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The Federal Executive Council yesterday urged Nigerians to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the benefit of the doubt and provide the body with all the support it needs to make the National Assembly election a success.
The Minister of Information and Communication, Labaran Maku, who briefed journalists after the weekly executive meeting which was chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, said no sacrifice is too much to bear for the success of the elections.
He also said the federal government has not sought to have control over INEC’s budget and planning, but has provided everything the commission requires for a successful conduct of the elections.
“As you do know, INEC is independent of the executive arm of government, because INEC is an ombudsman,” he said. “We have done everything possible to remove the last vestiges of any control of the federal executive on INEC. So, INEC is an independent body, with its own budget, with its own planning. It deploys its own resources. What we have done, especially since last year, is to make available to INEC every requirement, every financial requirement that INEC has asked for the successful conduct of the general elections.”
The commission had postponed the National Assembly election, which was to take place last Saturday, by one week due, to logistic problems, including the late arrival of the ballot papers to be used for the elections.
Mr. Maku said although there were several concerns last weekend on the subsequently postponed election and the deployment of logistics in some places, he believes the electoral body will deliver.
“I believe that, with this postponement, INEC is handling all those issues that were raised by observers, politicians and actors concerning the level of preparations that we saw last week,” he said.
He also said the Presidency hopes that the postponement of the election will give the electoral body ample opportunity to address all the lapses which called for the postponement.
“It is our hope and belief that, come this week, INEC will now have the opportunity of using the postponement to address all the issues, especially the question of having adequate vehicles to transport materials from distribution centres to polling centres, and back to collation centres,” he said.
“It is very important because if those logistics arrangements are inadequate, then they create room for individuals to go in and help, and that help indeed can tamper with the security of materials and the outcome of elections. It is our belief that all of us as stakeholders, the media, the political class and members of the public, would be working along with INEC in terms of support, in terms of prayers, in terms of monitoring and indeed in suggestions, so that most of these problems would be addressed in the forthcoming rescheduled elections.”
Mr. Maku could, however, not confirm the possible postponement of the elections in some states as he said the only authority that can take decisions in terms of the postponement of elections is INEC.
“INEC has not informed the government and the public if there are some states where elections might not hold. So the only authority that can answer this question properly is INEC,” he said.

President Goodluck
Jonathan has appealed to religious leaders in the country to pray for a
successful conduct of the forthcoming general elections, in view of the
activities of “desperate politicians” who are ready to kill for
political gains.

He made this call
yesterday when he received the 2010 Hajj operations report presented to
him by the head of the federal government delegation and Amirul Hajj,
the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, at the Council Chamber
of the State House, Abuja.

“This is a period
that we require your prayers more because we have individuals sometimes
that are quite desperate and who want to kill, who want to maim people
because of political office,” Mr. Jonathan said.

“There is nothing
Allah can’t do. Your prayers will help to reduce these excesses of some
of us who are politicians. I believe that the religious leaders have
roles to play in shaping our polity and you can admonish us to keep
away from politics of tribalism, politics of ethnicity, and of course,
the issue of religious intolerance that are somehow becoming a key
factor in our day-to-day activity,” he added.

The president said
the report is coming at a most auspicious time because of the political
activities going on in the states. He promised to study the report and
utilise the recommendations in order to properly regulate the Hajj
operations, stating that his administration decided to institutionalise
the office of the Amirul-Hajj in order to modify the Hajj operation in
line with exigencies of the period.

A smoother Hajj

The Sultan, who led
the delegation, thanked Mr. Jonathan for the opportunity given to them
to serve the country and recommended modalities on how to improve on
the exercise.

He also called on
government to examine the report of the committee which contained the
challenges faced, with a view to improving on subsequent Hajj
operations.

The Sultan said the
report is to also help the Federal Government commit less financial
resources in future, as well as strengthen the National Hajj Commission
of Nigeria to perform more effectively.

He said even though
the 2010 exercise was successful, the delegation faced many challenges
such as the new feeding arrangement at Muna and Arafat and the
transportation system newly introduced by the Saudi authorities.

Sensitive election
materials, including ballot papers and result sheets to be used in the
National Assembly election will be delivered to polling centres by
commercial transporters, NEXT has learnt.

The materials will be deployed to respective areas at least 24 hours before the hugely-anticipated elections on Saturday.

The April 9
rescheduled parliamentary elections is deemed critical to the
credibility of subsequent elections, as well as the well-battered image
of the commission which plunged further after Saturday’s cancellation
of the national assembly election. It will expectably also shape the
future of the Attahiru Jega’s leadership of the electoral body.

“If he fails this
time, there will be no other option for him than to leave; it is make
or mar,” said Victor Umeh, who chairs the All Progressive Grand
Alliance (APGA).

Though much of last
week’s failure had been blamed on late arrival of the materials from
foreign vendors, the commission yesterday acknowledged that part of its
troubles – though it said this was to a lesser extent – was scarcity of
vehicles that could convey materials and officials to voting spots.

In areas where
accreditation and voting took place across the country, officials
arrived aboard city buses and cars; while in some places, materials
were reportedly transported with personal cars.

Yet, a N600million
contract for the purchase of more than 500 Hilux pickup vans, meant to
deal with the situation, was awarded months ago. The delivery had also
been delayed, along with the election materials.

Mr. Jega’s
spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, said yesterday that 530 vans finally
arrived in Nigeria this week. This highlighted the tenuous planning
structure the commission maintained in the weeks ahead of the botched
election, while it sustained assurances of normalcy in the open.

The vehicles, some
of which were sighted around the commission’s headquarters in Abuja,
are being dispatched to the states ahead of the elections on Saturday
and the final ones will arrive the various states latest Thursday, he
said.

Vet the transporters

But to pick up the
slack, the commission formally sanctioned the use of “screened and
vetted” transporters to augment its vehicles in delivering the
materials and staff.

“Last week,
adequate transportation arrangement may not have been made, but now I
believe Saturday will be different,” Mr. Idowu said.

“It cannot be
possible for INEC alone to have vehicles that will cover the 120,000
polling units. The RECs have directives to engage transporters, but
they should be vetted and well screened.”

Part of decisions
reached with the Resident Electoral Commissioners on Tuesday, NEXT was
informed yesterday, was that the ballot papers and the result sheets
are to be moved to their respective areas at least 24 hours before
elections. This is a measure which the commission hopes will almost
completely eradicate incidence of late arrival of materials for
accreditation, which is due to commence by 8am.

“The commission is taking adequate measures to contain the hitches
that arose from transportation and logistics deficiencies on Saturday,”
Mr Idowu said.

The Labour Party in
Plateau State has dismissed as “cheap blackmail” allegations that the
campaign of its governorship candidates is being funded by Islamist
groups in Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Speaking at a
world press conference called by the party in Jos, yesterday, Pam Dung
Gyang, who is the running mate to the party’s governorship candidate,
Pauline Tallen, said those spreading false stories that the party in
Plateau State is being funded by some groups in the Arab world, are
merely trying to tap into the existing frosty relations between
Christians and Moslems in the state to shore up sentiments against the
party.

He said the state
government, headed by Jonah Jang, has been encouraging division among
the people of the state for the last four years.

“This being an era
of e-business, e-banking and e-commerce, if indeed the opposition is
sure of our dealings with any group anywhere, they should produce
proofs of transactions by way of computer print outs or any other
vouchers,” Mr Gyang said.

The candidate said
the Labour Party and its 2011 campaigns in Plateau State are funded by
contributions from its members and supporters, whom he said are
stopping at nothing within the law to ensure that political change is
effected in the political leadership of the state come May 29, 2011.

He said his party
is working hard “towards a state where all shall cohabit without the
fear and uncertainty that has engulfed the state under the Jang
administration.”

Mr Gyang also said the botched elections of last Saturday has thrown up a lot of lessons.

“The rigging
machinery of the so-called ruling party in the state has been exposed.
It is unacceptable that in areas where the Labour Party is strong, such
areas, as we pointed out before last Saturday, were starved of election
materials,” he said. “For instance, had the elections been allowed to
proceed, a lot of the electorate would have been disenfranchised. In
some polling units where about 2000 voters were registered, only the
names of fewer than 1000 were available for accreditation. The number
of ballot papers for the House of Representatives election which went
to the polling units equally fell far short of the required number. The
same was the case with other materials like result sheets,” the
statement added.Party to beat

Jimmy Chetto,
chairman of the party’s gubernatorial campaign organisation, also said
the party has uncovered plans by the ruling People’s Democractic Party
to circumvent the process of the re-scheduled elections.

“In areas where
they consider their party to be weak, they are working earnestly
towards ensuring that the process does not enjoy a smooth sailing,” Mr
Chetto claimed.

He said the ruling
party olan to do this by “intimidating civil servants and harassing
traditional rulers from such areas to do its bidding.”

Mr Chetto said whatever the quality of security provided, the Labour
Party is determined to participate and go fully into the elections
“because it remains the party to beat in Plateau State in the 2011
elections.”

The Expenditure
Review Committee (ERC) inaugurated last September to look at ways to
help government reduce the country’s spiralling recurrent costs and
overheads yesterday called for a radical amendment of constitutional
provisions that promote unrealistic budgetary provisions and processes.

Presenting the
report yesterday in Abuja, the Chairman of the 23-member committee,
Anya O. Anya, said a situation where successive governments since 2003
continue to devote 80 percent of the country’s financial resources to
recurrent expenditures “tends to portray governance as irresponsible,
unresponsive, self-centred and clueless pretenders to leadership.” Mr
Anya, who is also the former Chairman, Nigeria Economic Summit Group
(NESG), said as of last year, two-thirds of the country’s resources
were allocated to recurrent and overhead expenditures, pointing out
that the 2011 budget hardly showed any marked departure from the trend,
despite the pledge by the National Assembly for a 30 percent reduction.

Spending binge

Indicting the
leadership at the various levels of government, Mr Anya noted that “the
mission of a responsible political leadership surely includes
maximising the quality of life of the citizens, while making provisions
for and enhancing the opportunities of future generations.

“The prominent
political actors must know that we are at a historical conjuncture
where demography, economics and social dynamics suggest that unless
there is a drastic redirection of our fiscal operations, the judgment
of history will be harsh,” he warned.

Underscoring the
need to create the environment to attract foreign and local investments
to the economy, the committee declared that it is practically
impossible for the country to achieve the development aspirations of
Vision 20:2020 if the current mix of recurrent and capital expenditure
and high level of fiscal indiscipline are maintained.

“The major drivers
of the high level, but low value recurrent expenditure include
unbridled multiplication of structures and process; overloading of
recurrent items, especially through overheads, and pervasive defiance
of the extant rules and regulations on government’s fiscal operations,”
the committee noted.

While urging
government to identify opportunities for reduction of recurrent
expenditure as well as for switching to making capital expenditure more
important in the fiscal mix, the committee suggested that the ratio of
recurrent expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) be pegged at 6
percent, and not more than 100 percent of non-oil revenue.

Minister of
Finance, Segun Aganga, while receiving the report, said the committee
was part of the effort by government to review the legacy issues to lay
a solid foundation for the building of the country, adding that this
would not be achieved without resolving the issues about how the
country’s resources are allocated.

The Minister
promised that government would review the committee’s recommendations
and ensure that they are effectively implemented, pointing out that the
present administration has already taken a number of measures to
enhance the quality and efficiency of government budgetary spending to
add value to the quality life of the people.

Ahead of the
National Assembly elections re-scheduled for Saturday, tension is
mounting across Oyo, self-acclaimed Pacesetter State, as the state
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, has reportedly given a standing directive
to all the acting chairmen of the 33 local governments in the state to
deliver their territories or face sack.

The governor had appointed all the caretaker chairmen after the expiration of term of the elected ones last year.

A source said the
governor gave the directive at a stakeholder meeting of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) held at Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, on
Tuesday, after assessing the near failure of the party at the botched
election of last Saturday.

Already, the
alleged order has started generating tension in the state as charges of
threats, violent clashes, and arms buildup are becoming the order of
the day.

Speaking through
Adeolu Adeleke, his campaign director, a former governor of Oyo State,
Rashidi Ladoja, described the alleged directive as an invitation to
anarchy.

Mr. Ladoja’s
observation came a day after his predecessor, Lam Adesina, raised a
similar alarm. The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader in Oyo State
had alleged that the governor was desperate about winning for the PDP
at all costs.

According to him,
Mr. Alao-Akala had set aside N1billion for use by the acting local
government bosses to buy people’s votes, and to resort to the use of
violence, “if the carrot option fails”.

Mr. Adesina warned
against the alleged plan, and said members of his party are equally
ready to match them strength for strength.

Already, the much
dreaded anarchy has started rearing its head as scores of people were
said to have been injured at a violent clash between suspected PDP
thugs and traders at Araromi/Gate Motor Dealers Market, Ibadan, on
Wednesday, when the former were said to have swooped on the market to
destroy a wooden rostrum built to host Ladoja’s campaign team.

The Accord Party,
on whose platform Mr. Ladoja is contesting the governorship seat of the
state, is said to enjoy the sympathy of the majority of traders in the
market. It was reported that the attack was led by a local government
caretaker committee chairman, but was effectively rebuffed by the
traders, who were said to have been prepared for such possibilities.
Following the attack and subsequent security reports, the Accord Party
governorship candidate called off the rally.

While the incident
was going on, a member of the House of Representatives, Lanre Agoro, in
a press chat at the ACN state office, in Ibadan, alleged that Mr.
Alao-Akala wanted to get him out of circulation before the next
Saturday elections at any cost.

Victory is certain

The lawmaker, who
defected from the PDP and is now re-contesting his seat in the National
Assembly under the banner of the ACN, said he has been under incessant
attacks from the ruling party, particularly the state governor, since
his exit from the party.

Mr. Agoro, who said
he was sure of winning the ticket to represent Irepo/Orelope/Olorunsogo
Constituency at the lower chambers of the National Assembly on
Saturday, said the governor pushed him out of the PDP, after feeling
uncomfortable with his comments on what he calls the governor’s
mis-governance of the state.

He explained that
his rising popularity has become his undoing and the ruling party has
resolved to get him out of the way, so that he would not be able to
mobilise people for the election.

The plot, he added,
included his recent quiz by the State Security Service (SSS) over an
unsubstantiated allegation. He said three of his men are still being
held by the organisation over the allegation, adding that when the PDP
saw that the SSS were not really acting to their expectation, the party
then wanted to involve the police.

The plot, he claimed, does not end with getting him into custody till the end of the elections, but his possible extermination.

The police, however, have denied the allegation.

The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State yesterday said it has placed the
state governor, Gbenga Daniel under surveillance. The party said this
is following reports that Mr Daniel is working against the presidential
ambition of Goodluck Jonathan.

Addressing a press
conference at the party secretariat located in Onikolobo area of
Abeokuta, the Chairman, Dayo Soremi accompanied by other leaders of the
party alleged that Mr Daniel held secret meetings with some leaders of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to work against PDP both at state
and federal levels.

“The first of the
meetings was held at the private residence of the Ogun State ACN
governorship candidate, Ibikunle Amosun, in Ikeja GRA, last Friday
April 1.

The second of such meeting was held yesterday at the Ikoyi residence of the ACN chieftain,” Mr Soremi revealed.

“By this desperate
action of his, he has jettisoned President Jonathan, the PPN candidates
and their followers. The implication of this is that PPN will vote for
the ACN governorship candidate, Ibikunle Amosun and ACN Presidential
Candidate, Nuhu Ribadu.” The PDP leader explained further that, part of
the plot also include offer of Secretary to the State Government, to
the governorship candidate of the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN),
Isiaka Gboyega who will jettison his governorship ambition.

“We believe that
Otunba Gbenga Daniel is going into this unholy alliance with his avowed
political enemy as part of his desperation (which) in the first
instance led (him) to pick somebody who is his preferred governorship
candidate of Ogun State.”

Daniel’s reaction

However, reacting
to the press conference, the governor said the claim by PDP was
heinous, “nothing could be farther from the truth and the new phantom
claim is indicative of the desperation of Chief Soremi and his
cohorts.” In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Gbenro
Adebanjo, it added, “for the avoidance of doubt Otunba Gbenga Daniel
did not leave his Sagamu residence all through Tuesday, April 5, 2011”.

“Indeed at the
time under reference he was in a meeting with the leadership of the
Nigerian Union of Teachers led by Comrade Sam Idowu. The meeting took
place at the Library of his Asoludero residence, Sagamu.

“Anybody who is in
doubt can contact comrade Idowu and his executive members who came to
iron out issues relating to the payment of deducted check-off dues and
cooperatives remittances.” The statement added that, after the meeting
the governor gave directive that the outstanding money up to March
should be paid to the Union by the Accountant General of the state from
the excess crude money which accrued to the state, a decision that has
since been carried out to the delight of the generality of the teachers.

“So while Governor Daniel was busy charting the way forward for
Ogun State, some individuals were busy concocting new lies to be sold
to the people of Ogun State. It is very saddening that the leadership
of the PDP for pure political reason would concoct such a blatant lie
against the Governor of Ogun State.”

“But they were ready before you!” Snapped my father angrily,
early on March, 6, 1957.

I had innocently asked: “But Dad, why did the Gold Coast get
independence before us?” There are two tiny sovereign nations, Benin and Togo,
hanging like strips of spaghetti on the map between Ghana and Nigeria. Yet,
Nigerians feel their real neighbours are Ghana. A bonding factor of colonial
experience in the way we relate to other nationals is pervasive. So, we compare
and measure ourselves with Ghana all the time – in politics and economics,
football and highlife music, education and fashion, cocoa and now oil. Luckily,
it has been healthy rivalry tinged with mutual respect, unlike the state of
affairs with our brothers to the east. Nigeria and Cameroon nearly went to war
over the Bakassi peninsula, even though ethnographically, we are closer to
Cameroon than to Ghana.

I sometimes ask what matrix or criteria are used in measuring
the Ghana-Nigeria competition, but all I hear is a savage rebuke: “Go to Ghana
and see!” Clearly, we live in a comparative world. Physics, biology, geography
and many more subjects have their comparative modules. Every life process is
compared with the other. Yet, in most cases, there is no linearity, no
parameter applied in arriving at judgmental conclusions. Our world subsists on
subjectivity, parochialism, unnecessary competition and naked prejudice.

Meeting the Queen

James Robertson replaced John Macpherson at the Marina as the
ruler of Nigeria, and had the honour of welcoming Queen Elizabeth II to Lagos.
I’ve never seen a human with a head as massive as the new governor-general’s.
He looked like an ox, and I almost ran away in horror the day he visited our
school.

Queen Elizabeth II stepped out to be confronted by the
regimental band of the Nigerian Army that could not have looked smarter and
more professional. They smashed out God Save the Queen, before advancing
through a series of Prussian martial tunes on to the lilting Blue Bells of
Scotland and the melodious Old Calabar. It was a sunny day. A broad Union Jack,
one of the most beautiful flags in the world, fluttered gracefully in the sea
breeze of Lagos. The impressive Royal Yacht Britannia bobbed and bubbled on
anchor in the murky waters of Lagos harbour.

Elizabeth’s visit in 1956 was not the first by a royal to
Nigeria. Her uncle, Edward, the Prince of Wales, was here for a week in April,
1925. I heard stories about him from my parents that he was handsome. They did
not tell me about the king’s huge appetite for married women. There was genuine
fear in England that he was going to turn Buckingham Palace into a brothel.
Eventually, Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 after just one year on the throne,
when the British government objected to his marrying Wallis Simpson, an American
divorcee. She had two living ex-husbands! My mother thought it was great and
gallant for a king to leave his throne in order to marry the woman he loved. My
father just shrugged and withheld his opinion. I asked to know what a
“divorcee” was, but got slapped down by my parents.

What didn’t we see in the way of automobiles during the Queen’s
visit – Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Armstrong-Siddeley, Austin Princess and Daimler!
A Roll-Royce epitomises everything that imperial splendour and authority
represents – silence, reverence, dignity, austerity and quality. But of all the
cars I saw in colonial Nigeria, none impressed me more than the Humber Super
Snipe.

I’ve not seen one again since 1953. A shame the British car
industry doesn’t exist anymore! In her farewell speech, the embryonic Nigerian
Army was re-christened the Queens’s Own Nigeria Regiment by Elizabeth herself.
They were terrific when it came to ceremonial occasions; the soldiers all the
same height – slim, very dark, with slightly bowed legs. Each soldier looked
like the twin of the subaltern next to him. The regiment, in heavily-starched
Bermuda shorts, marched in step like mechanised toys. Not a single Nigerian
soldier at ceremonial parades in those days had a pot belly balanced on K-legs.

“Regiment,” which insinuates command subsidiarity or a component
of a larger unit, attracted criticism in Nigeria. The army of an independent
Nigeria was not going to be something like the Scottish or Welsh Regiment
within the UK armed forces. So, a change was effected to the Royal Nigeria Army
(RNA) under the last British commander, Major-General Welby-Everard.

I hear it said now and again that the most efficient black
soldier is the one commanded by a white officer? True or false, this naïve
belief could have contributed to the downfall of Nkrumah and Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa. One cardinal error the two men made was to retain their British chiefs
of staff, well into independence.

Despite open warnings from Tawia Adamafio in Ghana and Azikiwe
in Nigeria,

Major-Generals Alexander and Welby-Everard remained in charge of
the Ghana and Nigeria armies until 1961 and 1965 respectively. The two Britons
could not have done a good job. Once they left, the armies rebelled!

Champion of the world

“They said that Bassey has knocked him down! The commentator
said the man has got up! I’m not sure what they’re saying now. Eh-hem, now they
said the man is bleeding from the nose. I think the referee is stopping the
fight!” We didn’t wait for a confirmation, screaming, hugging one another, jumping
about like kangaroos. It had been a live commentary of the live commentary on
the night of June 24, 1957 at Uyo.

Our small, robust radio set was never loud enough. Someone, a
second commentator, had to stick an ear close enough to it for better audio,
and then translate the actual commentary to the rest of us. Over 50 people
crowded around this unreliable radio set on that night at the hall of the TTC,
the Teacher’s Training College.

Nigeria’s Hogan Bassey was fighting Cherif Hamia, the French
Algerian for the Featherweight Championship of the World in Paris. Tears still
well into my eyes today when I recall the Daily Times front-page headline of
the next morning that simply read, “Hogan Bassey, Champion of the World!” The
1950s were the golden period for black people in international sports. To my
generation of Nigerians, sports remain the ethos around which our lives are
built. When, in 1958, I returned from the interview for admission into Umuahia
Government College, my father was waiting anxiously, pacing about like a caged
lion on the platform at Aba Railway Station.

“So, how did it go? What questions did they ask you?” I told him
there were three white men:

the principal, Mr. Wareham; Mr. Wilson and Mr. Garrod. After
they confirmed my name, place and date of birth, Mr. Wareham began seriously,
that he had heard I played cricket, and did I know cricket was played at
Umuahia College? Would I continue to play if admitted? It was like a crown
counsel cross-examining a criminal. I answered the questions timidly, but in
the affirmative. The three men looked at each other, and then asked me to call
the next candidate. It had been such a brief encounter I thought something had
gone wrong, and these white men didn’t want to waste their time with me. On the
short train ride from Umuahia to Aba, I sat somewhat dejected.

“Ahhh,” concluded my father, “then you’ve passed!” How? It was
in 1952, when my father was at University College, London and he sent two
cricket bats, a ball and some linseed oil to condition the bats, through the
district officer of Owerri, Mr. Mann to my brother and me. It resulted from a
letter my mother wrote to him that we used the branches of coconut trees for a
bat, and old tennis balls to play cricket. My brother got into Umuahia in 1954 and
was regular in the first team by 1958. The news about a younger brother, still
in primary school, who could use a cricket bat, had filtered into the school.

I kept a scrap book in which sports clippings from the Daily
Times, the West African Pilot, the overseas Daily Mirror and Illustrated London
News were stuck. There is no doubt in my mind over who qualifies to be the most
celebrated Nigerian footballer of all time – Teslim Balogun! He was, simply,
Thunder Balogun to everyone and for a striker to bear such a frightening name
speaks volumes of his exploits, and how goal-keepers must have suffered.

Three important landmark records made the 1950s memorable for me: that West
Indian side with Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott beat England
in a cricket test series, winning at Lords, the cricket citadel; Brazil won the
football Jules Rimet trophy ( the FIFA World Cup) in 1958. There were black
players in their team – Pele, Didi, Djalma Santos and Garrincha. In the same
year, the West Indian, Garry Sobers set a world batting record of 365 not out
against Pakistan. It was a wonderful decade!

The judge sitting over the case of arson and murder brought
against the Akwa Ibom Action Congree of Nigeria (ACN) gubernatorial candidate,
John Akpanudoedehe, Edet Obot said Tuesday he will rule on the case on
Wednesday. He said the poor lighting system in the court made it difficult for
him to give the ruling in the case.

Mr. Obot had waited for the arraignment of Mr. Akpanudoedehe
for hours after he was supposed to be brought in for trial. The magistrate had
arrived at the court premises early in the morning but information remained
hazy on whether the case would still be heard, as the court does not sit after
midday. Lawyers, ACN supporters and the crowd of people that had thronged the
court were seen leaving the court premises after waiting for some time.

Sources had informed NEXT that Mr. Akpanudoedehe and his
lawyers were still at the police headquarters, located at Ikot Akpannabia, and
that the delay was a strategy meant to check Mr. Akpanudoedehe’s supporters and
forestall any uprising. Security personnel were seen patrolling Uyo since the
morning hours while people entering the court premises were subjected to
extensive security checks.

Intimidation and arrest

Lead counsel Adeniyi Akintola and 28 others who stood in for
Mr. Akpanudoedehe criticised the intimidation, arrest and detention of their
client by the police and the state government saying he was supposed to be
provided with security as a governorship candidate. He condemned the fact that
the state criminal law was amended on March 31, 2011 when the offence for which
his client is being accused happened on March 22, 2011, adding that that was
not only a violation of the law but an intent to implicate Mr. Akpanudoedehe
unconstitutionally. He said the court had no jurisdiction to handle the charges
of murder and arson according to subsection 1, paragraphs a-d of the Akwa Ibom
State Criminal Law cap. 315.

“A law to amend criminal proceeding was sent to the state House
of Assembly on March 31, 2011 and made to deliberate on and passed. They never
investigated the alibi of my client. He was at Ikot Ekpene that day
campaigning, he was not around.” Prosecuting counsel, Raphael Nkem, however
deferred, saying the provisions as contained in the state law was appropriate
for the determination of the offence.

Mr. Akpanudoedehe was granted bail by the Federal High Court in
Abuja on March 31. Shortly after he met his bail conditions, the police
rearrested him on the court premises, without giving reason for their action.

Mr. Akpanudoedehe has, meanwhile, been in the custody of the
state CID.

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole yesterday protested an
alleged inducement of some troops deployed for last Saturday’s election by
leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State.

Mr Oshiomhole who spoke at a press conference in Benin, said
PDP leaders in the state used the military to arrest and brutalise ACN
supporters during the botched National Assembly election.

“The conduct of the officers and men in various places on
Saturday strongly indicated that their operational order was not to give effect
to Mr President’s resolve to provide adequate security during the elections.
Rather, the Army actively executed the bidding of the PDP, as the various
contingents were deployed to harass ACN leaders and members in order to pave
the way for the rigging of the election,” he said.

“PDP thugs, including those hired from neighbouring states wore
special red and yellow arm bands, which became symbols of immunity even in the
face of the premeditated violence they unleashed. The pre-agreed colours
allowed PDP thugs easy passage.” He alleged that military men deployed to the
state, who were supposed to provide security for the elections, turned out to
be tools of intimidation and harassment of innocent citizens on the orders of
PDP chieftains in the state.

Fair to all

He said even though he supported the deployment of the military
as a way of ensuring credible polls, it was unacceptable for the security
outfit to become a willing tool in the hands of members of the ruling party to
harass innocent citizens.

The governor further alleged that the PDP leaders had boasted
openly about their resolve to use both retired and serving military officers
during the elections in Edo South senatorial district.

“We do not believe that this criminal subversion of the Nigeria Army is
being perpetrated to the knowledge of Mr President. This is why we are compelled
to draw President Jonathan’s attention to this attempt to use the army to
soften the ground for the PDP to rig the elections,” he said. “We plead that
the Commander-in-Chief should strongly prevail on the Nigerian Army to be
neutral and to appreciate that it is a national institution. We also plead that
Mr President should call the Inspector General of Police to order and prevail
on him to detest on subverting the neutrality of the Force by taking orders
from PDP bigwigs in the Presidency.” Mr Oshiomhole however restated his
“concurrence with the need to deploy the Nigeria Army to help ensure free and
fair elections.”