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An unemployed man
entered a kindergarten in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province on Thursday
morning and stabbed 28 kindergarten students and three adults,
critically wounding at least five children, local authorities and state
news agencies reported.

It was the second mass stabbing of young students in two days, and the third in less than a month.

Many of the wounded
children were just 4 years old and shared the same classroom, according
to initial reports by the state-run Xinhua news agency. The adult
victims included two teachers and a security guard.

Police officers
identified the assailant as Xu Yuyuan, a 47-year-old former insurance
agent. According to Xinhua, he began attacking children with a knife
about eight inches long around 9 a.m. at the Zhongxin Kindergarten, a
middle-class school in Taixing, about 570 miles southeast of Beijing.

Little other information was immediately available. Taixing propaganda officials did not respond to telephone calls.

Thursday’s attack
occurred a day after a 33-year-old man in the southern province of
Guangdong stabbed 15 fourth-and fifth-graders at a primary school in
Leizhou. None of those students were seriously wounded. The authorities
said that attacker, identified as Chen Kangbing, had taught at nearby
school but had been on leave since 2006, apparently because of mental
illness.

On March 23, Zheng
Minsheng, 42, stabbed eight primary school students to death in Fujian
Province, also on China’s east coast, as they waited with parents for
classes to begin. Some Chinese press reports stated that Zheng also had
mental problems, but most state media said no such evidence existed.

Mental illness
remains a closeted topic in modern China, and neither medication nor
modern psychiatric treatment are widely used. An analysis of mental
health issues in four Chinese provinces, published in June in the
British medical journal The Lancet estimated that 98 percent of the 173
million Chinese adults believed to suffer mental problems never
received professional help.

Those murders
created a nationwide sensation, stirring calls for a school safety
crackdown. Zheng was executed on Wednesday after what one legal expert,
the former Peking University law professor and civil rights advocate He
Weifang, said was an unusually speedy trial.

There was no
immediate explanation as to why the three attackers chose young
students as their targets. While assaults in schools are not
particularly common, an eerily similar series of five knife attacks
took place in August and September 2004 in schools and a child-care
centre. Three of the attacks occurred on China’s east coast.

In February 2008,
two students at another Leizhou school were stabbed to death by a
former student who then killed himself by jumping off the school
building.

In the current
string of knifing, which took place hundreds of miles apart, “probably
there was some kind of copycat element,” Liu Jianqing, a professor of
criminal psychology at the China University of Political Science and
Law in Beijing, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “People in
similar predicaments emulate this because of the impact of the mass
media these days.” The assaults likely were also acts of
self-destruction by the attackers, he said, because such crimes stand a
high chance of drawing a death sentence in Chinese courts.

Beyond mental
illness, some experts said that rising strains in China’s fast-changing
society may have a role in the growing number of violent crimes. Most
of the school assaults have occurred on the developed, urban east
coast, where both the cost of living and income inequality are high.

The man executed on
Wednesday, Zheng, wanted revenge on “rich” and “powerful officials” in
Nanping, where he lived, Xinhua quoted his neighbours as saying in a
recent lengthy article about the murders.

He selected the primary school where the slayings took place because it was the city’s finest, the article stated.

© 2010 New York Times News Service

Members of the
Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) in Ekiti State yesterday
staged a peaceful rally to protest alleged refusal of the state
government to implement Consolidated Judiciary Workers Salary Structure
(CONJUSS).

The workers, who
took to the streets of Ado-Ekiti to register their displeasure against
what they said was government insensitivity to their plight, carried
placards of various inscriptions during the protest, which lasted for
over one hour. The JUSUN members also obstructed traffic along
Fajuyi-Okesa area of Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

While addressing
reporters, the state chairman of the union, Michael Ibiyemi, said the
workers had no option than to embark on a street protest, having
endured suffering for so long. He said his members are prepared to
embark on an indefinite strike if the state government fails to
implement the new salary scale for them.

“We have been
agitating for CONJUSS for the past four years. At least 15 other
states, including Borno, Rivers, Delta and Adamawa, have implemented
the welfare package for their judiciary staff,” he said. “The suffering
inflicted on judiciary workers has left many of them indebted and
unable to take care of our families, with many of them barely managing
to come to office.”

Total shutdown

He wondered why the
state governor, Olusegun Oni, had not responded to their demands, and
described a panel set up by the state government to look into their
demands as a “kangaroo panel” which had done nothing to ameliorate
their sufferings.

“If by Monday,
government fails to accede to our demands, it will be a total shutdown
of all the courts in the state and all we are saying is that they must
implement our demand for the implementation of CONJUSS,” he said.

“We are agitating for autonomy and this has not been looked into.
The kangaroo panel set up to ensure CONJUSS implementation has failed
to do anything, while the governor himself has not done anything”

The dispirited
camp of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State received a major
boost yesterday when business mogul, Jimoh Ibrahim was unveiled as the
latest member of the party in the state.

The state chapter
of the PDP, which has been enmeshed in crises since the Labour Party
took over administration of the state, came alive as some party
loyalists stormed the party’s secretariat along Oyemekun Road to give
Mr. Ibrahim a heroic welcome. Hundreds of former PDP members, including
its leaders, have defected in droves to the Labour in recent weeks.

However, speaking
at the official welcome reception, Mr. Ibrahim told party members that
he decided to join the party in order to make it more vibrant. The
Igbotako born businessman, who described himself as a beneficiary of
PDP’s good governance of the country, said the party would bounce back
into reckoning in Ondo State.

Mr. Ibrahim, who
was the gubernatorial candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in
the 2003 General Election, however said time is not yet ripe to discuss
his political ambition. He spoke against the background of reports that
he is moving into the PDP to actualize his plan of governing the state.

“ The aim of
joining the party was to make it virile in the state so that it can win
election both at the local, state and national levels,” he said. ‘‘It
is not about any election. I join the party to work together with the
leaders to re-build it. If it is about contesting elections, I can
contest under any party. Afterall, I have the resources to contest for
any position. I benefited a lot from the party. It was the PDP
government that confer on me the Order of Federal Republic (OFR)
honour. So, I am ready to work for the party.” He also said the PDP
government had appointed him into various boards, including being
Chairman of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Commenting on whether his current action will pitch him against the incumbent governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko,
whom many believed he supported in winning the 2007 election, Mr
Ibrahim said the governor would always remain his friend.

“A friend is always
a friend. I can assist anybody. Nobody has a monopoly of assistance. As
far as I am concerned, party affiliation cannot disturb my friendship
with anybody.

Moreover, Mimiko himself was a former member of the PDP,” he said.

Mr. Ibrahim, a
lawyer and businessman, ventured into politics in 1998 when he became a
member of the All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP). He was picked as the
party’s governorship candidate, but lost to Olusegun Agagu in the 2003
governorship election.

After his failure
in the governorship election, Mr. Ibrahim announced his withdrawal from
politics to focus on his business. After Mr. Agagu was removed by the
Court of Appeal, Mr. Ibrahim became close to him as a way of
solidarising with his kinsman. He is also said to be keen on having
another go at the governorship post.

Some politicians
are, however, of the opinion that the zoning formula might not favour
Mr. Ibrahim considering the fact that he is from the southern
senatorial district, same as Agagu.

In the last couple
of months, many bigwigs of the party have openly defected to the Labour
Party, mostly especially commissioners and chairmen of board and
parstatals during the immediate past government of Governor Agagu.

The party’s woes
were also worsened with the recent development in the state house of
assembly, which Labour Party is now in control of. At least three PDP
lawmakers have boosted the camp of the ruling government with their
recent defection to the ruling party.

Barely
three days after the murder of The Nation’s judicial correspondent, Edo
Egbagwu, the Edo State Correspondent of Vanguard Newspaper, Simon
Ebegbulem, on Monday night narrowly escaped death as he rammed his car
into the gate of a building while trying to escape from a car he said
was trailing him.

The bonnet of the Honda car was badly
damaged and Mr. Ebegbulem sustained head injuries. He is expected to
undergo scanning yesterday evening to check the extent of injuries to
his head.

Police was already informed of the incident and they have promised to investigate the matter.

The injured reporter said as soon as he left his office, along Arousa,

at about 8.30 pm on Monday, he noticed
a vehicle trailing him right from Sapele Road down to Adesuwa in GRA
and then to Ugbor Road where he lives.

“I noticed the vehicle behind me
immediately I left my office,” Mr. Ebegbulem said. “Initially, I
thought it was just any other vehicle on the road. But I became curious
when I noticed that the same vehicle was behind me through to Sapele
Road, down to Adesuwa and all the other routes I took to cut off the
bad spots and when I came out at Ugbor Road, I noticed the vehicle was
still trailing me.

I doubled my speed and quickly entered
Patrick Ehimen as a decoy and, in the process, I lost control and hit
the gate of the building and the impact on the car forced the car to
reverse itself to where I was coming from. But for the airbags, because
I noticed something like foam pushed me back to my seat when I hit the
gate, I would have sustained more injuries. I was treated and
discharged later that night. But I have to go back today for x-ray to
know the extent of injury on my head”.

The development has created fears in
the minds of many journalists covering the politically volatile state,
as many expressed fear for their jobs and lives.

Governor mourns journalist’s death

Meanwhile, the state governor, Adams
Oshiomhole has commiserated with the Nation newspapers over the murder
of Mr. Ugbagwu. Mr Oshiomhole described the killing as very
unfortunate; “I commiserate with you on the gruesome murder of one of
your reporters by yet-to-be-identified killers,” he said. ”This is a
painful death, going by the report that he was a hardworking and
experienced judiciary reporter with your organization. This latest
killing is however one too many, as Nigerians are yet to recover from
recent similar killings of Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Adedeji of
Thisday Newspapers and Bayo Ohu of The Guardian.

“Ugbagwu’s murder is not one that
should be swept under the carpet as inaction by the security agencies
will send a wrong signal to the killers that they can always snuff the
life out of innocent Nigerians and get away with the evil act.
Nigerians should rise as one to condemn this dangerous trend where
journalists who have a dissenting voice are silenced.” Also opposition
party, the Action Congress (AC) has expressed concerns over rising
killing of journalists in the country, following Mr. Ugbagwu’s murder
as well as two others in Jos – Sunday Bwede and Natan Dabak over the
weekend.

The party via its National Publicity
Secretary, Lai Mohammed called on the security agencies to move quickly
to unravel the killings saying “it was particularly alarmed at the
shooting dead of Ugbagwu,

which followed the same pattern as the
killing of Bayo Ohu of the Guardian last year, Abayomi Ogundeji of
Thisday in 2008 and Godwin Agbroko also of Thisday before them.” The
party expressed the hope that the journalists are being targeted
because of their profession, saying such could in turn stifle the
nation’s democracy.

“The challenge, therefore, for the
security agencies is not just to find the killers and bring them to
book, but to investigate if the murders have anything to do with the
fact that the victims are media practitioners. This is important to
reassure Nigerians that members of the Fourth Estate can perform their
constitutionally-guaranteed duties without fear,” Mr. Mohammed said.

The Party said the overall implication of the rising wave of murder,
in the country is that the security situation in Nigeria is worsening
and therefore reiterated its call for a decentralized police force,
claiming the police, as presently constituted can no longer ensure the
security of lives and property.

We
are no longer a courteous nation. We have lost our manners. What else
would you call it when you are holding an event and have confirmed
acceptances from the chief hosts, chairpersons of the occasion, and/or
special guests – all of whom will play key roles at the affair – and
they do not turn up?

How do you describe
an event for which a confirmed key speaker has being advertised as the
main attraction, and people pay to participate or to be delegates in
order to hear and meet that speaker, and then the speaker does not show
up?

We can lean towards
understanding when the VIP involved is of global or national stature
and whose time is at the mercy of critical events or stakeholders –
perhaps. But these days, any and every Tom, Dick and Harriet too often
do not take firm commitments to events seriously, regardless of whether
they are social, occupational or otherwise.

If you are lucky,
they are ‘ably represented’. This means that one hour before the event
is due to start, or 30 minutes before they are due to deliver their
paper, they conscript a staff member or a colleague to attend on their
behalf and read the speech that has all too often been pre-prepared for
them by the organisers of the event.

Phrases like “all
protocols observed” have become so hackneyed that some of us are too
embarrassed to use them. Now, we can add another phrase to the list of
clichés: “Mr. so and so, ably represented by Mr. here or Mrs. there”.

As an experienced
event organiser, you have not completed your preparations if you have
not already jointly identified with your VIPs, who will represent them
if they cannot make it. You had better have a copy of the speech so
that if they do not turn up, and the representative cannot make it, you
can still co-opt one of your team members or a friendly person of
importance present to read the speech.

Yes, they are busy.

Yes, the President
called them to Aso Rock. Please forgive me, but I have not yet heard
reasons like, “my constituents called an emergency meeting”, or “due to
an urgent situation in the organisation”, or “due to unexpected
ill-health.” What I HAVE heard are reasons like, “He had to attend a
colleague’s second wedding in another state”, or “she had to go to the
funeral of her colleague’s father-in-law”, or “they have gone to pay a
condolence visit”.

I have not heard
these kinds of reasons from international speakers and VIPs for events
either here or abroad. They check their diaries before accepting
invitations. When new demands on their time are made that conflict with
planned appearances, they consider them carefully and unless the new
request is unavoidable, they turn them down. When the unexpected and
unplanned occur, they either cancel their commitment or they contact
the organisers to arrange to come late or leave early.

If they are to be
represented, it is arranged at the time of commitment. On those
occasions, it is the representative’s name that appears on the
invitation card, not the VIP’s.

The representative reads his or her own speech, in which is also reflected the views of the VIP.

Show some respect

Why do our VIPs
think we should waste our time attending an event where their speech
will be read, sometimes badly, by a person we neither desire nor would
pay to see?

They could simply
circulate their speech or publish it and we could read it at our
leisure. I will want to stand for the president only, not for a
representative.

It is the height of
disrespect to the organisers and participants of events to expect them
to appreciate whomever you send. Say that you cannot make it and ask
the organisers if they will accept someone else who can bring a similar
perspective.

If a husband and
wife divide conflicting events on the same day between themselves so
that they can cover as many as possible, you could say that the
‘couple’ has been ably represented by the appearance of just one of
them. If an organisation is represented by any of its principal
officers, in their own right, the organisation can be said to have been
ably represented.

So, if the organisers are inviting you because of your organisation, ask someone else to do it.

If you have to
cancel your commitment, please do so. The event will survive. If a good
friend or political bigwig suddenly informs you about the wedding of
his daughter this weekend – a wedding that they have been planning for
several months – please tell him or her that regretfully you have
another commitment but you will visit them and the celebrants before
and after to show your support.

No one can ably represent YOU. We invited you because we wanted to see you, and hear from you, and have access to you.

If you cannot give us that, please have the courtesy to let us down with consideration, directness and with respect.

The
former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nasir el-Rufai, will
return to Nigeria on Saturday, NEXT can exclusively report.

Mr. El-Rufai has
been on a self-imposed exile since November 2009, and even though he
had announced that he would return to the country in December, he
released a statement, five days to his planned arrival, saying he had
postponed his return for security reasons.

At the time, his
lawyer Bamidele Aturu, in an interview with NEXT, said that “in the
light of the uncertainty surrounding the exercise of public power in
Nigeria in general, and security matters in particular, it would be
decidedly unguarded for Mallam El-Rufai to return to Nigeria on 27
December 2009.”

Since then, a lot
has changed on Nigeria’s political scene, with the former Vice
President stepping into the shoes of ailing President, Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua. It is still not clear if this has a bearing on Mr. El-Rufai’s
decision to return, but sources close to him told NEXT that his flight
is booked and he will be arriving at the Nnamdi Azikwe International
Airport, Abuja, on Saturday, aboard a British Airways flight BA0083.

It is also unclear
what Mr. El-Rufai’s plans are once he returns to Nigeria, or what he
intends to do about the two arrest warrants issued against him. The
first warrant accused Mr. El-Rufai of conducting treasonable activities
abroad. While the second, issued on November 5, described Mr. El-Rufai
as wanted “for acts contrary to Sections 96, 120, 123 and 124 CAP 532
laws of the federation of Nigeria” as well as “some provisions of the
Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act (of) 2000.” Former
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Michael
Aondoakaa, had also announced the commencement of extradition
proceedings on Mr. El-Rufai, based on the Senate Committee on FCT’s
report, which also allegedly indicted the ex-minister.

Mr. El-Rufai is
also being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) to account for almost $250 million spent during his tenure as
Minister of the FCT. He, however, in a terse email letter to the
anti-graft agency, ahead of his planned return last year, stated that
“for the avoidance of any doubt, I am returning to Nigeria on the 27th
of December, 2009. I will never be afraid to face a bunch of lackeys
like you.”

He is facing an
eight-count charge for criminal conspiracy and abuse of office while he
served as minister along with Altine Jubrin, a former director general,
Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), and Ismaila Iro, former
general manager of the same organisation.

As of the time we went to press, neither Mr. El-Rufai nor his lawyer Mr. Aturu could be reached for comments.

Mr. El-Rufai’s return might add to the complications and internal
crises presently experienced within the ruling People’s Democratic
Party (PDP). He is a card carrying member of the PDP, although it is
not clear which of the factions in the party he belongs to.

The hopes of
Nigerians abroad to vote in the country’s next general election were
dashed yesterday as the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on
the review of the 1999 Constitution said there is no immediate plan for
that because of the enormous resources involved.

The chairman of the committee, Usman Bayero Nafada, disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday.,

Mr. Nafada, who
spoke at a press conference to review the activities of the committee
whose report was considered on Tuesday, said the committee did the cost
implication of allowing Nigerians in Diaspora to vote in next year’s
election and subsequent ones and discovered that it would surpass the
funds needed to conduct elections locally.

The House had, on
Tuesday, amended 40 sections of the constitution at a Committee of the
Whole. The lawmakers rejected four other areas.

“We have considered
the issue of Nigeria in Diaspora voting. Unfortunately, it is not
possible for now. We say we have enough Nigerians at home to vote. But
if you say Nigerians in the Diaspora should vote, it may require more
money than what we would spend locally.

“Nigerians in the
Diaspora are not in one particular country, they are spread all over
the world. And you cannot say because you have a large number in
country A, you cannot say country A should vote and deny those in other
countries from voting. And if you do the cost analysis, you will
discover that it is highly expensive,” Mr. Nafada, who is also the
deputy speaker of the House, said.

Stressing that the
voting system is still manual, Mr. Nafada, however, said that the issue
may be considered in future when voting is done electronically, during
which, he remarked, the cost may be reduced.

“For now,” he said
“we have decided that it should be shelved till things improve.”
Reminded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is
already using four countries as a test case ahead of next year’s
general election, Mr. Nafada said the electoral body risks going
against the law of the land.

“Ours is to make
law. If you follow the law, fine and good. If anybody goes out and vote
in four countries, ask him where he derives the law from.” He also
regretted the rejection of the committee’s proposals that only those
indicted by the courts should be disallowed from contesting elections,
saying some members voted in line with the thinking of their state
governors, whom he said had set up administrative panels of inquiry to
disqualify their opponents.

He defended members
of the committee, saying they did not make the recommendation for
selfish interest, since none of them has been indicted by any of such
panels.

More states are coming

Mr. Nafada revealed
that the National Assembly may recommend the creation of between 8 and
10 more states, four or five each in the Northern and Southern parts of
the country, but said the committee has not taken any definite
conclusion on the matter.

The deputy speaker
said he does not see any difficulty in the 36 states Houses of Assembly
endorsing the areas recommended for amendment by the National Assembly,
stressing that at each point during the amendment process, the
committees were in constant touch with the state legislature and the
Nigeria Governors Forum.

The
Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice,
Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), has set a July, 2010 deadline for the
decongestion of inmates in Nigeria’s 227 prisons.

Mr. Adoke handed
the deadline to the Prison Decongestion Committee he set up and
inaugurated a fortnight ago, charging it to achieve the main objective
of its establishment within the time limit.

The Minister has
also invited the Chief Justice of the Federation; the President of the
Court of Appeal; the Chief Judges of Federal and state courts; as well
as the heads of other courts; the Nigerian Bar Association; and the
Ministry of Interior, to ponder and identify the reasons for undue
delays in trial of cases, which inevitably hampers the dispensation of
justice in Nigeria.

While it was learnt
that the NBA would be attending a stakeholders’ meeting with the
Justice Minister on the urgent need for justice sector reform, of which
prisons form part of, it could not immediately be known if the same
meeting would accommodate the views and analyses of the other judicial
authorities.

According to a
document exclusively obtained from Mr. Adoke’s Special Assistant on
Media and Special Duties, Onyema Omenuwa, the Minister was aware of the
need to set free inmates who, under normal circumstances, should not
have been incarcerated.

He has, therefore,
directed the committee to “work assiduously in line with its term of
reference” and ensure that before the end of July, 2010, there is a
nationwide decongestion of prisons by about 20, 000 to 30, 000 inmates.

Partnering for more action

According to
statistics obtained from the Federal Ministry of Justice, as at
December 2009, out of 47, 956 cases being addressed under the Federal
Government’s decongestion programme, only 11, 833 cases had been
completed.

About 7, 711 other
accused persons were granted bail, while 28, 412 cases of others are
undergoing trials in the various courts in the country, in spite of the
fact that it allegedly gulped not less than N8 billion.

Committee’s reference terms

The nine-member
Prison Decongestion Committee is chaired by the Solicitor-General of
the Federation and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice,
Abdulahi A. Yola.

The committee has
the responsibility to, among other things, ensure that indigent accused
persons get legal representation by way of engaging private legal
practitioners to undertake the defence of such persons in courts across
the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

In cases where
indigent convicts are given option of fine, it is also the
responsibility of the committee to pay such fines. The committee is
further mandated to periodically submit reports on discharged inmates,
inmates granted bail, and those convicted, and always “liaise with
relevant government agencies with a view to making progress on the
prison decongestion programme.”

It was gathered that about 65 percent of prison inmates nationwide
are awaiting trial persons (ATPs); many of whom are either petty
offenders or detained on mere suspicion. In spite of that fact that
many of the inmates could have been declared innocent by the courts,
they are subjected to inhumane detention conditions, sometimes for
periods longer than they would have served in jail if convicted.

The family of
detained former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late military ruler
Sani Abacha, Hamza Al Mustapha, rose from a meeting yesterday in Kano
with a resolution that the continued detention of Mr. Mustapha is a
result of state persecution.

Hadi Al Mustapha,
immediate younger brother to the detained man, addressed journalists in
Kano shortly after what he described as a crucial family meeting to
appraise 11 years of Mr. Al Mustapha’s incarceration.

The obviously
unhappy man could not hide the family’s frustration over the slowness
in the trial of his elder brother, saying the family is tired with the
way the case is going on.

“We have come
together as a family to appraise the misfortune that has befallen us.
We are deeply convinced that his long incarceration has so many
elements of political undertone, and believe that Major Hamza is a
victim of state persecution,” he said.

Mr. Al Mustapha,
who was arrested alongside other officers for allegedly plotting a coup
in 1998, was freed of that allegation and was later charged in 1999
with the attempted murder of the publisher of The Guaradian, Alex Ibru.
He has since been in detention, while hearing on the case drags through
the court.

“The case has,
since 1999, passed through the hands of 13 different judges and have
equally suffered endless adjournments, making it the longest judicial
trial in the history of Nigeria,” Hadi al Mustapha said.

Survived four presidents

He contended that
various attempts to rope in Mr. Al Mustapha had failed, following the
confession of principal witnesses that they were induced to implicate
the former security chief for pecuniary reasons. He also expressed the
family’s worry that the legal case has survived four different
presidents, Abdulsalam Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua, and now, Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan.

“The case is not given the desired attention, in spite of cries from several quarters for his release,” he said.

Mr. Al Mustapha
said the family is grateful to well meaning Nigerians who have been
trying to intervene to secure his brother’s release, adding that the
solidarity has helped them keep hope alive.

“We call on Mr.
Jonathan to demonstrate enough political will that will lead to the
conclusion of the case. History will remember him for tempering mercy
with justice,” he said.

The trial of Mr. Mustapha and his colleagues have dragged partly
from the legal tactics employed by their lawyers, sometimes forcing
judges to drop the case.

The Senate,
yesterday, overwhelmingly supported a bill seeking to provide measures
to combat terrorism in Nigeria, as the bill passed its second reading.
The bill, sent by the Presidency, was first read in the Senate on
December 10 last year. It has also passed the second reading stage in
the House of Representatives.

In his lead debate, the Senate leader, Teslim Folarin, said the bill will be the first anti-terrorism law in the country.

“It is important to
note that Nigeria does not have a comprehensive anti-terrorism law and,
for that reason, has failed to meet the requirements of the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF), established by the G7 Summit held in Paris in
1989,” Mr. Folarin said.

The FATF
recommendations and requirements are to detect, prevent, and suppress
the financing of terrorism and terrorist acts. However, out of the Task
Force’s nine special recommendations, Nigeria was rated ‘non-compliant’
in seven and ‘partially compliant’ in only two.

“This rating is not good enough for the country,” Mr. Folarin said.

“The answer to addressing these poor ratings lies in the passage of this bill into law.”

Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River) criticised Nigeria’s indifference to the war against terrorism in the past.

“The global
community thinks Nigeria is not doing enough,” Mr. Ndoma-Egba said.
“There is almost a global consensus that Nigeria is not a terrorist
state, but there are concerns that there are identified footholds of
terrorism in Nigeria.”

Terror bill

The bill has five
essential parts covering acts of terrorism and related offences,
terrorism funding, and terrorist properties, mutual assistance and
extradition, investigation and prosecution.

The acts of
terrorism, according to the bill, include attacks upon a person’s life
which may cause bodily harm or death, kidnappings, as well as the
destruction of government facilities or private properties in a manner
likely to endanger human life or result in a major economic loss.

The bill also
addresses the hijacking of aircrafts, ships, or other means of public
transport, as well as the manufacture, possession, acquisition,
transport, supply, or use of weapons and explosives.

The propagation and
dissemination of information in any form calculated to cause panic,
evoke violence, or intimidate a government, person or group of persons,
also fall within actions the bill seeks to deal with or prevent.

Mr. Folarin
described the kidnappings in southern Nigeria, the Boko Haram incident
in Borno State, the Kala Kato uprising in Bauchi State, and the ongoing
Jos crises as acts of domestic terrorism.

“It is a fact that
terrorism is taking root and assuming a new dimension everywhere, and
it is our duty as responsible lawmakers to work towards its eradication
through the promulgation of relevant legislation,” he said.

Every senator that
contributed to the debate applauded the bill and it was referred to the
Senate committees on Security and Intelligence, Judiciary, and Foreign
Affairs for further legislative actions.

It is expected to be passed into law before the end of this quarter.

“This is a bill
that requires the attention and support of every senator,” Senator Nuhu
Aliyu (PDP, Niger), the chairman of Senate committee on security and
Intelligence, said.