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The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has announced that it will hold a special convention
to elect its presidential flag-bearer at the Onikan Stadium in Lagos on
Friday.

The party, in a
statement signed by the party’s national chairman, Bisi Akande said
that “all the national delegates who emerged from the
recently-conducted ward, local government and state congresses of the
party are expected to vote to elect the presidential candidate.” He
also confirmed that the party’s presidential screening panel has
concluded its job, using criteria based on educational qualification,
vision, integrity with past records and experience.

Other qualities
considered for the screening include: leadership experience, political
consistency, contribution to the growth of the party (financial and
otherwise), international exposure and reputation, public perception
and marketability, inter-personal skills and charisma as well as
familiarity with and commitment to party ideology.

He however said
that the party’s position is that “aspirants must score over 50 per
cent in the screening exercise conducted to be able to participate in
the primary,” and assured the delegates that all necessary precautions
have been taken to ensure a hitch-free convention, appealing to its
teeming supporters “to adhere strictly to the party’s much-vaunted
ethos of decency, integrity, transparency and non-violence.” Screening
result

However, the
Chairman of the Presidential Screening Committee, Kayode Fayemi, said
in Abuja that the results of the screening will be announced before the
elections.

“We will finish our
job in the shortest possible time. Results are expected to come out
before the primaries on the 14th of January, but not from me. You have
to contact Bisi Akande, the national chairman of the party, for the
results,” he said.

The candidate that have been screened by the committee include Nuhu Ribadu; Saidu Mallami and Attahiru Baffarawa, .

Members of the committee were Muiz Banire, Yakubu Mukhtar, Chudi Nwike and Osagie Iyamu.

Governor Adebayo
Alao-Akala of Oyo State, on Wednesday, got the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) ticket to contest the 2011 governorship election in the state.

Out of the 1,300
delegates present for the party’s primary election held at the Obafemi
Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, the governor pooled 1,249 while Wole Oyelese,
a co-contestant, who had announced that he was boycotting the exercise,
alleging that it was arranged to endorse the governor, scored one vote.

According to a statement by Dotun Oyelade, special adviser to the governor on public communications, two votes were voided.

Mr. Oyelese had
reportedly secured an injunction against holding of the primary at a
Federal High Court, Ibadan, on Tuesday, but Mr. Oyelade, also in a
release on Tuesday, said the party would still go ahead with the
programme yesterday, citing a section of the Nigeria’s constitution,
which forbids court from stopping such exercise.

Speaking with
journalists after being declared winner of the primaries, Mr. Akala
expressed his regrets at the decision of Mr. Oyelese to boycott the
exercise, saying though the other contestants would have lost, their
presence would have attested to their spirit of sportsmanship and
acclaimed love for democracy.

More victories

The state, at
different primaries held on Tuesday, had elected its representatives
for the three senatorial and 14 House of Representatives seats of the
National Assembly.

Oyo Central primaries were held at Durbar Stadium, Oyo, Oyo South at Olubadan Stadium, and Oyo North at Soun Stadium, Ogbomoso.

The Senate leader,
Teslim Folarin, who is in Agodi Prison for an alleged murder case;
Oluyemi Taiwo, former acting speaker of the state House of Assembly and
currently a member of the House of Representatives; and Ayoade Adeseun,
chairman, House committee on appropriation, all who are openly against
the second term of Governor Alao-Akala, were replaced by fresh
candidates.

While Jumoke
Akinjide, daughter of Richard Akinjide, former attorney-general of
federation and minister of justice, replaced Mr. Folarin for the Oyo
Central slot, Hosea Agboola, current commissioner for local government
and chieftaincy matters in the state, beat Gbenga Babalola, son-in-law
to late Lamidi Adedibu, in the Oyo North Senatorial primaries.

Some of the current
members of the National Assembly also lost their seats to new
contestants at the primaries that ran to late nights of Tuesday.

Segun Akinloye,
also a supporter of Alao-Akala’s second term, could not retain his
seat; he lost to Gbenga Adewusi, former chairman of Ibadan North-East
local government.

The former deputy
governor of Abia State, Chris Akomas, defeated three other contestants
to emerge as the gubernatorial candidate of the Progressive People’s
Alliance (PPA) in Abia Atate.

Declaring the
result of the primaries late in the night after collating the results
from the 17 local government areas, the returning officer for the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Elizabeth Akpa,
announced Mr. Akomas as the winner, having polled 2,188 votes.

House of
Representative member, Stanley Ohajuruka, representing Umuahia North
and South federal constituencies, trailed him with 629 votes, while Max
Nduaguibe and Obi Aguocha garnered 74 and 27 votes respectively, even
as 149 votes cast were declared invalid.

Depending on the
decision by the national body of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on
the two candidates that emerged in the party’s parallel primaries on
Monday, Mr. Akomas might be contesting against his former boss,
Theodore Orji, who was one of the candidates that was elected to fly
the PDP’s flag in the April polls.

The electoral
officer saluted all the contestants for being dedicated to their
ambitions and that of the party and asked those who lost to accept the
results and support the winners as the real gubernatorial election was
still ahead.

But less than 24
hours after the primaries, one of the losers, Mr. Ohajuruka, defected
to the Labour Party where he is expected to pick the party’s nomination
ticket to contest for the governorship primaries. Mr. Ohajuruka, who
confirmed his defection to the Labour Party at a Town Hall Meeting in
his campaign office in Umuahia on Wednesday, said his decision was in
response to his supporters’ request that he joins a national party
instead of a regional party, the PPA.

The PPA, headed by the former governor of the state, Orji Uzor Kalu,
was the governing party in the state until the incumbent state
governor, Theodore Orji, dumped the party for the PDP last year. Mr.
Akomas was, until 2010, the deputy to Mr. Orji but he was impeached for
his refusal to defect with his boss from the PPA to the PDP.

A former governor of Ekiti State,
Ayodele Fayose, has said that he is alarmed over what he said was the
increasing rate of violence in the state. Mr Fayose, who issued a
statement on the matter yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, said the wave of
violence in the state is a threat to the peaceful co-existence of the
people of the state. The Labour Party politician warned that the daily
parade of political thugs in the state portended danger for the 2011
elections.

“The level of violence which greeted
the primaries of various political parties in the state calls for great
concern,” he said. “The way politicians in the state now use thugs to
terrorise the people is very dangerous. This is an indication that the
2011 elections may be marred by violence. Arming thugs is worse than
armed robbery.

If politicians could be this dangerous
during primary elections, which are party affairs, one can imagine how
dangerous the general election will be.”

He said political thugs would always resort to armed robbery after
being used and dumped by their ‘employers’ during voting periods. The
former governor however called on the inspector general of police,
Hafiz Ringim, to ensure that armed gangs were not allowed to continue
to harrass innocent residents of the state in the run-up to the general
elections. He also called on politicians not to set the state on fire
by their actions, saying violence would never solve any problem.</

The primary
elections to choose state and federal assemblies candidates of the Edo
State chapter of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) were marred by
frustration and disappointment yesterday. Against the promise of the
state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, that all would be smooth sailing
during his interaction with all contestants on Tuesday, yesterday’s
primaries was almost a flop as voting materials and officials for the
conduct of the primaries did not arrive at almost all the 192 wards
across the state until about 3pm.

For this reason,
contestants and party members who had turned up for the exercise as
early as 7am were kept waiting under the scorching sun, forcing many of
them to protest the shoddy preparation.

When NEXT visited a
voting centre at Igbesanmwan Primary School, Oredo Ward 9 at about 2.55
pm, accreditation of party members was just commencing, as materials
were said to have arrived the centre at 2.45 pm.

Voting materials
were yet to arrive any of the voting centers in Akoko-Edo, Estako
Central, Estako -West (Auchi), Agenebode (Estako East) local
governments in Edo North Senatorial District and Ekpoma, Irrua, Ubiaja
Uromi and Igueben in Edo Central Senatorial District as at 2.40 pm when
NEXT made calls to those areas. The situation was the same in all the
voting centers in Edo South Senatorial District.

Pockets of violence
were, however reported at Uwenujie primary school, Irrua in Esan
Central Local government where people were said to have engaged in a
fight over the sharing of money given to them by contestants, just as
fighting reportedly erupted at Udo, in Ovia South- West local
government in Edo South Senatorial district over disagreement between
some supporters of contestants.

Tired of waiting

Osaretin Edosomwan,
one of the contestants for the House of Representatives for Oredo
Federal Constituency, told journalists that many people who came to
vote left the Igbesanmwn Primary School voting centre after waiting for
a long time without seeing either materials nor officials to conduct
the primaries.

“I called 11 other
wards,” he said. “They said no materials. I know that our people are
resolute. They want a change and that change we stand for. The world is
watching. Nigerians are watching. Edo state must get it right.” Another
aspirant for the Akoko-Edo Federal Constituency, Philip Ugbodaga, said:
“I believe they have their own agenda and I am really disappointed.”

Mr Oshiomhole also
expressed his disappointment over the delay in the conduct of the
primaries. Speaking to journalists at the George Idah Primary School,
Oredo Ward 2 voting centre, the governor wondered why materials for the
primaries were delayed.

“You should ask those conducting, I don’t conduct,” he said. “I am
going round to see what is happening and I have also called the
chairman that I am not satisfied that, at this point in time, they have
just started accreditation and he is giving me all kinds of excuses. I
am not satisfied that the materials have not gotten to voting centers.
What is the material? It is just the result sheets. It is not a
complicated thing.”

Chilly weather,
accompanied by strong winds, is disrupting normal life in Kano
metropolis, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Investigation by
NAN correspondent on Wednesday revealed that most residents of the
commercial town have changed their life patterns to cope with the cold
weather which set in about a week ago.

NAN gathered that
many of the inhabitants, especially children, the sick and the old, now
remain indoors for most part of the day because of the harsh weather.

Many others, the findings showed, had not taken their bath for several days for fear of the effect of the intense cold weather.

One of them, Sa’adu Mohammed, admitted that he had not had his bath
since Friday, when he cleaned up and went to the Mosque for prayers.

Abia State
commissioner for information and strategy, Anthony Agbazuere, has
debunked insinuations that two parallel Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
primaries that produced Theodore Orji and Ikechi Emenike as candidates
held in the state.

Briefing the media
on Tuesday in Umuahia, the information commissioner said that the only
recognised PDP executive in the state was that led by Emma Nwaka, which
returned the governor.

Mr. Agbazuere said
that only three aspirants attended the screening in Enugu, after which
the state governor and Tony Enwereuzor were cleared.

He said that Mr.
Emenike was never an aspirant on the platform of PDP as he alleged and
did not participate or appear for the screening prior to the primaries.

“It is equally
important to state that the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) monitored the exercise that produced Mr. Orji, so any other
primary could not have held,” he said.

Dele Momodu, the
Publisher of Ovation Magazine, was on Wednesday, elected the
presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) at the
party’s national congress held in Lagos.

Mr Momodu beat two
other candidates, Martins Onovo and Atei Beredugo, to become the
party’s flag bearer in the 2011 presidential elections by polling 169
delegates’ votes. Messrs Onovo and Beredugo polled 8 and 14 votes
respectively. Mr Beredugo, a former Director of Planning in the Niger
Delta Development Commission, declared his intention to run for
presidential election last week.

Abolishing poverty

Mr Momodu summed up
his plan for Nigeria using the party’s slogan: abolition of poverty.
This, he plans to do through a “10-care programme,” which he said will
soon be made public. “Our founding father, Chief Gani Fawehinmi,
believed that no man was born poor but when you are born into a poor
environment where your leaders deliberately decide to make you poorer,
then we will be in crises,” he said. “One of the reasons we are in the
state we are, certainly, is that our leaders have done everything to
make us poor. I was at a local airport recently and saw many women
waiting for President Goodluck. I discovered they were recruited to
come and welcome Mr President and they were paid N1,000. When a nation
gets to a stage where you can get able bodied people on the street for
just N1,000, that nation is in trouble and I am fortunate to be in a
party that believes its priority is ‘abolition of poverty’.”

He, however,
emphasised that Nigeria’s poverty is not lack of resources but lack of
productive ideas by those controlling the nation’s affairs. “If the
president of an oil-rich nation goes to another oil-rich nation for
medical treatment, it is a clear example of poverty of ideas,” he said.
“UAE leaders used to go to Lebanon to enjoy life but they realised they
have to build their own nation when war broke out in Lebanon. Our
leaders also do that now but they don’t realise they have to build this
nation.” He also blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for the present
state of Bayelsa where “puddles still serve as sources of drinking
water.” “The road between Yenogoa and Port Harcourt must be one of the
worst in the world, not just in Nigeria,” he said. “In fact, Bayelsa
leaders now fly helicopters to their homes; they no longer use the
road.”

His chances

Mr Momodu said the
entire members of all political parties in Nigeria are not up to 20 per
cent of potential voters; therefore, his aim is to “target the 80
percent floaters.” “As from tomorrow, we are on the road to get people
to register,” he said, adding that he is convinced it is possible to
defeat the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), “which stay in power
for 12 years is its only credential.” “The only thing that makes our
leaders special is the fact that they have access to public funds,” he
said. “None of them has a special leadership character or pedigree. I
had been teaching A-levels as far back as 1982. Some of my students are
bank directors today. I have been in politics since 1983 and practiced
journalism since 1988. I was the highest paid editor in 1991 and a
founding editor of ThisDay (Newspaper). I have been publishing Ovation
since 1996. So, we have pedigree more than the so-called leaders.”

The Imo State
directorate of the NYSC on Wednesday charged corps members being
trained for the January 15 voter registration to take the challenge
seriously despite the constraints in various training centres.

Emeka Ukwu, public
relations officer of the directorate, told the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) in Owerri that NYSC is poised to actualise the federal
government’s plans for free, fair and credible election.

He said all the
corps members in Imo State were deployed to various training centres to
acquire relevant skills and knowledge to discharge the assignment.

The training is
being conducted simultaneously in the various centres, mainly Federal
University of Technology, Owerri; Federal Polytechnic, Nekede; Evan
Ewerem University; and Federal Government College, Okigwe.

“The Federal Government expects us to engage 10,569 corps members but we have very few training centres,” he said.

The national chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Ogbonnaya Onu warned the party’s presidential and gubernatorial aspirants screening committee not to clear any aspirant whose victory at the polls could be annulled by the tribunals or courts. He gave the warning while inaugurating the 21-member committee headed by a former governor of Zamfara State and Senate Minority Whip, Ahmed Sani.

The committee is expected to screen the party’s presidential and governorship aspirants ahead of its national convention slated for Friday in Abuja. “This screening is a very important one. We have selected the best people because the assignment is to show to the country that ANPP is serious,” Mr Onu said. “We want ANPP to make history. Our motto is justice and all aspirants will receive similar treatment. Any other matter, we should leave it to Nigerians to decide.

“All matters that will contravene our constitution please bring them out. We don’t want to win election that will be annulled in court. So we need the most qualified candidates.” Responding, Mr Sani noted that the task was a simple one promising that the committee members will be guided by the constitution of the country. According to him, “The constitution of Nigeria is clear on who should contest and who should not.

So, we won’t go outside the constitution.” He added that the committee will work on a zonal basis while retaining Abuja as the secretariat where any of the aspirants who wishes can come for screening.

Battle for Bauchi

Meanwhile, Garba Gadi, former deputy governor of Bauchi State yesterday returned his governorship nomination forms to the ANPP national secretariat. He recalled that as a founding member of the party, he has been committed to the success of the party and has on many occasions politely turned down overtures to him to contest for political offices until he finally agreed then to become the deputy governor. Mr Gadi explaining the reason why he refused to join his former boss in decamping from the party said that “I am committed to sincerity and other good that is expected of a leader that was why I refused to defect with the governor despite intimidations and persecutions.” “I told him (Mr Yuguda) you met me in my house and when you want to leave, good bye.” “Some people have said I am too slow to contest the governorship office and our Senator representing Bauchi Central, Senator Muhammad A.

Muhammad announced his withdrawal only if I am contesting and that he can only contest if I am not contesting,” Mr Gadi added.