Enugu debunks CLO’s claims on Ugwu

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The Enugu state government has again faulted claims by the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) that it was responsible for the current incarceration of labour activist Osmond Ugwu saying that such claims were ill-informed and unfounded.

The government was reacting to a report in a national daily in which the leadership of the CLO in neighbouring Anambra State accused the government of being behind Ugwu’s current travails in order to stop his “unrelenting quest to ensure better living conditions for workers in the state”.

 A release signed by Chukwudi Achife, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor Sullivan Chime, said the  government was appalled  at the  way the organization misrepresented facts relating to Ugwu’s incarceration  adding that it had also made references and comparisons that were unfounded both in fact and logic in an apparent attempt to castigate it.

Achife noted that Ugwu was being remanded in prison with respect to a case he has with the police authorities in Enugu and not the state government adding that the charge of attempted murder arose from the accused person’s alleged attack on a police officer that had resulted in severe injuries to the latter.

The Governor’s spokesman wondered how such a case could be said to be said to have been engineered by the state government when the accused person has the opportunity to prove his innocence in court.

He emphasized that the order to remand Ugwu in prison custody was made by a court of law and not by the state government adding that anyone who wanted to challenge its propriety should do so before the court rather than resorting to the blackmail of an innocent party.

The release said the government held in the CLO in high esteem and expected that it would have taken time to investigate matters properly before making declarations that could not be sustained.

On the issue of Ugwu’s dismissal from the civil service, Achife said it was a matter that the CLO or any other interested party could ascertain from the state Civil Service Commission which is the only body that has statutory authority over the employment and dismissal of civil servants.

He noted that since such actions affected the rights of an individual, it would be more sensible for the individual to seek redress in court if he considered it irregular or unjustified, rather than trying to raise unnecessary sentiments of the pages of newspapers.

Achife stressed that the current state government had notably remained consistent in its submission to the rule of law and has exhibited an uncommon interest in the improvement of the welfare of workers.

He added that the recall of over 5,000 workers disengaged by its predecessor which the CLO acknowledged in the report, was one of the earliest and more significant demonstrations of that disposition.

Correcting the ‘fairy tale’: A SEAL’s account of how Osama bin Laden really died

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Forget whatever you think you know about the night Osama bin Laden was killed. According to a former Navy SEAL who claims to have the inside track, the mangled tales told of that historic night have only now been corrected.

“It became obvious in the weeks evolving after the mission that the story that was getting put out there was not only untrue, but it was a really ugly farce of what did happen,” said Chuck Pfarrer, author of Seal Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama Bin Laden.

In an extensive interview with The Daily Caller, Pfarrer gave a detailed account of why he believes the record needed to be corrected, and why he set out to share the personal stories of the warriors who penetrated bin Laden’s long-secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

In August the New Yorker delivered a riveting blow-by-blow of the SEALs’ May 1, 2011 raid on bin Laden’s hideaway. In that account, later reported to lack contributions from the SEALs involved, readers are taken through a mission that began with a top-secret helicopter crashing and led to a bottom-up assault of the Abbottabad compound.

Freelancer Nicholas Schmidle wrote that the SEALs had shot and blasted their way up floor-by-floor, finally cornering the bewildered Al-Qaida leader:

“The Al Qaeda chief, who was wearing a tan shalwar kameez and a prayer cap on his head, froze; he was unarmed. ‘There was never any question of detaining or capturing him—it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees,’ the special-operations officer told me. (The Administration maintains that had bin Laden immediately surrendered he could have been taken alive.) Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden’s life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye.”

Chuck Pfarrer rejects almost all of that story.

“The version of the 45-minute firefight, and the ground-up assault, and the cold-blooded murder on the third floor — that wasn’t the mission,” Pfarrer told TheDC.

“I had to try and figure out, well, look: Why is this story not what I’m hearing? Why is it so off and how is it so off?” he recounted. “One of the things I sort of determined was, OK, somebody was told ‘one of the insertion helicopters crashed.’ OK, well that got muddled to ‘a helicopter crashed on insertion.’”

The helicopters, called “Stealth Hawks,” are inconspicuous machines concealing cutting-edge technology. They entered the compound as planned, with “Razor 1″ disembarking its team of SEALs on the roof of the compound — not on the ground level. There was no crash landing. That wouldn’t occur until after bin Laden was dead.

Meanwhile, “Razor 2″ took up a hovering position so that its on-board snipers, some of whom had also participated in the sea rescue of Maersk Alabama captain Richard Phillips, had a clear view of anyone fleeing the compound.

The SEALs then dropped down from the roof, immediately penetrated the third floor, and hastily encountered bin Laden in his room. He was not standing still.

“He dived across the king-size bed to get at the AKSU rifle he kept by the headboard,” wrote Pfarrer in his book. It was at that moment, a mere 90 seconds after the SEALs first set foot on the roof, that two American bullets shattered bin Laden’s chest and head, killing a man who sought violence to the very end.

President Obama stepped up to a podium in the East Room of the White House that night to announce bin Laden’s death. That rapid announcement, explained Pfarrer, posed a major threat to U.S. national security.

“There was a choice that night,” Pfarrer told TheDC. “There was a choice to keep the mission secret.” America, Pfarrer explained, could have left things alone for “weeks or months … even though there was evidence left on the ground there … and use the intelligence and finish off al-Qaida.”

But Obama’s announcement, he said, “rendered moot all of the intelligence that was gathered from the nexus of al-Qaida. The computer drives, the hard drives, the videocasettes, the CDs, the thumb drives, everything. Before that could even be looked through, the political decision was made to take credit for the operation.”

And in the days that followed, as politicians sought to thrust their identities into the details of the bin Laden kill, the tale began to grow out of control, said Pfarrer.

“The president made a statement, and as far as that goes, that was fine, that was the mission statement,” he explained. “But, soon after … politicians began leaking information from every orifice. And it was like a game of Chinese telephone. These guys didn’t know what they were talking about. Very few of them had even seen the video feed.”

Pfarrer suggests that much of the misinformation was likely born out of operational ignorance, even among those sitting in the White House.

“One of the things that happened was that there were only a handful of people who know about this mission,” he said. “On the civilian side, there were only a handful of people in the situation room who were watching the drone feed. They were looking at the roof of a building taken from a rotating aircraft at 35,000 feet.”

“None of those guys, not a single one of them, had a background in special operations, with the exception of General Webb who was sitting there running a laptop,” Pfarrer went on. “No one knew or could even imagine what was going on inside the building. They didn’t know.”

“There was an alternative feed going to CIA headquarters where Leon Panetta sat there with the communications brevity codes [a guide sheet for the mission’s radio lingo] in his lap and a SEAL off-screen by his side to be able to tell him what was going on,” he said. “But these guys, none of them, really knew what they were looking at.”

As the media raised more questions, officials gave more answers.

Whether or not bin Laden resisted ultimately developed into a barrage of murky official and unofficial explanations in the days following. And statements from as high as then-CIA Director Leon Panetta offered confirmation that the endeavor was a “kill mission.”

Pfarrer dismisses that assertion.

“An order to go in and murder someone in their house is not a lawful order,” explained Pfarrer, who maintains that bin Laden would have been captured had he surrendered. “Unlike the Germans in World War II, if you’re a petty officer, a chief petty officer, a naval officer, and you’re giving an order to murder somebody, that’s an unlawful order.”

Pfarrer also suggests some of the emerging claims were simply self-aggrandizing “fairy tales.”

“The story they tried to tell — it’s preposterous. And the CIA tried to jump in. About mid-June the CIA tried to jump into the car and drive the victory lap. There’s this whole stuff about the CIA guy joining the operation, the gallant interpreter — he couldn’t even fast rope!” exclaimed Pfarrer, referring to a technique for descending from an airborne helicopter.

“There’s this fairy tale about him walking out of the compound during the operation to tell crowds of Pakistanis to go home and everything’s OK.”

Pfarrer tried to put this in perspective: “Do you mean that during the middle of this military operation at night, with hovering helicopters over this odd house in this neighborhood, that people came out of their houses to ask what’s going on, instead of [remaining] huddled in their basement?”

“And I think that there were so many of these leaks that were incorrect, the administration couldn’t walk them all back,” Pfarrer explained. “And so, in the middle of May, they froze everything.”

It was that freeze-out that left Chuck Pfarrer with nowhere to turn for the real story but the SEALs themselves.

Seal Target Geronimo delivers an account of the night Osama bin Laden died with a level of detail unlike anything previously reported. Pfarrer bills the story as “absolutely factual.”

“That’s the other thing. I’m prepared for the White House to say, you know, ‘this is full of inaccuracies,’ et cetera,” offered Pfarrer. He told TheDC that in order to protect American interests, his book is “full of names that are made up, and it is full of bases that are not quite where they really should be.”

“But the timeline of my events,” he cautions, “and the manner in which it happened is 100 percent accurate. And they’ll know that.”

John Idumange, Pointblanknews Columnist in N20m Blackmail Against Bayelsa Gov [Documents Included]

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Information available to 247ureports.com indicates that the Bayelsa State gubernatorial imbriglio may entail more twists than readily meets the naked eye. This is as new information reveals that the popular columnist for the online publication [pointblanknews.com] and a lecturer at the Niger Delta University and a recent ‘turn-coat’ critic of the governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva – demanded the sum of N20million from the Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva in return for his [John Idumange] silence.

In a recent conversation with a confident of the Governor of Bayelsa State, Igwe GreatPablo Cj, John Idumange disclosed that he will stop ‘fighting’ the governor if the governor reimburses him of the N20million he spent campaigning for him during the gubernatorial campaign season. He confirmed that he was working with the governor prior to requesting for the N20million. [See proof of conversation below] 

  

In the words of Igwe GreatPablo Cj,  

“I know that every sane mind must be disturbed by the level of allegation (which I consider as nothing but false stories) against Gov. Timipre Sylva. I am saying this based on the concrete evidence I have at hand. When I called, John Idumange, one of the major critics of Gov. Sylva, who was once a pro-Sylva up to the middle of this year, to know why he turned against Sylva overnight, he told me certain things that made him to turn against the governor.

1 – He told me that the governor who promised to make him head of the Universal Basic Education, (UBE) failed to keep to his promises.

2 – That the governor refused to pay him for the campaign he has been doing for him.

3 – That he was the most qualified to head the Due-Process and E-Governance Bureau, but the governor refused to grant him the appointment.

4- He also told me that when he started writing against the governor, he thought the governor should have sent for him for settlement, but he (the governor) never did that.

There was another day we had a chat via the facebook, I decided to ask him the way forward between him and Gov. Sylva, he told me that if Gov. Sylva will give him the 20million naira he spent in campaigning for him, he will not say anything negative against Gov. Sylva again”.

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Below is a facebook conversation showing John Idumange requesting for the N20million blackmail money.

Interesting enough, John Idumange whose major income is from his lecturing job at the university of Niger Delta may find it difficult providing the source of the N20m he claimed to have used for the campaign in support of Timipre Sylva. Also, he may find uneasy explaining whether the governor of Bayelsa, Timipre Sylva should distribute N20m to every Bayelsa State indigene.

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Idumange John

The rise and fall of Chief Nwobu Alor from Diaspora perspective

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The All Progressives Grand Alliance members in Diaspora are disheartened to read Chief Nwobu Alor’s malicious moves to tarnish the good image of the National Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh.
Chief Nwobu Alor is a native of Agulu, Anambra State and also the special adviser to Governor Peter Obi on markets and motor parks. He rose to fame when he won the election in 1979 for a seat in the old Anambra state house of Assembly. He is 86 years old with no family of his own. His activities concerning the leadership of APGA in Anambra State and the role he is allowed to play in modern politics is intriguing considering his caliber. His mission to unseat the APGA National Chairman Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh is nothing but mere mockery of democracy because his role is just like a ship on a dry land.
There are so many reasons why Chief Sir Victor Umeh will not join issues with Nwobu Alor in any aspect of his leadership. Nwobu Alor is a man of weak character, he has no drive, no determination, no self respect, no will power and he does not appear to know what he wants. He does not know God and has a disorganized vision that can only drive away followers of any organization. For him to exhibit these traits and still have the impetus to call for the resignation of a National Chairman is a mockery on democracy.  The Diaspora community will not sit and watch him destroy APGA; instead we will campaign for his isolation to an old people’s home.
Second reason why APGA members should delink themselves from the propaganda of Chief Nwobu Alor is because his vision lacks energy and enthusiasm and he sees new initiatives of the National Chairman as a burden that he can’t handle. He lacks clear vision and direction and that is why at the age of 86 years he still accepted motor parks and markets appointment. Majority of devoted APGA members now view his decision as not in the best interest of their party. A vote of no confidence will be passed on Chief Nwobu Alor across Europe, Asia and America in the next coming days. A greedy man has no shame.
No sensible human being will want to associate with a man of his age with no family of his own. There are more to Chief Nwobu Alor than the eyes can see. A person that cannot manage a motor park is planning to install someone to manage a National party. I am amazed by that kind of mentality. The major factor affecting our African politics is that we don’t know when to call a spade a spade in politics. I advise Chief Nwobu Alor to desist from his evil plot to unseat the APGA National Chairman because he will not succeed. He should be aware that in modern politics, leadership is all about the relationship between leaders and followers and Chief Victor Umeh has got the charisma to move APGA forward.
Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh does not command excellence but he builds it. He is able to build excellence because he is a man of honorable character. He is an effective, ethical leader and has conveyed a strong vision for the progress of his party APGA. APGA is very successful today because of his vision and the trust that he has installed in APGA. Let me remind Nwobu Alor that Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh built this trust in APGA by displaying a good sense of character composed of beliefs, values, skills and traits.
In reference to Nwobu Alor’s article calling Chief Umeh to resign on the grounds of corruption and incompetence,  that made us to come to a conclusion that he should be sent back to old people’s home because he appears to be developing clear signs of dementia. Is Chief Sir Victor Umeh incompetent when he fought and successfully made sure that APGA won in Imo State?  Under his current leadership, The All Progressives Grand Alliance won five seats in the Federal House of Representatives, sixteen seats in the Anambra State house of Assembly. In Imo State, APGA won twelve seats in the Imo State house of Assembly, two seats in the Federal House of Representatives, one Senatorial seat and the Governorship Election.  At his age, Nwobu Alor is ineffective, unethical, unable to adapt to new ideas and changes within the party.  He is aided and abetted by followers who are unwilling to produce a desired change to our society
The major difference between Chief Victor Umeh and Chief Nwobu Alor is that Chief Umeh is a Christian whereas the later is an atheist. We want to use this avenue to advise the APGA community to delink themselves from the propaganda of an atheist. We can recall that, Nwobu Alor is the same man that was accused of being behind the latest onslaught against MASSOB members in February 2011. This same individual will now turn back to restructure APGA. What a laugh?
Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh has done very well in steering APGA to the level we are today. Nwobu Alor will recall Chief Umeh’s role when he was the Campaign Manager for Governor Peter Obi when Chief Chekwas Okorie wanted to sell Peter Obi’s mandate to Ex Governor Chris Ngige. For him to plot against the National Chairman has proved that he has a questionable character and he has failed in his plot.
My message to the National Chairman of APGA and his National Working Committee is not to be distracted by Nwobu Alor and his activities should be viewed as a sinking ship. It is better to listen to individuals that have a good legacy for the Igbo race and not a man that is unethical. Diaspora is looking forward to seeing another tremendous victory by All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) come 2014 and 2015 general Elections.
APGA in Diaspora wants to thank the National Chairman Chief (Sir) Victor Umeh for the way his magnificent leadership is engaging people and marshalling their energy behind the party’s values, vision and direction. We are solidly behind your leadership. The enhanced communication displayed by your leadership has not only made you an effective leader but has boosted the party’s success as well.
To be continued………
 
Kenechukwu Ajuluchukwu

Prof Eze, Sacked Electoral Chief Sues Gov Obi, Assembly Over Sack

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At last, the erstwhile chairman of the Anambra state Independent Electoral Commission(ANSIEC), Prof Titus Eze has dragged Gov Peter Obi and the state House of Assembly(ANHA) to court challenging the manner of his sack, last September 6, 2011.

 

The suit Ref. A/136/2011 has been fixed for hearing this morning before His Lordship Justice Ozor of the state High Court 3, Awka.

 

Among the four key issues for determination being canvassed by Prof Eze were that he was irregularly removed as due process was not followed, and that by virtue of Sec 199(1) with which he was appointed, and Sec 201(1) and 125(3), (4), and (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his removal was unconstitutional.

 

Especially when there was no audit report or query to him or was he summoned or given opportunity before any administrative, judicial or legislative panel for his defense or answer any charges for which he was indicted.

 

According to Prof Eze’s originating summons, “in view of the fact that the defendants did not comply with Sec 201(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federation, and the fact that he was not removed for misconduct, moreso that the Auditor General of the state relied on his periodic inspection cannot be the basis of misconduct which misconduct is unfounded.”

 

Citing the case of Gov of Kwara state Vs Ojibara. NWLR p661 as decided  Justice Oguntade, of the Supreme Court, Eze saw his ouster as judicial ambush which short-circuited all legal norms of natural justice, hence rendering their actions null and void.

 

Eze therefore wants his sack to be reversed and for the governor to be restrained from appointing anyone in his stead until the full determination of his suit. He was appointed in May 2010, for a five year term as the chairman of ANSIEC.

 

The suit, some political observers noted would help to put the conduct of the council election in the state on hold pending the final determination of the suit. This does not augur well for the state that last held council election in 1998.

 

However, others have expressed readiness to go to court to restrain the Minister Of Finance, the Accountant General of the Federation and the Fiscal, Revenue Mobilization and Allocation committee from releasing the allocations due the 21 councils in the state to Governor Obi pending the conduct of the council election in the state. 

NFF consults spiritualists to cleanse Nigerian football

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Musa Amadu...NFF acting Secretary General

The leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may have resolved to ask God to intervene in the downward slide of affairs of the game employing the services of some clergymen who have a contract to start praying for the restoration of the game in the country.

Reports asserted that the Aminu Maigari-led Executive Committee has in the last few days met with several men of God at the NFF secretariat in Abuja, with the sole aim of finding a lasting spiritual way out of the quagmire of crises and strings of losses recorded by Nigerian teams in international football.
According to our source, “these men of God have been brought to come and pray and sanctify the Glass House. All enemies of the board were binded with prayers. They have brought both local and international clergymen. One of them is Rev. Edward Ediakorsa, who attended the NFF emergency meeting where the decision to sack Siasia was taken. He came from the United States of America. Two others who are based in Nigeria had also visited. The pastors have been holding series of meeting with the Acting General Secretary of the NFF, Musa Amadu in his office.
One of the home-based cleric, who is always a part of the Super Eagles team to major international tournaments attributed the failure of the immediate past coach of the Super Eagles, Samson Siasia, to his negative disposition to spiritual instructions. Ediakorsa was quoted to have stated that before the 8th October, 2011 match against Guinea, which cost the Super Eagles a qualifying ticket to the Nations Cup, he had sent a text message to Siasia on what to do, but the coach snubbed the advice.”
The NFF, it was gathered, was not ruling out the influence of evil forces in the litany of woes that has bedeviled Nigerian football.
When contacted on the latest initiative taken by the NFF Secretary General of the Federation, Musa Amadu, was surprised that “consulting God was being made an issue. In anything you do you must pray for God’s guidance” he was quoted to have volunteered.
Nigeria is a nation where spirituality is employed in the management of the game. Recently, when the nation lost qualifying for the 2012 African Nations Cup by playing2-2 home draw in Abuja to Guinea, Lagos-based prophet T. B. Joshua was blamed for prophesying the result of the game earlier. There were news reports that the same NFF then, brought to camp another spiritualist to counter the prediction of T. b. Joshua. The situation is not too different in the clubsides where a whole lot of money is weekly set aside for spiritual consultation called ‘tactical’.
nation’s soccer ruling body has been under intense pressure following failure of the different categories of the national team to qualify for major competitions, the height of which was the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations and Super Falcons’ exit from the women’s soccer event of next year’s Olympic Games.

—
Olajide Ayodeji Fashikun
Weekend Editor,
National Accord newspaper,
Suite 005, TransPharm Plaza,
Opposite Jabi motor park, After ThisDay newspaper,
Jabi-Abuja, Nigeria
Tel: +234-805-3622-797

2 shot, 7 injured as police, robbers clash in Onitsha

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One of the armed robbery suspects shot by the police in the commercial city of Onitsha yesterday

Two persons including an armed robbery suspect were confirmed dead yesterday while seven others sustained several degrees of injuries when Police swooped on a four man armed robbery gang terrorizing traders in the commercial city of Onitsha.

 

According to eyewitnesses’ accounts, the incident occurred at exactly 9.30 am at No 20B Ifejika Street, off  Sokoto road when a four man robbery gang operating in commercial motorcycles attacked a Telecommunication office where they carted away cash and other valuables worth over N3 million.

 

The source further disclosed that the armed robbers held the staff and customers of the Telecommunication hostage for the period of ten minutes before police detachment from the Central Police Station (CPS) and Fegge Division led by the Patrol and Guard Officer and Divisional Crime Officer 2, Mr. Kabir Umar Farouk arrived and shot one of the robbers.

 

However according to Police source, the robbers had succeeded in dispossessing the victims and their customers of their valuables when on sighting the coming patrol van, the robbers opened fire on the police which was returned and one of the robbers was shot on the spot while others escaped with various gunshot wounds.

 

It was also gathered that another victim of the deadly robbery was one man suspected by be a member of the local vigilance group whom the police said must have been gunned down by the robbers when they saw him as a threat to their operation.

 

A police source who pleaded anonymity said “when we received the information that armed robbers were operating along the Sokoto road, we mobilized our men and stormed the scene but on sighting us, the robbers opened fire on us and in the process, one of the robbers ‘that was the one we shot’ fiercely shot the vigilante man before our men gunned him down” he said.  

 

Speaking to our reporter at the Central Police Station, CPS, Onitsha the victim (names withheld) said that the robbers stormed his shop and ordered both the staff and customers to lie down before they dispossessed them of their valuables including cash.

 

The victim also revealed that during the operation which he said lasted for ten minutes, the robbers were manhandling his staff and customers, adding that they also used gun butts on them before the arrival of the policemen.

 

Addressing the policemen for their gallantry, the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, ACP, D.C Makama and Onitsha Area Commander, Mr. Larry Osita commended the efforts of the policemen in CPS and Fegge Divisions, Onitsha in responding to the distress call.

 

Mr. Makama also urged the men to be more proactive and battle ready to combat violent crimes in the commercial city of Onitsha especially armed robbery during the yuletide period, noting that the police would not allow armed robbers to have rest in the state.

 

Ureports  also gathered that items recovered at the scene of the robbery by policemen from CPS and Fegge Divisions included two AK47 rifles, four magazines and 66 rounds of ammunitions.

 

Meanwhile the corpse of the slain vigilante had been deposited in an undisclosed mortuary while passersby who sustained gunshot injuries during the gun duel have been cleared for medical attention by the police as they affirmed their readiness to get the feeling members of the gang.

The Nigerian Police and Societal Expectations

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By Tochukwu Ezukanma

In response to my earlier article, Dismantle these Roadblocks, an irate policeman called me on the phone. The article was on the need to dismantle the police roadblocks across Nigeria because they have failed as a crime fighting strategy. They degenerated from their intended role of crime prevention to cesspools of police corruption, harassment and violence. The article recommended a form of community policing as a replacement for the failed roadblock strategy.

The police man that called me was very angry. In a very harsh but somewhat restrained voice, he lectured me. He thought that my article was grossly misconstrued against the Nigerian police. As far as he is concerned, the Nigerian Police Force is doing a good job. They are professionals and are committed to doing their work. They are arresting criminals and engaging armed robbers in gun battles all the time. But Nigerians do not appreciate them and their praiseworthy work. So, he raved against what he considered my ingratitude to the Nigerian Police Force, and my articles unfair disparagement of the institution.   

He wondered why people ignore all the good works of the police and only dwell on the periodic glitches in their performance. According to him, the Nigerian police are unjustly cast as a corrupt establishment. After all, the police are under paid. And although they have families to take care of and other responsibilities to uphold, nobody talks about the pittance they are paid or of the need to increase their salaries. People only talk about the police’s demand and acceptance of bribe.

He continued, in Europe and America, the police are well paid. They have sophisticated crime fighting gadgets and equipments and there are surveillance cameras everywhere. Still, there is crime in their societies. But in Nigeria where the police are ill-equipped, and underpaid; people expect a crime free society. It is true that the policemen at these checkpoints do extort money from motorists but the checkpoints and the police presence at them deter crime. He asked me to imagine how terrible the crime rate would have been without the police at these checkpoints. As he spoke, I, on one occasion, wanted to speak and he bellowed: wait till I finish. So, I waited till he finished.

I thought that his complain was as comical as it was nonsensical. It was like the nagging of an employee over being reprimanded for lateness to work, whereas, over the years, nobody ever applauded him for his punctuality to work.  Or the fulmination of a man arrested for robbery for being pilloried for robbery, whereas, all the years he did not steal, no one congratulated him for being a law abiding citizen.

I told him that people do not generally sing praises of the police for doing their work because of societal expectations. The society expects the police to do their work of upholding the law and serving and protecting Nigerians. In doing their job, they are expected to fight crime, arrest criminals and engage armed robbers in gun battles. Their doing their job and all that attends it just conforms to people’s anticipation. Therefore, it is considered normal. And when did normality start eliciting a standing ovation? It is only when they fail in their responsibilities that people get disappointed, and consequently, complain.  

I gave him an example. I told him that all my life, I have taken my bath every day and dressed up before stepping out of the house. Nobody has every clapped for me for being a regular, cleaned up and dressing up man on the street. But if for one day, I walk out of my house naked, there will be uproar. I will immediately become the talk of the neighborhood. I will automatically become the butt of every joke in town. People will deride me, despise me and castigate me. They will invariably be heaping invectives on me. They will dub my behavior lunacy, insanity, etc. Some will feign spiritual insightfulness and diagnose it as the indecorum of a man haunted by the forces of darkness emanating from his village. And others will arrogate to themselves the powers of spiritual vision and then pontificate on how nemesis finally caught up with me for the multifarious evil I did over the years.  

But why am I being excoriated for going naked just for one day? After all, I have clad my self every day of the year for so many years. This is because there are universally accepted standards of behavior. And behaviors that fall unbearably below these standards are odious, and therefore, subject to universal censure.  

In being clothed, I met societal expectations. It was expected of me to be dressed, but in being naked, my behavior fall grossly below acceptable standards of behavior. Therefore, it deeply offended the society’s sense of decorum. As I spoke his phone went off. I did not know if it was a network problem, if he ran out of credit or was just too exasperated by my logic to continue listening to me.

If the views of the policeman that called me are, in any way, representative of the Nigerian Police Force perception of itself, then, the institution must be in denial. It must be refusing to objectively grade itself.  It must have refused to allow facts to get in its way in its assessment of its own performance.

The performance of the Nigerian Police Force is not, in any way, commendable. It is an inefficient, corrupt and brutal organization. It respects neither the law nor the Nigerian citizens it purportedly serves. It is in a desperate need of a total overhaul, so that its activities can correspond to its motto of “to serve and protect”. For now, if its motto is to accurately capture its role, it should read as “to neglect and abuse”, for that is what they, for the most part, do to the Nigerian masses. .

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

maciln18@yahoo.com

Removal of Fuel Subsidy Removal Criminal

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Following the ongoing debate on the intention of the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy, the Young Journalists Forum (YJF) has said that the action of the PDP led government is criminal and a deliberate to exacerbate the suffering of the Nigerian people who the group described as private citizens.
In a press statement signed by its president, Ayodele Samuel and Secretary, Zacheaus Somorin, the journalists group questioned president Jonathan on why the citizens cannot enjoy subsidy, which the said is the only benefit they derive from the government since they provide other basic things themselves – water, education, electricity, health, clothing, food and shelter.
YJF posited that the capitalistic tendency of president Jonathan is becoming unbearable saying his excuse of cabal, the esoteric clique he has always blamed for the hindrance to the possibility of building a local refinery is nauseating.
‘’The federal government should be bold enough to mention those cabals that are behind the frustration of building a refinery. It is an insult on the psyche of Nigerians for the leadership of the country to be powerless about those that are benefiting from the subsidy loot’’ the statement added.
The forum described the silence of the opposition governors of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and others, who are also part of the decision of the Governors Forum to give consent to subsidy removal, as unacceptable and a betrayal of the essence of the opposition that they claim to be representing.
‘One is even surprised that the ACN governors, who tacitly depict a pseudo opposition in Nigeria are also part of the subsidy removal debacle. If not, we expect that the governors to come out and voice out the position of the party, if they are not consenting to PDP’s subsidy perfidy’’ the statement said.
The young journalists stated that the elite conspiracy of the political class is dangerous and anti people, calling on the Labour Unions, civil society groups and the masses to, by January, if the Federal government insists on subsidy removal, resist the attempt, saying the nation’s democracy and its policies should be in tandem with general interest of the populace.

“Abandoned Steel Plants, Electricity Projects To Bounce Back” – Ngige

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*PHCN gets matching orders on issuance of pre-paid meters

*17 out of 22 PHCN auctioned equipment now recovered, some sold to faceless Mr Auction 

The nation’s steel rolling companies, including Ajaokuta, Itakpe and Jos would soon buzz with activities again, courtesy of the National Assembly. He also disclosed that 17 out of the 22 containers of the Power Holding Company Plc (PHCN) which were irregularly auctioned at the ports as overstayed goods by the Customs Service have now been recovered, while intense combing of nooks and crannies of Nigeria continues for the remaining 5. 

This was disclosed on Sunday by Senator Chris Ngige(Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Anambra Central) who is the deputy chairman of the Senate Committee during sallah media chat with journalists in Awka.

The senator used the opportunity to give account of his stewardship in the Senate so far, told journalists that so much was spent on the abandoned and near moribund steel companies by the administration of the former President Shehu Shagari, before they were abandoned.

With more 80% completed and above N8billion already sunk into the companies by the government then, the Senate therefore wants too bring all of them back to life. He also stated that they want to assess and grade all the nation’s metallurgical institutes.

According to him, the National Metallurgical Institute at Onitsha which has capacity to train 150 persons annually has been granted accreditation by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) for the award of diploma certificates. The institutes have been asked to liberalize their admission and training of students in the interest of the nation’s technical manpower needs.

On the electricity crisis that has been weighing down on the economy, the Deputy Chairman bemoaned the discovery of his committee that the Kainji Power station has been operating far below installed capacity. That two of its chambers/turbines are presently docile and idle, stressing that what we have all over the nation are dilapidated structures that cannot stand today’s energy needs and pressures. More so, since the establishment of the Egbin Thermal station, no new power generating station has been built in the country. It was therefore not ideal for a growing and forward looking economy like Nigeria, the Senator noted.   

To compound the situation further, above 80% of the maintenance and refurbishment contracts have not been done, while terms of the contracts were clearly and inexplicably skewed in favour of the contractors. It provided for major part of the burden-transportation and clearance of the equipment was borne by the Federal Government, and 22 out of the containers of the imported equipment needed for the maintenance were found by the Senate to have been auctioned away by the Customs Service as ‘overstayed goods’. Our committee has since written the Managing Director of the Power Holding Company Plc and the Customs demanding return of the equipment.

Ngige said that shocking revelations showed that some of the auctioned items were sold to a faceless Mr Auction and that so far 17 of the containers have been recovered. That his committee has given matching orders that from Nov 1, 2011, every container of the PHCN Plc must be cleared within two weeks of their arrival at the ports, because we need to fix the energy supply in the nation, for our factories and industries to bounce back to life. We want to stop the flight and drain out of Nigeria, Ngige added.

“So we want to ensure energy gets equitably distributed such that even in situations of load-shedding, it must be equitable too. We have also instructed PHCN to step up action on public enlightenment on how to avoid energy wastage. They were equally mandated to stop what was described as special billing system. It was a rip-off on he people. PHCN has also been mandated to provide everyone who needs the pre-paid meter.”

The senator disclosed that his committee has vouched to assist the PHCN to recover all they were owed by every government agency, even if they have to resort to deducting the bills at source, through active participation of the federal Ministry of Finance.

He assured every citizen that the energy supply would record significant improvement soon, as all the abandoned contracts and projects of PHCN in parts of the country be resuscitated to enable the moribund and broken-down industries come back to life at once. For his Anambra electorates, he informed them that the 133 kva substation at Awada-Obosi, 132 kva at Ifite-dunu and another 132 kva at Awka which was abandoned after the turning of the surd would be resuscitated beginning February 2012.

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