and wants to
guarantee free and fair polls in 2011, he should adopt wholesale the
recommendations of the Uwais panel, especially as it relates to
appointments into INEC.

“People have said
Prof. Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman-designate, is a fine gentleman
with impeccable credentials. We agree, but we will like to say, again,
that those credentials may not matter much as far as the INEC job is
concerned. In the first instance, Jega is just one out of 50 INEC
commissioners, and he can only do so much in an environment polluted by
compromised national commissioners and RECs.

Secondly, there is a fatal flaw in the recent appointments of INEC
Commissioners and RECs. One of the National Commissioners is a member
of the PDP’s Board of Trustees. Another was a former gubernatorial
candidate of the PDP in Zamfara, while several others are known
sympathisers of some political parties,” added the opposition party.

Four armed men,
suspected to be hired assassins, invaded the Abuja residence of a
senator from Kwara State, Gbemisola Saraki, daughter of Olusola Saraki,
the Second Republic senate leader, in the early hours of yesterday,
after overpowering her security aides.

The men undertook a
meticulous search of the entire building, looking for Ms Saraki, but
had to abandon their mission when they couldn’t locate the senator who
had travelled out of Abuja days earlier, after the Senate announced its
recess.

The men, who made
enough racket to wake up all the senator’s aides and other residents
living in the building, had arrived around 1am yesterday and proceeded
to search the rooms, demanding to see Mrs Saraki.

“They came around
with sophisticated weapons,” a family member said. “Ms. Saraki was
however not at home when the suspected assassins forced their way into
her house. They took her security aides and other members of her family
hostage, demanding her whereabouts.” According to eyewitness account,
the thugs were speaking in Yoruba, Ms Saraki’s language, claiming that
they were sent from Ilorin, her home state, to kill the senator.

Emmanuel Ojukwu,
the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police, said in a telephone
that the police is treating the crime as a “burglary and theft
attempt.” He also said that his men have not discovered any new
information on the incident.

Family sources
however said the armed men ransacked Ms Saraki’s house and locked her
family inside a room after they could not find her.

A member of the
family said the raid lasted for almost one hour and the police only
arrived the scene hours after the men had left.

The senate
leadership condemned the attack and asked the police to commence
immediate investigation. “We received with shock news of the attempt on
the life of Senator Gbemisola Saraki,” Ayogu Eze, the senate
spokesperson said. “We condemn the violation of the sanctity of Ms.
Saraki’s household and the abuse of the constitutional rights of her
relations and domestic staff. We call on the Inspector General of
Police and other security agencies to step into this matter and fish
out the master-minds and the culprits in this heinous act.”

Ms Saraki could not
be reached for her comments hours after the incident. However, on her
Facebook page, she posted the message that, “The protection of Allah
shall be banner over the lives of souls whose paths are always shining
light on others.”

Bad omen for 2011

Ms Saraki, who
switched to the senate in 2003 after she had spent four years as a
member of the House of Representatives, hopes to take over from her
brother, Bukola Saraki, as the governor of Kwara State. The brother,
whose final tenure ends next year, is reportedly not keen on handing
over to his sister.

One of her aides
said the fact that the men claimed to be from Ilorin might mean that
some people were trying to frighten her away from the contest or worse,
to ensure that she was in no position to contest.

Mr Eze said Nigerians should stop employing violence in politics.

“Politics of
violence and brigandage belong to our regrettable past and any attempt
to return us to that inglorious era is unfortunate and completely
unacceptable,” he said.

“Political or other differences should be resolved through dialogue
and consensus building and not by recourse to thuggery and
arm-twisting. Our new politics should not be foreshadowed by threats of
violence and thuggery. This development obviously sends a wrong signal
and we urge the police to deal with this matter comprehensively.”