The tension in Rivers state over the ongoing legislative rerun election took a new dimension on Sunday as State Governor, Nyesom Wike and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi exchanged verbal fireworks at Mile One police station in Port Harcourt.
This occurred after an allegedly missing result sheet which was said to have been in care of Ekwi Adebisa, collation officer of ward 10, Port Harcourt local government (PHALGA).
Shortly after Ekwi was arrested by the police and taken to the station, Amaechi showed up in company of Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Safety Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dakuku Peterside, Davis Ikanya, Ibim Semenitari, acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and some APC officials.
Wike also came to the station with some of his party men and both sides began to exchange unpleasant utterances. The police later called them for a meeting, which journalists were barred from attending.
Wike and Amaechi, former allies, had been in the news in the lead-up to the election over their provocative utterances.
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Jonathan Misused, Abused His Opportunity As President, Says Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the immediate past President of the country, Goodluck Jonathan misused, abused his opportunity to rule Nigeria.
While expressing no regrets in facilitating the emergence of Jonathan as President, Obasanjo said his objective had been achieved by making a minority group to produce the president of Nigeria.
He said: “I believe that Nigeria politics will be strengthened even more if we have the opportunity to allow the minority in its own right to emerge as President, and I do not have any apology for anybody because the purpose I wanted Nigeria to achieve had been achieved.
“That any Nigerian can become president, it is not a regret for Nigeria and for me because Nigeria gave him that opportunity, he used, abused, misused as he wished and at the appropriate time, Nigerians said thank you for what you have done and what you have not done and Nigeria said bye bye, which is the beauty of democracy.”
On Biafra agitation Obasanjo, who described the Biafra agitation as a platform for people of the South East to make their voices heard, insisted that Biafra was dead.
He said: “I sympathise with people agitating in the country, but what Nigeria needs to do now is to get our economy back on track. When you have a bad economic situation, such is expected. So I did not see their cause as a threat but I see it as a platform to get their voices heard.
“Like I said on January 15, the important, authentic leaders of the South-East are concerned about economic situation of Nigeria and I believe when the situation changes tomorrow, these young people will sing a new song.”
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How US, UK Spotted Missing Chibok Girls But Failed To Act – Ambassador Says
Andrew Pocock, former British high commissioner to Nigeria, has told The Sunday Times that surveillance teams of the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) spotted 80 of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in Sambisa forest shortly after they were kidnapped in April 2014.
Pocock said the information was passed to the authorities but no request was made for help.
He said though the rescue operation could have resulted into the deaths of some of them, a few of them would have regained freedom.
“A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment,” Pocock was quoted as saying.
“A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed.
“An air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.
Bring Back Our Girls Protest
“You might have rescued a few but many would have been killed. My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
The Sunday Times said it had seen gruesome rape videos showing that the girls were being used as sex slaves by the fighters.
Stephen Davis, former canon at Coventry Cathedral, who spent several months in Nigeria trying to negotiate the girls’ freedom, said the failure to mount a rescue was “unconscionable and disgusting”.
Davis said the locations of the Boko Haram camps were well-known.
He added that the Chibok girls were not the only kidnap victims — and South African mercenaries working with the Nigerian military had released about 1,000 others.
“If they could release that many, that belies the argument that the girls would be killed in the process,” he said.
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'The oppression is high': Cuban police break up protest ahead of Obama's visit
Cuban police forcibly broke up a pro-democracy demonstration and arrested several dozen activists on Sunday, just hours before Barack Obama was to arrive in Havana to become the first US president to visit Cuba in almost 90 years.
The protesters, from the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) and other opposition groups, were bundled into buses and police vans after a shouting match with pro-Castro supporters during their usual weekly demonstration near the Santa Rita church.
“My son and his wife are in jail now. They all are. The police were very violent,” Glavys Fernández, the mother of leading opposition figure Antonio Rodiles, told the Guardian. “It’s the same every week. The oppression is very high.”
Earlier in the day, her son, who helped form the Todos Marchamos (“We all march”) campaign, predicted what was to come as he addressed journalists before the protest.
“I have been arrested more than 50 times in the past year,” Rodiles said. “The police have broken my nose and my eardrum. There are many of them surrounding us again today. But we want to send a clear message to Obama. We need to show the reality we are living in.”
The protesters carried banners, proclaiming: “Obama’s trip to Cuba isn’t for fun. No to violations of human rights.” Others chanted, “Obama, we have a dream: a Cuba without Castros.”
Antonio Rodiles.
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Antonio Rodiles: ‘I have been arrested more than 50 times in the past year.’ Photograph: The Guardian
“I’ve been detained and beaten countless times,” said Eralidis Frómeta Polanco, an activist who turned up in the all-white clothes of the demonstrators, who march silently along 5th Avenue each week in protest at the lack of freedom of expression. “I have no hope at all of progress as a result of Obama’s visit. He doesn’t know what it is like to live in a dictatorship.”
A passing cyclist, Josoa Gomez, who said he was a university professor, accused her and the other protesters of being liars, mercenaries and ingrates who failed to recognise the benefits of Cuban society, including free education and healthcare. The tensions escalated up until the arrests.
The confrontation highlights what is likely to be one of the most contentious issues of the US president’s visit: human rights and pro-democracy reforms.
US-Cuba relations: timeline of a tangled history
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Many Cuban opposition activists complain the rapprochement process that started in 17 December 2014 gives the Castro government legitimacy and greater access to international credit. They say releases of hundreds of prisoners, which have been hailed as the most tangible signs of change since then, are illusory, because convictions have not been pardoned and the activists remain under a legal cloud.
Human Rights Watch said the situation for civil rights activists has not improved since the rapprochement began between Obama and Raúl Castro. They noted that during Pope Francis’s visit to the island last September, police detained between 100 and 150 dissidents. The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation reported more than 8,500 cases of arbitrary detention in 2015, and more than 2,500 in the first two months of 2016.
Democracy activists in the one-party state are pushing for a range of reforms, including free elections, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and an end to repression of activists. They want Obama to lobby on their behalf.
US officials say the president, who will meet civil rights activists and give a speech on Tuesday, is not in Havana to make demands, but to encourage reforms that have already begun, particularly in the area of economic liberalisation. However, they say he will talk candidly about human rights and the need for participation in decision making.
Rosa Maria Paya.
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Rosa María Payá: ‘I hope he will support the Cuban people and not just talk to the leaders and have his picture taken.’ Photograph: ZIPI/EPA
“The main message of his speech will be that Cuba’s future is for the Cuban people to decide. The goal is not to foster regime change,” said a state department official. “President Obama wants to show that the challenges Cubans face are not the result of US policy.”
No political conditions have been set for the visit and there is no expectation of a quid pro quo exchange from the Cubans for the US decision last week to relax currency and and travel restrictions. Change, if it comes at all, is more likely at next month’s Communist Party Congress.
One possibility is a referendum on the constitution that would allow Cuban voters to set the political direction for their country ahead of 2018, when Castro has said he plans to step down.
“There is the possibility of reform in April, but we must understand that the group in power for 57 years want to remain in power and keep their privileges,” said democracy campaigner Rosa María Payá, who has launched a petition calling for Obama to support the idea of a referendum during his visit to the island.
Obama’s Cuba visit is latest step towards ‘new alliance of the Americas’
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“He should ask for the specific tool of a plebiscite so that Cuban people can decide their future for the first time in 60 years,” she told the Guardian. “I hope he will support the Cuban people and not just talk to the leaders and have his picture taken.”
Payá wants the US president to make a symbolic gesture against impunity by laying flowers at the grave of her father, a leading democracy campaigner who died in mysterious circumstances in 2012. Cuban authorities say Oswaldo Payá died in a car crash. His family contends that government agents were following him and may have forced him off the road. They believe he is a victim of terror tactics used by the communist government to maintain one-party rule.
“We Cubans know what to do but we can’t do it alone because the Cuban government has weapons, and they are willing to use them – as we saw with the murder of my father,” Payá said. “We need the support of the international community.”
Before his detention, Rodiles argued Obama should stress political freedom and insist that the government in Havana ratify the United Nations Covenant on Human Rights.
“Raúl Castro has said he will move aside in 2018 and this has created the expectation of elections. But the real transfer is taking place right now so by the time Castro steps down, power will have already switched,” he said. “How can there be a proper referendum without freedom of expression, without access to a free TV and a free press? They will never allow me to go on television and debate the issues.”
Controversy As 300 Level UNILAG Student Dies From Insecticide
A 300 level University of Lagos (Unilag) student has died after ingesting the local insecticide popularly known as ‘Sniper.’
The student of Microbiology, Eniola Jacobs died after almost a day of battling for his life at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
Circumstances surrounding his death were unclear as at the time of filing this report as some sources claimed he wanted to commit suicide while others claimed he was forced by cultists to take the insecticide.
No official comment has been put forward by UNILAG authorities. The only statement from the Deputy spokesperson for the University, Mrs. Nonye Oguama was: “I have heard about it, but until I get to the office tomorrow (Monday), I cannot tell what really happened.”.
More details surrounding this tragic incident later.
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Rivers Re-run: Police Arrest Wike’s Aide, Four Others
Following Saturday’s legislative re-run election in Rivers State, men of the Nigerian Police have arrested one Cyril Dum Nwite, said to be the Special Adviser on Special Projects to the State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
He was reportedly arrested and paraded alongside four others for allegedly disguising on fake Police and Military uniform near INEC office.
Meanwhile, the Governor had earlier expressed his satisfaction with the security arrangement for the election.
Wike said, “I am impressed with the security arrangement for the election.”
2016 UTME Exercise Is A National Embarrassment, Says MURIC
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has described the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise as a colossal fiasco, a monumental scandal and a national embarrassment.
The group made this known in a statement on Saturday, by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola. He denounced the timing of the CBT examinations, noting that candidates were forced to start in their centres from 6.30 am in compliance with JAMB timetable.
He said, “This arbitrary timing is also responsible for the absence of a whopping 23,577 candidates on the day of the examination. In a country where power supply is epileptic and security of lives and properties cannot be guaranteed, this is strange, shocking, callous, insensitive and irrational. The examination body unnecessarily exposed our young ones and our future leaders to danger. Some candidates allegedly lost their belongings when they were attacked by hoodlums on their way to the examination ccenter,” he noted.
MURIC also condemned the banning of hijab by female Muslim candidates at the examination centres.
Akintola suggested that JAMB should consider giving extra 25 points each to all candidates across the board in view of the fact that undermarking is the major flaw in the last exercise.
His words: “Candidates should be given the option of taking computer-based or written tests using paper and pen. Ad-hoc staff must be properly briefed and must not stop religious profiling of hijab-wearing female Muslim candidates. JAMB results should be valid for three years. The examination body should co-opt security experts to its planning committees when preparing for examinations.”
The group also urge universities within the country to lower their cut-off points and rely more on their internally conducted post-JAMB examinations for admitting students into their various programmes.
