The breakaway faction of the  Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led by Abubakar Baraje, has described the sealing off of its national secretariat by the Police in Abuja as a “crude display of naked power and undisguised impunity” and called for the “immediate” removal of policemen from the office premises.

Men of the Nigeria Police on Saturday stormed the office complex of the faction group situated in the posh Maitama area of the city and fenced it shut without giving reason for their action.

A statement issued by the national secretary of the PDP faction, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said the move opposes a court ruling that the status quo be maintained pending the determination of the suits filed by both parties.

“The whole world knows that Justice E. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Friday refused to grant Alhaji Bamanga Tukur’s application for an ex parte injunction against our party’s executive,” Oyinlola’s recalled.

“The Judge asked parties to maintain the status quo. His judgment was a reinforcement of an early order of the Lagos High Court which also asked parties to maintain the status quo. Now, should Nigerians conclude that Tukur’s interpretation of status quo is this crude display of naked power and undisguised impunity?” he queried.

The factional party scribe said that even though the action was a calculated attempt to dampen the spirit of the group’s members, they remained unshaken as they are determined to rescue the party from “lawlessness and crass arrogance”.

“We call for an immediate removal of the siege to our secretariat. We call on the Inspector General of police to order the immediate removal of his men from our office. Doing so, we believe, will serve the interest of justice, rule of law and democracy. Nigeria is a country ruled by law and not by might and force.”

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja  Friday refused to grant the prayers of the Bamanga Tukur-led faction seeking to to stop the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from recognizing, dealing and relating with the other faction of the party as national officers and to restrain them from parading themselves as national officers of the party.

Justice Elvis Chukwu however, granted an exparte injunction, putting the defendants- Baraje, Oyinlola and others on notice and subsequently adjourned the case to September 12 for accelerated hearing.

The Flood Quick Response Committee responsible for the rehabilitation of last year’s flood victims in Adamawa State has disclosed that the exercise cost the state government about N4.6 Billion.

Chairman of the committee, who is also the secretary to the Adamawa State government, Ari Kobis Thimnu, who made the disclosure said based on reports from the National Meteorological department in Abuja, this year’s impending flood would be more devastating than last year’s.

To prevent damage and loss of lives, Thimnu said that the committee has designated camps for people living in the riverine areas to relocate before the flood as a matter of urgency.

He also stated that the state government has purchased engine powered boats and canoes for the purpose of conveying people in the riverine and other flood prone areas to the strategic designated camps,for safety of lives and properties, while water purification equipment has also been procured to supply portable drinking water in the camps.

Thimnu charged residents living in the river banks to relocate to camps designated for them by the state government to avoid the devastation of flood and a repeat of last year’s havoc,adding that precautionary measures had become necessary from government whose responsibility it is to protect the lives and properties of its citizens.

Besides, the flood response committee chairman said the state government has created some new settlements for the Loko people in Song local government area as well as the Ngbalang people in Lamurde local government area where they should relocate to permanently.

According to him, flooding has become a global reality which required proactive measures not only from those living at the banks of rivers Benue and Gongola, the government, traditional rulers but other stakeholders in Adamawa State to avoid the devastating effects of natural disaster.

“As  precautionary measures,the government has designated areas where those living in the flood prone areas can relocate to before the impending flood,as necessary infrastructures have been put in place,security and health facilities arranged for them.” the chairman said

Additionally, he said the states’ traditional rulers have also been mobilized to sensitize their subjects about the impending flood while media jingles were running in the electronic media on the need for people living in flood prone areas to take precautionary measures in that regard.

The chairman lauded the efforts of the Lamido of Adamawa, Uhammadu Barkindo Musdafa for sensitizing his people on the need for them to relocate to the government designated area to forestall the impending doom predicted.

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Reports indicate that last year’s flooding was caused by the sudden release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroun without adequate notice to the Adamawa State government to alert its citizens of the impending flood.

Though according to Thimnu, there has not been an official correspondence from the Cameroun Republic, the Flood Quick Response Committee has taken the precautionary measures to avoid the repeat of the devastating effects of last year’s flood.

In spite of these warnings and provisions by the state, some people who live in the riverine areas have been resisting relocation to the designated areas for fear of being separated from their ancestral artifacts, graveyards and other things they considered important.

By Iro Babayola

Journalists and editors from around the African continent can benefit from the second round of $1 million story challenge, a pan-African journalism competition on health reporting by African Media Initiative, AMI

The African Story Challenge, an AMI initiative encourages innovative, multi-media storytelling that aims to improve the health and prosperity of Africans.

The competition opens for entries and the theme is Diseases: Prevention and Treatment.

Twenty projects shortlisted for the final prize will be awarded grants of up to $20,000 each to produce health narratives that use innovative journalistic storytelling techniques around the theme of diseases prevention and treatment in Africa.

Grantees who produce the best stories published or broadcast in media that reach African audiences will get a major international reporting trip and additional grant. The winning journalist will also have the opportunity to work with other journalists in a renowned international media establishment anywhere in the world.

Winners of the first round of the grant programme, which opened in May 2013 and focused on agriculture and food security, will be announced later this month. Other themes to be launched next year include business and technology.

Shortlisted stories will focus specifically on issues such as sanitation and water-borne diseases, infectious and non-infectious diseases, neglected diseases, vaccines and immunisation.

Submissions should include investigative, data-driven stories that employ multi-platform approaches and engage the public through social media and other digital tools.

The African Story Challenge advisory council comprising senior journalists and editors will oversee the short listing process.

The finalists will be brought together for intensive sessions to improve their project ideas.

Participants can apply in partnerships but if they win, the prize is to be divided between the team. There can only be one entry per individual or team.

An independent international panel of editors and media experts will judge the entries.

AMI Chief Executive Amadou Mahtar Ba said that it supports innovation in the telling of more and better stories on health and development in Africa and committed to support the media to expand coverage of fundamental issues that matter to Africans and the building of a strong media sector.
A former BBC Africa Editor, AMI content development director and former Knight International Journalism Fellow, Joseph Warungu, also said that the project will preempt journalists from daily routine job.

“Without good health there is no wealth. This competition is aimed at encouraging journalists and media organisations to break away from the routine issues on the daily agenda and pitch to us bold and creative ideas on health,” said Warungu.

The story challenge  is a  two-year pan-African project that seeks to challenge the media to expand coverage of fundamental issues that matter to Africans focusing on building a strong media sector able to deliver content that matters to the African public.

The project is supported by an $800,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Other supporters include African Development Bank, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA, and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, NORAD.

Click here for information on key dates on submission and deadline.

The Rivers State government Thursday accused the commissioner of police, Joseph Mbu, of taking actions detrimental to the safety of governor Rotimi Amaechi, adding that it would hold him responsible for any harm to the state’s chief executive.

The commissioner Of information and communications, Ibim Semenitari, said in a statement thatMbu has been prying into the activities of the governor to get prior Information on his movement for reasons that are unclear.

“This sudden interest of CP Mbu regarding the daily movement of Governor Amaechi cannot be borne out of love. We suspect that the request for daily prior briefing on the Governor’s movement may be to furnish strange persons with necessary details of his movement and, thereby placing him in harms’ way,” the statement said.

It noted Mbu has not hidden the fact that he holds Amaechi in disdain and would stop at nothing to either harm him or aid those planning to do so.

Semenitari said the fact that the CP waited for the governor to travel out of Port Harcourt before inviting the policemen attached to the government house for questioning is curious and indicative of his ulterior motives.

“If his intentions were noble and above board, CP Mbu has Governor Amaechi’s telephone number and could have reached him directly to make the request of prior briefing of his movements,” the statement noted.

It said alternatively, the CP could have written officially to the secretary to state government to make the same request.

Semenitari alleged that Mbu redeployed the escort commander in charge of the convoy of the governor citing his refusal to furnish him with prior information on the movement of the governor.

Afterwards, Mbu directed the camp commandant of Government House, Port Harcourt, to give him prior briefing on the governor’s daily movement, the commissioner stated.

In addition, she noted, the Rivers State Police Command on Tuesday declared  Amaechi’s ADC, who is said to be receiving medical attention, a deserter.

The statement said the government of Rivers State is most uncomfortable with these developments and their implications for the security of governor Amaechi.

It noted that this would be the first time since Amaechi assumed office in 2007, that a police commissioner would be requesting prior information of his movement.

The state government spokeswoman recalled that in May this year, the CP allowed ex-Militants to barricade the gate into the Government House after parading major streets of Port Harcourt and has at several other times compromised the governor’s security and safety.

“He even personally led an attack on Government House, Port Harcourt on July 10, 2013” she said, added that “As Commissioner of Police, CP Mbu, refuses to brief the Governor, who is the Chief Security Officer of the state on the state of security in Rivers State.”

Semenitari said nothing has been done despite a formal report by the Governor to the Police High Command concerning his worries about the CP.

“We therefore wish to alert Nigerians and the rest of the world that CP Mbu should be held responsible should anything evil happen to the Governor of Rivers State Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, any principal officer or top government functionary in Rivers State. We believe that his current actions are sufficient warning to us,” the statement said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, held “candid” talks Friday on Syria on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Russia.

However, the two leaders remained far apart in views about Syria after a 20-minute one-on-one talk following a tense group discussion on the civil war over dinner late on Thursday.

Both Obama and Putin hold opposing views on whether military action should be taken against the Syrian government over its alleged use of chemical weapons on its own people.

While the US believes that troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a poisonous gas attack which killed over 1,400 people in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on August 21, Putin has maintained the attack was most likely carried out by the rebels in order to provoke outside military intervention against Assad.

“We hear one another, and understand the arguments but we don’t agree. I don’t agree with his arguments, he doesn’t agree with mine. But we hear them, try to analyze them,” the Russian President said after the meeting.

Obama too acknowledged that Putin was unlikely to shift his position on military action against Syria, but they could both agree to work toward a political resolution to the crisis.

The US President is seeking to rally domestic and international support for military strikes on Syria, while Putin,  a determined ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,  has challenged the assertion that regime forces were behind the attacks.

The dispute over Syria has deepened strains in U.S.-Russian ties because of differences over human rights and Moscow’s hosting of Edward Snowden, a spy agency contractor who revealed details of U.S. surveillance programs.

Putin said Obama had not requested Snowden’s extradition on Friday, adding that it would be impossible anyway.

The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Bamanga Tukur, has filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja, against officials of the splinter group of the ruling party includingKawu Baraje,  Olagunsoye Oyinlola  and Sam Sam Jaja.

This move contradicts earlier claims by Tukur that the party would resolve its family crisis through internal laid down mechanisms, saying that “There will always be internal wrangling. But there will always be solutions through our established internally-built crisis resolution mechanism”.

In the suit with registration no: FHC/ABJ/504/2013 filed on his behalf by his counsels Adebayo Dayoand Semiu Sodipo, the party chairman said the defendants had shown flagrant disrespect to the court for going against an order that sacked Oyinlola as the national secretary of the party and prescribed a procedure for his replacement.

He said that the suit became imperative because Oyinlola had failed to abide by the procedure the court laid down by which he could reclaim his seat as the national secretary of the party.

Oyinlola was named national secretary of the factional group that emerged last Saturday. Barajewas elected chairman while Jaja emerged as the deputy national chairman.

Tukur has also urged the court to commit the defendants to prison for at least a year and is seeking an order nullifying the appointment of Oyinlola, just as he asked the court to grant “further orders as it may deem fit to make in this circumstances.”

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the chairman declared the other faction led byBaraje as an impostor and has threatened that any lawmaker who aligns with them would lose their seat.

“There is only one lawfully recognised PDP and I am firmly in charge. Let me state categorically that the PDP as the sole custodian of the sacred mandate of over 160 million Nigerians and who in the last 14 years has lifted high the banner of democracy will not fold its arms while some undemocratic and unpatriotic elements destroy our common destiny by causing divisions and confusion among the people,” he said.

In addition, Tukur said: “All persons elected on the platform of our great party at all levels who identify with these enemies of the oneness and greatness of our party shall have their seats declared vacant as required by law.”

He assured that no stone will be left unturned in ensuring that any individual who attempts to subvert the leadership of the PDP “shall reap in full, the consequences of such actions”, adding that the party has adequate mechanism for internal conflict resolution and encouraged all aggrieved members to channel their complaints through the appropriate medium.

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About 22 senators and 57 members of House of Representatives have allegedly joined the Baraje-led faction led which was formed last Saturday during the party’s special convention.

Meanwhile, Baraje has called Tukur’s threats mere bluffs that further show he is unfit to lead the party.

“To wake up and threaten that he is going to recall members supporting us, shows that he is not fit to be national chairman of PDP. They are all jokers. In any case, the process of declaring seats vacant or recalling members of National or State Assembly is well known in the constitution,” he said.

Ahead of the trial of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice-president William Ruto for crimes against humanity, the Kenyan parliament is debating pulling out of the International Criminal Court, ICC

The court will next Tuesday start Ruto’s trial while it will November 12 open the trial of the President Kenyatta , who faces five charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts perpetrated during the post-election unrest.

If the plan eventually pulls through, Kenya would be the first to revoke its membership from the ICC.

Citing the fact that the United States is not a member, the majority leader of Kenya’s National Assembly, Adan Duale, Thursday argued that Kenya should withdraw from the statute that created the ICC.

Duale told a special session of parliament that U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both argued against the United States becoming a party to the Rome Statute, which regulates prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

He said Clinton and Bush refused to join the ICC in order to protect U.S. citizens and soldiers from potential politically-motivated prosecutions.

“Let us protect our citizens. Let us defend the sovereignty of the nation of Kenya,” Duale said in arguing for a vote to withdraw.

Another legislator, Asman Kamama in support of the withdrawal said: “Any law in this country or internationally like the Rome Statute can be repealed and can be amended. It is not cast in stone and we want to be the trail-blazers in the continent.”

However, there are indications that the withdrawal of Kenya from the ICC will not in any way affect the upcoming trials as the legal proceedings have already commenced against Kenyata and Ruto.

“Withdrawing from the Rome Statute has no impact on cases already open, it does not affect investigations, proceedings or trials which have already started,” ICC spokesman Fadi al-Abdallahhas said.

Vice President Ruto is expected to face trial next Tuesday for allegedly organising the 2007-2008 post-election unrest that killed at least 1,100 people and displaced more than 600,000, about two months ahead of Kenyatta’s.

The Hague-based court was set up in 2002 to try the world’s worst crimes, and countries voluntarily signed up to join.

Legislators will debate a motion on whether to pull out from the ICC, but any actual withdrawal requires the submission of a formal request to the UN, a process that would take at least a year.

The Nigeria Police Force has compensated the families of 91 officers who lost their lives to terrorist activities of the banned Boko Haram sect in Kano State.

Presenting the cheques totaling N35.7 million to the beneficiaries on Thursday, assistant inspector general of police in-charge of Zone One, David Omojola, urged them not to see the sum as a way of paying for the loss as no amount of money could bring back their dead, but as a way of assisting them.

He said further that the money which is an insurance coverage for the officers and men was meant to alleviate the sufferings of the families of the deceased and those who sustained injuries at various times in the course of their duties.

Omojola also advised them to invest the sum wisely.

He announced that the recipients were the third batch of victims’ families being assisted by the command.