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Registration of voters is to begin in January next year. Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), confirmed this yesterday in Abuja.

The registration, which was earlier billed for November 1 to 14, was moved after the commission requested for the extension of elections next year, prompting the National Assembly to effect a fresh alteration of the Constitution to allow for the shift...

Waiting for legislative approval

With the amendment concluded last week, the commission said it is awaiting the mandatory approval of at least 24 states legislature, which will put the amendments to use, before announcing a new timetable that will include specific new dates for the registration.

After passage last week at the federal level, lawmakers dispatched the altered sections to the 36 states Houses of Assembly for the required concurrence. Routine public hearings are expected at the states early this week and a final passage by next week.

Mr. Jega said the commission will “not pre-empt” the near-certain favourable outcome of the states’ voting, and will only make public its new timetable, after the final passage has been secured.

However, the registration of voters, which is central to the polls, the INEC boss confirmed on Monday, will hold in January, to allow time for corrections that may be needed, and also a final display of the register before the elections scheduled for April.

No time to waste

“We are taking the registration very seriously. Once we have controversy with the register, we are done, and there cannot be credibility anymore on the entire process,” he said.

Thousands of temporary staff are to be recruited and trained to run the over 120,000 units of the Direct Data Capture machines required for the registration of an estimated 70 million voters.

Ahead of the procurement of the machines, the commission yesterday kicked off a four-day training for the bulk of its officials - called the Master Trainers - who in turn will train and supervise the casual officers.

Speaking through a representative, the national commissioner in charge of training, Lai Olurode, said that the yet-to-be awarded contract for the machines, which many Nigerians have raised concerns about, would not in any way hamper the process.

Fears have been expressed in several quarters over the delay in the award of contracts for the supply of the data capture machine, which is a crucial aspect of the success of the registration of voters.

He said the commission “has completed everything in relation” with the purchase of the machines, and that INEC was confident about their timely delivery.

Mr. Jega’s spokesperson, Kayode Idowu, had earlier assured NEXT the document would be signed this week.

Nigeria's secret service detained an aide to one of President Goodluck Jonathan's election rivals on

Monday over bomb attacks in the capital Abuja, raising the political temperature in the run-up to next year's polls.

The head of former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida's campaign team, Raymond Dokpesi, was called in for questioning in the wake of Friday's car bombs near a parade to mark Nigeria's 50th anniversary of independence.

Responsibility for the bombs, which killed at least 10 people, was claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main militant group in the southern oil region, which has rarely staged attacks outside its home area.

State television said Dokpesi, who is managing Babangida's campaign for 2011 presidential elections, had been held for questioning over text messages found on the phone of a main suspect in the bombings which referred to a monetary payment.

Babangida's campaign team said Dokpesi had complied with an invitation for questioning from the State Security Service (SSS) early on Monday but had since been denied access to his lawyers and family. It said no reason had been given for his detention.

"The campaign organisation hereby condemns in the strongest terms the detention of its director general and calls for his immediate release," it said in a statement.

Prosecutors in Johannesburg earlier charged Henry Okah, a senior figure in MEND who now lives in South Africa, with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and the detonation of explosive devices in Abuja. His lawyer denied his involvement.

President Jonathan has said a "small terrorist group that resides outside Nigeria" - an apparent reference to Okah - carried out the attacks but that it was sponsored by "unpatriotic elements within the country".

Nigeria's secret service said it had detained nine suspects with direct links to Okah.

The security services have admitted there were intelligence lapses in the run-up to Friday's car bombings but Jonathan has vowed to hunt down the perpetrators.

He named a new national security adviser on Monday, former chief of defence staff Andrew Azazi, a fellow member of the Ijaw ethnic group, the largest in the southern Niger Delta.

Azazi's appointment follows the resignation last month of Aliyu Gusau, a northerner who stepped aside to challenge Jonathan at the ruling party primaries..

Larger plot

MEND's claim of responsibility was an embarrassment for Jonathan, one of the main architects of an amnesty agreed last year with rebels in the Niger Delta and who is the first Nigerian leader to come from the vast wetlands region.

He has said the perpetrators "used the name of MEND to camouflage criminality and terrorism" and that the attacks had nothing to do with the Niger Delta.

The secret service said it had foiled a larger plot to detonate at least six car bombs in the "three-arm zone" in Abuja made up of the presidential villa, parliament and the Supreme Court just days before last Friday's attacks.

"The despicable act of terrorism which eventually took place on Oct. 1 was planned for Wednesday Sept. 29 but was foiled as soon as information was received during the early hours of Sept. 28," SSS spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar told a news conference.

"The over-riding objective of the group was to scare foreign visitors from attending the 50th anniversary celebrations."

A MEND statement signed Jomo Gbomo - the pseudonym used by the group to claim responsibility for previous attacks on Nigeria's oil industry - was emailed to media warning the area should be evacuated, an hour before the Abuja bombs went off.

Although MEND has used car bombs in the past, its targets have been almost exclusively oil facilities and it has struck outside the Niger Delta only twice, once on an offshore oil platform, and once at an oil dock in the commercial hub Lagos.

Jonathan's assertion that the attacks had nothing to do with the Niger Delta has drawn criticism from his opponents.

"For whatever purpose it serves to fulfil, it is unpresidential for Mr President to quickly exonerate MEND, which had earlier claimed responsibility," Babangida's spokesman said in a statement issued before Dokpesi's detention.

"Issues of security of individuals and of the nation require more than just a passing glance," the statement said.

Jonathan's detractors have started to use MEND's claim of responsibility to undermine his credentials for the elections.

"If his own people can disown him and disgrace him how can you trust him? Reject GEJ, he can't be trusted," said one text message circulated to mobile phones.

REUTER

A Muslim bus driver stunned passengers by pulling over mid-route and beginning to pray in the aisle.

The driver stopped the bus without warning before removing his shoes and, using a fluorescent jacket as a prayer mat, beginning to chant in Arabic.

Passengers said they feared the driver could be preparing for a terror attack.

No one was able to get on or off the vehicle during the five-minute prayer session.

Passenger Gayle Griffiths complained to Transport for London about the bizarre incident on the No.24 bus in Gospel Oak, north London, this week.

Mother-of-one Miss Griffiths, 33, of Camden, north-west London, had boarded the bus a few minutes earlier on her way home from work.

She says that she even feared at the time that the driver might be a fanatic planning to blow up the bus.

She said: 'I have done the journey a million times before but I was in a hurry to get home to pick my little girl up from school.

'We had just picked up and let off people at a bus stop and moved off again when the driver stopped the bus very suddenly.

'He got out of his cab, leaving the engine running, and walked towards the middle exit door.

'He laid out a fluorescent jacket on the floor and I thought that somebody must have been sick and he was covering it up.

'I didn't really think much of it.

'But then he took off his shoes and began praying. I was gobsmacked and quite bewildered.'

Miss Griffiths said the bus driver didn't give the passengers any explanation as to what he was doing.

'He hadn't addressed the passengers at all,' she said. 'I didn't say anything and nor did anyone else. I thought it would all be over in 30 seconds but it went on for over five minutes.

Passenger: Gayle Griffiths

'It even went through my mind that this might be some sort of terrorist attack with the bus blown up because I had heard that suicide bombers prayed before attacks.

'As the engine was running anyone could also have got in the cab and driven off with a bus full of passengers.

'He was also blocking the exit, so if something had happened we would not have been able to get off.

'Everyone was looking round in a mix of shock and amazement. It was truly bizarre, ludicrous and aggravating.

'We are delayed often enough as it is in London.

'We live in a multi-cultural society but there is a time and a place for prayer and the middle of a journey with a busload of passengers is not it.'

Transport for London said it had apologised to all the passengers for the delay to their journey and said all Muslim drivers are being reminded that they should pray during statutory rest periods rather than hold up services.

A TfL spokesman said: 'A route 24 bus was delayed following a decision by the driver to stop the bus to pray.

'The bus company, London General, has had a word with the driver as this is not something that should be happening.

'TfL apologises to passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused them.

'We understand that there is some flexibility in the Muslim faith as to the times of day that drivers can pray.

'TfL and the individual bus operating companies acknowledge and value the diversity of their staff.

'As diverse employers, TfL and the bus operators provide suitable prayer or quiet rooms at garages and other key locations for staff who wish to practise their faith.

'We have asked London General to remind drivers who have a requirement to pray to use these facilities during their rest periods.'