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Members of the Ondo
State chapter of the Labour Party have been divided over the recent
congresses conducted at various wards and local governments in the
state.

The crisis, NEXT
gathered, started when the old executive members from wards to local
governments were sacked without any notice from the state government.
Most of the affected members, who are foundation members of the party,
claimed they did not benefit from government before they were voted out.

They also accused
the state government of spearheading the congresses, knowing that they
have not been compensated for their efforts in building the party.

The aggrieved
members also alleged that most of the newly elected officers from ward
to local government levels were recent defectors from the Peoples
Democratic Party.

A statement issued
on behalf of the affected politicians, over the weekend, by their
spokesperson, Philip Jayeoba, said failure to address the issue will
spell doom for the party in the forthcoming elections.

Mr. Jayeoba noted
that if urgent step was not taken, the aggrieved members of the labour
party would defect enmasse to other political parties.

“I want to inform
Mr. Governor that some of us lost our children, jobs, and valuables to
ensure that LP won in the April 14, 2007 general elections. Despite all
our efforts during the election, we were neglected by the leadership of
the party,” he said.

“To do the worst,
they voted us out during the congresses; even some people were
handpicked and forced on some of us who started the party from the
scratch,” he added.

Accept your defeat

Mr. Jayeoba
appealed to the state governor and the leadership of the party in the
state to wade into the matter before it becomes uncontrollable.

“We want to implore
the leadership of the party to urgently take a step to address the
issue. The party leadership should not forget they promised that level
playing ground will be provided for all but the reverse is the case, as
some cabals have hijacked the structure of the party from ward level to
the state level,” he said.

The publicity
director of the Labour Party in the state, Seyi James, said the issue
of congresses should not generate controversy because every member is
free to contest for any position. He said the aggrieved members should
learn to accept defeat because the modalities for the congresses are
clearly stipulated in the party’s constitution.

“The modalities of the congresses are clear for every members of the
party to see. LP has plans for every member of the party and the entire
people of the state. Mr. Governor has promised to touch the lives of
everybody, but he cannot do it at once. Our people should realise the
fact that there is global meltdown, which has affected the country,”
Mr. James said

A governorship candidate of the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Kano State, Abba Anwar, has
said that the ambition of Mohammed Abacha, who joined the CPC recently,
does not pose any threat to his aspiration to govern the state.

Mr. Anwar, who made the declaration at
a forum organized by the Kano State Correspondent’s Chapel over the
weekend, said “For me, I never feel threatened by the coming of
Mohammed, because we have different programmes and I know the terrain
well”.

“I have been there for a while. I
welcome him and pray for him to stay in the party. I feel encouraged
and thrilled because he is a blessing to the party.”

The candidate said his priority is to restore law and order in Kano if elected governor of the state.

“I want to restore law and order, I
don’t want to be popular and I don’t want second tenure my aim is to
have a conducive atmosphere for ethical governance so that I will
restore people’s confidence in governance,” he assured.

Mr Anwar promised to use government
funds to execute and pursue human-oriented programmes, noting that in
the area of water supply, he would maintain and use the existing dams
in the state in a more systemic manner to ensure steady water supply.

He proposed the building of a new Kano that will restore confidence
in the minds of the people, through increased internally generated
revenue that will open up partnership investment to the outside world
and the industrialization of the state, where the teeming youths will
be gainfully employed.</

An Akwa-Ibom-based medical doctor, Esin Nkereuwem was on Saturday, kidnapped by unknown assailants in Uyo.

Mr Nkereuwem, a
former deputy governorship candidate in 2003, on the platform of the
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state, also had his car stolen
by the assailants. The car was however, recovered by the police
yesterday. The kidnappers are believed to be demanding N5 million, as
payment before their victim is released.

A daughter of the
victim, who confirmed the kidnap, told NEXT that “he was kidnapped on
Saturday. The kidnappers are asking for 5million naira. They allowed us
speak to him on his telephone number, so we know he is alive and well.”

Though the
kidnappers are insisting on the payment of the ransom, NEXT learnt that
the matter has been reported to the police and is at present being
investigated by the Akwa-Ibom police command.

The kidnap of Mr
Nkereuwem, who is a Russia-trained specialist in Obstetrics and
Gyneacology, increases the speculation making the rounds that
opposition politicians in the state are targets of kidnappers.

Last week, on October 6, the wife of an ANPP gubernatorial
candidate, Sam Ewang, was kidnapped in front of her husband’s school,
Beulah International School, few weeks after he declared his intention
to contest the gubernatorial election in the state.

The Nigeria Bar
Association (NBA) has said the suspension of the Senior Advocate of
Nigeria title of former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of
Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, did not follow due process saying it was
ordered by the wrong body. It, therefore, called for the reversal of
the decision.

The body, in a
statement signed by its president, Joseph Bodunrin Daudu, the statutory
body responsible for such disciplinary measures is the Legal
Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) and not the Legal
Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), which issued the suspension.

Mr. Aondoakaa was
last week stripped of the title for a period of six months pending the
determination of a petition on his misconduct while he was the nation’s
chief law officer between 2007-2009.

On the argument
that the privileges committee possess powers to remove its appointees
from office, just as it is empowered to appoint, the NBA stated that
the Legal Practitioners Act, under the maxim Generalia Specialibus non
derogant, displaces ‘the general’ as it “does not envisage a
withdrawal, removal or suspension of the rank of Senior Advocate of
Nigeria” citing Section 5-(1)-(8) and 6 of the Legal Practitioners Act.

The association
stated that the rank of SAN is a leadership position, conferred only on
persons who have shown exemplary character and, consequently it can
only be taken away where another statutory body, the Legal
Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, adjudges the person accused of
infamous conduct or breach of any of the rules of professional conduct.

The NBA president
said the LPPC, notwithstanding its eminent membership, “cannot and is
not equipped to deal with matters of discipline.”

He added that the
LPPC’s foray into “looking at matters of the discipline of a lawyer
under the guise of suspending a person of the rank of SAN is ultra
vires, illegal, unconstitutional and therefore null and void.”

Error in procedure

The NBA also argued that the LPPC’s action against Mr Aondoakaa was pre-emptive as the petition is yet be to adjudged.

Mr Daudu said a
petition is a mere allegation which carries with it the presumption
that the object is presumed innocent until proven guilty. He said it is
condemnable to punish a person with the full weight of the law, such as
suspension or temporary stripping of the rank of SAN and public odium
attached to it and at the same time admit that the petition has not
been proven.

“We stand for the
promotion of the Rule of Law and regardless of the personality of the
person involved herein, we cannot acquiesce to a situation where a
person, legal practitioner and senior advocate is punished even before
the allegations are established against him, moreso by a body that
clearly has no jurisdiction to inquire into matters of alleged breach
of professional ethics,” the NBA president said.

“Unless and until the laws are changed, the power to discipline a
legal practitioner, silk and non silk alike, is vested exclusively in
the LPDC” the statement read.

President Goodluck
Jonathan never contacted the former chairman of DAAR Communications,
owners of the African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower Radio,
Raymond Dokpesi, to head his campaign organisation, the Goodluck/Sambo
Presidential Campaign Organisation, said yesterday in Abuja.

The organisation
was reacting to Mr. Dokpesi’s media interview at the weekend in which
he denied he said he was being roped into the October 1 bomb attacks
because of his refusal to head Mr. Jonathan’s team.

Mr. Dokpesi, who is
the director general of Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organisation, was
quizzed last week by the State Security Service (SSS) over his alleged
involvement in the incident. He is believed to be reporting daily to
the security organisation.

But in a statement
yesterday, titled ‘Disclaimer: Dokpesi was never under consideration’,
the president’s campaign handlers said Mr. Dokpesi was never approached
for the job.

“The attention of
the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization has been drawn to
certain utterances by the Director General of the Babangida Campaign
Organization, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, to the effect that he was
suffering an imagined political persecution because he declined to head
our campaign organisation.

“Nothing could be
farther from the truth. At no time was Chief Dokpesi considered for
such a role. He never made it to anybody’s short list or long list,”
the statement, signed by Sully Abu, its spokesperson, said.

The organisation
said Mr. Dokpesi’s claim defies political common sense “as such
position is normally given to someone outside the geographical zoneof
the aspirant. Dokpesi, being from the South South, as is President
Jonathan, could never have been considered for such a position.”

Campaign tour

Meanwhile, the
organisation, led by its director general, Dalhatu Tafida, will today
arrive in Sokoto in the north west geo-political zone, to begin a
nationwide “meet-the-stakeholders” tour.

Harry Akande, the
former Board of Trustees chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP), has declared his intention to contest in next year’s
Presidential election on the platform of the party.

Mr. Akande made the
declaration during a tour of some northern states, saying there is
increasing pressure on him to run for the plum job. He said he will no
longer ignore the pressure.

Last month, the
billionaire businessman lost in a bid to become chairman of the party
during its national convention on September 19. He lost to the current
chairman, Ogbonnaya Onu by 1479 to 3945.

Race to win

His entry into the
race brings to three the number of ANPP members wishing to vie for the
presidency. The others are the governor of Kano State, Ibrhahim
Shekarau and Bashir Othman Tofa.

“People requested
me to run presidency, the overture is high and I don’t think I will
keep off from the will of the people. I will be running for presidency
to win election, and not to posture or put my name on the list,” Mr
Akande told party faithful in Katsina.

“Gone are the days
when people say that what is important is to participate at the
Olympics and not winning the medals. That is simply a case of wanton
waste of resources and energy, as well taken failure as a norm.” Mr
Akande noted that his entry into the race was premised on his
commitment to women and youth development in the country.

He pledged to
manage the resources of the nation prudently, adding that Nigeria could
rank among the best countries in the world if it finds a man who can
provide the right leadership.

The politician said
he is still in love with the ANPP despite his failure to become
chairman, stressing that “the party belongs to the people and those who
have the interest of the people at heart must resist every attempts by
some few individuals turning it to their personal political
instrument.” He added, “My advocacy and struggle in the party is to
establish that ANPP belongs to the people and the real people must be
given the right to choose their leader. Consensus is no more a
contemporary language in politics, election is the hallmark of every
good Democracy.”

The Jigawa State
Governor, Sule Lamido, on Sunday, said that though faced with series of
challenges, Nigeria has been pliable when it comes to handling crisis.

Mr Lamido, while
speaking to aviation correspondents on Nigeria at 50, at the Murtala
Muhammed Airport, Lagos, said that crisis and dissenting voices will
always abound in a country that is trying to remain united, and advised
that the ability of leaders in the country to manage their challenges
is what truly counts. “There must be problem in life because nothing in
this life is so ideal,” he said. “There will be crisis, differing
voices and whatever it is, but it is the capacity and the ability to be
able to overcome such kind of things that is most important and Nigeria
has such kind of capacity. Nigeria has been so resilient.”

Mr Lamido said that Nigeria has made positive achievements in the
last 50 years, and urged Nigerians to be thankful to God for the feat
the country has attained. According to him, Nigerians have worked hard
for the country to stay together. “For Nigeria at 50, I think the
journey has been very, very easy,” he said. “Though sometimes there
have been some difficulties in our evolution, but there again like a
growing nation there will always be some challenges, and I think that
whatever thing anybody would say there have been some remarkable
progress in Nigeria. I think we must thank Allah almighty for keeping
us united, and for giving Nigerians the commitment to stay together.
And I think so far it has been very, very eventful not minding what
people will say.”

“We were on duty around Bayelsa
court,” said a police constable, who was one of those wounded at the
Independence Day bomb blast in Abuja.

Agbo Ochife said after the first
bomb exploded, he and other security agents were controlling the crowd
without knowing that the car they stood beside has ticking bombs.

Mr. Ochife, who has been a
policemen for only two years, however, sees the incident as part of the
normal duties of policing, and vows that he will get back to his beat
as soon as he recovers.

But Ochife’s leaders in the
Nigeria Police Force, along with those in the other intelligence and
security agencies, were caught flat footed on that day. The result of
their lack of robustness left some 16 people dead. Tellingly,
government has not released the exact number of the dead and wounded, a
week after the bomb explosions.

Reports pieced together from
different sources who all spoke on conditions of anonymity due to the
sensitivity of the issues involved, revealed that while some western
intelligence agencies shared the results of their monitoring and
observation with our country agencies, they either did not take the
briefings seriously or reacted the wrong way. It was learnt that Henry
Okah, suspected to be the mastermind of the bombings, had been having a
running battle with President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

Shortly after he assumed office as
acting president, Mr. Jonathan reportedly directed that payment, which
commenced under late president Umar Yar’Adua, to Mr. Okah must stop. In
a discussion subsequently with an aide to the president, Mr. Okah
allegedly threatened to make the country ungovernable if the payment
does not resume.

SA intelligence agencies

It is also believed that Mr.
Okah’s phone calls were being monitored by security agents.
Interestingly, security sources confirmed that it was not the
government of Nigeria that asked South Africa to arrest Okah.

“He (president) never made the
request to South Africa, but I do not believe that no one else in his
services did not make the request as well,” said a security source.

But South African intelligence
agencies are said to have picked the intelligence about Mr. Okah’s
subterranean moves and dutifully informed the Nigerian government,
which most likely explained the president’s statement that the outrage
was caused by a ‘foreign group.’

There is no doubt that security
monitoring has become lax, as some agencies have been compromised in
discharging their duties, putting the country at great risk. An example
is the EFCC that has lost its bite in keeping corrupt elements at
check, resulting in large volume of cash moving around for nefarious
purposes.

At the same time, the president is
said not to fully trust the security chiefs. The exit of the former
national security adviser, Aliyu Gusau, unsettled the apple cart, and
sources said that was why he did not make Kayode Are, Mr. Gusau’s
deputy, the NSA. His appointment of Andrew Owoeye Azazi, a former chief
of army staff, as the NSA last Monday, is believed to be a way of
dealing with this distrust.

“The president needs to clean out
SSS and the National Security Adviser office and set up direct routes
for reporting and information,” said another security source.

Maybe by the time Ochife is well to resume at his beat, the bungling
security chiefs would have been replaced by dynamic and efficient ones.

Mr. Okah’s South
African lawyer, Piet Dupleiss, in a telephone conversation with NEXT,
said that his client could receive calls whilst in custody, but that he
could not make calls from within the cell.

“Mr. Okah does not
have access to his personal phone,” he said. “However, with permission
he can receive calls on the official prison phone.”

During a call to
Mrs Okah in South Africa on Friday, she asked to get clearance from her
husband and call back. She did, and fielded questions.

Later, a man claiming to be Mr Okah called and spoke with us. Excerpts:

Phone-calls from detention

This is a civilised
country where phone calls are not a special privilege. I can make calls
anytime I want to. I am aware of efforts by the federal government to
debunk my phone conversation with Al-Jazeera as a hoax, trying to make
it seem like the call to Al-Jazeera was not real. To dispel this, I am
going to talk to the BBC and CNN.

Claim that the federal officials asked him to implicate the north

Yes, let me confirm
to you that government officials, who I will not name now, called me
and made the appeal. I also have a text message which reads:

“Please, reach out to MEND and ask them to retract the statement and the government will blame the Northern elements.”

Status of the text after his phone was seized by prosecutors

I have saved the
message on another phone. Shortly after I got the text message, Dopkesi
(IBB’s campaign manager) was arrested. I will not release the message
now because if I do, the next thing they will say is that someone/IBB
has paid him to do this. As they continue to sour my name the more, I
will release the message. I am also in no hurry to release this message
yet, because we are fighting the system, not Jonathan. So I don’t want
it to be seen as if I am giving an undue advantage to anybody. I will
release everything I have and leave the public to judge.

The officials that sent the text

I cannot tell that
now. I understand the sensitivity of the whole drama and I will
definitely play my cards right when the time comes I will reveal them.

Being described as
a terrorist I am a sympathiser and not a terrorist. Let me tell you now
that those thugs assembled in Abuja have no control in creeks. Only
Boyloaf and Farah Jack are the real MEND members amongst those paraded
on Tuesday. Let them know that there are still weapons and people in
the creeks still willing to fight. For every 1,000 weapons in the
creeks, there are 1001 people willing to fight.

His charge by the South African government

They searched my
house and found nothing. Yet government said I sent warning emails and
everybody knows that emails can easily be tracked.

Ayiba Okwudili, 28,
a mother of four, is being interrogated by the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over the importation of 1kg of wrapped
substances suspected to be heroin.

The suspect, who
was nabbed by operatives of the anti-narcotics agency attached to the
Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) warehouse at the
Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, is said to have
concealed the substances in a refrigerator imported from Dubai.

Family affair

Hamza Umar, airport
commander for the agency, on Thursday, stated that the suspect, who
deals in frozen foods at Alaba, Lagos, told narcotic agents that the
consignment was sent to her by her husband who lives in Dubai.
According to Mr Umar, investigations showed that the suspect allegedly
functions as an intermediary between her husband and his associates in
Nigeria. “This is another suspected case of family involvement in
drugs,” he said. “The suspect was nabbed while attempting to clear the
goods sent to her by the husband. The consignment was addressed to one
Chinonso who was found to be a five-year-old son to the suspect while
the telephone number was also traced to the suspect.”

In a statement from
the agency, Mrs Okwudili said that her greatest regret is the welfare
of her children, and admitted that her husband is in the attitude of
sending his family things from Dubai after leaving the country. “My
husband told me that he has sent a fridge to me,” she said. “He has
been sending things to me. I feel bad that the drug was found inside
the refrigerator. My greatest worry is my children; I do not know how
they will cope. I married in 2001 and have four children, the eldest is
seven years. My husband moved to Dubai in search of greener pastures
four years after our marriage but visits at least twice in a year.”

Mitchell Ofoyeju, the spokesperson for the agency, said that the
suspect will have to face the law. “The suspect hails from Anambra
State and will soon appear in court,” he said.