The controversy over who flies the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) flags in Lagos in the April general elections was finally laid to rest yesterday as the incumbent Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) was endorsed for a second term in office in the presence of all party supporters and faithful.

Speaking at the stakesholders’ meetings held at the ACME, Ogba state secretariat of the party, former governor of Lagos State and the leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the decision to give Fashola the second term ticket was borne out of his laudable performance in office.

His words: “After a wide consultations at home and abroad, state and national level, and with the power conferred on me as the leader of the party, I hereby endorse Babatunde Raji Fashola for second term in office.”

As a successor, Tinubu disclosed, “he didn’t disappoint me and by my own assessment, he scored 85 per cent,” reasoning that there was no reason a performing player should be substituted on the field of play and so remained the best man and should continue the job of state governor.” Tinubu said the rumour of war between him and the governor, was peddled by his political enemies and detractors who did not mean well for the state.

According to him, those that were peddling the rumour about “my ‘son’ (Fashola) were those who did not know how I knew him and what endears him to me,” adding “they are the agents of destruction, political rodents, enemies and scavengers in the corridors of power that want to continue to loot state funds without working to deliver dividends of democracy. They said I was jealous of his achievements and all sort of things. If you have a son that has surpassed your records you celebrate him. I am the pathfinder. He is the navigator. I am the one that identified the talent,” Tinubu submitted.

Tinubu, who said in the last four years, the governor that had been in power in the state had been very impactful, assured that a brighter and more rewarding future awaits Lagosians in the next four years the governor was expected to be in power in the state. The ACN chieftain charged Lagosians to come out en-masse to participate in the voters’ registration exercise billed to commence across the country very soon, saying the people could only elect their desired leaders when they registered to vote.

Responding, an elated Fashola thanked his predecessor, Tinubu, the party’s leadership as well as the large crowd that attended the meeting for the opportunity given him to serve a second time, promising that he would not let them down.

According to him, the second term endorsement was a challenge to do more and he, therefore, solicited for more support from all and sundry to cooperate and assist him to succeed, noting that governance is a collective responsibility and not a one-man show.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/jan/06/national-06-01-2011-001.htm

Ahead of this week’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries to elect candidates for National Assembly elections, indications have emerged that, Maryam, wife of an incumbent member of the House of Representatives and eldest daughter of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may have been offered the Reps ticket on a platter of gold.

Maryam, who is married to Hon. Badamasi Kabir Usman, was spared a tough contest for the office as all the gladiators that were struggling to make it to the National Assembly have been reportedly directed to step down for her.

Ironically, her husband who hitherto declared his bid to return to the lower chamber of the National Assembly had been hospitalised in London since he fell into a coma about a fortnight ago.
The lawmaker who is also the son of the late Emir of Katsina and younger brother of the present Katsina monarch was said to have fallen into coma in his hotel room overseas but nobody discovered his situation until after about 24 hours.

The automatic ticket given to Maryam who is also a Special Adviser to Governor Ibrahim Shema has caused an uproar in the party. The ruling party had about a week ago screened aspirants for the National Assembly elections. Members of the party screened to contest for the Katsina Central Federal Constituency include the state Commissioner for Youths, Bishir Gambo Saulawa, Abba M. T. Usman, proprietor of Liyafa Palace Hotel, and about four others.

Investigations showed that former First Lady, Turai, and Maryam had since travelled to London to nurse the lawmaker whose condition was believed to be in a critical condition. Speculations that Badamasi had actually died swept through Katsina early in the week. But this had been refuted by sources close to the family. A dependable source who pleaded anonymity told Daily Sun that the directive to stop other opponents of Mr. Kabir Usman and allow Maryam to fly the PDP’s flag in the next general election emanated from “government.”

Contrary to expectations that Turai exerted her influence to give her daughter the party ticket, investigations revealed that Maryam was awarded the ticket by PDP chieftains still sympathetic to her family.
Meanwhile, a Board of Trustees (BoT) member of the PDP, Professor Jibril Aminu had alerted President Goodluck Jonathan and the national leadership of the party not to accept the rescheduled ward and local government congresses said to have been held in Adamawa State in view of the fact that it was glaringly manipulated by the state leadership of the party.

Senator Aminu, described the said Tuesday congresses as an outrage; a charade, and a slap on the face of democracy and national leadership of the PDP. He alleged that the rescheduled congresses could not hold because the prospective voters were disenchanted with the approach taken to conduct the congresses.

The PDP chieftain, who addressed newsmen at his Yola, residence, on Wednesday maintained that the earlier result of the congresses held on Tuesday, 28th December 2010 should rather be accepted by the national leadership of the party, while that of Tuesday 4th January, should be out rightly be discarded.
The Senator representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District alleged that there were no officials of INEC nor officials of the PDP at the wards across the state to conduct the congresses.

The PDP chieftain also alleged absence of registers of members at the wards, lack of adequate publicity about the congresses to members of the party in the state, adding that the party leadership had agreed prior to the conduct of the congresses to use valid membership cards for authentication of prospective voters at the ward congresses but these were disregarded. According to him, it was only security operatives that were seen in most of the wards whose presence were obviously not needed in a situation where those who should be voters were absent occasioned by their disenchantment about the rescheduled congresses.

The Senator, representing Adamawa Central Senatorial District, also alleged that the state chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Umar Mijimyawa Kugama, who was an aspirant for the House Representatives came to the state along with the committee members detailed to conduct the Tuesday, January 4 rescheduled ward and local government congresses of the party.

The chieftain said such scenario portends suspicion and was capable of manipulation and favoritism, hence the national secretariat of the party should disregard the result and uphold the December, 28th, 2010 congresses which was earlier certified and stamped by the national secretariat.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/jan/06/national-06-01-2011-002.htm

Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin was yesterday interrogated for hours at the Oyo State Police Command, Eleyele and detained, in connection with the last Thursday’s killing of the factional leader of the Oyo State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Lateef Salako (a.k.a Eleweomo).

The embattled Senate leader breezed into the police headquarters to honour the invitation of the state Police Commissioner, Alhaji Baba Adisa Bolanta, at about 9.00 a.m.

He was accompanied by other prominent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) factional leaders in the state including: the arrow head of the group, Senator Lekan Balogun; former Power and Steel minister, Elder Wole Oyelese; Chief Yekini Adeojo, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Ayo Adeseun and former secretary to Oyo State Government during the administration of Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Alhaji Sarafadeen Alli.
They were immediately led into Bolanta’s office where a high-powered team of investigators led by the police commissioner himself, grilled the senator.

The closed-door session went side-by-side meeting with the PDP leaders. Details of the meeting which lasted for over three hours could not be ascertained as at press time, but the police chief, his officers and the politicians emerged from the parley at 12.20 p.m., refusing elaborate comment on its outcome to a battery of anxious reporters who had laid siege on the command.

Senator Folarin, wearing a cream colour embroidered buba and sokoto with a cap to match and looking slightly ruffled, was later led in a convoy of police vehicle to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku to write a formal statement on what he knew about the circumstances that led to the death of the slain union leader.

Salako was gruesomely murdered during a bloody fracas between loyalists of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and Folarin at I.D.C. Primary playground, Ona-Ara Local Government, venue of last week’s controversial PDP local government congress.
At first, the Senate leader was led to board a Hilux police patrol van, but he was later allowed to ride in his own private car after pleas from his associates.
Bolanta declined comment from inquisitive newsmen.

But when pressured, the leader of the coalition, Senator Balogun, who had been unsparing in his criticisms of the police command’s perceived partisanship in the whole matter, said the parley provided an opportunity for both parties to understand one another’s position. “The meeting promoted mutual understanding, I guess confidence will follow after a time.”

He added that part of the issues discussed included political developments in the state and the ill-fated party congress.
He reiterated his call for Bolanta’s redeployment, saying nothing had changed in regard to the police boss alleged bias against his group.
“He may be a very nice person as a person but he has shown too much partisanship in the past. May be this is a new beginning. We expected the CP to be professional in the handling of the rift and not to be a biased umpire. He’s expected to be objective in arbitrating all over the state without respect for anybody.”
Balogun said he and his colleagues came to show solidarity with the Senate leader, who, he described as “our political son and colleague.”
By press time, 7.00 p.m., Folarin was still at the SCID, Iyaganku.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/jan/04/national-04-1-2011-001.htm

Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has been speaking on his chances in the April polls, declaring himself God’s candidate.
In a Boxing Day interview at his Abuja residence, the lanky ex-cop, also threw punches at those who think he has little experience in politics to aspire to the nation’s highest leadership position.

He also spoke on the alleged ‘deal’ leading to his return from a two-year self-exile abroad, insisting he has no reason to be grateful to President Goodluck Jonathan under whose dispensation he returned.

Ribadu was asked if he felt comfortable being in the same party with Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State and ACN chieftain, who he reportedly once listed among the nation’s alleged corrupt governors. His answer? Wait till you turn the pages of this explosive interview.

The former EFCC boss also spoke about his narrow escape from death, the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, former Vice President Atiku, Abubakar, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as, his agenda for Nigerians if he is elected president.

You have never been a politician. You have been a lawyer. You have been in the police and you have also been in the public service. So, how would you describe your experience so far on the political turf?
Very interesting. Also satisfying. Not disappointing whatsoever. I am very happy and pleased with what has been the case so far. I was born into politics. I am from a political family, although I had never practised it. I decided, out of my own choice, to go into public service and I remained there all through my working life. My point of entry in politics now has opened up a new chapter altogether, a new experience. But the most fascinating one is the unbelievable interest, enthusiasm, which I have got. What I see daily, those that I meet on the way; the taxi drivers, the gentlemen at the airport, inside an aircraft…

Only yesterday (December 25, 2010), I was on my way back from Port Harcourt. Two people brought me cheques and said: ‘Nuhu, please, this is my own widow’s mite to help in this (cause).’ Those things have touched me. Unbelievable. They made me to believe in it more than ever before and it has also made me to understand that politics is not about money. It is not just about bad people who have always been at the forefront of it. It is about what people are yearning for and people are looking for the right thing and the good thing and they will come all out to support it. It is a massive encouragement. It made me to have new absolute faith in our future.

You mean you are shocked at the reception you have been getting?
Yes, pleasantly shocked. I never imagined that, because of the belief was that you must have money to do certain things. Or you have to be somebody with very deep pocket for you to make it. I had nothing when I got in, but we have achieved so much so far. I have seen people coming to donate property when we were looking for offices. An individual will come and say, ‘take it, I am not taking a penny from you.’ I have seen owners of property saying, ‘ok, pay only just half (of the rent) if it is your own office. I have seen young men and young boys, young guys coming in thousands, thousands and thousands all over the country for the first time in the history of Nigeria. You will see educated young boys, majority of them graduates, coming to give their time, their energy, their resources into this project, at no cost. If you go to my office, you see them 24 hours, not just in Abuja but also across the country. And there are so many of them in thousands and daily, it is improving; the Team Ribadu Group. So, these are all interesting.

And you never expected this?
No. Absolutely no. But you know, it is not just about the young men, even the older people. Our parents themselves are included and they are all shouting Ribadu! I met an old man who happens to be a colleague of my father in the parliament of the 60s. He said, ‘Nuhu, we are so proud of you. It means that everything that we did has not come to nothing. Please carry on. That was our dream and that is what we hope will become a reality. We have seen the hope in you, in what you people are trying to do.’ That, touched me. It shows that it is not about the young men and the future; it is also about those who attempted to do what was right and did something that was proud of. It is about the seed that they planted. They suddenly see it germinating. So, those things are issues that will be interesting and very pleasant.

Why did you decide to join politics and the presidency? Was it an inner conviction or you were dragged into it or you saw that the time was ripe for it?
It is a combination of so many things.

At what point did you decide to take the gauntlet? Was it when you were at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or was it when you were abroad? At what point did the presidency thing and politics come?
It was actually 2010. I might not say this is the specific date, but it is 2010.

After you came back?
Maybe about the process of coming back. But it all started a long time ago and it started with my resolve to go into public service. I made up my mind in 1985 to go into public service, not to go in the pursuit of money. I said that what will make me happy is that my calling will certainly be to serve; do what I consider the common good of all our people. And on my own, I chose the opportunity to be of public service. That was in 1985 when I joined the Nigeria Police after qualifying as a lawyer. I had several jobs; I had the option to go into private practice. I would have joined the multi-nationals. I had amazing opportunities to make money if that was what I wanted. I could have got out of the country. I had all these, but I said no, I think what will make me happy is public service. That was when I made that decision, but that decision was not to be a politician. So, I served in the Nigeria public service for 25 years, but it was terminated about two years ago abruptly.

Was it a very sad event for you?
Yes, yes.

You felt so bad?
Yes, because I thought it was not justified. I thought that there was no reason for it and I genuinely wanted to continue to contribute and help and work all my active public career life and it was stopped…

You were retired when you were not tired?
Absolutely. I was certainly not tired. As you can see, I am still not tired.
Well, it was stopped and this opportunity came now.

And then you went abroad?
Yes. Well, I cut off that part. Actually, Umar Yar’Adua stopped my own public service when he said he dismissed me, but I challenged it in court. The final nail was when this government retired me, which is this year. So, at the point of retirement, I will have to do something.

We heard that your coming back to the country was part of an agreement between you and the incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan?
(Cuts in) Never.

The story was that they would get you back and then make you special adviser on narcotics, drugs and all that and that they will retire you. Was it part of the agreement?
(Cuts in) No.

What agreement did you reach with him when he met you in US?
I never reached any agreement with him. Not at all.

But the presidency believes it did you a favour by bringing you back when Yar’Adua drove you out of the country?
Which favour? Did he (Jonathan) say so?

Well, that is the insinuation everywhere; that ok, he brought you back…
No. I am a Nigerian. You don’t bring me back to my own country. It is my own country.

So, you are not grateful?
No. It is not a matter of being grateful. What is it? I am a Nigerian and nobody said I have committed any crime or offence. So, you have to commit an offence, in the first instance, for you to be granted…

So, the pardon means nothing?
Nobody pardoned me. You pardoned me for what?

But you couldn’t come back for two years plus…
This is because they attempted to kill me.

Are you saying it was real?
Well, if you can go now, you will see… You have to go and take the picture of the bullets on my vehicle now. When we get out of here, you must take the picture. I survived it and I left the country on my own, voluntarily.

You haven’t told us how you left, whether it was through another route or through the famous National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) route?
(Cuts in) Of course, through the NADECO route. It is a democracy route. You need to go through it for you to qualify (laughs). So, I went out because if I had stayed, they would have killed me. No doubt about it.

Why did they want to kill you?
Well, I don’t know. I mean, there are so many people who were killed. It is not I alone. A lot of people were killed in this country.

You were removed as EFCC chairman and sent to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS)…
(Cuts in) They did everything you can imagine.

And got you out of the graduation ground and now you say they wanted to kill you? What is it that Nuhu Ribadu actually did? What, in your mind, did you do?
I think you need to help us to ask them. It will be good and interesting to find out because there are still some people who might just explain what really was the cause of that, but for me, I don’t know. I really don’t know.

And you came back?
I came back. I mean, it is my own country. Maybe it was God that made it possible. It is God, not anybody.

Since you came back, you started thinking of politics?
Certainly, as I was going to get back to the country, I do have fairly a wide network. I know people in this country a lot. I have friends and people who are close to me, know how much concern I have about my country and how interested I am to be part of whatever that can improve this country. And I have had a lot of people telling me ‘well, Nuhu, it is only right for you to be part of the process that will improve our country, to continue to bring the change that is needed.’ So, as I was going through that, of course, you know it is a transition year. And if you want to continue with public service and you are retired from the civil service, there is only one option and that is the only way you can go. It is only through politics that you can get an opportunity to contribute. So, that was ongoing and then. I still believe, a lot of people are talking about it, including myself, the need for this country to change. But we need to have a new beginning, to start afresh, to do things properly and correctly and I believe I am one to make that possible. I stand as a symbol of this change in my country and every opportunity for me to take a stand to help bring this positive development in our country, I will be the first person to take it. I will always stand by the Nigerian people. I will always take the challenge to help our people.

While this debate was ongoing, transition time, I came out, I was there in the United States (US). I had the opportunity to interact and work at that level. I knew what is needed for us to move forward as a country. I had a period of reflection; everything came together at the same time and I said, God, be by my side. God, you know my intention; God I want to continue to serve. Whatever that you have given me, in terms of my own education, in terms of experience, knowledge and network, God I want to continue in service. I want to continue to serve you, to serve my people; to serve my country is service to you as well. I want to take that opportunity in my belief that what matters most in this country today, is the position of leadership at the highest level. That is the greatest challenge. Ability for us to get a leadership that can do what is right. To lead with honesty, transparency, accountability, with respect for people, compassionate at the centre, listening. Leadership that can pull this country together and build unity. Leadership that can be a difference and not the one that we have had before. That is the biggest challenge at the highest level; the leadership that can bring this desired change that I am talking about and I am absolutely convinced and confident that I can provide that leadership because on the basis of what I have seen, what I have done, my own experience, I can do it. That is all I have got.

All my life, I have always taken challenges. When I joined the police in 1985, a lot of people, except those who knew me, were very, very angry saying, ‘Nuhu, how could you ever get to the police? What is in you that has anything to do with the police? Nobody in your family ever joined the Nigeria Police. This and that, you do not physically look like one. A qualified lawyer from northern part of Nigeria opting to join the police, is very unusual but something inside me was telling me to go for it, that it was the right thing to do. And I wanted to contribute my own part to the promotion of justice and fairness in my country. I wanted to fight injustice, whether in a very small way or in a big way. So, my mind was ready. The same thing happened when I started the EFCC. Everybody was saying how dare you? Heads of states tried it and they failed. Some of them got killed because of their attempt to address or fight corruption.

Who are you? How dare you? But something told me that I could do it. And I went for it and did it with fear of God and honesty and the rest is history. Nigerians know what happened. So, it is the same feeling that I have. God be my witness. I am getting in with His own fear and love for Him and love for my country and my people. I want a chance to pay back for what my country has done for me, to help rescue these our people. Not just me alone, but there are so many Nigerians with dream and this expectation. God count me in.

Did God answer you?
I believe so. That is why I am where I am today, because if it wasn’t so, I probably, would not be where I am today. With no resources, nothing. And it is daily growing and it is being taken very serious daily and I am very much convinced in God’s work.

Some people would have thought that if you are going to primary two, you start from primary one and you progress. How come there are other offices in the country and you just say look, I want to start from number one position, the presidency? Because people are saying oh, why can’t he run for other positions? Why can’t he go to the Senate or become governor? Why do you think you should be president of this country?
I have heard people saying that. One of the reasons I have decided to do this, is because that is where I think I will play my best role. I am a federal person. One of the reasons we got things wrong was because people who were unprepared for positions got in there. If you are a state man, you won’t know what the dynamics and the intrigues of the Federal Government is all about.

Are you referring to the late President Yar’Adua?
Yes. There are so many people like that because they didn’t know how the Federal Government is run. I have been a federal person for 25 years of my life and I am an international person. I fit in perfectly there. I have been an executive person all my life. So, if it is a matter of choice, it is better I go to the executive line than the legislature and I know where the problems are and where the solutions could come. The fastest way to solve the problems is the executive responsibility. You need a good person who is honest in that position.

Some people talk about political experience and they say look, this is not about police, this is not about security, this is not about EFCC. That you don’t know how the dynamics of government work. I mean, being in the executive position in a political setting. That how can Nuhu Ribadu think because he ran the EFCC, a small unit that is not up to a division in the Nigeria Police, he can be president?
My goodness! You need to be honest and be fair to me and look at my own history; what I have done in life and compare it with even those who have been president in Nigeria before and who even want to be president. First and foremost, I am a lawyer. I was a qualified lawyer before even starting my public service career. How many were lawyers who ever became presidents of Nigeria? Or even graduates? How many people served for 25 years of their lives before becoming president of Nigeria?

Not a single one ever. I put 25 years of my life into public service. Public service at the Federal Government level before aspiring to be president of Nigeria. Look at the history of Nigeria. Is there any single person with that history? How many people were, for example, prosecutors? In the world today, if you ask for leadership, whether it is Tony Blair or Bill Clinton, almost all of them went through this process in being lawyers, practising lawyers. I was a practising lawyer in Nigeria for years. How many had the opportunity to create an agency of government from the scratch? Look at the people who want to be president and all those who were presidents before. EFCC is not just about fighting corruption; it is about creating an agency that delivers; a government agency that has remained central to the remaking of Nigeria.

It is a household name today in Nigeria and outside the country. It is one of the most important outfits that changed the course of our history in this country. I created it. How many of them were in the economic team that managed the economy of Nigeria? I was a member of the economic management that rebranded the economy of Nigeria from A-Z, with very positive reserves. How many of them were fellows of such universities or any university in the world? How many of them went to Harvard University? How many of them have master’s degree in Law? How many of them worked at the international level? I worked at the Centre for Global Development. I addressed parliaments in the world, including the biggest democracies in the world. I did all that. How many of them would tell you that they have records or results of fighting corruption, which is our biggest problem? I want any one of them to come and show me on ground, put it on the table, their records or what they have to show for fighting corruption. Any one of them, all of them, including even people who claim to be men of integrity. Integrity is not just talk. It is what you see. I will tell you what I have. I will tell you the results of the work I did in fighting corruption. So, integrity is your greatest credential?

I am grateful to God for that. And it is not by mouth. Anyone who says that he has integrity, let him bring it on the table for integrity test. I can tell you, people gave me money, I took them to court and charged them for that. I tell you that after I left office, they came and checked me for many years. My enemies took over the EFCC and they could not get one pin as an evidence of my own wrongdoing. People tried everything on earth to get me.

Even if people don’t say Ribadu is corrupt, they say you were excessive during your stint at EFCC, pursuing people everywhere, that Obasanjo was using you?
Yeah, they will always say so. When you fight corruption, they will always say things like that. When they cannot get anything to nail you, they will always claim this and that.

Now, between you and I, did Obasanjo try to use you?
No, no, no my brother.

Was it coincidental that enemies of Obasanjo also became the targets of the fight against corruption?
You see, the point about fighting corruption did not just start today.

Was it coincidental?
Let me tell you. When General Ibrahim Babangida staged his military coup and removed General Muhammadu Buhari, the first thing he accused Buhari of was that he was selective. That was it. It is the same thing, but you have seen the result of what happened after that. It is not different from my own. Anyone who came to fight corruption, they will tell you that. They accused Murtala Muhammed of the same thing, of being selective. So, there is no difference in my own. The only thing I will tell you now is that anyone I brought to justice, please, let him come and I will tell him the reason I did what I did and Nigerians will judge. I have all the evidence with me up till now, in terms of what really happened. It is not about being selective at all. If you fight corruption, you will always, especially, if you are able to overcome those basic things, for instance, if you are not corrupt yourself and you could not be swayed away from doing the right thing, the cheapest and easiest thing for them to say is that you are selective and without even supporting it with evidence. I have been consistently telling Nigerians that anyone who says he was selective, let him come. I am waiting for him to come and I will still share with Nigerians why he was brought to justice and the reason we had to take the steps we took. There was nothing personal.

Almost all the people that I brought to justice, I swear to God, a lot of them are my friends because they knew and understood clearly that it was not personal. And honestly, it was not personal. It is a very difficult job. You needed to do it. Someone must do it, very tough one. But it has to be done. So, I did it. My job as EFCC chairman, if you do it honestly, you must really do those things. You must. There is no way for you to avoid it.

So, Obasanjo didn’t tell you to go after anybody?
Never. Even if he did, it never worked. The point about it is that if you are like that, you will never get result. That was the reason we succeeded. And we succeeded because the EFCC had a solid foundation.

But you made some mistakes also?
Yeah, let me just get to that point. I wanted to explain to you that the EFCC is standing today because of what we did. You will not succeed unless you avoid two fundamental things. We worked and got results. The results are for the whole world to see and they have seen them. You will never succeed if you are corrupt yourself. You will never succeed if you are selective. It would not work. These are the two things you must avoid. And if you are selective, I am telling you that others will not come along because it is not an area that you decide alone. The judiciary is out there. The judiciary will never come with you if they know you are selective. They will never. We succeeded in getting this conviction simply because they understood what was going on. The evidence we assembled were brought before them and they decided themselves. It was not we that decided those cases. I had over 90 per cent conviction record.

Well, your predecessor, Mrs. Farida Waziri, would dispute this claim. We heard that you did not do much, that it was only on the pages of newspapers you fought corruption. They said there was nothing to the noise about Nuhu Ribadu doing this and that. They said there was no record of single conviction.
But you are in Nigeria. Are you not in Nigeria?

So, what is your own view about that?
Well, I asked the question. (Laughs) But the point is that I am not going to waste my time taking on the people who took over the job from me. It is waiting for another day because in the first instance, it is perceived as if I am an aggrieved person. And whatever I say might be misunderstood or misconstrued. So, I will rather leave Nigerians to judge. Nigerians will know those people who were brought to justice then, who were convicted. Nigerians will know whether public officials are being brought or challenged, like the way we challenged them. The international community will always decide. Almost every single case that is ongoing today, are my own cases. Every single case, I created them. I made them: Halliburton. It was I, personally. Siemens and Panalpina. International corruption cases, not to talk about Nigerian cases. Every single governor that is being brought to justice up till now is my own case. Not a single case came out since I left. So, what is it that I would talk?

We are going to leave the EFCC now because this interview is essentially not about that agency.
And I also don’t want to talk about the EFCC.

I understand what you mean. But I would ask this one last question on the EFCC and move on. For the records, did Atiku Abubakar bring you into the EFCC as he has claimed?
He did not. He did not bring me into the EFCC.

He said he brought you in; he identified you and they had to amend the EFCC Act to accommodate you since the position, by the Act, ought to be headed by an AIG or its equivalent. What really happened?
To be honest, this is not the right time for me to discuss this. I am going to simply say Atiku did not bring me to EFCC. The point is that those people who made it possible for me to be in the EFCC are still alive and please, endeavour to go and ask them. The reason I got into the EFCC was, first, because I was qualified and there were people I worked with. Before I joined the EFCC, I was literally responsible for almost all the most important cases in Nigeria. I was the one doing almost all the important cases in my country. Before I joined the EFCC, I was the one prosecuting the biggest names in our country. I was prosecuting the Abachas, Makanjuolas, the former speaker, Salisu Buhari, Oputa Panel. I was a member of the tribunals, almost all the tribunals; the religious disturbance tribunals and I was involved in the military tribunals that prosecuted coup plotters. I was involved in the failed banks inquiry. All these things, I was central. I was at the heart of all those things. I was central to the entire justice sector in Nigeria and I participated fully in all these things. So, in terms of qualification, when it came, when they were looking for someone to be the pioneer chairman of the EFCC, there was no dispute about it. I worked with Kanu Agabi when he was Attorney- General. I worked with him during the failed banks in the 90s and those were the things that made them to appoint me.

Now to your party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The leader of your party, Bola Tinubu, was governor of Lagos State and somebody brought it to my attention that he was one of those you listed as being corrupt at the National Assembly. How comfortable are you being in the same party with the man you allegedly once labelled as corrupt?
(Cuts in) I did not say so.

Ok, for the records, did you say he was corrupt?
Never, I did not say so.

What happened? Was he listed among those you were investigating for corruption?
Well, let me tell you, in fact, what is going on in my country today. You know, it is Bola Tinubu they are trying to get at. Whoever is doing that, I just want to look at it as a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) propaganda. This is an individual who fought PDP and refused to allow PDP to take over Nigeria completely. He stopped them at Lagos gate and he gave chance for the opposition to re-organise themselves and they are coming back to free Nigeria from this unbelievable strangulation of the PDP. He is their number one enemy and they are fighting him tooth and nail, everything. And when I joined the ACN on the basis of a party with so many people, like him who fought for democracy, who fought for democracy and have something to show for it, right from the NADECO days up to this one, fighting PDP is the biggest contribution towards addressing the problems of this country.

Therefore, they want to continue this fight in a different way. So, whoever is saying that, I am telling you, he is either a PDP man or a sympathizer. Or unwittingly, you are helping the PDP. So, that is not the case. When it comes to the issue of what I said before the National Assembly, I can assure you that I did not say that he was a corrupt person. No. Go back to the records and see. It was the National Assembly, the Senate specifically, that called me to brief them on the investigations going on then. And I went through it state by state and when it came to the turn of Lagos State, I said the investigation of the governor of Lagos had an international dimension because, at that time, I knew the Metropolitan Police of London were investigating him. I said that investigation was ongoing and that was it. I did not say anything other than that. And I am very happy. You see, God has a way of working out things for you. I believe that nobody could influence the Metropolitan Police. If they are doing an investigation, no one could stop them because you will not say you are used or misused by them or you used them or misused them. And whatever they do, it will be something that they can stand and defend and they have a justice system that works. At the end of the day, with all their investigations, I have not seen any action that they took against Bola Tinubu. He still goes to the United Kingdom (UK) freely; he transacts business there and certainly, it is not that they have anything against him. If they have had it, by now they would have brought him to justice. This is all I said with respect to Bola Tinubu, which is now being twisted simply because they want to continue the fight against him for what he did to PDP. And then, unwittingly, Nigerians are just being deceived.

For me, in fact, I thought Nigerians would even understand who Nuhu Ribadu was by simply looking at what happened then. He was the greatest enemy of the PDP and I was working with the government of the PDP. He was formerly the greatest enemy of the Federal Government, in terms of political enemy, that is what I mean, but nothing happened to him during my days. This just go to show about the issue of being selective. At that time, so many PDP people were being brought to justice. That tells you about me. I am what I am.

What’s your attitude to wealth? Is it that you don’t like money?
I am not a material person by nature and I am grateful to God, I have a simple life and I am ok. A little thing takes care of me. I am not really by nature, a material person and I am grateful to God. And I am not even impressed with anything material.

And you claimed to have rejected a whopping sum of money from your friend, James Ibori, the former governor of Delta State?
Of course. I mean, there were several others. James was one, but we rejected from several others and we even used it to show how public servants should be, could be and must be. And that is why when people are talking about integrity and fighting corruption, these are features Nigerians must pay attention to.

How do you feel now that he’s in a legal cul de sac? He’s going through a hell of a time.
Well, I feel sorry for James because he is a human being. I am not celebrating the fact that justice caught up with him but justice is justice. There is nothing I can do about it. But as a human being, I do not really celebrate such a thing, no. No, no, no. I have nothing personal against James Ibori. Honestly. If I see him today, I will shake hands with him. And he knows that.

Now, you are in the race. What are the three critical factors, three critical problems you will address if you are elected president of Nigeria? What are the three basic things Nigeria needs now to get working in your order of priority?
Very good. Which means you have to do it in the context of what you need to be, who you need to be and how you want to do it for you to achieve those things. You need to do absolutely, good governance. Change the way government is run. Are you getting me? Let it be a different thing all together the way we manage ourselves. And if you succeed in doing that, if you stop wastage, you know, corruption and mismanagement, those are the fundamental things we have to achieve, but it is not something Nigerians will see so soon. It is not something that you can take home now. The basic things that Nigerians would want to see, an improvement in their lives. For example, basic thing like power. It is something that can be achieved in no time, to get electricity to every home and industry in our country. We can get it done quickly because it can be a foundation to growth and development.

How long will it take you to do that?
Give and take, one to two years. Yes, you can achieve that to the level of saying we can provide electricity and Nigerians will see the difference in their lives. It is very possible. You can also address this problem of poverty. Honestly, people are extremely poor. You and I don’t know that but get out of Abuja, even five, 10 kilometers and see how people live there. The distribution of wealth is very unequal. So, many people are having a good life, too much good life. And these are a few people, but it is difficult for the rest to eat; to eat is a problem to them. So, we need to provide those basic things immediately that can give relief, like food security. We need to improve it quickly. We need to also provide security. Security means for you to live in peace and you are not afraid of the next person to you or you will not get into your house and be afraid that somebody will come in or afraid of kidnappers or afraid to get into town.

I was just on my way yesterday to spend my Christmas in Jos and suddenly, we encountered a terrible scene. Those are things that we need to sort out immediately. Security. The insecurity problem is big. From Niger Delta down to everywhere. That can be addressed immediately, so that Nigerians will not totally be in captivity of armed robbers, kidnappers, of religious mad people, crazy people who do not get it right at all.

You can fix it?
Oh yes! It is a priority. And likely for me, I am qualified to do that more than anybody. I can comfortably tell you that. I can beat my chest. I can do that. I can solve power very quickly. I can provide security because I am qualified to do that. The reason we messed it up so badly is that people who do not know what internal security is all about are managing us. The head of state is the most important. We have had military heads of states, whose only training was to kill enemies.

That is not their primary training?
No. Not to provide peace, stability and security. I mean enforcement of laws. This is what security is all about. They were not trained for that.

So, you believe when ex-soldiers say they can provide security they don’t really know what they are talking about?
They don’t know what they are talking about. I am telling you they don’t know. Nigerians are not their enemies for them to fight. When it comes to internal security, it is a specialised sector.

They can only compound it?
I can tell you that. I can assure you of that. And also, you do not pick people with no experience, who are never exposed to the Federal Government’s structure or establishment because security is the responsibility of the Federal Government. Part of the problems we have is that we have had consistently, either stale people or military people coming to be in charge. I was shocked when I got into government at a very close range, when I realised how empty, the lack of understanding of the basic security system and structure at the highest level of our country. People didn’t know and they still do not know, particularly the soldiers. They don’t know.

What’s your message to the young people of this country?
It is about their own future. It is the future of the young men and young women today, who are growing in our country. Everything that we are doing today is about them. It is about their own future. And it is the motivating factor. It is the reason we just have to do it. What do we have for them? It is their own country; it is their own resources. They must be given opportunity to participate, to be involved, to contribute to make Nigeria work. They are denied this chance today. They are not part of the system. They have been removed out of the scheme of things. Our young men and young women do not have jobs today. The money is being wasted. A situation where probably about 75 per cent of our own money goes to recurrent and less than 25 per cent goes to capital development is bad. This capital development is what is supposed to create jobs, what is supposed to bring new things in our own country. There is no hub. The entire resources goes to servicing government, servicing people who are in government, whether they are parliamentarians, whether they are chief executives, civil servants, parastatals, all these incredibly huge monster called government that has nothing to offer or to deliver right now. No idea of how to create jobs. Let me give an example of Abuja today.

Look at Abuja. As rich as it is, we do not even have factories to employ our young boys and young girls. It is all about servicing big men. Any young man or young girl that comes into Abuja now, the only available job is for him to be a houseboy or a house girl to a parliamentarian, minister or to a big man. It is a tragedy. It is not right.
This is the point. We are saying that the time has come for this resources to be used to create jobs for these young men and young women; for them to be given chance to contribute in the development of our own country, to redirect the resources away from wastage, going into small group of people, into few hands for the common good of all of us. To diversify, to give them opportunities for their own dream to be a reality. This is about the future of Nigerians. They are the ones who will make it possible. If we have the chance, that will be the priority.

You asked me the things I needed to do. Three things: you know I talked about power, security and job creation. How to get jobs for these young boys and young girls; these Nigerians who are also entitled to contribute, who it is also their legitimate right to participate in governance, in the affairs of our own country. And we can create jobs quickly. We can diversify; we can encourage private sector development; we can bring capital to help support initiatives. We can improve. For example, you know there are areas where our young boys and girls are doing extremely well and can compete at the international level. For example, the entertainment industry. It is a sector that can employ so many if it is well supported. There are other areas we can support. We can improve the agricultural sector to also provide jobs for the rural young boys and young girls.

If I become president, I intend to make sure that in every school, primary or secondary, will be provided something, like bread and egg for every child going to school. Through that, you don’t know how many jobs you are going to create. It is a continuous chain because through that, you are going to give bread, you will have the bakers and then you will have poultry and continuously, the chain and at the same time, you are also encouraging young boys and young girls to remain in school. And even parents to bring their own children to school because they are assured of this meal. These are some of the things, smart things that you can do to make a difference. I do intend to build houses. My intention is to repeat what UK did after the World War 11 when they embarked on building houses, mass housing. With this mass housing, you can imagine the number of jobs you will create. And if you manage it very well, it is not going to cost you a lot of money. It is not like what we have had before, where they will take billions upon billions, maybe only 10 or 20 percent will go to the real work. Invest five billion dollars into houses today and you will see the jobs you will create in addition to getting houses for our people to free Nigerians from this continuous fight with landlords. Imagine if you have one million houses in Abuja in the next two years.

And it is possible. I am telling you. It is not even possible, it is going to happen because I see myself as the next president of Nigeria and it will happen. You will see what is going to happen. Those are things that can easily convert these our resources into jobs for our boys and girls. And the economy will grow through that.

Somebody said you were like David fighting Goliaths, in terms of your opponents in the race?
And David succeeded. (Laughs).

You don’t subscribe to this issue of zoning or no zoning?
Yes. The job of a president should be for the best we can get in the country and it must be a constituency that is one constituency called Nigeria. Wherever you can get the best, I think we should go for it.

So, it doesn’t matter whether he is from North, South, East?
Absolutely. I am running as a Nigerian, who wants the best for Nigeria. And that is what matters and that is what is going to make a difference for our country. We need competence; we need people who can deliver. We need people who are unifiers. We will never do well if we end up with a sectional person who is going to become a national leader. My belief is that if you do not have Nigeria first, you will not have northern or southern Nigeria. Northern and southern Nigeria is there simply because there is Nigeria. And a president of Nigeria must be a president of Nigeria.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/jan/01/national-01-01-2011-008.htm

The Oyo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) congress elections ordered by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) turned bloody yesterday, with the killing of the factional leader of the state chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Lateef Salako (a.k.a Eleweomo).

Salako, said to be one of the party delegates from Ona-Ara Local Government area was shot dead during a fracas which erupted at the I.D.C Primary School, Ogbere-Olunloyo, on the outskirts of Ibadan venue of the local government congress expected to produce representatives to the state congress billed for today.

Salako who has been engaging Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a Tokyo) in a running battle over the leadership of the NURTW died two days to his 58th birthday and house warming already slated for tomorrow.
Daily Sun learnt that policemen from Ogbere Police Station and some others deployed in the area recovered Salako’s corpse and deposited it at the Adeoyo General Hospital mortuary in the state capital.

Four vehicles were burnt, while another 10, including a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) said to officially belong to the Interim Chairman of the council, Mr. Tunde Olayiwola, were damaged while the rage lasted.
News of Salako’s death sparked off widespread violence between his followers and members of the rival group led by the state Chairman of the union, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a. Tokyo) at motor parks across Ibadan municipality. In Iwo Road and Olomi area, where the union has its secretariat, pandemonium broke out as the drivers clashed, using charms and dangerous weapons such as matchete, daggers, guns and cudgels.
By press time, however, police had moved in with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) to restore normalcy to the two volatile spots.

Eye witnesses told Daily Sun that trouble started, when the convoy of the Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin, who hails from the local government area was attacked by suspected political touts and thugs led by the late transporters union boss. The late Eleweomo was allegedly hit by bullets from the Senate Leader’s security aides, while trying to repel an attack on the lawmaker. But, Folarin, in a reaction made available to journalists said he was the main target of the hoodlums and could not be held responsible for the death of the unionist.

Before Folarin arrived at the scene, there had been a face-off between his supporters and loyalists of Governor Adebayo Alao Akala with the two groups singing abusive songs against their principals. The situation, however, degenerated as they hurled stones and other missiles at one another, leading to a forceful retreat of the Folarin group. Salako, sources said, was the arrowhead of the Alao Akala group.
Immediately after the group left, the congress was hurriedly conducted and the result announced to the glee of party leaders in the area loyal to the governor, including the interim chairman of the council, Olayiwola and a permanent member of the State Universal Basic Education Board [OYOSUBEB], Stella Sobowale, who described it as peaceful and the Folarin group as dissidents.

The Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] official, Toyin Oyedele, who observed the process also certified it as free and fair. Unknown to the celebrating party members, the dispersed Folarin’s supporters had gone to re-group. They allegedly stormed the venue of the congress in company with the Senate Leader and his official entourage. This led to a bloody conflict in which Salako was reportedly shot by a security detail who was trying to defend the Senate Leader.

In the ensuing melee, vehicles including two said to belong to the immediate past chairman of the local governmement, Oke Akeem Taiwo, now an aspirant to the House of Representatives of the Egbeda/Ona-Ara Federal constituency were torched. A party member, Yetunde Olayiwola, who lost her car in the mayhem condemned Folarin, accusing him of leading the hoodlums, who burnt her vehicle and those of others.

She described the incident as appalling, saying that the future of democracy ‘’is at risk in this country. If a whole Senate Leader would descend so low as to be leading hoodlums to attack his own immediate constituency the way he did, what message are we sending to the younger generations’’. However, the Senate Leader, in a reaction, maintained that the attack on him and his supporters was premeditated. He said he had been reliably informed of a plot hatched to assassinate him during the ongoing congresses in the state.

His words: “On Wednesday, at the commencement of the ward congress, I learnt Eleweomo and his people in about 20 buses had stormed my ward 5, Idi Ose area of the local government. They were armed with guns, and on getting there, I enquired from supporters what the business of Eleweomo was. Shortly after, he (Eleweomo) went and stayed in one of the classrooms of the school with heavy smoke of marijuana coming from their end. But we were not perturbed.

“You journalists would recall that on the fateful Wednesday afternoon, I told you at Senator Lekan Balogun’s house what we saw in the hands of Eleweomo and his people, but you never reported it. I wondered why you did not carry it in your papers. Today again, he (Eleweomo) and his people in multifold of the Wednesday’s number had besieged the local government brandishing dangerous weapons, arms and ammunition. And immediately, I recalled privileged information from an Ibadan-based prominent supporter of Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala’s camp of the party that I should tread softly during these congresses because a plan had been hatched to assassinate me. Then, this made me to call the Commissioner of Police, Baba Adisa Bolanta, to alert him to the presence of Eleweomo and his gun-totting hoodlums, who invaded the lawful assemblage of PDP congress.

“Noticing that the atmosphere was becoming more charged as Eleweomo and his team were surging towards where we were having the congress, I put a call again to the Commissioner of Police to inform him of the plans to disrupt the congress by the NURTW factional leader, but he replied that what he (CP) got from that end was contrary to what I told him. And this made me to call the Director of State Security Services (SSS), who then assured me that he would talk to the CP on the matter. Notwithstanding, I still made another call to the CP on the need to arrest the situation, but his Orderly picked my call and told me that the CP was not on seat.

“Ordinarily, because of the threat message I got two days earlier, I should not have gone to my constituency to partake in the ongoing exercise, but as a politician, at times you have to brave some odds, knowing full well that I had no sinister intention against anybody, why would anybody be after my life? So, I went there yesterday and today and alerted the CP more than five times of the happenings in my constituency. And as a peace lover, shortly after our congress, I left there with my people and on my way home, I got information that Eleweomo and his men clashed with some members of the outlawed Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) at the area.

Even my convoy was severally attacked on my way home and this resulted in the death of two of my supporters while I also learnt that two others had their arms chopped off. If I had wanted to attack Eleweomo and his people, I would have done so since Wednesday because I have my orderly and security aides in my convoy. But I never did so and I now wonder why anybody would now link the death of Eleweomo to me and my aides”.

The Senate Leader also added that the Caretaker Committee Chairman for the council, Alhaji Taofeek Olayiwola gave Elweomo and his people, undue backing, and at a stage, “I wondered whether they wanted to jointly appoint delegates for Alao-Akala.”

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/31/national-31-12-2010-001.htm

As Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, residents of Jos, Plateau State, are in mourning, as no fewer than nine separate explosions rocked Gada Biu, Kabong and Angwa Rukuba area of the state yesterday, killing about 20 people.

Saturday Sun gathered that the bombs went off at about 7. 30 pm in quick succession and lasted till about 8.40pm, killing the victims and injuring score of others. The first explosion, from our findings, went off in front of a Catholic Church in the area, while subsequent explosions occurred a few kilometer to the police headquarters.
Sources revealed that bodies of the dead as well as those injured were taken to the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).

The state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abdulrahman Akano, confirmed the incident but declined to give the number of casualties. However, a top police officer in the city revealed that he could only confirm seven dead victims at the time of this report.

Commander of the special task force in Jos, Brigadier General Hassan Umaru, also confirmed the explosion last night but declined to give details, as, according to him, he was rushing down to the explosions scenes.
Military sources told Saturday Sun that an unidentified group had sent out warning that it would take measures to ensure that Christmas was not celebrated in Plateau State.

Following the bomb explosion, security has been beefed up in the affected areas and the entire state capital. By last night, soldiers were deployed to the areas. Also, the areas have been cordoned off, with soldiers standing guard at major roads.
Fear has gripped the ancient tin city, with most of the residents holed up in their homes. Darkness has enveloped parts of the city, as a result of power outage.
Jos has suffered many explosions this year with so many lives lost.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/25/national-25-12-2010-001.htm

Ex-Biafran warlord Chief Emeka Odume-gwu Ojukwu is to be flown to Britain today, in a frantic effort to save his life.

Ojukwu, 77, has been on life support machine at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, since Sunday after suffering a stroke.

It was gathered that an air ambulance has been secured by the government of Anambra State to evacuate the National Leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Governor Peter Obi "has been doing everything that needs to be done to ensure that the Ikemba’s health is restored," said a source last night.

Dr. Anthony Mbah, the Chief Medical Director (CMO) of the UNTH said Ojukwu was "brought to the Accident and Emergency Ward of this hospital in an unconscious state last Sunday".

"The blood pressure was quite low and he was not making enough urine."

Sources said last night that Ojukwu’s condition "is critical but stable enough to travel on an air ambulance".

Igbo leaders have been visiting the ailing ex-warlord. Obi was there yesterday. He was accompanied by government officials and the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh. Ohanaeze President Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) Ralph Uwazuruike were also at the hospital.

Umeh said: "The Ojukwu I saw today (Tuesday) should be on his feet in another one week. It is not something to panic about. There is no cause for alarm."

Ojukwu’s health was not improving, despite the initial stability and response to treatment, according to a doctor who pleaded not to be named.

The doctor said Obi provided the funds when the hospital management told him that lack of funds could delay Ojukwu’s transfer abroad for further treatment.　

One of Ojukwu’s aides said last night: "Barring any last-minute setback, my oga　should be flown out tomorrow (today)."

He said: "Three weeks ago, while trying to feed him (Ojukwu), he told me there were signs that his end was near and he would wish his end to come on January 12, 2011 to coincide with the 41

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/22589.html

Three persons were feared dead and two others wounded following a fresh attack in Gonghwong settlement of Turu village in Vwang district, Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State yesterday evening. The attack was suspected to have been carried out by Fulani men who were said to have made away with over 100 cows belonging to the natives, Berom.

Eyewitnesses disclosed that the three men killed in the attacked were macheted to death in a similar manner as that of Dogo Nahawa killings of January 2010. Three other victims of the attack had machete cuts all over their bodies and were presently receiving treatment at the Vom Christian Hospital. They were said to be in a critical condition and might be transferred to the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).

Spokesman of the Special Task Force (STF), Operation Save Haven, Captain Charles Okocha confirmed the attacked but said only one man was killed.
According to Capt. Okocha, “yesterday at about 8:30 in the evening there was an attack on Gonghwong village in Kaduna Vom, Jos South Local Government by suspected Fulani assailants. In the attack two locals were shot but were rushed to the hospital by policemen on patrol.” He said, “our own troops deployed to K/Vom arrived the scene and combed the area. At about a distant of three kilometers from the village, an unidentified corpse of a man was found lying by a bicycle beside the road.

“At the same point, a Toyota bus was found with plate number XE 233 BUU driven by one James Adamu was carrying 19 youths from Dahwolbok village also in K/Vom and were apprehended with two locally made revolvers, two swords, two machetes, one dagger, four metal rods, six wooden clubs and two catapults.
“Other items found on the suspects included 11 handsets, whistles, four sachets of Peak milk and N3, 000.00, among others.”
The STF spokesman said, “suspects and other exhibits as you can see have been handed over to the police for further investigation.”

However, Gyang Tanko, a member of the village said in an interview that “The STF is just hiding the truth, it was a case of cow rustling, the Fulanis came to attack us and they killed three of our men and wounded two others who are in the hospital. The Fulanis stole over 100 cows during the attack.
“I got a call last night and I had to rush to the scene of the incident but when the youths came out to mobilize themselves to secure the stolen cows, they were arrested even when the military men were said to have seeing the cows about a few distance away.”
According to Micheal Gyang, another member of the community, “while the Fulanis were attacking us no security man came to our rescue. It was after the Fulani left and our youths were protesting the attack that the soldiers arrested 19 of them .
“When the STF were told that it was the Fulani that attacked us, instead of them to trail the Fulanis, they arrested our youths who are completely innocent of the attack.”

Also, the villagers said: “The task force that arrested our youths are the ones from Bukuru units instead of the two units we have in Vom here. The three soldiers that came from Bukuru are two Fulani soldiers and the third is an Hausa man.”
Gyang insisted that the soldiers that came from Bukuru to Vom should know something better since there are two units in Vom.
Spokesman of the STF, however, insisted that the soldiers that arrested the 19 suspects were from the Vom unit and not from Bukuru. The STF also said they were not aware of any case of cattle rustling but they were aware of an attack by suspected Fulani assailants. The STF also denied knowledge of any victim in Vom Christian hospital.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/22/national-22-12-2010-03.htm

Whao! This is cheering news to all movie buffs, especially the teeming fans of international star actress and filmmaker, Stephanie Okereke. After a long wait, the much anticipated box office film written, produced and directed by the multiple award winning actress has finally hit shelves amid accolades and plaudits from the movie public.

The national and international release, according to the sexy thespian was planned just in time for the Christmas holidays!

The film which is a romantic comedy starring sultry Miss Okereke and Garrett Mckechne had earlier premiered elaborately in Los Angeles, USA, Lagos, Nigeria, Berne-Switzerland and Cannes, France to much acclaim and applause.

The movie is already on sale in Ghana and was released over the weekend in Nigeria. According to elated Okereke, 411 Films will be responsible for releasing it online on DVD in the United States and other parts of the globe.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/showbiz/2010/dec/22/showbiz-22-12-2010-001.htm

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described as a pipe dream and an unnecessary dissipation of energy President Goodluck Jonathan’s exhortation to his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to win Lagos in the 2011 general elections. In a statement issued in Benin on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the president should be focusing his energy on preventing Oyo and Ogun states from slipping away from the PDP, even though that in itself was an uphill task, instead of engaging in wishful thinking concerning Lagos.

‘’The PDP’s hope of winning Lagos is best captured in the travails of a leper who, after managing to hold on to the few bean cakes he has just purchased, was asked to take some bonus cakes with him. Of course he replied that the benevolent seller should pray for him to even be able to take home the ones he had just purchased, instead of adding more.

‘’Mr. President, no one who has ever tasted the honey of good governance, that the ACN government in Lagos State and other states have been dishing out to the people, will opt for the bitter pill of bad governance that has been the lot of the PDP at all levels of governance.

‘’The good people of Lagos have said ‘never again’ to bad governance, and therefore will use their votes wisely in 2011 to slam the door against a possible PDP government in the state,’’ it said.
Commenting on President Jonathan’s ‘’mourning of the PDP’s big losses in the South-west,’’ ACN said it should be clear to the president that in over 10 years of democratic rule, the PDP had not been able to convince the people that it deserves their votes.

‘’Despite the PDP’s resort to self help to ‘capture’ many states - especially in the South-west - during the last general elections, it should not have been a surprise to President Jonathan that those ‘captured’ states have now slipped away from the stranglehold of the PDP, thanks to the judiciary,’’ the party said.
ACN said the hurricane ‘progressive’ that was sweeping across the South-west was not about to stop until it had swept off all the vestiges of purposeless governance from the region, and that not even a president’s wishful thinking could stand in its way.
The party reminded President Jonathan that even his benefactor and the apostle of do-or-die politics did all in his power to ‘capture’ Lagos State in 2007, but was defeated by the power of the people.

‘’Since power belongs to the people, and the same people have vowed to protect their votes at all cost, the PDP and its leaders should not become starry-eyed about the prospect of winning Lagos in 2011,’’ it said.
In a related development, the Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN) has advised President Jonathan not to allow himself, to be duped by political profiteers who had no electoral value by their so-called endorsements.
The party said the president would do better by steering Nigerian ship aright than gallivanting all over the place building fanciful political dreams that would never come to reality.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party described Jonathan’s wish for a PDP conquest of Lagos as a wild and hollow dream, which would never be realized in “our lifetime.”
It said Jonathan was courting political doom in the South-west if he continued to romance unrealizable political dreams and advised the president to sit down and face the task on hand instead of the present revelling in the name of politicking.
“We are surprised that the president allowed himself to be cornered by the fast disappearing breed of vote robbers that have been recently rusticated from stolen mandates all over South-west and allowed them to sell him a worthless and unrealizable dream of conquering the South-west when it is obvious that the PDP is gone in the South-west and greatly endangered all over the country.”

It was obvious that the president and his South-west PDP brethrens are hoping on the same bizarre fraud that benefitted them in 2003 and 2007 but we want to assure them that they will have another thing coming in 2011. One would have expected a focused president to concentrate on the job of fixing the fast dilapidating structures in Nigeria and hope on that to give him approval among the people instead of gallivanting all over the place and getting political never do wells tickle his fancy and promised him heaven on earth.”

“We, at Lagos ACN and indeed majority of Nigerians know that the PDP for twelve years has been the single greatest bad news afflicting Nigeria and holding the country down in the comity of nations and which have eaten away the lives of Nigerians in these sad years. We know that Nigerians are united by the hatred they share for the PDP for taking us to this sorry state and that they are demanding stridently for a free and fair election in 2011 so as to free the PDP off the Nigerian power saddle. We know that in recent times, the PDP has suffered worse fates in the South West where it acquired power in 2003 and 2007 through electoral forgery and wanton fraud. We wonder what a president that wants Nigerians to take him serious will have with people who should be in jail for electoral robbery and how he will allow himself to be manipulated by these sets of remorseless perpetrators of electoral chicanery to dream of winning the South West in 2011. We wonder the premise for such mid day dreams if not the desperate desire to hear flattering words from political spent forces who have been made fugitives by the bestial acts they perpetrated to steal power in the South West.

“We are appalled that President Jonathan is busy romancing irreverent riggers for whatever political capital he hopes to curry from that but we want to let him know that Nigerians are decent enough to ostracize these people who have messed up the country’s electoral system in the past twelve years for their selfish benefits. While we wish Jonathan and his South West PDP luck in their hallucination of using magical powers to arrest the catastrophic degeneration of their party in the South West, we want to warn them that Nigerians are wiser now and see the reasons for change in the hobbled state the PDP has brought on us these past twelve years. We assure him that his party is on its last lap and that nothing will save the PDP from the well expressed anger of Nigerians in 2011.

“Lagos ACN would not be drawn into trading words with anybody over the possibility or otherwise of PDP winning Lagos for that is a pipe dream that would never be realized in our time. We won’t even be drawn into discussing the present withering fortune of the PDP in the South West because we know the party is as good as gone in the South West and other zones in Nigeria as it exists merely through electoral fraud. We assure Jonathan that his fate will be worse in 2011 if he continues romancing political fraudsters and never do wells, either in the South west or elsewhere. We believe he stands a better chance of demonstrating what he can do with power, not by gallivanting and uttering sweet nothings to political liabilities but improving the rickety state of Nigeria. We want to assure him that there is no short cut to power and if he is led into believing that there is at this very turn of Nigerian history, he has to expect the shock from Nigerians in 2011.”

Joe Igbokwe.
Publicity Secretary,
Lagos ACN

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/21/national-21-12-2010-01.htm

Former minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili will this morning commence a visit to the seven local governments that make up Anambra Central Senatorial District apparently to intimate them of her senatorial ambition.

Akunyili, according to one of her media aides, Mr. Julius Ogunro would first pay a courtesy call on the Governor, Mr. Peter Obi at the Government House, Awka, as the leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state before proceeding to the council areas.

The former image maker of the nation resigned her appointment last week and immediately purchased APGA form for the senatorial contest. Her entrance into the contest has set the entire zone on fire as many who thought it would be smooth ride for them have started running around, while life has returned to the contest in the area.

The incumbent Senator, Chief Annie Okonkwo, has called the bluff of Akunyili’s entrance, saying she was not a threat to him and his second term ambition. He had said, “I am not threatened; she is not even a match to me. Where would she get the structure? Can she win up to two of the seven local government areas that make the zone? What pedigree does she have?

“We are talking about grass-roots politics. We are talking about those on the ground. That she is a minister does not mean she is electable. All the same, our people will decide and we shall compare what she has done for the people as minister and what I have done before I became a senator and now as a senator. There is nothing to fear and I think she is only trying to test the political waters.”

For former member representing Aniocha, Dunukofia, Njikoka Federal Constituency, George Ozodinobi who was as good as becoming APGA candidate in the zone before Akunyili’s entrance, the former minister was only coming to reap from where she did not sow.

He said: “I still see it as very laughable because it is surprising that the mouthpiece of a government at this critical point is quitting that government to contest in another party. The issue of intimidation does not come in. She cannot intimidate me. In terms of political influence, I’m far above her. In terms of the party she’s just joining, I’m far above her.”

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/20/national-20-12-2010-010.htm

Barely one week after the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) announced the date for its presidential primaries for next year’s general election, there are fresh plots to disqualify the northern consensus candidate and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

According to a document, now available to Daily Sun, part of the plan is to seek to stop the party primaries in the event that Atiku is cleared to vie for the presidential primaries of the party. In fact, the party’s leadership has been given a 10-day ultimatum to disqualify the former vice president or risk the commencement of a legal action.

A letter dated December 17, 2010, entitled ‘Disqualification of Atiku Abubakar From Participation at the January 13, 2011, PDP Presidential Primaries by Screening Panel,’ raised questions over the eligibility of Atiku as a member of the party and that the waiver granted him by the 53rd National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party was invalid and wrong procedurally.

The letter, addressed to the chairman of the Presidential Screening Committee, copies of which were sent to all the party’s stakeholders, insisted that Atiku had also violated the guidelines of the party in his bid to stage-manage his return to the party. The nine-page document was signed by Dr. Udeh Obinna, Faruk Garba, Chief Osoba Fasewe and John Timipriye on behalf of PDP Stakeholders Forum.

The letter also claimed that Atiku neither got the primary election participation waiver nor the returnee waiver, which contravened Articles 17 (2) g, 8 and 10 (b) iii of the PDP constitution, adding that his return to the party was without the recommendation of his state chapter to the National Working Committee (NWC).

“Atiku was expelled from the party during the build-up to the 2007 general election for heavy anti-party activities and corruption indictment, which led to the loss his membership of the party. The constitution of the PDP stipulates that once he signifies interest to return to the party, he must be re-admitted by his state exco and thereafter his waiver request shall be forwarded to NEC via the NWC. The waiver granted Atiku is for the purpose of being accepted back as an ordinary member of the party and not for the purpose of crossing the requirement for eligibility to contest primary election. This procedure was not followed by Atiku,” the letter noted.

While insisting that the waiver granted Atiku was consequent upon a letter he personally wrote to the party, the PDP Stakeholders Forum concluded: “So, the bottom line is that the waiver is a nullity and not tenable. Atiku is statutorily not a bona fide member of the PDP and has no valid waiver upon which to contest election under the party platform.”

The group also said that Atiku’s reliance on the report of the Ekwueme report as grounds for his waiver claim is not tenable since according to them the report “is an ad hoc report of NEC, which was not presented to the national convention for ratification and cannot override the express requirement of the PDP constitution, which makes eligibility and membership issues a purely party constitutional issue.”

Part of the reasons given to the committee for the disqualification of Atiku included allegations that he had in the last couple of months criticised the PDP-led government as well as made statements that threatened not only the unity of the party but the corporate entity of the Nigerian state. But the Atiku Campaign Organisation has dismissed the contents of the letter, saying it was lacking in depth and fact.

Garba Shehu, Atiku’s spokeman, told Daily Sun in a telephone interview that “anybody plotting to disqualify Atiku does not wish this country well and there is even no basis for it.” He insisted that Atiku was in possession of a certificate of waiver issued to him by the party and that due process was followed.

“He applied to Adamawa PDP, which said there was no objection. NWC approved the waiver and NEC overwhelmingly approved it. What I’m sure they don’t know is that the Adamawa PDP cannot give waiver to senators, governors, vice presidents and presidents because such category of party- men were within the domain of NEC.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/20/national-20-12-2010-001.htm

TWENTY Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors Thursday promised to back President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for the ruling party’s presidential ticket.

It is, however, with a proviso – that he will rule for only one term, if elected.

The governors’ position was announced in a communiqué read by Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema after their meeting in Abuja last night.

The communiqué reads: “At the emergency meeting of PDP governors held Thursday 16th day of December, 2010 and having deliberated extensively on democratic practices the world over observed as follows:

“Democratic systems all over the world recognise the principle of incumbency and continuity.

“Entrenched democratic culture persistent in presidential system and our constitution entitles our President to run for a second term which the PDP governors support.

“The governors also recognise the Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket and therefore hereby support and endorse President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to contest the 2011 election as the PDP presidential candidate for a period of four years only.”

The 20 governors who signed the communiqué are
Ibrahim Audu (Kogi), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Akwe Doma (Nasarawa), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), Gabriel Suswan (Benue), Rotimi Amaech (Rivers), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Patrick Yakowa (Kaduna), Gbenga Daniel (Ogun), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Ikedi Ohakim (Imo), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Saidu Dakingari ( Kebbi), Adebayo Alao-Akala (Oyo), Mahmud Shinkafi (Zamfara), Jonah Jang (Plateau), Danjuma Goje (Gombe) and Danbaba Suntai (Taraba).

Sources at the meeting said the President attended the Governors’ meeting held at the sideline of the National Executive Committee meeting, where the governors insisted on a new order for the PDP primaries with the governorship primaries coming first ahead of others.

It was gathered that the President accused them of having an ulterior motive for insisting on having the governorship primaries first. This they denied.

An agreement was therefore reached that governors would publicly back the president’s bid while he would in turn agree to their demand.

But Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki was excused from signing the communiqué endorsing the President’s bid because “he is committed to the consensus agreement”.

But the Atiku Campaign Organisation faulted the governors’ decision. In a statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, the campaign organisation said: “The so-called governors’ endorsement is of no significance so long as they do not take away the right of delegates to vote. We are in a democracy. Governors have a right to make a democratic choice and so do the delegates. Let there be no intimidation of delegates.”

The PDP NEC is believed to be sticking to the order of primaries it earlier adopted.

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/21950.html

The executive arm of government may have responded to public outcry of the huge overhead of the federal legislature by cutting down the total budgetary allocations to the National Assembly by N45 billion in the 2011 Appropriation Bill as presented by President Goodluck Jonathan.

A breakdown submitted by President Jonathan on Wednesday, a copy of which was made available to Daily Sun showed the total allocation to the National Assembly put at N111.23 billion as against the N156 billion received by the legislature in the 2010 fiscal year.

A further look at the details of the allocation showed that N108.03 billion is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, while a total of N3.21 billion is for capital expenditure.
The figure was, however, a far cry from that of the executive arm of government as the total of the recurrent expenditure for the legislature is N108.03 billion while that of the executive arm recurrent (non-debt) expenditure is N1.76 trillion.

In this wise, the Senate is expected to receive N29.58 billion, the House of Representatives, N47.88 billion; the National Assembly Office N10.18 billion; National Assembly Service Commission, N1.3 billion; Legislative Aides, N7.88 billion; the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, N128.2 million; House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, N138.95 million while N14.19 billion is allocated to the General Service Office.

As part of the agreement reached between the organized Labour and the Federal Government over wage adjustment for civil servants, N41.49 billion had been set aside to address the issue of salary increase. In the same vein, the total capital allocation to MDAs is N699.52 billion just as the federal executive agencies are expected to gulp a total of N9.15 billion.

A closer look at the budgetary allocation also showed that the Federal Government is expected to spend a total of N78.52 billion for the amnesty programme to cover for stipends and feeding allowance, reintegration of ex-militants, operation cost of programme and other arrears.

The budgetary allocation equally indicated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would also gulp N45.38 billion in addition to N3 billion allocated for logistics support.
The breakdown further showed that even though the total service wide votes of the 2011 budget were put at N397.1 billion, the total recurrent (non-debt) expenditure for Ministries, Departments and Agencies stands at N53.43 billion.

The upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly which slated the second reading of the 2011 Appropriation Bill for yesterday later deferred it to Tuesday next week for the debate on the general principle of the budget. The Senate had on Wednesday approved an extension of the 2010 budget implementation from 31 December 2010 to March 2011.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/17/national-17-12-2010-002.htm

President Goodluck Jonathan has sounded a note of warning to those making inciting statements, challenging Nigeria’s sovereignty as a nation and warned his government would no longer “take that kind of rubbish lightly.”

The president, who was speaking at the decoration ceremony of some newly promoted Nigerian Navy and Air Force Admirals and Air Vice Marshals yesterday in Abuja, said those who made such incendiary utterances were always the first to take their families abroad to stay until other people’s children and families suffered and died as a result of their mischief.

He was apparently reacting to perceived inciting statements by former president Ibrahim Babangida and former vice president and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku had, while speaking at the National Stakeholders Conference organised by the Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) in Abuja, on Wednesday, warned the Federal Government on the likelihood of violence in next year’s election, saying, “those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable.”

President Jonathan warned: “We will no longer allow that kind of culture. I will not allow anybody to take the country for a ride. And sometimes, I frown at some people making statements, especially those of us who are politicians making statements, challenging the sovereignty of this nation.

“Government will no longer take that kind of rubbish lightly. Because when we have crisis, we lose army officers, police officers and some of us who are the cause of the trouble are the people flying to the United States to go and stay until other peoples’ children will die, other people’s wives will suffer then they come back to be our leaders. We will no longer allow that kind of culture. I will not allow anybody to take the country for a ride.”

President Jonathan, while decrying inciting utterances by some politicians in recent times, said Nigeria was bigger than any individual. He called on those guilty of such inciting statements to focus on how to move the country forward and not toe the path of destruction. The president commended the role played by the Nigerian military to keep the nation one, saying but for the role played by the Nigerian Armed Forces in international peace support operations all over the world, Nigeria would not have been recognised as the giant of Africa.

He said the country, more than ever before, was ready to take her rightful place in the African sub-region, adding that the whole world was looking up to Nigeria to settle the political situation in Cote d’ Ivoire. “We have to thank the military for keeping the country together. You have shown leadership in the whole of Africa.

As for what is happening in Cote d’ Ivoire everyday, presidents all over the world are calling on me because they feel it is only Nigeria that can solve the problem of that country. That tells you how others rate Nigeria and we have no reason to derail. “I have to commend the military for doing that. We have that standing role in the society because of the role the military is playing.”

The president, who personally decorated the first female rear admiral in the Nigerian Navy with her new rank, said his administration was conferring with the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces to commence the admission of women into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) to be trained as regular combatant officers.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/dec/17/national-17-12-2010-001.htm

As intrigues for the 2011 general election gather momentum, indications have emerged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been enmeshed in a crisis of confidence with top members of the party’s executive working at cross purposes.

The development comes amid threats to the life of the party’s national chairman, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, for allegedly working secretly to ensure that President Goodluck Jonathan wins the ruling party’s presidential primaries.

Sunday Sun scooped that the North was unrelenting in its resolve to recapture power in 2011 and has planted moles both in the presidency and the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) to throw spanners in the works of President Jonathan’s camp.

A presidency source told Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity that while some members of the NWC were working round the clock to ensure Jonathan’s emergence in the keenly contested race, others were not resting on their oars for a candidate of northern extraction to fly the flag of the PDP in 2011. The source particularly fingered a high-ranking member of the NWC, who played a major part in the administration of the immediate past chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, as the anchorman in the move to scuttle Jonathan’s ambition.

According to our source, the politician is believed to be very close to the vice president and was one of those mentioned in the controversial Siemens scandal. “The battle for who emerges the flag bearer of the PDP is getting tougher by the day but many people do not know. Some think that President Jonathan has even won the election before it is conducted. But I can tell you that the North is fighting hard on several fronts to recapture power.

“The North is cashing in on the gentle nature of the President and are using even people who are close to him to frustrate his ambition. “They are using a top member of the PDP, who is involved in the Siemens scandal but has been enjoying some protection from a top government official to execute this plot,” the source said.
It was gathered that during a recent medical trip abroad by the PDP national chairman, the hatchet man plotted to remove him and worked secretly with politicians from his home state of Enugu.

“When Nwodo traveled abroad for a medical check up abroad, he saw it as an opportunity to pull the rug off the feet of Jonathan by removing him (Nwodo), knowing that he is one of those who would bring his experience to bear during the primaries,” the source added. It would be recalled that while Nwodo was away, the Enugu State Assembly passed a vote of no confidence on him for dissolving the executive of the state chapter of the PDP.

It was also gathered that it was based on intelligence reports on the activities of the moles in the presidency and the NWC that caused the President to appoint General Owoeye Azazi from his home state of Bayelsa as National Security Adviser. Sunday Sun learnt that Jonathan was compelled for reasons of political exigency to choose a close confidant for the sensitive job, based on advice that he needed one whose loyalty is assured. The president’s ambition was said to be sinking until Azazi, who is believed to be a thoroughbred officer in security matters, came on board.

“That Jonathan is still enjoying a relative advantage in the race is because he appointed his own man to monitor what is happening. “Before then, some people close to Jonathan were merely pretending to work for him when in reality they were secretly carrying out the agenda of the North. Azazi, no doubt, has given teeth to the presidential ambition of Jonathan,” the source said.

The source also informed that there was pressure from high quarters to drop the name of the mole from the charge sheet of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the Siemens scandal.
“When Ogbulafor was made to resign over a similar scandal, many had expected that having been under him, he should have also resigned based on moral ground. But he stayed on to execute a set agenda.”
The source said that to save Nwodo’s life, the NSA has tightened security around him and changed all the orderlies that hitherto worked with him.

“Nwodo has become a major target to those bent on frustrating President Jonathan’s ambition. They believe that the national chairman would bring his wealth of experience to bear on his ambition having been the party’s secretary. “The calculation of the anti-Jonathan elements is that with Jonathan out of the way, it would be easier for them to realize their dream of installing their man.

“The death threat on Nwodo is not a joke because you can see that some people are very desperate to capture power from Jonathan and they can do anything to make this happen. For them, if the only way to stop Jonathan is to get Nwodo out of the way, so be it,” the source said.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/nov/07/national-07-11-2010-001.htm

The general Assembly of Ohanaeze Ndigbo yesterday ratified the support of the apex Igbo social organisation for the 2011 Presidential ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan.

The highest authority of the organization, the Imeobi had on October 30, 2010 recommended the organization’s support for the presidential bid of Jonathan.

In a communique issued at the end of the general meeting held at its headquarters in Enugu, Ohanaeze stated thus: “the General Assembly of Ohanaeze Ndigbo endorsed Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s support for the Presidential bid of Dr. Goodlucl Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan in 2011 as approved by Imeobi on 30th October 2010.”

The general assembly also yesterday endorsed the amendments that the national and state offices be a one term of four years and that the present executive committee led by Ambassador Ralph Uwechue remains in office till December 2012 as approved by Imeobi on October 30.

He general assembly disowned the the election of Ohanaeze Youth Council purported to have been held at Owerri on October 31, 2010 adding that “the general assembly wish to emphasize that that the Youth Council is an organ of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and any election into that organ must receive Ohanaeze approval.”

The general assembly further noted with satisfaction that the security forces deployed to Abia state have made positive impact as the incidence of kidnapping has greatly nose dived.

They demanded: “In view of this development , the general assembly appealed to the Federa Government to also deploy security forces to other South East states, in order that the scepter of kidnapping would be dealt a decisive blow in the run up to Christmas 2010.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/18224.html