NAIJA POLITICAL NEWS!

Bamaiyi dies at 58
Former Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Maj. General Musa Bamaiyi (retd) is dead. He was aged 58. Bamaiyi died in Zuru, his country home in Kebbi State on Tuesday.His remains have been buried in his country home on Tuesday evening April 17th.

Buhari, Atiku, others call for postponement of elections
Four days to the Presidential election, the meeting convened by the Coalition of Opposition Parties (COC) in Abuja, last night called for its indefinite postponement and the immediate disbandment of the Prof. Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the irregularities and fraud that characterised last Saturday's exercise. The "Granite Coalition", led by the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) Presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), also called for the outright cancellation of the elections conducted last Saturday for the governorship and Houses of Assembly in the 36 States of the federation. The COC also demanded the publication and authentication of the voters register as required by the Electoral Act 2006. They equally demanded verification and manual counting of ballot papers used in the last election to ascertain the thumb prints with the aide of the Direct Data Capture Machine (DDC) of INEC. While calling for the reconstitution of INEC, the coalition said unless its demands were met, it would boycott future elections. The coalition would reconvene tomorrow April 19th.

Mayhem in Kano
Tragedy yesterday struck in Kano State when some gunmen, suspected to be Talibans, hacked the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and 12 other policemen attached to Panshekara Police Division, Kumbotso Local Government, and set fire on the police station. The Talibans were dressed in long gowns and red turbans, and some of them had long bears and were speaking a foreign language suspected to be Arabic. They entered the area at about 7.30 am and made straight to the nearby police station, and opened fire on the officers on duty leaving some dead and many others injured. After attacking the police station, the gunmen addressed residents of the area who had taken cover saying “We are not here to harm any of you. We are here because of state of insecurity in the state which had led to the brutal murder of Sheik Jafar Mohammed Adam.” they reportedly said. The suspected gunmen were said to have appealed to the residents of the area to stay clear of the fight between them and the police so that they don’t get hurt while assuring them that they would not be hurt.

Abike Dabiri alleges abduction plot
Barely four days to the House of Representatives election, the Action Congress candidate for Ikorodu Federal constituency, Hon. Abike Dabiri on Tuesday raised alarm over threat to her life.Dabiri in a petition to the State Commissioner of Police, Mr Bashir Azzez alleged that people suspected to be agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have perfected plans to abduct her to an unknown location. According to her, information revealed that the group that was employed for the job have been given her photographs, car number plate, her house description, also all her aides phone numbers and their movements. Dabiri further explained that the reason given by those people was to ensure she did not participate in the election to the Federal House of Representatives on Saturday, stressing that all her aides have also been marked for abduction and subsequent assassination.The meeting where the issue of her abduction, according to her petition to the state commissioner of police, was hatched was held last Sunday at an hotel at Ojigo area of the state

Supreme Court says INEC has no power to disqualify candidates
In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the Inde-pendent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no power to disqualify any candidate submitted to it by a political party, thereby setting aside an earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal on the matter. According to the Supreme Court, “INEC has no Consti-tutional power to disqualify a candidate from contesting elections without a valid order of a court.” The ruling thus set the stage for INEC to include the Vice President's name in the ballot for this Saturday's presidential election. It also throws up more puzzles regarding the fate of some candidates who were disqualified by INEC in the governorship election held last Saturday. Prominent among such victims are the ANPP governorship candidate in Anambra state, Prince Nicholas Ukac-hukwu, his Action Congress (AC) counterpart for the same state, ex-Governor Chris Ngige and the AC candidate for Delta state, Mr. Peter Okocha and many others. The Commission is said be in a dilemma over whether or not to print fresh ballot papers since the ones already printed for Saturday's polls will not bear the name and photograph of Atiku who is the flagbearer of the Action Congress (AC). In the wake of the epochal judgement, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, winner of the case, condemned INEC and the Police, saying he had lost faith in them because the two institutions have compromised their constitutional duties and were partisan in the electoral process

Pat Utomi still in the race
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Prof. Pat Utomi hereby refutes claims by certain news media that himself and other candidates have withdrawn and are calling for a pull-out from the presidential election.
Prof. Utomi declares that he is still in the race, his campaign continues, and he remains convinced that he is the best material for the presidency as well as remaining the peoples' choice.
He states that on the contrary, the group resolve is getting stronger, the status quo remains, and the group is developing its resolution-document which calls on the Nigerian people and the international community to reject the elections so far and see it as a big fraud pre-decided and manipulated accordingly by the PDP.


Thanks to Thisday and Sun Newspapers for the information.