The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest has said both the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu do not have the required moral rights to comment on election rigging, saying; “Tinubu and his ACN must first explain to Nigerians what happened to the last year local council elections, result of which has not been made public up till now.”
The PDP, which described the ACN as a party of hypocrites, said it was shameful that Tinubu, who openly committed electoral crime during the controversial Lagos State Council polls by voting without his voters card was the one accusing PDP of rigging elections.
In a release issued by the PDP Zonal Publicity Secretary, Hon. Kayode Babade, the party said; “If Tinubu and his ACN people are not shameless, they won’t be running their mouths, talking about what will happen in 2015 if elections are rigged.”
The statement read; “It has become imperative that we tell these bunch of shameless hypocrites in the ACN to shut up their obviously stinking mouths and allow credible people, who are directing the affairs of this coountry, especially as regard the conduct of elections to do their jobs.
“For the avoidance of doubts, Tinubu and his ACN do not have any moral rights to speak where people of honour and integrity are talking because they lack both.
“Or was it not in this country that Local Council elections were held in Lagos State and winners were not declared until four days after the elections? And even when the purpoted winners were declared, was the ACN owned Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) able to announce the election results? Has the results been announced up till today?
“So, can a party that openly and scandalously rigged council elections in Lagos be the one to accuse PDP of rigging a presidential election in which it claimed to have even supported the PDP candidate against its own candidate?
“Or is the Lagos Council polls experience not enough to show how elections in Nigeria would have been if the ACN were to be the party running the affairs of the country?
“Therefore, if Tinubu and his ACN must talk about election rigging, they must first tell Nigerians how the Lagos State Council polls were rigged, why Tinubu was allowed to vote without his voters card, and why the election results were not released up till now?”
Iranian government prepares for the second phase of the cut in subsidies which firstwas launched in November 2010, Iranian media reported Tuesday.
The news agency ILNA reported that the parliament in its open session has approved the revenue of $53.8 bn to be achieved by the government through cut in subsidies paid on energy carriers.
Based on the budget law every Iranian will receive IRR 55100, equivalent to $33 at free market exchange rate which will be $12 less the amount paid in the first phase of the economic reform.
ILNA also adds that the amount of the revenue could be hypothetical since the revenue from the first phase was predicted at $54 bn but only $22 bn was materialized, thus the government was forced to cover the cash compensation on the people from other sources such as loans from the Central Bank and revenues from crude sale.
Nigerians wake up daily to witness one form of political controversy or the other. It is fair to state that the polity is tensed up to a level that the North/South divide has become evidently manifest because of the near- total capacity of politicians to manipulate members of the public to perceive every development from the prism of ethnicism, regionalism and religious affiliations.
Governors of the Northern states met recently in Kaduna and decided that come 2015 only a Presidential candidate of Northern extraction would get the votes of the northern electorate. This bunch of unpatriotic elements forgot conveniently that Nigerians of other geographical entities still live in the North in spite of the torrents of terror-related attacks by armed Islamic fundamentalist group in the North.
Currently, one major tension that has built up all around the country is the groundswell of divergent opinions and interpretation given to the statement credited to Nigeria’s one time military dictator- General Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari has contested the position of the President of the Federal Republic under different opposition political platforms since 2003 and he has consistently emerged the runner up to the eventual winner. He has also had the honour of becoming the only Nigerian alive to have dragged eventual winners of three consecutive presidential elections from the lower election petition tribunals to the highest court in the Land-the Supreme court of Nigeria. Buhari lost in each of those hotly contested legal cases and in each of those times he experienced judicial misfortune, he is known not to have accepted any of the verdicts with equanimity.
For the powers-that-be in the Peoples Democratic Party, the fear of General Muhammadu Buhari is the beginning of political wisdom. After Buhari lost at the polls in the 2007 presidential election, he decided as usual to challenge what he assumed was huge electoral fraud at the election Tribunals but midway into the hearing of his matter which he instituted alongside his then running mate at the election- the now late Chief Edwin Umeezuoke, Buhari suffered a monumental set back when his once trusted running mate at the election and a co-plaintiff in the election petition decided to pull the rug off his feet when he shockingly withdrew from the matter at the presidential election Tribunal thereby exposing General Buhari to ridicule before his political adversaries.
Buhari never recovered from this disappointment which eventually made him to leave his then political family-The All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) to form his own party- Congress of Progressive Change (CPC).
From the above analysis, it is safe to adduce that General Buhari has had a dose of political misfortunes.
The Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 presidential elections, major –General Muhammadu Buhari while receiving some of his party loyalists from Niger state in his Kaduna home tasked the Federal government to either organize free and fair election in 2015 or face the consequences of bloody revolt from the electorate.
According to Buhari, “…We have resolved with your leaders that by 2015, either they uphold the principles of justice in the election or it will be bloody. God’s willing by 2015 something will happen. Either they conduct free and fair election or they will be disgraced.” Buhari was even quoted to have stated that if election is rigged in 2015, monkeys and baboons will soak in their blood which is an expression that bloody violence will greet any suspected manipulations of the outcomes of 2015 General elections.
The above apprehensions raised by no other a person than Muhammadu Buhari regarding a possible doomsday scenario in the country comes the year 2015, goes to show that many important factors are at play here.
First, Buhari’s doomsday tale is substantially in tandem with a recent study by some controversial researchers under the umbrella of the National intelligence council in the United States of America who had about two years ago predicted that Nigeria may disintegrate by 2015 because of a combination of factors which may include religious; terror-related; political and regional conflicts.
Besides, the United States report which predicted the doomsday scenario by 2015 in Nigeria had raised a very critical point that; “other African Countries-including some failed states-plagued by poor leadership, divisive ethnic politics, decayed government institutions, geographic constraints, and a brain-drain may be unable to engage the international economy sufficiently to reverse their downward trajectory”.
The kind of regional politics most politicians play in present day Nigeria is a justification of this study by the Americans on Nigeria’s future comes the year 2015.
Secondly, a good look at the prediction of blood- bath by 2015 as made by the politician- Buhari would show that he has quality amount of historical body of evidence backing up his claim especially if we take closer look at the violence that preceded the Western regional elections in Nigeria in the 1960’s which snowballed into the first ever military over throw of government which brought in the then General Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi whose administration was toppled and he alongside his close military aides were gruesomely murdered.
Nigeria also fought bloody 30-months civil war when riotous Northern crowds executed what is still considered in some quarters as systematic genocide of the Igbos who lived in the Northern part of the country and the then Eastern regional military administrator-Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu [late] rallied his supporters to declare a separate political entity to protect the human rights of the Igbo speaking people who were at the receiving end of mass killings.
It is fair to say that Buhari’s doomsday scenario deserved comprehensive psychoanalysis to anchor it properly within faultless historical perspective.
Buhari’s submission ought to have generated deep introspection, retrospection, critical appraisal and should not be dismissed with mere wave of hands or with the usual angry tone with which the ruling People’s Democratic Party always treated criticism from respected quarters. It is a fact that wise persons when confronted by an upsurge of verbal firepower as has happened with the statement of General Buhari, the best way is for the people in government to be in their best of forms, restrain themselves into jumping into the bandwagon of verbal combat but should reflect on all the possible imports of such weighty comment.
Bill Newman in his scholarly book titled; “10 laws of Leadership”, rightly stated that; “wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge and experience to any given situation”. The same author further stated that ‘one of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency’.
The truth is that the current political leadership in Nigeria has not accepted the truth that our electoral system is rotten and therefore is in urgent need of comprehensive overhaul. I am not one of those that would be carried away by the false belief that because the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Professor Attahiru Jega came from a labour union background therefore the weighty operational challenges confronting that electoral institution are healed overnight.
The fact is that Nigeria’s electoral system is bad and therefore a careful psychoanalytic reflection on the doomsday scenario in 2015 created by Buhari would reveal that this is possible if we do not unbundle the crises of credibility afflicting the Independent National Electoral Commission, a body that is anything but independent.
Samuel Anayochukwu Eziokwu in his book “Good governance; Theory and practice”, stated that “current method in Nigeria where the President wakes up and appoints a particular person to head the electoral body is becoming archaic and obsolete… a credible selection of the head of electoral body is a rudiment of any free and fair election.”
Charles Onunaiju, a public policy analyst had in 2006 stated rightly thus; “Any good constitution must think of the South African experience where members of the electoral commission are chosen through popular consensus and all political parties are represented and not one handpicked by the President and ratified only by the National Assembly”.
It is therefore imperative that the National Assembly should amend relevant sections of the constitution on the composition of members of the electoral agency and borrow the South African model if we want to avoid the doomsday scenario of 2015 predicted by Buhari. In the 2011 elections in most parts of the country, INEC officials followed the tune dictated by the pay masters in Government.
· Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria writes from www.huriwa.com.
Rivers State is one of the thirty-six (36) states that make up the political structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The state was created on the 27th May 1967 by the then military government of General Yakubu Gowon. Why was the state created out of the then Eastern Region? Some said it was to balkanize the Eastern Region which was under the rulership and control of the Igbo, thereby reducing the numerical, economic and political support for the Igbo in the event of a major political conflict between Nigeria under Gowon and Eastern Region under the late General Chukwuemeka Odimegu Ojukwu. Others posited that it was to enable the Gowon administration free access to the emerging quantum petro-dollar from the state. It had also been argued that the state was created to satisfy the long agitations from the minority ethnic groups clustered around the area up to Calabar for a state of their own [recall that this agitation actually started in about 1954 through to 1958 at the Willink’s Commission when the peoples of the areas involved asked for the creation of the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) State].
Whatever the reasons for its creation, the purpose of this article is to assess the state in terms of its development efforts and suggest ways for better progress. It is instructive to note that out of the forty-five (45) years of its existence, indigenes of the state had ruled it for twenty-six years and this translates to 58%. Let us also agree that development goes beyond the building or provision of infrastructure or social amenities. Development is the consistent improvement of the people’s environment, human beings, resources, valued systems and traditional occupations.. The environment consists of the forests, water bodies, rocks, valleys, mountains and the entire landscape owned by the people. Human beings include their brains and especially their talents, experiences, knowledge and philosophies embedded in their spiritual minds and psychologies that propel them to act, re-act or take no action. Resources here refers to all the surface and under the surface things of material value including land, vegetation, crops, trees, minerals, heat-energy, gas, coastal areas etc. Valued systems refer to those generally accepted traditional principles or customs with which life is lived. They include the governmental system, principles that guide private relationships, inter-communal relations, sports and entertainment, law and adjudication, etc. Traditional occupations refer to the economic systems of engagement for the production of wealth and sustenance of life. These occupations were derived from the nature of the people’s environment, their known talents, resources and valued systems. In all of these, no particular mention or attention is paid to infrastructure or social amenities because they are the palm oil with which development is consummated. In order words, they are facilitators of development; they cannot be development on their own. Hence I insist that infrastructure is not development.
So, back to Rivers State and at the commencement of the life of the state, the then Commander Alfred Diette Spiff, as the pioneer leader of the state, drew up a very ambitious plan to develop the state. This led to the establishment of the College of Science and Technology ( now Rivers State University of Science and Technology), College of Education ( now Ignatius Ajuru University of Education), School of Basic Studies ( now College of Arts & Science), School of Nursing, School of Health Technology, Nigerian Tide, taking over of primary and secondary schools hitherto owned by churches and establishing new ones, construction of roads, establishment of utilities board, Pan African Bank which died later due to funds mismanagement and those responsible used the stolen funds to float their own banks, Pabod Finance & Investment, Pabod Breweries, Pabod Supplies, Pabod Foods, scholarship and bursary programmes, building of the state Secretariat complex, stadia and providing supports for the establishment of Federal institutions, agencies and facilities like the army barracks, airforce base, naval and police infrastructure across the state. There were NPA, River Basin Development Authorities, NEPA/PHCN facilities and offices, refineries and petrochemicals, University of Port Harcourt, Nitel/Mtel, NIPOST, NAFCON and private businesses represented by the giant oil and gas companies, oil and gas services companies etc. All these in addition to other facilities established by the Eastern Region government including Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout, Hotel Presidential Port Harcourt, Oilmill Factories, Bori Camp etc. Also established were dispensaries, health centres and hospitals.
Later, Rivoc, RisomPalm Ltd, WAGI, Onne Port, School-to-Land Authority, Liquefied Natural Gas projects, Bori Polytechnic were established. There was the expansion of state and federal enterprises and projects in the state. Thereafter, the state hosted the OMPADEC and now NDDC corporate headquarters, and established Omoku Gas Turbine and the state is currently working on the monorail and Greater Port Harcourt City projects. I do not know why a state that hosts these significant infrastructure is still classified as underdeveloped/undeveloped by the UNDP.
Politics was not left out. During the First Republic, NCNC was the dominant party in the state. In the Second Republic, there was strong presence of the NPN, NPP and UPN in the state. We must not forget that it was Rivers and Cross River states that gave NPN the wining votes in the political arithmetics of 2/3 of 19 in 1979 presidential election that gave Alh. Shehu Shagari victory. All through the Maradonic era of the General Ibrahim Babangida military rule, Rivers people were present in good numbers in the SDP and the NRC. It witnessed the creation of provinces, districts, local governments and the existence of a robust three arms of government. Its judiciary had improved from district or provincial courts to magistrate, customary and high courts. Another significant political milestone of the state was that it gave birth to Bayelsa State and today, the state has twenty-three local government areas with over five million heads( see National Population Commission website).
Despite all this, the state is still classified as an underdeveloped state. Why? The reason is simple: In all these achievements, there had not been consciously sustained effort at improving the items of development. That is why today the Rivers environment is endangered and being extinct; the talents of the people are not known ( Rivers State government should put in place an educational system that can discover, grow, mature and sustain the Mercy Chinwos, Monalisa Chindas, Julius Agwus, Finidi Georges, Owugbokiris, Jossy Dombrayes, Jimmy Conters, Tam David Wests, Ken Saro-Wiwas, Obi Walis, Claude Akes, Elechi Amadis, etc). The people of Rivers State do not have the capacity to discover, exploit and refine mineral resources deposited beneath their soils. They cannot even clean-up their environments polluted by crude oil spillages. The traditional occupations of the peoples of Rivers State have not been improved: to proof this, let the state government carry out a research to determine whether or not Agricultural produce in the state had increased in quantity and quality compared to what they were in the 1980s? What about industrial estates where the numerous wasting fruits and vegetables can be processed into other foods, while their chemicals can be used in other industries for further processing to meet high level demands for special chemicals? Given its topology, Rivers State deserves at least ten industrial estates. Besides Trans-Amadi Industrial Estate, is there any other one that can make significant contribution to the ongoing computation of the state’s GDP. What and where are the valued systems of the people? Are they constantly being improved or had been neglected. In Ikwerre ( part of the state) where I come from, traditional wrestling was the “tonic fever” that captured and soothed souls in the land and made more people happy. Where is it today?
What is in vogue in the state are some esoteric weird values that can hardly qualify as values. Elderlys’ secret societies have given rise to rampaging youth cultism whose son was militancy hidden under the phantom resource control agitations. As at today, over 80% of the secondary schools in the state are afflicted with cultism; while about 30% of the primary schools in the state are overdosed with cultism. If care is not taken, in the near future, it will penetrate the nursery and kindergarten schools as well as social homes. All the tertiary institutions in the state are the seventh-havens of cultism practices and they control oil bunkering and illegal mining of crude oil in the state. These are booming because these cultists have strong political support; despite the existence of the state laws prohibiting cultism in the state. At the end, Rivers State had lost its character and life had never been the same again. This is where we are today with the youths of Rivers State and the role of values in our efforts at development.
To worsen the matter, there is high level unemployment of youths, many children of school age still roaming the streets of Rivers State, unresolved inter-community conflicts fueled by cultism, corruption in government, general lack of appropriate development pathways or ideologies.
So, the task before the Rivers State government is to rework its development agenda towards the items of development. It is not just about building roads, bridges, buying and installing transformers etc which had been the case since 1967, but more about to provide them in context since they are needed to improve a particular item of development. Real development is when the people are directly responsible for the transformation of the items of development in order to satisfy their needs.
Rivers environment needs to be preserved. Rivers talents need to be taught and developed via the formal educational system where Rivers children should have unfiltered access to total free education up to the university level. Rivers resources need to be discovered, exploited and refined by Rivers people. Rivers agriculture needs to be constantly engaged to move it from the subsistence level to the commercial/industrial level. Risompalm Ltd and Rivoc are clear examples what is being wasted today. Rivers lands should not be sold outrightly but leased. Rivers State needs a bank to support her development efforts. There is need to strongly redirect economic efforts of the people to resources where they have comparative advantages. For example, it will be appropriate to encourage the Ikwerre, Etche, Ekpeye and Ogba along crop farming; while at the same time encourage the Ijaw along fish farming.
Rivers values must not die because doing so, the people and indeed Rivers State also die in character. Every development requires some level of character or discipline to carry and support it; where that is lacking, no positive development can occur and that is the state of Rivers State and indeed Nigeria today. Nigeria lacks the discipline required to carry and support the development she aspires, hence she had remained under/un developed. The provision of infrastructure should be based on the need for it to facilitate defined item(s) of development.
At 45, Rivers State had done averagely well in building infrastructure. But at 50 in 2017, Rivers State will be expected to become an industrialized state driven by its empowered talents whose focus will be to unleash knowledge and structural growth in the agriculture, resources and values of the peoples of Rivers State.
Imo state Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has expressed delight with
the new management of Imo Transport Company (ITC) on the ongoing
transformation and expansion in the establishment that have created
additional job opportunities for Imolites.
Gov. Okorocha, who simply described the concessioning of the state
government owned Transport Company to Global Ginika Services Ltd as
the right step in the right direction, confirmed that the state
government has already generated 210 million naira from the deal.
He described Mr. Emma Duru and Ozuome Bank Louis-Adebionu, the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director respectively as capable
hands that have demonstrated inepth ability in the management of
transport company.
According to Gov. Okorocha, “The state government under its Rescue
Mission agenda is ready to partner with individuals in reviving our
moribund government establishment as well as set-up new ones. What we
did in ITC is to ensure that the company is revived and repositioned
for expansion and massive job creation. Today, I am just happy that
the new management has retained all staff of the company and employed
about 100 more. I am also excited that very soon, the company will
take a delivery of 100 new buses to boost its operations which I
believe will equally translate to more job opportunities for Imolites.
This is exactly what we mean by Imo Rescue Mission.”
On the new water project recently launched as Rescue Mission Free
Water Project, Gov. Okorocha said the gesture has proven that the new
management is deeply concerned with the welfare of the staff and its
cooperate social responsibility to its immediate environment.
“What that means is that the new management is abreast of its
corporate social responsibility. The water scheme will no doubt
benefit scores of the neighbours of ITC that have suffered in the past
in access drinking water. It also points to the fact that the welfare
of workers is in the top-most priority of the management which I
believe will motivate the staff to assist in achieving the deserved
goals in the company.”
Gov. Okorocha, however, urged Imolites to support his administration
is its well-thought policies and programmes, adding that such will
ensure speedy transformation of Imo into a model state in the country.
Information recently made available to 247ureports.com through sources within the government house in Anambra State indicate that the ‘rumored’ dissolution of the Anambra State executive cabinet may not be over – the fear of a pending sack still lingers among the cabinet members .
As gathered, the commissioners in Anambra State who had been under the cloak of a possible dissolution of a sack are said to be struck by the fact the the State Governor, Mr Peter Obi may have merely postponed the dissolution of his cabinet for a later date. One of the governor’s aide who spoke to our correspondent while on a tour around Anambra State with some foreign journalists revealed that the cabinet members are uneasy with the continued pressure by the political party in the State.
According to the information received, the national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance [APGA], Chief Victor Umeh in cohorts with some of his executive members of the party are reportedly exerting pressure on the governor of the State for allocations within his cabinet. Some of the members of the party are said to be positioning themselves for a position within Peter Obi’s cabinet because, as they claim, they contributed immensely to the electoral victory of the Governor – and should be rewarded by the Governor by giving them appropriate seats in his government.
The governor of Anambra State was said to have resisted the move to dissolve his cabinet and succumb to the pressures of the politicians in the State. The source opened up to add that the renewed tussle in the State which threatens unravelling the peace has got the governor to have a rethink. The continued public squabble between the National Chairman of APGA and the Uncle to the Governor, Nwaobualor is reported to have the governor concerned and/or worried about the direction the continued tussle will take if allowed to continued unabated. The source continued to add that the political actors in the state are not considerate of the fact that the tenure of the governor remains roughly a little over one year – that a gubernatorial election is scheduled to hold in October/November of 2013. So the new cabinet members would only be able to serve for one year – and “what will they be able to achieve?”
It remains uncertain if the governor will proceed to sack the commissioners but the commissioners are said to have reserved to their fate. Some of the commissioners have already delegated their responsibilities to their respective Permanent Secretaries – pending when the governor acts.
Information available to 247ureports.com indicates the permultations against the 2015 presidential election project appears to have reached near climax inside the offices of the major opposition parties of the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN] and Congress for Progressive Change [CPC]. This is according to credible information received from Adamawa State revealing that the CPC and ACN has initiated veiled talks for a merger to forge a common front against the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP].
Following a recent meeting held in Lagos by the leaders of both parties [CPC and ACN] of which the former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu and the former military dictator of Nigeria, Gen Buhari were in attendance, the parties agreed in principle for the two parties to forge a common front to produce the same candidate for the Presidential elections of 2015 to topple the candidate of the ruling party.
It was also agreed in principle for talks to begin on the possible merger of the two parties. According to a source involved in developing romance between the two political parties. The source indicates that representatives from the two parties have begun hamonizing the details to the merger. The two parties have also begun work on the constitutions of the two parties with intention to generate a new constitution and a new party flag. It is uncertain what name the involved parties are going to conclude on but it is certain that the two parties have begun delibrations on a new name.
Meanwhile, independent inquiry by 247ureports.com reveals that the two parties are presently experiencing a quiet lockjam on who to present as the presidential flag bearer 2015. It was gathered that stakeholders within the CPC are uneasy with the professed candidacy of Gen Buhari. In particular, the stakeholders within the CPC are said to prefer a younger more socially accepted candidate for the party. Some within the party point to the likely candidacy of the former Minister to the Federal Capital Territory [FCT] Abuja, Malam Nasiru El Rufai. The stakeholders within the ACN are also uneasy with the candidacy of Gen Buhari. One of the stakeholders who spoke to our correspondent noted that it will be preferable if the former dictator to play the role of a “godfather” to produce the next leader rather than imposing his candidacy on the party. “He is not popular outside the north and will not win”
The popular notion among the stakeholders in the two parties point to the candidacy of the current Lagos State [ACN] Governor, Fashola as presidential candidate in tandem with Malam Nasiru El Rufai as running mate.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Rivers State Chapter has expressed shock and disgust over the devastating and mind shattering explosion that sent residents and business operators in Rumuokoro axis of Port Harcourt scampering for safety, this morning, Thursday, May 17, 2012.
In a statement issued and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Jerry Needam, the ACN described the ugly incident as unfortunate but more as a pointer to the parlous security situation everywhere in Nigeria.
By this action, Jerry Needam said, nobody is safe despite huge sums of money voted for security which regrettably are being filtered away by those in charge.
The ACN Spokesman said the issue is not whether the explosive was a dynamite in the hands of armed robbers or bomb by the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram but the ability of the hoodlums to beat all security network scattered around major checkpoints in Port Harcourt.
The ACN argues that crimes of this nature are on the increase because the PDP ruling government elsewhere in the country is yet to see security and safety of lives and property as a serious issue and hence, has handled such with levity.
“We make bold to say that this morning’s explosion in a busy area like Rumuokoro should not be seen as one of such usual occurrences but a matter of serious concern that should be fully investigated and adequate measures put in place to ensure there is no re-occurrence” the ACN noted, stressing that Port Harcourt, because of its natural habitation and economic importance to Nigeria cannot afford to serve as a theatre for the uncanny reckless and inhuman bombardment and waste of human lives by irresponsible charlatans for whatever reason.
Indeed, this is a very big challenge and both the Amaechi-led government of Rivers State and the various security agencies in the State should rise up to the threat, the ACN Spokesman, Jerry Needam warned.
The approach the explosion in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, on 17th May 2012, was reported by citizen journalists online before trained newsmen corrected it, could make some of us moved towards the nearby boarder before now. Many of us were sick and tired of the news. Truly, this shows that we are living in an atmosphere of fear. The news was immediately launched on the Internet and was said that the causative was bomb.
Straight away, there were accusing fingers on terrorists not until the governor of the state, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi announced in a TV transmission that the bomb was from a gang of four armed robbers setting-up to rob a bank but met their bad-omen as a result explosion from dynamites within the car; while occupants were smoking, main time, two of the surviving suspects have been seized and currently in hospital.
What this means is that if the governor didn’t clear the air surrounding the explosion as quick as possible, some persons have navigated their accusing compass to Boko Haram, forgetting that we have had militants in the Niger Delta blew-up pipelines and sundry areas.
Nigerians are now benefiting from propagating ethnic bias and everybody seems to be dancing in this euphoria of blood thirst by some uncouth and unscrupulous constituents. If not, how could anybody ever think that Boko Haram would bomb Port Harcourt? We are now suffering from regional sentiments, forgetting that the fraud surrounding fuel subsidy is the height of explosion on its own.
With the way and manner we have allowed fear to take over our sub-consciousness, even a tyre burst becomes bomb explosion. If the perpetrators of the explosion in Port Harcourt were not caught and Amaechi did not come on air to clear the high spirits, in some quarters people were thinking that Boko Haram has carried out its promise of bombing some parts of the South and many were looking up to some big names in the North to be the brain behind the explosion.
Bad as it may, Rivers State should now grouse about security. Let innocent people be. If the explosion was carried out by the terrorists, so it would have been, because those that were recorded before had no better investigation especially at the federal level. It is time we did not allow innocent people to continue to die in avoidable butchery by any group be they terrorists or armed robbers. We have to make our environment saner and not to be left to be languishing in jail of fears of the unknown.
Again, the state government should be sure of what it said about the perpetrators of the explosion being armed robbers, because rumours are in the mill that the bus in question lined-up with other buses loading Eleme junction/oil mill passengers. The rumours also suggest that people are yet to know the truth of the matter because armed robbers that want to “rob a bank” can’t be loading passengers
However, we have heard cases where armed robbers use different tricks, but we are much concerned of the souls of the people killed in the explosion. May their souls rest in peace.
We wish Amaechi the best.
Odimegwu Onwumere is the Cordinator, Concerned Non-Indigenes In Rivers State (CONIRIV). Email: nirivpol@gmail.com
The Police Machine FC of Owerri have cried foul over the shoddy treatment of their Appeal
against Imo FA’s Appeal Committee’s decision to replay their Federation Cup match which was
abandoned by Heartland FC when they refused to take a penalty awarded to them with four
minutes to the end of their quarter final encounter.
In a comment released by Barrister Johnny Precious Ogbah of Activity Chambers, counsel to
Police Machines, the sports lawyer queried the grounds on which the decision was reached,
stating that the Disciplinary Committee of the NFF had which was the body legally empowered
by the NFF Statutes to hear the case was not given the opportunity to do so, whereas the
organisers of the competition unilaterally decided to hold the decison on their own without
due process.
“We all know that the NFF has just two statutory bodies empowered to sit over such matters
which is the Disciplinary Committee, and the Appeals Committee. By 10am on Tuesday 15th May
I received a phone call by the secretary of the Disciplinary Committee inviting us attend a
hearing of our matter on Wednesday 16th May and immediately made arrangements to fly down
from Abuja to attend to it. However, my Clients informed me that a letter had arrived from the NFF dated 14th May 2012 saying that a decision had been reached by the Organisers of the
Federation Cup to uphold the Imo FA decision.
“I got here this morning and the answers I received from the NFF were not at all
satisfactory. I also went to the Disciplinary Committee and the secretary informed me that
our matter was on the list of matters to be heard but that they were ordered to remove it as
a decision had been reached by the Organising Committee. We now ask the question, on what
grounds did the Organisers, or Oganising Committee have to sit on the appeal when they are
not empowered by statute to do so? They have no jurisdiction to decide the matter.
Article 6 of Schedule 6 of the Rules and Regulations of the Federation Cup 2012 empowers
only the Disciplinary and the Appeals Committee to hear such matters. Nowehere is it stated
that the Organising Committee can, if they so desire, hear such matters. That’s the problem
with Nigerian football. People cannot just take powers into their hands when laws and statutes have not given them the right to. The only bodies empowered to sit on our appeal in this instance is the Disciplinary Committee but some other kangaroo Committee claim to have sat on our decision and reached a most unfair and unjust decision, without letting us know the grounds on which they reached this decision. Whereas the Disciplinary Committee which are empowered to hear the matter, and which are duly constituted of experienced lawyers, arbitrators and administrators invited us to come and state our case, a committee which lacks their experience and know how sit on the case on their own, withour recourse to hearing from the aggrieved parties, and reached a unilateral decision to replay the full 90 minutes of a match that was in the 86th minute and just 4 minutes away from penalty shoot outs.
“Contrast this with the case of Nembe United of Bayelsa. Bayelsa Utd abandoned their match when it was time to play penalties and the same NFF Organising Committee ordered them to replay their penalties? Or is it because, unlike Nembe Utd who’se chairman is the 2nd Vice President of NFF, our clients are just a team of hardworking Police men with no godfathers in Nigerian football?
“In all matters like this, justice should be done and seen to be done. Heartland FC refused to take a penalty kick when they were a goal down with 4 minutes to play then the decision was to replay the entire match, blatantly ignoring Article 14 of Guidelines to the Imo State Federation Cup 2012 which is identical to Article 3.11 (A) of the Federation Cup Rules which states that “ If any club supporter, player or official encroaches on the field of play to cause the discontinuation of the game for TEN (10) minutes or more, the club on whose behalf the disturbance was caused shall lose the match to their opponents”
“Heartland were “rewarded ” by the football authorities with a full 90 minutes whereas a similar scenario occured in the Nembe Utd v BAyelsa Utd match and a replay of the penalty kicks was ordered. WHy couldn’t a similar decision be given in Police Machines’ case?
“Further more, we paid N100, 000 to have our appeal heard and heard properly. We were denied that and are now being told to protest further, and pay more fees, if we were satisfied with a decision that was given by a body that lacked jurisdiction to even hear the matter in the first place.”
“All we demand is justice and fair play in this matter. Due process must be followed. We have spared no costs in fighting injustice to this level and yet there seems to be no justice in sight. However, we will not relent in our battle to see that we get justice in this matter,” he concluded.
