THE NATION ON SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2012
News Review
mi saga rumbles on INEC halts controversial voter registration in Edo State
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HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Friday announced the cancellation of its controversial voter registration exercise in Edo State. INEC’s action came in the wake of widespread criticism by stakeholders and civil society groups who described the exercise as a barely disguised fraud aimed at enabling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to rig the forthcoming gubernatorial election. News of the cancellation was broken to party representatives as well as candidates of the various political parties running for the Edo governorship election that is scheduled for July, 2012. Governor Adams Oshiomhole and leaders of the PDP were present at the announcement. Representatives from the All Nigeria Peoples Party, the Labor Party, and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) also attended the meeting at the Abuja office of INEC.
Salami’s reinstatement: Jonathan, AGF, NJC dragged to court
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HE controversy over whether Justice Ayo Salami should be reinstated as President of the Court of Appeal took an another dimension on Friday, as President Goodluck Jonathan was dragged to the Federal High Court, Abuja over the issue. The plaintiff, Barrister Wilfred Okoli, is seeking a declaration that Jonathan is not under any constitutional obligation to act upon the recommendation made to him by the National Judicial Council (NJC) to reinstate Salami. Apart from Jonathan, the 4th defendant, others equally dragged to court over the matter are the council, the 1st defendant, the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, the 3rd defendant and Justice Ayo Salami himself, the 2nd defendant.
2015: Northern govs unite for presidency
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HEAD of the 2015 elections, the 19 Northern Governors have expressed determination to sink their differences and unite to produce the president from the region in 2015. This was the outcome of their quarterly meeting held in Kaduna. Speaking at the opening session of the meeting, chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, and Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu said the northern governors, this time around, will not allow what happened in 2011 to repeat itself in 2015 as they will unite against candidates from the south.
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THE WEEK IN QUOTES “People who go and break laws in other countries should not expect us to protect them. We will not allow any Nigerian to be maltreated outside the shores of Nigeria. We can even go to war if even one Nigerian is unfairly treated. But Nigerians who go to traffic in drugs, should know the risk they are taking and we will not defend them also.” —Senate President David Mark on Nigerians committing crimes abroad.
“An average Borno man has no business being poor because God has blessed us with enormous land resources. We have no business being poor and being heaped a lot of insult by some of our country men who are calling us parasites and nuisance. We are nobody’s nuisance. —Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State on the economic development of the state and the North.
“When people talk about slowness, how do you describe somebody being slow? The crash programmes we have run in this country have always taken us to nowhere.” —Elder Godsday Orubebe, Minister of the Niger Delta on the alleged slow pace of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Explosions rock two primary schools in Kano
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ULTIPLE explosions Wednesday night, hit two primary schools in Jayin and Hotoro Arewa in Kumbotso and Nasarawa local government areas respectively in Kano municipal. An eyewitness said the attackers who came on a motorbike ordered watchmen at both schools out of the premises before attacking the schools. The attack triggered pandemonium and forced night life to a halt as residents scampered to safety. At Jayin primary school, a newly renovated
building was damged while no fewer than ten cars parked within the premises of the school were badly damged. The midweek attack on the two pro-western educational institutions is the first of such attacks in the city since Kano came under attack on January 20, 2012. Confirming the incident, JTF spokesman in Kano Lt Iweha Ikediche explained that “some IED’s went off within the premises of two primary schools last night”
STATUS QUO
Malawi to overturn gay ban
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RESIDENT Joyce Banda has said she wants Malawi to overturn its ban on homosexual acts - the first African country to do so since 1994. Two Malawian men were sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2010 after saying they were getting married. Several Western leaders have recently said they would cut aid to countries which did not recognise gay rights. Mrs Banda took power last month after her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, died of a heart attack. She has since reversed several of his policies, including devaluing the currency, in a bid to get donor funding restored. Many donors cut aid under Mr Mutharika, accusing him of economic mismanagement and political repression.
•Mark
ABORTED
Private US rocket launch aborted
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ALIFORNIAN company SpaceX aborted the landmark launch of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) due to technical problems. The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 was due to blast off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 4.55am local time, but was halted at the last second after one of the rocket’s nine engines exceeded a technical limit. The next opportunity for launch is at 3.44am local time Tuesday. Fueled by a taxpayer investment of nearly $400 million, SpaceX was bidding to become the first private firm to send its own capsule to the ISS amid a high-stakes commercial space race.
•Shettima
•Orubebe
FAILED
Ibru’s wife loses bid to wind up Federal Palace M R S . Maiden Ibru, widow of the late publisher of The Guardian newspaper, Alex Ibru, on Friday lost in her bid to wind up Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, owners of the prestigious Federal Palace Hotel. A Federal High Court in Lagos threw away a suit she filed to that effect. Mrs. Ibru had by the suit, - a winding up petition, she filed on behalf of one of her late husband’s company – Omamo Investment Corporation, sought to wind up Tourist Company for its alleged inability to settle the debt it owed Omamo Investment. In his ruling, Justice Mohammed Liman dismissed the petition on the ground that it was initiated without compliance with the provisions of the law.
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