Nigeria Content Online

The President, Goodluck Jonathan
yesterday urged the Joint Military Task Force, JTF, in the Niger-Delta,
which is currently operating in Ayakoromor community in Burutu Local
Government of Delta State to ensure that civilian are protected.

He also expressed his heartfelt
sympathy to the families of all those who are currently displaced as a
result of the JTF operation.The directive is coming on the heels of
widespread criticism of the JTF’s raid of camps suspected to be
harbouring John Togo, a runaway militant leader in the region, which
has led to some deaths and displacement of hundreds.

One of those already opposed to the
operation is former Deputy Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly
and the secretary of Uduaghan Campaign Organisation, Funkekeme Solomon
who has condemned the alleged killings by the JTF, stating that it is
unacceptable in a democratic setting.

Speaking on behalf of the president,
media aide, Ima Niboro, in a chat with pressmen at the statehouse, said
the president has commended the efforts of JTF so far, especially “in
fishing out criminal elements from the region” and advised “that the
defenseless civilian population be protected, while the operation
lasts”.

According to him “the army also has a responsibility to protect the
harmless civil populace”.While appealing for calm from all parties
affected by the military operation, the spokesman stated that the
government is prepared to immediately reduce the sufferings of
identified innocent civilians and all those in need of one assistance
or another.</

The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Timi
Alaibe has joined the governorship race in Bayelsa on the platform of
Peoples Democratic Party. Associates and friends of Mr. Alaibe from the
state were reported to have contributed money to purchase the
nomination form for him, claiming that the former NDDC chief had been
reluctant to contest the election. A group,Grassroots Initiative for
Peace and Social Orientation (GIPSO), has also issued a statement
saying Mr. Alaibe’s decision is the best thing to happen to the state.
Executive Director of GIPSO, Akinaka Richard, told newsmen in Yenagoa
on Sunday that the people of Bayelsa should have the choice to choose
their leaders. He said it is now left for the people to choose someone
that will stop the stagnation of the last four years. According to him,
“We are overjoyed by the news. If the people of Bayelsa want
change,they must effect the change. ‘‘If the people of Bayelsa are
dissatisfied with the situation in the state, the time for change has
started. We are very much delighted that Alaibe has decided to run.”
Mr. Alaibe contested the same position with former state governor,
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha in 2003 and also attempted it in 2007 but later
backed out.

Ivory Coast’s
presidential claimant, Alassane Ouattara, offered government posts on
Monday to members of his rival Laurent Gbagbo’s cabinet, if Gbagbo
stepped down.

It was the latest
manoeuvre in a power struggle that has enveloped the West African state
since an election that yielded two winners – Ouattara with
international backing, and Gbagbo, with the support of the nation’s top
legal body and military.

The November 28
poll was meant to reunite the former regional economic star after a
2002-03 civil war, but analysts warned the dispute could now pit the
army against pro-Ouattara rebels, who told Reuters they would defend
themselves from any attack.

“If Laurent Gbagbo
agrees to leave power quietly, the ministers from his party would be
welcome in the government we plan to lead,” Guillaume Soro, Ivory
Coast’s premier, who has pledged to serve Ouattara, told France’s
Europe 1 radio.

The political
deadlock gripped the world’s top cocoa grower after the Constitutional
Council – run by a Gbagbo ally – scrapped hundreds of thousands of
votes from Ouattara strongholds, reversing provisional results from the
election commission that had given Ouattara victory.

U.S. president,
Barack Obama, has sided with Ouattara, leading calls from the United
Nations, France, the European Union, the African Union, and West
African bloc ECOWAS that Gbagbo accept the election commission outcome.
ECOWAS leaders are due to hold an emergency summit on Ivory Coast on
Tuesday.

Gbagbo has scorned
the international rejection as an affront to Ivorian sovereignty, and
has threatened to expel the U.N. Ivory Coast envoy for interference in
internal affairs.

Citing a
“breakdown of governance”, the World Bank and the African Development
Bank said they would reassess aid, adding pressure on Gbagbo.

Ouattara has
already named Gbagbo’s former finance minister, Charles Koffi Dibby, to
his cabinet, a move which would strip Gbagbo of an official praised for
his handling of debt talks. Dibby was not available to confirm he had
switched sides.

Financial impact

The World Bank has
tied the cancellation of $3 billion of external debt, estimated at
$12.5 billion, to smooth elections. But Gbagbo’s hand on the economy is
strengthened by revenues from cocoa, oil, and other commodities.

Benchmark ICE cocoa futures traded at a four-month high of $3,028 a tonne on Monday.

Several cocoa
exporters suspended activities in the wake of election violence that
has caused at least 15 deaths. But a regular industry estimate on
Monday put port arrivals at around 427,000 tonnes in the season to
December 5, only a few thousand tonnes less than at the same point last
year.

Despite the
political stand-off, Ivory Coast reopened international borders on
Monday that had been sealed during a tense wait for the results, and
traffic in the business district of the economic capital, Abidjan, was
nearly back to normal.

“The international
community has got to play a straight game, otherwise it will be a mess
in this country. Ouattara’s forming his government, Gbagbo’s forming
his – where will it end?” said civil servant, Maurice Fallet.

Army backing

The army chief of
staff has sworn allegiance to Gbagbo and troops appear to be on his
side for now. Ouattara has the support of the New Forces rebels
occupying the north.

“We’ve put our troops on alert,” New Forces spokesman, Seydou Ouattara, told Reuters.

“If we are
attacked, we will defend our zones and we will take the rest of the
Ivorian territory,” he said, adding he hoped diplomacy would help the
country avoid a “bloodbath”.

Mediation talks
led by former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, and the two rivals
appeared to make no breakthrough on Sunday. It was unclear whether more
talks would take place.

Gbagbo has
controlled the country for a decade but now faces isolation and
international sanctions. Diplomats said Russia, whose Lukoil is
exploring for oil there, has blocked efforts in the U.N. Security
Council for a clear endorsement of Ouattara.

The crisis in
Ivory Coast, once West Africa’s brightest economic star, has forced up
the risk premium on the country’s $2.3 billion Eurobond. It is
currently yielding 11.67 percent, from below 10 percent before the
election.

Abubakar Amuda Yusuf, a People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Kogi State, has
described the adoption of the party’s latest senatorial candidate as
illegal.

Mr. Yusuf,who is on official assignment
in South Korea, was represented by Ismaila Aliyu, director-general of
his campaign organisation. Mr. Aliyu said on Monday that the group that
adopted deputy governor Philip Salawu as the senatorial candidate for
the central district of the state is a faceless set of individuals who
were not authorized to do so.

“We read with dismay the press release
from some self-acclaimed PDP stakeholders and the attached communiqué
from an unrecognized forum called Supreme Council for Kogi Central
Senatorial District Affairs,” said Mr. Aliyu. “We disassociate
ourselves and our principal completely from this sponsored publication
and maintain that there has been no consensus candidate chosen for the
PDP senatorial race in the central district, hence the publication
should be disregarded by the public especially our esteemed members.”

Not recognised

Mr Aliyu said that only the Ebira
Peoples Association, the Ebira Youth Congress and the Committee of
Royal Fathers are capable of coming up with a consensus candidate for
the senatorial district.

He called on the party’s leadership to call the forum to order
before more harm is done in the district. “We have had enough bloodshed
and discord in the central zone, let us not begin a new era of acrimony
that will plunge the area into another crisis,” he said. “A consensus
candidate will emerge when genuine and creditable individuals and
groups meet to decide on this subject matter at the appropriate time.”</

President Goodluck Jonathan has granted
masters and Ph.D scholarships to the 51 members of the National Youth
Service Corp (NYSC) honoured in this year’s president’s honours award.

He disclosed this at the 2010 award ceremony which held at the banquet hall of the presidential villa.

The president amidst cheers from the
corp members announced that “all awardees with first class and second
class upper, will have automatic scholarship for masters and Phd, while
those with second class lower who can secure admission within the next
6months in any institution in the world, will also benefit from the
scholarship”.

He also said those with science and
petroleum backgrounds will be sponsored by the Petroleum Development
Trust Fund(PTDF) while those in other disciplines will be sponsored by
the Education Trust Fund (ETF).

“The awardees will also get automatic
employment into the federal civil service” the president said, noting
that those who already have state government’s employment are free to
choose.

Mr. Jonathan further directed the Head
of the Civil Service Dapo Afolabi to compile the list and bring to him
for endorsement adding that the awardees will get their employment
letters before the 25th of December.

The president, while assuring that
votes will count in 2011 said the federal government will support the
emerging NYSC/INEC collaboration for good governance.

Mr. Jonathan also directed that the
“INEC and all security agencies should ensure that the corp members are
well protected to discharge their onerous duty”.

The president hopes that the NYSC will justify the hope and trust
reposed on them to fulfill the vision of a free and fair election.</

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested by British police on a
European warrant issued by Sweden over allegations of sex crimes including
rape, London’s Metropolitan Police said Tuesday.

Swedish prosecutors issued the arrest order
for the 39-year-old Australian who is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of
committing sexual crimes, which he denies.

Police said Assange, at the center of a row
over the release of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, had been arrested at about
9.30 a.m. (0930 GMT) Tuesday by appointment at a London police station under a
European Arrest Warrant.

“He is accused by the Swedish
authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation
and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010,”
London police said in a statement.

He is due to appear before City of
Westminster Magistrates Court in London later Tuesday.

REUTERS

The abduction of a 65-year-old housewife, Juliana
Ogunleye from her residence in Akure, the Ondo State capital by three
armed bandits has sparked off protest from members the Nigerian Medical
Association (NMA) in the State.

The association has therefore given the state
government 48 hours to secure the release of the woman, who is the wife
of a Saudi-based Gynecologist, Idowu Ogunleye.

Mrs. Ogunleye was playing with her grandchildren at
her No 2, Ogunleye Street, Ijoka-Akure when she was abducted at about
7pm last month.

The three armed men, it was learnt, came to the house
on the pretext that they had come to deliver a message to the victim.
The woman was the only person kidnapped by the suspected gunmen, who
met six people in the house while carrying out the dastardly act.Her
husband, Idowu Ogunleye is at present outside the country.

A source close to the family said the abductors had
earlier placed a N100 million ransom on the woman before reducing it to
N50 million.

The family has however told the kidnappers that they
could not afford such huge amount, noting that the woman who was
neither a political office holder nor any of her siblings had been
taken away since November 25.

The Nigeria Medical Association has therefore sent a Save Our Soul letter to the state governor,Olusegun Mimiko.

The association, in the letter signed by Adetan
Oluwatoyin and I. J Adebose, chairman and the secretary respectively,
said that the latest case was the second involving wives of senior
medical practitioners in the state by criminals intent on extorting
money.

Unhappy doctors

They stated that the kidnap of doctors and their
relatives was a strange thing in the state.“Your Excellency, we need to
emphasize that as the Chief Security Officer of this state, our lives
and property are in your hand. When it concerned the politicians, the
government was there, for journalists, the whole nation was involved
and now that it involves doctors’ relatives, we do not expect anything
less”, the NMA said.

The NMA therefore called on the government and security agencies to
act fast in order to secure the release of the abducted Mrs Ogunleye,
whose abductors have now reduced the ransome to N30 million.

Governor of Anambra
State, and Chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum, Peter Obi, said
at the weekend he is pushing for the Igbo to support President Goodluck
Jonathan in next year’s presidential election because of the increased
federal presence in the south east zone.

Mr Obi, who spoke
at a ceremony to mark the commissioning of a multi-purpose hall built
and donated to the Nnewi Sports Club by a philanthropist, Emeka Offor,
said key projects such as the second Niger Bridge which, over the
years, had become a subject of political propaganda had been duly
designed and awarded by the Mr Jonathan administration, while work
would soon commence on some erosion sites as well as the Sakamori
project in Onitsha. “These are projects which hitherto had been
receiving lip service from previous administrations,” he said.

The governor, while
commending Mr Offor for the philanthropic gesture, promised residents
of the state that his administration would continue to encourage those
who contributes towards community development in any form. While noting
that the state had grown beyond party politics to that of development
with necessary stability and steady progress, he called for the
election of credible candidates in future elections.

The Minister of Defence, Adetokumbo Kayode, described Mr Obi as a
high profile leader who had made the country proud. He recalled that
the on-going comprehensive fencing of the Onitsha Military Barracks was
initiated and by the governor, and urged the people to give Mr Obi all
necessary support to complete his vision.

The premises of
Edo State Specialist hospital is now a beehive of activities as some of
the hospital wards are being pulled down in preparation for the
construction of an ultra-modern hospital ward, with state of the art
equipment.

The State
Government had recently signed a contract with a construction company,
Messers Sincies Chiementin International (Nigeria) for the construction
of the accident and emergency ward and a 120 bed in-patient ward in the
hospital.

Edo State
Commissioner for Health, Moses Momoh who signed the contract on-behalf
of the State Government, said the projects will cost the government the
sum of N2bn . He confirmed that the project will be completed within 18
months.

When completed, the
120-bed capacity wards will help meet with the growing challenges in
the health sector, and will also provide relief for the already over
stretched wards now in use at the hospital, as well as giving an
improved service to the patients and reducing the work load on other
tertiary health institutions in the State, especially the University of
Benin Teaching Hospital, (UBTH).

Five star clinic

Some patients who
spoke to NEXT at the hospital commended the State Governor, Adams
Oshiomhole for embarking on the project which they said was long
overdue. They pointed out that the reconstruction of the wards will
create room for the increasing number of patients. They also urged the
state government to extend the gesture to all hospitals across the
state.

Mr Oshiomhole had mentioned during his 2011 budget presentation that
the demolished hospital wards will give way to a “five-star hospital”
with facilities that could compare with any best hospital in the
world.‘‘Upgrading of other hospitals across the State will also takes
priority in the 2011 budget,’’ Mr.Oshiomhole said.

The Ondo State
governor, Olusegun Mimiko has advised security operatives to be alert
to their responsibilities during the forthcoming general elections to
prevent outbreaks of violence.

The governor gave
the warning while welcoming the Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval
Command, Emmanuel Ogbor to Akure. The officer was familiarisation tour
of the Nigerian Navy Forward Operations Base (FOB) at Igbokoda. Mr
Mimiko said a repeat of the security challenges experienced by the
electorate during the 2007 general elections is capable of truncating
the hope of conducting free and fair elections in the country in the
country.

The governor, who
referred to the security situation during the bye-election held in
Ilaje Local Government Area July this year, told the Naval Chief that
the 2011 polls is also a security matter as it will go beyond the realm
of politics.

“It is important to
be pro-active because having credible elections in this country depends
largely on the security situation,” he said.

“It behoves on the
armed forces to ensure that the 2011 elections and subsequent ones are
free and fair as we normally have security challenges during
elections…

“The last
bye-election we had in Ilaje, we had real serious security challenges.
As a matter of fact, it was your men that went to rescue INEC officials
who were held hostage by some hooligans who wanted to attack them and
perhaps they could have had a fatal encounter with those hoodlums, but
your men rose to the occasion. So, we hope that during next year’s
election, you will beef up security in the water ways, policing the
water ways is very important in conducting free and fair election in
the riverine areas. As a nation, Nigeria is regarded as the giant of
Africa and must prove that leading position. It must perform or lead by
ensuring the conduct of successful free and fair elections and everyone
in Nigeria have a role to play if the next elections must be credible.”

Mr Ogbor commended the state government for its commitment to the
welfare of Naval officers and men in the state and called for
government support in ensuring the movement of the FOB to its permanent
base.