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Talks between the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC) aimed at producing an alliance broke down again on Monday
night following the inability of the delegations of the two parties to
agree on which platform the aspirants should contest the elections.

At a meeting held
in the Maitama District, Abuja home of the deputy chairman of the Board
of Trustees of the CPC, Sule Hamma, the two parties were said to have
rejected proposals for either of the parties to be used by aspirants.

While the CPC
delegation insisted that its platform should be used, those of the ACN
wanted their party’s platform to be used by the presidential candidate
since it is coming into the arrangement as a senior partner.

The ACN delegation
reportedly said that apart from having four governors, the party has a
semblance of national spread than the CPC.

A source at the
party, however, said the two parties could also not resolve the issue
of who should fly the presidential flag as well as the running mate.

“The major areas of
disagreement were the platform on which to use and the issue of running
mate. But the issue of running mate was not much of a problem rather it
was the platform. Because of these areas of disagreement, the meeting
was inconclusive,” the source stated yesterday.

When contacted, the
spokesman of the CPC, Dennis Aghanya merely confirmed that the two
parties met in Abuja on Monday night, but refused to speak further.

“I can’t tell you
anything now,” he said. “By the time we conclude the alliance talks we
will tell you everything. It is true the parties met in Abuja.” The
spokesman of the ACN, Lai Mohammed could not be reached for comments.

The two parties
have been engaged in alliance talks for several months with a view to
confronting the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the 2011
polls. However, the talks have not yielded any fruit following the
alleged insistence of the CPC to produce its presidential candidate.

There were also
reports that at some point, the ACN agreed to produce the vice
presidential candidate but could not agree on who to pick among the
former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, the former governor of
Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo and former governor of Anambra State, Chris
Ngige.

If they finally agree to form the alliance, the parties will present common candidates where each of them is strong.

The Bauchi Meat Company is negotiating a N300 million contract with the Nigerian Army for the supply of minced meat.

The Commissioner
for Commerce and Industries, Yerima Giade, said this in an interview
with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi, on Tuesday, claiming
that the contract when signed, would enable the company to supply the
product to soldiers in the UN peacekeeping operations abroad.

He said that the
product would be a substitute to the 600 cartons of dry meat (kilishi)
currently being supplied to soldiers in various peacekeeping missions
abroad.

Mr Giade explained that last year, the company had supplied dry meat but that authorities of the army preferred minced meat.

He said that
negotiations had also been intensified to get the various airlines and
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to patronise the
product.

Mr Giade said that the company has expanded the supply of its product to Abuja and Lagos to further boost its revenue base.

The company which was established in 1964, collapsed 25 years ago,
after it was inherited from the defunct Northern Nigeria Government
company and was resuscitated by the present administration.

The President of
the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Olawale Ajani, says the
spate of kidnapping in the country is caused by insecurity.

Mr Ajani told the
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday that kidnapping is
like gambling, saying it is now the business of the day.

“When you kidnap
and you are given ransom, somebody looks at it and says this is good
business, what does it take to kidnap? If it had been discouraged at
inception, it would have been curbed by now,” he said.

He said NYCN was opposed to kidnapping or any action which could aggravate the security situation in the country.

” We have talked
about kidnapping and insist that young people should not engage in it;
this gives a bad image to our country,” he said. Mr Ajani said that the
country needed to engage its youth in order to curtail the menace of
kidnapping. He said NYCN would soon launch a platform which would
enable youth to get information that would be useful to them in the
pursuit of their goals.

” We are working on
developing our strategic plan to guide us on what we will implement in
the next two years. We are working with UNFPA because we are looking at
the area of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS among others,” he said.

He also called for
youth participation in governance, saying “our leaders should give
young people more opportunities in governance.

” They should not
see us as future leaders, we are partners in today’s development of
this country and they should give us opportunities,” he added.

Mr Ajani also urged
the federal government to devote more funds to youth programmes through
the Ministry of Youth and Social Development.

The Human Rights
Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for the creation of
a commission under the presidency to coordinate religious dialogues
among Nigerians.

The association
made the call in Abuja on Tuesday in a statement signed by its national
coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, and director, media affairs, Zainab
Yusuf, asking that the commission should be empowered to identify those
who always sponsored religious and political violence for prosecution
and punishment at the specially created anti-terrorism tribunal.

The group also
urged the Federal Government to immediately probe allegations from
several quarters that some members of the current military task force
were allegedly compromised and were active collaborators with the armed
attackers.

The group blamed
government for the continuous mass murders in the state, saying “it has
clearly shown total lack of political will to decisively deal with the
well known patrons and sponsors of the previous violent unrests in that
state.”

It also called on
President Goodluck Jonathan to “seriously look at workable ways and
means of tackling the violence in Plateau, because it has the dangerous
domino effects of spreading to other parts of the country, including
the nation’s capital.”

Legal points

The association
appealed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Attorney-General and
Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, to actively lobby the National
Assembly to pass the pending anti-terrorism bill into law.

It said the bill
should entail a provision for the creation of a special anti-terrorism
tribunal with stiff penalty of life jail to be handed to convicted
offenders.

The group condemned
what it termed ‘a slap on the wrist,’ and ‘friendly sentences’ handed
down by the Federal High Court, Jos division, to some suspected
culprits in the previous crises in Jos.

“It is
inconceivable that some of those prosecuted for the previous violent
killings in parts of Plateau were awarded lenient sentences of less
than five years by a Federal High Court judge in the Jos division,” it
said.

“This explains the
reason why such dastardly acts of gruesome mass murder of innocent
Nigerians will continue; so far as the perpetrators are assured of
lenient judicial sanction by the courts, if caught and prosecuted.”

The group also
expressed its belief that the perpetrators of the violent killings
believe that their political godfathers are so well connected in high
places and that their trial in the law courts can be compromised, so as
to obtain soft treatment.

A group called JAMA’ATU AHLUS-SUNNAH LIDDA’AWATI WAL JIHAD late on Monday, claimed the responsibility for the attack in Jos.

“We are doing this
jihad to re-establish the Islamic system and that Allah deen become
supreme in this country, Nigeria. he colonials came and destroy the
then Usmaniyya Caliphate and bring about secularism and western system
of education,” it said.

Ward Congresses in
Adamawa State to select ward and local governments ad hoc delegates of
the People’s Democratic Party ended yesterday with discordant tunes
emerging from various camps of the four governorship aspirants of the
party.

Joel Madaki, former
chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Adamawa State and Umar
Ardo, a former aide to Atiku Abubakar, in a joint press conference
dismissed the elections saying it was not properly conducted.

The congress was to
elect three ad hoc delegates at the ward level and one at the local
government level for both the gubernatorial and presidential primaries
coming up early next year. But Mr Ardo said elections in most local
government areas never held, but rather, delegates were selected.

“Our people came
out expecting elections to hold, but until one o’clock, nobody
appeared, neither the INEC officers nor the PDP officers arrived. In
some places, those who came for the elections dispersed while in some
places they did a walkover because the governor’s side did not come. So
most of them were either that of my side or Joel Madaki or that of Buba
Marwa,” Mr Ardo said. “In some cases, they were told congresses were
conducted and concluded in the night only to be told by 7:30 in the
morning it was finished.”

The fight for who
gets more party delegates, seen to be a contest between Mr Marwa, a
former governor of Lagos State and Murtala Nyako, the incumbent
governor, is tangential to the claims by the other two contenders.

Both Messrs Marwa
and Nyako have expressed satisfaction with the process. Mr Marwa said
he was confident of favourable outcome in 15 out of the 21 local
government areas of the state. Mr Nyako, on the other hand, who is
accused of manipulating the process in his favour, is seen by his
supporters to be in the lead for the party delegates in the state.

Mr Marwa, who told
journalists at a press conference at his residence that he had
interacted personally with over 700 of the delegates taking part in the
elections, said he was envisaging success in the primaries because of
the effort of his campaign organisation, which he said was doing its
home work effectively.

Waiting for INEC

But Messrs Ardo and
Madaki have already petitioned INEC to jettison the ward congresses.
Both men said there were obvious signs. “Because your votes should
count, the principle of the president that every vote should count has
been defeated. Its not true, because it has not been reflected in the
first elections to hold,” Mr Ardo said.

Mr Madaki further
stated that despite the commitment of both the presidency and INEC to
conducting free, fair and credible elections, there can never be free
and fair elections if the internal democracy within the parties are not
strictly adhered to. Mr Joel advised Mr Nyako, who is the leader of the
party in the state as well as the chief security officer, to be mindful
of the security implications of subverting democratic means.

The INEC chairman in the state however said he was yet to get
reports from all his men on the field and would like to reserve
official comments till tomorrow when he expects full briefing on the
matter.

The People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted calls for the postponement of the
governorship election in Delta State, saying such call left it in
‘utter disbelief.’ The party also said it was troubled that some
political parties were planning to sabotage the re-run elections in the
state.

Fresh election for
the governorship of Delta State is scheduled to hold on January,
following the nullification of the 2007 election of former governor of
the state, Emmanuel Uduaghan. But the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
recently said the election should be postponed to give all aspirants
more time to prepare.

“We view the call
from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) for the postponement of the
elections as suspicious, ill timed and baseless,” a statement from the
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Rufai Alkali said. “It comes to us as
a huge surprise that ACN which has no candidate in the forthcoming
rerun elections would, with no valid reason or cause, just call for
postponement of an election whose date was fixed long time ago. We
wonder why a political party that did not participate in the first
election would call for a postponement at this time. The PDP wishes to
disassociate itself fully from these dubious and mischievous ranting of
latter day democrats.” Mr Alkali also said the PDP wishes to call on
INEC to ignore the ‘diversionary calls’ and go ahead with its
preparations for the elections.

ACN’S position

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) in a press statement issued by its National Publicity
Secretary, Lai Mohammed on Monday warned INEC not to go ahead with the
election on January 6, 2011, if indeed the electoral body wants free,
fair and credible polls.

Mr Mohammed alleged
that there is no credible voters’ register in Delta State or anywhere
at all in the country to allow for a successful election.

According to the
party, “the main plank of the Court of Appeal’s nullification of the
2007 Delta’s State governorship election was the failure of INEC to
tender or even plead the voters’ register allegedly used in the April
14, 2007 election.” It however also alleged that the party said the way
and manner the Delta rerun has been handled so far gives the impression
that nothing has changed in INEC since the discredited Maurice Iwu era,
and that its chairman Attahiru Jega may have been hemmed in by those
bent on seeing to it that INEC under him fails woefully, as it did
under Mr Iwu.

As the yuletide
holidays come to an end, hundreds of outbound and inbound passengers
were on Tuesday seen at the both domestic terminals of the Murtala
Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.

With some of the
travellers purchasing air tickets for their respective destinations,
others at the arrival terminals were being received by their loved ones
as they prepare for their regular work activities.

“It is no surprise
to see this crowd here because the Christmas holidays end today and
from tomorrow, work begins for most people; so one has to leave for
work after spending time with family members during the holidays,” said
Onoriode Victor, an Abuja bound passenger with Aero Contractors at the
Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA2).

Three days prior to
Tuesday, flight activities at the domestic airports were on the low as
only a handful of travelers visited the terminals to embark on flights.

Mr Victor, however,
frowned at the increase in fares across major destinations within the
country, describing the development as “inadequate.” “I paid N4,000
extra for this trip to Abuja; but before now, I know you can book
online for tickets four times lesser than the amount I paid today,” he
said. “This to me is unfair and inadequate. They (airlines) should not
use this period to exploit travelers knowing that a lot of people fly
these days because of our bad roads.” To Chike Nelson, another
traveller with Arik Air at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT), the
increase in fare is no surprise, as he maintained that the season
requires “multiple expenses.” “The increase in air fares is something
we encounter every year, and this is not only with airline operators;
other service providers and even those that sells food items inflate
their prices this period. In fact this season comes with multiple
expenses,” he said.

Admitting that the
high passenger turnout at the airports necessitated the increased
fares, a ticketing and reservation officer with Aero at MMA2 who spoke
on conditions of anonymity said that airlines have this period to make
up for some of their losses in the past.

“As you know airlines in Nigeria are faced with a lot of challenges
and we pay series of charges to many agencies in the industry, so a
little addition to the regular air ticket amount should not be seen as
an act of exploitation,” said the officer.

Former Minister of
Police Affairs Adamu Waziri has advised the people of Yobe State to
vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 general elections.

Mr Waziri made the
call in Damaturu on Sunday when he formally declared his intention to
contest the governorship election in the state on the platform of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Addressing party
supporters in Damaturu, Mr Waziri said that President Jonathan stood
for “peace, growth and prosperity of the country, and Yobe in
particular.”

He described the
campaign by the PDP to snatch Yobe from the ruling All Nigeria Peoples
Party (ANPP) as a “struggle for freedom.”

Mr Waziri urged PDP supporters to close ranks and collectively move
the state forward, adding that “we must support whoever emerges as the
party’s candidate so as to wrest power from the ANPP.”

A member of the
House of Representatives, Hassan Adamu, on Monday said effective voter
registration would check the menace of election manipulations in the
country.

Mr Adamu, who is a
PDP member representing Birnin Gwari, Giwa Federal Constituency, said
the introduction of the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines by INEC
would add value to elections.

The legislator
commended the commission’s proposal to recruit NYSC and senior students
of tertiary institutions to conduct the 2011 exercise, but however,
appealed to the commission to consider the terrain of most of the
locations in the country to incorporate indigenous staff to work with
the NYSC and the students as local guide.

“These people are more conversant with the terrain. It will ensure
effective conduct of the exercise to avoid disenfranchising people,
especially those in the remote places.” He said.

The Chief of Army staff, Onyeabo Ihejirika, said
yesterday that although the deployment of soldiers to the Niger Delta
was to ensure peace, the military will not condone lawlessness. Mr.
Ihejirika, a lieutenant general, was on a fact-finding tour of Delta
creeks on Sunday where a militant leader, John Togo,

is threatening the peace and stability of the
area. He warned that the present government will not tolerate any act
capable of bringing down the nation’s reputation will be viewed
seriously.

Accompanied by the Joint Task Force (JTF) Commander, C. Omoregie, a major general, and other military
chiefs, the Chief of Army Staff met with some inhabitants of the area
at Ayakoromo, where soldiers displaced some residents and urged them to
maintain peace at all time assuring that the military will not attack
them.

“I want to assure you that the soldiers were
deployed to this area to maintain peace and not to kill. The only
person we are looking for is John Togo whose evil deeds have resulted
in the death of innocent persons.” He explained that development can
only come in an atmosphere of peace and promised that all the buildings
destroyed during the exchange of fire between John Togo and the
soldiers will be rebuilt but advised that the villagers should always
give up themselves whenever search is being conducted by the solders.

Villagers’ tears The villagers who corroborated
the fact that nine persons were killed during the crisis and not 50
were moved to tears as the Army chief hugged them one after the other
and they in turn pledge their loyalty to the federal government.

Samuel Rubber, who spoke on behalf of the council
of elders, commended the military for saving them and urged that basic
facilities be extended to them, especially as the place is almost
desolate.

Addressing the soldiers earlier, Ihejirika commended them for their gallantry adding that Nigerians are proud of them.

He however charged them to fish out John Togo and his gang, adding, “There will be no peace for the wicked.

The Army Chief however expressed dismay over the death of some
soldiers, adding, “I feel sad that some soldiers died, in fact it is
very painful but I can assure that they did not die in vain while
protecting the image of this great country”.