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A non-governmental
organisation, Media for Ethnic Equality, has described the labelling of
Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential aspirant, as a
consensus candidate as faulty and an act of media manipulation.

In a statement
issued in Lagos on Tuesday, the group said that since there was a
voting, the process that led to the emergence of the former vice
president as the candidate for the Adamu Ciroma led-Northern Political
Leaders Forum on November 22, 2010 cannot be described as a
“consensus”. “We understand that out of the nine people who constituted
the committee, five voted for Atiku while four voted against him.
Though he had highest vote, this cannot in any way be described as a
consensus because we still have four dissenting votes,” read the
statement, which was signed by the group’s Publicity Secretary, Iyiola
Johnson. “It is even more dishonest to label him as a consensus
candidate going by the fact that the committee could not even reach a
consensus over his choice. Besides, consensus system which emanated
from United Nations (UN) processes is used to completely avoid voting.
Once a process is decided through voting then it is not consensus. We
just think it is time we correct this misinformation making the rounds
in the Nigerian media.”

Carrying everybody along

According to the
group, only five ethic nationalities, representing five states of the
North, selected Mr Atiku out of over 200 ethnic nationalities in the
Northern part of the country. “Who represented other Northern states
like Plateau, Nassarawa, Kaduna and Kogi in the Ciroma-led NPLF?,” said
Mr Johnson. “If the Ciroma group is to be taken serious, they ought to
have invited other ethnic nationalities to make Mr Atiku a popular
choice.”

The group said it is time for Nigerian politicians to respect
the rights of ethnic minorities, adding that taking decisions
arbitrarily has never helped the country and the advancement of
democracy. It also advised politicians to refrain from inflammatory
statements capable of heating up the polity, saying that Nigerians at
this time more than ever before need ethnic harmony and not divisions.

A former
commissioner for agricuture and natural resources in the defunct Bendel
State, Eddy Ehi Osifo, has criticised the Senate spokesperson, Ayogu
Eze, over his reaction to Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s
recent comment on the high cost of running the National Assembly.

Mr. Sanusi had, at
the 8th convocation ceremony of Igbinedion University, Okada, last
weekend, alleged that the National Assembly alone consumes 25 percent
of the nation’s annual budget.

Mr. Osifo, a close
associate of late Obafemi Awolowo, described Mr. Eze as being ignorant
of simple English language, as was used by the CBN governor in
explaining the portion of the budget that goes to the National Assembly.

“The CBN governor
did not say that the National Assembly gulps 25 percent of the national
budget. There is a difference between the national budget, which is the
TOTAL budget, and recurrent expenditure, which is a portion the budget
as represented by the overhead cost of running the government.

“Ayogu Eze is
typical of the deceitful Nigerian who uses crooked arguments to cover
up real facts. This is unbecoming of an honourable member who claims to
be an experienced lawmaker. Nigeria is suffering in their hands,” he
said.

Mr. Osifo called
on President Jonathan and all concerned to, as a matter of urgency,
review the monthly salary and allowances of the national legislators
before a new set of legislators are elected and sworn-in next year.

Bayelsa State
government officials facing charges of money laundering and diversion
of public funds yesterday urged the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) to speed up the prosecution of the case for them, to
clear their names.

The commission had,
on March 23, charged four top officials of the state government, namely
Francis Okoruko, Abbot Clinton, Ikhobo Anthony Howells, and Sylva
Opuala – Charles. But since their arraignment, trial until now was yet
to commence.

At the trial
yesterday, the accused persons, through their counsel, Chris Uche and
Sunday Ibrahim Ameh, expressed keenness to go into trial and withdrew
their objection to the admissibility of a document sought to be
tendered in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Festus Keyamo.

Mr. Keyamo had
sought to tender the statement made to the EFCC by the 2nd accused
person, Clinton Abbot, through his prosecution witness 1, Mr. Adebayo
Adeniyi Oluwasegun, but Messrs. Uche and Ameh objected to the procedure
on the premise that it would offend Section 36 [a] of the Evidence Act
since he [Oluwasegun] was not incidental to the statement being made.

After a spell of
arguments, the judge, Donatus Okoronwo, was to adjourn the matter to
enable him rule. But Counsel to the accuse persons, eager to make
progress with the trial, agreed to withdraw the objection after Mr.
Keyamo had entered an undertaking that he would not rely on any other
Investigating Police Officer [IPO] to tender any further evidence.

“My lord, I want to
save our time and the time of the court by seeking to tender my
exhibits through this witness, who is an IPO. I will not call any other
if I am allowed to tender these documents through him,” Mr. Keyamo said.

In response,
Messrs. Uche and Ameh said since Mr. Keyamo had entered the
undertaking, the accused persons, in demonstration of their desire for
speedy trial, would withdraw their objection so that progress can be
made.

Trial date fixed

Accordingly, the
statement sought to be tendered was admitted in evidence, after which
the police officer recounted steps he took in the course of
investigating the case.

Eventually, Mr.
Keyamo applied for an adjournment, which the court granted. Trial was
adjourned to December 14 and 15, 2010, for continuation.

The charges against
the accused are, read in part, that “you, Francis Okokuro, Abbot T.
Clinton, Ikobho Anthony Howells, and Charles Sylva Osuala (now at
large), sometime between October 2009 and February 2010, at various
places in Nigeria, including Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the
Federal High Court, did conspire to commit a crime; to wit: conversion
of properties and resources amounting to N2billion, belonging to
Bayelsa State government and derived from an illegal act, with the aim
of concealing the illicit origin of the said amount and you thereby
committed an offence contrary to Section 17(a) of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition Act), 2004, and punishable under Section 14(1) of the same
Act.”

The officials were
accused of using the state government’s name to carry out several
financial transactions, using various account numbers in at least four
banks in the country with the intention of defrauding the state.

The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday said its counsel
prosecuting top officials of the National Gallery of Arts, is afraid
for his life and the commission is no longer comfortable with both its
lawyer and witnesses appearing before that court over an alleged N2.2bn
fraud.

At the resumed
hearing of the case yesterday, the commission, through its counsel
Steve Odiase, told trial judge, Olukayode Adeniyi that the EFCC
authority instructed him to seek an immediate transfer of the case-file
to the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, following threats
by some undisclosed persons to kill him over the matter.

Mr Odiase, who came
to court yesterday with two heavily armed mobile police escorts,
further read one of the threat massages he said was sent to his phone
last night, adding that the operations department of the EFCC has
already commenced investigations aimed at unravelling those behind it.

“Last night they
sent me another one, and I promptly reported it to the police and the
director of operations in EFCC, Steven Otutoju. This was how they
killed our forensic expert in Kaduna recently, we no longer feel
protected in this court and therefore want the case-file transferred”.

The latest threat
message, according to him, reads: “You still have the honourable option
of opting out of Musa’s case now or accept the choice of preparing your
funeral oration yourself and or the possible extermination of your
family. This is the final warning!”.

No withdrawal

But Mr Adeniyi
refused to hands-off of the trial as requested by the EFCC, maintaining
that there was no basis for the anti-graft agency to seek a withdrawal
of the case-file.

“I will not
concede to this request because there is no basis to seek the
withdrawal of this case, if you are being threatened by anybody, then
report it to the police or other relevant agencies,” Mr Adeniyi said.
“Justice is a 3-way traffic. The accused persons were arraigned before
this court on July 7, 2009, and since then the case has suffered series
of adjournment at the instance of the prosecution.”

Those on trial are
the former Director-General of the establishment, Joe Musa; Director of
Finance, Olusegun Ogunba; Director of Research & Education, Dr.
Kweku Tandoh and Deputy Director Administration of the Gallery, Oparagu
Elizabeth.

They face a
14-count criminal charge bothering on alleged misappropriation,
falsification of account and illegal diversion of public funds
totalling over N2.2 billion.

Before the matter was adjourned till January 20, counsels to all the
accused persons took-turn to plead that the court strikes out the case
for want of diligent prosecution, alleging that the EFCC was being used
to witch-hunt them unnecessarily.

The Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has called on Petroleum Tanker
Drivers (PTD) to give dialogue a chance in the ongoing dispute over the
killing of its members, the seizure of its trucks, and issues of the
retrenchment of its members.

The Group Managing
Director of the NNPC, Austen Oniwon, in a statement signed by the
organisation’s spokesperson, Levi Ajuonuma, on Tuesday, appealed to
parties in the dispute to consider the wider interest of Nigerians in
this usually busy holiday season.

“I appeal to the
tanker drivers to give the Federal Government an opportunity to resolve
the matter and ensure that justice and fairness is done. I am calling
on all stakeholders to rally round to support the stability we have
continued to enjoy in the downstream sector,” Mr. Oniwon said.

He also said that
there is abundant supply of petroleum products across the nation, and
urged consumers not to indulge in panic buying and marketers not to
indulge in any sharp practice that will create undue hardship for
Nigerians.

He further said the
Federal Government is looking into the issue to ensure a lasting
resolution, and called on the tanker drivers to call off their threats
of a strike and embrace the offer of dialogue by government.

The Petroleum
Tanker Drivers, which is a wing of the National Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), had on Monday embarked on a nationwide
warning strike to protest what they term the “indiscriminate
victimisation” of their workers by soldiers and the ‘mysterious’
disappearance of petroleum products.

NUPENG’s Lagos zone
chairman, Tokunbo Korede, told NEXT on Monday that the seven days
warning strike is coming after a 21-day ultimatum, which elapsed on
November 26, 2010, following a meeting with the Chief of Army Staff,
the director general of the State Security Service (SSS), the minister
of labour, and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).

He said the failure
of the government officials at the meeting to apprehend and prosecute
the army officials behind the assassination of a tanker driver in Jos
and the disappearance of several tankers, along with their petroleum
products, within military installations has necessitated them to push
their case.

“For how long are
they going to take to fish out those criminal uniformed men who are
behind all this? This is a seven-day warning strike for those saying we
are working on it to bring out a solution. They need to take us serious
because it will be too disastrous for the coming elections,” he said.

The two-day old strike has brought queues back to the filling stations.

Nigeria’s President
and Chairman of ECOWAS, Goodluck Jonathan, has called on the two
candidates in the run-off presidential election in Cote d Ivoire,
President Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouatara, as well as their
supporters, to avoid inflammatory remarks that could instigate
violence, by allowing the will of the Ivorian people prevail through
their votes.

In a statement
issued yesterday on the presidential run-off which took place on
Sunday, Mr Jonathan noted that the “assessment of both local and
international observers indicating the peaceful conduct of the run-off
election so far has been encouraging.”

He urged the two
candidates to “tone down their rhetoric and maintain the peace at this
very critical stage,” before the final results are announced. The
president also urged both contestants to “subject themselves to the
will of the Ivorian people by allowing the votes to be counted in a
peaceful and orderly manner.”

Mr Jonathan said it is imperative that the supreme interest of the
people of Cote d’Ivoire, who have borne the brunt of hardship these
past years, be allowed to prevail at the polls, adding that Nigeria and
the entire member-states of ECOWAS are following the situation in Cote
d Ivoire with keen interest. “We stand ready to continue to render all
necessary support to promote peace, democracy and stability in the
country,” he said.

A newly retired
judge of the Federal High Court, Akinjide Ajakaiye, yesterday, berated
judicial officers for not being sincere with the dictates of their oath
of office.

Mr Ajakaiye, who
has spent 12 years in the service of the Federal High Court, was
speaking at a valedictory session held in his honour by the leadership
of the court. “Since the constitution, which is the organic law of the
land, has empowered the judiciary to do justice to all manner of
persons whether high or low, each judicial officer must then do justice
without fear or favour, ill-will or affection,” he said. “It was trite
that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man, particularly
having regard to the decadent and perilous socio-economic and political
situation of the country.” He added that the judiciary is placed in a
position to enforce and preserve sanity and social stability. “That is
why judicial officers ought to brace up to the occasion and be
circumspect in all they do,” he said.

Corruption in judiciary

Mr Ajakaiye is also
of the view that corruption, which he described as is the main hurdle
to progress in the country, has unfortunately found its way into the
judiciary. “For the judiciary to be able to play the sacred role
assigned to it very well, it must ensure that both the appointers and
appointees to the bench are men of proven honour and integrity and most
importantly those who have fear of God in them,”

The retired just
also said that “appointments should not be based on sentiments,
political considerations; neither should it be at the whims and
caprices of the appointing authorities. Merit should no longer be
sacrificed for mediocrity.” Speaking at the event, the Chief Judge of
the Federal High Court, Daniel Abutu, described the retired judge as a
man who, during the period of his service year, ensured that justice
was dispensed judicially and judiciously. In his remarks, a
representative of the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Femi Atoyebi, who
described Mr Ajakaiye as a “very special breed”, called for the
creation of a special division of the court to handle admiralty cases
because of its peculiarity. According to him, such creation will
engender expertise and professionalism among judges on admiralty
matters.

The United Nations
Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) has said that some foreign companies
refrained from investing in Nigeria because of the level of corruption
in the country.

The agency country
representative, Mrs Dagmar Thomas, made the revelation at a roundtable
on the ethical conduct of business in Abuja yesterday. She said the
organisation had conducted a study on how corruption, crime, and
insecurity impacted the marketplace in Nigeria.

“We know that about
10 percent of all companies paid bribes in the year before the study.
About 20 percent, or 450 companies, admitted that in the economic
sector, the payment of bribes to public officials was either fairly or
very frequent,” Mrs. Thomas said.

She noted that not
only did most of the companies lose profit by paying bribes, money that
could have been used for the development of the company and its staff,
many of them also refrained from making new investment for fear of
corruption.

“So, there is an
urgent need to act, since lack of company expansion means lack of
development, also for company staff and workers,” she said.

Mrs. Thomas
commended the country for putting the fight against corruption at the
forefront of its national political agenda and urged it to continue, in
order to reduce the severe negative impact on development, business,
and fair competition.“Corruption, as a phenomenon, is not new; it is
not localised to any culture, profession, or society,” she said.“It
afflicts countries and people worldwide, even more so when a system of
checks and balances are not in place or distorted.

“It is important that the fight against corruption also comes from
the people, is led by the people, and made part of our daily lives,
standards, and behaviours,” she said.

Ben Obi had barely been formally named the
campaign chief for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar before he aimed
a few salvos in the direction of the man everyone loves to hate, Mr.
Abubakar’s estranged former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Obasanjo, who
was president when Mr. Abubakar served unhappily as his deputy, is
little more than a jester, Mr. Obi said Monday at a news conference in
Abuja, in response to Mr. Obasanjo’s stated reaction to news that his
former deputy had emerged as the “consensus” candidate for the North.

Mr Obasanjo had
last Thursday laughed off the selection of Mr. Abubakar while talking
to reporters in Abuja. Asked to respond to the news, the former
president had simply said, in pidgin, “I dey laugh.” “We look at him
and said the man is always comical with his comments,” Mr Obi said. “We
don’t need to engage him, we don’t intend to engage him in matters of
that nature.” Mr Obi, a former senator, also dismissed suggestions that
the former vice president will face challenges to his membership in the
PDP, as indicated at the weekend by the governor of Akwa Ibom State,
Godswill Akpabio.
He described Mr
Akpabio as a busybody who should not be taken seriously since he is
neither the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor its
spokesman.
“I am happy you
refer to him (Akpabio) as Akwa Ibom State governor and not the chairman
of the PDP. He does not double as the spokesman of the PDP. That is a
busybody,” Mr Obi said.
Mr Obi will run an
Atiku campaign that has just absorbed the campaign organisations of his
three other rivals, all from the political North, who have agreed to
step down for him.

These were former military strongman Ibrahim
Babangida, the former national security adviser Aliyu Mohammed Gusau,
and the governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki.
Mr. Obi said the
Atiku campaign also has appointed several officials from the erswhile
rival campaigns. These include Chris Mammah, who will serve as
principal spokesman for the campaignand Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, who will
run campaign operations.

Police, civil
defence agents yesterday watched helplessly as irate mobs protested the
federal government purported confirmation of the acting Chief Medical
Director (CMD), Giyan Joshua Ndom, a medical doctor, as the head of the
Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

The protests, which
was the second in a month, consisting of various interest groups among
who were Islamic religious groups, invaded the streets of Keffi to
stage a protest against the consideration of Mr. Ndom as CMD.

Although during the
first protest on October 27, a truck loaded with armed policemen
cordoned off the premises against the protesters, yesterday’s peaceful
demonstration could not be prevented by the armed policemen who were
stationed there.

The groups
protesting the purported confirmation of Mr. Ndom are: Keffi Concerned
Group (KCG), Keffi Development Foundation (KDF), Jama’atul Izalatul
Bid’awa Ikamatul Sunnah (JIBWIS), which respective leaderships led the
peaceful demonstration that lasted from 9am to about 12noon. Leading
other interested groups including artisans and commercial motorcycles
who bore leaves and placards carrying anti-Ndom inscriptions, the
leaders, Abdullahi Modibbo and Aliyu Bawa, led the protesters through
the major streets of Keffi,

to the premises of the FMC, where some management staff met them to listen to their demands.

Indigenous claim

The protesters said
they do not want an indigene of Plateau State as CMD, alleging that
Governor Jonah Jang has forced many non-indigenes in his state out of
federal appointments.

But they said the
federal government could appoint any person from any state, including
Christians, but not a Plateau man.They also accused Mr. Ndom of
corruption.

But Mr. Ndom said
he was not corrupt, just as he said it was not his fault that he
emerged the best in the screening exercise for the job.

The board has been having difficulties confirming his appointment,
however, for months now because of widespread protests which his likely
emergence is generating in Keffi. Police spokesman in the state,
Richard Jinadu, did not pick his calls for comment, neither did he
respond to a text message sent to his phone.