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Definition of the word Purge: To purify from sin, to get rid of something, or to make clean from the inside.

16-Year-Old Justin Bieber Drives Diddy's $200,000 Lamborghini...

THIS seems to be the month of spies. Almost daily, the air waves are taken over by their stories. A couple has just been convicted in America for being Cuban spies; a Russian spy ring smashed; it is like the spy diet is inexhaustible.

Like a kid attracted to toys, I find the world of spies quite fascinating. Except that it can be quite deadly, leading to horrendous loss of lives, spying is basically a game; almost like the hide -and -seek children play.

There is the case of the Iranian ‘nuclear’ scientist, Sharam Amiri who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and disappeared. The Iranians accused the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the kidnap.

Now 14 months later, Amiri resurfaces making claims that the CIA with Saudi Arabian connivance had kidnapped and tortured him before his release in the US.

He received a hero’s welcome in Tehran. On the other hand, the Americans claim that Amiri had willingly sought political asylum, had a nice stay in America before changing his mind and asking that he be allowed to return home.

Who is lying? That is almost impossible to say; the Americans are notorious for kidnapping innocent people across the world and dumping them elsewhere.

They call it extra- ordinary rendition. But why go to such lengths with a “regular” Iranian scientist who does not appear to be involved in his country’s nuclear programme? Perhaps it over-valued Amiri.

The American story of Amiri seeking asylum is not implausible. Back in 1985, Vitaly Yurchenko, a brilliant Soviet spy defected to America. He exposed some Soviet spies like Ronald W Pelton and Edward Lee Howard, a CIA official who had given the Soviets a list of American spies in Moscow..

The spies had been rounded up and mainly executed. When the Americans went for Howard, he escaped and resurfaced in Moscow. Inexplicably, Yurchenko three months later decided to return to Moscow.

He grinned as he waved America goodbye. If he genuinely defected and exposed Soviet spies, why would he happily return to Moscow where he would certainly be executed? We may never know; nothing in the spy world is certain.

There are also the ongoing attempts at the United Nations to sanction North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship, the Cheonan in which 40 sailors died.

The former protested its innocence claiming that the crime was committed by the CIA which wants the world to punish it. North Korea is a supremely confident country known for owning up to its actions, so if it denies attacking the ship, it is likely to be so.

On the other hand, the Americans are known to play such dirty tricks. For instance when it needed an excuse to invade Vietnam, the US attacked its own ship, blamed it on the Vietnamese and on that pretext, declared war on Vietnam.

The world has just been treated to an opera by the Russians and the Americans. It began with America rounding up 10 Russian spies and rushing them to court. They included a couple, Mikhail Kutzik who lived under the name, Michael Zotolli, and Natalia Pereverzeva, better known as Patricia Mills.

One of the spies, Juan Lazaro readily admitted his crime while two others, Peruvian-born journalist, Vicky Pelaez and travel agent, Mr Semenko joined the others in court. An 11th suspect, Christopher Metsos who was arrested in Cyprus was granted bail there and promptly disappeared.

The American public brazed itself for a case that had all the trappings of an Hollywood movie. But while the trial was being staged in the courts, American Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Williams Burns was locked in negotiations with the Russian Ambassador in Washington, Sergei Kislyak which were to render the court process a farce.

The next stage was the airport in Vienna where the Americans had brought the 10 Russian spies in exchange for four Russians convicted for being American and British spies.

Igor Sutyagin, a Russian arms control expert was detained in October 1995 and convicted in 2004 for passing classified information to America through a front British company. Sergei Skripal a colonel in the Russian military intelligence was recruited by British intelligence in 1995 and arrested nine years later.

Alexander Zaporozhsky a former deputy chief at the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) began spying for the Americans in 1994 and was jailed in 2003. Gennady Vasilenko’s case has not been made open, nevertheless all four were pardoned by President Dmitry Medvedev and swapped with the Americans.

Except for the hype, this is a routine spy game. One of the most famous spy exchanges involved Francis Gary Powers, pilot of the US U-2 spy plane shot down near Sverdlovsk, central Soviet Union on May 1, 1960.

He was exchanged on February 10, 1962 with Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, director of a Soviet spy ring in United States who had been arrested in 1957.One of the largest exchanges involved 29 American, Soviet and polish spies on June 11, 1985.

Some of the high profile CIA agents in history are King Ibn Talal Hussein of Jordan who was known as Agent Norman. He spied for the CIA for 20 years before his exposure in 1977.

The other was Bashir Gemayel who was elected Lebanese president in 1982 but was killed in a bomb explosion on September 14, 1982, nine days before he was to assume office. I liked CIA agent Philip Agee whose books such as Inside The Company: CIA Diary fired my interest in spies while my favourite spy is the KGB’s Kim Philby who led the famous “Cambridge Spies” which included Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. Philby, perhaps the most successful spy in history penetrated at the highest levels, British intelligence and the CIA. He was so convincing that after he was fingered, the British government went before parliament to vouch for his innocence!

Whatever the drama being enacted today over spy rings and swaps, the fact is that spying is a profession being practiced every second; even friendly countries spy on themselves.

Having lived in Benin until about four years ago, Sam Adaji could not have expected to miss his way as he returned to the city, one evening. He thought of locating his former residence situated on a street linking one of the major roads which open into the endless loop of a road at the city hub, called the Ring Road. With the Ring Road as his usual navigator, it took Adaji some time to locate his former neighbourhood. He did express his perplexity that Benin, especially the Ring Road centre, was over and done with many completed and ongoing projects.

Adaji’s return to the Ring Road arena this night happened to have coincided with the moment when the area’s new multiple water fountain was being test run. With its water cascade network, diverse musicals, flickering lightings and heightened streetlight descending from above, the neighbourhood was agog with light and celebrations. Like Adaji, Pa Ekhator Osakue, an octogenarian resident of Benin City, was expressive about its new looks, which prompted him to describe the Ring Road arena as ‘Trafalgar Square’, a major tourist attraction in centre London.

By comparing the Benin ring road with the Trafalgar Square however, one would need to call up their striking similarities, and as well as the variants. At that, both possess unparalleled museums, sculptures, galleries, gardens, water fountains, cultural spaces, terraces, historic ornamentations, high rise buildings, and public patronage. The ‘Oba Square’ houses some similar features of Trafalgar like the Whitehall, auditoriums, car parks and open spaces for public functions. Close to Trafalgar are the National Opera and St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, just as Ring Road also has the Oba Akenzua II Cultural Complex and Baptist Church. The Oba Market and the proposed malls on the newly acquired Agidigbi plot, like some shopping centers around Trafalgar, are its commercial verve..

Among the tree groves and the well-manicured lawns of the ring road is the Benin museum, and very close to the centre, by the Sapkoba Road estuary, is Igun Street, the citadel of bronze casting. In place of flocks of pigeons which usually ‘confront’ visitors at Trafalgar Square are bats, which make the trees of the Ring Road neighbourhood a haven. The bats are to the Ring Road what the pigeons are to Trafalgar.

There is a great contrast with Trafalgar and the Benin Ring Road, in the manner the latter is saturated with spiritual life and practicality. For instance, in Benin Kingdom, where African Traditional Religion and knowledge still run deep, the Ring Road is widely regarded as the ‘world centre stage’, similar to ‘Edo ore Isi Agbon’ (Edo is the Centre of the Universe).. The early Edo astrologers, before the advent of the western civilization, have always used the Ring Road symbol to emphasise its place in the Benin worldview.

The senate, on Thursday, passed the new Electoral Act into law with an implication that all political parties must hold their primaries before November this year.

Section 32 of the Electoral Act stipulates that all political parties must submit the list of candidates they intend to sponsor for the general elections 60 days before the date appointed for the general election.

“Every political party shall, not later than 60 days before the date appointed for a general election under the provision of this Act, submit to the commission (Independent National Electoral Commission) in the prescribed forms, the list of the candidates that the party proposes to sponsor at the election,” the Electoral Act now reads.Photos:Head of Senate Mark & INEC Boss Jega

Before now, political parties were required to submit their list of nominees four months before the election - December. Those days, general elections held only less than two months before the expiration of running tenures - March.

In a complete departure from the old laws, the new Electoral Act prohibits the withdrawal of nominated candidates whose name has been submitted to INEC, unless the nominee willingly applies to be withdrawn - through his party - or dies.

The former Act only required political parties to write INEC about their intention to substitute a candidate stating “cogent and verifiable reasons.” In addition, withdrawal of candidates can only take place 45 days before the date appointed for the general elections.

Also, any person who wishes to have access to information on any aspirant’s nomination form and affidavits is now empowered by the law to apply to INEC for the information for a fee. INEC is mandated by the law to supply such information within 14 days from the receipt of the application and required fee.

Staggered election

The new Electoral Act changed the sequence with which elections are conducted. The old act gave INEC the power to sequence every election. However, only election into the offices of the chairman and vice chairman and membership of an area council was left to the dictate of INEC.

A similar version of new Electoral Act has been passed by the House of Representatives and a harmonised version of the Act will be transmitted to the president for assent in coming weeks. The Act will take its full effect after the presidential assent.

Jega seeks 55bilion Naira to Umpire Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it will require at least N55.1 billion to organise a “substantially more credible” voters register ahead of the 2011 general election.

The commission’s chairperson, Attahiru Jega, told a delegation of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who visited him in his office in Abuja yesterday that the money is required to purchase the requisite technology to produce a credible voters register. “We can use N55 billion as the cost of equipment alone if we buy directly from the manufacturers since it will cost 2,000 dollars per unit.”

He explained that the equipment “will be a laptop-based unit plus the accessories for finger printing and a high resolution camera that can capture the pictures and complete the entire exercise within a maximum of 15 to 20 minutes.” He noted that by going directly to the manufacturers, the commission will not only get better quality products but will thereby save about N16 billion or more from the procurement. He hoped the commission’s proposal to the government would be approved before August 11.

Whilst calling for a review of the procurement process, Mr Jega lamented that the current procurement process involves the use of vendors and it did not permit direct purchase from the manufacturers. He blamed the process for disrupting the 2006 voters register.

“As soon as the contract was signed with credible partners, (in 2006) they were abandoned and fake equipment was purchased, some with expired licences and that was what affected the voter registration exercise in 2006” he explained.

He also noted that though funds had been made available for the election, “there is a funding gap of close to N10 billion. Some important personnel costs were not captured in the funding,” he said.

Why would Goodluck Jonathan even approve this .It is almost like awarding the head of PHCN a national award .What do you think ?

Ogbonaya Onovo, the Inspector General of Police, was among 186 Nigerians from different strata of the society who were honoured with the 2009 National Award by President Goodluck Jonathan.

But Mr. Onovo, who said he was quite happy at the honour done him, was not impressed with the question from NEXT about whether he thought it was justified for him to get such an award in the face of the rising crime and insecurity in the country.

The police boss, who refused to answer the query, said it was a stupid question meant to provoke him, rather than one “borne out of genuine journalistic curiosity.” He said members of the public should decide if he deserved the award or not.

“Answer it for yourself,” he said. “You are a member of the public. If I don’t deserve it, say so.

"I can’t answer stupid questions, because insecurity is all over the world. There is no society where there is no crime. You can’t tell me of any society, if you know one, tell me. So, I think it is not a proper question and I will not answer it..

“You have come to provoke. You haven’t come to ask questions as journalists who want to know and who want to disseminate information,” adding, “Your question had spoilt my happy mood.”

However, the questions that so infuriated the usually amiable Mr. Onovo were the sort that reporters had asked all the other awardees.

The 186 recipients included Mike Akhigbe; Aloysius Katsina-Alu; and Joseph Wayas, who received the award of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger,(GCON).

Others were the chief of staff to the president, Mike Oghiadomhe; the head of service of the federation, Stephen Oronsaye; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Niki Tobi; the emir of Gwandu, Mohammadu Ilyasu Bashar; the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi; Ghali Umar Na’Abba; and Patricia Etteh, who all received the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) award.

Critical observations

Speaking at the four-hour ceremony, which was attended by families and well wishers of the awardees, Mr Jonathan said overcoming the challenges facing the country can only be achieved with the collective dedication and participation of all patriotic Nigerians.

“We must make honour-inspiring acts part of our national culture. The times call for men and women who are willing to live above primordial loyalties and commit their all to the general good,” he said.

“By reason of your decoration today, you have become national ambassadors of hope and agents of change. You have an abiding duty to this generation of Nigerians and our common posterity to always live up to the high standards to which you will be held,” he told the recipients.

Noting that the national honours are part of Nigeria’s national heritage which must be preserved, Mr. Jonathan promised that his administration will work to “raise the bar” so as to challenge Nigerians to strive harder for greater excellence in all fields of human endeavour.

The award had however come under criticisms, and a number of people have wondered if some recipients had not bought the awards, considering their antecedents.

Mr. Jonathan said at the occasion that the federal government noted the critical observations and will put such observations to good use in strengthening the prestige and integrity of the awards.

The Nigerian National Honours are a set of orders and decorations conferred upon Nigerians and friends of Nigeria every year. The awards were instituted by the National Honours Act No. 5 of 1964, during the First Republic, to honour people who have rendered service to the benefit of the nation.

Predators of the press

Mr. Onovo had undoubtedly led in the search and release of the four journalists who were kidnapped in the south-eastern part of the country recently, and for which the police was widely commended but also vilified for allowing kidnapping to thrive in the country.

Indeed, Mr. Onovo, who received the honour of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), was on May 2010, listed as one of the “40 predators of the press in the world” by the international rights group, Reporters without Borders, during its World Press Day celebration.

According to the group, the names on the list are “powerful, dangerous, violent, and above the law,” thus the nomenclature, “Predators of Press Freedom.”

The group had further blamed the Nigeria Police Force, led by Mr. Onovo, for making the country “one of the world’s most violent countries for journalists.”

A whiff of confusion yesterday heralded the announcement of the take off of the amended constitution as the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, who initially said the section which grants financial independence to state houses of assemblies got the required assent, was forced to back-pedal, few minutes into the news conference. Mr Ekweremadu said he had cross-checked the facts and discovered that the section could not pass through because only 22 houses supported it, instead of the required 26. According to him, Katsina State, initially believed to have voted in favour of the clause, had presented two conflicting versions and its vote was therefore invalidated.

Section 121 of the Constitution which deals with financial independence for state houses of assemblies did not receive the support of the state governors who, as reported exclusively by NEXT on Sunday on July 11, pressured their legislators to vote against it because it would weaken the hold of the executive on the lawmakers..

The new laws

Under the new Constitution, elections are to be held in January next year, which is a slight departure from the past when elections held in April and inaugurations occur on May 29.

The document which is referred to as the first amendment of the 1999 Constitution, and had costs the country some N5 billion, stipulates that elections should hold on a date not earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the expiration of the term of political office holders.

Mr. Ekweremadu, who chaired the senate committee on the amendment of the constitution said, the senate is aware of the little time left before the elections and will assist INEC to achieve a crises-free election.

He said the senate is preparing to pass a new electoral act that will extend the deadline for voters’ registration and submission of candidates’ name to INEC to two months before the actual elections.

All states, except Bauchi, voted in favour of the new electioneering time frame. The state had preferred the old time frame which stipulated that elections shall not take place earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.

Bauchi State voted ‘yes’ on only five of the 66 sections where amendments to the constitution were proposed by the national assembly. However, more than half of the amendments sought by the federal legislators were turned down by their state counterparts. Only 29 of the 66 sections were passed by the required two-third majority of the states.

Other sections of the constitution that were amended in the constitution include sections that grant the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) financial autonomy and section 135(2) which says that, “in the event of re-run election, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account” for the president. This same rule also applies to all other political offices.

Only last week, a Federal High Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State ruled that the tenure of Segun Oni, the Ekiti State governor, ends in 2011, temporarily putting paid to the controversy over whether a fresh four year tenure should start from when he won the April 2009 re-run elections in the state.

Section 145, which deals with the transfer of power between the president and vice president, was also amended. It now reads: “Whenever the president is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the president of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the vice president shall perform the functions of the president as Acting president.” The constitution also provided that in the event that the president was unable to transmit a letter over his absence, in 21 days, the vice president will act in his stead. The rule is also applicable to state governors who failed to hand over properly.

This has hopefully saved the nation a repeat of what happened in November last year when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua left the country without transmitting power to the vice president.

The amendments also give the national assembly the power to make laws to ensure that political parties observe the practice of internal democracy in section 228.

A significant departure from the past constitution is Section 233 which now empowers the Supreme Court to hear the governor and deputy governors’ election appeal cases while the court of original jurisdiction for such cases remains the Appeal Court. The High Court is empowered to hear election cases over elections into the Senate and House of Representatives. Under the old order, governorship election cases end at the Appeal Court level.

Rejected sections

The Independent candidacy clause which was the core of electoral reforms promoted by the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was dropped by the states.

The introduction of this clause followed the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee led by Mohammad Uwais. The clause stipulates that aspirants for political offices - including offices of the governor and president - need not be members of any political party.

Although the provision enjoyed great support from the federal lawmakers, the state assemblies rejected it. They also rejected the attempt to delete section 68 (g) which prohibits carpet- crossing for legislators from the constitution.

Mr. Ekweremadu, however, said the national assembly will reintroduce the rejected sections in the next constitution amendment process, ”...hoping that state assemblies will be disposed to pass them then.” He added that the next constitution review will focus on state creation, fiscal federation, state police and devolution of powers.