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It’s all over for Atiku - OBJ By Okey Muogbo, Abuja - 13.04.2007
THE feud between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar may have reached its peak yesterday as the president declared that “it’s all over for Atiku in the presidential race”, describing him as “a man whose desperation for the country’s presidency had clearly come to an end.”
The president called his deputy a desperate man over this year’s presidency and boasted that Atiku’s candidacy was no threat to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) presidential candidate, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua.
Obasanjo also boasted that the PDP was not losing sleep over “(Vice President) Atiku’s desperation to succeed the present government.” The president, who spoke through his aide, Mallam Uba Sani, was reacting to the claim by the Atiku campaign organisation that the two-day public holidays declared by the government was politically motivated to stop the Supreme Court from hearing the case on Atiku’s eligibility to contest next week’s presidential election.
Mallam Sani told journalists in Abuja that the vice president should accept that the political game was over for him instead of looking for excuses “to justify a monumental failure that was staring him in the face.”
The special assistant advised Atiku and “his co-travellers to support government’s efforts at consolidating democracy in the country, instead of engaging in all sorts of insinuations with the sole aim of creating confusion in the polity.”
Sani further alleged that the “vice president had become a hostage of his spin doctors and bootlickers who were finding it difficult to muster the courage to tell him to redirect his energies at some other venture, the game having been over for him.
“The statement by the Atiku Campaign Organisation insinuating that the public holidays declared by the Federal Government are politically motivated to prevent the courts from adjudicating on the cases before them is absurd, ridiculous and mischievous. It is the last desperate move of a man who is steadily on his way to political oblivion.”
Mallam Sani lamented that Atiku had the opportunity to join in the Federal Government transition train but unfortunately, “he chose to remain stuck in self pity. That is the way of all who give scant regard to integrity, transparency and accountability.”
In its reaction to a statement signed by the president’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Mr. Uba Sani, the Atiku Campaign Organisation called on Nigerians to ignore the accusations against Atiku.
“If the elections do not go as they should, the blame should go to the Presidency for its shoddy preparation, meddlesomeness in the affair of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the desperation of its PDP government to win at all cost,” the group said.
It added that the vice president was of the opinion that credible elections were essential to the survival and deepening of democracy in the country, adding that he could therefore not have worked otherwise.
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2447 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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igeria's imperilled elections :President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria likes to present himself as the man who led his country toward democracy. But his reputation - and that of his country - will be deeply marred unless he moves quickly to rein in the chaos and corruption threatening this month's elections.
With regional elections scheduled for this Saturday and national elections a week after that, hundreds of election monitors have yet to be accredited, and several leading opposition candidates have been barred from seeking the presidency for dubious reasons. The United States and the European Union need to make clear to Mr. Obasanjo that failing to fix these problems could seriously damage relations.
The attention of key international partners, particularly the United States and Britain, might still persuade Mr. Obasanjo to push for the accreditation of more election monitors and get him to restrain the violent gangs (and politicians inciting them) who are already trying to intimidate voters.
Mr. Obasanjo must also be pressed to allow serious opposition candidates onto the ballot. The ruling party's main challenger, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, was banned based on unproved corruption charges. The Supreme Court is set to rule on his case in the next few days. If it upholds the high court's decision to let him seek the presidency, Mr. Obasanjo's government must ensure that his name is placed on the ballot.
Grateful for Nigeria's contributions of peacekeepers for Somalia and Darfur - and ever mindful of its oil reserves - Washington and London have been far too tolerant of Mr. Obasanjo's political machinations. Their silence does Nigeria no favors, and it certainly does not comport with the two countries' own claims to be democracy's defenders.
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I particularly do not fancy Atiku as acivil servant but I strongly believe that everyone should be given a chance to clear his name or seek grieviance with the court of law. But this action by Obasanjo shows a head hunter, a strong armed man, a disturbed man with a vindictive desire and extreme hatred for his opponents. Obasanjo is determined by any unlawful means to install another Hausa stooge as the President of a country; why declare a two day national holiday without consultation with congress and in a short amount of time? His action was for a purpose and evil intent only to disallow Atiku and others their say in court; his behavior speaks volume about his failed leadership. I feel sorry for the Nigerian people, they have been hosed by a very urgly primemate.
Hail Biafra.
[ April 15, 2007, 04:40 PM: Message edited by: Waypoint1Biafra ]
Posts: 1673 | From: Minnesota USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:Buhari in auto crash By Our Reporter - 17.04.2007
PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), on Monday escaped death in an auto crash. The party immediately cried foul over the incident.
The auto crash was said to have happened on Airport Road, Abuja, while he was on his way to the city after arriving in the capital from an undisclosed destination.
Report reaching the Nigerian Tribune said the general’s jeep was badly damaged while he reportedly broke a wrist.
The ANPP Director of Publicity, Mallam Ibrahim Modibbo, who confirmed the accident to the Nigerian Tribune, said the general was in a stable condition after the incident.
He disclosed that a vehicle crossed over from another lane to hit the general’s jeep which was in a convoy.
“The whole thing is suspicious as it is strange that a vehicle will hit a convoy just like that,” Moddibo said.
quote:Violent Protests in Nigeria Over Election Results By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: April 16, 2007 ADO EKITI, Nigeria, April 15 — Violent protests broke out in several of Nigeria’s 36 states as partial results from highly contested state elections appeared to hand most of the victories to the governing People’s Democratic Party.
The police said 21 people had died in election violence, but local newspapers estimated that the toll was at least twice that number.
Allegations of vote rigging, ballot stealing and intimidation in several states in the first round of Nigeria’s landmark elections set off violence and raised fears that the country’s presidential voting, to be held later this week, could fail, according to candidates and independent observers. Of the 10 states for which results were available, the governing party was winning the governorship in 8.
“It is a complete disaster,” said Chris Albin-Lackey, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, who spent Election Day on Saturday searching, largely in vain, for voters in the troubled, oil-rich Niger Delta region in the south. “Watching the run-up to these elections, I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise, but the scale of it is astonishing.”
Government and electoral officials said they were satisfied with the polling across the country, saying it had been largely free and fair. International observers have yet to make any public assessments of the election.
But as election results and accounts of the voting emerged Sunday from states across the country, in many crucial races a picture of widespread incompetence, ballot stuffing, intimidation and fraud emerged.
The problems are likely to intensify as Nigeria hurtles toward the presidential election, to be held April 21, to choose the successor to Olusegun Obasanjo, the former general who has led the country since it emerged from three decades of nearly continuous military rule in 1999. Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa and its largest oil producer.
The People’s Democratic Party has struggled to retain its dominance as infighting has raged over who would replace Mr. Obasanjo.
There are two dozen candidates, but the main ones are Umaru Yar’Adua of the People’s Democratic Party; Muhammudu Buhari, a former military ruler with a reputation for honesty; and Atiku Abubakar, the current vice president, who fell out with Mr. Obasanjo last year. Mr. Abubakar, who is the candidate of a new coalition of opposition parties, has been barred from running because he was indicted on corruption charges by a government panel. He is fighting that decision in court, and the proceedings may delay the presidential polls.
If the election is successful, it will be the first time in Nigeria that one elected government has handed power to another without military interference, a significant milestone in a nation plagued by coups, despotism and civil strife.
The state elections were in some ways a dry run for the presidential election, and the picture emerging from them was decidedly mixed. While they went smoothly in many states, others experienced problems.
In several states across the Niger Delta, voting did not take place at all in many communities, either because materials never arrived or voters were scared away by armed gangs. In the southwestern state of Enugu, candidates said essentially no election had taken place because ballots and boxes never arrived.
Here in Ekiti State in southwestern Nigeria, where the People’s Democratic Party was struggling to hold on to the governorship in the wake of a corruption scandal that forced the incumbent from power last year, the declaration that the party had won the governorship by a wide margin drew immediate protest.
“They have stolen the Ekiti mandate,” said Kayode Fayemi, the main opposition candidate. “I am disappointed, but I am not surprised. We predicted this would happen. It was preordained that the ruling party should win.”
Election Day in Ekiti was marred by violent confrontations between supporters of candidates. In the town of Oye, supporters of Mr. Fayemi dragged several people from a car who were suspected of stealing a ballot box, beating one until he briefly lost consciousness. A search of the car’s trunk turned up only old clothes.
At another polling station in Oye, supporters of the ruling party carted off a ballot box as foreign journalists watched. The box was full of neat stacks of ballots that appeared to have been stuffed in at the same time, not one by one by voters. At other polling stations in Oye, youths menaced voters. The official tally in Oye, according to election officials, gave twice as many votes to the governing party candidate as to the second-place candidate.
In Enugu, Ken Nnamani, president of the Nigerian Senate and a member of the People’s Democratic Party, told Reuters that the election might as well have not taken place.
“If people impose themselves on the electorate, it’s no better than military rule,” he said. “The erosion of our democracy is horrendous.”
quote:Guber Election: Osun, Edo, Kano, Ondo, others on fire - Houses, cars razed in Osun, Kogi, Ondo - 3 INEC officials killed in Edo - Oshiomhole arrested, released
From Uchechukwu Olisah, Adeolu Adeyemo, Johnson Babajide, Remi Adegoke, Gbola Subair and Tunde Oyekola - 17.04.2007
FORTY-EIGHT hours after the governorship and Houses of Assembly elections, protests have continued across the states of the federation, leading to killings, burning and destruction of property.
The protests came on the heels of announcements of results of Saturday’s elections, which the Nigerian Tribune gathered did not go down well with supporters of candidates and political parties which lost the elections.
In Benin, the Edo State capital, three officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were reportedly killed yesterday in different parts of the state by persons protesting the results of last Saturday’s governorship election as announced by the commission.
According to the results, which were announced by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mohammed Abubakar Ahmadu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Professor Oserheimen Osunbor, emerged winner with 329,740 votes out of the 539,061 votes cast.
The Action Congress (AC) candidate, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who, according to the election results came second with 194,472 votes, led people round major streets in Benin City, protesting the results, which he said should be cancelled because the election was fraught with irregularities while demanding the conduct of a fresh election.
Besides, the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) governorship candidate in the state, Mr. Solomon Edebiri, also demanded the cancellation of the results of the elections, which he described as a rape on democracy and a coup against the people.
He ordered his party members and supporters to boycott next Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly polls.
One of the dead INEC officials was said to have been burnt to death at the INEC office in Igarra, headquarters of Akoko Edo Local Government Area of the state for allegedly falsifying election results while the other two were said to have been shot dead at Ikpoba Hill area of the Benin metropolis by armed men in the wee hours of Monday.
Also, the INEC office at Igarra was burnt by the irate protesters, just as the state secretariat of the PDP in Ikpoba Slope area of Benin was torched by hundreds of persons protesting the outcome of the election.
However, a few hours after the announcement of the governorship election results, the state governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion, congratulated Professor Osunbor on his election as governor of the state, saying “your election as the people’s choice is a manifestation of your hard work and acceptability by the people of Edo State.
“Having won the election, it is now your duty to stretch out your hand of fellowship to the other parties, as you are no longer representing our great party, the PDP, only but the entire state.
Prompt reconciliation would usher in unity and concord in Edo State thereby creating conducive atmosphere for the development of the state.”
Governor Igbinedion urged the people of the state to remain calm and lawabiding, advising politicians to take the results as sportsmen as there were bound to be winners and losers at the end of any contest.
Professor Osunbor, in a statement made available to journalists yesterday in Benin City by his Head, Media Relations, Dr. Ejele Benson, thanked the people of the state for trusting and expressing their confidence in him through their votes, enjoining them to shun any attempt to use them to cause mischief and other violent acts.
In the wake of mass protests rocking Edo State following the release of last Saturday’s governorship election result, Comrade Oshiomhole, who had been leading the protests, was yesterday arrested by the police in Benin.
Oshiomhole was arrested from among the protesting crowd and was taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department (C. I. D.), where he was briefly detained and later released.
It was gathered that his detention and eventual release was connected to the alleged poor security situation occasioned by the protests.
Meanwhile, the state government has imposed a state-wide curfew effect from yesterday evening. The curfew, which is indefinite, is to be in force from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m. daily.
In Ekiti State, the protest that rocked some parts of the state since Sunday spread to Ikere- Ekiti, the home of the former deputy governor of the state during Fayose’s administration, Mr. Abiodun Aluko, as no fewer than 800 people called for the cancellation of last Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
The people, who took over major roads in the town as early as 9.00 a..m., called for justice in the election.
The protesters, who claimed that it was Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress who actually won the governorship election and not Segun Oni as announced by INEC, chanted songs and expressed displeasure at the result which they said was manipulated.
At a press conference held in Ado-Ekiti on Monday, the state chairman of the AC, Mr Jide Awe, raised alarm over alleged attempt to upturn some of the results of the state assembly election already announced in favour of his party, saying of the 15 seats won, two had already been upturned in favour of the PDP.
In Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, violent protests trailed the announcement of the result of the governorship election in Okene where many houses and property were destroyed.
Consequently, the state government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in all the local government areas of the state. Nigerian Tribune gathered that youths in their hundreds were burning down the houses of opponents in Okene.
Also, Lokoja, the state capital, was early yesterday invaded by hoodlums who shot sporadically into the air and disrupted the peace in the town. Security agents had a hectic time controlling the situation.
The state government yesterday announced that a curfew had been imposed on the volatile areas of the state. In a broadcast by the state governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, he stated that the curfew would be from 6.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m. until further notice.
In Nasarawa State, six people were reportedly killed and many injured while the palace of the first class paramount ruler of Nasarawa Egon Local Government Area, the Aren Egon, Bala Adene Angbazo, was torched and his four vehicles badly damaged as INEC released the election results and declared PDP candidate the winner.
Soldiers and mobile policemen at Lafia, found it difficult controlling the irate youths who were ready to attack the electoral officials. The irate youths then shifted to Jos road where they lit bonfires using tyres, barricaded the road and prevented vehicles from moving through the road that links the North and South-East for several hours but were later dispersed by the police.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that in the same Nasarawa Egon Local Government Area, six people were killed, many injured and several houses set ablaze in protest against what they alleged was the massive rigging by the PDP in collaboration with INEC officials.
Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Richard Akoji, told the Nigerian Tribune that only two people died in the crisis as the hostility continued in the state.
As tension continued to mount in Kano State the state government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew. The curfew, which would be in effect between 8.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m., is to forestall a breakdown of law and order.
Many people were indoors yesterday following plans by some youths to foment trouble in many areas of the state. Following this, policemen and soldiers had been deployed in strategic places in the metropolis while the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Atiku Yusuf, said the curfew would be effectively enforced.
Following the declaration of the result of the governorship election in Ondo State, violence has erupted in some parts of the state with no fewer than 10 houses burnt in Ondo town.
The burnt houses included that of the chairman of the Ondo West Local Government Area, Mr. Fredrick Akinpelumi, the family house of Senator Gbenga Ogunniya, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Ondo West was vandalised.
Apart from these, properties of PDP members that were not the owners of the houses they occupied were said to have been brought out and burnt by the irate mob.
Many vehicles, including those being sold by a car dealer on Ademulegun Road in the town, who is a PDP member, were also said to have been burnt.
Notable PDP leaders in the town were said to have fled their homes for fear of being attacked by the hoodlums. Soldiers and mobile policemen were later drafted to the town and they patrolled the major streets like Ademulegun, Yaba and Sabo.
The situation has led to the declaration of restriction of movement in Ondo East and Ondo West local government areas. No fewer than 60 persons have been arrested in Ilesa, Osun State in connection with the destruction of property believed to belong to some PDP chieftains in the state.
The destruction of property was a fallout of the protest that trailed the declaration of Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the winner of last Saturday’s election.
Four persons were feared dead while 20 houses and about 40 vehicles belonging to chieftains of the PDP were burnt in the protest.
The arrest was effected when Governor Oyinlola was conducting the General Officer Commanding, 2nd Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Ibadan, General Mohammadu Sani Saleh, round the scene of the protest in the state.
Governor Oyinlola ordered the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Sulaiman Fakai, to arrest Mr. Aregbesola within 72 hours or declare him wated.
Governor Oyinlola accused Aregbesola of being behind the mayhem in the state.
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