CACOL In The Media – Page 17

March 6, 2015

BREAKING!!! Jonathan Under Attack …Over Plan To Sack Jega

Anthony Cardinal Okogie and other prominent Nigerians yesterday berated President Goodluck Jonathan over the alleged plan to force the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, to go on terminal leave.

They warned that such a move would have a devastating effect on the nation’s democracy.

The warning comes on the heel of the alarm raised on Thursday by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senate caucus about the alleged plot.

Cardinal Okogie said it would be wrong for government to get rid of Jega at this point in time.

His words: “If he is not due or not meant for terminal leave, which then would be an illegal move, then the court will have to look into it. Prof Jega has his fundamental human right. If he is not meant to be on terminal leave, then he can fight for his fundamental human right.”

Prominent jurist, Professor Itse Sagay ( SAN), said it would be rash and irresponsible of government to remove Jega.

He said it would not be in the best interest of the ruling party to allow this to happen. Continue reading “BREAKING!!! Jonathan Under Attack …Over Plan To Sack Jega”

March 3, 2015

Threat to drag Buhari before the ICC

By Chukwudi Nweje / Acting Features Editor

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO) has said that the Federal Government has concluded arrangements and may soon drag General Muhammadu Buhari, Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the 2011 Electoral violence in the country to face alleged charges of human rights abuses and criminality.

Femi Fani-Kayode PDPPCO spokesman said the government would first demystify Buhari by defeating him at the polls before dragging him to the ICC against the backdrop that it will be risky to arrest him now over the 2011 violence as it would raise dust. “After his rejection at the poll, General Buhari may have to prepare to face charges of human rights abuses and criminality filed against him before the International Criminal Court on account of the 2011 electoral violence in Nigeria,” he said.

The African Herald Express had earlier reported on its February 20, 2015 edition that Dutch lawyers– Prakken d’Oliveira, a Human Rights Law Firm based in Amsterdam has filed a criminal complaint against Buhari at the ICC. The firm is said to be acting on behalf of the Nigerian Northern Coalition for Democracy and Justice and two individual victims. It will be recalled that several hundreds of lives had been lost and property worth several millions of naira destroyed following violence that greeted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan winner of the presidential election of 2011. Many have attributed the violence to Buhari’s alleged statement to make the country ungovernable.

In fact, some argue that that post election violence was a pogrom specifically targeted at specific category of Nigerians. Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which entered into force on 1 July 2002 gives the ICC jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. These include the crime of genocide; crimes against humanity; war crimes; the crime of aggression among others. Specifically, Article 6 of the statute defined ‘genocide’ to mean “any acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Under law, the passage of time does not in any way invalidate an alleged crime and some argue that the ICC probe would bring justice to the victims of the post 2011 election violence. Nonetheless, the question remains why now? Why is the PDPPCO making the threat and why did the Federal Government have to wait four years before moving to action? Some analysts believe that the threat is meant to cow the opposition.

Joe Igbokwe, Publicity Secretary of the Lagos State Chapter of APC described the threat as blackmail. He said: “Buhari in 2015 is just too big for anybody to toy with. He has become a firebrand, an avatar, a colossus and the rock of Gibraltar. Buhari is now a massive movement that cannot be stopped. Probe him if you can but I know they do not have the courage to do so.”

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), however sees nothing wrong in the probe but the timing makes it suspicious; adding that it could be used as an electioneering tool to witch hunt the opponent.

Debo Adeniran, the executive chairman queried: “2011 till now is about four years and so why should a government wait for four years if it is doing what it has to do with good intention. If it is an efficient government, must they just be looking while such heinous crime was committed and if it has enough proof to have suspected the APC Presidential Candidate, why haven’t they got him arrested and gone to court immediately the crime was committed, why waiting till now?”

He added: “One thing we do not believe is that, the probe at this time would be free and fair. All indications during the campaign have indicated that the regime is looking for every means of nailing Gen Muhammadu Buhari. It is evident in their Adverts, it is evident in their documentary and this shows that they want to carry out a hostile investigation and there is nothing to show us that all the evidences would not be contrived and witnesses tutored to give evidence against their victim.

Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba has faulted the PDPPCO as he described Fani- Kayode’s statement as witty. He wondered how the PDPPCO spokesman can prosecute Buhari when he is not the Attorney-General of the Federation.

“I don’t think Fani- Kayode can say so because he doesn’t have any political power. He is not the Attorney-General of the federation. We are tired of mudslinging. We are not babies. Let us face issues. We are interested in what President Jonathan or Buhari will do if elected, not these bitter campaigns of calumny against one another” he concluded.

SOURCE: Daily Independent.

March 2, 2015

Politics Of 2015 Election: Why Fayose Is Up In Arms Against Buhari

in Headlines 14 hours ago 14 Views

By Jeremiah Adeosun

Governor Ayodele Fayose

. He doesn’t want a repeat of the past – Aide
. We’ve lost our freedom in Ekiti State – Sen Adetunmbi
. ‘The Governor’s fate is tied to Jonathan’s presidency’
His invective and acid sarcasms targeted at the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) General Muhammadu Buhari may have left some Nigerians in consternation nay, bewilderment but to many others the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, is merely treading his familiar terrain of controversy. What political analysts and pundits are seeking answers to, however, is the question as to why the ‘rampaging’ governor appeared to have developed a pathological phobia for the APC presidential ticket bearer.
What seemed the most unkind salvo from Governor Fayose and carefully targeted at Buhari came in the form of newspaper adverts which graced the front page of The Punch and Daily Sun newspapers on January 19. The bizarre adverts, which had the pictures of some northern Nigerian leaders that died in office, suggested that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), retired General Muhammadu Buhari, could also die in office, if elected president. Continue reading “Politics Of 2015 Election: Why Fayose Is Up In Arms Against Buhari”

February 27, 2015

Shagari @ 90: A lesson for the political class

By Chukwudi Nweje / Acting Features Editor

But for the December 1983 military coup, Nigeria could have been in its 36th year of practising the presidential system of government. Perhaps, some of the challenges the country faces today with its democratic governance since the return to democratic rule in 1999 may have been overcome with years of practise. After 55 years of independence Nigeria has had only 26 years of elected civilian that was truncated intermittently by the military that had held power for 29 years. The country has been under an elected government for 16 years now but the democratic experience is still regarded as nascent because the tenets of democracy have yet to penetrate the fabrics of the society.

Through these thick and thin, one man that has been around is Alhaji Aliyu Usman Shehu Shagari, Turakin Sakkwato and the former President whose administration was overthrown by the military on December 31, 1983, two months after he began his second term in office. Continue reading “Shagari @ 90: A lesson for the political class”

February 23, 2015

Activists warn Jonathan against tenure extension

Jonathan

Posted by: Musa Odoshimokhe in Featured, News 14 hours ago

President: Interim Govt is treasonable

Day of action Feb 28

Activists warned yesterday against another shift of the general elections.

They will stage a nationwide protest should the elections be postponed.

The elections fixed for March 28 and April 11 must hold, Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD) said.

The group’s leader, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), spoke at a news conference in Lagos.

With him were Malachy Ugwumadu, Olarenwaju Suraj and Mr. Debo Adeniran, among others.

They listed attempts by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to derail the elections, saying there would be a national day of action on February 28, where Nigerians would stand hand-in-hand to send a strong message to the government that the citizenry will not tolerate any attempt to interfere with the elections.

The group called on the National Assembly to compel the Service Chiefs to extract an undertaking that the elections would not be shifted.

President Jonathan promised yesterday the dates would not be changed. Besides, he dismissed the rumour of an interim government — an idea he described as treasonable.

Falana said Nigerians were worried about the statement of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, that the new election dates were not sacrosanct. The elections were originally fixed for February 14 and 28.

“We are compelled to call on the National Assembly to extract a form of undertaking from the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the security chiefs that the general elections would not further be postponed or disrupted,” Falana said, adding:

“The undertaking ought to be made publicly by the service chiefs, in view of the categorical statement of the Court of Appeal that the Armed Forces have no role to play in the electoral process.”

Saying there was need to prevent a slide into anarchy, Falana said: “We need to take our destiny into our hands. We need to ensure that darkness does not once again descend on our country and we are insisting that nothing must change the new dates of March 28 and April 11.”

He added that the postponement of the elections at the instance of the Service chiefs could not be justified in law.

“It was a plot to undermine the democratic process and prevent Nigerians from exercising their rights of franchise.

“Having fought the war on terror for six years, there is no indication that the Boko Haram sect would be wiped out in six weeks.

“Since the operations was limited to 14 local governments, there is no basis for not holding elections in the remaining 760 local government areas in the federation and the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” he said.

Falana noted that more than two decades ago, the citizenry, led by the progressives extraction of the civil society, protested the manipulation of political transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule.

He said anti-democratic forces had always been defeated, noting that in this case, it would not be an exception.

“Nigerians will stand hand-in-hand to speak with one voice against electoral terrorism, against any further polls’ shift, against the introduction of an Interim Government, against any military incursion in politics, against corruption and against the devaluation of the national currency.

“We call on Nigerians to come out in large numbers to assert and take control of their destiny,” he stressed.

SOURCE: The Nation

February 23, 2015

February 22, 2015 by Bayo Akinloye 4 Comments

Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran

The Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, tells BAYO AKINLOYE that Mbu is a menace to the society and as such should be redeployed to handle administrative duties

Many people have called for the sack or redeployment of the Assistant Inspector-General, Joseph Mbu, over his statement that for every policeman killed 20 civilians should be killed. What do you think?

It is very unfortunate that a supposed professional police officer of the calibre of Mr. Joseph Mbu could make such an inciting statement credited to him, which he is yet to deny. This development may, however, not be surprising going by Mba’s antecedent as the Commissioner of Police in Oyo and Rivers states as well as the Federal Capital Territory. Going by the Nigerian constitution and other extant laws including the Police Act, the police lack the power to determine who deserves to die. Even if the Police have the power to kill if somebody was killed, it is the person that committed the offence that is expected to face the penalty, not just anybody within the vicinity of the incident. Besides, vengeance is not what the Police Force is established to engage in. Therefore, it is not for the police to determine the number of people who should die if one of them dies. It would be rather barbaric and highly thoughtless of a police officer that is expected to be guided by professional ethics to make such a statement. A police officer is supposed to be first and foremost sympathetic to the cause of the people. He should safeguard lives and properties rather than destroy them in retaliation or in avenging the death of a colleague. As an Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mbu should be in a position to even curb or control the excesses of his junior colleagues from the Commissioner of Police and below, even if those people became overzealous and try to over-react to conflicts between the police and members of the public. We are suspecting that Mbu, by his utterances and actions, is advertising himself to the authority that he is a ready tool to be used for repressive activities in case the incumbent Inspector General of Police is acting too civilised and disciplined to do dirty jobs. He may also be sending a signal to the people that rather than peaceful and credible elections what they should expect in March and April is war.

The IG on last Saturday came out to counter the statement credited to Mbu. Isn’t that sufficient?

The counter-statement from the IG cannot be taken as sufficient since every police officer is granted the license to use their discretionary power to determine how they apply minimum or maximum force to curb internal strife. Also, the IG has not done anything concrete to call Mbu to order. Instead of Mbu to be reprimanded for his lacklustre performance in Oyo, Rivers and the FCT, he was rewarded with promotion. This seems to have shown that the police hierarchy is ready to tolerate the misdemeanours of its officers and Abba seems ready to protect his officers even when they engage in gross misconduct and misapplication of their discretions. Mbu has not been queried for his many excesses, let alone brought to justice. Thus, if the IG would be taken seriously, he should take a step further by redeploying Mbu from where he would have the opportunity of dealing directly or having direct contact with the members of the society. He should be redeployed to a place where he could only engage in administrative work within the office, because he has demonstrated that he does not have adequate training in methods, strategies, tactics and technicalities of relating directly with the public with the required high level of civility.

What do civil organisations like yours intend doing to ensure that the police and other security operatives do not harass or brutalise people during the forthcoming elections?

The best we can do is to call for sanity within the country’s security agencies. Therefore, if the excesses of Mbu are not brought under check, we may be forced to come out in street protests and write petitions to the international community to drive home our point. It must be noted that we have written the concerned authority to call the police authority and in particular, Joseph Mbu and those who might want to toe his path to order. Since we don’t have the prosecutorial power to challenge the appropriateness of Mbu’s order in court, we believe that the pressure we are going to mount on the police authority will be enough to bring Mbu under check so that he would not mislead his colleagues into believing that they can apply excessive force in maintaining law and order; engage in extrajudicial killing and get away with it. If an officer who makes such a scary statement is allowed to continue to lead other junior officers, every officer carrying a gun may be made to believe that they have the power to take lives without judicial pronouncement and get away with it.

Some have said Mbu’s statement is the official position of the Police and the Presidency because they didn’t come out to condemn him until after the public did. What is your take?

We wouldn’t say that it is an official position of the presidency. We also will not want to say so of the police authorities. But we believe that both the police authorities and the Presidency or the Federal Government are complicit in the statement Mbu made because of their loud silence on it. That the relevant authorities kept quiet means that they have shown approval to the provocative pronouncement of Mbu and such approval is reprehensible; it is uncalled for and preposterous. Even when the IG came out, he didn’t condemn the pronouncement neither did he show that he had invited Mbu for questioning over it. That pre-supposes that the AIG must have assumed some powers that no police officer is expected to have assumed. It has brought a permanent stain on professionalism and ethics meant to be exhibited by a high-ranking police officer of the AIG level. It is a known fact that Mbu enjoys the approval of the government and the police authorities because they have neither reprimanded nor condemned him for his past actions and his recent pronouncements. It’s the body language of the government that led to that pronouncement that could lead to anarchy.

Considering the pronouncements and actions of the security agents in the country now, do you see them being non-partisan?

Pronouncements by the nation’s security operatives have shown that they are partisan against the people; and it has been demonstrated in the few places where elections took place, that all security agents were out to coerce the people into obeying the ruling class or force the will of the ruling class on the people by all means. They have demonstrated that they are not out to secure peace and tranquillity during elections. This was accentuated even by the audio recording of a plot in Ekiti State hatched to rig the preferred candidate of the ruling party into office. It also happened in Osun State where over 70,000 armed personnel were deployed to secure the state even while some of them were hooded and opposition leaders were hounded and arrested indiscriminately without reason. This has shown graphically that the security services in Nigeria are partisan and this is an unhealthy development within the polity. They should by now, know that they do not have the intelligence capacity to detect plots to foment trouble in Nigeria. They do not have the technical capacity to identify people that may incite and carry out trouble within the country.

SOURCE: The Punch.

February 20, 2015

FG May Want To Tamper With NNPC Audit Report, Group Alleges

GEJ-NNPC AUDIT REPORT A civil society organization, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to act on the report of the forensic audit of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and bring anyone indicted to book.

A forensic audit, which was conducted by international firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), had indicted the NNPC and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company on the allegation of unremitted funds into the Federation Account.

In the report, which was submitted to Mr. Jonathan last Monday, the auditors asked both organisations to refund to the Federation Account “a minimum of $1.48bn”, representing about N274.54bn at the Central Bank of Nigeria’s inter-bank exchange rate of N185.50 to the dollar on Thursday.

The president, while receiving the report from Mr. Uyi Akpata, the senior partner of the consultants, said “I will give it to the professionals – the Auditor-General of the Federation, so that within the week we will get the key findings”.

But the executive chairman of CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, argued that the handing over of the audit report to the ‘professionals’ might be an attempt by the Presidency to water down the findings of the consultants.

He said, “Our fear that the Federal Government may want to tamper with the audit report arose from the body language of the Presidency to the issue of the missing oil money. It is a fact that the Federal Government was not ready to probe the missing oil money until Nigerians put pressure on them.

“Now that elections are around the corner, with many glaring factors working against the reelection of the incumbent president, another baggage of indictments on some of his co-workers may not be what the government could cope with at this time. This may compel the Federal Government to doctor the report in its favour in order to curry the favour of some Nigerians”.

Adeniran insisted that rather than hand over the report to the auditor-general, it should have been made public.

SOURCE: GHANA MMA

February 19, 2015

Okonjo-Iweala and corruption in Nigeria

By Funmi Falobi – Snr. Reporter, Lagos

On Tuesday, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said government must expedite action to fight corruption in order to stop leakages and dwindling oil revenue.

The minister who spoke at the annual public lecture organised by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) in Abuja with the theme: “Blocking Leakages amid Dwindling Oil Income” stated that taming the monster of corruption had become mandatory so as to enable government remain on track.

According to her, “Corruption has been with us and we must crack it, we need to stop impunity; we have to constantly tackle corruption for us to stop the leakages.” Continue reading “Okonjo-Iweala and corruption in Nigeria”

February 19, 2015

CACOL cautions INEC over use of NURTW buses to convey election personnel, materials

Posted by Editor on February 16, 2015 at 6:28 pm

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Ralph Ige
Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Oyo State against using buses belonging to the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state to dispatch election officers and materials during the forthcoming general elections.

This came on the heels of a statement by the Director-General of the Ladoja Campaign Organisation, Adeolu Adeleke, that INEC had concluded arrangements with the NURTW to make use of buses belonging to its members to convey electoral officers to different polling units in the state during elections.
But the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Rufus Akeju, said that the arrangement was made at the national level with strong legal backing that was meant to eradicate incidences of moving electoral materials to polling units late.

In his reaction, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition, Comrade Debo Adeniran, averred that the alliance between the INEC and a highly politicized group like the NURTW, could cast aspersions on the result of the elections.

He said, “Signing agreement with a union that is so highly-politicized may mar the entire process and call to question the credibility of the elections. Such arrangement at the end of the day, may not guarantee fairness. INEC is already aware that some buses owners are partisan, as claimed by the REC, so there is no assurance that the Oyo State Chapter of the NURTW does not have allegiance with some politicians in the state. Going ahead with this agreement will adversely affect the credibility of the elections.

“In essence, INEC should desist from its plan to use the NURTW buses. Even if no problem comes up in the course of transporting the materials and the personnels, INEC may not be able to defend itself and the credibility of the elections. Therefore, it would be wise for the body to come up with an alternative plan to avoid any bickering and to make sure the election is free, fair and credible. If INEC should go ahead with its plan, they will be asking for more trouble than they bargained for.”

Comrade Adeniran, however urged INEC to come up with alternative plan for the movement of its personnel and election materials.

“INEC should explore other options than the NURTW. Instead of engaging the NURTW, electoral officers in each local government council could be given opportunity to hire buses without any condition. Also, there should be government agencies or private companies that such a contract could be awarded to. We don’t expect that such a contract could only be executed by the NURTW. INEC should look beyond the NURTW to get buses to convey their materials and people”, Adeniran stated.

SOURCE: Newsverge

February 19, 2015

When King, Beko preached non-violent change

By Sam Anokam, Assistant Editor

Ahead of the postponed elections, the need to conduct a non-violent election was again brought to the fore at the 2015 Black History Month and Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti memorial programme held at Rights House, Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday.

Organised by the Committee for the Defence for Human Rights (CDHR), Lagos State branch, in conjunction with the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos, and Centre for the Rule of Law (CENTROLAW), Nigeria, the event with the theme: “Non-violent democratic change,” saw the U.S. Consul General, Jeffrey Hawkins, as Keynote Speaker and Legal luminary, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) as guest speaker.

It was a full house as Hawkins regaled the gathering with the reason for the event and keyed it into the Nigerian situation. Continue reading “When King, Beko preached non-violent change”