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A few politicians who defeated incumbents in the just-concluded
primaries of the People’s Democratic Party might not have had the last laugh
yet, as the battle for who represents the party in April’s general election
remains open according to sources within the party.

NEXT investigations reveal that following the removal of
Okwesilieze Nwodo as the chairman of the PDP, the new leadership of the party
plan to use a two-pronged approach to prevail on some candidates to drop their
ambitions in favour of a certain line up of contestants who hitherto failed at
the primaries.

The plan includes capitalising on some petty larcenies at the
primaries and utilising a window in the 2010 Electoral Act that gives the
opportunity to replace candidates either by death or voluntary withdrawal.

The Electoral Act gives parties up to February 14 to withdraw
and replace contestants under section 35(1) of Electoral Act, 2010, an
opportunity the party plans to utilise either by persuading or coercing
unwanted contestants to back out. The Electoral Act demands that candidates can
withdraw voluntarily or be replaced if they die before the deadline.

A couple of senators and House of Representatives members could
be the intended beneficiaries of this plan, which is already causing rancour
amongst party members. Some of the lawmakers likely to benefit from the plan
include senate spokesman, Ayogu Eze, whose ticket was initially sacrificed for
the truce between Sullivan Chime, the Enugu state governor and Mr. Nwodo.

Mr. Eze recently said that it was preposterous at this point to
conclude that any candidate has won or lost because the nomination process of
candidates in the parties is still ongoing, till January 31, 2011. The
Independent National Electoral Commission fixed January 31 as the deadline for
parties to submit the list of candidates they intended to sponsor for the
forthcoming general election.

“Until that list is submitted, no candidate is assured of
victory,” an official of the party said.

Fighting for his right

Other planned beneficiaries of the plot include the Senator
Teslim Folarin from Oyo state and Annie Okonkwo of the Anambra Central
senatorial district, who was initially reported to have lost the election to
Chudi Offodile, a former House of Representatives member who was earlier
declared winner based on a parallel congress result.

Dino Melaye and his main antagonist in the House, Eseme Eyibo,
the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs,
would also benefit from the scheme.

While Mr. Melaye lost to Shaba Ibrahim, Mr. Eyibo lost to Bassey
Dan Abia. Mr. Melaye is said to have been favoured by the new scheme after
officials recounted the votes and found some previously invalidated votes
bearing inscriptions like “Duno,” which is thought to be intended for him.

He had petitioned the National Working Committee of the party
over the irregularities of the primaries claiming that a fake delegates list
was used for the election, instead of the one certified by the PDP National
Secretariat.

“If the votes are ascribed to me as I contend they should, it
will change the result,” he said. Mr. Abia, who will likely lose his ticket to
Mr. Eyibo, on Tuesday vowed to defend his mandate after receiving the
intelligence about the plan.

“I can and will never surrender the ticket that was massively given to me by
the people of Eket Federal Constituency,” Mr. Abia said.

The Ekiti State governor is not daunted by the N40 billion debt
profile left behind by the ousted administration of Segun Oni, the Deputy
governor of the state, Funmi Olayinka said yesterday in Ado Ekiti.

Mrs Olayinka, who disclosed this at a press conference to mark
the 100 days of the Fayemi led administration in the state, said the debt
profile has made the state government more creative and determined to tackle
the challenges confronting the people of the state. She noted that the
government is desperately fashioning a way of building up its Internally
Generated Revenue to supplement the low federal allocation into the state,
stating that the state will soon recover from the debt burden through the
holistic approach being employed by the government.

She added that the state is now partnering with the British
Department for International Development (DFID), which she said is now on
ground for feasibility studies on how to develop the state.

“Though, as much as we are not comfortable with the N40 billion
debt , this government will not be weighed down,” she said. “We are taking
initiative on how to develop the state by increasing its IGR, which is a strong
criterion in allocation formula and we are partnering with international
agencies on how to save the state from perennial poverty.”

Reviewing contracts

She said a contract review committee has been set up by the
state government to review contracts awarded by the last administration,
assuring that some contractors would be compelled to refund some money into the
state’s coffers, having allegedly been mobilised more than the level of work
done. The deputy governor said the committee was set up following the
‘outrageous’ N27 billion debt burden incurred by the immediate past
administration on contracts.

Mrs Olayinka said the state Governor, Kayode Fayemi has, in his short time
in office, put smiles on the faces of the people through the payment of N750
million backlog of pension arrears to retirees, as well as N120 million to
former political office holders.

The Osun State
Resident Electoral Commissioner, Oloruntoyin Akeju has attributed the
malfunctioning of some of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC)’s Direct Data Capturing (DDC) Machines to the variation in the
weather condition of the country where they are manufactured and
Nigeria where they are being used.

Mr Akeju made the
disclosure while fielding questions from newsmen at INEC headquarters
in Osogbo yesterday when the zonal commander of the Nigeria Security
and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in charge of Oyo, Osun and Ogun States,
Mudu Bunu visited him in his office during an inspection tour of the
state on the ongoing registration exercise.

The electoral
officer said the difference in the climate of the country where the
machines are manufactured is responsible to a large extent on why there
were some initial problems.

“The machines
originated from a temperate region where the weather was extremely cold
and with our own weather which is extremely hot, there are bound to be
this kind of initial problems,” he said.

Mr Akeju however
disclosed that the commission is gradually overcoming the initial
problem as majority of the machines are now operating at maximum
capacity.

“There is
improvement on a daily basis on the number of people we are able to
register. For instance on Sunday we registered about 60,000 voters
while the number had increased to 90,000 by Monday,” he said.

Responding on the
allegations of some pockets of crises in some registration centres
across the country, the NSCDC zonal commander said security will be
reinforced with security agents at all the centres in the country.

“We will seek the
assistance of our colleagues, the police and the SSS to help us secure
the safety of the machines and protect the lives of the personnel from
being attack by hoodlums,” Mr Bunu said.

Tough on the elderly

However, an INEC
registration official, Raphael Ezike, on Tuesday said that senior
citizens, above 60 years old, were mostly the ones that were having
problems being registered in the ongoing voter’s registration exercise.

“The scanners are
finding it difficult to recognise the finger prints of voters who are
60 years old and above, while those under 60 years have little
challenges,” he said.

The officer in
charge of Ward C, Alausa, Ikeja told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
that while it took less than five minutes to register younger
Nigerians, those above 60 years took much longer.

“It takes us about
five minutes to register people under 60 years old while those above 60
years old take longer minutes with the Direct Data Capture (DDC)
machines,” he explained.

The INEC official attributed the low figure recorded at the centre to the lack of power supply to recharge the machines.

“Before now, we
used to charge the only battery at other wards where there is power
supply and during such time we did not register anybody,” he said.

He, however, said that with the provision of a back-up battery now, they will be able to register more voters.

The court of appeal
sitting in Yola has fixed February 10 for its ruling on a 2007 election
related matter brought before it by Danladi Baido, winner of the PDP
governorship primaries in Taraba State, against INEC, in which the
appellant is asking the court to compel the electoral body to issue him
with the certificate of return issued to the state governor, Danfulani
Suntai.

The case, expected
to determine the fate of Mr Suntai of Taraba State, has been described
by counsel to the appellant as already running out of time. Falade
Bankole told the presiding judge of the appeal court that “time is of
an essence” after Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, who initially disqualified
herself from handling the case, was asked by both parties to continue
with the case at yesterday’s sitting because of time.

Mrs Zainab had
disqualified herself in apparent protest about the procedure of the
court after she discovered the other judges were in possession of
document missing in her own brief.

The case against Mr
Suntai has already thrown the governor’s camp into panic, said a
supporter of Mr Baido who said they were optimistic of favourable
judgement because of the precedent set by the appeal court ruling in
Rivers State, which is similar to that brought against INEC in Taraba
State.

Electoral watershed

The crux of the
matter, according to the plaintiff’s counsel, is that Mr Suntai was
illegally substituted as the PDP candidate for Taraba State and
presented by INEC with the certificate of return. Mr Baido,

who wants the court
to, among other things, declare him as the candidate for the 14th April
2007 governorship elections also wants the court to set aside the
purported change or substitution of his name as PDP governorship
candidate for Taraba State.

“The mandate won by the appellant was wrongly denied him by his party in collusion with INEC,” the plaintiff said.

But Mr Baido’s
resort to the law court, sources said, is not without its own riddle as
the appellant had agreed to a role in the Suntai administration as the
chief of staff before political disagreement reared its head. Some of
the governor’s supporters also claim that Mr Baido is being instigated
by a former governor, Jolly Nyame who is estranged politically from the
incumbent governor.

“The judgement on
the appeal court case reserved for the 10th of February is seen as one
of a few cases connected to the 2007 elections expected to be another
watershed in election jurisprudence,” Desmond Adebole, counsel to the
appellant, said.

The U.N. Security
Council on Tuesday delayed a vote on sending additional troops to Cote
d’Ivoire, where the blue helmeted peacekeepers have been under attack,
due to Russian objections, council envoys said.

The 15-nation
council was set to vote on a resolution to send an additional 2,000
peacekeepers to help the 10,000 U.N. troops and police in the U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire, known as UNOCI. But diplomats
said Russia raised last-minute objections on Tuesday morning about the
language.

“It’s obviously a
delay tactic,” one diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Another diplomat said council members would have to satisfy Moscow’s
demands in order to get the resolution approved.

“We need Russia on
board,” the diplomat said. “We have to listen to them.” He added that
he hoped the council would vote on the troop increase on Wednesday at
the latest.

British Ambassador
Mark Lyall Grant confirmed that Russia, whose oil giant Lukoil is
exploring for crude in Cote d’Ivoire, had issues with the draft
resolution. “They want a delay in the vote,” he told reporters ahead of
a council meeting. Alassane Ouattara is widely recognized by Western
and African governments as president-elect of Cote d’Ivoire, after the
electoral commission proclaimed him winner of the Nov. 28 presidential
poll. The results were certified by the U.N. mission but rejected by
incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo has refused to resign and retains control of government buildings, state television and the security forces, while Ouattara’s parallel administration is based in a U.N.-guarded hotel under siege by pro-Gbagbo forces.

Russia, like the
United States, Britain, France and China, is a permanent veto-wielding
council member and can prevent the passage of any Security Council
measure. The resolution, which was drafted by the French, has already
been amended to accommodate Russian objections regarding the explicit
naming of Ouattara, diplomats said.

A Jan. 12 draft
text welcomed declarations of the African Union and west African
regional organization ECOWAS recognizing Ouattara as the president of
the world’s top cocoa producer. The latest version does not mention
Ouattara by name. Reuters obtained both draft resolutions.

One diplomat said
that Russia’s objections to the language “appeared minor on the
surface.” The Russian delegation had asked to reorder several
paragraphs and add language on “freedom of expression,” several
diplomats said.

“They’re not substantive objections,” a diplomat said. “So we’re
really not sure what they are trying to accomplish. The Russians have
been causing problems on Cote d’Ivoire from the beginning because they
think we shouldn’t take sides.”

Almost eight years
after his exit from the Osun State government secretariat, a former
governor of the state and national Chairman of the Action Congress of
Nigeria, Adebisi Akande yesterday returned to the Bola Ige house,
government secretariat, Osogbo where he rededicated the governor’s
office constructed by his administration with a call on the people of
the state to support the present administration in its bid to right the
wrongs allegedly committed by the immediate past administration of
Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

The administration
of Mr Akande, who served as governor of the state between 1999 and
2003, started the construction of the governor’s office which houses
the offices of the governor, deputy governor, secretary to the state
government, chief of staff to the governor and top civil servants in
2001 and completed it in 2003 towards the end of his tenure.

However, Mr Akande
did not have the opportunity of occupying the office before his
administration ended and he lost to Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2003 governorship election.

Amidst rousing
ovation from a gathering of civil servants and politicians, the former
governor who described his four-year-tenure as a period of sacrificial
service to his state, noted that he constructed the much praised state
secretariat with the meager resources at the disposal of the state
during his tenure.

Ethos of prudence and accountability

While recounting
how he governed the state, Mr Akande said prudence, transparency and
accountability were his watchwords, adding that the achievements
recorded by his administration created a niche for him in the country.

As a committed
disciple of Obafemi Awolowo, Mr Akande said he followed the legacies of
the late statesman and his mentor, Bola Ige in running the affairs of
the state.

“When I came on
board as the governor of Osun State in 1999, there was paucity of fund
and resources in the state. We were living at a building built by the
late Awolowo, and we were happy, since we believe we were elected to
serve and not to enjoy the luxury of office. There was no money to
cater for the needs of the people of the state, but God helped us and
we succeeded at the end of the day,” he said.

He advised the
incumbent governor, Rauf Aregbesola to reduce extravagant spending if
he wants to succeed in office, and enjoined the governor to give
agriculture priority, saying the state could be more developed than
others if the agricultural sector is well developed.

Describing Mr
Aregbesola’s administration as a replica of his government, Mr Akande
urged the governor to construct a new government house at a serene
location within Osogbo, the state capital.

He described the immediate past administration as “a parasite which
has been cut off from the state” and called on the people to support
the present administration.

Tunisia’s new
coalition government hit trouble on Tuesday when four ministers quit
and an opposition party threatened to walk out, undermining efforts to
restore stability and end unrest on the streets.

Prime Minister
Mohamed Ghannouchi brought opposition leaders into the coalition on
Monday after president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia
following weeks of street protests. But key figures from the old guard
kept their jobs, angering opposition members of the coalition and
street protesters.

Police in Tunis
repeatedly used teargas in an attempt to break up a protest by several
hundred opposition party supporters and trade unionists who labelled
the new government a “sham”.

Several hundred people also protested against the new government in Monastir, south of Tunis.

The weeks of
protests against poverty and unemployment in Tunisia which forced Ben
Ali from office prompted fears across the Arab world that similarly
repressive governments might also face popular unrest.

Abid al-Briki of
the Tunisian labour union UGTT said its three ministers would withdraw
from the government because it included members of Ben Ali’s RCD party.

“This is in response to the demands of people on the streets,” Briki said.

The ministers were
given junior positions in the 23-member cabinet, including Houssine
Dimassi, nominated for the training and employment portfolio, and two
ministers of state, Abdeljelil Bedoui and Anouar Ben Gueddour.

The opposition
Ettajdid party will pull out of the coalition if ministers from Ben
Ali’s RCD party do not give up party membership and return to the state
all properties they obtained through the RCD, state television said.

Ettajdid leader Ahmed Ibrahim was named minister of higher education.

Opposition Health Minister Mustafa Ben Jaafar also resigned over the presence of RCD members in the cabinet, his party said.

On the streets, protesters insisted that ministers who had served Ben Ali had no place in the government.

“The new government is a sham. It’s an insult to the revolution that claimed lives and blood,” said student Ahmed al-Haji.

“The problem with
the interim government is it has a number of ministers from the old
government,” protester Sami bin Hassan said.

Reforms promised

Ghannouchi
defended his government, saying some ministers had been kept on because
they were needed in the run-up to elections, expected in the next two
months. The prime minister said the ministers of defence, interior,

finance and foreign affairs under Ben Ali would keep their jobs in the new government.

“We have tried to
put together a mix that takes into account the different forces in the
country to create the conditions to be able to start reforms,”
Ghannouchi told Europe 1 radio.

Ghannouchi rejected suggestions that the Ben Ali “dictatorship” would continue under a new guise.

His foreign
minister, Kamel Morjane, said during a visit to Egypt that the interim
government would respond to issues that had angered protesters, such as
corruption, and would be preparing for new elections.

“It may be possible that the next government will not have any member of the former government,” he said.

Paris-based opposition leader Moncef Marzouki arrived at Tunis airport to be met by 200 cheering supporters.

“The revolution must continue,” Marzouki, who went into exile after being harassed by Ben Ali’s intelligence services, said.

In Tunis on
Tuesday, people in several parts of the city reported hearing sporadic
gunfire overnight but there was significantly less gunfire than on
previous nights.

A Reuters
photographer in the Ariana suburb of Tunis said local people were
organising neighbourhood groups to clean up the damage left by several
days of lawlessness.

The government
says at least 78 people were killed in the unrest, and the cost in
damage and lost business was $2 billion. Ghannouchi promised to release
all political prisoners and to investigate those suspected of
corruption Those behind the killing of demonstrators would face justice.

An Egyptian man
set himself on fire in Cairo and another one tried to follow suit,
echoing an act of self-immolation in Tuni sia that triggered the mass
protests that ousted the president. Similar cases have been reported in
Algeria and Mauritania. The wave of protests has hit stock and currency
markets from Jordan to Morocco amid fears that the Tunisian unrest
would spread abroad.

The gubernatorial
candidate of the United Nigeria Peoples Party in Ogun State, Jacob
Olurin Adeogun, yesterday called on the police command to provide him
adequate security, alleging that his life was under threat, after his
victory at his party primaries. Talking to NEXT in Abeokuta, Mr Adeogun
said he has become a victim of nocturnal calls from people he called
“suspected assassins”, who he claimed have continued to harass him,
intimidate him, and equally sending messages to his friends to advise
him to step down from the race. Mr Adeogun was recently elected as the
flagbearer of the UNPP.

Mr Adeogun who said
he brought the party to the state over 11 years ago and served as its
secretary before his victory at the party’s primaries for the oncoming
April poll, lamented that, “The situation he [was] facing [was]
pathetic” and called for police protection before it got too late.

“This is very
pathetic,” he said. “I now move from one place to another. I can’t go
home straight, I have to be moving round before getting to my house.
Attempt on my life has political colouration and undertone, my
underground political campaign has become a threat to my opposition,”
he further alleged. He therefore appealed to the police authorities to
rise up to the challenge of protecting his life.

“The police are paid to protect the citizens, and I am one of them,” he concluded.

The All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP) has criticised the federal government for planning
to establish nine new universities instead of equipping and improving
the existing institutions.

The national
chairman of the party, Ogbonnaya Onu, who said this in Abuja, also
stated that the country may find it hard to develop if issues relating
to the improvement of the lives of the people are not addressed. The
federal government had recently awarded the contracts for the
construction of new universities in all the nation’s six geo-political
zones.

Mr. Onu, in his
reaction, regretted that none of the nation’s universities is ranked
amongst the top 3000 universities in the world. He also lamented that
out of 1.2 million students that apply for the Joint Admission
Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, only 200,000 get admitted into
the 93 Nigerian universities annually.

“So far, the
federal government has not made any serious efforts to rebuild its
existing universities to even meet the standard of the poor,” Mr. Onu
said.

“The ANPP is
worried and indeed highly disturbed that if the right mix of policies
is not adopted, the sad experience of the past will be repeated. We do
not want a situation where the establishment of these nine new
universities would only end up in the diversion of resources away from
adequately maintaining existing ones,” he further said.

While receiving the
officials of the National Association of Niger Delta Students (NADS)
led by its national president, Lucky Emonefe, yesterday, the ANPP boss
affirmed that Nigeria would get sustainable development only if the
issues of the Niger Delta are finally addressed.

“We cannot talk of
development of Nigeria if we do not address the problems facing the
people of the Niger Delta and built their infrastructure,” he said.

Mr. Onu said that
if the ANPP forms government at the centre, the region would be given
commensurate priority. He advised the students to embrace peace, and
not be allowed to be used in political violence.

Mr. Emonefe, who
later presented the ANPP boss with an award for conducting primaries
devoid of violence, said the opposition party has given a lot of youth
in the Niger Delta the chance to contest on the party’s platform,
adding that many of them won the posts they contested for.

President Goodluck
Jonathan on Tuesday said that the termination of the appointment of
Okwesilieze Nwodo as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) was as a result of the “encumbering litigations” against
the party head.

Speaking to
journalists at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport
(MMA), Lagos, upon arrival from Abuja, Mr. Jonathan disclosed that the
court cases against the party chairman were becoming too many for the
party, adding that the litigations dragged the party backwards.

“The party is tired
of all these litigations and it does not want to be dragged into the
mess, that is why he has to step aside so that the party can manage its
affairs,” he said.

Mr. Jonathan
explained that the party is preparing for the forthcoming general
elections and will not entertain issues that will pull it back, as he
noted that the PDP is working on forwarding the names of candidates to
the Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr. Nwodo,
according to reports from the emergency meeting held by the PDP in
Abuja on Tuesday, resigned his post as the national chairman of the
party and is expected to face disciplinary actions following his
conduct at the proceedings of the presidential primary of the party,
despite a court order restraining him from acting as the party’s
helmsman.

The president, however, disclosed that Mr. Nwodo remains a senior official of the party.

“He is still a senior member of the party and we have a lot of respect for him,” he said.

On voter registration

Speaking on issues
pertaining to the ongoing registration of voters in the country, Mr.
Jonathan said that INEC is working hard to fix the problems associated
with the machines.

“A lot of Nigerians
are undergoing registration and a lot of them are enthusiastic about
the process, but we have problems with the machines and INEC is looking
at it. I do not want to speak for them; it is an independent body, it
can speak for itself, it has been given maximum freedom to do what is
right , I pray that the faulty machines will be fixed by God’s grace,”
he said.