INEC boss commended for stamping out ‘bad eggs’ from commission

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An election observer group, the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) has commended the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission  (INEC) over what it described as its commitment to stamp out the few bad eggs within the Commission who, according to it, have over the years driven the wedge of a question marks on the credibility  of elections in the country through collusion with corrupt political class.

The commendation is coming amidst  the disciplinary action taken against 23 staff of the commission indicted for various misconduct during last December election rerun in Rivers state.

In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja and signed by the ISDMG Director of Mobilization and Communication, Ms. Faith Nwadishi, the group said there must be no sacred cows; hence, politicians and security operatives that are indicted in these findings must also be prosecuted.

Ms Nwadishi described the action of the electoral body as an unprecedented move in that the Commission did not wait to be hounded or coerced into setting up an internal cleansing mechanism which will, no doubt, enhance the sanctity of its mandate.

She said, such action will serve as deterrence to others who may be conceiving of ridiculing the system in future, emphasizing that the prosecuting authorities must ensure that diligent prosecution is carried out and appropriate sanctions , to the fullest extent of the law possible are meted out to those convicted by the law courts.

Speaking further, she said, “On the EFCC report which indicted about 202 members of staff of INEC across 12 states, we identify with  the resoluteness of the current leadership of the Commission to stamp out the few bad eggs from within who have over the years , through collusion with the political class, put question marks on the credibility  of elections in our country , thereby casting aspersions on the integrity of the greater majority that put their lives on the line to ensure that elections are free and fair .

“We recognise the fact that managing the Nigeria electoral process is a herculean task considering the crop of politicians that litter the political space.  When politicians throw caution to the wind and connive with agencies of state, namely security, compromised government officials , INEC officials and private citizens to shatter the process, it becomes a huge challenge and an enormous task which requires that all well-meaning Nigerians join hands with the INEC to maintain the sanctity of the ballot in our country.

“At this point, we applaud INEC, especially at the centre, for its efforts at protecting the integrity of elections in Nigeria. The leadership has demonstrated willingness to deliver on its mandate in a transparent manner; however, we still urge the Commission to deepen public engagement, this we hope will create the momentum that will drive a public buy-in of the reforms that the leadership is driving .”

She urged politicians to conduct themselves in an orderly manner and desist from all actions that are capable of sending the country back to the dark age of electoral mismanagement in the country.

She said, “Politics can be played with some level of decorum and we strongly advocate for it to be so.”

 

The post INEC boss commended for stamping out ‘bad eggs’ from commission appeared first on Vanguard News.

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Pique promises Barca induced baby boom

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Barcelona's Brazilian forward Neymar (R) and Barcelona's defender Gerard Pique celebrate Paris Saint-Germain's own goal during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg football match FC Barcelona vs Paris Saint-Germain FC at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona on March 8, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / LLUIS GENE

Defender Gerard Pique predicted a baby boom in the Catalan capital following Barcelona’s sensational 6-1 thrashing of Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.

Sergi Roberto scored five minutes into stoppage time to cap the biggest Champions League comeback of all time from a 4-0 first leg defeat to reach the quarter-finals 6-5 on aggregate.

“I would say to the hospitals of Barcelona to hire nurses,” said Pique, who has two children with Colombian pop star Shakira.

“Tonight people will make a lot of love.”

Dramatic, late Champions League goals have a history of causing a spike in the birth rate in football-mad Barcelona.

Andres Iniesta’s famous stoppage-time equaliser to see the Catalans through a highly controversial semi-final against Chelsea in 2009 is credited with a 50 percent rise in the number of babies born around nine months later.

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Relocation of oil firms to Niger Delta a big step to peace, says Ex-Militant

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PHOTO: nta.ng

A Niger Delta Ex-Militant on Monday applauded Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for directing oil firms to relocate their headquarters to the oil bearing states within the Niger-Delta region.

Chairman of the Phase II Amnesty Programme beneficiaries, Mr Salvation Ibena Rufus told News Agency of Nigeria in Yenagoa that if implemented, the directive would fast track development of the region.

Rufus commended the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu and Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Brig.- Gen. Paul Boroh (rtd) for their relentless efforts in ensuring the success of the new partnership between host communities, the federal government and multinational oil companies.

According to the ex-agitator, the youths in the region are pleased with the untiring efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly for considering host communities’ youths as active participants in the oil and gas sector.

He noted that the federal government has shown its commitment through the planned establishment of modular refineries to replace the present illegal refining activities in the creeks of the Niger Delta.

He said that the ongoing collaboration between the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and that of the Minister of State for Petroleum was yielding results.

According to Rufus, such partnership with the state governments in the region will create job opportunities for young people in the states and take them off the labour market and make them unavailable for restiveness.

Rufus, who is also is a director at the Bayelsa State Environmental Sanitation Authority, regretted that all the multinational oil companies operating in the region have their offices in either Lagos or Abuja.

He noted that successive governments from 1999 have not been able to achieve much in sincerely proffering solutions to the problems of the Niger Delta region.

The Ex-militant leader expressed confidence the recent pronouncements made by Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in course of his tour to states in the region.

He noted that the steps so far taken by the federal government would herald a new lease of life in the quest for a rapid socio-economic development of the Niger Delta region.

Rufus pointed out that the relocation of oil companies to the region would foster peace, unity and rapid development, assuring that his group would work to ensure that the oil companions have hitch-free operations in the region.

NAN recall that the Acting President gave the directive at a Town Hall meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital on Thursday during continuation of his trouble-shooting visit to the region.

Osinbajo had urged the Minister of State, Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to begin the process of engaging the International Oil Companies on the way forward to actualize the directive, saying: “I think it is the right thing to do”.

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South African court slaps down bid to leave ICC…Read full details

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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (C), Congo's president Denis Sasso-Nguesso (R) and Prime Minister of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Abdelkader Taleb Oumar (L) posing during a photo call at the 25th African Union Summit in Sandton South Africa on June 14, 2015. A South African court on February 22, 2017 ruled the government's plan to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) was "unconstitutional and invalid", providing a boost to the embattled Hague-based institution. South Africa announced in October it had lodged its decision to pull out with the United Nations, following a dispute over Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visiting the country in 2015. / AFP PHOTO / GIANLUIGI GUERCIA

A South African court on Wednesday ordered the government to withdraw its “unconstitutional” bid to pull out of the International Criminal Court, in a boost to the embattled Hague-based institution.

The decision was a blow to President Jacob Zuma but a welcome piece of good news for the ICC, which has been rocked by threats of withdrawal amid complaints of an alleged bias against Africa.

South Africa announced it had lodged its decision to pull out with the United Nations in October, following a dispute over Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visiting the country in 2015.

South African authorities refused to detain Bashir despite him being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes, saying he had immunity as a head of state.

“The cabinet decision to deliver the notice of withdrawal… without prior parliamentary approval is unconstitutional and invalid,” said judge Phineas Mojapelo in the North Gauteng High Court.

The president and ministers were “ordered forthwith to revoke the notice of withdrawal”.

Justice ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said the government would “reflect on the reasons for the judgement and decide whether to appeal or not”.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which was one of the groups that brought the court case, welcomed the ruling.

“The withdrawal by the South African government from the ICC was irrational,” DA lawmaker James Selfe told AFP.

“We would like South Africa to stay in the ICC because we believe that it is consistent with our constitution and with the legacy of Nelson Mandela.

“The government should go back to the drawing board and reconsider the thing afresh in light of this judgement.”

– ICC under threat? –
After the election of President Adama Barrow, The Gambia’s new government in February asked the UN to halt its process of withdrawal from the ICC.

Burundi has registered to leave, while Kenya is considering the move.

Currently nine out of the ICC’s 10 investigations concern African countries, the other being Georgia.

However experts point out that many of the current investigations — in the Central African Republic, Uganda, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo — were referred to the ICC by the governments of those states.

Bashir has evaded arrest since his ICC indictment in 2009 for alleged war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur conflict in which 300,000 people were killed and two million forced to flee their homes.

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal accused the government of “disgraceful conduct” over Bashir’s visit and ruled that the failure to arrest the Sudanese leader was unlawful.

The ICC was set up in 2002 in The Hague as a court of last resort to try the world’s worst crimes where national courts are unable or unwilling to act.

The court is unable to carry out investigations in countries which have not ratified its founding Rome Statute, unless the United Nations refers a case for investigation.

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Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin dead at 64…Read full details

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Flowers are laid in front of a portrait of Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin at the Foreign Ministry guest house in Moscow on February 21, 2017. Churkin, who for years fended off Western criticism and defended Moscow's actions in Ukraine and Syria, died Monday in New York. He was 64.Churkin collapsed while at work at the Russian mission to the United Nations Monday morning and was rushed to a Manhattan hospital, apparently suffering from heart problems, diplomatic sources said.<br />/ AFP PHOTO / POOL / SERGEI CHIRIKOV

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, who for years fended off Western criticism and defended Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and Syria, died Monday in New York. He was 64.

Churkin collapsed while at work at the Russian mission to the United Nations Monday morning and was rushed to a Manhattan hospital, apparently suffering from heart problems, diplomatic sources said.

In a statement announcing his death, the foreign ministry in Moscow described him as an “outstanding diplomat.” There was no information on the cause of death.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin “highly valued the professionalism and diplomatic talent of Vitaly Churkin” and offered condolences, Interfax reported.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova paid tribute to Churkin, writing on Facebook: “A great diplomat. An extraordinary personality. An outstanding individual. We have lost someone very dear.”

News of his death was met with shock at UN headquarters where Churkin, who would have turned 65 on Tuesday, had been a towering presence for a decade.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Churkin had served “with distinction through some of the most challenging and momentous periods of recent history.”

Guterres described him as a “forceful presence on the Security Council,” a “uniquely skilled diplomat, a powerful orator with great wit and a man of many talents and interests.”

Diplomats at a UN meeting observed a moment of silence and a tribute to him was planned at the Security Council on Tuesday.

Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Petr Iliichev said Churkin was at work “until his last moments.”

“His whole life was dedicated to defending the interests of Russia,” Iliichev said. “He was on the frontline.”

“We’ve lost a prominent diplomat, a strong negotiator, a wonderful individual, a teacher,” said Iliichev.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq, who heard the news during the regular daily briefing, offered his condolences, adding: “He has been such a regular presence here that I’m actually quite stunned.”

– Western rift with Russia –
A career diplomat born in Moscow who studied English from a young age, Churkin had been UN ambassador since April 2006, after serving as Russian ambassador to Canada and to Belgium.

During that decade, relations between Russia and the West soured, culminating with a major rift over Moscow’s support for separatists in east Ukraine and its military intervention in Syria.

In the final months, Churkin clashed repeatedly with then-US ambassador Samantha Power over the bloodshed in Aleppo, staunchly defending Moscow’s view that the Syrian government was waging all-out war against “terrorists.”

Russia resorted to its veto six times to block action on Syria.

Power tweeted that she was “devastated” and described Churkin as a “diplomatic maestro” and “deeply caring man” who did all he could to bridge US-Russian differences.

Power’s successor, Nikki Haley, who arrived less than a month ago, said Churkin had “showed himself to be a gracious colleague”.

“We did not always see things the same way, but he unquestionably advocated his country’s positions with great skill,” said Haley in a statement.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre said Churkin was “one of the most talented diplomats” he’d ever met and “an exceptional representative of Russia” at the UN.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft tweeted that he was “absolutely devastated,” describing Churkin as “a diplomatic giant & wonderful character.”

Churkin had served as foreign ministry spokesman in the early 1990s and also as special envoy to the former Yugoslavia.

Growing up in Moscow, he dabbled in acting in his early teens, notably in two films about Soviet founding father Vladimir Lenin.

He graduated from the prestigious Moscow Institute of International Relations and began his career at the foreign ministry as a translator before working at the Soviet embassy in Washington in the 1980s.

Given his long posting at the UN — previously held for a decade by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — Churkin joked in a recent interview that his stint was surpassed only by the envoy from Turkmenistan.

He is survived by his wife Irina, son Maxim and daughter Anastasiya.

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Britain’s House of Lords begins debating Brexit bill

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(FILES) This file photo taken on September 5, 2016 shows a general view of the House of Lords chamber in session at the Houses of Parliament in London. Approved by the House of Commons, the bill on the triggering of Brexit passes before the Lords on Monday. The upper house of parliament should not block the bill, but could disrupt the government's schedule. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Kirsty Wigglesworth

Britain’s House of Lords begins debating a bill Monday empowering Prime Minister Theresa May to kickstart Brexit — a potentially tricky test given her Conservatives do not hold a majority there.

Discussions in the unelected upper house of parliament get underway after the lower House of Commons overwhelmingly approved the draft legislation earlier this month.

The bill gives May the right to trigger Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, the formal procedure to start negotiations on leaving the bloc.

The government presented the short bill after losing a high-profile court battle in which judges ruled May must consult parliament before beginning divorce proceedings with Brussels.

The legislation sailed through the Commons this month by 494 votes to 122.

But the government could face greater challenges in the Lords, where only 252 of the more than 800 members are Conservatives.

Peers are proposing changes to the bill that include measures to guarantee the rights of EU nationals in Britain, and defining how parliament votes on a final Brexit deal.

Peter Mandelson, a peer with the opposition Labour party and former European commissioner, said there was a “strong body of opinion” on the seriousness of the two issues.

But he doubted the unelected chamber — whose members are appointees, many of them career politicians — would seek to derail the Brexit bill entirely.

“At the end of the day, the House of Commons must prevail because it is the elected chamber,” Mandelson told BBC television on Sunday.

“But I hope the House of Lords will not throw in the towel early.”

– March deadline –
Ahead of the debate, Justice Minister Liz Truss said the upper house should support the outcome of the June referendum in which 52 percent of voters opted to leave the EU, sending shockwaves around Europe.

“The British people voted for that, they were clear in the referendum and the House of Lords now needs to get on with it,” Truss told the BBC.

Her view was echoed by Conservative MP Dominic Raab, who warned that voters would not look kindly on unelected peers seeking to block the Brexit bill.

“Peers would be wise to consider this clear democratic mandate, and their own futures, when debating the Article 50 Bill this week,” he said.

The Lords will debate the bill on Monday and Tuesday, before two further days of discussions next week and the final reading scheduled for March 7.

If they vote to amend the bill it will pass back to the Commons for further debate, drawing the process out further.

But Brexit minister David Davis said he expects the government to meet its self-imposed deadline of triggering Article 50 by the end of next month.

“I expect it to be resolved in good time before the end of March,” Davis told a news conference in Stockholm on Tuesday.

“So I’m confident we’ll do it before our timetable.”

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Remaining 2 PDP members in Lagos Assembly promise loyalty

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Victor Akande

In spite of the lingering leadership crisis in the PDP, the remaining two members of the party in the Lagos Assembly have promised to remain loyal to the party.

Messrs Victor Akande (Ojo Constituency) and Dipo Olorunrinu (Amuwo Odofin I Constituency) said on Monday that the crisis in PDP did not warrant defection.

They spoke in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Six PDP members in the Assembly had on Thursday defected to the ruling APC, citing leadership crisis in the party.

The defectors include the Minority Leader, Mr Akeem Bello (Amuwo Odofin II), Minority Whip, Mrs Mosunmola Sangodara (Surulere II) and Mr Olusola Sokunle (Oshodi/Isolo I).

The others are Mr Jude Idimogu (Oshodi/Isolo II), Mr Dayo Famakinwa (Ajeromi Ifelodun II) and Mr Fatai Oluwa (Ajeromi/Ifelodun I).

Akande said that the defection was unjustified, and hoped that peace would soon return to the PDP.

He expressed dissatisfaction that the defectors abandoned the party on which platform they were elected, saying that their attitude showed that they would abandon APC when in crisis.

“I have no plan to defect to another party,’’ he told NAN.

He, however, regretted that the PDP crisis had made some of its members to leave.

Reacting, Olorunrinu told NAN that leadership crisis was not peculiar to PDP and would not make him to defect to another party.

“I believe in loyalty; so, I owe loyalty to the party that took me to the assembly,” he said.

He expressed confidence in the ability of the party to overcome its challenges.

One of the defectors, Idimogu, had said that he left PDP because of its lingering leadership crisis which, he said, could jeopardise his political career.

Idimogu said that the crisis in PDP was getting out of hand.

“Right now, PDP is fictionalised while the APC has a stronghold in Lagos State. I thank God that they (APC) gave me the ticket to come here.

“I was not finding things easy in the PDP; I was embarrassed and unable to plan for the future,’’ he told NAN.

The lawmaker added that his political future and the interest of his constituents would be better protected in APC.

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