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The insistence of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to produce the vice president was
responsible for the failure of the party’s planned alliance with the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the party’s presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has said.

Mr. Buhari noted that with only a few days to the election, it was foolhardy to change his party’s vice presidential candidate.

“By the electoral
laws, this was virtually impossible before this election. We suggested
that they should let us jointly go into the elections and jointly form
the government after our victory. But our friends were not ready to
take us on our honour and went to the media,” he said.

In a statement
signed by Mr. Buhari’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, the former head of
state said the notion that he was responsible for the inability of his
party and the ACN to forge an alliance ahead of Saturday’s polls was
“baseless and unfounded.”

He said he was
responding to set the record straight and regretted the inability of
the parties to harness what he called their electoral fortunes.

Not exactly

The ACN, on the
other hand, continues to blame Mr. Buhari for the missed opportunity. A
source at the meeting said the CPC vice presidential candidate, Tunde
Bakare, had behaved in a manner that suggested that he had no intention
to honour the accord.

“We are aware of
the electoral act. We did not say they should change their ticket now,
but after the election,” says an ACN senior official.

NEXT learnt that
although Mr. Bakare agreed to resign after the election, and even to
write the resignation letter, he chose to address such a letter in a
manner that gives him wiggle room.

“It was not a
resignation as vice president but a letter addressed to the chairman of
the board of trustees of his party offering to resign anytime Buhari is
no longer happy with him, which left the room open, as the ACN guys saw
it, for not resigning at all,” said the source.

‘Nigeria is my client’

People have
wondered why, in selecting an ACN candidate to be Mr. Buhari’s vice
president, Bola Tinubu did not deemed it fit to name his party’s vice
presidential candidate, Fola Adeola.

Instead, Mr. Tinubu
named three others: Yemi Osinbajo, a former Attorney General and
Commissioner for Justice in Mr. Tinubu’s administration; Yemi Cardoso,
who was Mr. Tinubu’s budget commissioner; and a former Lagos State
finance commissioner, Wale Edun.

However, Mr. Adeola told NEXT yesterday that he was not particularly bothered by all that.

“My selection was
to run with Nuhu Ribadu, so once we were going to go with Buhari, it is
only right, the party has the right, to look at what was best,” Mr.
Adeola said.

The ACN vice presidential candidate also praised Mr. Ribadu’s selflessness and patriotism.

“The only client I have in this whole thing is Nigeria. I am proud
of the party on whose platform I am running. I am proud of the man I am
running with, for his magnanimity and his generosity in agreeing to
drop his own ambition and step down for another candidate. I am sorry
that the other side decided to scuttle a good chance to win our country
back by not agreeing to this simple request for a resignation letter,”
he said.

The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday, said
he did not feel threatened by either the collapse of alliance talks
between his party and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), or the
overwhelming endorsement being enjoyed by the PDP presidential
candidate, Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr. Ribadu, who
made the statement in Abuja while fielding questions from journalists
at a world press conference tagged, ‘Farewell To Nostalgia’, said
though the alliance talks have collapsed, Nigerians still believe in
the ACN.

“I don’t feel
threatened by any party’s endorsing Goodluck because we have also got
endorsement of 12 parties. What matters is Nigerians’ endorsement,
those who are going to vote on Saturday, and that is why we are
pleading to Nigerians to vote wisely because PDP is a continuation of
the rot we are currently experiencing,” Mr. Ribadu said.

Although he agreed
that he had earlier offered to step down for the CPC presidential
candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, he clarified that he did not eventually do
so.

“There was no
stepping down; offer is a different thing. During the negotiation,
offers were made by both sides. ACN made a big sacrifice and the other
side made a promise and failed to deliver.

“So, that is the
cause of the failure of the alliance and that is why I still maintain
that I am the candidate. I am standing and asking Nigerians to vote for
me because I did not step down for anybody,” he said.

Art of rigging

Mr. Ribadu noted
that in the history of elections in Nigeria, electoral malpractices
have become the most formidable huddle that had stood against electing
a truly representative and responsible government, and cautioned
against tampering with votes in the remaining elections.

“In last week’s
National Assembly election, the same challenge reared its ugly head
again and the main perpetrators are the same gifted captains in the art
of election rigging and manipulation.

“They are roaming
the streets about now, getting set for action, and if they did it last
week, we would all be naïve to imagine that they would yield on this
criminal and unpatriotic act and go on vacation this coming Saturday,”
he said.

He called on Nigerians to vote wisely in order to ensure that a credible leader emerged in the poll.

Ahead of the presidential poll
tomorrow, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has urged the Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, to correct the irregularities and
logistics challenges recorded during the April 9, National Assembly
election.

The group also called on Nigerians to turn out en-mass to exercise their civic responsibility in electing credible leaders.

In a statement signed by, Anthony Sani,
the group noted that the turnout of voters during the National Assembly
election especially in the northern parts of the country was below
expectation compared to the total number of registered voters in the
region.

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In Benue, the
presidential election votes will be split between Nuhu Ribadu,
candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria and President Goodluck
Jonathan, the incumbent, considering last Saturday’s voting pattern.

At the National
Assembly elections which held last week in some zones in the state, the
PDP won the two contested senatorial seats and six of the nine
contested Federal House of Reps seats.

However, an
analysis of the voting pattern shows that PDP won marginally on
aggregate. The PDP polled 373,775 votes, out of the 769,281 total votes
cast, representing 48.6 per cent of the total votes cast. Their closest
rival, ACN, polled an aggregate of 351,209 votes out of the total votes
cast, representing 45.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

The All Nigeria
People’s Party (ANPP) came a distant third with an aggregate of 29,710,
representing 3.8 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. The
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) scored 10,740, a meagre I.4 per
cent share of the total votes cast.

Battle for Benue

The contest is thus
visibly between the PDP and ACN in Benue. The PDP has held the
frontline position in Benue politics since 1999 but its grip on power
is being fiercely challenged.

Some of the
masterminds of the PDP’s previous victories now lead the ACN in the
state. That notwithstanding, loyalists of the PDP in the state believe
the party will keep winning without these masterminds.

The PDP held a
closed-door caucus meeting in Markurdi on Thursday, where the leaders
agreed to go back to their localities to work harder and improve the
size of the party’s victory in the presidential elections.

A political analyst, Benjamin Friday, described the presidential poll as a make or mar one for the ACN.

“If the party loses
this time again, then the people will start thinking they are not as
strong as they claim and that will affect them in the gubernatorial
elections,” Mr. Friday said in Gboko.

“The Tiv speaking
north has always decided the political future of the state with their
lager electorate, and they are the one leading this opposition. So, it
is going to be a strong battle between PDP and ACN on Saturday,” he
added.

Benue INEC ready

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state says it is ready for the presidential polls on Saturday.

Jacob Iyanda,
public relations officer of the commission in Benue, said on Thursday
evening that the state has recieved all the required materials from the
national INEC office and has started the disbursment of same, including
sensitive materials.

“Everything has
arrived, and we have started distributing sensitive materials to the
various local governments,” Mr. Iyanda said.

He added that the
materials arrived quite early from Abuja and they are doing same for
the local government areas so that they too will be properly prepared
for the Saturday polls.

This week’s
distribution comes a day earlier than last week’s. However, last week,
some far flung villages complained of late arrival of materials at
polling centres.

Mr. Ayanda said the commision has concluded the retraining of its officers who will participate in the elections.

The Benue INEC
office has also been put under heavy security survilance by a joint
security team of the Army and Police, ahead of the polls.

The Ogun State
chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it would
head to the electoral tribunal to challenge the national assembly
election results of the Ogun West senatorial district, as well as the
Yewa/Egbado North House of Representatives. The chairman of the PDP
campaign team, Sarafa Ishola, revealed this at the end of the two-day
review session of last Saturday’s election. He said the party was not
satisfied with the so-called victories of the Action Congress of
Nigeria senatorial candidate for Yewa/Egbado West and that of Rasaki
Adewusi of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) for the House of
Representatives.

In a statement
issued by the party, Mr Sarafa said the PDP had incontrovertible
evidence showing that its Ogun West senatorial and Yewa/Egabdo North
House of Representatives candidates won their seats for the party.

“The PDP would be
proving to the electoral tribunal that its candidate, Babatunde Fadu,
won the senatorial seat for Ogun West while Alexander Ajibade won the
House of Representatives seat for Egbado/Yewa North,” he said.

Still in the race

The campaign team
also said its governorship candidate, Tunji Olurin, is still running
for the office, contrary to speculations that he had stepped down for
Gboyega Isiaka, the PPN candidate.

“The PDP
gubernatorial candidate for Ogun State, Adetunji Olurin, is still very
much in the race. This is to put paid to unimaginable wicked lies being
fabricated by PPN and others who do not wish Ogun State people well,”
said the statement, which was signed by Lai Labode, the media committee
chairman.

“The party wishes to confirm to PDP supporters that at no meeting
called by any Yewa Group did the issue of stepping down for a PPN
candidate by Adetunji Olurin came up. It is laughable that the PPN,
which seriously showed very poor outing in the last week elections,
could ever dream that PDP, which did better, would concede to PPN,” it
stated.

Andrew Lloyd who is
also the Permanent Representative of Britain to the Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), talks about Britain’s role in the
general elections, his hopes for future bilateral relations and
delivers an assessment of INEC’s performance.

What is your assessment of the elections so far and is there room for improvement?

The elections have
captured the international community’s imagination. There is a large
number of international observers here. These elections are significant
because Nigeria has proven itself to be a champion of democracy. My
sense is that there will always be room for improvement, no matter how
good the elections are; even in the UK with postal ballots and the US
with electronic voting. My overall sense is that last weekend’s
elections were a significant improvement on any election Nigeria has
ever had.

How would you rate Attahiru Jega’s performance in comparison to his predecessor?

I cannot comment on
Maurice Iwu’s performance because I was not here at the time and it
would be unfair. My assessment is that INEC, under Chairman Jega’s
stewardship, has really turned around the conduct of the elections. He
has built a lot of trust with the people of Nigeria and the political
parties.

When there were
logistical problems, Nigerians were quite right to give him the benefit
of the doubt and stick with his leadership and determination in
ensuring Nigeria gets the freest and fairest elections it can in 2011.

Could the logistical challenges behind the botched elections have been handled any better?

The irony is that,
after all the initial fears about the elections, the biggest problem in
the end was something as boring as logistics.

All of us with the
benefit of hindsight could have made different decisions, perhaps, but
I can’t think of many other Nigerians who would want to swap places
with him. I admire his patience, determination and resolve. I was not
in his shoes so I don’t know what I would have done differently. That
there were logistical problems was a disappointment but that INEC
managed to overcome them for April 9 is a cause for congratulation.

What is the biggest thing you are looking for in these elections?

We are not
interested in parties or the personalities but in the process. Our big
hope is that Nigeria builds on last weekend to demonstrate to the rest
of Africa, that even when democracy is hotly contested or the margin of
victory is very small, it’s possible to run a legitimate, credible and
peaceful process. That’s my hope, building on last Saturday. Yes, there
are areas that need to be addressed but my sense is that they are being
addressed.

Is Britain assisting INEC in any way?

It’s for Nigerians
to decide how to manage their democracy. It is not our policy to try
and interfere anywhere in the conduct of democracy. It is our policy,
however, to support democracy where we can. Therefore we have provided
technical assistance and limited financial support for that assistance.

We will engage with
civic society to play a role and indeed with political parties. Looking
forward, I predict political party reform will be on the agenda of
Nigerians and this is again an area in which Britain traditionally
assists. We have budgeted around 20 million pounds for democratic
programmes. Most of which is directed at election assistance. This
however does not reflect the totality of what we do.

Will Britain intervene if there are repeated signs of violence and electoral malpractice?

Well firstly, I
certainly hope it won’t come to that. However, if one sees Kenya or
Cote d’Ivoire-style intimidation and violence, then there needs to be
Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire-style justice. People who frustrate the
democratic process will be held accountable for that. One needs to only
look at what’s happening in the international criminal court in Kenya
to see the range of options that are available. My sense though, is
that we won’t be in that situation in Nigeria. A poorly conducted
election damages the legitimacy of the outcome.

We have already witnessed two serious bombings and recorded cases of shootings. At what point do you decide to intervene?

What happened in
Suleja and Maiduguri was completely unacceptable and contemptible. I
met with the Inspector General of Police just a day before the Suleja
bombing and he was clear that there should be no impunity for this kind
of extremist violence. It is a huge concern and looking ahead, we share
the anxieties of the Nigerian people. The best way to intervene is to
work with local authorities, to try and prevent and deter extremist
violence.

How strong is the current relationship between Britain and Nigeria?

Well this is my
second stint in Nigeria and I can comfortably say it has never been
better. Nigeria went through a very fragile moment when the former
president passed. But it is a moment in which Nigeria triumphed. A key
question was asked, is democracy irreversible? The answer is that yes,
it is absolutely irreversible.

The management of
Intercontinental Bank yesterday denied that there was a court order to
seal up its headquarters on Danmole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Sources however
confirmed that a former employee of the bank secured the order to seal
up the place. Two employees of the bank who work at the headquarters
corroborated that policemen came to the premises to effect the order
but they did not carry out the order after a meeting with the bank’s
management.

At about 4:30pm
yesterday there was a heavy presence of policemen at the bank’s
reception, an indication that something was amiss.

An angry man,
dressed in native attire, was also seen at reception giving orders to
the security officers to close the bank’s entrance door. When
approached and asked why he gave the order, he refused to speak on the
matter. However, it appeared his words had no effect as the officers
left the door open to visitors while staff carried on with their duties.

Eddy Ademosu, the
bank’s spokesperson, claimed that the bank was not aware of any court
order restraining it from carrying out its operation. “Our door is not
locked as you can see,” Mr. Ademosu said, adding, “It is not as if
there are no issues in court relating to shareholders, the bank itself,
or customers’ perceptive, but even issues in court are being resolved
as a responsible organisation.”

According to him,
“If there are issues, it would have been brought to our attention.
Maybe somebody will come tomorrow with a court order — I cannot say,
but as I speak we are not aware of any court injunction.”

He said the heavy presence of security personnel is not new because
“security has always been part of the bank” since the Central Bank
intervention, while he also said the persons giving orders might be
telling the officers to lock the door since it was closing time.

Britain pressured other NATO members to step up
ground attacks in Libya on Wednesday but cracks appeared in the
alliance as foreign ministers met in Qatar to try to break the deadlock
in the civil war.

NATO divisions surfaced at the international “contact
group” meeting, not only over arming the rebels and increasing air
strikes but also on creating a fund from frozen Libyan assets to help
the opposition trying to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
underlined the humanitarian disaster caused by the war, telling the
meeting that up to 3.6 million people, or more than half the
population, could need assistance.

Paris and London are increasingly frustrated that air
strikes have neither tipped the balance of the war in favour of rebels
trying to end Muammar Gaddafi’s 41-year rule nor even ended devastating
shelling of the besieged city of Misrata.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe criticised NATO
on Tuesday for not doing enough to stop the bombardment of the
rebel-held port town, where hundreds of civilians are said to have died
in more than six weeks of siege.

Libyan state television said on Wednesday that NATO
planes had bombed Misrata’s main Tripoli street, scene of repeated
battles between rebels and government troops. It said people were
killed, without giving details.

It said alliance planes also attacked Gaddafi’s birthplace of Sirte, east of Misrata, and Aziziyah, south of Tripoli.

British Foreign Minister William Hague told Reuters that other coalition aircraft must join ground attacks.

“There are many other nations around Europe and indeed Arab nations who are part of this coalition.

There is scope for some of them to move some of their aircraft from air defence into ground-strike capability,” he said.

Rebels call for more NATO strikes

NATO said it destroyed 16 tanks, an anti-aircraft gun and a pickup truck in operations on Tuesday.

Rebels attending the Doha meeting said they expected
more support, saying NATO was using “minimum” power and needed to step
up attacks on Gaddafi’s heavy weapons.

Britain and France, western Europe’s two main
military powers, are delivering most of the air strikes on Gaddafi’s
armour since President Barack Obama ordered U.S. forces to take a back
seat.

Other NATO countries are either keeping their distance from the campaign or enforcing a no-fly zone but not bombing.

A wide gap appeared at once between NATO hawks and doves.

Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere said the
March 17 U.N. resolution authorising NATO action in Libya — to protect
civilians from Gaddafi’s government forces — ruled out arming
civilians and he saw no need to boost forces there.

In another disagreement, German Foreign Minister
Guido Westerwelle voiced reservations about an Italian call to create a
fund from frozen assets to aid the rebels. “The question is, is it
legal? The answer is we don’t know,” he said.

Britain’s Hague called for a temporary financial
mechanism to fund rebel government in the eastern territory they
control. The rebels said they needed $1.5 billion in aid for civilians.

A spokesman for the rebel national council at the
Doha talks said the coalition was considering supplying arms which
should go to soldiers who have defected from the army. The rebels only
had “primitive weapons” taken from Gaddafi’s troops, he said.

Hague also sought a clear statement from the ministerial group that
Gaddafi must go, a demand reiterated in Doha by the rebels. The group
of international powers has struggled to reach a consensus on calling
for regime change.

Okey Ezea, the
governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Enugu State and 35
others were yesterday arraigned before an Enugu State Magistrate Court
for allegedly attempting to disrupt last Saturday’s National Assembly
election.

The suspects were
accused of threatening to cause violence and disrupt the parliamentary
election at Ibagwa Aka in Igbo Eze local government area of the state
when the result of the election was being collated. But they pleaded
not guilty to the charge brought by the police.

Mr Ezea and the
party’s House of Assembly candidate in the area were subsequently
granted bail on self recognition by the presiding magistrate, Emma
Ezema, after taking their plea.

However, the others
were granted bail under in the sum of N500,000 each and four sureties
who must be residing within the area where the offence was allegedly
committed.

Mr Ezea, who was
earlier on Monday invited by the Criminal Investigation Department
(CID), explained that he visited the office of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) at Ibagwa Aka with some of his supporters
at about 10pm on the election day to report cases of malpractices to
officials.

According to him,
the state commissioner for information, Chuks Ugwoke and the chairman
of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area, Chris Omeje, both of whom hail
from Alor Agu Community snatched some ballot boxes during the election.

Mr Ezea said that
rather than institute an investigation into the allegation, some
officials of the state government instructed soldiers to arrest him and
his supporters.

Following Tuesday’s
deadly clash between students of Ibadan City Academy and Community
Grammar School, both in Ibadan, in which a life was lost and property
worth millions of naira vandalised, the Oyo State government has
ordered the closure of the two schools until normalcy returns to the
area.

The state
commissioner for education, Nureni Aderemi, made this known in Ibadan
on Wednesday through a press release from his press officer, Babatunde
Ajibike.

According to him,
the government was saddened by the development and had to order the
immediate closure of the schools “to safeguard the lives of students
and teachers, to forestall further destruction of properties and with a
view to ensure maintenance of peace in the state”.

Mr Adeniran also
conveyed the sympathy of the state government to the family of the
bereaved and wished the injured speedy recovery.

He said the
security operatives in the state have already been put on red alert to
take over the premises of the schools to allow peace reign in the
vicinity.

The commissioner
said the government will take punitive actions against the culprits in
the incident, adding that it “frowns at attempt by anyone to ferment
trouble and disrupt academic activities in our schools”.

Clashes between students of the two schools turned bloody on Tuesday
when thugs were mobilised by one side to seek reprisal against the
other. One person was reportedly killed, one other put in a coma, and
many others injured in the fracas. Many cars and several properties
were also destroyed.