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The
Nigerian Police Force is compromised and has refused to prosecute
suspected certificate forgers in the Lagos State House of Assembly, the
Peoples’ Democratic Party had accused.

In a petition
addressed to the minister of police affairs, Adamu Waziri, dated July
19, 2010, and signed by Ishola Durosinmi on behalf of the Amuwo Odofin
chapter of the PDP, the party insisted that the police is shying away
from prosecuting the offenders.

“Not only have we
complained to the Nigeria Police Command in Lagos State, the command
investigated and found the allegations to be true. However, instead of
them prosecuting these people, it would appear that they have been
compromised in the last one year that the case has been pending,” the
PDP members said.

NEXT had, in
previous reports, detailed how two members of the Lagos House of
Assembly, Bola Badmus-Olujobi, the deputy speaker of the house; and
Risikat Adegeye, who represents Amuwo Odofin II constituency, are
involved in the forgery of their West African Examination Council
(WAEC) senior secondary school certificate examination result. Both of
them are members of the Action Congress.

Mrs. Badmus-Olujobi
claimed in the forms she submitted to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) that she attended Amuwo Grammar School,
Agboju, Lagos, and that she obtained West African School Certificate in
June 1988; while Mrs. Adegeye, in the form CF001 deposed to on 18
December, 2006, claimed that she attended St. Timothy College, Onike,
Iwaya, Lagos, and that she obtained West African School Certificate in
June 1977. The WAEC had since denied issuing both certificates.

Intervene urgently

The PDP, in its
petition, claimed that it had “written petitions to the office of the
Inspector General of Police, as well as the senate committee chairman
on police affairs, Gbenga Ogunniya; and that “Ogunniya indeed spoke to
the Inspector General of Police on this matter and the IGP assured him
that prosecution will be done immediately.

“This was about four months ago, and nothing still has been done,” the party claims.

The PDP, which claimed that some of its own members had been
prosecuted and convicted for similar crimes before, want the minister
to “intervene urgently towards ensuring the prosecution of these
fraudsters who have been illegally collecting all manners of allowances
and remunerations from tax payers money and using the funds to suppress
our party’s existence in Lagos State.”

The opposition
Action Congress has urged the federal government to provide the
N72billion that the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) said it
needs to prepare a new voter register towards the preparation of a
credible election in 2011.

“Let the Jonathan
administration back up the president’s persistent assurance of
organising credible polls next year by giving the much-needed resources
to INEC so it can build a solid foundation for the 2011 elections by
compiling a fresh voters’ register,” the party stated. “Failure to
provide the money required for that purpose will translate to setting
up INEC to fail next year, and this will be a disaster for Nigeria.”

The party also
challenged the federal government and the National Assembly to provide
all the required financial resources and the legal framework
respectively to make it possible for INEC to organise successful
general elections next year. In a statement issued in Ilorin, on
Sunday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party
said that “the federal government must urgently provide the N55 to N72
billion which INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, said would be needed to
compile a fresh voters register for the critical elections.”

It also requested
that “the National Assembly must provide the necessary amendments to
the Electoral Act to facilitate the compilation of the fresh electoral
register, which is the single most important requirement for the
organisation of free, fair, credible and transparent polls next year.”
Stating that for a country “that has $37 billion in Foreign Reserves
and $3 billion in its Excess Crude Account, N72 billion – which is less
than 500 million US dollars – is but a very little price to pay for the
organisation of successful polls next year and the consolidation of the
country’s democracy.”

New Electoral Act

The party also
tasked the National Assembly to provide the legal framework by amending
the necessary sections of the Electoral Act, especially Sections 10 (5)
and 21. “As our party has noted, the belated amendment of the
Constitution, especially Sections 116 (House of Assembly), 132
(President) and 178 (Governors), to the effect that elections must hold
between 120 and 150 days before the end of their tenures, has created
huge problems for INEC and made it a fait accompli for the commission
to organise the 2011 polls based on the hugely discredited Iwu’s
voters’ register,” stated Mr Mohammed. “

But if the National
Assembly will put national interest above any other considerations and
stop playing cheap games, it can still salvage the situation by
postponing the commencement of the Amendments so that elections can
hold in April, and amending Sections 10 (5) and 21 of the Electoral Act
to give more time for fresh voter registration. Amending Section 10 (5)
of the Act will reduce the end of registration and updating to between
30 and 60 days, and provide additional 8-12 weeks to the 16 weeks
available to compile a new register. Also, amending Section 21 of the
Electoral Act will reduce time for compiling supplementary register,
after calling for objections, from 60 days to 30 days and give about 20
weeks to correct the new register.”

INEC had, last week Thursday, said it will require at least N55.1
billion to organise a “substantially more credible” voter’s register
ahead of the 2011 general election.

Despite
the huge insult he received from the police for alerting them on an
alleged plan to disrupt the peace of the state by men of the state
National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), former chairman of
the union, Lateef Akinsola (aka Tokyo), has again warned the state
police command to be prepared.

He spoke with
journalists in Ibadan at the weekend, saying the police needs to appeal
to his successor, Lateef Salako (aka Elewe-Omo), whose loyalists had
allegedly concluded plans to unleash mayhem on the state tomorrow
(Tuesday). The warning was the second Tokyo is making to the police in
less than two weeks.

He said that the
National Industrial Court, Abuja, is expected to give a judgment on the
suit he instituted to challenge his forcible removal from office before
his term’s expiration. He told journalists that the plan was to cause
serious mayhem in the state capital and its adjoining towns, if the
judgement goes against Elewe-Omo.

According to him,
as a law abiding citizen, his piece of information was to assist the
police in being proactive in their efforts to maintain law and order in
the state.

“Their plan is to
print T-Shirts bearing my (Tokyo) portraits, which their boys will wear
on Tuesday and go to town to cause a breakdown of law and order. We
appeal once again to the Oyo State Police Command to rise to the
occasion.

“And let me seize
this opportunity to correct the misrepresentation in an earlier
interview where I was quoted to have said that we have no confidence in
Oyo Police. I want to say it categorically that we have no other police
to run to except Oyo Police, who have been trying their best in the
past to maintain law and to curtail the excesses of Elewe-Omo boys.

“We have confidence
in them to continue to perform their constitutional role to the best of
their ability. I’m using this opportunity to tell the police to arrest
and prosecute anybody wearing any T-Shirt bearing my portrait to
ferment trouble. I have waited patiently all this while because of my
confidence in the judiciary, which is the last hope of common man. I
don’t believe in self help, hence my decision to approach the court to
seek redress,” he said.

The police, last
week, upbraided Tokyo for portraying it as ineffective over its dealing
with the incumbent officers of the NURTW in the state.

In a press release,
signed by its spokesperson, Olabisi Okuwobi, the command described
Tokyo as a known criminal who jumped bail granted him by the court.

Leadership in contest

Apart from
cautioning his successor against inflicting chaos on the state this
week, Mr. Akinsola has also appealed to the police to prevail on Mr.
Salako to stop trespassing on a parcel of land he bought on behalf of
the union before he was sacked from office unceremoniously.

Explaining that the
land was acquired to build a befitting office, driving school, and a
hospital for the use of members of the union, Mr. Akinsola said he was
in possession of the title deeds of the land, which, according to him,
costs N6 million.

He added that such
action is necessary because the leadership status of the union is still
in contest before a competent court of law.

“We heard that
Elewe-Omo is planning to encroach on that land tomorrow (today) to lay
foundation. He did not buy that land, and since there is dispute in
court over the leadership of the union, he should wait for Tuesday’s
judgment.

“Moreso, he had
used the land to go and collect N200,000 each from 83 branches of our
union on the pretext that he wants to use the money to develop the land.

“The following
week, he used the money to buy jeep. He has no good plan for that land.
If not, he will not go and arrange for hand-made blocks to erect any
structure on the land. The police should prevail on him to steer clear
of the land for now,” he said.

But, Elewe-Omo, in a live television programme at the state-owned
station on Sunday, said his regime has been preoccupied by lifting the
status of the union and that of its members in the state.

The Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, has spoken of “wide measures”
Nigeria is adopting in response to the global financial crisis, in
which he named the well-criticized anti-corruption campaign as one.

Mr. Bankole spoke
to journalists in Abuja on a presentation he made at the United Nations
headquarters, Geneva, at the 3rd World Conference of Speakers of
Parliaments which held between July 19 and 21, 2010.

The theme of the conference was “Parliament in the world of crisis: Securing global democratic accountability.”

Mr. Bankole, who
has recently been accused of corruption and has yet to face an open
investigation, told participants at the meeting that Nigeria has
recorded a high level of anti-corruption campaign, and listed the
effort as part of strategies adopted by the government to deal with the
impact of the crippling global economic crisis. The speaker named last
year’s bank cleansing, in which senior officials were removed and
charged for aiding banking fraud and non-performing loans, as part of
such glory. “The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in fact
detained many bank executives and public officials, as it investigates
allegations of massive banking fraud and official corruption,” he said.

Diversify the economy

He said Nigeria’s
fight against all forms of corruption in the strive to enthrone
accountability, reduction of the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), Cash
Reserve Requirement and the Liquidity Ratio are some of the measures
adopted by government to mitigate the effects of the global economic
downturn. Mr. Bankole highlighted other government’s intervention to
the crisis to include the Central Bank’s intervention, by providing
about $2.6 billion in emergency recapitalization to some banks whose
balance sheets was eroded by toxic loans.

This was
strengthened by the National Assembly’s passage of the Assets
Management Commission bill, recently signed into law by President
Goodluck Jonathan, to deal with the issue of bank’s toxic assets.

The measures, Mr. Bankole told the participants, were required to
shore-up liquidity in the Nigerian economy. He also informed them that
in an effort to diversify the Nigerian economy and broaden the non-oil
sector, government has commenced a comprehensive review of its
agricultural policy with focus on large scale private sector commercial
agriculture.

The
Oyo State chapter of the Action Congress (AC) has cautioned the state
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, against the deployment of threat and
intimidation to cow traditional rulers in the state into submission to
his second term bid.

The party’s
director of publicity in the state, Wasiu Olatunbosun, sounded the note
of caution in Ibadan at the weekend and pledged the party’s readiness
to protect the traditional institutions in the state against any form
of harassment and witch-hunting by the political class.

The party also
berated the governor for making uncomplimentary statements on former
governor, Lam Adesina, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III,
both of whom recently alleged threats to their lives by the governor.

While addressing
the press in his office penultimate Thursday, the governor denied being
after the two prominent Oyo state indigenes and described their claim
as ‘stupid’.

He also spoke on
several other issues about the state’s politics, as well as the efforts
of his government to leave the legacies of good governance behind.

But the AC said the
governor was either being economical with the truth, or he was out on
mischief when he made the comments on the AC leader and the Oyo monarch.

“You don’t need to
be a student of history to remember what happened in December 2002,
when our leader, and former attorney general and minister for justice,
Bola Ige, was murdered few months to 2003 general elections.

“It would also
interest Governor Akala to know that the democracy he is now a
beneficiary of, was as a result of doggedness of some people like Lam
who fought the military to earn the title of ‘prisoner of war’, and he
has not reneged for once in fighting for the oppressed,” Mr.
Olatunbosun said.

Betrayal of trust

Commenting on the
governor’s position that Mr. Adesina became governor on a platter of
gold, while he had used his own popularity to occupy all elective posts
he has held in the state, the AC said Mr. Alao-Akala’s ascension to the
position of the state governor was made possible by his betrayal of his
former boss, Rasidi Ladoja, with the former president, Olusegun
Obasanjo, as the mastermind.

“Unlike a pariah
government, which is the hallmark of Akala’s administration, where few
charlatans hold sway, Lam ran a participatory government and has not
betrayed his leaders for once, as he still remained a principled and
exemplary statesman, and an epitome of selflessness,” the party said.

“In fact, one does not need a soothsayer to know that the state is
heading towards a failed state occasioned by high level tolerance for
corruption, insensitivity to the plight of people who are wallowing in
abject poverty, and intolerable level of unemployment, despite huge
revenue accrued to it for the past three years,” he said.

The Emir of Bauchi, Suleiman Adamu Gumba, who died at the weekend, was buried yesterday.

President Goodluck Jonathan expressed shock and sadness over his death.

In a message of
condolence to the government and people of Bauchi State, Mr. Jonathan
said the death of the 77-year-old emir was a great loss not only to the
people of Bauchi but to the entire country. He described the late chief
as a peace-loving and exemplary leader, whose life in public service
and on the throne impacted positively on his people. He noted that late
traditional ruler passed away at a time when his wise counsel was still
needed by his people and the Nigerian nation. “We have lost a father
and leader whose wise counsel will be greatly missed by all. He will be
fondly remembered for his immense contributions to nation-building,” Mr
Jonathan said.

Ismaila Sani, a director of Nigeria Re-Insurance Corporation also
described the death as a monumental loss. Mr Sani in a condolence
message weekend in Abuja, said the late Emir was a bridge builder who
dedicated most of his time in preaching and promoting peaceful
co-existence amongst Nigerians. “He will be greatly missed for his
fatherly role to all and remembered for his untiring effort in ensuring
peace and stability in his domain and its environs,” he said.

Abuja-based lawyer,
Joe-Kyari Gadzama, has announced his intention to contest for president
of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

In a letter of
intent to the bar, Mr. Gadzama called on the NBA to first clean up its
own ranks before it can effectively fulfil its obligations to the
larger public. “Despite the successes recorded, the truth remains that
the NBA is far from achieving its full potential,” he said. “Our
operations as a body remain marred by administrative inefficiency and
internal wrangling, and it is not surprising that we do not have full
participation by all members of the bar and that most young lawyers see
the NBA as a relic of the past; one which holds no relevance to them or
their careers.”

Mr. Gadzama said an association such as NBA deserves strong
leadership to ensure that it remains a vital organization and operates
in a manner consistent with its goals and objectives. He called for a
more inclusive leadership within the organisation and promised more
staff training facilities. Mr Gadzama said the bar was capable of
having a greater impact on the lives of the disenfranchised. He
announced the creation of a ‘giving-back’ initiative, where lawyers and
law firms would be required to meet a minimum pro-bono requirement
every year. “My primary goal would be to achieve unity within the NBA
by bringing together various factions and constantly mediating
different interests to find a common ground,” he said. “I have spent
the greater part of my adult years building bridges and connecting
people. This will also be brought to bear on the NBA.”

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.