An Open Letter to Nigeria’s President by Hafsat Abiola

Hafsat Abiola is a human rights, civil rights and democracy activist, founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), and daughter of late business man/politician, MKO Abiola. Her letter below

Dear President,
As young global leaders we would like to express our deep concern about the recent situations in Nigeria.
The massacre in Baga has been Boko Haram’s deadliest so far and what has it met with? Your silence. Most disturbing still is the fact that you would send a message to France condemning the killings there, yet seem unable to address the Nigerian people who look to you for leadership. Unfortunately, it would not be the first time

On 10 November 2014 a suicide bomber killed 47 people and injured 79 others. The following day, with barely a mention of this horrific incident targetting children, you launched your re-election campaign.

And despite the ease with which you move on, even you will remember the abduction of the schoolgirls in Chibok in April last year. It was 40 days before you addressed the country on that occasion. Nigerians waited, perplexed, as your government debated whether or not the abductions had even taken place.  As a result, of all the girls captured, only 52 have secured their freedom – escaping on their own. The rest are still in captivity, still waiting to be rescued, 276 days after being taken from their friends, family and community.

Could it be that your government also doubts that the Baga attacks happened? Amnesty International’ssatellite images confirm that indeed a massacre took place, and as many as 2000 people are dead. Yet your army wastes time contesting the numbers.

Whether 150 or 2000, we’d like to hear from you on your governments plans to secure the region and to bear witness to the loss of lives in Baga. We have seen a clear incompetency in handling matters of national interest. In the context of existing ethnic and religious fault lines, silence only says that Nigeria’s government does not care about the victims and is not dealing with the insurgency.
True the global community has also failed to maintain pressure on your government that seems ambivalent about fulfilling its constitutional role to secure the lives and properties of its citizens.

As 1.5 million Nigerians flee their homes,  swelling camps within Nigeria and overwhelming border communities’  (if not same as before), it seems the only hope to see you act is global outrage. It was this that finally forced you to address the nation and the world 40 days after the Chibok abductions.  It was only then that you reached out to other countries and, with their help, agree a plan for a regional security force to secure the porous borders between Nigeria, Niger and Chad where Boko Haram roams undeterred.

Perhaps, had international pressure been sustained last year, a multi-regional force would have been based in Baga as planned. Perhaps it would have been strong enough to repel Boko Haram when the militants attacked on 3 January. Perhaps 2000 lives could have been saved.

But Isis happened and the world moved on, leaving a small national military unit to stand between thousands of armed militants  and a town of ten thousand people. We now know what happened. The world has seen pictures of bodies still strewn around the forest and river where they died.

If these deaths do not generate the attention, outcry and action that they ought to, we can only prepare the ground for more bodies because Boko Haram shows no sign of relenting. The insurgents can be defeated but first you must decide if the lives of Nigerians are worth it or not.

Break the silence, Mr. President. Call for global attention and support to avert a crisis that begins to echo the early days of the Rwandan genocide.  Be the voice for the thousands of innocent people who have died and the millions who yearn for peace. They have the right to rebuild their communities and claim their place in the unfolding rise of the African continent.

Hafsat Abiola-Costello 
Founder/President Kudirat Initiative for democracy
Nigeria

Co-Signatories
Arnaud Ventura, France
Bjarte Reve, Norway
Binta Niambi Brown, USA
Erik Charas, Mozambique
Funmi Iyanda, Nigeria
Georgie Bernadette, USA
Jacqueline Musiitwa, Zambia
Loulwa Bakr, Saudi Arabia
Leo Shlesinger, Chile
Marieme Jamme, Senegal
Mark Turrell, Germany
Rossana Figuera, USA
Salim Amin, Kenya
Soulaima Gourani, Denmark
Susan Mashibe, Tanzania
Tara Fela Durotoye, Nigeria

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Fayemi’s aide accuses Ekiti Obas of collecting N150,000 bribe

Below is a press release from Governor Ayo Fayose's aides

Ogun State born Maxwell Olusegun Adegbenro,  Special Assistant on Social Media to the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi has accused traditional rulers in Ekiti State, who attended forum organised by Concerned Yoruba Elderst in Ile-Ife on Friday, of collecting N150, 000 bribe each to attend the event.

Maxwell Adegbenro made this allegations on his Facebook page at about 11:30 am on Saturday.He berated the Obas, including the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe of travelling to Ile-Ife to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan, saying; "The Ekiti Obas can receive the President in their home state and not OAU at a function organised by a group in close association with PDP."

Adegbenro, who is  Dr Fayemi’s spokesperson on social media must have echoed the position of the former governor on the traditional rulers' visit to Ile-Ife on Friday to attend the event.

He said; "And our own traditional rulers in their borrowed robe suddenly filled Gov Fayose escort to endorse Jonathan and not to receive him.

"Was Jonathan coming to Ekiti? How may Ondo State Traditional rulers graced the programme?

"How many Osun State Obas, Ogun and Oyo suddenly became President Jonthan convoy team to a meeting supposedly organised to rally support for him?

"You and I know why these Obas were there. They may have been lucksturally deceived by Fayose in presenting entire Ekiti before President Jonathan as peoples choice and candidate.

"Traditional rulers are separable of despotic politics. An interplay that has no moral, cultural ground is justifiably an ills to our values and norms. Egbon, that is my point. Where then is their integrity. So, again I heard they were paid 150k each."

Reacting, Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka described the comment as an insult on the entire people of Ekiti.

Olayinka, who demanded an immediate retraction of the statement and apology by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, said Governor Fayose will not stand and watch anyone dragging the traditional institution in Ekiti State in the mud

PVC: Fashola, Wife’s Name Missing At Polling Unit

The names of the number one citizen of Lagos state, Governor Babatunde Fashola and that of his wife, Abimbola and all residents who registered at the governor’s polling unit were missing on the register of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and could not collect their Permanent Voters Card, PVC.

The governor, who after arriving at his Ward G3, polling Unit E002, State Junior Secondary School, Surulere, where he had registered with his wife, Dame Abimbola in 2010, did not sight any INEC official at the scene at about 2:00 p.m.

The governor, after waiting at the scene for a long time sighted a notice pasted on the entrance of the school, advising residents who had registered at the polling unit to revisit the unit next month for another registration exercise.

The notice placed at the gate notified that all those who registered at the polling unit, including Fashola and his wife would not get their PVCs as there was no provision for such.

“We regret to inform you that those who registered in this polling unit do not have permanent voters’ cards. Please come back between 3rd and 8th December 2014 for fresh registration,” the notice informed.

Fashola however reacted angrily to the fact that his name was missing on INEC’s database, thus denying him and others from collecting their PVCs, saying the umpire body represented the biggest threat to the nation’s democracy.

“We have seen that INEC is the biggest threat to our democracy. They set date for the distribution of PVC, the state mobilised its residents for the exercise. We put all machinery in place only for the electoral body to change the date of the exercise. They said that the distribution and registration of voters would be done in 11 councils and not the 20 local governments.

“While the 11 had been handled in an unsatisfactory way, now the exercises in nine local governments are not ready. If I the governor of the state cannot vote, it shows what the electoral body had done. They came in the midnight and said that we should all come back and register on 3rd December 3rd, 2014. We registered and voted in that place. And there are evidences to show that,” he decried.

According to Fashola, “now, there are questions that must be answered by INEC; was the PVC for those units which they have cancelled printed? And if yes, who have they given them to?”

He said one could not wipe datas gathered like that, saying he wanted INEC to know that he still had his temporary voter’s card and that he expected all those who still had theirs to keep them, adding that “INEC registered us and they cannot deregister us because we are still alive.”

He said if the electoral body could not provide the PVC, it must allow those who had the temporary cards to vote.

“It is disgraceful to say the least. This shows how we organise the affairs of this country. Everything that had happened under Jega’s tenure, it has been characterised by mistakes from his very first election. Promises have been made and broken. It is a disappointment. We will participate in the election whether they like it or not. I feel sad when I visited India and I saw how the country was organising elections for population more than ours without hitches,” he said.

Photos: Barcelona football stars get brand new cars from Audi

Barcelona football stars including Messi (above) Neymar, Suarez and other players collected brand new cars from German car manufacturer, Audi, at an event sponsored by Audi today. See more pics after the cut...

Neymar

 

Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique

 

Luis Suarez

 

Javier Mascherano

 

Pedro and Ivan Rakitic

 Xavi

Top prison boss gets 7 years in prison for obtaining money by false pretense

Find the EFCC press statement below

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on  Friday 28, 2014, secured the conviction of a top prison officer as Justice J.J Majebi of the Kogi State High Court, Okene, convicted and sentenced Joseph Friday Idachaba, Deputy Controller of Prisons, to 7 years imprisonment for offences bordering on obtaining money by false pretense. 

The convict is to pay the sum of N1, 403,114.09 in restitution to Nigeria Prison Service.

Arraigned in 2012 on a three-count charge, the convict was found guilty on count three of the charge by the trial judge, who, however, acquitted him on two remaining counts.

Count three of the charge reads: "That you Joseph Friday Idachaba (m) being a deputy comptroller of Nigeria Prisons Service, and Onoja D. Ruth (IP) also a staff of Nigeria Prison Service, sometime between July, 2012 to February 2013 at Lokoja, Kogi State did with intent to defraud obtained N1,403,114.09 only from the Federal Government of Nigeria via the Nigeria Prison Service with pretence that same amount was the payment of monthly salaries from Nigeria Prison Service, which amount was credited into the UBA Plc account No 2054047736 belonging to one Opia Mohammed Ugbade (now at large), through NIGSS electronic fund transfer (NEFT) between July 2012-to February 2013, that the said Opia Mohammed Ugbade’s name found in the Nigeria Prison Service electronic payroll is not a staff of the Service which pretence you knew to be false and hereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1) paragraphs A&B and punishable under section 1(3) of the Advance Free Fraud and Other Related Offences Act."