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The International
Criminal Court (ICC) says it will publish its findings on possible
crimes against humanity in Nigeria in the “next six months.” The
court’s prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who spoke to reporters in New
York on Tuesday, said ICC had received “many communications” on Nigeria.

He said: “We have
received communication on different issues and we will want to clarify
the different situations before providing a provincial report,
providing more clarity on what we are doing and what Nigeria can do.

“We are trying to
be predictable, because national authorities have the primacy on
investigations.” The UN Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) reports that Mr Ocampo declined to get into details on the
communications received from Nigeria.

However, in
December, the ICC prosecutor was reported as saying that the Court was
looking into the potential crimes against humanity in the killings that
took place in Jos, in January 2010 in which over 300 people died.

“In Nigeria we are
watching these incidents with many communications. There are many
incidents that are reportedly under jurisdiction. What we are planning
to do is to prepare a report, that you will see in the next six months,
explaining what we are watching,” he said.

He described the Nigerian government, as “very cooperative” with the court.

The chairman of the
Osun State Contract Review Committee has assured all contractors,
consultants, and architects handling various projects being executed
with the controversial N18.3 billion loan that his team will be fair
and factual without witch-hunting anyone.

Adelana Odutola, an
engineer, heads the team comprising Adegboyega Oyetola, the Chief of
Staff to the state governor, and other top civil servants that toured
six stadiums to assess the level of work done on all the sites.

Some of the sites
visited by the team are the ones awarded by the past Oyinlola
administration in Iwo, Ile-Ife,Ede, Ilesa, Ikirun and Osogbo.

The tour also
extended their visit to the Living Spring Free Trade Zone in Ede where
the committee was briefed on the state of work by government officials
who had been supervising the project.The team leader informed the
contractors on each site that the governor had been inundated with
petitions by Osun state citizens who queried the rationale behind the
construction of the six stadia when there is no sports festival coming
up in the state.

As tax payers, Mr
Aregbesola could not disregard their concerns and had to do something
professionally wise because of posterity. Letters were served to all
the contactors to stop work on the projects so that the committee could
assess the level of work done on site.Crucial in the decision making
process of the committee, he stressed is the determination of the long
term usefulness of the six stadiums to the economic development and
employment generation strategies of the state.

Honest advice

At each town,
Odutola sought the advice of the contractors who unanimously submitted
that two or three stadiums were enough for the state.Though each of
them pleaded that their project be sustained and funded, when the
committee chairman asked them not to talk like contractors but as
citizens, there was an unanimity of opinion that the projects were
much.He promised that the committee will consider all the concerns
raised by the contractors. Contractor must sympathize with the
situation of the people of Osun state. ‘‘We are being factual and point
blank. Loans have been taken to finance these projects. What has been
given to contractors cannot finish these projects,the loans have to be
repaid. We know you want to save your jobs but you should look at
everything and the long term effect it will have on the people”.

An Ibadan
Magistrate Court sentenced two men on Tuesday to one year imprisonment
for breaking into the house of late Bola Ige, carting away valuables
worth about N20 million.

The convicts, Felix
Nwagwu, 30, and Olajide Olumo, 36, were found guilty of three count
charge of conspiracy to steal, entering with intention of stealing, and
stealing of properties of the Ige household.

While delivering
her judgment in Ibadan yesterday, the magistrate, Sofiat Oyediran, said
the evidence before the court proved beyond reasonable doubt that the
two men really committed the offence, and found them guilty as charged.

She sentenced each
them to one year on each of the count without option of fine and
ordered that the sentence run concurrently with hard labour.

Former staff

Mr Nwagwu was a
guard at the Solemnia Court, the Old Bodija Ibadan residence of late Mr
Ige, while Mr Oluwo was said to be a guard at the house of late
Minister of Justice’s architect son, Muyiwa Ige.

The two were arraigned on May 28, 2008 when a police inspector, Sunday Ogunremi, brought them for prosecution.

The two had
consistently stolen valuables from Mr Ige’s house for about six months,
between October 2007 and May 4, 2008, before they were caught.

Few of the items
stolen and recovered from them were used as evidence against them.
Reacting to the judgment yesterday, Mr Ige’s son expressed gratitude to
the court for committing the young men to prison over the act.

“After three years
of trial, it appears that there is a semblance of justice. At least, in
the sentencing of the accused persons, the judgment will serve as a
deterrent.

“I appreciate the magistrate for a well researched judgment. That
will send a message to criminals that crime does not pay. Though we had
hoped for a harsher judgment, the fact that the accused persons have
been convicted and sent to prison will teach them lessons,” he said.

“Dramatising
trivial things,” was the opinion of a British newspaper over commentary
by professional colleagues protesting the presence of women cleaners in
male toilets. Surprisingly, this seems to be the convention all over
the world.

These prying female
eyes largely go unnoticed because male passengers have other things on
their minds in the hurry to catch a flight.

In Nigeria, it goes
slightly and shamelessly further. The cleaner clutches a mop pretending
to be doing the floor but actually soliciting; “ Oga, how was your
flight, how’s the family?” I often observe that many men are
uncomfortable with this indecent model of sexual harassment. Why a
woman hired to clean toilets should position herself strategically to
beg for money inside the male facilities beats the imagination. Male
cleaners are better behaved, and never seen in the vicinity of female
toilets at our airports.

Agreed that it
creates employment, albeit controversial employment for the young and
able-bodied, but passengers the world over prefer to shove the vehicles
by themselves. At the Abuja and Lagos arrival lounges, the functional
trolleys are always already taken over by attendants, irrespective of
the potentials for their contribution to baggage losses. Travellers are
free to help themselves to the remaining rusty, stiff trolleys with
broken wheels and handles.

A popular adage
that first impressions matter bears relevance to the status of airports
in any country. At no institution can the foreigner make a quick
assessment of the mood in a country, the economy and culture of its
people than at airports. It does not matter whether it is an
international or a domestic terminal. At the nation’s capital, a
passenger’s journey may begin with the confusion as to whether the
departure is from the international or the local wing. The guiltiest of
the airlines remains ARIK. Departure terminals fluctuate for differing
destinations, passengers regularly paying an extra one thousand naira
cab fare for the dash to the right airport, with barely enough time to
pick up a parcel of kilishi, the cold, sun-dried meat and only
industrial product of the Abuja economy.

Separating
domestic and international terminals by a couple of miles is a Nigerian
invention that makes little sense in respect of service delivery to
passengers, as well as for security. Many foreigners arriving in Lagos
are distressed to find that an onward flight to a destination in
Nigeria results in the risk of getting out of the terminal into the
cacophony of touts, muggers and suspicious car hire services. To
compound the delay process, authorities in Lagos are smart enough to
plant a toll gate between international and domestic terminals, as
though the revenues so collected are deposited where they belong.

If security
consciousness is the international watchword, why are the scanning
machines at Nigeria’s airports always breaking down? Could a mafia be
deliberately calling for their repairs just to award contracts to a
crony? Manual rummaging through hand luggage is more common. At times
the searches are deliberately vigorous and callous where the traveller
is obstinate and unwilling to part with gratification. You are
requested to drink up any bottled liquids, and remove shoes for
scanning only to step onto a filthy and dusty piece of carpeting with
naked feet! One woman security agent in Lagos went through a
passenger’s belongings, excavating a bunch of underwear. I thought for
the sake of hygiene and disease control she should have been wearing
gloves for her job.

The Abuja domestic wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport actually looks like an infectious diseases hospital from the outside.

Governor Adebayo
Alao-Akala of Oyo State has called for mutual cooperation among all
Nigerians in the effort to nip the raging sectarian crises in some
parts of the country in the bud.

The governor made
this call in Ibadan on Tuesday while delivering his address at the
quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC)
meeting, held at Mapo Hall, Ibadan.

Mr Akala warned
against allowing the effect of the crises to truncate the new
democratic session and diminish the reputation the country has built
for itself over the last few years.

“By slowing
religious and communal strives to scuttle democracy and good
governance, our avowed commitment to freedom at all levels will be a
fluke,” he said.

Muhammad Sa’ad
Abubarkar, Sultan of Sokoto and Ayo Oritsejafor, President, Christian
Association of Nigeria ( CAN), both co-chairmen of NIREC, have, in
their separate speeches, condemned the recent crises in Jos and
Maiduguri, calling on Christian and Muslim leaders to encourage their
followers to ensure peaceful co-existence with their neighbours,
irrespective of their faith.

Mr Oritsejafor
expressed worries that crises in the country have assumed a new
dimension as attackers now throw bombs to maim and kill innocent souls
in the name of religion.

He called on
leaders of the two major religions to always speak the truth to their
subjects and let them know that God and the constitution of the country
forbid killing of fellow human beings unjustifiably.

The Sultan called
on Nigerians to fully participate in the current political process to
ensure that the nation has free, fair and credible elections in April,
this year.

At an open session held to discuss the effect of religion on the
daily lives in Nigeria, speakers stressed the need to tolerate one
another and ensure that the two religions are practiced as stipulated
in the respective holy books.

President Goodluck Jonathan has
forwarded a bill seeking to increase the number of justices of the
Appeal Court from 70 to 90 to the National Assembly. The bill to amend
the Court of Appeal Act 2005 to increase the number of justices from 70
to 90 and other related matters was forwarded to the National Assembly
on January 7, while the lawmakers were still on vacation.
The increment of the number of justices
of the Appeal Court is in line with the ongoing reform of the judiciary
by the executive. The bill was forwarded alongside the bill for an act
to amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2004 to provide for the new
national minimum wage. The Minimum Wage Amendment Act is meant to
accommodate the negotiated N18,500 minimum wage agreement reached
between the Nigeria Labour Congress and the presidency following
protests by Labour for an increase.
“It is my hope that the distinguished senate of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria will consider and pass these amendment bills in your usual
expeditious manner,” the president said in his letters to the Senate,
with duplicate copies to the House of Representatives. Also, the
president requested the Senate to confirm the appointment of Austen
A.T. Pabor (Bayelsa State) and Timothy T. Sule (Benue State) as members
of the National Population Commission. Mr. Sule, if confirmed, would be
going into his second term on the board of the NPC while Mr. Pabor will
replace P.K.C Atuwo who passed away in 2010.

An ECOWAS
delegation is expected to meet with U.S. President Barrack Obama and UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week on the political situation in
Cote d’Ivoire. The delegation is expected in Washington on Wednesday
and in New York on Thursday, a senior diplomatic source told the UN
Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in New
York. President Goodluck Jonathan who is ECOWAS’ chairman, nominated
the team which includes President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone,
President of ECOWAS Commission, Victor Gbeho and the Nigeria Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia. Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S.,
Ade Adefuye, is also part of the team.

According to the
source, they are expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary
Clinton, on Wednesday after which they will proceed to the White House
for a meeting with Obama.

The delegation will
also on Thursday meet with Security Council members in New York to
update them on ECOWAS’ position and plans for Cote d‘Ivoire.

The UN, the AU and ECOWAS have, so far, failed in their efforts to
persuade Laurent Gbagbo to vacate the presidential palace for Alassane
Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of the Nov. 28
presidential run-off election. Four AU delegations have visited Abidjan
since Dec. 1, but failed to prevail on Mr. Gbagbo to step down. Mr.
Gbagbo has not only refused to step down, but has also demanded the
withdrawal of the nearly 9,000-strong UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire.
The UN rejected the demand for the withdrawal of the Force which has
been supporting the stabilisation and reunification efforts in the
country in the past seven years. Last week, the Security Council
authorised the deployment of 2,000 additional troops for the mission in
Cote d’Ivoire, while ECOWAS has also threatened to use legitimate force
to get Mr. Gbagbo out.

Ahmed Mahuta, Sokoto State Resident Electoral
Commissioner (REC) said on Tuesday that the office was ready for the
PDP senatorial re-run primary for Sokoto East Senatorial district “once
we receive the go ahead.”

Mr Mahuta, said that “I am still waiting for
directive from the INEC headquarters on weather to conduct the election
or not. We don’t have any issue regarding that as far as the commission
is concerned in Sokoto.” The People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
headquarters had ordered for a re-run primary for Sokoto East
Senatorial district on January 26, 2011.

According to Mr Mahuta, the commission is determined
to conduct a hitch free voter registration in Sokoto, but however said
that ink is not available in must registration centres and added that
some of the materials needed were not available in the Sokoto central
market. “We have already made effort to source the materials from
outside the state capital.” He said. He expressed satisfaction with the
large turnout of eligible voters in the state and called for more
support from all Nigerians to ensure smooth conduct of the exercise.

Meanwhile, INEC has condemned plans by the PDP to run new primaries in some states, saying such moves are illegal.

The PDP at the weekend cancelled the governorship
primaries in Kano and Kogi states. It ordered fresh senatorial
primaries in some districts in Oyo, Sokoto, Bauchi,

Taraba and Adamawa states.

Protests have continued in many states, with aspirants pushing for fresh primaries.

Former Defence Minister Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso had won
the PDP primaries in Kano whlie Jibril Isah won in Kogi. Supporters of
both men kicked against the decision to cancel the elections and run
fresh primaries.

The rerun polls were billed for today before INEC declared the plans illegal.

The commissions’ Director of Information, Emmanuel
Umengor said: “We have written a letter to the party and we have drawn
their attention to the fact that the time for primary elections has
lapsed. They are supposed to have finished the primaries on January 15.

“It is important to draw their attention to the
timetable and we drew the party’s attention to the (INEC) timetable and
schedule of activities for the 2011 elections. These were issued by
INEC pursuant to the powers vested in it by the provisions of Section
153 of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended.

“If the reports of PDP’s plans for fresh primary
elections are true, we are reminding them that the time for the conduct
of such elections has since elapsed on January 15, 2011. It has not
been extended by the commission.” He said.

The police in Borno
State have appealed to Igbo traders doing business in Maiduguri, to
rescind their decision to close shops over an alleged serial killing of
their members, claiming that investigations indicated that the attacks
on them were carried out by robbers.

The Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Borno State Police Command, Lawal
Abdullahi, in Maiduguri on Tuesday, advised the traders to remain calm,
and promised that the police will strive to ensure maximum protection
of lives and property of all residents of the state.

According to Mr
Abdullahi, the Igbos were not targeted in the killings in the state as
the victims cut across tribes and religions.

“We are
investigating all the cases involving attacks on Igbo traders, our
investigations indicated that the attacks were carried out by robbers
because large sums of money were always taken away in the process of
such attacks. I want to assure them that we will get at the robbers
sooner or later.” He said.

The Igbo Welfare
Association had on Monday directed all traders to close their shops and
proceed on an indefinite fasting and prayer session to protest the
serial killing of their members in the state.

However, the police
spokesman assured them that the police is on top of the situation in
Maiduguri. “We are trying our best to ensure the protection of lives in
the state. The traders should be rest assured of maximum security by
our men.” He urged the traders to go about their normal businesses as
security has been beefed up in the state and also to utilise the police
distress call numbers which have been supplied to the public.

More than 50
persons, mostly security officers, had been killed by suspected Boko
Haram militants since July 2010 when the group launched deadly attacks
on individuals.

Meanwhile, the
Borno State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) also
on Tuesday, called on the state government to address the killing of
innocent people in the state urgently.

The Chairman of the
chapter, Yuguda Mdurvwa, made the call while addressing the media in
Maiduguri, saying that the Christian community in the state has
suffered great losses in recent times, following attacks by
unidentified gunmen.

“A number of churches, clergymen and other Christians have been killed in recent times in cold blood in Maiduguri.

“We are surprised
that the attacks were carried out, in spite of measures taken to
protect lives and property by the state government which we commend.

“We fail to
understand the failure of security agencies, in spite of the enormous
resources by government to make sure that lives and property of
citizens are protected,” he said.

Mr Mdurvwa called on the State Government to put pressure on
security agents to ensure that they live up to expectations of
protecting lives and property of innocent and law-abiding citizens of
the state.

Two employees of
the Veterinary Council of Nigeria who were allegedly sacked by the
management for exposing corrupt activities in the council have taken
its registrar and chief executive officer of the council, Daniel Maddo,
along with the council, before a Federal High Court in Abuja. Abiakwe
Darlington and Ehirim Comfort are alleging that they were victimized
for testifying and giving evidence which exposed fraud in the council
in their testimonies before the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission and an investigative panel set up by the board of the
council to probe a series of allegations of fraud and abuse of office
against the registrar of the council and other management staff. In the
originating summons, the plaintiffs alleged that following the exposure
of the financial scam in the council which led to the sack of the
council’s accountant, Hilary Ibe, the registrar who aided and abetted
the former accountant, had not hidden his disdain for them because of
the evidence they produced before the anti-graft agency and the
investigative panel. Noting that since the exposure of the fraud, they
have both been inundated with queries and interdictions, all in an
attempt to relieve them of their appointments without recourse to due
process.

Accusations

The registrar and
the sacked accountant were accused of inflating the nominal roll of
employees in the Veterinary Council and systematically defrauding the
federal government of millions of naira for over a decade as salaries,
allowances and entitlements for the ghost workers who they placed on
high grade levels. The EFCC investigated the matter last year before
another panel was set up by the council’s board which recommended the
sack of the accountant and reprimanded the registrar.

Seeking an order

The plaintiffs are in court, seeking to stop the council from
relieving them of their appointments and their eviction from their
quarters in Abuja, where they reside. They are asking the court to make
an order vacating the interdiction of the first plaintiff, Mr. Abiakwe,
which was made by the respondents on the April 1, 2010, which was done
in disregard to the pending suit. They are also seeking an order
compelling the respondents to restore Mr. Abiakwe to his position as
confidential secretary 2 with all entitlements and benefits as well as
an order restraining the defendants from terminating their appointments
or harassing them and their families as a result of their roles as
witnesses at the investigation conducted at the Council by the EFCC.
Mr. Maddo who is due to retire from service this June is alleged to
have threatened that the duo will never return to office over their
conduct which led to the discovery of the scam. Donatus Okorowo, the
presiding judge adjourned the matter to February 24 to allow for the
service of the court processes on all parties.