The police provided cover while the illegal importers warehoused the explosives. The firecrackers, which caused the Lagos explosion, were brought in with active connivance of police officers, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.
A police station, Oko-Awo police post, is also located a few metres from the warehouses where the illegal firecrackers were stored before explosion, Wednesday, at Jankara, Lagos Island. The explosion, which killed one and injured 40 others, left 10 buildings severely burnt and damaged.
Residents said the police were aware of the movement of goods in and out of the warehouses prior to the incident. Monsuru Mohammed, who owned one of the destroyed buildings, said that container loads of the illegal explosives are regularly brought into one of the warehouses by a man identified simply as Jossy.
“When coming to offload, he’d come with mobile police. So who will challenge them?” Mr. Mohammed said.
“This is not the first time banger will be causing destruction in our community. About eight years ago, there was a similar fire in Idumagbo Avenue caused by the same people who own the warehouse that caused fire on Wednesday,” Mr. Mohammed added.
A police officer at the Oko-Awo police post declined to comment on whether they were aware of the illegal goods at the warehouse.
Efforts to speak with Ngozi Braide, Lagos State Police Command spokesperson were not successful. Calls made to her phone were not answered.
While visiting the scene on the day of the incident, Ms. Braide had said that the owner of the building “would not go unpunished.”
“It is illegal to deal on goods that are prohibited by law let alone importing such goods into the country,” Ms. Braide said.
Barred from homes’
On Thursday, a bulldozer from the Lagos Public Works Corporation continued to pull down remnants of the burnt buildings; as a handful of fire-fighters sprayed water at the last of the dying flames. There were periodic bangs from firecrackers within the buildings.
The explosion sites remained cordoned by armed police officers to keep dozens of onlookers at bay. The police barrier also kept people who live near the explosion sites away from their homes.
“My house was not directly affected but the police have cordoned off the area. I don’t even know where I’m going to sleep,” said Aishat Baruwa. “I have been outside all day and they will not even allow me to take any of my belongings.”
Police, Customs culpable
The Chairman of Lagos Island local government, Wasiu Eshinlokun, said that the Nigerian Customs and the police are responsible for the incident.
“However, it will also serve a lesson to all of them that, in future, they’ll be more alert to their responsibilities.
“We must have a multi-faceted approach to it. We must do a re-orientation, sensitization, and application of the law,” Mr. Eshinlokun said.
“The next line of action is for government to look at what had caused the problem, those involved in the trading of such items, then how do we mitigate the sufferings of those who were affected?” he added.
The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, had also demanded a thorough investigation of the source and ownership of the bangers. The governor, during his visit to the site of the explosion on Wednesday, said everyone involved should be brought to book.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s write up titled “ We Remember Differently: Tribute to Chinua Achebe @ 82” posted in Saharareporters on 24th November 2012 and published in The Guardian of Sunday, November 25, 2012 on pages 34- 35 was a good effort.
In the said write up, Chimamanda did well in bringing out more meanings and interpretations of the issues raised by Prof. Chinua Achebe in his latest book titled “There was a Country…” especially as they concern late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and the civil war starvation strategy. She also made an interesting point to an unreading nation that “… we must hear one another’s stories”, therefore there was need to discuss Biafra and related issues people suffered or enjoyed differently during the 1967-1970 civil war. I will come back to this later.
Two of such issues, Chimamanda wrote, were the abandoned properties issue and the changing of Igbo names all in Port Harcourt. She said: “Abandoned property cases remain unresolved today in Port Harcourt, a city whose Igbo names were changed after the war, creating ‘Rumu’ from ‘Umu’”. Take note that Rumu is an Ikwerre word for children and was not created from the Igbo word Umu. Also, Port Harcourt is the political and oil city of the Ikwerre people. So the two issues were directed at the Ikwerre people. Ikwerre is an ethnic group in Rivers State and was under the Eastern Region during the regional government era in Nigeria, between 1951 and 1967. The then Eastern Region government was under the total domination and control of the Igbo; just like the Yoruba and the Hausa-Fulani did in Western and Northern regions respectively.
As Ikwerre, I understand the old misunderstood argument by the Igbo that Ikwerre people, after the civil war, changed their Igbo names to Ikwerre names. Also, the Igbo claimed that Ikwerre did this to deny being Igbo. These incorrect claims by the Igbo must be corrected.
Let me educate Chimamanda that Ikwerre names were first changed by the Igbos when the latter colonized the former under the Eastern Regional Government. During this time, Ikwerre was under total social, economic and political control of the Igbo, hence it was extremely difficult then to challenge the changing of Ikwerre names by the Igbo. Who was Ikwerre to challenge Igbo maximum leadership actions in Ikwerreland? We know the indignities suffered by late Chief E. J. A. Oriji in the Eastern House of Assembly and indeed in the hands of the Eastern Region government by insisting that Ikwerre is not Igbo.
Another means through which Igbo names came into existence in Ikwerre was via other interactions between the Ikwerre and the Igbo. But note that these interactions were initially with mutual respect but later became one between a stronger culture (Igbo) and a weaker culture (Ikwerre) within a new rampaging political regime that favoured the Igbo culture aimed at becoming an absolute dominant culture in the region. For example there were names like Port Azikiwe (Igbo name) for Port Harcourt; Igirita (Igbo name) for Igwuruta; Amaweke (Igbo name) for Rumuokwuta; Obinna (Igbo name) for Ovundah; Onyemaechi (Igbo name) for Yelemaekhile etc. Take note that the non-Igbo names were there before they were changed by the Igbo into Igbo names. Natuarally, the Ikwerre did not like the changing of such names; but Ikwerre could not challenge these local colonizers.
Also recall that during the Eastern Regional Government, Igbo language was the second official language used to teach in schools throughout the region, to worship in churches and used in offices. Some Ikwerre who dared to use Ikwerre language in the church for example were punished by the Igbo who were in charge of the churches in the first place (see page 145 in my book titled: The Challenge of Ikwerre Development in Nigeria 2011).
It was in these circumstances that, especially after the creation of Rivers State, Ikwerre people got relieved and encouraged enough to change some of the Igbo-imposed names back to their original Ikwerre names. It was this second change of names that Chimamanda and indeed most Igbos see as Ikwerre’s effort at denying being Igbo. That is not true! The real reason for the second change of names was to return the names to their true and authentic Ikwerre names.
Notwithstanding this second-change-effort, Igbo names still exist in Ikwerre as relics of Ikwerre history, just like Nigerians still bear English and Arabic names. Is a Nigerian bearing David Mark an English or German? So far, researches on Ikwerre origin do not overwhelmingly suggest that Ikwerre is Igbo. But long time lopsided relationship between Igbo and Ikwerre had led to the semblance of Ikwerre as Igbo. This has led to Ikwerre being stampeded in Nigeria as a minority ethnic group and Ikwerre had suffered all kinds of humiliation, marginalization and denials within an unbrotherly Federal Republic of Nigeria. Do you know what it means to live between two enemies? Ikwerre live between the Igbo whose aim remains to own the areas up till the Atlantic Ocean and have a port there for her businesses; while the Ijaw will not allow that to happen. But Igbo cannot get to the coast without passing through Ikwerre and other lands which do not belong to them. And Ijaw needs some land to claim true ownership of the coast and adjoin land areas. This is why Port Harcourt had remained essentially an economic and political issue between the Igbo and the Ijaw: hence, you hear the Igbo insisting that Ikwerre is Igbo and Ijaw saying Ikwerre is Igbo so that they can claim Port Harcourt. So for the Ikwerre, it has been a tug of war to sustain her identity in this heavy acrimony.
Now, let us go back to the issue of discussing Nigeria’s past that had planted hate, intolerance, indiscipline, corruption and ultimately underdevelopment in Nigeria. Those issues to be discussed should include the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates on January 1, 1914; Bakassi Island; the creation of Nigeria into three regions that appeared like sharing out Nigeria to the so-called majority ethnic groups of Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani; the ethnic minorities second class status in Nigeria; the election and denial of Nnamdi Azikiwe into the Western House; the sacking of Prof. Ita Eyo by Azikiwe from the Eastern House; the imprisonment of Obafemi Awolowo; the Weti; the 15th January 1966 coup; the 1966 genocide against the Igbos across Northern Nigeria; the 29th July 1966 Danjuma coup; Biafra; the Gideon Orka coup in April 1990; Dele Giwa; the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election; the killing of MKO Abiola; Kenule Saro-Wiwa etc. The success of this discussion may mark the beginning of the true healing process of Nigeria’s hateful past because these are the key issues that had embittered Nigerians against themselves and indeed Nigeria. May I suggest that if this discussion is ever allowed to hold and it succeeds, it must naturally lead to a national conference for the making of the Nigerian peoples’ constitution? Nigeria cannot succeed with its peoples having deep hurt and spite in their hearts, while fickle selfish unprogressive minds in politics and business pretend that all is well. Never mind, the Nigerian revolution will take care of them!
Therefore, if there is any ethnic group that desires to participate in the discussion Chimamanda suggested in her article, that ethnic nationality is the Ikwerre who is still leaking her unhealed and festering wounds inflicted on her by her serial colonizers: the Igbo, Ijaw, Britain and Nigeria.
Since the inception of civil rule in Nigeria in 1999 there have been several interventions initiated at the instance of wives of important political office holders such as the Wife of the President; Wives of Governors at the state level and wives of key national legislators.
These interventions have received diverse attention from a broad spectrum of observers and the general perception among these critical observers is that a clear majority of these initiatives were and are introduced by these women for purely selfish aggrandizement; self promotion and ego-tripping. This is because most of these projects are o cosmetic that they do not make significant impact in the lives of the poor populace that keep increasingly by the day due to political corruption and economic crimes by the political elite. Most of these initiatives were not designed with the people in mind therefore not relevant to the needs of the people.
Surely not all of these interventions in the different areas of human endeavours introduced by wives of serving influential political office holders at the different levels of government in Nigeria are introduced for these kinds of selfish purposes but these analysts are altogether not completely wrong when they asserted that majority of these interventions especially by the wives of state governors are not well thought out even as most of these initiatives die and fade away as quickly as the husbands of these women who created them in the first instance quit their political positions.
There have therefore been clamour from a cross segment of the society for the wives of state governors to take their time to assemble community of experts to think through any interventions and initiatives that they intend to start so that these programs and policies can stand the test of time and serve the objective for which they are established and especially to serve the utilitarian purpose which is to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number of their citizens and especially the very indigent and poverty- stricken segment of their populace in their respective states.
This is because it is a sacred fact that poverty walks with four legs in much of the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.
As I write this piece I am spending my Christmas in Ndiuche -Arondizuogu in the Aro-Umuduru Autonomous community in Onuimo local government council of Imo state and I can report that there is no single functional primary healthcare center here to service the large rural populace who are mostly peasant farmers; big time farmers and traders and yet these people are law abiding that they pay their taxes as at when due. The question therefore is why there are total absent of basic amenities like rural roads; clean water/sanitation and electricity power in this part of Imo State and yet we read daily in the press that a revolutionary rescue mission is happening in Imo state? Governor Rochas Okorocha must stop this media showmanship and begin a process of deliberate rural development anchored on the provision of basic infrastructure to make life bearable. The wife of Imo state governor should borrow a leaf from her Ebonyi state counterpart and start up a project that would impact on the large rural poor women especially in the area of providing succour to their health challenges and empowering them economically through credit schemes to expand their agricultural activities to feed Imo state people. I am aware that she recently donated a block of flats to some few widows in a part of Imo state but this is not enough even though it is a commendable step.
In Nigeria, rural and urban poverty have become very disturbing and every interventions to reduce and/or eradicate these poverty in line with the millennium development goals ought to be encouraged by all and sundry and these respective interventions must importantly be well institutionalized and backed up with all the necessary legal frameworks to sustain their existence and consistent service deliverance to the poorest of the poor in our communities scattered across the states of the federation.
But a clear departure from the routine projects and programs introduced by wives of state governors in Nigeria is the medical apostolate started in 2007 by the wife of the Ebonyi state governor Mrs. Josephine N. Elechi which is known as the Mother and Child Initiative [MCCI]. Studies and pragmatic research conducted by this writer on the invitation of one of my very supportive human rights activists- Mr. Ivoke Philip Ivoke, shows clearly that the Ebonyi state Mother and Child Initiative [MCCI] introduced in 2007 is very unique in the sense that it was set out to address a very complex and complicated health challenge confronting a great number of young but poor rural and urban women in Nigeria known as OBSTETRIC FISTULA.
Specifically, obstetric fistula is clearly a major public health challenge in Nigeria and studies shows that the health problem is largely noticeable in the Northern parts of Nigeria but other poor young women and mothers in other parts of the country are affected. I was told by some medical professionals that early marriage of little girls to older men is the fundamental cause of this health problem which at a time was of grave proportion in severity. The prevalence estimates range between 400,000 and 800,000 including an estimated 20,000 new cases every year, according to scientific paper obtained from the office of the Ebonyi state Mother and Child Initiative [MCCI].
An interesting dimension in all this wonderful story is that the wie of the Ebonyi state governor is not alone in introducing this unique kind of medical related interventions aimed at providing affordable and/or free healthcare services to the poorest of the poor because in Cross River State the wife of the governor Mrs. Liyel Imoke also has an initiative aimed at tackling the increasingly health challenge posed by PNEUMONIA. The Cross River state Governor’s wife has also established orphanages and homes whereby young vulnerable females put in family way by morally depraved men in the larger society and abandoned are taken care of till delivery. Mrs. Imoke is reported to have taken away hundreds of thousands of street children off the streets. Mrs. Imoke and Mrs. Elechi of Cross River and Ebonyi states are therefore great testaments that good things still abound within the precinct of political administration in Nigeria. This is a symbol of hope that must be supported and sustained to make remarkable positive impacts in the lives of millions of disadvantaged and very critically poor Nigerians.
Few weeks back when Mr. Ivoke Philip Ivoke drew my attention to the activities of the Ebonyi state Women and Children Initiative of Mrs. Josephine Elechi, a professional Nurse by training, I was fascinated to discover that her initiative which started only in 2007 has gone a long way to achieving so much to address this huge health challenge posed to a lot of rural women by the OBSTETRIC FISTULA particularly because of the graphic reality that with only 2,000 to 4,000 fistula repair surgeries being carried out yearly, there is a large backlog of patients waiting for surgeries.
It is estimated that our country accounts for 40 percent of the World wide prevalence of OBSTETRIC FISTULA. From the look of things, this is a big health issue in the same dimension with the wild polio which has brought international opprobrium to Nigeria. The effort by the Ebonyi state governor’s wife to bring the problem of obstetric fistula to the front burner of public discourse is therefore noble and must be supported by all and sundry even as the Presidency through the office of the Senior Special Assistant on the Millennium Development Goals must take special attention to the activities of the EBONYI STATE MOTHER AND CHILD INITIATIVE and provide the project with the necessary funding support to continue to address this big health issue and also because ending and/or halving the effects of mother and child mortalities and morbidities are among the eight Millennium Development Goals which the United Nations member nations including Nigeria has set for themselves to achieve by the year 2015.
The vision of the Ebonyi state mother and child initiative as discovered from our investigation based on facts and figures made available by competent sources is to facilitate the creation of an optimized environment that will allow for the attainment, fulfillment and self actualization of the Ebonyi women and children.
The objectives of the initiatives which are being carefully implemented by a formidable team of resource persons appointed to coordinate the program by the wife of the Ebonyi state governor are to empower the Ebonyi women; to reduce maternal mortality; to promote an environment that will allow for the eradication of maternal morbidities like VESICO-VAGINAL FISTULA; to facilitate the establishment of functional primary/comprehensive health facilities in the state and promote effective referral systems; facilitate the establishment of cancer screening centers in Ebonyi state; to educate the public on unhealthy lifestyles and how to avoid them; to facilitate the development and empowerment of Ebonyi youth and to promote mother and child survival.
Some of the verifiable achievements made since 2007 that the Ebonyi state Mother and Child initiative started include the fact that the number of deliveries in all types of health facilities in the state has doubled in 2009 compared to 2006 before the inception of this noble project. As a result of this landmark health achievement made possible by aggressive community mobilzation and provision of free maternal care in mission hospitals thousands of poor women and children have received health reliefs. Secondly, the number of antenatal care attendance has tripled in the same period even as 524 women of Ebonyi state origin and 13 other states of the federation in Nigeria have had their fistula repaired at the SOUTH EAST FISTULA CENTER. The strategies adopted and the intervention implemented by the Mother and Child Initiative of the Ebonyi state governor’s wife has been comprehensive and integrated in such a way that a synergy has been created with relevant government interventions at state and local government levels. This is important so that pet projects commenced to compliment government core mandate does not encroach or take over the fundamental functions of institutions established for public good funded with tax payers money. Again I support the clamor for these pet projects to be backed up by firm legal frameworks to make them people oriented and to be able to outlive their founders. There is need for continuity of these projects and humanitarian services to poor populace by wives of state governors.
During the course of doing this research for this piece, Mr. Ivoke Philip Ivoke provided documentary evidence to show that the Ebonyi State women and children initiative has successfully developed and implemented strategies and interventions in several areas including advocacy and community mobilisation activities leading to effective prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of patients in need of assistance. Such are they proves of initiatives that should be supported to gain firm root in our society whereby the majority of our people are poor, disadvantaged and uneducated.
By this remarkable institution established by the wife of the Ebonyi state Governor, it is evident that not all the so-called pet projects of wives of political office holders are cosmetic; selfish and untenable. This is to call on all the wives of state governors to borrow a leaf from the wife of the Ebonyi state governor who has used her professional calling as a professionally trained and experienced Nurse and Midwife to start a revolutionary medical apostolate that is aimed at providing succor to women who are suffering from this serious health complications that cost a lot of money to treat. The most salient aspect is the issue of advocacy campaign waged by this non-governmental organization to educate the Ebonyi state women and women in other states of the ways of preventing this health problem so as to give them healthy life for themselves and their children. The office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Millennium Development Goals should look into ways and manners that it could partner with this credible initiative of the wife of the Ebonyi state governor to stop the spread of this serious health problem among the rural women and their urban poor counterparts.
Egypt’s chief prosecutor ordered an investigation on Thursday into allegations that opposition leaders committed treason by inciting supporters to overthrow Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
The probe by a Morsi-appointed prosecutor was launched a day after the president called for a dialogue with the opposition to heal rifts opened in the bitter fight over an Islamist-drafted constitution just approved in a referendum. The opposition decried the investigation as a throwback to Hosni Mubarak’s regime, when the law was used to smear and silence opponents.
The probe was almost certain to sour the already tense political atmosphere in the country. The allegations were made initially in a complaint by at least two lawyers sent to the chief prosecutor earlier this month. They targeted opposition leaders Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the U.N. nuclear agency, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, and Hamdeen Sabahi. Both Moussa and Sabahi were presidential candidates who competed against Morsi in the last election.
There was no immediate comment by any of the three opposition leaders named but the opposition dismissed the allegations.
Emad Abu Ghazi, secretary-general of the opposition party ElBaradei heads, said the investigation was “an indication of a tendency toward a police state and the attempt to eliminate political opponents.” He said the ousted Mubarak regime dealt with the opposition in the same way.
Mubarak jailed his opponents, including liberals and Islamists. International rights groups said their trials did not meet basic standards of fairness.
ElBaradei was a leading figure behind the uprising against Mubarak and at one point, he was allied with the Brotherhood against the old regime.
The investigation does not necessarily mean charges will be filed against the leaders. But it is unusual for state prosecutors to investigate such broad charges against high-profile figures.
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, asked the opposition on Wednesday to join a national dialogue to heal rifts and move on after a month of huge street protests against him and the constitution drafted by his allies.
Some of the protests erupted into deadly violence. On Dec. 5, anti-Morsi demonstrators staging a sit-in outside the presidential palace in Cairo were attacked by Morsi supporters. Fierce clashes ensued that left 10 people dead.
The wave of protests began after Morsi’s Nov. 22 decrees that gave him and the assembly writing the constitution immunity from judicial oversight. That allowed his Islamist allies on the assembly to hurriedly rush through the charter before an expected court ruling dissolving the panel.
After the decrees, the opposition accused Morsi of amassing too much power in his hands. They said the constitution was drafted without the participation of liberal, minority Christian and women members of the assembly, who walked out in protest at the last minute.
Even though the constitution passed in a referendum, the opposition has vowed to keep fighting it. They say it enshrines Islamic law in Egypt, undermines rights of minorities and women, and restricts freedoms.
Morsi and Brotherhood officials accused the opposition of working to undermine the president’s legitimacy, and accused former regime officials of working to topple him.
Although he reached out to the opposition for reconciliation, Morsi did not offer any concessions in his speech Wednesday calling for a dialogue.
On Wednesday Morsi asked his prime minister to carry out a limited reshuffle of his government, without offering the opposition any seats.
In an apparent protest against the decision to keep the same prime minister, the minister of parliamentary affairs resigned. A member of his Islamist party said Prime Minister Hesham Kandil has not lived up to the challenges of the previous period, and a stronger, more political prime minister should be nominated.
This is the second resignation of a Cabinet minister this week and follows a spate of resignations of senior aides and advisers during the constitutional crisis.
Details of the complaint filed by the two lawyers were carried on the website of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic fundamentalist group that has become Egypt’s most powerful political faction since the 2011 uprising.
The report said their complaint alleged that the opposition leaders were “duping simple Egyptians to rise against legitimacy and were inciting against the president,” which constitutes treason.
Yara Khalaf, a spokeswoman for Moussa, said there were no official charges and he had not been summoned for investigation. But she declined to comment on the accusations.
Heba Yassin, a spokesman for the Popular Current headed by Sabahi, said Sabahi faced similar charges under Mubarak and his predecessor. She dismissed them as fabrications and an attempt to smear his reputation and silence the opposition.
“Morsi is confirming that he is following the same policies of Mubarak in repressing his opponents and trying to smear their reputation through false accusations,” Yassin said.
“Also this is evidence of what we had warned about — the judiciary and the prosecutor-general must be independent and not appointed by the president,” she said. “He is a Morsi appointee and this is where his loyalty lies and he is now implementing orders to eliminate the opposition.”
The chief prosecutor, Talaat Abdullah, was appointed by Morsi at the height of the political tension over the constitution. He could not be immediately reached for comment.
Morsi’s Nov. 22 presidential decrees appointed Abdullah to replace the chief prosecutor who was a holdover from the Mubarak regime. The judiciary protested the move, seeing it as trampling of its authority to choose the chief prosecutor.
The Supreme Judicial Council, the country’s highest judicial authority, asked Abdullah to step down Wednesday because he was appointed by the president.
Human Rights lawyer Bahy Eddin Hassan said the fact that the chief prosecutor has asked for an investigation meant he is taking the accusations by the lawyers seriously.
Abdullah asked a judge to conduct the investigation, the state news agency reported.
Hassan said this was an attempt to show that the investigation is independent. However the judiciary, like the rest of the country, is divided between supporters and opponents of Morsi and the Brotherhood.
“This is the beginning of a series of events where the judiciary will be used to settle political scores with opponents,” Hassan said. “This is not a new policy. But it is new that a regime that is just starting out uses such tools.”
With an economic crisis and unpopular austerity measures looming in Egypt, Hassan said: “The regime wants to keep the opposition busy with its legal battles.”
Barely two weeks after security operatives attached to governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo state battered a commercial bus operator and damaged his bus around the warehouse junction in Owerri for allegedly disrupting the governor’s convoy, Imo residents Wednesday, witnessed another show of shame when security details attached to the convoy of Governor Rochas Okorocha allegedly unleashed an unwarranted assault on the convoy of Senator Chris Anyanwu in Azaraegbelu, Owerri North in Imo state.
While speaking to newsmen in Owerri the Imo State capital, Anyanwu, who represents Imo East senatorial district at the National Assembly, said she had visited Okorocha earlier in the day to felicitate with him on the up-coming wedding of his daughter and had requested if there were areas she could lend support.
According to her, she had thereafter proceeded to Mbaise for a function and was on her way back when she noticed, ‘an intimidating convoy bearing down on her convoy with full compliments of security operatives, conventional and non-conventional’.
The senator said it was around 5.30pm at the time and she had directed her convoy to veer off the road and stop for the governor’s convoy to pass, but to her surprise, the Governor’s security men stopped and blocked her convoy, dragged out the driver of her pilot vehicle and beat him to pulps.
“The unwarranted beating and assault on my convoy compelled me to come down from my vehicle as the assault continued. They had dragged my driver into the bush to shoot him when I started shouting that their action was ungodly and barbaric. To my utter shock Okorocha was watching the entire episode complacently and had even shouted orders to his men saying ‘disarm her security’ ”
Anyanwu noted that as at the time of briefing newsmen, the Governor had not called to apologize for the action or explain it. She added that she had been a victim of inexplicable intimidation and harassment.
“Any time I attend official functions in the state, I am harassed, intimidated and often excluded from the protocol list” The Senator described the assault on her convoy as ‘a misplaced show of power’ , regretting that Nigerians are living in a part of the world where governors have the power of life and death.”
The Senator’s driver, Odilichukwu Uka was thereafter rushed to an undisclosed hospital with a broken head and bruises in other parts of his body.
Meanwhile, Okorocha’s Special Assistant on Media, Ebere Uzoukwa has dismissed Senator Anyanwu’s claims as false saying that Governor Okorocha escaped death when the Senator’s convoy rammed into the governor’s convoy narrowly missing the staff car. According to a statement signed by Uzoukwa, the Senator after breaching the governor’s convoy still alighted form her vehicle and ordered her Naval security personnel to open fire.
“The Senator further went berserk and descended on the security men slapping both the governor’s Aide Camp and Chief Detail. She also rained abuses on the governor as well as calling him unprintable names. However, it is interesting to mention that the governor’s security men exhibited decency, professionalism and maturity as they never fell into the temptation of manhandling anyone in the Senator’s convoy irrespective of her unruly attitude and that of the Naval ratings in her convoy.”
Adding further, Okorocha’s aides said; “Recall that His Excellency, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha recently banned the use of siren by unauthorized persons in the state as part of stringent security measures to fight crime. This calls to question why a serving senator who obviously is not authorized to use siren has chosen the part of dishonor, lawlessness as well as refusing totally to subject herself to constituted authority.
“According to the Governor’s aide, by comprising the security of the governor, Senator Anyanwu has committed a serious security breach that requires further investigation.
Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was reportedly re-arrested and imprisoned on Christmas Day in Iran.
Pastor Youcef had been imprisoned under a death sentence for apostasy for nearly three years before being acquitted and released in September.
Now, in a clearly malicious move, Pastor Youcef was torn away from his wife and two young boys on Christmas Day.
Fox News confirms, “Youcef Nadarkhani, 35, had been summoned to return back to Lakan Prison in Rasht, the facility where he served time and was then released, based on the charge that he must complete the remainder of his sentence, according to several reports and confirmed by those close to Nadarkhani in Iran.” The Iranian court has ordered that he serve the 45 remaining days of his sentence, which he had previously been told he would serve as probation.
Iran’s flagrant disregard for international law by imprisoning this Christian for a second time for his faith did not occur coincidentally on Christmas Day. Iran is increasingly persecuting Christians and anyone who is willing to defend them.
To make matters worse, Pastor Youcef’s Iranian attorney, Dadkhah, who was instrumental in securing his release earlier this year, is currently in one of Iran’s most notoriously abusive prisons, Evin prison. We have confirmed that his health is quickly deteriorating under the desperate conditions of his imprisonment. He was imprisoned soon after Youcef’s release in apparent retaliation for his career spent defending human rights against the radical Islamic Iranian regime’s assaults.
In addition, American Pastor Saeed Abedini remains imprisoned in Evin, merely because of his Christian faith.
Iran’s brutal repression and persecution of Christianity has not gone unnoticed. The type of immense international pressure placed on Iran earlier this year that led to Pastor Youcef’s prior release may be the only hope for freedom for these men. Please continue to pray, Tweet for Youcef, and sign petitions for their freedom. We are aggressively working to attain their freedom, and will keep you informed as new information becomes available.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday dismissed his only female cabinet minister, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, after she criticised her colleagues for failing to provide funds to import vital medicines.
Appointed in 2009, Dastjerdi was the first woman government minister since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979. While seen as politically conservative, the gynaecologist has advocated a greater role for women in society.
Reports have emerged in recent weeks of shortages of some critical medicines for treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis, blood disorders and other serious conditions.
Last month, Dastjerdi said only a quarter of the $2.4 billion earmarked for medicine imports had been provided in the current year and there was a shortage of foreign currency for the shipments.
“Medicine is more essential than bread. I have heard that luxury cars have been imported with subsidized dollars but I don’t know what happened to the dollars that were supposed to be allocated for importing medicine,” she said on state television.
Iranian officials blame the shortages on sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union, but the government has come under heavy criticism itself for failing to manage the needs of Iranians properly.
Ahmadinejad’s political rivals accuse him of exacerbating the effects of sanctions through poor management and cronyism.
In a short statement, he announced the interim appointment of Mohammad Hassan Tariqat Monfared as head of the ministry, replacing Dastjerdi.
“Noting your commitment and valuable experiences and based on the … constitution, I appoint you as the caretaker health minister,” read the statement published widely across Iranian media. (Reporting By Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian, Editing by William Maclean and Tom Pfeiffer) Reuters.
The Kaduna State House of Assembly (KDSHA) on Thursday confirmed the nomination of Mr Nuhu Bajoga as the state’s Deputy Governor.
Bajoga’s nomination was confirmed at the plenary of the House chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Matoh Dogara, in Kaduna.
Dogara attributed the confirmation of the new deputy governor to his experience in politics both at the state and federal levels.
The lawmaker also said that Bajoga merited the position of the deputy governor being a former ambassador.
Most of the legislators at the emergency sitting called for the immediate approval of the nomination.
The motion, which was moved by Alhaji Balarabe Jigo and seconded by Nasiru Maikano, said the House should take an urgent step in approving the nomination.
”I strong associate myself and the House should consider the nomination”, he said.
The plenary was suspended for 10 minutes.
On resumption, Dogara said: “The House has agreed and approved the appointment of Nuhu Bajoga as the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State,” he said.
Nuhu Bajoga was born in Kwai, Jaba Local Goverment Area of Kaduna State, on July 4, 1949.
Barely 20 minutes after Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former President left his Abeokuta Hilltop Mansion residence on Thursday, fire engulfed the building.
The house located in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital, was gutted by fire on Thursday with extensive damages recorded in the 30-minute incident
The fire, which started at about 4.25 p.m., was traced to electricity power surge, just barely about 20 minutes after Mr. Obasanjo left for his other house located in the Ita-Eko area of the town.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the fire started from Mr. Obasanjo’s private office, a stone throw to his bedroom, before the security in the premises raised alarm, and the state fire service was contacted.
The fire service, in a swift response, raced to the scene with two fire fighting vehicles, to curtail the fire, which would have spread to other apartments. However, a number of valuables were consumed by the fire.
No life was lost, but some damaged property were seen being moved out by men of the fire service and officers of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC).
As at the time of this report, Mr. Obasanjo had returned home, apparently to see the extent of the damage. His wife, Bola Obasanjo, was seen outside in company of some grandchildren looking worried.
On his part, Mr. Obasanjo, after the fire had been put under control, was seen sitting within the premises receiving telephone calls from sympathizers.
However, one of his sons, identified as Oba Obasanjo, threw caution to the wind, as he seized the Blackberry phone of PREMIUM TIMES correspondent and smashed it on the floor for taking photographs.
Symphatisers that thronged the home of the former President include the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye; a factional chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, Dipo Odujinrin; and the state’s Director of State Security Services.
Ironically, an hour after the fire incident was brought under control, the officials of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, arrived in two pick-up vans loaded with ladders.
The former President is expected to address journalists on the cause of the fire.
Located along the Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard in Abeokuta, the multi-millionaire villa, made up of about six structures, was completely shortly before Mr. Obasanjo left office in 2007. It was constructed by Messrs Gitto Construzioni Generali Nigeria Limited, an Abuja-based Italian company.
It was built atop a hill, some critics said, to give the former president the psychological feeling of being on top of everyone.
A controversial recruitment exercise which involved indiscriminate allocation of jobs contrary to the provisions of the Federal Character Commission Act is currently going on at the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) headquarters in Abuja.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that about 253 people were hurriedly employed a week before the Governing Council of the commission was inaugurated
Under the amended National Human Rights Commission Act, 2010, it is the council that has the powers to authorize employment.
Section 8 (1) provides: “The Council shall have power to appoint directly, and either on transfer or on secondment from any public service in the Federation, such number of employees as may, in the opinion of the Council, be required to assist the Commission in the discharge of any of its functions under this act, and shall have power to pay to persons so employed such remuneration (including allowances) as the Council may determine.
“(2) The terms and conditions of service (including terms and conditions as to remuneration, allowances, pensions, gratuities and other benefits) of the person employed by the Commission shall be as determined by the Council from time to time.”
However, in order to overreach the council and in clear violation of the Federal Character policy, the commission had hurriedly allocated jobs and issued letters of employment to cronies without even inviting them for an interview.
A staff of the commission said that the stuffing was done on the weekend preceding the Monday when the council was inaugurated. The council was inaugurated on Monday 26th November 2012 by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Mohamed Adoke, SAN.
Documents obtained from the commission revealed that no provision was made for the payment of the salaries of the illegally employed workers.
Besides, some were posted to states where the commission had no offices.
“There was no advertisement. No interview. Nigerian youths were not given the opportunity to apply for the jobs but some big men here just issued letters to their brothers and townsmen some of whom do not have the idea of what the commission does”, an aggrieved staff of the commission told our correspondent in confidence.
He explained that in order not to disguise the states from which the newly employed people come from, the commission fraudulently disguised the states by ascribing Nasarawa State to someone who comes from Benue.
He called on the governing council of the commission to as a matter of urgency re-dress the wrong by giving qualified Nigerians the opportunity to be considered for work at the commission.
One of the beneficiaries of the illegal recruitment who claimed to be a christian confirmed that he was not invited for an interview and that his letter of employment was brought to him in the house.
However a senior staff in the Commission who does not want his name in print said that they obtained waiver from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to carry out the said employment but he however could not rationalize why they said jobs were not advertised in line with government policy
He none the less said that the jobs were advertised on the Commission’s website.
