Nigeria Content Online

On May 26, 2006,
Augustine Igbokwe penned a sombre four-paragraph letter to the
Commissioner of Police in Imo State where he lived, complaining about
grave threats to his life and that of a kinsman.

“If this incessant
threat to my life and that of Sebastine Dike is not checkmated,” he
said, “it may tantamount to loss of our lives.” He told the police how
his alleged attacker openly threatened to kill him at a funeral for not
supporting the emergence of the accused person’s brother as a local
chief in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area, where they all hailed
from. Whether the police responded to this citizen’s anxiety is neither
stated nor claimed anywhere, but based on testimonies from relatives,
community members and police documents, no arrest, warning or an order
for an undertaking was executed.

Nearly a year
later, in April 2007, while attending a political function in a nearby
location, Mr Igbokwe lost his life, allegedly in the hands of the same
assailant he warned against – a 49-year-old former member of the State
House of Assembly, Jasper Ndubuaku.

According to police
documents and eye witnesses, he was shot and killed by Mr Ndubuaku,
currently an aide to the state governor, Ikedi Ohakim, opening a
homicide case that fortifies a long-standing concern about the rights
of ‘ordinary’ Nigerians to police protection, or justice in the face of
mortal danger.

It is not clear how
the two parties lived for close to 12 months after that notification,
but on April 14, 2007, during the state governorship and House of
Assembly elections, the police document says Mr Ndubuaku shot and
killed Mr Igbokwe.

Several police
correspondences on the matter, obtained by NEXT, do not point to any
action on the solemn warnings, neither have they been denied. But
somehow, the security records, in a rambling pattern, chronicle events
observed through investigations that have run for more than three
years, with the victim’s body unburied throughout the period.

Mr Igbokwe’s
brother, Eugene, said the case has gone through a “lengthy and windy”
investigation, but has only succeeded in failing to prosecute the named
suspect. “It is a long matter that cannot be discussed in a rush,” he
said.

After the prolonged
period, which saw the family and community leaders repeatedly accusing
the police of a cover-up, the matter drew renewed attention under the
new Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo. Now, although
investigations indicted the accused, prosecution is yet to be initiated
by the state Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for such
arraignments.

Political storm

After the office of
the Attorney General had been requested by the police to charge the
case to court, in a memo (CB:3514/X/LEG/FHQ/ABJ/VOL.II/44), K.C
Nwokorie, the assistant chief state counsel in a letter he signed on
February 12, 2010, for the Director of Public Prosecution, Imo State
Ministry of Justice, requested the original case file from the police,
after which nothing has since happened.

The Commissioner of
Police, Legal/Prosecution section, ‘c’ department, Abuja, B. A Hassan,
also on March 25, 2010, wrote the Commissioner of Police, ‘A’
Department, Imo State command, reminding him of the case and his
readiness to provide necessary resources to facilitate the arraignment.

Over phone with
NEXT, the state Attorney General, K. C. O Njemanze, denied knowledge of
the case, citing the high volume of criminal files his office attends
to daily. Like thousand others, he said, if the case involved murder,
the suspect cannot be spared prosecution.

“If it involves
murder and armed robbery, which are very sensitive, we must charge
those concerned. Nobody is above the law here,” he said. “We charge the
person straight, no matter whose ox is gored.” He, however, promised to
provide further details if the particulars of the case were sent to him.

Many about turns

In a March 19,
2010, letter, endorsed by S.U. Onuoha, the state solicitor general, on
behalf of the AG, the police was asked to discountenance a previous
request made by the state Director of Public Prosecutions asking for
the original case files and the arrest and arraignment of Mr Ndubuaku.

Mr Onuoha wrote
that the Attorney General was yet to vet the case, three years after
the incident, and that he would inform the police of other developments.

But the victim’s family seem determined not to let go.

The deceased today
lies in the Aladinma Hospital mortuary in Imo State, partly as a
preserved evidence for this yet-to-be completed investigation, and also
as a heartbreaking memento of a horrific pursuit of justice by a family
bereaved by a murdered son. The victim’s mother, relatives say, later
died inconsolable after her son’s tragic death.

As the family
endured an arduous process which involved the relatives often
travelling to Abuja to keep appointments at the police headquarters,
the suspect was never arrested or arraigned, NEXT understands.

“There have been a string of arrests in this case, all of which have
targeted persons with very remote bearing to this case and have yielded
nothing,” said Access to Justice, a rights campaigning group, in its
December 2007 letter to former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro.
“All of those arrests have been one-sided, extending only to relatives
of the deceased person. The principal suspect of this murder has
enjoyed some kind of arrest and detention immunity.”

One too many Nigerians are carrying scars from police brutality
and extra-judiacial killings. One such person is 16-year-old Godwin Joshua, an
SS1 student, who was shot by yet-to-be-identified police officers on April 3,
2010 in Ajegunle.

April 3 was the day almost 2,000 youth marched the streets of
Ajegunle, protesting the death of another youth, Charles Okafor, who died two
days earlier following alleged police harassment and brutality.

Godwin remembers that day clearly. He remembers he did not pray.
He remembers when he woke in the morning, his plan was to do “my duty at home
and later I’ll go to work then go and play ball”. He even remembers the black
pair of jeans and blue shirt he wore on the day. And he remembers it was a
little after 10am when he became a victim of police brutality.

“My dad sent me on an errand so when I returned I took up my
tools to go to where they called me to work because I do furniture work. But
when I got there what I saw was unbelievable. People were running here and
there. The police were shooting and everyone was running. I also ran but the
next thing I found myself…,” Godwin pauses and shakes his head. It’s obvious
the memories are still fresh. He says the next thing he remembers is the pain
he felt in his legs and being at a police station and a group of Police
officers deciding his fate.

“Some of the police were saying that they should give me a gun
or machete so that they’ll take my picture, so that they will say maybe I am
among those that are fighting,” Godwin recounts, “but one of the police man
said I am too small for such a thing that they should just throw me somewhere
or take me to anywhere”.

The bullets had hit his right and left thighs, barely missing
his penis. Assuming he would not survive, he said, the police took him to the
Isolo General Hospital where they abandoned him. Family members found him three
days later.

Pain untold

“He was lying down on the bed. All his legs were swollen. I felt
serious tears in my eyes. I said to myself how can a man live like this in his
own country, not America, or anywhere else, but my own country. I don’t want to
say I regret being a Nigerian,” said Godwin’s father Udofia Joshua.

Godwin says “for those three days the only thing that came to my
mind was just for God to take my life because I was going through pain. Nothing
on earth amused me during that period.”

Unable to pay for hospital treatment, Mr. Joshua took his son
home and resorted to use of traditional medicine and family care.

Godwin’s cousin, Magdalene Joshua, a nurse, attended to him for
the four months, giving him injections and dressing his wounds. She wonders why
the police carried Godwin to the Isolo General Hospital instead of either the
General Hospital in Ajeromi or Apapa.

She recounts her experience attending to Godwin. “If you entered
the room (where the victim lay for months), it would be smelling due to the
odour. If you see the leg that time when I was doing the dressing. My
instruments like forceps, I used to put rope to pull it out. That time he could
not do anything,” she said.

“It is God that did it because for those four months, there was
no money. It is only if people come around they’ll give us small something,”
she narrated.

For the victim’s mother, Magdalene Joshua, her days of “worrying
sick and thinking a lot” are over.

She says she is thankful because other youths, like Babatunde
Olotu, were killed on the day of the protest. She says wants to see her son
“walk better like before, finish school and further his education.”

Godwin believes “only the rich can get justice in this country”.

But as he manages to walk, he says he doesn’t forget to pray
every day. He sees life as having given him a second chance. He is, however,
worried for his family.

“The Police abandoned me so I cannot count on them. All I can ask is help
for my family because they are down. Even the money they have spent on me they
borrowed it and till now they have not paid back. But I don’t trust the Police
to help.”

Last
week, the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, told a
Nigerian woman she cannot apply for her children without a letter from
the children’s father, and kindly offered to issue the documents as
soon as the paternal endorsement is received.

The shocked woman
asked the reason for her denial and the reason given by the immigration
officer at the consulate was that “in Nigeria, the children belong to
the man.” This incident is a pointer to the series of institutional
discriminations against women in the country, including the lack of
opportunities for men married to Nigerian women to take their wives’
nationality if they so desire, while foreign women married to Nigerian
men have no such problem.

Immigration
officials at the Lagos Passport Office, Ikoyi, confirmed that the
father’s consent is indeed a prerequisite while applying for the
passports of minors.

A senior official
at the office, who doesn’t want to be named because he did not have
clearance to speak on the issue, said this is done to prevent
situations where the mother of a child might want to take such a child
away from their father without the father’s knowledge, for instance,
while divorce is being ironed out.

“I have had cases here where fathers have denied being aware that their children have applied for passports,” he said.

However, Chibogu
Obinwa, the senior programme officer of BAOBAB, a women’s human rights
advocacy group, thinks the reason given by the Immigration Service
cannot hold water.

“It does not take
into consideration the circumstances which may have led the woman
wanting to take the children out of the marriage,” she said. “It could
be that the woman is in an abusive marriage, (to her and the children)”.

Another senior
official at the office of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at
Alagbon Close, Lagos, who also requested anonymity, corroborated what
the officer said at the Passport Office.

“It is purely for
security reasons,” he said. “It is intended to check crimes such as
human trafficking and child labour.” When asked if the mother’s consent
is required when a father is the one applying for their passport, the
immigration official said this may not be necessary since Nigeria is a
patrilineal society.

“You must
understand that Nigeria is a patrilineal society and the child belongs
to the father. In a country like Ghana that is a matrilineal society,
this may be possible.”

Jiti Ogunye, a
Lagos-based lawyer, expressed displeasure at the practice of government
officials in the application of laws, which he said reinforce the
patriachal posture of the Nigerian society. Mr Ogunye said such
practices are unconstitutional, as they negates the principle of
equality of sexes and the abhorrence of discrimination enshrined in the
country’s constitution.

“It is
unconstitutional, because there should be equality of treatment of both
gender by the law and in the application of all laws and regulations in
Nigeria, discrimination should be avoided. You can’t discriminate
anybody on the account of sex, circumstances of birth, state of origin
and religion. The constitutional provision in section 34 of the
constitution writes against discrimination.

However, Mr Ogunye
believes that while the immigration has the power to request for the
father’s consent to corroborate the mother’s claims if she shows up
first at the passport office, such treatment should be meted out to the
man also if he is the one that shows up first at the passport office.
This, he said, will justify the principle of equality as stated in the
constitution.

When asked if the
immigration is not deliberately negating the tenets of the constitution
on equality of sexes, the senior immigration official at the
immigration office at Alagbon retorted, “Our job is to implement
government policies. It is the job of a court of competent jurisdiction
to decide what is constitutional or not.”

A history of discrimination

The Nigerian
immigration law has a long history of discrimination against women in
its administrative policy on the issuance of international passports.
Prior to June 2009, when Priye Iyalla-Amadi, the wife of the famous
Nigerian writer, Elechi Amadi, got what is being regarded today as a
landmark judgement against the NIS, even adult women were required to
get their husband’s consent before they can apply for international
passports.

In the case
between Priye Iyalla-Amadi versus the NIS, a federal high court in Port
Harcourt declared as unconstitutional the policy of the NIS which
compelled a married Nigerian woman to produce a letter of consent from
her husband as a condition for issuance of international passport.

NEXT can confirm
that since the judgement was issued, the NIS has jettisoned the policy
that requires married women to get their husband’s consent before they
are issued passports.

“I have not been
asked to produce any such thing. Not at all,” said Mrs. Osinsanya, an
applicant at the Lagos passport office in Ikoyi.

Abdullahi Isa adjusted the helmet on his head for the umpteenth
time. It was his first week at work as a commercial motorcyclist and, besides
struggling with communicating with passengers in English language, he was also
having problems fastening the oversized head gear on his head. Although, he
could not work out how old he is, he said he was sure he was born the year the
late head of state, Sani Abacha, died (that is, 1998). According to him, his
sole purpose of moving to Lagos, where he had been for two months, was to
search for greener pastures.

The rising cases of road accidents in the state, which are
traceable to underage commercial motorcyclists and bus drivers who ply the
roads, have become a cause for concern.

Young and driving

Penultimate Wednesday, a diesel-laden tanker overturned and
exploded into flames on the Liverpool bridge, Apapa. Two occupants, including
the driver were instantly roasted to death.

Although he could not determine the exact age of the tanker
driver, Wale Olayiwola, a fire officer who was at the scene of the inferno,
attributed the cause to the situation where “very young boys” are allowed to
drive tankers and articulated vehicles.

“It is disheartening to see these young and inexperienced boys
driving trailers and tankers. I don’t know who granted them driving licences
that allowed them to drive vehicles loaded with sensitive and highly volatile
products,” said Mr. Olayiwola, the chief fire officer of the Nigeria Ports
Authority.

A public analyst, Gabriel Giwa-Amu, said that it is unreasonable
for an inexperienced person to ply the highways. “But if you say the
youthfulness of the motorist, the driver, or the commercial motorcyclist is an
issue, I will say no. The fact that the man is young does not make it a crime
or improper to ply the road because there is an age limit to which a person can
be said to be allowed to drive,” said Mr. Giwa-Amu, a Lagos-based private legal
practitioner.

Road safety awareness

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), in conjunction with
celebrity special marshals and four nongovernmental organisations had, on
February 20 this year, initiated the child-safety campaign in Lagos State.

“It was because of the concern over the safety of younger people
like that, we call them under aged people who, of course, have a right to ride,
drive or be driven. And the whole essence of that is how do we raise
awareness?” Said Jonas Agwu, the Lagos State Sector Commander of the FRSC.

“What we were trying to emphasise was that the family, religious
organisations and everyone in the society has a responsibility to ensure that
these young people are properly guided.

“Nobody should capitalise on the fact that because you want to
do business, you take a child that is under aged and ask him to do certain
things,” said Mr. Agwu.

According to the National Road Traffic Regulation Act of 2004,
it is illegal for anybody who is under 18 to drive a vehicle or to ride a
motorcycle. But being able to determine the age of a driver or motorcyclist by
looks seems to be a major challenge for the traffic officials.

“In keeping with that,” Mr. Agwu continued, “we carry out our
enforcements targeting under aged drivers and riders. Of course, we know that
sometimes there are challenges because you cannot determine the age of a person
by merely looking at the person,” said Mr. Agwu.

“In most cases, when we suspect that the person is under 18,
what we do is we impound the vehicle, impound the bike, and insist that the
person should bring proof, so that we have a document that we can use in
determining whether the person who is arrested is truly under age or not before
we go ahead with enforcement.”

Monitoring road users

Mr. Giwa-Amu blamed road accidents on irresponsible road users
and poor monitoring from road monitoring agencies. “The commercial motorcyclists
are the most reckless beings that ever exist. Not because of the area they are
coming from, but because once they are able to step on the clutch and the Okada
moves, they feel that they can ride the Okada anywhere anyhow. But normally,
these people are supposed to be subjected to training and evaluation,” he said.

A major area that needs to be looked into, according to Mr.
Giwa-Amu, is the tendency for drivers to jump into any type of vehicle,
irrespective of the class of vehicle under which their licences were issued.
“If you say you are licenced to drive a lorry, it does not give you the licence
to drive a truck of a higher weight. If you are 18 years old and you are
licenced to drive a car, you are prohibited from driving a truck, especially
one carrying fuel or any inflammable object, because it endangers the public.

“And then there is always this periodic test the vehicle
inspection office is entitled to carry out for a truck driver to ensure that he
is still of that mental competence or ability to drive that truck of that
grade. But all these things have collapsed, once the road safety issues a
licence, it is presumed to be for three or four years, they are not concerned
about your mental stability.” According to Mr. Agwu, the agency comes down hard
on drivers who possess invalid driving licences.

“When we ask do you have a valid driver’s licence? A valid
driver’s licence could be regarded as an ambiguous question in the sense that
you might be thinking that all we are saying is that, do you have a current
licence? But much more than that, we are asking do you have the licence that
truly specifies and gives you the right to ride that thing that you are
moving?” Stressed Mr. Agwu.

He also said that the FRSC has started a programme which
specifies that anybody who is applying for a licence must have attended a valid
and approved driving school.

“As I speak to you now, if you apply for a driver’s license here in Lagos
and you are applying for the first time and you never went to a driving school
approved by the government, you will not be able to pick a driver’s licence.”

It is exactly a week since Comfort Monday, an inmate at the
Female Kirikiri Prison, Apapa, Lagos State, gave birth to her son at the Lagos
Island Maternity Hospital on August 1, 2010. Both mother and child are
scheduled to return to prison, where she has been since January 2010, courtesy
of the man she says is the father of her child.

But while Ms Monday might be nursing her child within the four
walls of the prison and pondering what the future holds, a NEXT investigation
reveals she may actually be a victim of injustice. Evidence currently at the
Kirikiri Magistrate court, Apapa, suggests Ms Monday’s age was purposely
manipulated to ensure she gets remanded in prison.

In May 2009, Nadum Nwitua, the alleged father of the baby,
travelled to Elele Alimini, Rivers State, where he met Ezekiel Monday, a poor
and single father barely managing to raise his nine children at a time, his
wife having left him over five years earlier. Mr Nwitua expressed his fondness
for his daughter and promised to give her a better life in Lagos.

“My pikin na 16 years when he come carry am say he go train am
for Lagos. Na because she no dey do anything for village, people talk say na
big man, that she go go better school, say make I let am follow am go,” said Mr
Monday in a telephone interview.

Altered court documents

From Mr. Monday’s account, his daughter is 17 this year.
Semi-literate and unable to write coherently, this was the age she told the
Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at the Oko Oba Police station.

James Dakarin, a police constable with force number 252661,
wrote her statement when she was arrested on January 24, 2010, after Mr Nwitua
alleged that she conspired with his security man, identified as Dala, and a
neighbour, Kennedy Enoma, to steal N295,000 from him. On the typed charge sheet
presented at the court in which Ms Monday and Mr Kennedy were accused of
conspiracy to steal and stealing, Ms Monday’s age was visibly altered with a
black pen from 17 to 18 years. This same alteration was discovered to have been
made on her statement paper which had the original age visibly cancelled and
replaced with 18 years.

For Lucas Koyejo, the South West Zone Head of the Legal and
Investigating Department of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
changing a word or figure in judicial documents is an offence “where the
intention is to falsify the document. If it can be proved that it was done unlawfully,
then it would amount to giving false information to pervert the course of
justice”.

Joseph Otteh, the executive director of Access to Justice, an
advocacy group promoting equal rights and justice, thinks the same and adds:
“If her age was falsified, it is to draw the court’s attention to the fact that
she is a minor fraudulently being tried as an adult. The court needs to see the
misrepresentation and take the matter through a juvenile track.”

Both lawyers say if the seeming wrongful detention of Ms Comfort
at the prison is established based on the fact that she is a minor, the next
step is “to know the extent of involvement of each party to the detention” and
appropriate punishment meted out. They also agree a civil suit for damages
could be considered.

This view is shared by the Lagos State police spokesperson,
Frank Mba. He said handwriting experts would be called to determine the
authenticity of the documents before the court.

“At the end of the day, if found to be altered, this would
amount to gross misconduct on the part of the officer and he will be tried in
orderly room and punished accordingly,” Mr Mba said, but did not clarify the
degree of punishment such an offence carries.

Another child marriage?

Mr Nwitua, in his statement, confirmed he was given the
responsibility of Ms Monday’s wellbeing by her father. He goes further to say
he brought her to Lagos for the purpose of marriage.

In his words: “I was given Comfort by the father, Monday, to
take to Lagos for marriage/training.” And according to Ms Monday, immediately
after they returned to Lagos, “that is when he started sleeping with me. It has
been long. At first, I was going to school but, after, I stopped. I was doing
housegirl for him.” By the time she told him she was pregnant, she said he had
become physically abusive.

The alleged sexual escapade was known by other members of Mr
Nwitua’s household located at Plot 2, Owode Street, Abule Egba, Lagos State,
which doubles as Mr Nwitua’s residence and business address – Gbedeco (Nig.) Ltd.
This was reported to the police by Mr Nwitua’s 15-year-old niece, Princess
Nwitua.

“She refused to go to school and when I asked, she said is not
feeling fine. She came to my room and said that she wants to go back to her
place in Port Harcourt. She said she did not want to live with my uncle again,
that my uncle is an evil man and that my uncle is sleeping with her,” Miss
Nwitua said.

Mr Koyejo says if Mr Nwitua has “actually been sleeping with her
as an underage, then his action amounts to rape, which carries a sentence of
life imprisonment under the Child Rights Law of Lagos State,” and “will be made
to face the full wrath of the law”.

A case of victimisation

On the instructions of Mr Nwitua, who had travelled to the
northern part of Nigeria on January 17, 2010, Ms Monday sold some compressors
to one Wahab, as identified by Mr Nwitua, for N95,000.

She handed the money to the security man, Dala, who Mr Nwitua
acknowledges kept his money and had access to the office drawer; who he “always
sometimes asked to collect money from there”; and where he alleges the N200,000
was stolen from.

When Mr Nwitua returned on January 23, 2010, Dala had packed his
belongings and absconded with the N95,000. He got Ms Monday arrested and told
the Police that Mr Enoma “is a bonafide friend of Dala and at the same time the
boyfriend of Comfort.” He said both Dala and Kennedy “always meet regularly and
sometimes for a long meeting either on my premises or at my gate”.

But this is at variance with the statement of his younger brother’s
daughter, Miss Nwitua, who told the police “I have not seen Ken before in our
compound before”.

A threatening
complainant

Through all this, Mr Nwitua, who instituted the case asking the
police to recover the money for him “and of course investigate any allegation
raised against me by all the parties involved”, has refused to talk to the
press and repeatedly threatened this reporter.

“Don’t go and publish anything that will cost your company a lot
of money o! Otherwise, I will not spare anybody in this matter,” Mr Nwitua at a
time said. The last time NEXT reached him, he said “Look, I warned you before.
You are looking for trouble. You are not listening,” before cutting the line.

Meanwhile, Ms Monday’s case has been adjourned four times and is
yet to be heard at the Kirikiri Magistrate Court, Apapa. No reason has been
given each time for the magistrate, Ope Agbe, not showing up in court.

It appears Mr Nwitua’s intention was to ensure Ms Monday
remained incarcerated for eight months, thus ensuring she gave birth to her
child away from public view and his wife and children, who are said to live in
the United Kingdom. The question remains, what’s next now that Ms Monday has
given birth?

Her case comes up September 27, 2010.

A 30-year-old woman, Mutiat Lawal, on Thursday
pleaded with a grade A Customary Court, in Ikorodu, Lagos, to dissolve
her marriage to Saka Lawal, as she is married to another man.

The petitioner told the court that
Lawal had not been taking care of her and the three children of the
marriage aged six, five and two years.

“My husband divorced his former wife
who had five children for him and I trained all the children, including
our three children, but in spite of this, he refused to support me.

“I married another man just last week
because he gives me attention although he lost his wife recently, but
he has three children,” Mutiat said.

Lawal, 56, a textile worker, consented
to the dissolution of their six-year-old marriage. He told the court
that his wife packed into another man’s house last week with their
three children. “The court tried its best to reconcile our differences
but my wife has an ulterior motive. Apart from the court’s effort, she
delivered a baby on July 20, and packed into another man’s house.

“I regret ever marrying her because she is lazy and never appreciative of all my assistance towards the family,” Lawal said.

He offered to pay the N6,000 proposed
by the respondent for the upkeep of their children to facilitate the
dissolution of their marriage.

The Court President, Remi Adesanya,
said all efforts by the court to reconcile the couple had become
abortive, since the petitioner had married another man.

“The court has no option than to dissolve the union,” Adesanya said.

He, however, adjourned the case till August 12 for judgment.

A visually impaired
man, and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State,
Yinka Ibidunni, yesterday officially announced his intention to contest
against Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello for the Ogun Central Senatorial District
in the forthcoming 2011 polls.

Mr Ibidunmi, a
known critic of the state Governor, Gbenga Daniel, before he was
appointed as Special Adviser on Physically Challenged People, made this
known in Abeokuta. Declaring his senatorial ambition at his campaign
office, located in Kugba area of the town, Mr Ibidunni who is eyeing
the seat for the third time, said his ambition is to create positive
effect and influence in people’s life. “I want to ensure that people
enjoy the dividend of democracy, and doing this is for the electorates
to vote the right persons into political offices, in the next
dispensation, in which I am qualified,” he said.

“I am not ready to give a kobo to any delegate before getting the
party slot, nor will I part away with any money as condition for the
electorate to vote for me,” he said. “But what I will say is that, let
us put the right person in right position.” The aspirant assured the
electorate that if voted in as senator, he would be transparent and
spend his constituency allowances judiciously. “Let us put the right
driver in the right driving seat,” he said.

The Anambra State government has
commenced the process of formulating the state’s 2011 budget with a
workshop on data collection, presentation and analysis, organised
yesterday in Awka by the ministry of economic planning and budget.

The workshop, according to Vivian
Nwandu, the permanent secretary of the ministry, was necessitated by
the government’s plan to introduce what she called ‘organic budget law’.

The law, she explained, was a manual containing the process and procedure of planning the budget.

“In the past decade, planning
methodologies have continued to evolve and the awareness that planning
must be based on facts and figures has continued to increase,” Mrs
Nwandu said.

The state’s commissioner for economic
planning and budget, Chinyere Okunna, said the training was coming at a
time when many reforms in planning and budgeting were taking place at
both state and federal levels.

She, however, noted that there still
existed gaps in terms of knowledge and skills by staff of the ministry,
either because they had been newly posted or because they were yet to
completely settle down.

“This workshop provides an opportunity
for them to listen, learn and ask questions,” Mrs Okunna said, pointing
out that effective planning must be based on available statistical data
on which the state government’s programmes and projects had been based.

Current momentum

She said that for
the state government to sustain its current momentum in development, it
needed to plan effectively and that such planning must be executed by a
crop of knowledgeable and skilled planning officers and statisticians.

“We urge the
participants to take full advantage of the opportunity the workshop
offered to acquire useful knowledge and skills they would use to
enhance their performance,” Mrs Okunna said.

</

Oleh, headquarters of Isoko South Council Area of
Delta State was in turmoil yesterday as irate youth took the laws into
their hands killing three persons and injuring several others as the
crisis in the predominately Isoko community takes a turn for the worse.

Though the Police spokesman, Charles Muka, said
troops have been deployed to the troubled community to quell the
uprising and imposed a dusk to dawn curfew, the local police said two
persons have been arrested.

About seven trucks of mobile policemen were sighted in the town yesterday taking positions when NEXT visited the community.

The crisis, according to a source from the community,
erupted during a meeting of two rival youth groups, who have been
spurring for war over who get the larger share of an oil largesse,
which was recently paid to the community by one of the oil companies
doing business in the area.

The source said the payment has been causing tension
in the town for the past one week, and finally got to a boiling point
yesterday when a corpse was laid in front of the residence of one Chief
Egbo, an uncle to a former councillor who is opposition to the
terrorising youth group.

This led to the invasion of the main market by the
rampaging youth, who held several people hostage and smashed about
eight vehicles belonging to their opponent.

In one of the bloody encounters, one of the leaders
of a rival group, identified as Wilfred Ato, who is said to be an oil
landlord was killed at night and his corpse dumped at the home of one
of the youth leaders.

Though, it could not be ascertained which group
killed the young man, but sources said the deceased is the first in
command, to a group opposed by the serving councillor.

Fight for cash

Another victim, simply identified as Ekamena, was
allegedly shot at Amawa layout, located along the Ogumudia road axis of
the town. The other unidentified victim, said to be a stranger, was
allegedly killed by irate youth in a reprisal attack.

About three people so far have died, since the crisis
broke out on Tuesday, while one Ogadema, a key player in the crisis
claimed that invaders destroyed seven cars in his compound.

He alleged that the invaders, led by one Frank
Agbaragu, who earlier led the protest against SPDC, came to kidnap a
serving councillor in the council, Henry Iviero who had been opposed to
their activities in the community.

But in a swift reaction to Ogadema claims, Mr
Agbaragu alleged that Ogadema and his cohort were cultists holding
meeting with intent to launch attack on himself.

Next gathered that the community has been enmeshed in
one crisis or the other since about N6 Million was paid to the
community by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

A section of the town was said to have hijacked the
money, resulting to the violence by the youth and oil landlords who
embarked on the protest.

It was also learnt that some group of irate youth, last week
paralysed SPDC’s operation in the area over what they termed gross
marginalisation and wrong naming of an oil well after a neighbouring
Olomoro community.</

A group of councillors from the Oyo North Senatorial District of
Oyo State have criticised Gbenga Babalola, the senator representing the area,
accusing him of being a “bench warmer” at the senate.

Led by Adewumi Ismail, chairman of the Oyo State Councillors’
Forum, the local government legislators were at the Nigerian Union Journalists
state headquarters, Ibadan, on Wednesday, to express their resolve that Mr
Babalola is not returned to the senate next year.

“We have all watched the proceedings of the National Assembly on
the television, How many times have you seen Senator Babalola moving a motion
or sponsoring a bill? He is a member of the Supporters Club and just there as a
bench warmer,” one of the councillors said, while explaining why the senator
does not deserve another ticket.

The aggrieved councillors said they are, instead, nominating
Hosea Agboola, current commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy
Matters in the state, saying he had used his influence to better the lot of the
people of his constituency as well as the generality of the councillors, whose
matter fall under his purview of administration.

Mr Babalola, a son in-law to the late acclaimed godfather of Oyo
State politics, Lamidi Adedibu, was declared winner of the 2007 elections for
the Oyo North Senatorial district. Like other elected officials in the state,
he has been going around to campaign for a re-election. A group of councillors
endorsed his second term ambition last week, touting his achievements as their
reason.

Contest of popularity

But this other group dismissed the endorsement as a ruse, saying
they are the authentic councillors from the constituency. “I want to use this
medium to dispel the rumour that a group of councillors have endorsed the
return of Senator Babalola in the 2011 election,” said Mr Ismail. “The rumour
is not true. We are the genuine councillors from the region.”

According to the
legislators, Mr Agboola has not only used his current office to better their
lot, he is qualified for the position of a senator because of his antecedents.

The councillors further accused Mr Babalola of lacking good
human relations, saying until he was trying to seek a re-election, he was not
known by anybody in the constituency.

The councillor also said
rather than pick from among his people as his personal assistant, the senator
appointed a man from the South-East for the job.