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The governorship
candidate for People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, Tunji
Olurin yesterday started his campaign for the race from Ilaro, Mr
Olurin, accompanied by his running mate, Tunde Oladunjoye, said his
coming into the race is to rescue the state from the hands of those he
alleged to be maltreating the citizens.

“I have been a
governor before, I know where I am coming from and I know where I am
going. I have a name to protect. I have no intention to steal
government money, we shall use government money judiciously,” he said.
“I am not going to be a sectional governor. All the zones of the state
have equally agreed to support us. So, let us all be united and cast
your votes for us. We must be brave in this struggle. For me, I am as
constant as the Northern star. There is no shaking, no going back, we
are going to stand firm.”

Protest rally

While the rally was
going on in Ilaro, the Gbenga Daniel faction of the party took to the
streets of Abeokuta, the state capital to protest the exclusion of the
names of their candidates from the list published by the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC). The protesters, who carried
various placards rebuking former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, also
threatened to embark on spiritual exercise until their ‘stolen mandate’
was reclaimed and vowed to upstage Mr Olurin and Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello,
daughter of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, at the polls.

Leading the
protesters, factional chairman of the party, Joju Fadairo, dispelled
the rumour that the faction was planning to defect to another party.

“The rally is to
show that we are still in PDP and that our exco is still the authentic
leaders of the party. We are not going anywhere as they had wanted us
to do. We will not succumb to any clandestine move to frustrate us out
of the party,” Mr Fadairo said.

Similarly, Gboyega
Isiaka, the party’s governorship candidate from the Gbenga Daniel group
said, “We will use every legal means to fight to redeem our mandate. I
want to assure you that justice, equity and even God are on our side.
Justice may be delayed, it will surely not be denied,” he said. “The
rally is to show that we are still in PDP and that our executives are
still the authentic leaders of the party.”

It could be recalled that two parallel primaries were conducted in
Ogun State during the PDP primaries in the state. An Abuja High court
had ordered INEC to recognise the list of candidates sent to it by the
Jibrin Martins-Kuye faction of the PDP. Effort by Mr Daniel’s faction
of the party to upturn the ruling was denied by a Federal High court
sitting in Abeokuta. This ruling made INEC to reject the list sent to
it by Mr Daniel’s faction.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
begins its national electioneering campaign today with a colloquium at
the ThisDay Dome, Abuja. The party’s standard bearer, Nuhu Ribadu,
yesterday said that he is still in consultation over who becomes his
running mate for the April 2011 general elections. He said that since
the party still has up to February 21 to submit names, the nomination
of a presidential running mate is a non-issue for now.

Mr. Ribadu, who spoke yesterday through
Ibrahim Modibbo, his director, media and communications, in a telephone
interview with NEXT, also confirmed that the colloquium was an
indication that the campaign had started in earnest.

“The issue of deputy does not come up
now because that is not a problem. We still have up to 21st of February
to submit the name, so, we are still consulting,” he responded.

Former governor of Anambra State, Chris
Ngige, and former minister of finance under president Olusegun
Obasanjo, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, are two possible candidates that Mr.
Ribadu is rumoured to be looking at.

Party manifesto

Mr. Ribadu explained that today’s
colloquium is to bring out the party’s manifesto to Nigerians. “It is
symbolic because we are starting in an academic manner unlike the PDP,”
he said.

The ACN’s national secretary, Lawal
Shuaib, did not answer his phone and did not respond to a text message
sent to him on the issue. Meanwhile, the ACN in a release over the
weekend, by its national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the
party chose to start its electioneering campaign for April’s poll with
a colloquium to unveil the party’s manifesto and agenda for Nigeria.
The topics to be discussed, according to the statement, include issues
of governance, human rights, youth development, energy, managing a
democratic government, regulatory functions of INEC, the Electoral Act
2010 as well as water and sanitation.

“These manifesto and agenda encompass our contract with Nigerians.
Therefore, we intend to use the colloquium not only to present our
programme but also to ensure that Nigerians own the programme,” it read.

The Transition
Monitoring Group (TMG) says only Nigerians and not the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) can make the forthcoming general
elections credible. It said that the only way Nigerians could make the
elections credible is by defending their votes after voting in the
elections, adding that INEC can only provide polling centres and
materials for voting.

The election
monitoring group stated this in a statement jointly signed by its
national coordinator, Mashood Erubami and publicity secretary, Musa
Rasfanjani in Abuja on Tuesday.

“The present INEC
chairperson has used every opportunity to inform Nigerians not to
expect perfect election from its organization, but to see the
achievement of credible election as a collective task of the citizens
and all stakeholders in the electoral process,” the statement said.
“This is not to say that the body is not prepared to conduct credible
election, but it is a call on the electorate to be vigilant, to
register, vote and be ready to defend their votes.” The group notes
that “credible election is beyond mere filling up of the electorate,
but includes the ability to be able to express their trust in the
preferred candidates at the poll.”

Explaining the
constitutional role of the electoral agency, the statement read that
“the function of INEC as stipulated in the electoral act is to conduct
voter and civic education, promote knowledge of sound election
democratic election processes and conduct any referendum required to be
conducted pursuant to the provision of the 1999 constitution or any
other law or Act of the National Assembly. In this regard, INEC is
expected to provide polling centres and materials for voting to be
managed by assigned presiding officers.”

There, TMG opined
that “voting and ensuring that voters exercise their voting rights, to
chose from available alternative candidates and defending the voting
process are beyond what the INEC can do during elections” therefore the
group warned Nigerians that “it is the people and not INEC that would
make election credible.”

It called on the
electorate who have taken the pain to register in the just concluded
registration exercise to troop out en masse to cast their vote during
the coming 2011 election and standby to defend the votes and remain
vigilant throughout the whole process.”

The group argued
that “where election have consistently been conducted to the
satisfaction of the majority, where results have been disagrees or
disputed, where INEC has been distrusted, where politicians have not
played by the rules or where security agencies have been known to be
partisan, citizens vigilance and assumption of their historical duties
to defend their votes, have been the most potent mechanism by which
their genuine electoral aspiration can be voiced.”

TMG noted that in
order for Nigerians to vote and ensure that their votes count and
resist being victims of the consequences of bad and unfair elections,
they must wake up from their slumber, to exhibit better understanding
of their roles in the polls and become a good part of the solution to
unfair election without integrity in the country.

“Only a well conducted election under the watchful eyes of the
voters can guarantee peace and ensure leadership legitimacy that can
remove for all times, the incidence of underdevelopment with its
accompanying vices like unemployment, poverty, insecurity, violence and
political assassination,” it stated.

The Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC) is yet to begin its nationwide campaign
because of the urgent need to resolve the controversy trailing the
submission of candidates.

The Party’s
spokesman, Rotimi Fashakin who disclosed this to our correspondent in
Abuja yesterday, said there are issues arising from the substitution of
candidates after the submission of the list to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC).

Controversies have
been trailing the substitution of the names of the party’s
gubernatorial candidates in Kano, Katsina, Enugu and other states.

According to him,
“we have issues arising from the list of candidates and substitution of
candidates, that is why we are yet to commence our campaign,” Mr
Fasahakin said in a telephone interview yesterday. “But now that the
deadline for the submission and replacement of names has expired, we
will soon start our campaign in earnest.”

Trusted hands

Mr Fashakin said
the national leadership of the CPC is already in the process of
constituting the presidential campaign committee to handle the
nationwide campaign of its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

He also hinted that
Sule Hamma may head the campaign organisation. Mr Hamma served as the
Director General of The Buhari Campaign Organisation in 2007.

A trusted ally of
the former head of state, Mr Hamma is at present the deputy chairman of
the CPC Board of Trustees. He served as the Secretary to the old Kano
State Government under the late Abubakar Rimi between 1979 and 1983 and
later moved to the Presidency during the military administration of the
late Sani Abacha.

Working committee

Meanwhile, the
national working committee (NWC) of the All Nigeria People’s Party
(ANPP) will meet today over the constitution of its presidential
campaign committee.

A source in the
party told NEXT yesterday that the nominees into the committee to
handle the campaign of the party’s presidential candidate, Ibrahim
Shekarau may be made known to the public.

As at last week,
the opposition party was said to have been in a dilemma over the
constitution of the presidential campaign organisation following Mr
Shekarau’s inability to send in names of his nominees to the national
secretariat.

When contacted
yesterday, the ANPP spokesman, Emmanuel Eneukwu said the leadership of
the party is still in the process of setting up the campaign committee.
He refused to confirm today’s meeting of the NWC.

“We’re still in the
process of setting it up, that is all I can say. Please, be patient
with us because there are many things to consider in setting up such
committees. We want to get it right,” Mr Eneukwu told NEXT in a
telephone chat in Abuja.

Also speaking with
NEXT, the vice presidential candidate of the ANPP, John Odigie-Oyegun
said the party will constitute the campaign organisation in the next
few days.

Mr Odigie-Oyegun, however, said that he and the presidential candidate have been campaigning on their own for the past one week.

According to him,
they have been to some South Eastern parts of the country where they
met with supporters and also opened campaign offices.

The ANPP vice
presidential candidate said Nigerians should not expect the ANPP to
conduct a similar campaign to that of the PDP because it does not have
the kind of resources available to the ruling party.

The ruling PDP had
on Monday organised committees for its campaign funding, with twelve
top Nigerian businessmen, including billionaires Aliko Dangote, Femi
Otedola and Mike Adenuga, to raise funds to support President Goodluck
Jonathan’s presidential campaign.

Others in this
Committee are: Tony Elumelu, former chairman of the United Bank for
Africa; Jimoh Ibrahim, chairman of NICON Insurance; Emeka Offor, Kashim
Bukar, Sayyu Dantata, Jim Ovia, Dahiru Manga,

Abdulsamad Rabiu and Kola Salako.

Egypt is to send a
20-man delegation to the 2011 Africa Movie Academy Awards, following
the success of Egyptian movie, ‘Hanayns Shoe’ which won the Best
Animation prize at the 2010 awards ceremony.

The 2011 AMAA holds
on March 26 at Gloryland Cultural Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Traditionally held in April, this year’s AMAA is happening in March
because of the forthcoming April polls. A nomination night and concert
in Nairobi, Kenya on February 25 and 26 will however precede the awards
night.

Speaking during an
interactive session, the chief executive officer of AMAA, Peace
Anyiam-Osigwe, disclosed that Egypt’s participation will strengthen the
relationship between Nigerian filmmakers and their counterparts in
North Africa. Amongst others, filmmakers Mahmood Ali-Balogun and Victor
Okhai have at various times served on the jury of the Cairo
International Film Festival.

Anyiam-Osigwe added
that, Egypt’s participation will also stress the importance of the
awards to other North African countries and make them realise it’s for
the whole of Africa and not just parts of the continent.

On the judging of
entries, Anyiam-Osigwe disclosed that organisers “put a lot of effort
into trying to make the AMAA one of the most transparent” out there.
She added that winning an AMAA gong is a lifeline to the international
film circuit.

The filmmaker who
equated the AMAA to the BAFTAS and Oscars in the United Kingdom and
United States however decried the apathy of corporate Nigeria to the
awards. She canvassed both public and private support for the awards
and filmmaking in Nigeria.

Home grown brand

Anyiam-Osigwe who
further described AMAA as a home grown brand that projects Nigeria
positively across the world, noted that once government supports the
awards, corporate Nigeria will follow suit.

Citing the example
of Ghana where winners of AMAA awards are hosted by the country’s
president, Anyiam-Osigwe noted that it is time the Nigerian government
did the same. She added that similar initiatives get heavy corporate
support in South Africa. She however commended the United Bank for
Africa (UBA) which supported AMAA for three years. She disclosed that
the bank will still play a role in the nomination night holding in
Kenya.

The filmmaker who premiered her TV series, ‘GRA Women’ last year
also advised her colleagues to take their art more seriously and
improve on it to get public and private support. She said, “If we take
ourselves seriously, government and corporate Nigeria will take us
seriously.”

A Federal High
Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise
Grace Bent (PDP Adamawa State) and two other senators as the senatorial
candidates for their respective senatorial zones.

The court ordered
both PDP and INEC to delist Ahmed Hassan Barata from the list of
candidates and substitute it with that of the incumbent, Mrs Bent,
pending the determination of a suit filed by the incumbent.

Mr Barata, former
member of the House of Representatives was declared winner of the PDP
Adamawa south senatorial zone’s primaries and his name was subsequently
forwarded to INEC as the winner.

Mrs Bent went to
court on February 7, asking the court to order her recognition based on
alleged gross malpractice in the primary elections.

The court, headed
by Abdu Kafarati, ruled in her favour and two other incumbent senators:
Mohammed Mana (PDP Adamawa State) and Abubakar Umar Gada (PDP Sokoto
State).

The court asked
both INEC and PDP to withdraw Bindowo Jibrilla and Ibrahim Abdullahi
Gobir as senatorial candidates in the April polls and substitute them
with Mr Mana (PDP Adamawa State) and Mr Gada (PDP Sokoto State)
respectively.

Ready for appeal

The two other
senators had sued, separately, seeking for an interlocutory injunction
restraining the PDP and INEC from enlisting names other than themselves
as candidates of the party for their respective senatorial zones.

The court granted their injunctions and ruled in the same manner
restraining both INEC and PDP from recognising any candidates other
than the applicants while striking out the first respondents. The court
also granted the appeal for accelerated hearing and fixed February 21
for hearing of originating summons from the three senators.

The Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said that global and regional
institutions saddled with the responsibility to guard press freedom are
largely failing to fulfil their mandate as journalists worldwide
continue to face threats, imprisonment, intimidation, and killings.

According to the
annual survey of Attacks on the Press, the New York based organisation
yesterday stated that for 2010, institutions like the United Nations,
the African Union, the Organisation of American States, and the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, among others are
inconsistent in their approach to defending press freedom. The report
surveyed the media conditions in more than 100 countries and revealed
that 44 journalists were killed and 145 imprisoned in the year in
review.

“The recent
unprecedented repression and persecution of journalists in Egypt, for
example, provides an important opportunity for global and regional
institutions to speak and act forcefully in defence of a free press”
said the survey.

The group further
noted that while international laws, which these institutions are all
signatory to, guarantees the right to free expression “journalists
cannot count on a robust defence of those rights,” said CPJ executive
director Joel Simon. He explained that “while valiant special
rapporteurs at various institutions battle anti-media violence, their
effort are stymied by a halting political will to guarantee press
freedom.” “ A breakdown of assault on journalists on regional trends as
identified by CPJ revealed that a rise in investigative journalism in
Sub-Sahara Africa has led governments in the region to crack down on
journalists, particularly those reporting on the provision of basic
services and the use of public money. “From Cameroon to South Africa,
authorities are moving aggressively to unmask confidential news
sources, criminalise possession of government documents, and retaliate
against probing journalists despite their pledges of transparency and
accountability due to the pressure from donor countries.”

CPJ also noted that
a rise in censorship is prevalent throughout Latin America, due to
government’s repression, judicial interference, and intimidation from
criminal groups. Adding that in some countries, a climate of impunity
perpetuates a cycle of violence and self-censorship. The group stated
that censorship in Asia takes many forms with a mixture of violence and
official repression. Democratic nations such as Thailand, the
Philippines, and Indonesia are reported to be incapable of reversing
the impunity with which journalists are being killed. The report
declared Pakistan as the world’s “deadliest country for journalists in
2010.” Despite Europe’s development, CPJ alleged that “newer and
subtler forms of censorship are taking hold across the region to
counter the rise of electronic journalism, particularly in Russia and
the former Soviet republics.” These include the targeted use of
technological attacks and the untraceable disabling of independent
media websites.

For the Middle East
and North Africa, CPJ stated that governments are conflating critical
coverage of counterterrorism with terrorism itself, claiming national
security grounds to suppress news and views considered unfavourable.

CPJ also noted that the physical violence employed in these
countries to harass and intimidate journalists working in traditional
media is now being extended to bloggers. It called on the institutions
to stand by their word and ensure the safety of members of the fourth
estate of the realm.

Iranian lawmakers
called for the death penalty on Tuesday for opposition leaders they
accused of fomenting unrest after a rally in which a least one person
was killed and dozens were wounded, state media said.

Clashes broke out
between security forces and protesters when thousands rallied in
sympathy for popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia on Monday. They
revived mass protests that shook Iran after a presidential vote in 2009.

“(Opposition
leaders) Mehdi Karroubi and Mirhossein Mousavi are corrupts on earth
and should be tried,” the official IRNA news agency quoted members of
parliament as saying in a statement. The statement was signed by 222
lawmakers out of 290. Being “corrupt on earth” is a charge which has
been levelled at political dissidents in the past. It is a capital
offence.

Iranian authorities
have repeatedly accused opposition leaders of being part of a Western
plot to overthrow the Islamic system. The claim has been denied by
Mousavi and Karroubi, who were prevented from attending Monday’s Tehran
demonstration. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani also accused the United
States and its allies of providing support to the opposition following
uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, both Western allies. “The main aim of
Americans was to simulate the recent events in the Middle East in Iran
to divert attention from those countries,” Larijani said, state radio
reported. However the protests seemed to be over on Tuesday and life in
the main cities was back to normal. But its leaders are wary of a
repeat of the kind of protests which shook Iran after a presidential
election in 2009. That was the biggest unrest since the 1979 Islamic
revolution. At least 20 pro-reform activists were arrested before
Monday’s marches, opposition websites said.

Iran’s top
authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called the
uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia against secular, Western-allied rulers
an “Islamic awakening,” akin to the revolution that overthrew the
U.S.-backed shah in Iran. But the opposition says they mirror their own
protests after the re-election in June 2009 of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.

Protesters resume in Bahrain

Thousands of
Shi’ite protesters marched into the capital of Bahrain on Tuesday after
a man was killed in clashes between police and mourners at a funeral
for a demonstrator shot dead at an earlier anti-government rally.

The killing, a day after a “Day of Rage” of protests on Monday,

raised the prospect
of further clashes between Bahrain’s majority Shi’ite Muslims and the
Sunni security forces backed by the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty.
Bahrain’s main Shi’ite opposition bloc Wefaq, which accuses the ruler
of discriminating and neglecting Shi’ites, responded to the violence by
boycotting parliament.

Enraged mourners
chanted anti-government slogans inspired by protests that toppled the
rulers of Egypt and Tunisia. “The people demand the fall of the
regime!” protesters chanted.

Thousands poured
into Pearl Roundabout in Manama’s city centre, having marched from the
funeral on the outskirts of Manama. Witnesses said the funeral clashes
broke out when around 2,000 people set out from hospital to escort the
body of slain protester Ali Mushaima through the alleys of Shi’ite
villages towards his home, where his body was to be washed before
burial. Diplomats say Bahrain’s protests may gauge whether a larger
Shi’ite base can be drawn to the streets to raise pressure for reforms
that would give them a greater voice and better economic prospects.

REUTERS

Lawmakers in
Nasarawa State have thrown out a motion by a member, Lagi Innocent
(Labour Party, Wamba) for members to unanimously condemn the use of
live ammunition on citizens of the state during the protest that
trailed the presidential rally of the PDP in Lafia, the state capital,
last week.

Some people were killed when security agents opened fire on demonstrators who pelted the PDP campaign team with stones.

Mr Lagi moved
his motion to counter an earlier one moved by Mohammed Onawo (Doma
North, PDP) who sought a resolution of the House to condemn the attack
on President Goodluck Jonathan when he flagged off his North-Central
zonal campaign rally in Lafia.

Majority of the
members supported Mr Onawo’s motion and the Speaker, Musa Ahmed
Mohammed said the House resolution should be sent to the state
governor, Aliyu Akwe Doma for him to deliver the message to the
presidency.

But Mr Lagi
stood up, insisting that the issue at stake was the use of bullets on
Nigerians by the police and soldiers when some supporters of the CPC
governorship candidate, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura poured onto the streets
last Wednesday to protest the arrest of Al-Makura by security agents.

Waste of life

But the labour
lawmaker, in his submission before the house, said it is condemnable
that armed security men should use life bullets on Nigerian citizens
who came out to protest the fall out of the attack on the president.

But his plea was rejected by members, who rather condemned his motion.

Mr Onawo later said yesterday on phone that he was undeterred by the response of his colleagues.

“Yes, I stood up to condemn the action of armed security men who
shot the kids on Lafia streets. If protesters threw stones and sachet
water, why would they come back with life bullets and kill? It means
they came back in retaliation. It is condemnable,” he said.

A lawyer, Oghenovo
Otemu, has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja for an order nullifying
the appointment of Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu as chairman of the board of
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), citing
alleged financial and administrative misconducts when he was governor
of Bauchi State.

Mr. Otemu, in his
originating summons, said while Mr. Mu’azu was the governor of Bauchi
State, several financial and administrative misconducts were discovered
and that the state government then set up a judicial commission of
inquiry to investigate and make recommendations.

In the suit, Mr.
Mu’azu is 1st defendant, the president of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 2nd defendant, the Attorney General of the Federation 3rd, and
Minister of Transport, 4th.

Specifically, he
said “that based on the inquiry and recommendation of the Judicial
Commission of Inquiry. the government of Bauchi State then came up with
a White Paper which is gazetted and published on 12th November, 2009. A
gazetted copy of the Government White Paper on the Report of the
Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Management of some Ministries,
Parastatals, Extra Ministerial Departments of the Public Service of
Bauchi State from May, 1999 to May, 2007.”

Furthermore, that
in the Government White Paper on the Report of the Judicial Commission
of Inquiry into the Management of some Ministries, Parastatals, Extra
Ministerial Departments of the Public Service of Bauchi State from May,
1999 to May, 2007 dated 12 November, 2009, the 1st Respondent was
banned from holding any public office for a period of ten years.

He said while the ban was still extant, the 1st Respondent was appointed board chairman by the 2nd Respondent.

Unfit for office

He wants a
declaration whether the Government White Paper on the Report of the
Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Management of some Ministries,
Parastatals, Extra Ministerial Departments of the Public Service of
Bauchi State from May, 1999 to May, 2007, is not a valid and binding
document on all authorities and persons in Nigeria, including the
Defendants, until set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The lawyer is also
seeking for a declaration that by virtue of the recommendations and the
Bauchi State government’s position which banned the 1st Defendant from
holding public office for a period of ten years and which is contained
and/or published in the Government White Paper on the Report of the
Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Management of some Ministries,
Parastatals, Extra Ministerial Departments of the Public Service of
Bauchi State from May, 1999 to May, 2007, the 1st Defendant cannot be
appointed into any public office until 2019.

He also wants a declaration that the appointment of the 1st
Defendant as board chairman of the board of Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency by the 2nd Defendant is null and void
by virtue of the Recommendations and the Bauchi State government’s
position, which banned the 1st Defendant from holding public office for
a period of ten years and which is contained and/or published in the
Government White Paper on the Report of the Judicial Commission of
Inquiry into the Management of some Ministries, Parastatals, Extra
Ministerial Departments of the Public Service of Bauchi State from May,
1999 to May, 2007.