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President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan yesterday made history when he ordered that henceforth, females interested in becoming combatant officers for the Nigerian armed forces should be admitted into the Nigeria Defence Academy.
Minister of Defence, Adetokumbo Kayode who made the disclosure at a media briefing in Abuja, said, though the issue had been under consideration by the military high command for sometime, President Jonathan took the decision to start it immediately because it is the right thing adding that "Other countries in Africa are already doing it and they are not better than us".
Photos: Are of US Female Soldier Lavena Johnson who was Raped/Murdered in the barracks in strange circumstances.Will The "Men" who beat their wives in the 9ja Army allow this to become a norm instead of a "killing" ground of our women ?
We remember the allegation that the 9ja Army fathered upto a whopping 250,000 kids during the Liberian conflict !
Main Story:
"Presently, we have female armoured tank drivers, female Para-troopers, Jumpers, and so on. We will follow international best practices in this regards. We want to have strong, virile armed forces devoid of discrimination".
Expatiating on the new directive, the minister said, "As you are all aware, the Nigerian Armed forces had always had opening for female officers. However, these have always been limited to non combat duties thereby limiting their career path irrespective of their competence or skill".
"To redress this obvious anomaly and in line with conviction of the President that every Nigerian irrespective of Gender or any affiliation should be given equal opportunity to excel in his or her chosen field of life, Mr. President has directed the immediate enlistment and training of female regular combatant commission officers into the Nigerian armed forces".
"The training of the female regular combatant cadets along with their male counterparts will be at the NDA, Kaduna where they will pass out with a degree in a chosen academic field and a regular combatant commission into the Nigerian Armed forces".
The minister continued, "As you might already know, we have various types of commission in the armed forces namely; Regular Combatant Commission, Short Service Combatant Commission, Direct Regular Commission, Direct Short Service and Executive Commission. Of all these types of commissions, it is only the Regular Combatant Commission that can give an officer the opportunity to aspire to head any of the services or rise to become the Chief of Defence staff".
"It is in this consideration that the Presidential directive was given in other to provide the female officers the same opportunity of rising to the pinnacle of their profession. This directive is also aimed at providing women, career opportunities that would allow them to compete with their male counterparts for the highest offices in the military".
"The female regular combatant officers will therefore have the opportunity, as their male counterparts, to command major units of the army, fly fighter jets of the Airforce and to be seamen officers who could command a combat going vessel of the Nigerian Navy", the minister said..
Reacting to a question, he said, “there will be no discrimination with regard to training. The same standard will be applied to both male and female intakes. There will no gender issues involved as it will be strictly be in compliance with NDA statutes”.
LaVena Johnson (July 27, 1985 - July 19, 2005) was a Private First Class in the United States Army whose death, officially ruled a suicide, has attracted international attention amid claims she was raped and murdered. She was the first female soldier from Missouri to die in Iraq.
Johnson's death was officially ruled a suicide by the Department of Defense. However, her father became suspicious when he saw her body in the funeral home and decided to investigate. The Army initially refused to release information, but did so under the Freedom of Information Act after Representative William Lacy Clay, Jr. raised questions about it at the congressional hearings over Pat Tillman's death.[3]
The autopsy report and photographs revealed Johnson had a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, burns from a corrosive chemical on her genitals, and a gunshot wound that seemed inconsistent with suicide. Several reporters have suspected that the chemical burns were to destroy DNA evidence of a rape
Previously:
Amnesty International Report on 9gerian (sic) Soldiers
women despoiled by police and army
"Disturbing trends of despoil and sexual violence against women and girls at the hands of police and security forces" have been revealed in Nigeria. Some security forces act as if they were entitled to despoil local women, and they are sure never to face justice.
"There were three men. I have pain even today… they used my daughter too. She is 12 years old… They also despoiled my sister. Another man despoiled a woman who was 4 months pregnant and she lost the child…they were military men. Everyone in the village saw them, they didn't hide, they didn't care. I didn't tell the police because I fear them."
This is one of the testimonies presented at a press conference in Lagos, Nigeria, today by the human rights group Amnesty International. The testimony is part of a report on sexual abuse of women by Nigerian security forces, which according to Amnesty could almost be termed systematic.
despoil by police and security forces is endemic in Nigeria as is the abject failure of the Nigerian authorities to bring perpetrators to justice, the human rights group said at the press conference. They called on Nigeria's federal and State authorities to urgently overhaul the legal and social systems that tolerate widespread despoil and sexual violence against women and girls across the country.
Amnesty launched the report "Nigeria: despoil - the silent weapon", which draws upon the testimony of survivors and "identifies disturbing trends of despoil and sexual violence against women and girls at the hands of police and security forces." The report argues that these acts are compounded and encouraged by failures at every level of the judicial system and persist because of consistent failure by the state to tackle the abuse of women and girls by the police and security forces.
Whether abused by police, security forces or in their homes and community, the report outlines the enormous difficulties faced by women and girls who are despoiled or sexually abused in Nigeria.
"The harsh reality is that if you are a woman or a girl in Nigeria who has suffered the terrible experience of being despoiled, your suffering is likely to be met with intimidation by the police, indifference from the state and the knowledge that the perpetrator is unlikely to ever face justice," said Kolawole Olaniyan of Amnesty.
At the press conference, there was further presented evidence of the use of despoil and sexual slavery by the Nigerian security forces "to intimidate communities in the Niger Delta." The oil-rich but impoverished Delta has fallen into violence as local rebels fight for a greater part of oil revenues to be channelled to the region.
The group further outlined how despoil is used by the police as a means of torture to extract confessions from suspects in custody and how women and girls rarely seek prosecution for fear of intimidation by the police and rejection by their families and community. When they do, widespread failures throughout the judicial system result in only an estimated 10 percent of cases ever being successfully prosecuted.
The report outlines serious obstacles to the reporting and prosecution of despoil in Nigeria, including inadequate training of police that results in the humiliation and intimidation of the victims and police investigations hampered by corruption and incompetence. On the legislative level, differences between federal, state, Shari'a and customary law lead to uneven standards of justice and arbitrary decisions concerning the seriousness of the crime.
"Our report depicts the near total failure of the Nigerian state to protect women and girls from these terrible crimes. The Nigerian government has taken no meaningful action to translate its international legal obligations towards woman and girls into national law, policy and practice. It is now time that the state and federal authorities meet those obligations and offer real security and justice to women and girls in Nigeria," Ms Olaniyan said.
Amazing pic of Christians protesters protecting Muslims during their prayers in Egypt yesterday. Naija lets take note! Jos lets take note! We can too,
The illegal arms shipment intercepted this week at Nigeria's busiest port came from Belgium through Germany, a navy spokesman said Thursday.
"I can confirm to you that the origin of the impounded consignment of arms, military equipment and vehicles is Belgium. The vessel came to Nigeria via Germany," Captain Kabir Aliyu told AFP.
He said those arrested over the illegal shipment were Nigerians, but refused to give details because of an ongoing investigation.
The shipment, including pistols, hundreds of ammunition, bulletproof jackets, military boots and other related banned items, was seized at the Lagos port weeks after the discovery of a weapons cache sent from Iran.
Aliyu said the military items were packed inside a vehicle painted in army green, while eight heavy duty trucks painted in military camouflage were also impounded.
Small Union Jack stickers had been placed on some of the vehicles, but the spokesman said they seem to have been used as a disguise.
Officials at the Belgian embassy in Nigeria were not immediately available for comments on the latest shipment.
Last month, Nigerian security agents intercepted an illegal arms shipment that included rockets and grenades at the same port which had been loaded in Iran.
Nigeria reported the shipment to the UN Security Council.
Iran is under four sets of UN sanctions for pursuing the programme, which the West suspects is cover for a drive for a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies. The sanctions include a ban on arms sales.
Tensions are rising ahead of next year's general elections in Africa's most populous country of 150 million people, which has witnessed voter fraud and violence.
More Arms Intercepted at Tin Can Island Port
Four men have been arrested and paraded by the Nigerian Navy for illegal importation of military uniforms, boots and ammunition into the country.
The items which were concealed in a car with other personal effects were discovered when security operatives were inspecting a container at the tin can island ports in Apapa.
One of the suspects who claimed to have served in the U.S. military said the items were his personal effects.
It was gathered that the arms were concealed in a jeep inside a container and comprised machine guns, pistols, military uniform and boots.
But the Area Controller of the Command, Mr. Austen Warikoru, told newsmen that, “We are yet to conclude the examination of the container, we cannot say anything now because we will not like to mislead the public, it is better we get our facts right.”
The Customs had about a month ago, impounded 13 containers of rocket launchers, assorted ammunitions, cartridges and other weapons at Apapa Port in which 754 packages of glass wool and stones were declared on the ship’s manifest as contents of the 13 containers.
The National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi (retd.), had assured that those involved in the importation of the arms and ammunition would be arrested.
The NSA said, “At this point, the only thing we can say is that we have some armament we discovered at the port by the security agencies. We don’t want to make any conclusions about where they are going or where they are coming from.”
Four persons all male have been arrested and paraded by the Nigerian Navy for illegal importation of military uniforms, boots and ammunition into the country.
The items which were concealed in a car with other personal effects were discovered when security operatives were
inspecting a forty feet container at the tin can island ports in Apapa.
One of the suspects who claimed to have served in the U.S. military said the items were his personal effects.
It was gathered that the arms were concealed in a jeep inside a container
and comprised machine guns, pistols, military uniform and boots.
But the Area Controller of the Command, Mr. Austen Warikoru, told newsmen
that, "We are yet to conclude the examination of the container, we
cannot say anything now because we will not like to mislead the public,
it is better we get our facts right."
The Customs had about a month ago, impounded 13 containers of rocket launchers, assorted
ammunitions, cartridges and other weapons at Apapa Port in which 754
packages of glass wool and stones were declared on the ship�s manifest
as contents of the 13 containers.
The National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Azazi (retd.), had assured that those involved in the
importation of the arms and ammunition would be arrested.
The NSA said, "At this point, the only thing we can say is that we have some
armament we discovered at the port by the security agencies. We don�t
want to make any conclusions about where they are going or where they
are coming from."...
Friday, September 17, 2010
Pretty Jennifer has been married to Stanley Jumbo since 1999. Few months after their wedding, Stanley returned to the United States where he has been staying for more than 10 years now. Stanley who claims to be a medical doctor in the US has not returned to his wife till date, neither has he communicated with childless Jennifer, who, despite pressures from friends and family members to remarry, has remained committed to her marital vows.
She is at the verge of giving up as her husband’s absence seems to be unending. Stanley, she has confirmed, is healthy but has no proof if he is in another relationship. Even her family members have given up on her. Do you think she’ll be making a mistake if she decides to give another relationship a shot? Should she keep waiting for him? What if he returns with another wife and children someday? All these and more are some of the questions bothering Jennifer, and as usual, we have been able to do justice on the subject.
Read on:
Move on and forget him …. Etcetera, Musician
In trying to wait for this spouse, there are certain things that should be ascertained. We need to know if he is alive or dead. We need to know if he’s in jail, healthy or if he is suffering from amnesia (a health condition that makes one forget everything about his past). I wouldn’t mind arranging a trip for my sister to go and make all these enquiries to know his true state. If it is confirmed that he’s alive and sound, then my sister will have to move on with her life.
I want you to understand that ten years is not the same as ten days. We’re talking about ten seasons here. It is very obvious that by this time, the man may have built another relationship and my sister cannot continue to wait for him. What if she continues to wait and in the process gets to the age of menopause? My sister becomes the fool because this guy may have fathered children somewhere.
The best thing to do is for her to move on in life. Don’t forget that every human being once in a while feels horny and I wouldn’t want my sister to flirt around while waiting for one guy who’s having a field day somewhere.
Remarry after 5yrs … Portia Yamahan,
Actress
Why on earth will I be waiting for a man who left me 10 years ago? What becomes of me if this man decides to remain abroad for the rest of his life? Any woman waiting for a man (husband) who’s been in-communicado for 10 years truly needs some kind of deliverance. Five to 10 years is too much a wait. I mean, even if she has no head, her family members should talk some sense into her, or maybe, she needs to go for medical check up to certify she’s okay. After three to five years of waiting, I should be able to decide what I want to do with my life. I can’t wait forever. I’ll surely start a new relationship and remarry in due time because it is obvious that he doesn’t remember I still exist. Even if we communicate and he still doesn’t come back in about 10 years, I won’t continue waiting for him, especially where there’s no child from the relationship. At least, the child would have served as my consolation prize. What on earth should we be discussing on phone? No, my dear phone calls will not do.
Wait if you love him … Yinka Davies, Entertainer
The first question any woman in this condition must answer is whether she’s still in love with the man or not. And if she’s able to tell herself the truth, she’ll know whether to continue or not. If he’s not been communicating with her but she’s still in love with him, she can keep waiting.
I’ve seen a woman who waited for 18 years and another one who waited for 25 years and later got their husbands back. In marriage, no other person has a right to come between the parties involved. If she’s been able to survive all these years, then I can’t advise her to quit now. She’s the only one that can make up her mind on what she really wants because she has to follow her instinct. We can only pray for her to be able to take the right decision because some of these things happen in a way that we cannot explain.
Seek the face of God … Tiwa, Artiste
If I were in her shoes, I would just keep praying and fasting for it. When things like this happens, the only thing that is appropriate for us to do is to keep seeking the face of God.
I know that most of our men can’t wait for their women in matters like this but we should not judge with that because we are different from them. We are more emotional and soft and there are certain things men can take emotionally that we can’t absorb.
Who will be promoted & who will join Bode George ? Who is your favourite mallam ?
Former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday told a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, that it lacked the power to try him over allegations of abuse of office as minister. He said that the proper court to try him was the Abuja High Court.
Counsel to the former minister, Akin Olujimi, filed a preliminary objection saying that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Matters Commission (ICPC) Act of 2000, which his client had been charged on, had been repealed and so the federal court lacked the jurisdiction to try the matter. “The prosecution acknowledges that the charges stand on nothing,” said Mr Olujimi. “The effect of a repealed law is that it is a nullity, and no charges founded on it can stand.”
In response to the preliminary objection, the prosecution said that the court could assume jurisdiction in the matter because it involved an agency of the federal government and a former minister in the federal cabinet. Trial Judge, Adamu Bello, adjourned ruling on the case to 13th October.
Mr. El-Rufai and two others were accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of illegally allocating land in the FCT to friends and relatives, some of whom included Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the daughter of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The other accused persons are Altine Jubrin, former director general of the Abuja Geographical Information System, and Ismail Iro, former general manager of the agency. All three men pleaded not guilty.
AC Ribadu & Oshiomole ticket : as Asiwaju Tinubu Drops Vice Presidential Ambition
If he had held Fash close to his breast who knows as Alamiyesegha is reaping the rewards of patient GodFatherhood
Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no longer interested in the vice presidential race and is, instead, strategising on how the Action Congress (AC) would team up with another party to claim the presidency as well as win all the South Western States, Sunday Independent can reveal.
It also emerged that AC may have concluded plan to field the former anti-graft czar, Nuhu Ribadu as its presidential candidate, with Edo Governor and former Labour leader, Adams Oshiomhole, as his running mate.
That appears to be a fantastic political masterstroke, designed to woo the disenchanted Northerners who appeared certain to lose the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential ticket to President Goodluck Jonathan and draw the organised Labour and younger elements who see Ribadu and Oshiomhole as emerging leaders they could count on.
Tinubu, former Lagos Governor and AC foremost financier, has long been rumoured to be in alliance talk with Muhammadu Buhari to float a joint presidential ticket, a very risky arrangement that would have repeated the Social Democratic Party (SDP)’s Muslim-Muslim ticket in the 1993 presidential ballot.
Late Moshood Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe were Muslims, but the ticket won a landside across the country widely split along ethno-religious lines.
Tinubu’s rumoured VP ambition has seen him criss-cross the length and breadth of Nigeria in the last two years to build bridges as he consulted with top opposition leaders and political parties, including the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
He is said to have resolved to sit back and map out strategies for the AC to regain all its lost states in the Yoruba-speaking South West geopolitical zone as a bargaining chip for the party in its merger talks with other political parties in the country.
This agenda is believed to enjoy the backing of the five former governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) with whom he had been involved in series of mobilisation for the new party to be consummated from the years of consultations.
He was also said to have revealed the new move to his political associates and groups in the South West and across Nigeria in the last one month, a decision believed to be behind the lull and change of strategy in the political consultations among the opposition parties.
Sources close to the godfather of Lagos politics said he backs the decision by AC to support a younger element from the North with a running mate from the oil-bearing South South geo political zone, a deft move to dwarf the influence of Jonathan whose support base political scientists say is weak.
Tinubu and AC favour the candidature of Ribadu and Oshiomhole, two fellows whose support bases they believe could jolt the PDP in the ballot, sources said.
The choice of Ribadu over some other young Northerners like former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nasir El Rufai, is said to have been informed by the high profile and public sympathy over his performance in the anti-corruption crusade, regardless of his romance with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and allegations that the latter used him to hound adversaries.
The choice of Oshiomhole as a running mate, sources added, flow from his coming from the same region as Jonathan and his wide appeal among Nigerians who relished his presidency of workers’ movement, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Example
Noun: IBB is a kaita, so is Ota boy. Verb: Don't kaita what we have been building for 11 yrs in one day." I like that girl, please don't be a Kaita" Or In a Foolish Person's Thought: We are winning 1 - 0, let me kaita this game, so that I can get a red card and my opponent can win.
BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.
Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.
Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks.
The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.
Small children swim in the polluted estuary here, fishermen take their skiffs out ever farther — “There’s nothing we can catch here,” said Pius Doron, perched anxiously over his boat — and market women trudge through oily streams. “There is Shell oil on my body,” said Hannah Baage, emerging from Gio Creek with a machete to cut the cassava stalks balanced on her head.
That the Gulf of Mexico disaster has transfixed a country and president they so admire is a matter of wonder for people here, living among the palm-fringed estuaries in conditions as abject as any in Nigeria, according to the United Nations. Though their region contributes nearly 80 percent of the government’s revenue, they have hardly benefited from it; life expectancy is the lowest in Nigeria.
“President Obama is worried about that one,” Claytus Kanyie, a local official, said of the gulf spill, standing among dead mangroves in the soft oily muck outside Bodo. “Nobody is worried about this one. The aquatic life of our people is dying off. There used be shrimp. There are no longer any shrimp.”
In the distance, smoke rose from what Mr. Kanyie and environmental activists said was an illegal refining business run by local oil thieves and protected, they said, by Nigerian security forces. The swamp was deserted and quiet, without even bird song; before the spills, Mr. Kanyie said, women from Bodo earned a living gathering mollusks and shellfish among the mangroves.
With new estimates that as many as 2.5 million gallons of oil could be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day, the Niger Delta has suddenly become a cautionary tale for the United States.
As many as 546 million gallons of oil spilled into the Niger Delta over the last five decades, or nearly 11 million gallons a year, a team of experts for the Nigerian government and international and local environmental groups concluded in a 2006 report. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 dumped an estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off Alaska.
So the people here cast a jaundiced, if sympathetic, eye at the spill in the gulf. “We’re sorry for them, but it’s what’s been happening to us for 50 years,” said Emman Mbong, an official in Eket.
The spills here are all the more devastating because this ecologically sensitive wetlands region, the source of 10 percent of American oil imports, has most of Africa’s mangroves and, like the Louisiana coast, has fed the interior for generations with its abundance of fish, shellfish, wildlife and crops.
Local environmentalists have been denouncing the spoliation for years, with little effect. “It’s a dead environment,” said Patrick Naagbanton of the Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development in Port Harcourt, the leading city of the oil region.
Though much here has been destroyed, much remains, with large expanses of vibrant green. Environmentalists say that with intensive restoration, the Niger Delta could again be what it once was.
Nigeria produced more than two million barrels of oil a day last year, and in over 50 years thousands of miles of pipes have been laid through the swamps. Shell, the major player, has operations on thousands of square miles of territory, according to Amnesty International. Aging columns of oil-well valves, known as Christmas trees, pop up improbably in clearings among the palm trees. Oil sometimes shoots out of them, even if the wells are defunct.
“The oil was just shooting up in the air, and it goes up in the sky,” said Amstel M. Gbarakpor, youth president in Kegbara Dere, recalling the spill in April at Gio Creek. “It took them three weeks to secure this well.”
How much of the spillage is due to oil thieves or to sabotage linked to the militant movement active in the Niger Delta, and how much stems from poorly maintained and aging pipes, is a matter of fierce dispute among communities, environmentalists and the oil companies.
Caroline Wittgen, a spokeswoman for Shell in Lagos, said, “We don’t discuss individual spills,” but argued that the “vast majority” were caused by sabotage or theft, with only 2 percent due to equipment failure or human error.
“We do not believe that we behave irresponsibly, but we do operate in a unique environment where security and lawlessness are major problems,” Ms. Wittgen said.
Oil companies also contend that they clean up much of what is lost. A spokesman for Exxon Mobil in Lagos, Nigel A. Cookey-Gam, said that the company’s recent offshore spill leaked only about 8,400 gallons and that “this was effectively cleaned up.”
But many experts and local officials say the companies attribute too much to sabotage, to lessen their culpability. Richard Steiner, a consultant on oil spills, concluded in a 2008 report that historically “the pipeline failure rate in Nigeria is many times that found elsewhere in the world,” and he noted that even Shell acknowledged “almost every year” a spill due to a corroded pipeline.
On the beach at Ibeno, the few fishermen were glum. Far out to sea oil had spilled for weeks from the Exxon Mobil pipe. “We can’t see where to fish; oil is in the sea,” Patrick Okoni said.
“We don’t have an international media to cover us, so nobody cares about it,” said Mr. Mbong, in nearby Eket. “Whatever cry we cry is not heard outside of here.”
Soon Yahoo Yahoo will be legal .
If people like James Ohanefe Ibori are close friends with the ailing President I am wondering why it took The Career Criminals in the senate this long to Legalise it. PHOTO:MugShot of THE DEPUTY SENATE PRESIDENTIn a dramatic move, the Senate yesterday voted to delete an aspect of the Constitution which prohibits people indicted for various offences from contesting elections.
Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate president and the leader of the constitution review committee which made the recommendation argued that if left in the constitution, it can be used by government officials to witch-hunt political opponents.
Mr. Ekweremadu, a lawyer, also argued that other provisions in section 137 of the constitution can adequately cover the intentions of the deleted section. The section, 137 (1), prohibits people who have been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by state or federal panels of enquiry or tribunals from running for presidential office.
During the voting, 90 senators supported that it be deleted while only five senators voted for the retention of the section.
However, typographical errors and omissions prevented the Senate from formally passing the draft after the final reading on Wednesday.
Government of thieves
Various reactions across the country have trailed the vote for the removal of this section.
"This confirms what we have always been saying, that this is a government of thieves and therefore the anti-corruption campaign is dead," lamented Balarabe Musa, the chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties. Mr. Musa, in a phone interview from Kaduna added that, "we are now in trouble in Nigeria because we are apparently now being ruled by thieves in Nigeria." He likened the ‘Senate's abysmal act' to the failure of the National Assembly in passing the forfeiture bill sent to them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to confiscate properties of treasury looters.
This sentiment was echoed by Rotimi Akeredolu, the Nigerian Bar Association president who described the Senators' action in a terse text message, as a "futile exercise" adding that, "the Senate cannot on its own alone repeal any provision of Constitution."
A timely amendment
However, Sam Amadi, a lawyer, and director, Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development said the repeal of the act was not an anomaly. Mr Amadi said that in line with other constitutions across the world, the Electoral Act and not the Constitution should specify the eligibility of candidates to contest for election. "I think the clause should be removed completely from the constitution," Mr. Amadi said. "Our Constitution is not working because we have so many unnecessary things in it. Given our country where corrupt persons aspire to the highest offices in the land, the Electoral Act should be what is to be amended and the eligibility clause should be streamlined into criminal conviction and not just indictments." He also warned about what he called, "retaliatory indictments," saying, "we've seen in the past where governors set up panels and enquiries to get back at foes thereby discrediting the person(s) candidature for elections through such indictments and thereby creating confusion and legal challenges for the electoral process."
Another legal practitioner who welcomed the Senate's action is Chris Uche, who said, "the amendment of Section 137 (1)of the Constitution is timely and welcome to remove disqualification to contest election based on indictment by panel of inquiry given the abuse of that clause by governments."
According to Mr Uche, "the need has arisen because of the abuse of this provision by the federal and state governments to block political opponents from contesting elections."
Mr Uche based his argument on what happened to former Vice-President Abubakar Atiku and the former administration in Abia State which also issued a white paper indicting several politicians. "Happily, the Supreme court had in the Atiku case (AC vs INEC) in 2007, neutralised that provision which has now been repealed by defining indictment to mean trial by a court of law. Therefore, what the Senate has done is a legislative endorsement of a judicial reformation of the law by a proactive Supreme court."
Yinka Odumakin, the spokesperson of the Save Nigeria Group who recalled a statement credited to a Senator, Nuhu Aliyu, that the "National Assembly is full of criminals," warned that politicians should not think of using this avenue to pave the way for their return in the forthcoming elections.
He however recalled that the supreme court already ruled that an indictment by an admnistrative panel is not a judicial conviction. "We saw the way this section was abused under Olusegun Obasanjo. Even Orji Kalu set up a panel to do a counter-indictment of Mr. Obasanjo and Iyabo."
The cross carpeting law
Senate also deleted the section prohibiting lawmakers from cross carpeting. Section 68 (g) prohibits federal legislators from dumping the political party on whose platform they were elected unless there is a division in that party. It was deleted by a lean margin of 75 votes, two votes above the required minimum of 73.
Insertions were also made in the constitution, including two clauses in section 228 of the 1999 constitution, to enable the National Assembly make laws that will regulate internal democracies in political parties.
The new section, which got at least 89 votes on Wednesday now reads:
"The National assembly may by law provide for guidelines and rules to ensure internal democracy within political parties, including making laws for the conduct of party primaries, party primaries and party conventions."
Another insertion, to account for every day a governor or president whose election was annulled but wins the re-run election spent before the re-run election was also very popular with the senators. It was passed with 88 votes.
"In the calculation of the four year term, where a re-election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account," the section reads.
The other recommendations which passed include clauses which make the Independent National Electoral Commission and its chairman above the authority of the president or any other body, and the recommendations to make the commission, the National Assembly and the Judiciary financially independent of the executive.
The independent candidacy clause and the recommendation to conduct election not earlier than 150 days before swearing in and not later than 90 days, were also passed overwhelmingly.
The draft amended constitution also recommended a fixed time for hearing and ruling on election petitions by both election petition tribunals and courts of appeal.
Yar’Adua can walk, talk, eat – Cousin Confirms
BUT HE CANT ADDRESS THE NATION ! .
By Lawani Mikairu with agency report
Thursday, March 4, 2010
LAGOS—CONTRARY to speculations that President Umaru Yar’Adua is in coma and on a life support machine, the first cousin, Mr. Zubaru Ali, has disclosed that the President can walk, talk, eat and was even asking after family members.
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In an interview with cable network, Al Jazeera, Zubaru Ali said he was given permission to meet with the ailing President because he is his first cousin and family spokesperson.
He said the President’s health was improving and that he was able to recognize individuals contrary to speculations. Zubaru Ali added that Yar’Adua has been expressing thanks to family members for their prayers and support.
It will be recalled that President Umaru Yar’Adua, has been back in the country since penultimate Wednesday, after spending more than three months receiving medical treatment at a Saudi Arabian hospital.
He has, however, not been seen or heard in public since his return on February 24, fueling speculation that he was incapable of carrying out his job. Yar’Adua’s silence has led many newspapers to continue to report that he was on a life support machine or in a coma.
There are also speculations that the president’s aides and first family are holding him hostage in the presidential villa until they can figure out how to retain influence and power in the event of his death.
According to Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, who had gone to Katsina State, Yar’Adua home state, she was able to track down one of the few members of Yar’Adua’s family to discuss the state of the president’s health.
State of health
Yar’Adua left the country on November 23 to receive treatment for pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart that can restrict normal beating.
He is also known to suffer from a chronic kidney condition and has long been criticized for not being able to work more than five or six hours a day.
Aside from the near constitutional crisis, Yar’Adua’s long absence had prompted street protests by thousands across the country, demanding his resignation.
It also threatened to paralyse the government until the National Assembly installed Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president, as acting president on February 9.
Yar’Adua had not officially transmitted a letter of medical vacation to the National Assembly, though the parliament said it based its decision on an interview that the ailing president gave the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, last month, saying that he would return to work once his doctors gave him the go-ahead.
EFCC yet to act on Igbinedion's conviction
![pix200802192423062[1].jpg](http://odili.net/news/source/2010/mar/7/punch/images/pix200802192423062%5B1%5D.jpg)
Adelani Adepegba
Sixteen months after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission vowed to appeal the conviction of a former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, on one-count charge of money laundering, corruption and embezzlement, the agency has not acted on the processes it filed on the matter, SUNDAY PUNCH investigations have gathered.
former Edo State Governor, Chi
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Justice Abdul Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Enugu had on December 18, 2008 found the former governor guilty on a one-count charge after he entered into a plea-bargain with the EFCC which led to the dropping of the other 190 charges of corruption and financial impropriety preferred against him.
Igbinedion did not go to jail as he was merely fined N3.6m which drew criticism from members of the public particularly the Nigeria Bar Association.
The commission, which dragged Igbinedion alongside four companies in which he had interests, had rejected the judgment, and insisted on filing an appeal against the conviction.
It said in a statement that it "would rather go the long way of prosecution than to settle for a plea-bargain verdict that has no bite or will not serve any deterrence purpose. The outcome of the exercise at the court in Enugu however fell short of our expectation.
"It is believed that the essence of a plea bargain is not only for suspects to forfeit the proceeds of crime but that such should go with a sentence which will serve as deterrent."
Subsequently, the agency claimed it had filed an appeal on the matter.
But findings by our correspondent last Wednesday indicated that no action has been taken on the processes filed in the appeal against the court judgment as checks at both the registries of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal, Enugu showed that nothing has been done on the appeal filed by the anti-graft agency.
Following the inaction on the matter, the case file has already been taken to the archive where old case files are kept by court officers.
Attempts to get the comment of the Head, Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Femi Babafemi, was not successful as calls and a text message to his GSM telephone were not responded to.
But the man who led the EFCC prosecution that secured the conviction, Mr. Rotimi Jacob, told our correspondent that he personally filed the appeal, but said he did not know why no action had been taken on the suit.
"I remember that I filed the appeal immediately after the conviction in early 2009, but I don't know why no action had been taken on the suit. What I heard was that they are compiling the record on the matter, but I can't say why this has not been concluded one year after the appeal was filed," Jacob said over the telephone.
The EFCC, which had filed a 191-count charge of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement against Igbinedion and the companies made a volte face a day before the judgment by dropping the charges.
Instead, it filed an amended 24-count charge but arraigned him on just one-count.
Igbinedion, who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the 191-count charge, admitted being liable to the one-count charge in which he said that he neglected to make a declaration of his interest in the account No. 41240113983110 with GTBank in the declaration of Assets Form of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, an offence punishable under section 27(3) of the EFCC Act, 2004.
The second accused, Kiva Corporation, was convicted on two of the 23-count charge preferred against it and ordered to pay N500m fine and to forfeit its landed property to the Federal Government.
The property include a parcel of land at Asokoro, Abuja, a detached building on two plots comprising four-bedroom and two outer houses in GRA, Benin, and a storey building in Benin.
The prosecution had told the court that the former governor failed to disclose in his assets declaration form that he had N3,579, 524.16 in GTBank and tendered five exhibits, including the certified true copy of the assets declaration form, the statement of account of Kiva Corporation which showed how monies were paid into the GTBank account; and payment vouchers from the Edo State Government House showing how monies were withdrawn and lodged into the account of the company.
The index of payment received from the Government House showing withdrawals and payments of money to the company was also tendered.
Jacob had while proving the case prayed the court to consider the ingredients under count two and three where payments totaling N30m was made to Kiva Corporation on January 10, 2007 and another N70m paid to the same company on May 17, 2007 by one Pat Eboigbodin, an Edo State Government official which showed that the company
