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The former attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Michael Aondoakaa, has been barred from using the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)..

The decision was taken by the legal practitioners privileges committee of the Nigerian Bar Association.

The Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Sunday Olorundahunsi, at a press conference in Abuja, said the committee took the decision at a meeting held yesterday.

He confirmed that Mr. Aondoaka had been suspended from the rank, following consideration of the former AGF’s response to a petition written against him by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).

“...the committee, after due consideration of the said response, has decided in its wisdom, to suspend him[Aondoakaa] from the use of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria and all other privileges attached to that rank, pending the outcome of the investigation by the sub-committee set up by the legal practitioners privileges committee,” Mr. Olorundahunsi said.

Amongst a number of allegations, the petition accuses the former justice minister of using his position to “emasculate the anti-corruption institutions.” He is also accused of “lying and deception” in an attempt to bury corruption charges brought against James Ibori, the former Delta State governor, and his associates.

The petition goes on to say that Mr, Aondakaa was guilty of “deliberate mis-interpretation, mis-application, and incompetence.” He also showed “an inadequate knowledge of the law,” the petition read.

Travel ban

The decision to suspend Mr. Aondoakaa as a SAN follows a travel ban to the United States earlier this year, due to allegations of obstruction of justice during his time as a minister.

Additionally, a Calabar High Court also recently barred him from holding any public office, following a lawsuit that accused Mr. Aondoakaa of impeding judgment during an election hearing.

Mr. Aondakaa was one of the more vocal members of the late President Yar’Adua’s cabinet. During the former president’s absence from the country, Mr. Aondakaa repeatedly told Nigerians that governance could continue as usual.

Several notable high profile cases, such as Halliburton and Siemens, were not given due attention during his three-year stint as a minister.

One of President Jonathan’s first actions was to strip him of the justice portfolio and assign him the special duties ministry, a position he refused to serve in.

• Kaita may face treasonable felony charge

•Nowhere is safe again, says Chris Okotie

•ACN to President: Your credibility at stake

Ayodele Adegbuyi, Abuja, Ted Odogwu, Kano & Victor Oriola

FORTY-EIGHT hours after the plot by the North to destabilise Nigeria, if a Southerner emerges as the President next year was revealed, prominent politicians yesterday described it as a threat to national security.

On Monday, former governor of the old Kaduna State, Alhaji Lawan Kaita, vowed that the North would make the country ungovernable, if President Goodluck Jonathan wins the 2011 presidential elections.

He said: “It is becoming apparent that the recent replacement of Service Chiefs is part of President Jonathan’s plan to use state apparatus to scale the 2011 presidential hurdle. Anything short of a Northern President is tantamount to stealing our Presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses the incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out.

“The North is determined, if that happens, to make the country ungovernable for President Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy.”

The leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti; constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay; Second Republic Governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and the National Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, all condemned the statement.

Sagay described Kaita’s outburst as “a threat to peace and national security.”

He said: “It is unbecoming of a former governor of Kaita’s status to be inciting the people against the Presidency.

“It is a threat to peace and national security. He should be arrested and charged appropriately. People like that should be investigated, especially now with this act of terrorism in Nigeria.”

Fasoranti maintained that it was unfair for Kaita to resort to blackmail “over an issue that is within the PDP internal arrangement.”

His words: “What he is saying is not in our constitution. It is the internal arrangement of the PDP. It is only meant to incite people. People should not behave as if we are in a military era. We should allow the best candidate that would be able to run the country emerge through free and fair elections, instead of wiping up sentiment about the controversial zoning.”

To Balarabe Musa, Kaita has no right whatsoever to speak for the whole North on the issue.

Musa, who explained that the problem of Nigeria was not North/South dichotomy, counselled Kaita to speak for himself “and not drag the entire North into the PDP zoning brouhaha.”

He said: “I don’t think any individual has the right to speak for the whole North. The problem of Nigeria is not North/South dichotomy. It is the problem of good governance and how to deliver democracy dividends to the people.

“Everybody knows that if the North is united on an issue, definitely, that will be a national issue, not a sectional one as portrayed by Kaita. He should speak for himself and not the entire North.”

Adams also advised Kaita to be very careful about any statement capable of causing problem in the country.

The OPC leader averred that the Niger Delta where Jonathan hails from produces oil which is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy.

He explained that though his group (OPC) would not support any candidate, he, however, declared: “There is no law in the country stopping Jonathan from contesting the forthcoming election.”

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Compass learnt yesterday that Kaita may be charged with treasonable felony.

Jonathan, who spoke through the spokesman of his campaign organisation, Sully Abu, yesterday said that Kaita must be ready to keep a date with the law.

“We are afterall a country governed by laws, and the laws of treason are very clear in this regard.”

Abu refuted the claim that Jonathan absolved the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) of complicity in the Abuja bombings.

“When President Goodluck Jonathan, during a visit to the National Hospital to commiserate with victims of the bombing, said the terrorist act should not merely be ascribed to MEND, what he was simply saying was that nobody should use the name of any organisation to cover up a heinous crime. “He was not absolving MEND or any other group of blame or culpability.”

In Kano yesterday, members of Ndigbo, under the aegis of Eastern Peoples Forum (EPF), expressed their total support for Jonathan’s ambition, saying that they are solidly behind him to realise his ambition.

The message was printed in posters and circulated round the ancient city with the title: “Never again shall we be deceived.”

The forum explained that Ndigbo would not contest the presidential election, as a result of their deliberate and collective decision to back Jonathan, whom they described as one of their own.

Said the forum: “The Ndigbo from the South-East is an integral part of the South-South and, as such, the interest of Ndigbo extends to the South-South because whatever happens to the South-South automatically affects the Ndigbo, so, it is logical that in the absence of any aspirant from the South East, running for the Presidency in 2011, the Ndigbo will support any credible and capable candidate from the South-South.”

In view of the principles of zoning and rotation of the Presidency as adopted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the forum maintained that the contest for the Presidency in 2015 is still open to candidates from those zones, which have not produced a President, in accordance with the prevailing zoning and rotation in the party.

The forum advanced an argument that if Jonathan wins in 2011 and by 2015, all other zones, except the South-East, would have governed the country for only four years, thereby narrowing the number of zones, having similar deprivation as the South-East, “the South-East will strongly bid for the Presidency of Nigeria in 2015 for equity and justice and will not depend on one individual to promise what he doesn’t even have”.

“As a result of this development, the Ndigbo must begin to repair the cracks in their historical, cultural and political relationship, with peoples of the South-South and indeed all other zones, so as to win their sympathy and support towards their resolute bid for Presidency in 2015, despite some external-induced forces between the two zones.

“The bottom line is that the lopsidedness in occupation of the seat of President of Nigeria since independence, is that one obvious fact remains that the longest occupant of the Presidential Villa is asking for another four years and urging the least occupant to wait for another four years to have a taste of the action.

“This scenario is the case of a well-fed person, asking the hungry person to surrender his food to him and wait for another ration. What then is the guarantee that when that ration comes, he will indeed surrender it? “Never shall we be deceived again.

“Our acceptance and support for President Jonathan is a test case to demonstrate whether this country belongs to all, indeed a test case for not only the unity and stability of this country but also for the survival of Nigeria.”

Speaking on the controversy surrounding the Abuja bomb blasts which killed 10 people on independence day anniversary, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) said the allegation by MEND leader, Henry Okah, that a presidential aide called to pressure him to ask the group to withdraw its claim of responsibility for the blasts so the government can blame it on Northerners, has put the credibility of the presidency at stake.

‘’We have read the presidency’s reaction to Okah’s claim, but it has to go beyond that to convince Nigerians and the world that Okah was merely jiving,’’ the party said in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

‘’Because the allegation is so grave and has dire implication for the country’s stability, we ask the presidency to use diplomatic means to request and obtain from South Africa the call log for Okah in the past week, as a first step in what should be a thorough investigation of the claim. Dismissing it as an ‘outright lie’ by a ‘drowing man’ may not be that effective.

‘’Also, we challenge Okah to identify the presidential aide who called him, if indeed he is not just trying to get back at the presidency with such weighty allegation.

‘’If all these efforts fail, there may be the need to appoint an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the claim, in view of its potentially-destabilising implication.’’

It reiterated its earlier call on the President not to jump to conclusion on the condemnable blasts, and to allow the investigators do a thorough job.

‘’We are reiterating this call because the presidency seems to be insisting that the bombings were not perpetrated by MEND, which sent a message to say the bombs will go off (as they did) and later claimed responsibility, though expressing regret at the loss of lives.

‘’With due respect, the visit to the presidency by some former militant leaders, including repentant MEND commanders, on Tuesday, during which they exonerated MEND, seems to have been choreographed to support the President’s earlier claim.

‘’But we beg to differ, and we have a number of questions to ask: If these men are no longer in MEND, how will they know what is happening in the organisation? If MEND has claimed responsibility, why is the President so eager to exonerate them? Does the President know what the nation does not? If so, at what point did the President know what he knows? If it is before the blasts, why did he not ensure that they were prevented? If it is after, why is he not telling the nation what he knows?

‘’These questions have become pertinent in view of the claim by Okah. There is no doubt that providing answers to the posers will go a long way in shedding more light on the whole issue,’’ ACN said.

In the meantime, the party appealed to Nigerians to keep an open mind while investigators work to unravel the cause and perpetrators of the blasts, and to ensure that passions are not inflamed by the claims and counter-claims, in the interest of the nation’s stability.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate of FRESH Party, Rev. Chris Okotie, has declared that he has the political will “to confront, arrest and redress intimidating security, power and infrastructural problems” bedeviling the nation if voted into power next year.

Speaking yesterday shortly after launching his nationwide campaign in his office in Ikeja, Lagos, Okotie believed that lack of political will to confront the problems by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been the same reason the situation has remained daunting.

“The first desire of every living being is safety. There is nowhere in the country that is safe. The police are not well equipped; they are poorly remunerated and even owed months of salaries.

“Kidnapping, which initially started as a non-profit making protest in the creek of the Niger Delta, has now assumed a frightening dimension nationwide since the PDP-led Federal Government is weak in tackling the security problem.

“Daylight armed robbery on our highways has become a ‘normal’ incident. Also added to this is the fitful electricity supply which has crippled our economic activities. That virtually all manufacturing firms and multinational companies are relocating from Nigeria to neighboring countries like Ghana does not matter to the government of the day. All these anomalies I will address decisively if voted into power,” Okotie said.

He lamented that many roads are in terrible state “just because the government is fond of paying lip service to addressing infrastructural decay in the country”.

Okotie believes that “Nigeria is blessed enough to provide for the needs of her citizens” while blaming the parlous standard of living on inefficient leadership imposed on the masses by the PDP.

The cleric added: “I believe that the time has come for us to migrate from the politics of bitterness to the place of objectivity, inspiration and cohesion. Nigeria needs a man who can rise above the mosaic of vindictive purposelessness and embrace the whole confederacy of the Nigerian brotherhood.

“But Nigeria will rise again. It is time to prioritise the Nigerian above partisan parochialism. The Nigerian is our greatest asset, not oil. It is time to elevate the motivation and development of our people to the level of strategy. It is time to build our people and not things.

“Key actions will be education. I will increase budget on education to 26 per cent in line with the millennium development goals. Health care will be receiving greater budgetary allocation. I will create social security apparatus as a safety net. This will include an overhaul of pension scheme to make it contributory for everyone in employment, revamping the public transportation systems and housing. Thus, we shall emphasise human capital development as our seminal objective.”

Bomb blasts: SSS quizzes Dokpesi again over ‘new developments’

Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

THE embattled Director-General of Ibrahim Babangida Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, was, for the third time yesterday, quizzed by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja.

Dokpesi is being interrogated in connection with the last Friday bomb attacks in Abuja, which claimed 12 lives and left scores of others injured.

The owner of Raypower FM and Africa Independent Television (AIT), who was released about 11p.m. on Tuesday after rigorous questioning, was again summoned about 11a.m. yesterday in view of what his interrogators referred to as “new developments” in their investigation into the blasts.

Dokpesi was at the SSS headquarters on Monday and Tuesday.

Sources said when he first appeared before the security operatives on Monday, he was asked questions relating to how much Babangida has so far released to his campaign organisation, how much he (Dokpesi) was paid for the job he is doing and who will likely emerge as the consensus candidate between Babangida, Atiku Abubakar, Aliyu Gusau and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State.

Already, the Babangida Campaign Organisation has declared that Dokpesi was being punished for refusing to head the campaign organisation of President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2011 presidential elections.

A source at the Babangida Campaign Organisation lamented yesterday that the unending quizzing of Dokpesi was a deliberate ploy “to slow down our campaign and to frustrate us”.

He, however, declared that the organisation would not be deterred, no matter what.

”1-10-10” marked the coming of age of terrorism in Nigeria. It has thus become our own “9-11”. As the nation grieves over the loss of both dear life and the innocence of the virgin Federal Capital city, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the determined effort of the government to use the incident to settle political scores with the opposition. I would have thought that after the overwhelming failure of the security services in the stupendous last one week, someone should have come forward with an apology a long list of resignations. Instead, the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign has been issuing subterranean political threats that hint of a

nervousness and desperation to do just anything to make candidate Jonathan have a free pass to 2011.

“Security services don’t have to wait to be told what to do,” the campaign said early last week, meaning it’s time to embark on a crack down. A few hours after the tragic serial bomb blasts that blew away the 50th anniversary celebrations, the campaign group showed a rare insight into the incident by dismissing the claim by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) that they bombed Abuja as a fluke.

The bombing according to Jonathan/Sambo Campaign is definitely the handiwork of the political opposition and that MEND is being used as a diversion. Really? MEND a smokescreen, when they posted a warning that they’d bomb the event five days earlier; repeated the warning a few hours to the incident in a letter to Nigerians in which they asked for the evacuation of Eagle Square by 10:30am?

The President whose candidacy is already a potent and a divisive issue grabbed the headlines on his own merit by his outlandish claim that the dastardly act had nothing to do with Niger Delta and that it was an act by foreign terrorists. Am I the only one shocked by his absolution of his Niger Delta people from complicity in the 1-10-10 bombing? President Jonathan’s incredible explanation was that MEND could not have bombed Abuja with himself a Niger Deltan as President. In effect, he meant to say with the type of community support he enjoyed back at home, nothing of this type of embarrassment could come to him from the Niger Delta. What would Jonathan make of the fact that former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan’s home in the village was bombed and destroyed to its foundation two years ago?

By crying aloud that terrorists, not MEND did this, what message was the President sending to the western countries that only a while ago delisted Nigeria from countries marked as promoting terrorism7

From the point of view of a Kano man, the President’s verdict that Niger Delta was free of all blames and that (opposition) politicians were culpable is not only shocking and outrageous but also unbelievable. This is the nearest anybody had come to repeating the historical faux-pax the late MKO Abiola made, accusing the North of being responsible for the annulment of his election.

Free Bode George Now!

A litmus test of the war against corruption in Nigeria is the trial of Bodunde Adeyanju, the Personal Assistant of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Bodunde, according to the Attorney-General is to go on trial this week for collecting six million US Dollars bribery from the contractors Halliburton.

It is a trial that will test the Goodluck Jonathan government to its limits. In the view of many, it is Obasanjo, not Bodunde that should be in the dock. Did the government not say that they want to make Nigeria a country in which an impartial law prevails?

It seems plainly odd, even as we celebrate this trial that the principle of vicarious responsibility in law is being stood on its head. If a principal is responsible for the action of his agent, why is that not the case in the matter of Halliburton bribery? Who is Bodunde to be paid Six Million US Dollars and for what reason if not for the fact that he represented the former Head of State?

Bodunde’s trial is the clearest indication by the government that its war against corruption is limited in approach and scope; that they can’t mouth hot political potatoes at this stage and that is precisely why houseboys are being arrested and tried in place of their masters. If this happens to be the new rule, they should let go the demi-god of South-West PDP, Bode George, Aminu Dabo and all those others jailed for similar offences. They too have cooks and cleaners in their employment that can replace them.

Ribadu Joins “Alliance of the Corrupt”

The Hausa have a proverb, which is that when you stool under a tree, you cannot remain there to enjoy its shade.

One of the under-told stories of the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was about the way and manner he danced to the tunes of President Obasanjo to scuttle opposition parties to ensure a free pass to the Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket in 2007.

In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) which was transcribed and published by the local press in 2007, the then EFCC Chairman branded the hard-fighting opposition Action Congress as the “Alliance of the Corrupt”. He lampooned the party and its membership as being made up of “thieves” who would not be allowed to get away with their loot.

Who would ever have thought that four years on that Nuhu Ribadu, out of power and out of job will be seeking the platform of the AC to actualise a barely hidden, vaulting ambition to become President?

Between AC (ACN?) and Ribadu, what is it that changed between then and now?

Text only to: 08066890703.

•Why I stayed away from Eagle Square, by Babangida

•Tafida attacks Ciroma

Akeem Oyetunji, Abuja & Abu-Sadeeq Amokpa, Minna

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday came down hard on fellow presidential aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ‘defenders of Northern interest’ who have criticised his handling of the Abuja bomb blasts on independence day.

He said he would not allow them intimidate him and hold the country to ransom.

Former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd); former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; former National Security Adviser (NSA), Lt-General Aliyu Gusau (rtd) and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State had criticised Jonathan for using the bombings, in which 10 people died, to witchhunt political opponents.

The Director-General (DG) of the Babangida Campaign Organisation and Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, was quizzed by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) over the incident.

But, in his letter, entitled ‘In Defence of Life, Liberty and Property’ to his friends on the popular social network site, Facebook, yesterday, Jonathan told Babangida, Atiku, Gusau and Saraki that the country was bigger than them and their interests.

He also said that he would not succumb to any amount of blackmail from them. “Nigeria is bigger than any individual or any collection of individuals. Nobody can hold a country of 150 million people to ransom any more. The interest of a few conceited, ill-motivated individuals cannot be bigger than our national aspirations,” he said.

The letter reads: “My dear friends on facebook, It is with a heavy heart that I read your comments and mails with respect to the sad events that occurred on the day we were celebrating 50 years of our existence as a nation and discussing the need to chart a new course for our future.

“Although the security agencies put in significant efforts to pre-empt the attacks, it is very sad that lives of innocent Nigerians were lost to this heartless act against the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Again, I offer my condolences to the families of the victims in particular and the nation in general.

“Although this is somewhat a new experience for us, especially as bombings had never taken place in the Federal Capital Territory before last Friday’s incident, security agencies have been instructed to leave no stone unturned in securing lives and property.

“Dear friends, if the aim of the attackers is to create a sense of insecurity and panic across the nation in order to advance their narrow interests, Nigerians will stand up to them and make it clear that they cannot be intimidated.

“I want to assure Nigerians that blackmail and intimidation will not stop the Federal Government from doing the right thing. Whoever is found culpable will face the full weight of the law. I have requested the security agencies to do their work for our citizens will accept nothing less than justice. We would be failing the past, present and future generations of Nigerians if we do not get to the root of this dastardly act and seek justice the way it should be done in a civilised society such as ours.

“It is unfortunate that an unprecedented national tragedy of this nature has been politicised by people whose only interest is what they can get from the country and not what the country can get from them. They specialise in playing one part of the country against the other and riding on sectional sentiments to promote their narrow ambitions. I believe that Nigerians have grown beyond this parochial mentality.

“To prove to you that their interests are personal and not for the people they claim to represent, you will notice that while this administration has spent considerable time and resources as well as focused attention on the recent floods in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Jigawa states and the cholera epidemic in certain parts of Nigeria as well as the lead poisoning that has consumed 400 children in Zamfara State, these so-called concerned people have not been known to address any of these issues nor offer a word of succour to the victims. This is irrefutable proof that their only focus is how to get power and not the wellbeing of the long suffering people of Nigeria whom I have sworn to Almighty God to protect.

“At this critical time, we should be mourning the dead and praying for the families left behind. What they need at this sad hour is not politics but compassion and empathy.”

Meanwhile, Babangida has described as idiotic the insinuation that he had a hand in the bomb blasts.

Speaking at his Hill-top mansion in Minna, the Niger State capital, the former military leader insisted that the unity of the country was uppermost in his mind “than any one thinks”.

“It will be idiotic for anyone to link me to that bomb blast because I know what the unity of this country means and that was why we fought to keep it together. So, why should I get involved in such a mess?”

“Naturally, when things like this happen, people will cast their imaginative and fertile minds into action. They are more hasty in drawing conclusions, especially when people like us are mentioned. This is the price we pay for the love of our country and as politicians.

“There were lapses somewhere, whether we like it or not. No one has disputed that government was given prior information of about four to five days about the impending disaster and yet nothing was done. In a situation like this which has to do with human lives, you do not need more than 24 hours to remedy an impending situation.

“The British Intelligence Unit and others had warned on the impending disaster and the reaction should have been instant because such information is vital and much time is not needed to take precautionary measures. Where the right official steps were taken, our well-trained outfits would have been tactically mobilised to react swiftly,” he fumed.

On his absence from the jubilee celebration in Abuja, he said he was put off by the “freaky spendings on the occasion by the government.”

According to Babangida, the over N6 billion spent could have been used for developmental projects rather than on Independence celebration, arguing that if the celebration had been approached the way the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua proposed, it would not have cost the country up to N1 billion.

In Abuja, the Jonathan/ Sambo Campaign Organisation has described the statement credited to the leader of Northern Political Leaders Forum, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, that Jonathan should resign before the end of the week, as misplaced and uncalled for. He called on him to retract it immediately.

Dr. Dallahtu Tafida, the Director-General of the organisation, while fielding questions from State House correspondents yesterday, insisted that the former Finance Minister may have been misquoted “but if the story is true, it should be retracted immediately.”

“For Ciroma to ask the President to resign is too harsh. The issue of calling for impeachment is misplaced. You don’t just say you want to impeach for the sake of it. If they don’t want us to have a smooth transition, it is too bad. After all, whether it is IBB, Atiku, Saraki , Gusau or Jonathan, whoever gets it is PDP. We have not even reached the point where we should be fighting”.

Written by Akin Durodola, Taiwo Adisa, Ayodele Adesanmi, Dipo Laleye and Leon Usigbe Thursday, 07 October 2010

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, came down heavily on people he described as enemies of progress and said that enough was enough of individuals or group of individuals holding a country of 150 million people to ransom.

“Nigeria is bigger than any individual or any collection of individuals. Nobody can hold a country of 150 million people to ransom any more. The interest of a few concerted, ill-motivated individuals cannot be bigger than our national aspirations,” he said.

Jonathan, in his reply to comments made by his friends on the social networking site, Facebook, on the October 1 bomb blasts, reiterated that investigations had shown that some politicians who were bent on seizing power by all means were behind the dastardly act.

According to him, “if the aim of the attackers is to create a sense of insecurity and panic across the nation in order to advance their narrow interests, Nigerians will stand up to them and make it clear that they cannot be intimidated.”

To buttress his point that the blasts and the comments made thereafter by politicians had political undertone, the president noted that there had been unprecedented national tragedy of this nature in Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa and Zamfara states, “which the so-called people never addressed nor offered a word of succour to the victims.

“It is unfortunate that an unprecedented national tragedy of this nature has been politicised by people whose only interest is what they can get from the country and not what the country can get from them.

“They specialise in playing one part of the country against the other and riding on sectional sentiments to promote their narrow interests. I believe that Nigerians have grown beyond this parochial mentality.

“To prove to you that their interests are personal and not for the people they claim to represent, you will notice that while this administration has spent considerable time and resources as well as focused attention on the recent floods in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Jigawa states and the cholera epidemic in certain parts of Nigeria, as well as the lead poisoning that has consumed 400 children in Zamfara State, the so-called concerned people have not been known to address any of these issues nor offer a word of succour to the victims.

“This is irrefutable proof that their only focus is how to get power and not the well-being of the long suffering people of Nigeria, whom I have sworn to Almighty God to protect,” the president stressed.

He promised that the Federal Government would share in the pains of the bereaved and the injured, adding that “we will give the best medical care possible to the injured.”

Also, the Senate President, David Mark, on Wednesday, lashed former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida; former Vice-President Atiku Abu-bakar and former Minister of Finance, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, for allegedly politi-cising the October 1 bomb blasts in Abuja.

The Senate President, who was rounding off debates on the Abuja bomb blasts, said he was disappointed at the comments attributed to some of the political leaders in relation to the bomb blasts.

However, the Senate observed a one-minute silence in honour of those who lost their lives during the incident.

Mark, while concluding deliberations on a motion, Bomb Blasts on Independence Day, sponsored by Senator Anthony Manzo and 36 others, said it was lamentable that some senior citizens would seek to politicise a criminal incident.

Mark said it was regrettable that the politicians were allegedly making inflammatory statements that were capable of destroying the fragile unity of the country.

The Senate President urged the security agencies to work round the clock to ensure that the culprits were apprehended and justifiably punished.

He advised Nigerians to borrow a leaf from the Americans during the September 11, 2011 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York, by coming together to promote Nigeria’s unity and oneness.

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said what happened on October 1 was an embarrassment which, he said, brought shame to the country.

The Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said the incident was a terrorist act, adding that “a terrorist cannot be a friend of anybody.”

Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Kabiru Gaya, also said it was unfortunate that the blasts happened when Nigeria was celebrating its 50th Independence anniversary.

Meanwhile, General Babangida, on Wednesday, reacted for the first time to the bomb blasts which claimed 14 lives and injured 42 others in Abuja on October 1.

He said “it is idiotic for anybody to link him with the incident.”

IBB said “it is idiotic to associate me with something that will threaten the unity of Nigeria, especially on a symbolic day like that.”

General Babangida told newsmen at his Minna Hilltop residence, after receiving a bus donated to his campaign organisation by the Nigerian in the Diaspora Northern America and Europe chapters.

“I fought a war to make sure Nigeria is one, I am still carrying the strap line up till today, I don’t want anybody to carry it.

“I cannot do anything to threaten the unity of Nigeria, only idiots will associate me with such a terrible thing.”

The former military president also said his campaign organisation director, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, who was questioned by the security operatives in connection with the incident, could not have had any hand in it.

General Babangida said people cast their imaginative minds on Dokpesi because “Nigerians have fertile minds; his arrest is borne out of the imaginative and fertile minds of Nigerians,” adding, however, that “it’s is the price he is paying as a politician.”

Babangida blamed the security agencies for not nipping the incident in the bud, saying that “nobody has disputed that the government was given notice by the bombers.”

IBB said “you don’t need more than 24 hours to remedy it if you are informed, two days are more than enough time for reaction, which is vital to security,” adding that “I am not blaming anybody, but there is a lapse.”

On why he failed to attend the country’s 50th Independence anniversary in Abuja, Babangida said he did not believe in the whole concept and the expenditure that accompanied it.

Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, deliberated on the Independence day bomb blasts and resolved to stand firm with President Jonathan in handling the situation.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, conveyed the cabinet members’ support to President Jonathan, whom they urged not to be distracted by the occurrence.

The Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, who briefed State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in the State House, said the president had given his commitment to fish out all those who perpetrated the act.

Meanwhile, the council has approved $6.8 million as Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant to support the proposed scaling up of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practice knowledge and coordination project of the Federal Government.

Former military dictator and presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) has distanced himself from the twin bomb blasts that killed 14 people in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, during the Nigerian 50th Independence Day celebration.

IBB who spoke to journalists in Minna, Niger State, on Wednesday, said it would be idiotic for anybody to link him to the blasts.

“It will be idiotic for anyone to link me to that bomb blast because I know what the unity of this country means and that was why we fought to keep it together so why should I get involved in such a mess?”, he said.

He frowned at the arrest of the Director-General of his campaign organisation, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, and blamed the blasts on security lapses.

He said the group that claimed responsibility for the dastardly act had forewarned the nation of the incident but that security operatives failed to take the matter seriously.

He made reference to a certain television report by Yvonne Ndege, who was conducted by the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta round its sophisticated armoury in an enclave and asked the government to explain sources of the weapons.

The former dictator said the government should be concerned with where the militants were regrouping and gathering such sophisticated weapon, since most of the weapons, according to him, were not handed over to the government during the amnesty programme.

When asked why he failed to attend the Independence Day celebration, he claimed that the frivolous spending for the celebration was against his principles.

He further claimed that the N62bn which was spent on the ceremony could have been used for developmental projects, adding that if the celebration had been done the way late President Umaru Yar’Adua proposed it, it would have cost below N1bn.

“There was a lapse somewhere, whether we like it or not and no one has disputed that government was given prior information of about four to five days about the impending disaster and yet nothing was done. In situations like this which has to do with human lives, you do not need more than 24 hours to remedy and impending situation,” he said.

The Oke-Ijebu area of Akure metropolis was, yesterday, thrown into mayhem as a 10-year-old pupil of All Saints Anglican Primary School allegedly pulled the trigger of a single barrel gun found behind the toilet of the school and killed his friend.

Unknown people had dropped two single barrel guns at the back of the toilet of the Primary School, in Oke-Ijebu. The students, who were playing during the break time, discovered the guns and started playing with them, thinking they were toys. In the process, one of the boys mistakenly pulled the trigger and killed his playmate in the process. The shooter also sustained injuries in the process.

The agitated residents of the area trooped to the school premises to confirm the incident, with parents expressing their worries about the condition of pupils in the school. Some of the parents hurriedly took their children home. The name of the two students involved in the incident was not confirmed as at press time. The school authorities declined to speak with journalists. The school was closed down, and the corpse of the dead student was deposited at a mortuary, while the injured one was receiving treatment at the state specialist hospital.

Aremu Adeniran, the spokesperson for the Ondo State Police Command, confirmed the incident, adding that the police suspect that the two guns were hid there by armed robbers. He also said that a sledge hammer, cutlass and other instrument were recovered, were unearthed during a routine search after the incident. According to him, investigations are ongoing to unravel those behind the cache..

A NEWBORN baby has been killed in Malaysia by a monkey which snatched it from its home, bit its face and neck and then dropped it from a rooftop.

The four-day-old baby girl was sleeping in the living room of her family's home in Seremban, a town southeast of the Malaysian capital, when the macaque sneaked in and grabbed her.

The mother, 26-year-old V. Revathy, discovered the child missing and after a search found her body outside the house with serious bite and scratch wounds.

"We frantically searched all over the house and saw her body covered in blood lying outside the house," the child's grandfather A. Valayutham said according to the Star newspaper.

State wildlife and national parks director Ishak Muhamad said the monkey responsible was located and shot dead shortly after.

"We suspect the macaque was rummaging for food inside the house. It could have taken the baby to the roof thinking the newborn was food," he told the newspaper.

"The baby died when it fell to the ground. The monkey had apparently released the newborn, probably because it was alarmed by the parents' shouts,'' Ishak said.

Monkeys are common in urban areas in Malaysia, particularly macaques which can be aggressive, and bold enough to enter homes to search for food.