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Tag: snubs

  • Jega snubs Oritsejafor

    Jega snubs Oritsejafor

    CAN boss to electoral agency: Card Readers must function

    Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) President Ayo Oritsejafor has spoken of how  Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega snubbed him.

    “Some people have told me that I am too small to meet with him (Jega),” Pastor Oritsejafor said.

    The CAN chief spoke at a one-day interactive session of key stakeholders in the Nigerian project, comprising religious, political organisations and security agencies, organised by Think Nigeria Christian-Muslim Movement, with the theme: “Towards a peaceful and purposeful political transition in 2015”.

    Pastor Oritsejafor said: “The General Secretary of CAN has the INEC Chairman’s number. He text him, saying the CAN President wants to meet with you on some days. The INEC chairman text back, saying those days were not good. So, Jega gave us two days to choose from and we chose one and he (Jega) accepted. I do not live in Abuja; I live in Warri, and so I had to make my plans to come here. All my plans were made and just as I was ready to come to Abuja, my General Secretary contacted me again that the INEC chairman (Jega) said he cannot meet with us, that he is too busy. When I asked him then what date did he give? He said no date was given.

    “Till today, I, the leaders of all Christians in Nigeria, don’t have access to the INEC Chairman. I could not meet this man to have a discussion with him. Some of the things bordering us we wanted to share with him. We want to give him some solutions, suggestions, but that was it. No new date for us to meet with him. So, this is a problem that is why I am saying this now publicly. This happened a little less than two months ago. That disturbed me. The little people are begging him to look at our suggestions and act on them.

    But Chief Press Secretary to Prof. Jega, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said he was unaware of any request by the CAN chief to see Jega which was turned down. “I’m not aware. I have a fair knowledge of the chairman’s scheduled,” Idowu said.

    Dr. Oritsejafor added: “INEC is a necessary organisation that every nation must have. I am concerned about two things. One is on the issue of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs). I have had it said several times that there are many Nigerians who are refusing to collect their PVCs. I beg to disagree on this because I sample this and the church I pastor in Warri with about 35,000 people and I asked them to show me their PVCs and I was shocked. I tell you and I lie not, probably close to half of my congregation do not have their PVCs.

    “I sent my pastors, over 100 of them, out to meet them and find out why and I discovered that I felt insulted that anybody would say that they registered and do not want to go and take their PVC. Some of them said the truth is, many of those cards don’t belong to the people in that location. So the people in that location could not find their cards. And the owners of the cards are also searching for their cards elsewhere.

    “I think one of the things INEC can do is to publish the PVCs that they have quickly, so that Nigerians can easily locate them or pass information on it to each other, so that one can go there to collect it. I am not saying this will solve all the problems, but it will go a long way to solve the problem. We charge INEC to please make sure that  those Card Readers work. They should work, they must work, and they were bought with money.”

    Pastor Oritsejafor said for the election to be successful, Christian and Muslim leaders must sign a peace pact ensuring that Christians and Muslims are safe before, during and after the general elections.

    Besides, in his view, for a successful election, there must be confidence building. And one of the things that will build confidence is that Christians and Muslims must resolve that we will protect each other.

    “Christians who live in predominantly Muslim areas should not be afraid to remain there. Many are running away. They shouldn’t. After all, they are Nigerians. And our Muslim brothers must make a commitment to say Christians will not be killed in predominantly Muslims areas while Christians should also say Muslims who live in their area will not be killed.

    “We must make that commitment to each other. And we must make it publicly. Let the nation know that nobody is going to be victimized based on his or her religion. Everyone must and should be free to go out and vote freely, believing that who they are voting for will help them. That is what democracy is all about. Many of us here today are preachers; some are politicians and other aspects of life. But the most important ones are the preachers because if you are politicians you will either go to the church or the mosque.

    “The preachers here must also make a commitment to go to the churches and to the mosques to begin to preach that Christians are save everywhere and Muslims are save everywhere and we must begin to teach our people to believe in Nigeria. We must begin to emphasise to our people that we are all Nigerians.”

    He advised leaders of both religions: “We must begin to tell our leaders, our followers to begin to think Nigeria. Nobody is superior to the other.”

    The CAN leader also urged all to encourage the military for their fight against Boko Haram.

    The President General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Preachers in Nigeria (SCIPIN), Sheikh Muhammed Nourayn Bn-Ahmad, said the two major problems “currently threatening the corporate existence of the Nigerian nation are that of religious extremism/intolerance, as well as subterranean forces working to breakup Nigeria into those previous pieces and ethnicities that were amalgamated in the past 100 years.”

    A minute silent was observed for Boko Haram victims.

  • Israel vows to crush Gaza tunnels, snubs UN

    Israel vows to crush Gaza tunnels, snubs UN

    •U.S continues to arm Israel
    •Palestinians mulls dragging Israel to ICJ

    Speaking at a special cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not accept any ceasefire that did not allow troops to continue destroying tunnels used by militants to attack Israel.

    “Until now, we have destroyed dozens of terror tunnels and we are determined to finish this mission — with or without a ceasefire,” he said at the start of the meeting.

    “So I will not accept any (truce) proposal that does not allow the IDF (army) to complete this work for the security of Israel’s citizens.”

    Washington also said it had agreed to restock Israel’s dwindling ammunition supplies, despite increasing international concern over the death toll in Gaza, where 1,395 people have been killed in 24 days of violence

    Following the shelling of a UN school in northern Gaza on Wednesday which killed 16, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay slammed Israel for attacking homes, schools and hospitals, accusing it of “deliberate defiance” of international law.

    “There appears to be deliberate defiance of obligations that international law imposes on Israel.”

    The shelling of the school also drew sharp condemnation from UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who described it as “reprehensible”, as well as from Washington.

    Despite a heavy death toll in Gaza on Wednesday when 111 Palestinians were killed, including 17 who died in a strike on a crowded market place and another 16 at the UN school, Washington said it had restocked the army’s ammunition.  The Pentagon confirmed it had granted a request for ammunition, including some from a stockpile stored by the US military inside Israel for emergency use by the Jewish state.

    Rights group Amnesty International had previously urged Washington to halt arms supplies to Israel.

    There was no letup yesterday in the bloodshed with at least 13 Palestinians killed, another 13 dying from injuries suffered in earlier attacks and a growing number of bodies pulled from under rubble in areas near Khan Yunis, medics said.

    Earlier, the top U.N. human rights official accused both sides of committing war crimes.

    The U.N.’s top human rights official accused both Israel and Hamas militants of committing war crimes in the latest Gaza war, but reserved her harshest words for the Israeli government, which she said yesterday was deliberately defying international law.

    U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that by placing and firing rockets within heavily populated areas both sides are committing “a violation of international humanitarian law, therefore a war crime.”

    “None of this appears to me to be accidental,” Pillay said of Israel at a news conference in Geneva to mark the end of her six-year term. “They appear to be defying – deliberate defiance of – obligations that international law imposes on Israel.”

    Pillay also took aim at the U.S., Israel’s main ally, for providing financial support for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system.

    She accused both Israel and Hamas militants of committing war crimes in the latest Gaza war, but reserved her harshest words for the Israeli government, which she said Thursday was deliberately defying international law.U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that by placing and firing rockets within heavily populated areas both sides are committing “a violation of international humanitarian law, therefore a war crime.”

    None of this appears to me to be accidental,” Pillay said of Israel at a news conference in Geneva to mark the end of her six-year term. “They appear to be defying – deliberate defiance of – obligations that international law imposes on Israel.””What I’m seeing now is a recurrence of the very acts that the Gaza fact-finding mission indicated as constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity,” she said.Pillay also took aim at the U.S., Israel’s main ally, for providing financial support for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system.”

    No such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling,” she said

    Meanwhile, Palestinian officials say President Mahmoud Abbas is seeking broad political support, including from rival Hamas, before making any attempt to press possible war crimes charges against Israel.

  • FIFA snubs Nigerian govt delegation

    FIFA snubs Nigerian govt delegation

    FIFA has snubbed a government delegation from Nigeria seeking talks to overturn a ban slapped on the country with the governing body insisting it will only deal with Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) executives who were booted out last week.

    FIFA maintains that it will refrain from any contact with any persons outside the elected Aminu Maigari-led executive committee and as such will not receive the country’s delegation in Brazil to resolve the vexed issue.

    The delegation led by former CAF and FIFA executive committee member Amos Adamu, several top sports ministry officials, three board members of the illegal NFF board and some FA chairmen travelled to Brazil on Tuesday to meet FIFA top executives who are all in South America for the World Cup.

    But the country was banned from international football on Wednesday and FIFA refused to meet the men on the crisis that is engulfing football in Africa’s most populous nation.

    ”FIFA will now refrain from communicating with any other parties than the duly elected NFF officials which are the NFF President Aminu Maigari and the NFF General Secretary Musa Amadu,” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke read.

    “Going by this letter, the delegation are only in Brazil on holidays and possibly to watch the final of the World Cup between Argentina and Germany at tax payers’ expense,” an official told AfricanFootball.com

    FIFA further said in the letter that decisions taken at the extraordinary congress staged on Saturday, July 5, are null and void.

    The government delegation are in Brazil “to give a true picture” of what is happening in Nigerian football.

    They argued that it was not Katken who convened the general assembly, but Effiong Johnson, who is on the board of the NFF.

    However, the statutes of the NFF, which have been duly endorsed by FIFA, stipulates that only the NFF president has the power to call a congress and where he fails, two-third of the congress will notify the president of the need for such a congress and if he fails to do so within 60 days, they have a right to then do so.

    FIFA have demanded that the elected NFF and all their machinery be reinstated before July 15 or a replacement team for the country’s Under 20 female team will be named for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which kicks off in Canada on August 3.

     

  • First Lady snubs Rivers deputy governor

    First Lady snubs Rivers deputy governor

    First Lady Patience Jonathan yesterday arrived in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on a three-day visit.

    Mrs Jonathan is believed to be in her home state to prepare for the funeral of her mother, Madam Charity Oba, who died in a car crash last month.

    Her visit to Port Harcourt in June generated some row. Streets were blocked, causing traffic chaos in the Garden City during her seven –day stay, which was generally believed to be political because of the feud between the Federal Government and the Rivers State government. She, however, denied that her trip had any political undertone

    Ahead of her arrival, there was heavy police presence on some major roads in Port Harcourt.

    Security operatives mounted surveillance on her residence on Bauchi Road, Old GRA, Port Harcourt.

    Police spokeswoman Angela Agabe said on arrival, the First Lady flew to Okrika, her home town.

    Dame Patience was shielded from top officials of the Rivers government, including the Deputy Governor Tele Ikuru, who came to receive her at the airport.

    It was gathered last night that the Rivers government team, led by Ikuru was at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa to receive the President’s wife, but was not allowed to move to the tarmac.

    Ikuru was accompanied by the Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), George Feyii, some commissioners and other top Rivers government officials.

    The impeccable source said the Presidency had earlier informed the Rivers government of the First Lady’s visit, with necessary arrangements made to make the visit memorable and hitch-free.

    The source said: “A Lieutenant Colonel approached the members of the Rivers state government’s team at the Port Harcourt International Airport and told them that they had directives from the Presidency that they should not be allowed near the First Lady.

    “Wife of the Bayelsa State Governor, Mrs. Rachael Dickson, was allowed to receive the First Lady at the airport. It was very embarrassing and annoying.”

  • Ameobi snubs Keshi’s telephone calls

    Ameobi snubs Keshi’s telephone calls

    Nigeria have overlooked Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi for their 2013 Africa Cup of Nations squad after he failed to answer their telephone calls.

    Ameobi was named in the preliminary squad by coach Stephen Keshi.

    But it was later announced by Newcastle boss Alan Pardew that the 31-year-old would not travel to South Africa.

    Nigeria’s media officer Ben Alaiya said: “Shola’s refusal to answer calls gave Keshi no other option than to allow him to concentrate on his club,.

    “The coach and team secretary made several attempts to reach Shola but there was no answer. The coach waited to hear back from him but a call never came.

    “A decision on the next move will be made at the appropriate time.”

    Ameobi made his debut for Nigeria last November in the friendly against Venezuela and Keshi was hopeful the former England under-21 international would be part of his squad for the competition, which kicks off on 19 January.

    But he has now become only the second England-based player after Danny Shittu to snub the Nations Cup in order to play for his club.

    Millwall defender Shittu wrote to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and asked to be left out of the tournament.

    The NFF rejected his letter and insisted he must make himself available but coach Keshi approved Shittu’s request.

    The two-time champions have been drawn in Nations Cup Group C with Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and defending champions Zambia.