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Ahead of next
week’s governorship and state House of Assembly elections in Delta
State, the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta yesterday carried out a small
exercise for its marines.

Over 15
ready-to-deploy naval vehicles, aided with navy helicopter, ‘Augusta
09’, high-speed cruising yacht, and two marshal-class gunboats were
among the equipment rolled out for action in the Delta waterways.

The fleet would be
used on 26th of April, 2011 to assist the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) in ensuring the smooth governorship and
state House of Assembly elections, the Commanding Officer of the unit,
Henry Babalola, said.

Mr Babalola, who
led other senior naval officers, said the exercise was directed by the
Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) to check the preparedness of the Navy for
the election.

“The operation
today is to assure the citizenry that we are ready to provide an
enabling environment for the successful conduct of the gubernatorial
and House of Assembly, as well as National Assembly that were postponed
in some states,” he said.

“The show of force
is a directory given to us by the CNS as part of our statutory duty to
help INEC in critical areas such as use of naval helicopters to convey
materials to areas that are not accessible by land and to escort INEC
boats to take materials to the riverine communities,” Mr. Babalola
said.

The commanding
officer of NNS Delta said the Navy was committed to providing adequate
security in the waterways to safeguard the electoral materials and INEC
personnel.

“All the naval
fleets paraded during the flag-show would be deployed for consistent
patrol of the waterways as part of its statutory function to provide
security for the polls on water and land, as well as check influx of
people in the waterways during the elections,” he further said.

Mr Babalola also
said there is heavy security arrangement for Delta State, saying
besides its consistent patrol of the waterways, the NNS Delta would
contribute a platoon to aid the Joint Task Force (JTF) in its
‘Operation Restore Hope’ as well as a ready-to-deploy standby platoon
in case of emergency.

“Every of our
fleets and personnel would be on election duty and we are looking at a
strength of almost 1700 personnel ready-to-be deploy on that day,” he
stated.

Closed waterways

He further said two
marshal-class boats would patrol the Escravos waterways while its
capital ships, ‘NNS Zaria and NNS Ogulawaba’ would be rolled out to
patrol the sea to check influx of foreigners sneaking into the country
during the election.

The commanding
officer said one of the fastest boats on the NN fleet, Marshal-class
boat and another power gunboat, Papa 219, would be rolled out in
addition to deployment of more personnel for consistent patrol of the
waterways in the state.

He added that
throughout the period of the election, movement would be restricted in
the waterways to check influx of people in the waterways.

“We would keep
patrolling the waterways to dominate it and prevent illegal activities.
The no movement order on land is also applicable on the waters as from
8am. We will not expect to find people or persons moving on the
waterway at this time. The curfew will be strictly enforced on the
waters until the end of it all and anybody find moving at this time
would be arrested and release after the elections,” he said.

The former minister
of justice and attorney-general of the federation, Richard Akinjide,
told the Ibadan Elders Forum yesterday to stop inciting other sections
of Oyo State against the state governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala.

Mr Akinjide, who
led other members of the Ibadan elders of the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) to address journalists in his Idi-Ishin residence on Thursday,
was reacting to the forum’s adoption of Abiola Ajimobi as the
governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Oyo
on Wednesday.

The forum, in a
press conference, declared their total support for Mr Ajimobi, saying
he is the only viable candidate among the options available for the
people of the state to choose as their leader for the next four years.

They chronicled a
litany of allegations against the incumbent Adebayo Alao-Akala, the
PDP’s candidate, as well as Rashidi Ladoja, a former governor of the
state and the Accord Party candidate, to explain why they are not fit
for the post.

While Mr Ladoja’s
sins border on an alleged lack of popularity of his party in the state,
Mr Alao-Akala was accused of disrespecting the traditional institution
and misappropriating state resources, among other wrongs.

But as the nation
prepares for the governorship election coming up on Tuesday, the PDP
elders say the Ibadan Elders’ Forum was wrong both in its assessment of
the candidates and its open support for the ACN flagbearer. According
to them, the attack against Mr Alao-Akala was nothing but an attempt to
call the dog a bad name in order to hang it.

Political opponents

They maintain that
the desperate ambition of the group to always produce the governor of
the state is antithetical to the tenets of democracy and the realities
of the 21st century.

“The truth of the
matter is that the hoopla over Akala’s performance is borne out of a
general feeling of the Ibadan Elders’ Forum, who has the myopic belief
that no one else from any other part of Oyo State other than Ibadan can
be the governor,” Mr Akinjide, himself an Ibadan elder, said.

“A mental incursion
round the states of the federation reveals that out of the 36 state
governors in Nigeria, 28 out of them are not indigenes of the capital
city of their states. Nearly all the states’ chief executives hail from
small towns and villages. Even the late Bola Ige, the governor of the
old Oyo state, was from Esa Oke. Moreover, there is a subsisting
doctrine that every geo-political zone of Oyo State has a legitimate
right to produce the governor.”

A stern warningMr
Akinjide declared that the forum failed in its bid to get Mr Ajimobi
elected in 2007, and will also fail this time as, he said, the members
lack the popularity to push a candidate to electoral success in the
state.

The senior lawyer
further warned that the Ibadan elders must borrow a leaf from other
equally successful senior citizens from other parts of the state who
have not dabbled into politics, urging them to clearly define their
stand.

“Henceforth, if the Ibadan elders fail to heed this advice, mud and
darts will fly in their direction and the respect and reverence usually
reserved for the elders in Yorubaland will henceforth elude them. They
will be treated strictly as political opponents,” he said.

At least 10,000
people have been displaced in Kano State following the crisis that
engulfed some northern states shortly after last Saturday’s
presidential elections, the director general of the National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) has said.

Mohammed Sani-Sidi,
who led a Special Presidential Committee on the Plight of Displaced
People to the Kano State police commissioner, Dan’Azumi Doma, also said
not less than 100 people were arrested in connection with the crisis.

The NEMA boss, who
commended the swift response of security agencies in controlling the
situation, told the displaced people that the team was undertaking
on-the-spot assessment inspection of the trouble spots.

He assured them
that the government would continue to protect and provide basic need of
people in the Internally Displaced Peoples Camps (IDPCs) pending the
return of normalcy to the affected communities.

“President Jonathan
has directed that we should ensure you are adequately provided with the
basic needs as relief materials are being transported to various
locations to improve the condition and plights of innocent people,” he
said. “So far, many more trucks are being dispatched from our strategic
warehouses to meet the demand. However, from the preliminary reports by
response agencies, the crises were neither religious nor ethnic, so we
should be cautious of inputting sectional sentiments into this.”

No gatherings permitted

Mr Doma told the committee that though properties were destroyed and many injured, there was no loss of life in the state.

“There was no
single record of death from the recent incident in Kano and no single
corpse was deposited in the mortuary,” he said.

Mr Doma has,
however banned all forms of political gathering in the state, saying
the police would deal with anyone violating the order.

“No form of
political gathering, including rallies and campaigns would be condoned
until after the governorship election,” he said.

Mr Doma, who urged
leaders of political parties in the State to strictly abide by the
directive in the interest of peace and stability, said the action was
part of measures taken by the police to checkmate the spread of the
violence and reduce apprehension and anxiety among the people,
particularly those taking refuge at military and police barracks.

Mr. Doma also pleaded with parents to caution their children and wards against committing acts capable of breaching the peace.

“The Command and
indeed other security agencies have commenced investigation to
apprehend the sponsors and the brains behind the dastardly acts, no
matter how highly placed they are in society,” he said.

Some voters in
Nasarawa State on Wednesday praised members of the National Youth
Service Corps used by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) as ad
hoc staff in the last two elections. One of the voters, Ahmed Tukur,
made the observation in an interview in Lafia, saying the corps members
displayed a high level of discipline and impartiality in the conduct of
the elections.

According to him,
the government should engage the services of corps members not only for
election purposes but also for other public assignments and functions
from now. “Their conduct in these elections shows they can be relied
upon,” he said

Another voter, Musa
Abdullahi, said the corps members had made the just concluded elections
free and fair by refusing to compromise the resolve of INEC to conduct
credible polls.

“There were no cases of snatching of ballot boxes; that alone was a plus for the corps members,” he said.

The Ogori-Magongo
Diocese of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, in Lokoja, Kogi
State has lined up a series of activities to celebrate its 100 years
existence.

The Bishop of the
diocese, Odimtan Davis, said in a statement in Lokoja on Wednesday that
the celebration would start in May with vocational training/seminar and
crusade, outreach rally/carnival and lighting of centenary fire in
June.

The statement
signed by Emmanuel Boro, the Diocesan Communicator, said the
celebration will peak in July with the foundation laying ceremony of
the bishop’s court, centenary service/award and the launching of a N1
billion developments and endowment fund.

According to the release, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, will be the special guest at the grand finale.

The Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA) yesterday called on the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone governorship elections in
states where cases of violence were recorded following the presidential
election of last week.

President of the
Association, Joe Daudu said in Abuja yesterday said “In the past three
days, hundreds of innocent Nigerians have been brutally and savagely
killed, churches in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe etc have been
torched/burnt down. Shops and other businesses of Nigerians referred to
as strangers in their own country have been looted. The highways are no
longer passable as Christians and other identifiable non indigenes are
pulled out of vehicles and slaughtered,” he said.

“Part of the
objective of the masterminds of this purge is to intimidate
non-indigenes for the last election as well as punish them for daring
to vote according to their choice and conscience. It will be a travesty
of the electoral process if the remaining election is conducted under
this very ominous cloud in the affected states,” he said.

Demand for justice

Mr Daudu also
described the security approach to the crisis as deplorable and advised
that the episode must not be swept under the carpet.

“The cold-blooded
murderers must be brought to book and justice served to the memory of
all that untimely lost their lives in this crisis,” he said.

Furthermore, he
said if government omits to bring the culprits to justice, the
association shall be left with no option than to approach the
International Criminal Court of Justice for warrants to issue against
the leaders of organisations that gave platform for these crimes.

He said
government needs to constitute a high-powered commission of inquiry to
collate the extent of loss of lives and property and every opportunity
given to aggrieved or affected persons to speak out.

Mr Daudu also
said such commission should be empowered to pay compensation for lives
and property lost, with same to be deducted from the accounts of states
where the losses or deaths occurred.

He also called on
the National Assembly to consider enacting stiffer laws to protect the
lives, liberty and property of every Nigerian regardless of where he
resides in the country.

The NBA, however, said INEC must be congratulated for conducting a transparently credible election.

“It is on record
that this is the first general election where alarming reports of
disenfranchisement in the way of subserviced polling stations,
inability of registered voters to vote, violence at polling stations
and the hijacking of ballot boxes were recorded at the barest minimum,”
Mr Daudu said. “There is a consensus among all observers, local and
international and men of repute that covered the election so far that
the whole process was free and fair. The NBA has therefore been proved
right when we refused to join others in castigating INEC during the
botched election.”

Mr Daudu said NBA congratulates all those that won in the two elections, including President Goodluck Jonathan.

Controversy has
continued to trail the recent general meeting of the Ondo State chapter
of the Nigeria Labour Congress. The meeting which took place a few
weeks ago was almost marred by protest. Although, Bosede Daramola,
emerged the new chairman of the labour union in the state, workers from
the private sector have rejected the outcome of the election, insisting
that its candidate, Kayode Sotire, was the elected chairman. The
private sector workers described the emergence of Mr. Daramola as a
farce, saying those in the public sector had ruled the union for eight
years, arguing the private sector ought to have produced the next
chairman of the union in the state.

The group claimed
Mr Daramola was a stooge imposed on the union by the outgone chairman,
Momodu Braimoh. They wondered why the congress was allowed to hold when
they had agreed to postpone the election.

Mr Braimoh, however said the election was duly conducted in the
presence of the two officials from the National Secretariat, Abuja, who
served as returning officers. He noted that five unions out of 26
pulled out of the election on the pretence that the election had been
postponed through a radio announcement by the state government. But the
former chairman said they could not take directive from the state
government, stressing that only the National Executive Council of the
union could order postponement of the election.

The governorship
candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in Kwara State,
Khaleel Bolaji has declared his support for the candidate of the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Abdulfattah Ahmed, putting an end to
his own gubernatorial ambition. Mr Bolaji, a one-time commissioner for
water resources and rural development, made this announcement yesterday
in Ilorin while speaking with journalists.

He says it was the
party’s decision to support the PDP after several meetings, not to
mention pressure from traditional and community leaders and interest
and opinion groups from his senatorial district, especially in Ifelodun
local government where he and Mr Ahmed hail from.

Right time for change

He also argued that
he had been in the struggle to govern the state since 1999, aiming to
create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. He
said having been guided by the principle of justice for all, it was
high time he gave his support to the PDP, whose zoning system has
produced a flag-bearing candidate from the Kwara South senatorial
district.

“I, therefore, call
on all members of my party, my supporters and admirers across party
lines in the state to vote for Mr Ahmed, the gubernatorial candidate of
the PDP in the governorship election scheduled to hold in Kwara State
on Tuesday April 26. I wish Mr Ahmed and his party a resounding victory
in the gubernatorial race,” he added.

Others in attendance at the occasion such as the party’s public
relations officer, women’s leader and other members of the ANPP
executive pledged their support towards the PDP in the forthcoming
election.

The traditional ruler of Ibadan, Samuel Odulana, Odugade 1, has called on security agencies operating in Oyo State to be more prepared as the nation goes to elects state governors on Tuesday.

The ruler made the request in Ibadan, the state’s capital, on Wednesday, in a statement signed on his behalf by I.A. Akinpelu and made available to journalists.

He also denied the rumour that voting took place in his Ibadan residence during the last presidential election, blaming ‘mischief makers’ for spreading the speculation.

He specifically urged the security agencies to provide adequate security for the people of the state before, during and after the poll, to enable the eligible voters exercise their right.

According to him, if adequate security is provided, the electorate would be encouraged to come out in large numbers to vote the candidates of their choice.

Ahead of the governorship election, the state is already engulfed with fear of possible breakdown of law and order as the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the sitting governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, bids to return to office, while his opponents mobilize to rebuff him.

No voting in the palace

The ruler said the rumour of voting in his house prompted security agencies to storm his residence on the election day to verify the claims, but had to go back without finding any incriminating item in the yard.

“For the past four decades, His Royal Majesty has not engaged in partisan politics. People should please recall that immediately on his ascension to the throne, one of his first pronouncements was that members of Olubadan-in-Council should not participate in partisan politics. For the avoidance of doubt, that is still his stand,” the statement read in parts.

The Kaduna State
government yesterday adjusted the 24-hour curfew that was imposed due
to the post-election violence in many parts of the state. In a
statement signed by the special adviser to the governor on media,
Reuben Buhari, the government said people would be allowed to move from
8am to 4pm on Thursday, noting that the restriction will be suspended
completely as soon as the security situation normalises. While
explaining that the adjustment was made to enable people have access to
food and other needs, the government also advised people to comply with
the directive.

Meanwhile, the
traditional ruler of Kagoro, Ufuwai Bonet, yesterday appealed to the
people of Kaduna State to embrace peace and desist from engaging in
violence and instability which would compromise development.

The ruler spoke
passionately to the people of southern Kaduna after touring the areas
affected by the crisis, saying, “We must embrace peace and our people
should know that we cannot progress without [the] peace and stability
of our state and country at large. Development and growth that we all
are aspiring for cannot be realised without peace and harmony and so I
am begging you to desist from all forms of violence and instability.”

He urged the people to remember the future of the country, saying,
“We should remember our past and as well the present, because we have
no reason to resort to violence.”