Nigeria Content Online

Former governor of Kano State, Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso, had expressed shock over the level of infrastructural
decay in the state since he left office in 2003.

Mr. Kwankwaso was speaking to a mammoth
crowd of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) supporters in Dala local
government at the end of its zonal rally in Kano.

The erstwhile minister of defence said
while in his entourage, on his way to the venue of the rally, women and
children were saying ‘no drinking water, no drinking water.’ He said
the people of the state are more impoverished than ever before in the
history of the state, saying that the All Nigeria Peoples Party
(ANPP)-led government have plundered huge amount of money they
collected from the federal coffers without putting anything tangible on
ground.

“You can see poverty everywhere you go
in the state. There is no water to drink; this not me saying it, but
the people are saying they don’t have water to drink. Businesses are no
longer flourishing like before, the people are so impoverished, but it
will be over when we come back,” he said.

Mr. Kwankwaso further decried the state
of health facilities in the state, stressing that all the current
government could do is to continue to use religion to deceive the
people while they embezzle their resources.

Religion as opium

He implored the people of the state to
come out in the forthcoming polls to vote for the PDP, adding that the
PDP is the only party that will deliver to them the benefits of
democracy.

The PDP state chairman, Farouk Iya,
said they had received 31,554 persons that defected from many political
parties in the 15 local government Kano central Senatorial districts.

He urged the members of the party to
come out and ensure that they fully participate in the proposed voters
registration exercise coming up soon.

Mr. Kwankwanso lost to the incumbent governor, Ibrahim Shekarau of
the ANPP, in the 2003 elections. Mr. Shekarau also defeated the PDP
candidate in the 2007 elections for his second term. He has launched a
presidential campaign.</

Whether the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and political parties
are prepared or not, the organization of next year’s election must
follow the law, Kayode Ajulo, a lawyer has said.

Despite the visible
challenges posing threats to the possible conduct of a free and fair
election, Mr Ajulo however called on INEC boss, Attahiru Jega to
“answer his name and ensure that the right things are done for us to
have credible election in Nigeria.” “He is not alone in this task, we
are with him to ensure that he deliver. All eyes are on him, Nigeria
must get it right this time around,” he said. “The amended
constitutional provision is a new opportunity to get the voters
registration right, As said earlier, voters registration is the
foundation of any election and if the registration is shaky, the
election cannot stand and will surely fall.”

Unprepared actors

Mr Ajulo said the
passage, by the 2/3 of the States House of Assembly of the amended
document, means the new constitution has taken effect. This also
translates that election ought to be held in January. He said no
political party has shown that they understand the urgency of things.
“They are not prepared; even the little opportunity has been reduced to
a very mundane issue called zoning arrangement in the face of paucity
of campaign, presentation and ventilation of parties manifestos and
campaign’s promises,” he said.

Commenting on the
claims of the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, who chaired the
senate committee on the amendments of the constitution, that the senate
is aware of the little time left to the elections and are prepared to
assist INEC to achieve the election, Mr. Ajulo said INEC must be
totally autonomous, not by nomenclature alone but by funding. “He who
pays the piper dictates the tune, therefore to cut INEC from political
interference, they must be financial independent, like the judiciary.
Yes there is little time left, but with willpower and availability of
funds, the hurdles can be crossed,” he said.

The 36 state Houses of Assembly had, last week, sent their
resolutions back to the National Assembly on the amended clauses of the
1999 constitution, thus bringing to an end the process of the current
exercise which has gulped over N5billion.

A NEXT
investigation has found that construction companies and individual
miners operating within the Federal Capital Territory have been
involved in the illegal mining of laterite.

The excavations
have degraded the environment and pose a great threat to the lives of
residents, especially in rural areas. The excavations are done without
any attempt to reclaim the exposed surfaces on those sites, leaving
wide holes where water can collect. In some places where the water
table is high, artificial ponds are formed. Because of the inadequate
water supply in many rural communities, residents use them as their
sources of water. However, they often fall in, get trapped and
sometimes die in these swampy wells.

Friday Peters, a
security guard, lost his entire family in one of these ponds located at
Dnako Village, near Sunny Vale Estate in Abuja.

In 2009, his
pregnant wife and younger sister had gone down to one of these ponds to
wash clothes in preparation for a trip to their village for Christmas
celebrations. However, both women fell into the marshy pond and drowned.

“I guess that as
one of them was trying to draw water, she started drowning and when she
shouted, the other came to help and both of them got drowned in the
swamp,” he said, his voice laden with emotion. “We were newly married
then.” The artificial pond is the only available water source in the
village.

Priscilla Ochakpa,
executive director of Women Environmental Programme, a non-governmental
organisation, said the girls were buried quickly because their families
had no money to keep them in a mortuary until the case was settled. No
compensation has been paid to the young security guard. She also
confirmed that that the illegal burrowing still continues in the
village.

“A week after the
girls died, I saw another company that came with excavators, doing the
thing again,” she said. “We wrote to AEPB (the Abuja Environmental
Protection Board) to verify if they gave official permit for those
construction firms to excavate and leave big holes where young people
die. They said I should not worry, that they have their way of doing it
and that they will take it up. But up till today, they are still
burrowing laterite there,” Mrs. Ochapa said.

She also disclosed
that the Dnako village incident was just one case out of several. In
Kuje, a 9-year-old boy drowned in a similar pond where Dantata and
Sawoe Company were conducting excavations. In Lugbe, a secondary school
boy was coming out to the road and drowned in one of the ponds created
by Julius Berger’s excavation. The company is involved in the road
construction in the area.

The director said
she has tried to draw the attention of the Abuja Environmental
Protection Board (AEPB) to the matter, but without success. She blamed
the board for not doing enough to enforce relevant rules and bring
offenders to book.

Mrs. Ochapa noted
that in developed countries, licences are issued to companies and
environmental impact assessment concluded before mining activities can
take place. Companies must show plans on how they will refill the land
before they start.

“We can only talk
about these issues but only the government can take action,” she said.
“I wonder why government should be toying with some of these issues
when lives of innocent Nigerians are being lost.”

Official complicity

When this reporter
visited the excavation site in Dnako, a company that identified itself
as a one-man construction business was loading laterite onto a waiting
tipper loader.

The excavator
operator, a man who would only identify himself as “Chike”, said they
have obtained the necessary permit for the business. He explained that
the company shares its earnings with the community.

“When the tippers come, we give them sand for N3000. Out of this, the community takes N1000 for each trip sold,” he said.

Chike said that the
police are paid N1000 whenever they come around, about three times in a
week, and AEPB officials are paid N10,000 when they come. The tipper
driver said they sell each trip for N10,000 to their customers.

“Whenever we give
this money, they will tell us to continue our work and that we should
call them when anybody disturbs us,” said Chike. “But if we don’t pay,
they will report us to the chief and the villagers will chase us out.
So that is how it is.”

A community
representative, identified as Babangida, confirmed Chike’s claim.
Babangida collects money from the companies on behalf of the community.

Speaking through an
interpreter, Auta Tezhibeyi Shekwolo, village head of Dnako Lokogoma,
he said they would be glad to drive out the construction firms if the
government provides them water and other means of livelihood. The
village is suffering from scarcity of water and the borehole provided
by the local council authority is not functional.

Board doing its best

Uche Agbanusi, head
of the Environmental Monitoring Department of the AEPB, denied being
aware of any complicity by board officials. He said the board had tried
to tackle illegal mining activities in the FCT, especially laterite
burrowing, but that the miners are too large in number.

“Managing
degradation issue is purely our responsibility and when we discover
illegal mining activities, we deal with it,” he said. “If on
surveillance, we see any abandoned mining site, we insist that the
company responsible for the digging do decommission and reclaim the
whole place. We are not sleeping on this matter,” Mr. Agbanusi said.

He also said that
the AEPB does not give mining licences. If miners bring a licence from
the ministry of mines and steel, the board only asks them for an
environmental impact assessment before they begin working.

Efforts to contact officials of the ministry of mines and steel were
unsuccessful, as the director in charge of mining licences was said to
be out of the office.

The federal
government has purchased a $3.5million (N525 million) brand new TBM 850
Super-Fast turboprop aircraft for the training of pilots.

The aircraft,
bought to boost the competence level of pilots trained in the country,
as well as to enhance aviation safety, is to be used at the Nigerian
College of Aviation (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State.

“The new TBM 850
will enable us to raise the level of our training to the highest
possible standards, as it will expose our student pilots to the latest
systems available on modern aircraft,” said Adebayo Araba, the rector
of the college, in a statement made available to journalists in Lagos,
over the weekend.

According to Mr.
Araba, the airplane, which has arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe International
Airport, Abuja, will be used primarily for the Advanced Transport Pilot
(ATP) training courses, adding that the delivery of the 2010 model TBM
850 aircraft was a significant milestone in the strategic resolve of
the federal government and the management of NCAT to ensure that the
college regains its former reputation as Africa’s foremost aviation
training institution.

“I can say to you
categorically, the college is going to be the first college ever to
have this type of airplane in their inventory for training, because
there is always this global change and we are really ready for the
advance training when it comes to piloting, instead of reducing the
training to piston engine. So, we’ve gone a step further to turboprop
plane,” he declared.

Raise the standards

The aviation
teacher noted that the pressurised aircraft is equipped with advanced
avionics systems such as glass cockpit, Enhanced Ground Proximity
Warning Systems (EGPWS), Traffic Alert & Collision Avoidance System
(TCAS), and Flight Management Systems (FMS).

“Changes in global
aviation training require a strategic repositioning of our college to
meet the demands of the twenty-first century aviation training; and the
growing demand within the African continent for world-class aviation
schools.

“This is part of our overall strategy to raise training standards in Nigeria and the world at large,” he said.

Mr. Araba, however,
disclosed that the airplane was manufactured and customised
specifically for the college by Daher-Socata of France, adding that the
aircraft is part of the institution’s 2010 federal government capital
budget.

The Nigerian
College of Aviation Technology is the only aviation training
institution in the country owned and managed by the federal government.

A soft-spoken
African-American woman with a gentle manner became the most famous face
in U.S. politics this week, in Kafkaesque confusion involving race,
right-wing media and officials of the Obama administration.

“On behalf of the
administration, I offer our apologies,” White House spokesman Robert
Gibbs said. Until this week, Shirley Sherrod was a largely anonymous
government employee helping struggling farmers in a poor part of the
country. But a right-wing Internet blogger found video of a speech she
gave, mentioning her work with a white farmer she found condescending.
“I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost
their farmland, and here I was faced with having to help a white person
save their land,” Sherrod said in the widely viewed and quoted excerpt.
“So I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do.” Edited out,
though, were her explanation that the work was done decades earlier for
a different employer, that it taught her to look past race, and that
she even offered the disagreeable white farmer exactly the help he
needed.

Indeed, when CNN found his family, they were grateful and credited
Sherrod with saving them from financial disaster. But the country’s
leading civil rights organization, the National Organization for the
Advancement of Colored People had already called for her dismissal and
President Obama’s agriculture secretary had ordered her fired from her
job. They were reacting not just to Sherrod, but also a lot of painful
history. Tens of thousands of black, Hispanic and female farmers have
complained over the years of unfair treatment by the Department of
Agriculture, when they wanted government assistance. So a largely black
organization and the cabinet secretary of America’s first black
president wanted to demonstrate their rejection of any form of
discrimination. When the full facts emerged, the NAACP complained that
it had been intentionally fooled by the blogger and the media that
repeated his account. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to
Sherrod and offered her a new job. And Obama’s America was left
scratching its head about race and politics once again.

Ahead of an active political
campaign season for the 2011 general elections, the presumed
presidential candidacy of Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s former anti-corruption
czar, is raising more than a few eyebrows across the political
landscape, NEXT investigations in Abuja and Lagos, found at the weekend.

Mr. Ribadu who was widely thought
to be slated for office as special adviser, on anti-corruption and good
governance, in the administration of President Goodluck, has lately
been mentioned as a likely candidate in the presidential race, and on
the ticket of as many as four political parties in the country today.

Presidency sources disclosed that
the initial hint of a job as a presidential aide for Mr. Ribadu sent
powerful and entrenched forces in the land rallied round to put paid to
the matter. As Mr. Jonathan dithered, our source said the former
anti-corruption czar pursued other career options stoked by multiple
political actors and parties who descended on him in his temporary home
in the United States urging him to give the presidential race a shot.

Mr. Ribadu’s aides declined any
comment last week, generally agreeing that while their boss is “on the
lips of many of the parties” nothing has been concluded regarding his
political future or which of the horses he might ride.

A July 9 NEXT report, hinted that
the Action Congress [AC] was considering a new generation of youthful
leaders with proven public service credentials, and favours Mr. Ribadu,
to carry the party flag into the 2011 campaign.

At the weekend, Lai Mohammed, the
chief spokesman for the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] attempted to
deflect the growing media beam on Mr. Ribadu, claiming that “Nuhu
Ribadu is not even a registered member of the party, so how can we be
considering him for the party position?” Congress sources hinted at a
secret group attack on Mr. Ribadu’s political profile, led by former
foreign affairs minister under the Abacha administration, Tom Ikimi.

Mr. Mohammed dispelled the Ikimi
challenge on the same ground, saying “how can Tom Ikimi be leading a
challenge against Ribadu when he, Ribadu, is not a registered party
member as of today?” However, a source within the party who asked not
to be named said Mr. Ikimi led a protest against Mr. Ribadu’s putative
presidential candidacy, suggesting that it was undemocratic to hand
over the party ticket to someone without going through a party primary
process.” Party sources told NEXT that the Ikimi opposition, a fringe
voice in the party now, may not be unconnected with his wish to
re-assert himself within the party.

Mr. Ribadu was travelling in Yola,
his town, to meet with family members, and could not respond to NEXT
enquiries according to his aides on Saturday, who added however that
they agree that opposition from political old horses like Mr. Ikimi
point to “the exciting challenge ahead in the election environment if
Mr. Ribadu decides to finally run for an office.” Ima Niboro, Mr.
Jonathan’s spokesman as usual refused to answer phone calls and text
questions at the weekend regarding the claim that Mr. Ribadu had
another meeting with the president on a new job offer.

Presidential sources however told
NEXT yesterday that if the administration approves, Mr. Ribadu would be
announced as the Senior Special Adviser to the president on Ethics and
Governance, a position which would see him overseeing all the
anti-corruption agencies in the country.

The presidency source, however,
said the stiff opposition within the current administration appears to
have drained the vigour of the tiny progressive elements in the
administration and remained primed to stall Mr Ribadu’s entry. The
major elements that have opposed his appointment, according to our
source, include the Chief of Staff to the President, Mike Oghiadomen;
the current Chief Justice of the Federation, Aloysius Katsina-Alu and
the current Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, who have
argued that it is inappropriate that Mr. Ribadu should head a body that
will subordinate the current EFCC chairman, Farida Waziri.

The Jostle for Ribadu

ACN triggered an enthusiastic
discussion on the need for a generation shift in the political
leadership of the nation when it said that it is seeking what was
termed a ‘child of independence’, that is, a candidate who is under 50
years of age to be the presidential flag bearer for the 2011 elections.

Sources close to the former EFCC
chairman further told NEXT that while not less than 4 political parties
have approached Mr. Ribadu, urging him to run for president in the
coming 2011 elections under their various parties, the ACN formulation
of its candidate requirement had put the pressure on Mr. Ribadu as a
likely choice.

“The truth is that the party
selected 36 credible candidates from the 36 states in the country and
narrowed to some half a dozen candidates that are still being of which
one will ultimately be selected” said a party official.

Ayogu Eze, Senate spokesman and a
member of the ruling Peoples Democratic party (PDP) downplayed the
overarching value of youth in the next presidential elections. “It is a
combination of all factors at the end of the day, and the candidate
that will advance the progress of the country and satisfy the interest
of Nigerians that will carry the day,” he said.

Ribadu’s political future

Last Tuesday in Lagos, Mr.
Ribadu, offered what appears to be a political manifesto in a speech
titled, “An Asset, Yet” at the 13th annual Wole Soyinka lecture
commemorating the Nobel Laureate’s 76th Birthday pointing more clearly
to a political future, although when asked whether he will contest any
political office in 2011, Mr. Ribadu retort was: “To that I say amen.
But my expectation in 2011 really is free and fair election.” In his
lecture, Mr Ribadu tried to arouse the national imagination, lashing at
the mental laziness of its leaders, and the vibrance of the youth.

“I have always believed that to
have an economy that depends solely on oil and gas is a sign of lack of
economic imagination and ambition. It is a sign of mental laziness,” he
said and using the example of Tanzania and Somalia, he dispelled the
religious and ethnic albatross being touted as Nigeria’s problem.

“Tanzania in terms of its ethic
diversity has about 175 ethnic groups and its religious pluralism is a
good balance between Christians and Muslims. Not to idealize the
country, and in spite of the usual strains and pains of nation
building, is it not surprising to us that it remains the most stable
and peaceful land in that region?” he asked.

“Think, on the other hand, of
Somalia, with its homogeneity in ethnic and religious experience– one
people, one religion, one language. What has become of it? Somalia is
today the poster child of the very example of a veritable failed, and
rogue state.”

Youth power as agenda

Mr. Ribadu especially appealed to
the country’s flourishing youth to take their place in national
development and quoting Christopher Kolade, a former ambassador of
Nigeria of the UK, he flayed the preparations towards Nigeria’s 50
years experience: “I have read in the papers that the country might be
celebrating its 50 years of independence this year and that we might be
spending N10bn on that. For those of us that are more than 50 years, if
we think about what we had in place 50years ago, then we shall be
celebrating 50 years of decline” he said.

Aba, Abia—Seven
months after kidnappers snatched him at dusk on a major road on his way
to the court within this anarchic city, Chinenye Emelogu is still too
terrified to get on that road to visit his aging mother in a nearby
village.

Although he can
afford to do so, the 50-year-old local lawyer has also refused to buy a
new car to replace his battered old Volvo sedan.

“Nobody is safe”,
said Mr. Emelogu, his voice barely above a whisper. “Even old people
and children are not spared this agony. Our lives are in danger.” Aba
(pop. 900,000) is ground zero for the epidemic of kidnapping that is
sweeping across most southeastern states, turning entire communities
into ghost towns at night, destroying local businesses, forcing
families to relocate elsewhere, and leaving residents cowering behind
locked doors, distrustful even of police.

Beyond mere
formality, few evidence exists in much of this region to show that
government still functions. The police, controlled by the federal
government, are often seen by residents as being in cahoots with
kidnappers and other criminal gangs.

And state and local governments, to all appearances, are incapable of securing the lives and limbs of citizens.

“I want to say here
without fear of contradiction that the state government is not in
anyway determined to tackle kidnapping. We once submitted detailed
recording of a kidnappers’ joint to the chief Security Adviser but they
did not take any step,” says Ukpai Ukairo, a legal adviser to the PDP
in the south east.

While virtually
every city, town and hamlet in this region is suffering from
lawlessness, Aba stands out for its particular extreme of chaos.

A middle-aged Aba
based lawyer, seems to have the best description for the situation in
Aba, believed by many to be the commercial nerve-centre of the south
east, following its new status as the kidnap capital of Nigeria.

“Aba is tilting on
the edge of anarchy,” said Mr Emelogu. “I can’t drive a good car
because there is the fear that I could be attacked. If your brother is
in the United States and they happen to know, whether he is working
there or not, you will be kidnapped”.

The town, now at
the mercy of armed gangs which abduct and rob inhabitants and
businesses with little or no resistance from the police, is at the
epicentre of an orgy of fear, lawlessness and unbelievable violence
that has disrupted life in most parts of the south-east.

“To put it mildly,
the security situation in Aba is very grave”, said Prince Ukaegbu, the
Chairman of the ruling All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) party in Aba.

The situation in
Aba has gone really bad, such that armed bandits now give notices to
their would-be victims before attacking them.

Before the armed
robbery attacks on First Bank and Fidelity Bank on Port Harcourt Road,
Aba on the second of June, 2010, the armed robbers wrote to inform
these banks of their intention to rob them. True to their words, they
arrived on the appointed day and successfully ransacked the banks
without resistance.

Onya Agu a resident
of Umuahia, further described how grave the situation has become. “Even
the four walls of your house do not prevent you from being kidnapped”,
he said.

Mr. Agu proceeded
to narrate instances where kidnappers used sledge hammers to break
through the wall of houses in their bids to abduct their occupants,
residents of neighbouring building cowering and praying the abductors
will pass over their buildings.

“Earlier in the
year in a village along the Aba- Ikot-Ekpene Road, people were so
scared of being kidnapped that some of them abandoned the comfort of
their homes to sleep in churches, yet these kidnappers went to the
church and abducted them there”, Mr. Agu said.

End of night life

Aba is a town that
roost with the chickens. A typical day in Aba ends before nightfall.
Since the rate of abduction hit the ceilings in 2009, night-life has
become a thing only cherished in the memory of the inhabitants of the
town.

“By night time you hardly see anybody on the streets except very few cars and individuals”, says Mr Ukairo.

Violet, the manager of Chinna’s Place, a popular drinking joint in Aba, who lamented that her business has suffered greatly.

“These days we have
to start business earlier that usual if we hope to make reasonable
sales. Customers no longer come out at night for the fear of being
kidnapped. Even with the protection of Bakassi boys we can only manage
to stay open till around 10 pm”.

Lull in businesses

Aba, a town that
used to be the attractive destination for businessmen in the region,
now survives in the silhouette of its past glory. NEXT investigation
has revealed that businesses are closing up daily as entrepreneurs,
driven by the fear of the threat to lives and investments, are
relocating in droves.

“Things have
somersaulted in this town”, says Uche Awa, the Chairman of Nigerian Bar
Association, Aba branch. According to him, the insecurity in the state
has halted the development of the state.

“The town was
advancing towards Okpul-Umuobo, but since the thing started, people are
on the reverse – selling off and moving to Abuja. People have all
deserted Aba. Nobody is developing again. If it is possible for people,
they will prefer to take their people to other towns.” According to Mr.
Awa, harsh business climate propelled by the high level of insecurity
has lead to the closure of companies such as Lever Brothers, Nigerian
Breweries,

Aba Textile Mills
and, most recently, Dana Motors which ordinarily would have absorbed
some of the large number of unemployed youth.

Nkoye Jude, a shoe trader at the popular Ariaria market complained of a drastic fall in sale.

“Most of our
customers that buy in bulk come from places as far as Lagos. But since
this kidnapping thing started most of them are afraid to come to Aba.
The ones that are bold enough only buy small quantity.” According to
Mr. Ukairo, competent professionals, who are mostly targeted by
kidnappers, have all but relocated to places like Abuja and Lagos.

Police optimism

However, Ebere Onyeagoro, Area Commander of the Aba Area Police Command, thinks the whole situation is greatly exaggerated.

According to him, the presence of traffic gridlocks in the town is an indication that it is still business as usual.

“The thing is not
so high. The only thing is the people are blowing it out of proportion.
In those days there is more of it but now it is only once in a while”,
he said in a telephone interview.

“You will find out that there is hold-up everywhere. Is it animals that is causing the hold-up”?

Mr. Ukaegbu dismisses Mr. Oyeagoro’s argument.

“To say it the way
it is, the town is deserted. The fact on ground is that economic
activities have come to a grinding halt and nothing is moving as far as
Aba is concerned”.

Mr. Emelogu also asserted that “businessmen and all the captains of industry have all run away”.

Political kidnapping

Apart from being
the stock in trade of common criminals, investigation points to the
fact that kidnappings in the state may have a political undertone.

According to Emeka
Ogbonna, the founder of popular Participation Front, a Non Governmental
Organisation and the publisher of Popular Voice, a community newspaper,
kidnapping now is used as a weapon of political intimidation.

Recounting a story
told by a reformed kidnapper, Mr. Ogbonna said: “The political leaders
create this problem themselves. They have these boys. They have a way
of telling them who to kidnap. They may come out shouting that an
opponent is disturbing them from what they want and before you know it,
the person or a relation of the person is kidnapped to frighten the
opponents.

Over 70 percent of the cases are to make their opponents to be afraid of operating here.”

Corroborating Mr.
Ogbonna’s story, Mr. Ukairo stated that most of the kidnapping “is a
political strategy to ensure that everybody leaves the state for them
so that in 2011 they will ride roughshod over the hapless citizens of
Abia State. It is a political strategy, the proofs are there and unless
the present structure is addressed the so called kidnapping – most of
them real, some of them politically motivated, will continue to be the
order of the day”.

For Mr. Emelogu, it
is almost impossible to have a free and fair election in Abia State
next year if the situation does not improve.

“From the way it is now, nobody is going to come out to campaign for 2011”.

At 75, Sunday
Awazieama thought he had seen it all. Violence, after all, was not new
to the retired medical assistant, a survivor of the Biafra War.

But the events of the early hours of May 1 left him shaken.

At about 2 am,
several anti-riot policemen and soldiers accompanied by members of the
vigilante group popularly called the Bakassi Boys, invaded his village,
Umuuwaoma, along the Aba- Ikot-Ekpene Road, leaving destruction in
their trail.

“I was awoken by
the sound of gunshots. Before I could rise from my sleeping position,
they had broken my door and I was bundled out of my house like a common
criminal,” he said. His house was razed.

A similar fate befell other villagers, who barely escaped with their lives.

According to the
locals, the invaders then proceeded to rape young girls and women, some
in the presence of their husbands and children.

According to
Chinenye Emelogu, the counsel representing the villagers, this was a
clear case of reprisal attack on an innocent community.

“The police mounted
a checkpoint at a place called Umuibe, which is a few kilometres from
my clients’ community. While the police were there collecting their
bribe as usual, armed robbers engaged them in a shootout and, along the
line, a police constable lost his life. So in the night of the
incident, I learnt that the commissioner of police ordered the area
commander and the divisional police officer at eastern Ngwa to mobilise
the Bakassi people and the police in a joint taskforce and, in a
military commando style, they invaded that community.” It is, however,
interesting to note that the police did not make any effort to arrest
anybody while the ordeal lasted.

This is not the
only time the large retinue of policemen deployed in Aba, under the
guise of fighting kidnappers, will be accused of being engaged in harsh
tactics, extra legal activities.

In the same month,
the Anti Terrorists Squad of the police descended with all its might on
hapless civilians at Osisiomah Junction in the heart of Aba town, a day
after it was roundly defeated by a gang of armed robbers who killed one
of the policemen and took another hostage, injuring people in their
hundreds and killing some others.

The sin committed by the people was that the police alleged they cheered the robbers as they were attacking the policemen.

Ukpai Ukairo, the
legal adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party in the southeast, is not
surprised at the reaction of the police.

“It is in the
character of the Nigerian police to attack hapless citizens when they
fail in their duty to check robbery or kidnapping who otherwise had no
hand in the crime committed,” he said.

When asked about
extra-judicial killings and the destruction of property committed by
his men, Ebere Onyeagoro, the police commander of the Aba Area Command
did not deny it. He, however, tried to rationalise his men actions.

“It was a problem
of misplaced aggression and nobody could really say that it was all a
police affair. Certain problems may come up and the touts joined in
doing whatever thing,” he said.

Making matters worse

The heavy police
presence in Aba and environs, rather than ameliorating the already ugly
situation in the town, appears to be fuelling it, interviews over
several days with a cross-section of residents show.

Many of those we spoke to said they would rather see the number of policemen in the town reduced drastically.

“Since they brought
in more policemen, business has been very bad”, said Emeka Chijioke, a
commercial bus driver that plies the Aba- Ikot-Ekpene road. Mr.
Chijioke makes a total of N1400 on each trip. However, he spends about
N1000 bribing police at the numerous checkpoints along the road.

“The police are not schooled to check kidnapping or any sort of crime”, said Mr. Ukairo.

“Indeed if you were
to really enforce the law the way it is all the policemen now on the
roads in Aba will be in prison for sundry extortion. We abhor them. All
the policemen who take N20 is stealing and kidnapping with police
uniform and tax payers guns while the kidnappers is doing the same
thing through another mode.”

The police Area Commander’s explanation for the behaviour of his men was that this was done by the bad eggs within his ranks.

Nothing on the abductors

NEXT can also
confirm that contrary to police claims that they were conducting a
house to house search and closing in on the criminals in the wake of
the abduction of four journalists and their driver, no such thing was
being done.

The heavy police
presence was largely felt at the highways, where they extort from
commercial drivers. At Ukpakiri, the village where the journalists were
abducted, the only police presence was a checkpoint where passersby
where ordered to raise their arms. Some policemen were, however, seen
along the road searching through the pockets and phone of some youth.

Emeka Ogbonna, of
the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Popular Participation Front,
blamed sub-par performance of the police in getting the intelligence
needed to crack the problem on the inherent lack of trust of the people
in the police.

According to Mr.
Emeka, people who have allegedly given the police information in the
past have been singled out by kidnappers who, after abducting them,
will tell them the exact police unit they had approached to pass on
tips.

An area traditional ruler was a victim of this alleged complicity.
In 2008, Wilson Nna, the Eze of the Aba suburb of Abala, and his wife
were beheaded after allegedly alerting the police to the activities of
certain kidnappers in his community. Similarly, the Eze of Itungwa, who
later became a victim of kidnapping, has run away from his domain.
There was also Chukwuemeka Nwagwu, a police informant who was murdered
by kidnappers.

More than 600
kidnap suspects arrested by the police in various parts of the
south-east are being detained in different police cells in the zone.

The Inspector
General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo, said early this month during an
interactive session with traditional rulers and union leaders at the
Women’s Development Centre, Awka, as part of his tour of the states of
the south-east.

He expressed worry
over the increasing crime rate in the region, adding that he was deeply
disappointed with the activities of those he called his brothers, which
had brought shame to him and the nation. He then called for a special
court to try the suspects.

A visibly worried
Onovo, whose 24-hour deadline to the kidnappers of four journalists in
Abia State ended yesterday, recalled that kidnapping was only known
about 500 years ago during the slave trade era, but said that it was
regrettable that the ugly trend had resurfaced in Nigeria, especially
in the south-east zone.

“The Igbo people
were known as being very industrious all over the world, but today the
people are fast drifting as the arrow heads to kidnapping, fraud,
‘419’, drug and human trafficking.

“Does it mean that
contemporary Igbo people cannot provide leadership as Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe and Dr. Michael Okpara did? Why have we lost all the virtues we
are known for?” The police boss asked.

He revealed that
the greatest problems facing him as the nation’s police chief comes
from the south east, his region of origin. “Our children have done
unimaginable things. They have kidnapped priests in the church; they
have kidnapped lawyers, doctors, professionals, and others. They don’t
discriminate in their choice of victims. This is self-annihilation,”
Mr. Onovo warned.

Beyond the use of force

Mr. Onovo also
recalled the way groups like the Movement for the Actualisation of a
Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) had attempted to scuttle the last
national census exercise in the zone, pointing out that such action was
self-destructive, even as he condemned the attitude of institutions in
the zone which tended to honour rogues and dubious characters.

“The Movement for
the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) would not
allow the Igbo population to be properly determined during the 2006
census exercise and today, we are worst for it”, Mr. Onovo said.

He also explained
that the issue of fighting crime had grown beyond what the police could
handle with force, as doing so might endanger the lives of innocent
citizens, but assured that the police were working hard to arrest the
situation.

Part of such
efforts, he said, included the current registration of SIM cards which,
he explained, would help the law enforcement agencies to track
criminals.

Earlier, the state
governor, Peter Obi, represented by his deputy, Emeka Sibeudu, called
for fresh action against the criminals, since according to him, all the
previous efforts seemed futile. “It is our most profound position that
we draw a fresh plan and new strategies for killing of the evil of
kidnapping and violent robbery in our state,” Mr. Obi said.

Also, the Speaker
of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Anayo Nebe, said that the
topical issue in the zone was insecurity of lives and property, and
much had been done in the state to curb the problem with the passage of
a security trust fund bill; yet, the problem persist.

He argued that
whatever achievements the IG had recorded in the other parts of the
country would “pale into insignificance and nothingness” if kidnapping
and other violent crimes persisted in his zone.

Some of the traditional rulers and town union leaders present
alleged that some of the police personnel in the state were aiding and
abetting criminals. They claimed that many of the suspects arrested by
the police through information are usually released after a few days.
Others called on the National Assembly to enact a law prescribing death
penalty for anyone found guilty of kidnapping.

Florence Olawole was full of gratitude and relief, when she
found herself at the front of the queues at the Eko Free Health Mission;
gratitude to the state government for making her an owner of an insecticide-treated
net, and relief that she would be spending less on treating her two
grandchildren for malaria.

“I get net and medicine for the two of them. I thank the state
government for helping the poor people to get net because mosquito is too much
for our area, so this one will protect them against malaria,” said Mrs.
Olawole, a resident of Ijegun, a Lagos suburb.

According to a statistical data obtained from the Lagos State
government, more than 10,000 free insecticide-treated nets have been given out to
residents in the state since 2007. However, experts argue that without a
commensurate effort targeted towards improving the state of the environment,
the purpose of giving out the nets would not be achieved.

Mosquitoes and the
environment

“We cannot just start talking about using mosquito nets when our
environment is very conducive for the breeding of mosquitoes which is the major
vector for malaria. So if you ignore other factors, especially environmental
factors, there are very little you can achieve with the use of mosquito nets,”
said Edward Ndukwe, a Lagos-based general medical practitioner.

“Because the use of mosquito nets alone cannot be the major
weapon we have against malaria, considering that malaria is a tropical disease
and there are environmental factors. If the environment is not clean, if our
drainages are not evacuated, if they are silted and blocked, that will be a
very good breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry the parasite that transfers
it from one person to another,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO),
insecticide-treated mosquito nets, if properly used and maintained, can repel
or deter mosquitoes from biting or shorten the mosquito’s life span so that it
cannot transmit malaria infection.

“Our plan was to give out 1,000 nets every day. We have given
out 3,000 already. Our targets are pregnant women and children. Every household
is supposed to have at least two mosquito nets,” said Lagos State Health
Commissioner, Jide Idris, at the just concluded Eko Free Health Mission
exercise.

He said that there is a need to educate the people on the
lifecycle of mosquitoes, to help prevent their breeding and bites. Trials of
insecticide-treated nets in the 1980s and 1990s showed that ITNs reduced deaths
in young children by an average of 20 per cent.

Power situation worsens
it

With the frequent power outages, Dr. Ndukwe said, the fight
against malaria may not get the necessary fillip.

“For mosquito nets to be effective, one has to use it and cover
himself when you are sleeping. Knowing that this is a tropical area, our
weather is too hot and the use of mosquito nets encourages heat, it will not
allow for free flow of air in the night and now that even the power holding is
not reliable, you can imagine, in this area you see people cramping themselves
in small rooms; there is no light, and they don’t have fans. It is unlikely
they will still use nets to cover themselves.

“And before they go to bed, people normally sit outside;
children play outside, mosquitoes bite them. So after mosquitoes have bitten
people who were sitting outside in the evenings, and they go inside and cover
themselves with nets, nothing is achieved.”

Complementing the nets

The WHO Global Malaria Programme recommends Indoor Residual
Spraying (IRS), to reduce and eliminate malaria transmission as one of the
strategies for effective malaria control to be achieved by 2015.

According to Dr. Idris, to complement the use of
insecticide-treated nets in the fight against malaria, the state government
would also employ the IRS strategy. “We already have a pilot in two local
governments, and we intend to go round all the local governments,” he said.

“We need to determine the characteristics of these mosquitoes in
the various local governments. And also, to spray, we need to know how many
households, so we can know the amount of chemicals to buy.”

Mrs. Olawole, who works at the Isolo local council secretariat,
said that continuous assistance from the state government would help the masses
win the fight against ill health.

“Whenever they (her grandchildren) have malaria, I always carry them to
general hospital and I spend money. When I reach there, they can give one drug
out of five, the rest they will write it for me and I will go and buy outside.
Sometimes I spend N3,000,” she said.