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Obasanjo’s book presentation and the judiciary

 By Chukwudi Nweje  / Acting Features Editor

 

Tuesday’s launch of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s new autobiography entitled ‘My Watch,’ has sparked heated debate among analysts and legal minds in the country.

Obasanjo-in-the-eye-of-the-stormAn Abuja High Court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, presided over by Justice Valentine Ashi, had earlier restrained the former President from making a public presentation of the book, after a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Buruji Kashamu, whose lawyer Alex Izinyon (SAN), argued that the content of the book related to issues contained in Obasanjo’s December 2, 2013, letter to President Goodluck Jonathan and former PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, where he (Obasanjo) claimed that Kashamu was allegedly a fugitive, wanted in the United States.

Ashi had ordered that “The defendant, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, whether by himself, his agents, servants, privies or any other person by whatever name called and howsoever described, is hereby restrained from publishing or caused to be published in the yet-to-be published book, ‘My Watch’ or any autobiography or biography and any extracts of same, by whatever name called or howsoever titled, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice hereof.” Continue reading “Obasanjo’s book presentation and the judiciary”

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Still on the calls for a caretaker govt

By Chukwudi Nweje Acting Features Editor

In recent times, there seems to be a widely held notion that the prevailing atmosphere in the country is not conducive for conducting the 2015 general elections.

MnewsThe Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed February 14, 2015 for next year’s Presidential and National Assembly elections and 28, February, 2015 for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

The commission has also distributed the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) to eligible registered voters and also kicked off Continuous Voters’ Registration (CVR) for prospective voters who had attained the age of 18 since the last exercise in 2011 as well as those who did not register then.

But in spite of the preparations and assurances by INEC that it is ready for the elections, some people still argue that the current atmosphere will not be suitable for conducting free and fair elections and have subsequently called for a postponement. Continue reading “Still on the calls for a caretaker govt”

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Jonathan, Abacha’s Son In Closed-door Meeting

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday met behind closed-door with Mohammed Abacha, son of a former Head of State, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, on issues suspected to bother on the forthcoming primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Abacha is a governorship aspirant of the PDP in Kano State.

Governorship primaries of the party hold nationwide on Monday.

At the end of the meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the aspirant told State House correspondents that he was confident that the PDP would recover its stolen mandate from the All Progressives Congress in the state during the 2015 general elections.

He said he was hopeful that he would clinch the party’s ticket.

He said, “We are hopeful; I wouldn’t want to say too much. I said it before that it was a PDP state; it was a PDP ticket. It was taken or converted or even stolen; whatever you want to call it, so be it. The chances of the PDP are still bright.”

It will be recalled that the Federal Government had in June withdrawn the N446.3bn theft charges instituted against the younger Abacha.

The government had preferred the nine counts of stealing against him in February 2014.

The prosecution accused Abacha of unlawfully receiving about N446.3bn allegedly stolen from government’s coffers between 1995 and 1998.

Government later asked Justice Mamman Kolo of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, to strike out the charges on the grounds of “fresh facts” that just emerged concerning the case.

The government’s decision attracted criticisms from individuals and groups.

Those who flayed the action included prominent Lagos lawyers – Femi Falana, Jiti Ogunye, Fred Agbaje and Femi Aborisade – as well as the Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran; and his Civil Society Network Against Corruption counterpart, Mr. Lanre Suraj.

While some of the lawyers argued that the government action had serious negative implications for the country’s anti-graft campaign, Adeniran and Suraj said it had a political undertone.

SOURCE: Uglybeat.

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We can’t trust Okonjo-Iweala –CACOL

By Augustine Adah / Senior Correspondent

 

The Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Comrade Debo Adeniran, has described the promise of the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that Nigeria is ready for the worst as an empty promise that Nigerians cannot relied on.

“We cannot rely on Okonjo-Iweala because this is not the first or second time they have made such promise which they could not keep. Look at the Sure-P which they promised would be used to cushion the effect of oil price increase, ” he said. Continue reading “We can’t trust Okonjo-Iweala –CACOL”