DAILY TRUST
Mo nday, October 31 , 20 11
AU urged to stop crime again st journalists B~ Abdutmsiu HasHn
Ex.. MP accusesTambuwal of disobeying court order "yTL'fi'kiIt
lawyer and he: should be: seen 10 be: on the part
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ohhe law; Rep Mohammed said. A form er memberoftlte: HouSI':()fRt'prl"SCnla In a stateme nt made availabl e to newslives, Umar Garba Uba, has accused Speaker men in Abuja yes terday, Uba said instead of of the House of Represe ntatives, Aminu . th e Speake r to (:o mpl y with the j udgement of Wniri Tambrwa l of rc:fusalto swear him in as the Co urt of Appeal siUing in Sokoto, he has a membe r or lhe House: despite a court order (:o nti nued to ' ilIega ll y~ allow the incumbent that declared h im the: elected member of the mem be r fo r the disputed seat, Halima Hassan House: reprtSI n ling Yauri/Shwga/Ngaski fed Tukur to remain in the Ho use. ernl cC'l1stituc:,cy ofKebbi Stale:. The former MP, who se rved in the Ho use Howc:vc: r, House spokes man Hep Zaka ri from 2003 to 2007, had in the buUdup to th e last general elec tions, won the Peoples Demol\ lo hammed tPDl~ Kwant ) den ied th e: all egatio ns :o;ayin g t hat the re is an appeal pe nd ing (:fatie Party's (PDP) pri ma ry d « ti on to con test fo r th e House o f Represe ntatives in the before the SUI 'reme Court. M l1 u~, speaker has no personal interest in oonstituency. Ih t case; sin'" there: is an aplXaJ he should be His vidory was however sho rt lived, as patien t 10 sec where: it goes. TIlt speaker is a the Federal H igh Court si tting In Sokotp, o n
March 30. 20 11 declared Halima as the winner of the electi on. Not satisfied with the deci sion of th e lower (:ourl, Uba appealed th e jud gment. where the presiding judge of th e Court of Appeal sitting in Sokato. Justice A. O . Belgare on September 3, 201 1 set aside th e judgm ent ufthe lower court and d eclared Uba as th e PDP's candidat e an d winner of th e AprU eleclion. Consequently, counse:! to Vba, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) on Septemb er 9. 2011 wrote to the Independe nt Natio nal Elec toral Com mission (INEC) rtques ting ilto with draw the Ce rti ficate o f Return it earli er iss ued to Hallina and issue it 10 Vba. Based o n the court orde r and th e request, INECissued a Cer tificate of Return to Ub ....
N15m ID card scam: Court acquits ex-minister By John (hllllJ I\zu A former Mi nis ter o f Internal Affairs, Dr /,-]Ohalllllled Shata. who has been standing tria! before an Abuj a f-l igh Co urt over all eged con tract ~ca' n in lhe natio na l Iden tity card project, has been acqulttet.i of any wrongdOing. While deJh'uing judgement Frid .. y, Jun iee Mud as hiru Onira ngi beld li lat the p rosec ut ion failed 10 PI"{I\'l . b eyond reaso n..ble
d oubt, th e allegati ons agai nst the ex- m inister. The judge furt her maintai ned that lile pu rpo rted contract award for the supply of reams of pape:r fo r th e national identit y ca rd projec t was not made to Royal Estale Inves tmen t Limited as shown by the minut es o f the meeting of th e Ministe ria.l Tenders Board anti oliler docum ents tendered before: the cou rt. Dr Shata was in June:. 2004
arraigned by til e Independenl Corrupt Pra ctices and other related offen ces Commission (JC PC) on a four counts charge over allegations of rece iving the sum ofN IS milli on in co nn ecti o n with the award o f co ntract fo r the supply of 62, 000 reams of Afex t)'pings heets to Royal Estat e In vestment Limited during hi s public ser vice between 2002 and April200J. Shata had tes tifi ed lhat the
N I S million was received from a ile Ikechukwu OdOf', a director of Royal Es tate In"estmenl Limited for th e purchase of three buses for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Tar"lla State to support th e Obasanjo-Atiku reelection campaign in 2003. He had lold the cou rt th at Odoe's company is diffe rent from Royal Estate Invento ry Lim iled. whi ch nallle also appeared in the investigations.
ECOWAS mobilises $1.8bn for agric programme implementation TIlE ECOWA S Conu nission has so far mobUised S1.8 billion from Illultilalernl sou rces and bilaternl dOflOfs fur th<' implementation o f the Com prth ensh~ AfriG'.n Agrkuhural lftvclopment Prograrmn ~ (CAADP), an omdal has said Dr. Ernest Aubee, the Prind paJ Programme OffiCt'r (Agric ulture) at the Conunission. said in Abuja ~"t!Sterd.- y that the ITgiouaJ organisation had ~Ied a 150 I nillion dollar agricultural fund and was also in th ' <ocess of setting up an agriculIw-aI agency.
TIlf'Sf' processes.Aubee said, were preparatory to the implementation of the ~nal and na tional agriculturnl invt'Stment programmes asstipulated in the CAA DP fr.unem:uk and policy. Hesaid that the IS membcrSlat~ ofECOWAS had also developed and started Implementing their individual national agrirulturnl investment plans in linewith the ECOWAS Agricultural ~ol icy( EC QWAP), fashioned after lheCAADP. TIle focus o r the in~ent plans, he uplained, was addressing tile cllallenges offood
insecuri ty and jssu~ of poverty and livclihood '10 achif'\"e tile set goals., he said that priority crops had been identified including rice, mai7..e and CI.5Sa\"iI. as well as livestock. In addition toemps. hesald that theorga.nisalion was also re-jigging poUdes on markrt access, free rtlO\~ent from one country to anntller, tnJ1.~porta.tion and rood nl'twurk, among others. Aubeecxpressed the hopelhat the food security situation in the region wuuld improve if the programmes is well implemented. (NAN)
AFRICAN Commission on Humin an d Peoples' Rights si tti ng in Banjul, Ganlbia has been urged to stop the rising wave of crimes against journalists across the contin enl Rhoda Boateng, Programme Assistant fo r International Trade Union Co ngress in Africa (ITUCAfrica) made thecal! in a statement issued o n behalf of lhe fcde:ralion of Afri can Jo urnalists (FAJ), the Afri ca Group of tile Internation al miu-ation of Journal ists (lFj) an d East African Journali sts Associati on (EJA). FA] President Oma r r-aruk Usman was quoted in tile statement as sayin g: ~Journalists continue to face deadly allacks, crimi· nal charges, intimidation and harassments by security forces and, in some (a5("S, with manires t support ofjudicial authori lies..~ - In Nige ria, mili tia grou pH ollti llue tokid nap,altlckand kill journalists as JXlrl of th ei r strategies to gain publiclt)';rnd \;sibUi ty as ,,~U as deploy fear against tile sta te and entire populacc..On Saturd ayOctober 22, 20 11, in r.,-Iaiduguri, North ea5t Nigeria, a jou m alisl wa.., shot dead by the notori ous Boko HaraJlI
sect: It mentioned instances in Er i· tre-a, Ethiopia, Sudan , Burwldi, CamerOllil--Z,illlbahlve-=d Uganda, among others. where journalists art arrested, detained. ha rassed, intim idated in th e coum: of doing thei r work.
Saudi govt.launches enlightenment campaign for pilgrims PRINCE KhaJed Al -r-aisaJ , the Gov· eroo r of Makkah. Saudi Ar.lbia, at tile lI~kend launched an enlightmment campaign for this years hajj. Al-Fais.11, who is th e(:haimlan of llleCentral Hajj Com.lllitt~.said ata news conference thal the CllTIpaign was to educaTe pUgrilTls on how to . oonduct themseh"t!S in the 1'101)' land 10 ensure smooth exercise.
nle govr:morwas quoted as 53.)'ing tllat tile campaign titll'd, RHajj \\"m~hip and civil ised conduct," would also create awareness to bolll pUgrims and residents on the best conduct during til e pilgrimage. "The campaign \\~U lmderline th e need for expatriates and citi zens to obtain special Hajj permi ts in order to be allowed to proceed 10 Makkahandtl lehoiysites lodotlletr Hajj rituaJs.~ he said AI-r-aisaJ said Il le campaign would also highlight nell' projects executed by the go\~rnmen t inlhl;"' city and how pilgri ms could use Il101l. He.sa.id the campaign, whlch Is r1!C('i\'ing the support of some private compan ies, would i nvoh~ all rde\"il.nt go"emmen t min islriesand agencies.. Also speaking. Abdu l Mjz AJKhodairi, Vl1d~tary of the ~or.l te,saidthattllecampaign
was aimed at enlightening both ali7.e:ns and fordgners about the rules and the regulations that should be
observed during the period. (NAN)