INEC RESULT: Nigeria in Tense Vote Count After Second Day of Polling

By AFP on March 29, 2015

Nigeria counted ballots in its closely fought general election on Sunday after failures in controversial new technology pushed voting into a second day, with officials calling for calm in the tense wait for a winner.

Military fighter jets and ground troops also pounded Boko Haram fighters in the northeastern state of Bauchi after a series of attacks on polling stations on Saturday and Sunday.

The presidential election in Africa’s most populous nation is the closest in the country’s history, with the first credible challenge from an opposition party.

Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 but is being pushed to the wire by former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.

First results could be given from Monday, the head of the country’s electoral commission said Sunday night.

“Our hope is to be able to declare within 48 hours (of polls closing on Saturday) and hopefully within less time,” said Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The prospect of a democratic transfer of power — plus economic woes caused by the slump in global oil prices, concerns about corruption and fears about insecurity — has energised the vote.

One government spokesman claimed there was a “record turnout” and voting was largely peaceful despite sporadic pockets of unrest mainly in southern states such as the key battleground of Rivers.

The technical difficulties, however, set the tone for a potential dispute as the PDP has opposed the use of the devices to authenticate voters, saying they were not sufficiently tested.

Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) supports the new system as a means of curbing voter fraud that has marred previous elections.

– ‘No shenanigans’ –

Wrangling over the results has already begun after counting on Saturday, some of it by flashlight with Nigeria regularly plunged into darkness by daily power cuts.

There has been a flurry of claimed constituency successes from both sides, and APC spokesman Lai Mohammed warned about vote manipulation.

“There must be no shenanigans,” he said.

In the southern state of Rivers, thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated on Sunday to call for the cancellation of the elections locally because of alleged irregularities.

At the same time, the ruling PDP has described the failure of the technology to read biometric data such as fingerprints on the president’s own voter identity card as a “huge national embarrassment”.

Jega has conceded there were “challenges” but added: “From our general assessment, out of the 150,000 card readers which we have deployed, only about 450 were affected.”

The devices were used again on Sunday but voters could also be processed manually if further glitches occurred.

Jega told a news conference on Sunday INEC was confident its objective of holding a “free, fair, credible and peaceful” election was “on course”.

“We appeal to all Nigerians to remain peaceful as they await the return of these results,” he added, with fears of a repeat of post-poll violence that in 2011 left some 1,000 people dead.

According to Jega, 90 polling units were unable to accredit voters and allow them to vote in Nigeria’s financial hub of Lagos in the southwest.

An electoral officer in the Kosofe local government area told AFP: “We had challenges yesterday with the card readers but it is working fine now.”

Wheelchair user Emily Adeyemi, 69, was accredited before others at her polling station.

“I was disappointed when I could not vote yesterday. But I am happy that I have been accredited to vote today,” she said in Yoruba, which is widely spoken in the southwest.

All ballots were expected to be cast by Sunday night, with nearly 69 million people registered to vote.

To avoid a run-off, presidential candidates need to have won the most votes and at least 25 percent support in two thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.

– Bauchi fighting –

Boko Haram has dominated the campaign, with military operations against the militants forcing a six-week delay to the scheduled February 14 election.

On Sunday, residents and a military source said soldiers supported by two fighter jets intercepted the militants at Dungulbe village, seven kilometres (four miles) from Bauchi city in the northeast.

“The fighter jets are pounding the enemy position while ground troops are engaging them,” said a military officer in the city, who asked not to be identified, in an account supported by residents.

“The operation is still ongoing but the terrorists have suffered serious losses and are in disarray,” the officer added.

The militants were believed to have come through the town of Alkaleri, 60 kilometres away, where there was a dawn raid on Saturday.

Gunmen in several vehicles attacked public buildings, security checkpoints as well as the office of the paramilitaries and the local electoral commission premises.

Bauchi police spokesman Haruna Mohammed confirmed that polling stations in nearby Kirfi were attacked on Sunday and election materials were destroyed.

A series of suspected attacks on polling stations in neighbouring Gombe state on Saturday killed at least seven.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has vowed to disrupt the election, calling it “un-Islamic”.

Thousands Call for Vote Re-run in Nigeria’s Rivers State

By AFP on March 29, 2015

Thousands of supporters of Nigeria’s main opposition party on Sunday demonstrated in the oil-rich state of Rivers, calling for the cancellation of elections locally because of alleged irregularities.

The demonstrators from the All Progressives Congress (APC) converged on the local offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state capital, Port Harcourt.

“We are here to register our protest that there was no election in Rivers state yesterday (Saturday),” Rivers state governorship candidate Dakuku Peterside told the crowd.

Peterside alleged that APC supporters across the southern state were “disenfranchised by INEC, working in connivance with (the) PDP (Peoples Democratic Party)”.

Results sheets, which in Nigerian elections are given at every polling station to both party representatives and the local electoral commission after the count, were not provided, he alleged.

“INEC in collaboration with (the) Peoples Democratic Party hijacked the materials and were filling them in private homes for the PDP,” Peterside claimed.

“Since the results sheets were not available, we did not vote. If there was no voting, there is no way they can declare any result.”

Peterside called for the presidential and parliamentary election to be re-held in Rivers on a new date.

Rivers state in the oil-producing Delta is seen as a key battleground for the presidential election, in which APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari is fighting President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling PDP.

At the last election in 2011, the state was won by the PDP but governor Rotimi Amaechi switched to the APC two years later and there has been bad blood between the two parties ever since.

– ‘Bad losers’ –

Amaechi, who is heading Buhari’s presidential campaign, was among those who refused to vote after being told that results sheets would not be made available.

The supporters shouted anti-INEC slogans and “we must vote” against a heavy police presence.

Local INEC spokeswoman Tonia Nwobi told AFP before the protest: “It is not true that INEC has had any result to favour any party.

“We have received results from only one local government out of 23 (in the state).”

Nwobi’s boss, INEC chairman Attahiru Jega, told a news conference in the capital Abuja he had received a letter from the APC in Rivers calling for the election to be rescheduled in the state.

He promised a “thorough investigation” and for the decision to be communicated to the parties but he added: “We are concerned about what seems to be happening in Rivers state.

“There are many alleged cases of malpractice and we certainly pay a lot of attention to… it and if any of our staff are involved, we will apply appropriate sanctions.”

The Rivers state chairman of the PDP, Felix Obuah, dismissed the APC’s allegations, saying in a statement that the vote was “credible” and reflected the will of the people.

“Rivers state is a traditional PDP state and even if the elections are conducted a million times, the PDP will win here,” he added, saying the call to reschedule was “the behaviour of bad losers”.

Nigerian Laureate Wole Soyinka Laments ‘Vicious, Unprincipled’ Election

Nation’s foremost man of letters warns in interview of ‘a very sinister force in control’ of the incumbent president

David Smith in Lagos
Sunday 29 March 2015 19.15 EDT
Guardian

Not for Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s foremost man of letters, a gentle retirement or attempt to separate art from politics. The 80-year-old spent election day in Africa’s biggest democracy working the phones late into the night, gathering reports of technical glitches, irregularities and violence. There was plenty to keep him awake.

“We’re talking about a very positive response by the public in terms of determination to register and vote but, you know, this has been one of the most vicious, unprincipled, vulgar and violent election exercises I have ever witnessed,” Soyinka reflected sadly. “I just hope we won’t go down as being the incorrigible giant of Africa.”

A Nobel laureate and former political prisoner, Soyinka could be described as the conscience of the nation. In an interview with the Guardian in the commercial capital, Lagos, on Sunday he railed against what is thought to have been the most expensive election in African history, revealed intriguing details of a recent meeting with president Goodluck Jonathan (“He jumped up as if his seat was on fire”) and warned a “very sinister force” could exploit disputed results to mount something approaching a coup.

Jonathan is fighting for his political life against opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari in the most hotly contested poll in Nigerian history. Voting spilled over into a second day after widespread technical hitches on Saturday that saw Jonathan himself initially denied registration.

Tall and thin with a shock of white hair and Socratic beard, Soyinka said: “The stakes appear to be so high that all scruples have been set aside and it’s very distressing to compare this election with the election of 1993, which was one of the most orderly, civilised and resolute elections we ever had. This one was like a no-holds-barred kind of election, especially, frankly, from the incumbency side. One shouldn’t be too surprised anyway given the kind of people who are manning the barricades for the incumbent candidate.”

Countless millions of dollars have been lavished on the election campaigns, with commercials dominating television and newspapers for the three months. Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) produced a so-called documentary savaging Buhari’s character and last week paid for a 36-page advertising supplement in leading newspapers. Cities have been coated in placards and posters on a breathtaking scale.

“Most expensive, most prodigal, wasteful, senseless, I mean really insensitive in terms of what people live on in this country,” Soyinka continued. “This was the real naira-dollar extravaganza, spent on just subverting, shall we say, the natural choices of people. Just money instead of argument, instead of position statements.

“And of course the sponsoring of violence in various places, in addition to this festive atmosphere in which every corner, every pillar, every electric pole is adorned with one candidate or the other, many of them in poses which remind one of Nollywood.

“I get a feeling sometimes that some of these candidates were just locked in their wardrobes and they were told: ‘Just take selfies in there and don’t come out until you’ve finished the entire wardrobe.’ All kinds of postures. Just ridiculous. It has been an embarrassing exercise in terms of electioneering.”

The writer fears that Nigeria’s multi-millionaire tycoons will continue to call the tune. Nigeria is ranked 136th out of 174 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perception index.

“Obviously this money didn’t come from personal pockets only, there’s no question. It’s been bankrolled by lots of businesspeople – many of them I’m sure have been taxed indirectly – and they’ll be expecting some returns for this outlay, and so how are we actually going to get rid of this thing called corruption, if the electoral process itself has been so corrupted? It’s a money election. How on earth is that bugbear going to be lifted from the neck of society? I just don’t know.”

Soyinka was imprisoned for almost two years during one of Nigeria’s spells under military rule in 1967. He became the first African to win the Nobel prize for literature in 1986. He remains politically active and a constant thorn in the side of authority, although he insists that he lacks the temperament to ever run for office himself. He told how he was recently invited by Jonathan, who has a “boyish charm”, to discuss various issues.

“We even discussed life after power, whenever that takes place,” he recalled. “It was difficult for me to decide from his side how readily he might accept defeat. He absolutely swore that if he lost he was going back to [his home] Otuoke village. If I take him literally, I think he will accept the result, but I’ve learned never to trust any politician from here to there, even if they’re just coming out of communion. So I really don’t know.”

He added: “I think Nigerians have had a very rough time over the last few years with [the Islamist militant group] Boko Haram and all kinds of insecurity, failure of governance and so on. I think we deserve to have this period as a period of comparative tranquillity and peace of mind to reconstruct and address some really fundamental issues of society. So I really hope the result, however gracelessly or grudgingly, will be accepted by the loser.”

If it is not, however, chaos could ensure. Although both leaders have sworn a peace pledge, it is unclear whether they can control their supporters, some of whom have threatened a violent backlash. Soyinka fears that political instability could be used as an excuse by figures in the state security apparatus to seize power. “Even before elections there had been discussions and preparation for ‘interim government’,” he alleged. “Why on earth such a card should be on the table at all beats me. I asked President Jonathan, ‘What is this business of interim government?’

“What he said was, ‘I could never be part of it. I would consider it a downfall, a demotion. Here I am president of the nation, I was voted in by the whole nation, why should I then accept an arraignment, which is by a few people? I would consider it degrading to what I have attained in life.’ That was his expression. But President Jonathan is in a cage. He didn’t strike me as being aware of the forces which surround him.”

The author cited an incident earlier this month when Morocco recalled its ambassador to Nigeria in a diplomatic spat over whether Jonathan was trying to use the king of Morocco to win over Muslim voters. The Moroccan royal palace said the king had declined a request for a phone conversation, while Nigeria insisted that the two leaders had spoken at length. Nigeria later backed down and admitted the conversation did not happen.

“Here is a situation where a president did not even know that a foreign country, a friendly country, had withdrawn its ambassador from Nigeria. I was the one who told him. He jumped up as if his seat was on fire. I couldn’t believe it … He was not aware that for about five days the media had been absolutely hysterical with this embarrassing situation between the two. It was that very night that he made a public statement about it for the first time.

“So when I say that there is a force around, I know what I’m talking about. There is a very sinister force in control and it is that sinister cabal which is responsible for caging him in and showing him what they think he should know about and keeping away from him things which are not in their interest, and this for me is the most dangerous situation that any nation can be in.”

Soyinka is scathing about Jonathan’s record as president, notably his mishandling of last year’s incident when 276 schoolgirls in Chibok were kidnapped by Boko Haram, prompting a worldwide outcry and social media campaign. “I think he is remorseful now, but at the beginning he took it very lightly. He himself has admitted as much in public. When you are informed that 200 children are missing, you don’t go to dinner until you have got to the bottom of it.

“But it took him I don’t know how many days to believe, but it certainly took him about 10 days to react. Now, for a leader of a people that is just totally unacceptable. Two hundred people. And then his wife was telling the police to go and arrest people who were protesting. The whole of that episode, I told him, whether you win the election or not, you’ve got to do something to assuage the feelings of people over that particular lapse. That was one horrendous lapse of which no head of state should ever be guilty. You send children to school to go and take an exam, and then you’re told they’re missing. For me, the entire nation should not sleep until an answer to that assault is provided.”

But while Jonathan is too weak, critics say, his opponent, Buhari, may be too strong. He ruled Nigeria as a military dictator for 20 months in the mid-1980s, cracking down on the media among others, but claims to be a “born again” democrat who has contested three previous elections, losing every time.

Soyinka admitted: “My memory of General Buhari has become rather mixed up. Four years ago I certainly wasn’t even prepared to consider the possibility of a genuine ‘born-again’. But at the risk of being proved wrong, I think we have a case here of a genuine ‘born-again’ phenomenon.”

The poet and playwright declined to say explicitly how he voted, but dropped a big hint by saying: “Maybe we should all try to be a little bit of Mandela. If Mandela could actually make a leap of faith towards the Boers after the atrocities committed against the black people [in South Africa], when the moment comes and the system under which we operate has thrown up just two candidates really … I think I asked myself: ‘Who would Nelson Mandela have voted for?’ and that’s the person I voted for. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”

Nigerian Presidential Vote is Extended Amid Glitches and Fears of Violence

Scores turned out Saturday to vote in a presidential election that analysts say is too close to call.

By Kevin Sieff
March 28 at 7:00 PM

KADUNA, Nigeria —Nigerians voted Saturday in the most bitterly contested election in the history of the country’s young democracy — a poll that will determine the next chapter in a long-standing fight against Islamist insurgents and the management of Africa’s largest economy.

Voting was extended Saturday in some polling stations because of technical glitches as the specter of post-election violence hangs over much of the country. Many worry that a conflict will erupt along the ethno-religious divide that consumes Nigerian politics. For now, President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, and the former military dictator, Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, appear to be in a dead heat.

This northern state has been a microcosm of the country’s volatile political rift. After the last presidential election, in 2011, Kaduna was devoured by violence that killed hundreds. Churches­ and mosques­ were torched, their skeletal remains still scattered across the state. Christians and Muslims fled in opposite directions.

Four years later, it’s unclear whether a contested election result will reignite those festering tensions. Over the past four years, while nongovernmental organizations and interfaith groups have launched peace building initiatives, Nigeria’s political elite have done little to bridge the divide. Jonathan and Buhari signed a pact Thursday, promising to avoid post-election violence, but many of their followers saw it as a hollow gesture.

“We’re scared,” said Rhoda Bala, standing in the charred remains of her home, which was destroyed after the 2011 election and never fully repaired. “Of course, we worry that what happened last time will happen again.”

Bala lives just miles from a polling site where Buhari had seemingly unanimous support and where a Jonathan victory appeared inconceivable to the voters.

“If Jonathan wins unfairly, this will be a country at war,” said Nura Hussaini, a carpenter. “And he can’t win fairly.”

The country is already at war with Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist movement that since 2012 grew steadily until its influence extended across northeastern Nigeria.

On Saturday, Boko Haram extremists killed 39 people, including a legislator, in the northeast, according to the Associated Press, in a deliberate attempt to disrupt the election. A multinational counter­­offensive has severely weakened the group in recent weeks, amid an emergency six-week election delay.

Jonathan supporters had praised him for the success of the anti-Boko Haram campaign, which culminated Friday in the taking of the group’s strategic headquarters. His detractors ask why it took so long to execute.

Already, Buhari’s party has said that if Jonathan, who has been in power since 2010, is declared the victor, it will set up a “parallel government.”

The Nigerian army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah, issued a warning at a news conference, saying that anyone who provokes conflict will meet “organized violence” from authorities.

While many Nigerians view politics through the prism of regional or religious loyalty, the election’s result will have an impact across much of West Africa, where the country is a massive cultural and economic force. It is a region dominated by Nigerian film and music, and one where oil revenue turned Nigeria into an engine of growth.

The falling price of oil, though, has raised new questions about Nigeria’s financial future, adding urgency to calls for an end to systemic corruption. Jonathan’s Central Bank chairman accused the government of losing $20 billion in revenue.

The next chapter in the fight against Boko Haram also remains a massive challenge. While the group appears to have been displaced from its former territorial strongholds, thousands of militants have fled into the Sambisa Forest and other rural enclaves, from which they could easily plan guerrilla-style attacks if the government’s counter­insurgency campaign dissipates.

But the next president’s greatest challenge might be convincing a divided Nigeria to accept his legitimacy. In Kaduna, even the most unifying figures expressed concerns about the coming days. Pastor Yohanna Buru, who has spent the years since the post-election violence in 2011 leading interfaith sessions, wonders what is next.

“The fact is, Christians want a Christian leader and Muslims want a Muslim one,” he said. “People are not educated on the issue of political violence.”

At a polling place where Jonathan supporters predominated, voters worried about a Nigeria with a Muslim leader.

“It would mean the Islamicization of Nigeria,” said Thomas Usman, an engineer. “We can’t allow it.”

Buhari has never given the impression that he will abandon secular rule in Nigeria. His party has publicly rebutted the idea, claiming that Jonathan supporters are attempting to divide the electorate along religious lines.

“I am not a religious fanatic of any sort, and I have never been,” he said at an interfaith meeting earlier this month.

Each side pointed to voting irregularities that appeared to favor the opposition — a shortage of ballots at certain sites, delayed openings at polling centers that left many voters in line for more than 10 hours.

“It’s a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise us because they know this is an opposition enclave,” said Danazumi Zakari, the chairman of the development association in Danbushia village and a Buhari supporter.

Zakari stood with hundreds of others in front of a local elementary school that was supposed to serve as a polling site. But by noon, five hours after many voters arrived, there were still no voting materials. Reports from Nigeria’s south, which is predominantly pro-Jonathan, also cited voting irregularities, suggesting that flaws were systemic and not politically calculated.

Voting ended Saturday without any sign of clashes between the two parties. But in Kaduna, voters remember the relative peace of Election Day 2011 and how quickly the state devolved into chaos after the results were announced.

Bala, 55, a Christian living in a primarily Muslim part of Kaduna, remembers returning to her home one day to find that it had been doused in gasoline and set on fire. She hasn’t found the money to fix it, so she and her children still live in the charred remains.

The words “Jesus loves you” can be made out in faded paint. This time, most of Bala’s relatives left Kaduna before the elections. Bala didn’t.

“I’m too scared,” she said. “And I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Kevin Sieff has been The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Nairobi since 2014. He served previously as the bureau chief in Kabul and had covered the U.S. -Mexico border.

Card Reader Failure, Logistics Mar Polls

by OMEIZA AJAYI ABUJA PRISCILLA DENNIS, MINNA.CHRIS NJOKU, OWERRI JAMES DANJUMA on Mar 29, 2015
Nigerian National Mirror

 INEC says voting continues today
OBJ, IBB, Abdulsalami, Gowon, commend voting process
With preponderant hitches marring yesterday’s election exercise despite unprecedented massive turnout by many to vote in the presidential and national assembly election, the expectation is that voting would continue today, even as alterations were made in the voting procedures.

Speaking on this, National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Dr Chris Iyimoga, told Sunday Mirror that voting may continue today where elections could not be concluded as a result of the technical hitches after failure of its Smart Card Readers, SCR, to work according to popular expectation.

Iyimoga, who announced this in Abuja yesterday, lamented that whereas the process had been going well in some places, there were challenges in others, especially with the use of the card readers.

He said accreditation had been consequently slowed in some places while as at 4 p.m., it had not started in others.

According to him, even though the guidelines for the conduct of the elections provide that where card readers failed and cannot be replaced elections in such polling units will be postponed, INEC has decided to make the alterations.

“The scale of the challenge that we have observed has necessitated the reconsideration of the elections guidelines.

“The commission has therefore decided that as part of guidelines for the general elections, the polling units where the card readers have failed to work, the presiding officer shall manually accredit voters by marking the register of voters after being satisfied that the person presenting the permanent voter card is the legitimate owner of the card”, he said.

He said where accreditation was suspended till today; arrangements will be made for voters to exercise their franchise in accordance with both the electoral guidelines and the Electoral Act, as amended.

The commission reassured the voting public that it would thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding the failure of the card readers, expressing commitment to the delivery of free, fair and credible elections in spite of these challenges.

INEC took the decision after hours of brainstorming on the way forward with regard to the challenge posed by the non-functionality of many of its card readers

Going by Sunday Mirror’s independent assessment by its team of election observers, yesterday’s exercise was not only peaceful, but also recorded an unprecedented turnout of voters for the ballot. But like a recurring decimal, incidents of glitches in the SCR, late arrival of voting materials and outright absence of INEC officials almost frustrated the exercise.

Evidence of this could be seen in selected towns and states visited by our correspondents.

Former heads of state of the country have expressed satisfaction with the accreditation process of eligible voters across the country, especially with the use of card readers despite complaints of glitches that attended the exercise yesterday.

For former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar and Gen. Gowon, the accreditation processes were satisfactory.

Obasanjo, in his reaction shortly after he was accredited to vote around 10.16 a.m. at his Ward 11, Unit 22 of the Olusomi compound polling centre at Oke-Sokori, Abeokuta, commended INEC, stressing that it was not possible to have a perfect situation.

“What I have seen here is satisfactory and I have also received similar views expressed by people I have talked to.

“I do hope that the same peaceful situation that obtains here will prevail in other parts of the country.

“We must allay the fears of those people who thought there will be violence or disturbance regarding this election.

“So I appeal to all Nigerians to maintain the peaceful process that we have had so far,” he said.

Obasanjo urged those who could not obtain their PVCs to be calm, adding that such situation did not confer any right on them to be violent.

He advised them to be patient and hope that the situation would have improved before the April 11 elections.

In their reactions, Generals Babangida and

Abubakar have urged Nigerians to conduct themselves peacefully, while voting their leaders and desist from any form of violence.

The two former leaders made the call shortly after undergoing their voting accreditation at their Uphill Water Tank polling unit, Minna, Niger State.

Fielding questions from Journalists, IBB expressed optimism that the election would be credible, honest and transparent and would be generally acceptable by not only the main presidential candidates, but by Nigerians as well.

On the election and his advice for Nigerians, he said, “for the election, so far so good. Nigerians should remain calm, desist from anything that will lead to violence.”

Also, commenting on the speed with which he was accredited with the card reader, General Abubakar said he hoped the machine would work in all other polling units.

Appealing to Nigerians on the need to maintain peace, Abubakar said, “my expectation is, please Nigerians, let us go and vote and maintain peace in this country. Violence does not do anybody any good. We should please help our leaders, the contestants, politicians to help themselves to maintain peace. I hope whatever way the election turns, like the contestants signed in the accord, they would accept the result.”

General Gowon also hailed the election conducted in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), describing it as the most peaceful election ever conducted in the history of the country.

It was observed that residents trooped out en masse to participate in the Presidential, Senate and House Representatives election across the territory.

Gowon, while fielding questions from journalists at Karu area of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), FCT said 2015 general elections have been conducted in a free, fair, peaceful and orderly manner.

According him, this election can be made possible by ensuring that Nigerians vote peacefully, creditably and their decision will produce who becomes the next president.

He said: “The election is going on very well in all the polling stations I have visited both in Karu, Nyanya and other places I have visited so far, the exercise has been going on well.

“The credit must also go to the National Youth Service Corps members who hasvemade us proud by sacrificing themselves for this country’s election.

“It is only through a very orderly election conducted according to the rules of the game that the continued peace and unity of the country can be guaranteed,” he said.

Sunday Mirror also observed that some residents in Chibiri ward in Kuje Area Council, Abuja, were made to wait for several hours as the voters card readers failed to capture their Bbiometric

But Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, after accreditation, condemned the timing of adopting the electronic voting by INEC, saying it shouldn’t have been used in the main election.

He pointed out on the need to improve on the electronic process.

“Out of my 10 fingers, only one was caught, but I had to go through all the 10 fingers. I don’t know the value this might have added to this election,” Aliyu said.

He noted that since, he had his PVC with his picture on the papers, he believed with all the agents of all the parties around, the use of the card reader was just an unnecessary issue.

Abuja

In the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, accreditation for the Presidential and National Assembly elections at some polling units did not start at the scheduled time of 8 a.m. owing to the late arrival of INEC officials and materials.

The card readers were initially programmed to start working as from 8 only.

At New Capital School Polling Unit in Asokoro, for instance, INEC officials did not arrive until about 10: 18 a.m., while accreditation began at about 11 a.m. This was even as some voters had converged on the centre as early as 5 a.m.

Also at Aso Drive Roundabout Polling Unit within the Three Arms Zone, accreditation began at 9:35 a.m. with registered voters showing signs of good conduct.

Electoral officials at the unit however spent some valuable time removing posters of candidates pasted on the walls of the unit.

Lagos

The former federal capital witnessed a massive turnout of voters from as early as 7 a.m.

But like in Abuja and other parts of the country, the card reader problem continued to hobble voting process, even as clear absence of voting materials and officials worsened the scenario.

In most polling units in Ikeja, capital of Lagos, for instance, there were glaring cases of SCR malfunction.

At the Allen Avenue area of the place, an INEC official said that they have been unable to unlock the SCR because the code that would enable that is with their supervisor who was not within the vicinity.

Similar scenario was observed at Alimosho area of Lagos. This incidence led to a great deal of anxious moments when voters had to lash out at officials. This was however not the general scenario in Lagos.

Reacting to this scenario, a foreign journalist from France who, however, asked not to be mentioned by name said that the situation varies from place to place in Lagos. The journalist stated that there was preponderant ‘challenges, problems with access and delayed voting process’.

According to the journalist, the process could be ‘tiring’ for voters.

Imo

Hundreds of youths and party agents held Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC officials in two local government areas, Oru East and Mbaitoli in Imo State hostage over alleged short changing of electoral material including card readers meant for the conduct of the Presidential election.

The youths loyal to one of the political parties laid siege at the council areas blocking the movement of the INEC officials from distributing the materials for the election to commence as schedunled.

At Oru East the youths and party agents including the Commissioner for Primary Education, Mrs. Mma Nzeribe complained that the area had 147 polling units but instead of INEC releasing the same number of card readers to the voting points, they supplied 137 card readers shortchanging the area with 10.

However, the electoral officer in charge of the LGA, Mrs. Paulin Adaku Nwosu explained that the allocation for the area was137 being the actual number of the polling points in the area wondering how the agitating agents and restive youths got their inflated number.

Scores Killed in Rivers, Gombe …As Blasts Rock Anambra, Enugu

Tension heightened in Rivers, Anambra and Enugu states on Saturday following bombings,   killings and arrests in some polling units.

In Rivers State, a soldier and two civilians were shot dead by suspected political thugs at polling centres in Ozuoha and Kpite in Ikwerre and Tai Local Government Areas of the state.

Sources said the gunmen opened fire where prospective voters had gathered for accreditation and that a bullet hit the soldier, who died on the spot.

Brigade Commander Commander, 2 Brigade, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt,   Koko Essien, confirmed the incident when he spoke with Amaechi in Ubima.

One of the civilians, Sampson Wona, was said to have been shot dead   while waiting to be accredited at a polling unit in Ozuoha .

The second civilian, who like Wona, was   a member of the APC, was killed in Kpite, Tai LGA.

Shortly after these incidents, the APC in the state   alleged that scores of its members were killed, 100 arrested and many disenfranchised .

It said in a statement by Chukwuemeka Eze, the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Public Affairs to the State chairman, that the killings were carried out in Kpite and other parts of the state by hoodlums suspected to be acting for the PDP.

The party attached photographs of the slain persons to the statement     to prove its claim.

The statement read, “Today’s (Saturday) presidential and National Assembly elections have turned out to be a big nightmare for the APC in Rivers State, with the members being killed, attacked and disenfranchised in various parts of the state.

“Armed militias working for the PDP have intensified their killings of APC members. Scores have already been killed and several others marked for elimination.

“This (Saturday) morning in Kpite town, Tai Ward 2 and other areas of the state, five people were shot dead by PDP’s armed militia, and that was before accreditation commenced.

“It is sad that the PDP and its collaborators are targeting APC strongholds and chieftains for attacks and killings. To intimidate our people and contrary to the court ruling forbidding the use of the Army in this elections, there has been a massive deployment of soldiers in the state with clear instruction to shoot at sight any APC agent that refuses to comply with the evil plot of the PDP to write the results of the election at some designated areas of the state in favour of the PDP.”

The statement claimed that a former Commissioner and an APC leader, Chidiebere Okwuwolu, was arrested by the police and taken to Olu Obasanjo Police Station in Port Harcourt.

It added that 99 other APC members and leaders were being held in various police stations in the state.

The party also said that at Ubima, result sheets were “currently with Nyesom Wike, the PDP governorship candidate for the state.”

The Director of Communication, Greater Together Campaign Organisation, Ibim Semenitari, condemned the development, lamenting that some APC leaders in the state had also been marked for elimination.

Semenitari, in her statement said, “Armed militias working for the PDP have intensified their killings of   APC members. Scores have already been killed and several others marked for elimination.

“Specifically, the PDP armed men target APC strongholds for attack using heavy gunfire. The Greater Together Campaign Organisation, the campaign outfit for Dr. Dakuku   Peterside, has condemned this visit of terror on the state.

“On Saturday morning in Kpite Town, Tai Ward 2, two people were shot dead by the PDP armed militia, and that was before accreditation commenced.”

But the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP,   Samuel Nwanosike, told Sunday PUNCH that his party members   were not interested in attacking or killing anybody to win elections.

Nwanosike described the claim   of the APC   as mere propaganda, adding that while the PDP had been working hard to win elections, the APC had been making frivolous allegations.

In Enugu, there was   a bomb blast at the polling unit located inside WTC Primary School, Enugu North LGA at about 9am on Saturday.

The source of the explosion which made many prospective voters to flee was not known as of 8pm.
In Anambra State, voters who came for accreditation in the morning at Ayomna Okpala Primary
School in Awka scampered for safety following a bomb explosion there.

No casualties were recorded in the incident but the school building was badly damaged.

One of the eyewitnesses,   Chinenye Ibe,   said they were shocked when the explosion occurred and disrupted the exercise.

Earlier, there was an   explosion at Onitsha South which eyewitnesses said injured a number of persons.

The Women Coordinator, National Presidential Campaign of the PDP , Joy Emordi, said the Onitsha South blast was unfortunate.

She called on the indigenes ,   electoral officials   and monitors   in the state to be vigilant.

The Secretary of Anambra State Government, Oseloka Obazie, told one of our corespondents in an interview, that he was yet to get an independent confirmation of the blasts.

He said, “I pray these do not derail the electoral process here. Anambra State is a very peaceful state and I don’t know why these are happening.”

Obazie, however, assured Anambra indigenes that the government of the state was on top of the situation.

The elections   however claimed some lives in Gombe State where a member of the House of Assembly, Umar Aminu, and eight others were feared killed by Boko Haram insurgents   in Dukku and Nafada LGAs.

On Friday night, the insurgents killed 25 persons and injured 30 others   in a community in the southern part of Borno State.

Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, who lamented the incident, added that several houses were also razed by the terrorists.

Amaechi Clashes With Nigerian Army Boss, Stops Voting

by SAM OLUWALANA
Nigerian National Mirror
Mar 29, 2015

…APC rejects election, accuses INEC boss of complicity

The Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi yesterday clashed with the Brigade Commander in charge of the 2nd Brigade, Port Harcourt, Brigadier General Essien Essien, who tried to restrict his movement during the polls.

Amaechi also stopped the voting process in his local government when he was informed that several result sheets that was supposed to accompany voting materials to the polling areas were missing.

Amaechi ordered that voting should discontinue in all units in Ikwerre Local Government area of the state until the missing result sheets are produced by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Amaechi, who gave the order at the declaration at Onute Playground in Omuanwa Ward, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, was driving around monitoring the accreditation exercise when some of the voters who gathered at the unit waved him down and complained about the results sheets.

Things became rowdy at the polling booth when a shouting match ensued between some APC and PDP members at the venue over whether voting should take place with or without the Result Sheets.

Addressing journalists over the matter, Amaechi said, “You can see that the result sheets have not been brought here. The same thing is happening all over the local government area. We have therefore resolved not to be involved in the election until the result sheets are brought, this is my local government area and this is happening. The same thing is happening all over the place.”

After his interaction with journalists at the polling area, Amaechi, who was driving himself in a Government-issued SUV headed towards his Father’s house few kilometers to the School when his vehicle was flagged down by some heavily-armed soldiers led by the Brigade Commander, 2nd Brigade, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, in front of his Father’s compound.

The Brigade Commander accosted Amechi and explained to him that he is not allowed to drive around during the election as he was not accredited by INEC to have unfettered movement in the state

The Governor, however tried to turn and drive towards Umunwa, but the soldiers blocked his convoy and there was a heated exchange ensued between him (Amaechi) and the Army boss.

Amaechi told Essien, “Brigade Commander, why you are mountings two road blocks near my father’s compound, were you being sent by President Jonathan to come and kill me? I had told the world that President Jonathan is trying to kill me and I am saying it again.”

Brig-General Essien however coolly replied that he has not being given any instruction to kill anybody but insisted that the Governor should return to his Lodge and stop moving about without the necessary official cover.

He said, “You Excellency, we have instructions not to allow people who are not duly accredited not to move around during the election. That is why we are advising you to go back to your house and wait there until the election is over.”

Card Reader Delays Nigerian Voting in Nasarawa State

By Online Ediitor on March 28, 2015
Nigerian Guardian

The independent national electoral commission INEC went through hurdles today, Saturday, as it battled with it’s card readers in most of the polling units in Nasarawa state to accredit eligible voters.
The card reader technology according to most of the voters who cued up early for accreditation is alien to the masses even as most of the ad -hoc staff of INEC were said not to have received proper training on the use of the card reader machine.

In places like Angwan Mission, Agwan Moyi Buba,Gidan Fulani public square and, Galadima polling units of Agwatashi ward and Kofar Mukunguji polling unit of Obi 1 ward in Obi local government area of the state, a good number of voters were stranded as it took between ten to fifteen minutes to accredit eligible voters.

The situation was not different at Agwan Moyi Buba when the senator representing Nasarawa south senatorial district, Sulaiman Adokwe was yet to be registered alongside other eligible voters at about 10:00 am.

The presiding officer in-charge of the polling unit, Stella Eze, attributed the problem to total failure of the Card Reader Machine.

“As you can see, I went there but the Card Readers is not working. Virtually every polling unit in Agwatashi ward is not working, that was why we kept insisting that this novelty of card reading that has not been properly tested is going to create a lot of problems for the elections” said Adokwe.

The Card Reader Adokwe insisted would undermine the elections but hoped that the INEC headquarters in Abuja would collect
the result nationwide and be able to decide as quickly as possible before Nigerians have a disaster in their hands.

North central zonal chairman of the peoples democractic party,PDP, Alhaji Yusuf Ayitogo, said INEC was not fully prepared with their Card Readers as it took five to ten minutes before a voter is cleared positing that the accreditation exercise would not be completed before the election commences thereby, disenfranchising many eligible voters.

Commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, Mohammed Dan’Azumi, attributed the development to what he described as a deliberate attempt by INEC officials to frustrate the election as voters from his RCM primary school polling unit, Dadare, complained bitterly over the inability of the Card Reader to accredit a single voter as of 10:55 am.

Resident Electoral commissioner in the state Abdulahi Umar Danyaya, assured that all elible voters would vote saying the faulted Card reader Machines were only few and had been rectified.

He appealed to the eligible voters to remain calm as they will all be accredited to cast their votes as the incident form was handy to take care of any situation regarding the card reader.

Large Turnout, Late Arrival of Materials, Card-reader Failure Mars Election

By Online Editor on March 28, 2015
Nigerian Guardian

The General Election held in Anambra State yesterday, suffered set back due to late arrival of materials and card-reader failure although there was large turnout of electorates across the state.

A Guardian survey around the state shows that voters complained of late arrival of materials, characterized by late coming of the INEC officials in various polling centers including Akogoli square 11, Umudioka Ward 111, Amawbia Cenral School ward 1 and 11, Umuokpu ward 7, Nmini Ward 11 Nwafia, Enugu-Ukwu ward 1V and V, and Boys Secondary School, Nri Ward1.

While monitoring the election process in the 21 Local Government Areas of Anambra State, it was discovered that eligible voters gathered at the various polling booths as early as 8a.m on Saturday but could not do the accreditation process due to massive malfunctioning of the card reader.

Even it was also gathered that the machines were locked permanently, battery failure, etc, while INEC officials said they had already contacted headquarters in Awka for further instructions.

In most polling booths accreditation were not completed till 2pm, while actual voting started between 2.30 pm and 3.00 pm.

The Senatorial candidate for the PDP in Anambra Central, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife casted her votes about 3.30 pm at Boys Secondary School, Nri Ward 1 unit 002, while Sir Victor Umeh of APGA also vying for the same position voted at Aguluezigbo ward18 at 4 pm.

In his reaction, the Traditional Ruler of Enugwu-Ukwu, HRM Igwe Sir Ralph O. Ekpe called for total rejection or cancellation of the election, just as he advised INEC to go back to the drawing board and reschedule the election. Igwe Ekpe strongly warned that INEC is courting trouble for Nigeria which may lead to another crisis.

“If INEC continues in this way with the card reader not functioning properly, late arrival of election materials etc, it will not augur well for the country and may lead to a serious set back in our political process.

“I aspect INEC to say let us suspend this election, let us return to the manual system and reschedule the election for the next one week”, Igwe Ekpe who was not happy for not been properly accredited said.

Also in his reaction, HRH Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo of Nawfia, however, praised INEC for introducing the manual system which according to him, worked peacefully in his community.

Igwe Nwakwo, who praised INEC for doing a good job hoped that the election would be credible and also usher peace in the country.

Meanwhile, some groups of youths were seen playing football in school fields and open spaces in Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Ekwulobia across the state.

It was also gathered that all markets were shut, there was heavy vehicular and cyclists movements while few pedestrians were seen moving about.

Voting Suspended in Some places in Nigeria: Electoral Commission

By AFP on March 28, 2015

Nigeria’s electoral commission on Saturday said polling in the country’s presidential and parliamentary election had been suspended in some places because of glitches with new voter ID card readers.

The Independent National Electoral Commission said there had been “challenges” with the technology in “many” places, without specifying a number, forcing accreditation to be suspended.

“In polling units where accreditation was suspended to the following day in accordance with the existing guidelines, arrangement will be made for voters to vote tomorrow (Sunday),” information commissioner Chris Yimoga told reporters in Abuja.

Voters have reported long delays with the new handheld devices that “read” biometric data such as fingerprints on the cards to authenticate a voter’s identity and cut electoral fraud.

The most high-profile victim was President Goodluck Jonathan, who was forced to abandon his accreditation in his home town of Otuoke when the device repeatedly failed to recognise his details.

He was then accredited by hand and later voted, he said, for himself in the presidential vote and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in parliamentary polls.

Jonathan said people should “sympathise with INEC”, adding: “INEC introduced the card readers to ensure we get credible elections. We should bear with them…

“INEC has to talk about their functions. I took the manual option. I am aware that INEC has directed its resident electoral commissioners to use manual option when card readers fail.

“As head of state, I don’t blame anybody,” he said but admitted: “I think the problem is national.”

Jonathan’s PDP repeatedly expressed concern about the level of distribution of new voter ID cards and the use of the “untested”readers during the election campaign.

The main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) backed the system.

INEC’s Yimoga said although accreditation had “gone well in several places… (it) has been slow in many places and has not commenced in others”.

Election guidelines already provided for accreditation to be postponed to the following day if card readers did not work and could not be replaced.

But he added that a revision was made because of “the scale of the challenge we have observed”, allowing both a 24-hour delay and the use of manual checking.

Thousands to Rally in Detroit for Racial Justice

Detroit Pastor E. L. Branch.

Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press 10:36 p.m. EDT
March 27, 2015

Thousands are expected to march Saturday demanding racial justice in Detroit in a rally organized by more than 100 local churches.

Called the March for Justice, the walk is part of a broader effort to highlight what organizers say is the growing marginalization of African-Americans in Detroit. While the city's residential population is 84% African-American, the community is being ignored in recent development efforts, said members of the planned march.

"With the gentrification of Detroit ... African-Americans do feel shut out," said Tracey Sanders, an organizer who's a member of of New St. Mark Church in Detroit. "We just want to have a seat at the table."

The march and later actions planned — such as voter registration — are to help "eliminate racially-motivated injustice and promote economic parity," Sanders said. About 3,000 to 5,000 are expected to take part in the march, said organizers.

The rally was timed to be around the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights marches in Selma, Ala. A poster for the rally reads: "From Selma to Detroit: 50 years later, same issues, same fight."

The rally comes the same week that a video was released of an African-American man being beaten, choked, and Tasered by a group of white police officers in Inkster. The issue of police abuse of blacks is a concern of many in the march, said organizers.

"It just keeps on happening," Sanders said. "It just seems like the justice system, and law enforcement doesn't care. That is the reason why you see people with signs that say, 'Black Lives Matter' because many times our lives are not seen as significant as the next person."

Rev. Louis Forsythe II, pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Detroit, plans to attend the march.

Pastor Louis ForsytheBuy Photo
Pastor Louis Forsythe (Photo: Niraj Warikoo Detroit Free Press)
"We want to be able to speak truth to power," Forsythe said.

Other noted Detroit pastors who plan to be at the march include E.L. Branch, Wilma Johnson, Kevin Turman, Patricia Havis and Steven Bland.

Open to all, the march starts at noon at Chene Park and will end at Martin Luther King High School at about 3 pm.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Follow him on Twitter @nwarikoo

Inkster Officials Pursue Damage Control Strategy As Video of Beating Prompts Protest

Holly Fournier, The Detroit News 11:56 a.m. EDT
March 26, 2015

Inkster — Authorities urged patience Thursday as an investigation is underway into the filmed beating of a motorist during an arrest in January.

"The people have a voice, they're using their voice and we've listened to their voice," Inkster City Manager Richard J. Marsh Jr. said during a press conference Thursday morning at city hall. "Action will be taken accordingly, depending on the results of the investigation."

Detroiter Floyd Dent, 57, has said he was beaten and Tasered during a traffic stop Jan. 28 in Inkster.

Police said Dent disregarded stop signs and refused to pull over, then resisted arrest and threatened them. They also said they found a bag of crack cocaine in his car.

Police Chief Vicki Yost attended Thursday's press conference alongside Marsh and members of the police department's citizen advisory board, National Christians in Action, the Inkster Ministerial Alliance and the Western Wayne County branch of the NAACP.

Yost said an investigation is underway by the Michigan State Police.

"It needs to be independent, and it needs to be thorough and it needs to be impartial," Yost said.

Dent and attorneys say he was racially profiled and officers used excessive force in January 28, 2015 arrest. This video was released by his attorney Greg Rohl.

Protesters outside the Inkster police department on Wednesday questioned the investigation due to state police presence at the traffic stop.

"Their officers were not involved in the use of force to my knowledge," Yost said Thursday. "I'm confident in their ability to conduct the investigation."

Yost said Inkster auxiliary officers also were present at the arrest, but she declined to define those officers' duties.

"There is a difference in the powers that they hold, absolutely," she said. "That's part of the investigation, and we're not going to get into any additional details at the time."

Following the press conference, Yost confirmed two officers involved in the incident are on administrative duty.

"They are not on the streets," said Yost, who declined to identify the officers.

Joseph Stephens, president of the Inkster Ministerial Alliance, urged the public to respect the investigation.

"We think that every citizen has a right to be treated fairly, but we also understand that a thorough investigation has to take place before any action is done," Stephens said at the press conference. "In the midst of all of the protests and all of the marches, an investigation still has to take place and be concluded."

Marsh praised the non-violent response of protesters unhappy with the incident.

"We found that some citizens are unhappy with the incident, yet cool heads have prevailed and that's an outstanding statement and example of the kind of citizens we have here in the city of Inkster," Marsh said.

NAACP chapter president Bishop Walter L. Starghill Jr. called the arrest footage shocking and said he would remain dedicated to keeping the public informed about the investigation.

"We have a vested interest in what goes on in the city of Inkster," he said. "We want to let everyone know that we are here working at the table to make sure the people know exactly what's going on."

Yost said Wednesday the department began investigating before Dent complained about his treatment during the arrest.

"We started an investigation before Mr. Dent made a complaint and it was self-initiated," she said. "It was initiated immediately based on the department's policy to conduct an investigation whenever a serious amount of force has been used."

The state police's findings will be presented to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, which will determine if any charges are filed, she said.

"We're encouraging everyone to wait for the results of the investigation," Yost said. "Once we get the results, we'll act accordingly."

Dent described the arrest through tears Wednesday at a press conference held by his attorney, Greg Rohl.

"They told me get on the ground, then they snatched me, threw me on the ground and started beating me," Dent said outside his attorney's law office in Novi. "(An officer) was beating me upside the head. ... While he was beating me I was trying to protect my face with my right arm. ... The officer nearly choked me to death. I told them I can't breathe. He just kept on choking me."

Dent said he was targeted because he is African-American.

Earlier Wednesday, at least two dozen demonstrators gathered outside the Inkster Police Department and 22nd District Court building to protest the incident.

Under drizzly skies, the crowd marched along the sidewalk shouting, "No justice, no peace," and "RoboCop has got to go!"

The protest was organized by the Michigan chapter of the National Action Network, led by the Rev. Charles Williams II.

"We're here for one reason: These officers need to go. They need to be fired," Williams said. "Not suspended with pay, not allowed to sit at desks and get paid by the people."

The incident has sparked cries of aggressive policing, led to calls for disbanding the department and prompted Williams to call Inkster "the new Ferguson" in reference to a recent scathing Department of Justice report that called Ferguson, Missouri's law enforcement practices racially discriminatory.

Dent originally was charged with resisting and obstructing, fleeing and eluding, and possession of cocaine, Rohl said. All charges have been dropped, except the possession charge. Rohl said the drugs were planted during the chaotic arrest.

Dent said he was offered a plea deal but he declined.

"He told me an innocent man does not plead guilty," Rohl said. "Mr. Dent, to his credit, said, 'I'm not guilty. I'm not pleading guilty. Take it to trial.'"

Dent is expected in court at 9 a.m. April 1 for an arraignment on the drug charge, Rohl said.

HFournier@detroitnews.com

(313) 223-4616

@HollyPFournier

Illinois Plugs Deficit as Next Year’s $6 Billion Hole Looms

Challenger for Chicago Mayor Jesus Chuy Garcia.

by Elizabeth Campbell
2:43 PM EDT
March 26, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Illinois’s legislature plugged a $1.6 billion hole in the state budget, leaving lawmakers to tackle a deficit three times that size in the year ahead.

The Senate Thursday approved a plan that closes the gap for the year ending in June by cutting spending and using $1.3 billion set aside for roads, construction projects and other items. The House of Representatives passed the fix two days ago, about 10 months after lawmakers voted for a budget without enough money to cover it.

“The General Assembly is helping set a new tone for what can be achieved in Springfield,” Republican Governor Bruce Rauner said in an e-mailed statement. “While today’s action is an important start, many more tough votes and challenging decisions must be made in the weeks ahead.”

The legislation, which Rauner’s office said he plans to sign as soon as possible, is only a partial solution to the state’s financial crisis. Beset by about $6.5 billion of unpaid bills and the worst-funded pension system among U.S. states, Illinois must confront a $6.2 billion budget shortfall for the year starting July 1.

With the current year’s budget unbalanced, subsidized day-care programs had already started to run out of funds and prisons may have been unable to meet payroll in April. The Senate’s passage comes just before lawmakers are set to leave for a two-week break on March 30.

This year’s gap followed the Jan. 1 expiration of 2011 income-tax increases, which lawmakers declined to extend. Rauner has rejected higher levies to close next year’s budget hole and proposed spending cuts instead. Leaders of the Democrat-controlled legislature say the state can’t close the shortfall without finding additional revenue.

Both parties contributed to the fiscal challenges, which have been decades in the making as lawmakers delayed retirement-fund payments and used financial gimmicks to address deficits.

Illinois has a $111 billion pension gap and an A- rating from Standard & Poor’s, which is lower than any other state.

Senate President John Cullerton “is glad that we could resolve our issues and come together for this fiscal fix,” Moira Dolehide, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Democrat’s office, said in an e-mail.

“Now it’s time to turn our attention to larger challenges in the next budget.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Campbell in Chicago at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net William Selway, Mark Tannenbaum

Illinois Pension Bout Tests Nation Grappling With Shortfalls

Anti-bankruptcy demonstration in Detroit outside federal court on
Oct. 23, 2013.

by Andrew M Harris
5:01 AM EDT
March 11, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- Illinois’s remedy for the state’s worst-in-the-nation $111 billion pension-funding shortfall was disliked by lawmakers who voted for it, the new governor who inherited it and public employee unions who sued to void it.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Wednesday asked the state’s Supreme Court to resurrect it.

The 2013 measure to cut cost-of-living increases and boost the retirement age was struck down last year by an Illinois judge who found it violated the state constitution’s ban on reducing public worker retirement benefits. The dispute is being watched around the country as state and local governments faced total pension shortfalls of more than $1 trillion in 2013.

Illinois Solicitor General Carolyn Shapiro argued Wednesday that the state should be able to invoke its “police powers” in a time of fiscal crisis.

“Invoking police powers is not something the state could do willy nilly,” Shapiro said responding to a question from Justice Robert Thomas. “Raising taxes cannot always be the answer to a fiscal crisis.”

Few Questions

The state Supreme Court’s seven-judge panel asked few questions during Wednesday’s hearing and gave no timeframe for a ruling. To win a reversal, Madigan must convince at least four of the court’s seven justices that the constitutional provision -- which says a public worker’s pension membership is a contract “the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired” -- is something less than absolute.

Thomas pressed Shapiro on whether the drafters of the provision intended to protect those benefits in difficult economic times. When Shapiro replied she didn’t believe that was the entirety of the intent, Thomas asked if it would be “problematic” if the court believed it was.

The state cannot be forced to surrender its sovereign power to protect the general welfare of the people, Shapiro responded.

Gino DiVito, an attorney for the suing unions, countered that the provision was “explicit, clear and unambiguous” regardless of the state’s argument for recognition of a possible “doomsday scenario.”

Illinois has the lowest credit among the 50 U.S. states. Last month, Governor Bruce Rauner, who defeated Democrat Pat Quinn in November, proposed an array of spending cuts to close a $6.2 billion budget shortfall.

Pension Repair

If the pension fix is upheld, Illinois will save about $1 billion on its $7.5 billion contribution requirement for 2015, which means that money can be spent elsewhere, said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a Chicago-based independent budget watchdog group.

As a candidate, Rauner criticized the pension-repair bill, under which lawmakers planned to save about $145 billion over 30 years.

Before the legislators voted on it, Rauner said the plan “barely scratches the surface of the problem.” The Republican, a former venture capitalist, has called for shifting some public employees to a defined-contribution plan, similar to a 401(k).

Illinois pension changes were attained in 2013 following years of legislative gridlock and an unsuccessful attempt by Quinn to dock lawmakers’ pay to force a resolution.

Public worker unions, banding together as a coalition called We Are One Illinois, sued to block the measure in January 2014, arguing its members’ benefit plans are inviolable. Springfield Judge John Belz put the plan on hold in May and declared it void in November.

Health Plans

His ruling came just four months after the state Supreme Court rejected Illinois’ attempt to reduce its contributions for government retiree health-insurance plans. The justices, in a 6-1 decision, relied on the same constitutional provision.

“We believe the language of the pension clause is very clear,” said Anders Lindall, a spokesman for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which has more than 75,000 members.

The provision was added to the state constitution to protect public workers from lawmakers making “irresponsible choices” and then looking to retirees’ life savings for a remedy, Lindall said.

Super-Contracts

Madigan maintains that interpreting the constitution that way would create super-contracts and nullify the state’s power to act for the greater good.

“If the pension clause really bars the state’s exercise of its police powers under every possible circumstance, no matter how dire, then the ‘contractual relationship’ the clause creates is unlike any other contractual relationship recognized in American law,” she said in court papers.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the attorney general’s father, won’t comment on the issue, his spokesman Steve Brown said. State Senate President John Cullerton believes the law violates the Illinois constitution, spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon said.

“He supported last year’s pension reform so that it could advance as a test case,” Phelon in a March 9 e-mail. Both legislative leaders are Democrats.

Nationally, state and local government pension plans in 2013 had about 72 percent of the money needed to meet retirement obligations, according to a study released in June by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

State constitutions have been invoked elsewhere to try to prevent cuts to public pensions. In Rhode Island, unions settled with the state over pension cuts before their constitutional challenge could be put to the test. In municipal bankruptcy cases in Detroit and California, judges ruled that federal law overrode state bans on cutting pensions.

With the Supreme Court arguments looming, two lawsuits involving changes to Chicago employee benefits have been put on hold because their fate might hinge on what the justices decide.

“The governor’s office will take appropriate action depending on how the Illinois Supreme Court rules,” said Rauner’s press secretary, Catherine Kelly. “The current pension system is unaffordable and is choking the state’s budget.”

The case is In re Pension Reform Litigation, 118585, Illinois Supreme Court (Springfield).

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net Sophia Pearson, David Glovin

Illinois Panel Weighs Municipal Bankruptcy; Other Options Available, Some Witnesses Say

Detroit workers and retirees demonstrating outside federal court
against emergency management and bankruptcy during 2014.

Thursday, March 26, 2015 2:32 pm

SPRINGFIELD — Do Illinois cities need the option of filing bankruptcy?

It’s something the state has to consider, says state Rep. Ron Sandack, R-Downer’s Grove.

Sandack, a former mayor, is sponsoring House Bill 298, which would allow Illinois municipalities to seek reorganization under Chapter 9 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

Chapter 9, Sandack said, is somewhat similar to the restructuring available to individuals under Chapter 13 and businesses under Chapter 11, but it is by no means a get-out-of-jail-free card.

A state bill would be necessary because federal bankruptcy law requires state authorization for Chapter 9 filings, and Illinois has no such provision.

Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey testified Friday before a House committee on behalf of his city and the Illinois Municipal League, although he said Rockford is not considering bankruptcy.

He described the dire situation some cities are facing due to shrinking property tax bases, property tax caps, unfunded mandates and pension costs.

“Local city councils should not be in the position at the end of the day of deciding whether to pay a police officer on the street or pay a bond holder,” Morrissey said.

“Simply put, if cities are put in a position where they can’t pay all of their bills, this provision will provide the best — amongst not a lot of good — but the best way to help cities continue to provide public services to citizens while protecting our ability to access the financial markets and provide fairness to all creditors.”

Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation, said he agreed many cities are in a bind.

"Even relatively affluent municipalities have reported that over 100 percent of their property tax levy is now going to pay their pension funds, forcing them to find other revenue sources for basic municipal services,” he told members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Still, the federation could only support allowing Illinois municipalities to seek Chapter 9 if such communities had to go through a strong gatekeeper level, Msall said.

Illinois may not need a municipal bankruptcy option and it certainly does not need it very often, said William Brandt, outgoing chairman of the Illinois Finance Authority.

He advised the Legislature proceed with caution.

“Giving (the access to file) blanket authority will come back to haunt you in terms of municipal bond interest rates,” Brandt told the the committee.

Brandt has been involved in some of the country’s biggest-public entity bankruptcy cases, written bankruptcy law and overseen more-restrained forms of public restructuring.

He said Illinois should not let municipalities seek bankruptcy unless they first proceed through a mandatory gatekeeper.

Only if a short-term period of state-supervised restructuring and recovery fails should a Chapter 9 filing be allowed, he said.

“Chapter 9 can never be a substitute for political will,” he told the lawmakers.
Sandack said he’s open to studying ideas for a gatekeeper function and eventually might consider an amendment to that end.

Groups filing in opposition to the bill included the Fraternal Order of Police, Police Benevolent & Protective Association, Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois, and Service Employees International Union.

Firefighters President Pat Devaney said he’s been frustrated with the depiction that state-mandated fire and police pensions are single-handedly breaking cities.

“While it's convenient to blame police and fire for all of the financial woes of our communities, unfortunately it’s not grounded in fact,” he said.

Devaney and Andrew Bodewes, speaking for the F.O.P., said their unions are glad help search for budget solutions if everyone would keep the conversations factual, explore all costs and revenues and try to work together.

Twenty-four states authorize or conditionally authorize municipal bankruptcy, according to the organization State Budget Solutions. Chapter 9 has been available since the mid-1930s, but has been used fewer than 700 times.

Some of the country’s more well-known and recent  municipal bankruptcies include Detroit and the California cities of Stockton and San Bernardino.

Friday’s hearing was for testimony only; the bill remains in committee.

Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Featured on RT Worldwide Satellite News: ‘Yemen Crisis--Clearly a Failure of US Foreign Policy’

To watch this interview with Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on RT worldwide satellite television news service aired on March 25, 2015, just click on the website below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxZ7LSgQTWE&feature=youtu.be

The US, which not long ago called Yemen an example of successful counter-terror strategy, underestimated the power of the Houthis in the country as they have already gained control over several cities, said Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire.

A coalition of Gulf nations, led by Saudi Arabia, has launched a military operation in Yemen. It’s aimed at stopping the advance of Shia Houthi militants who control the capital Sana’a, and the coastal city of Aden.

RT:Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf countries are getting involved in the situation in Yemen. Where do you see this heading?

Abayomi Azikiwe: It’s a very dangerous situation. What this represents is the total collapse of US foreign policy in Yemen. They have evacuated their special forces. Approximately 100 of them were stationed in Yemen. At the same time US diplomatic personnel have also been evacuated. The US-backed President Hadi had called for such an intervention.

RT: What reaction do you expect from Iran now?

AA: The Iranians are of course backing the Houthi militia groups because they are part of the Shia alliance that exists throughout the region. Therefore, they will have some political support. But I don’t see them directly intervening militarily in Yemen in response to this escalation by Saudi Arabia. But it is clearly something that has the endorsement of the Obama administration. They have lost their capacity in a sense to intervene directly and are utilizing Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] as a proxy force that will try to bolster Hadi in Yemen.

RT: Just six months ago President Obama was calling Yemen a success story. He said: “This strategy of taking out terrorists, who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.” Do you think Washington has been taken by surprise by the latest developments?

AA: Washington has its hands full in Syria, in Iraq, and in other geopolitical regions. This is why they want to rely on the Gulf Cooperation Council. But there was clearly a miscalculation on a part of the Obama administration that they underestimated the power of the Houthi groups inside the country which took control in September of the capital of Sana’a. Just recently they took control of the city of Taiz; they have been moving South over the last several days towards Aden. So it’s clearly a failure of US foreign policy in Yemen.

RT: The city of Aden is home to a major oil refinery and is a major shipping hub. Could we see the Houthi rebels taking control over these supplies as well?

AA: It will be very interesting to see what happens if the Saudis and the GCC utilizes air power. It could perhaps halt their advances. But in the long-term, if the Saudis are not willing to put in massive ground forces then there could be whole struggle developing around the control of Aden. Also, we have to keep in mind that in the South there is a huge separatist movement that is resurfacing: Yemen was divided between the North and the South up until about 25 years ago. The South was a socialist-oriented republic, and the North was more allied with the US and the West. This is another fact that has to be taken into consideration. These separatist movements have been growing over the last several months.

RT: Yemen is seeing a total security collapse. Could it be the next front in the expansion of Islamic State?

AA: We’ll have to see if there is any significant IS intervention. Al-Qaeda has been operating there for a while. This is the raison d'être that the US has utilized for carrying out these drone attacks against the people in Yemen, particularly the so-called al-Qaeda bases there. But it remains to be seen what role the IS may have if they decide to enter in greater numbers in Yemen.

Nigerian Polls: We Are Ready for Troublemakers – Army

Thursday, 26 March 2015 05:01
Written by Ronald Mutum
Nigerian Daily Trust

Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, addressed a news conference in Abuja yesterday.

Minimah has warned that politicians planning violence during the elections would be met by “organized violence.”

The polls begin on Saturday with the Presidential and National Assembly elections to be followed by the governorship and state assembly elections on April 11.

He spoke yesterday when he walked into a press conference being addressed by the Army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman at the Army Headquarters in Abuja.

Colonel Usman was answering questions on election security when General Minimah joined the session that usually holds monthly.

He said: “Whoever wants to invoke or provoke violence would meet ‘organized violence’ waiting for him.”

He said a few years ago, political support for presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney polarised the American people politically, but that none of them threatened the peace of the United States, or threatened violence.

Minimah also said none of the parties contesting election in the United Kingdom had threatened violence. “Nobody thinks of violence as a process of the elections, why must we in Nigeria consider violence as a process of our own election,” he asked.

“Therefore, every Nigerian should go about the election as a normal day’s job, go and vote and do your normal day’s engagement.

 “Whoever threatens violence will meet violence, the election should come and go peacefully, if you win, rule, if you lose, the remedies are there, go to court,” he said.

General Minimah appealed to politicians, their followers and supporters to keep the peace and ensure a violence free election.

“I will appeal to law abiding Nigerians to come out en mass, vote for candidates of their choice without fear of intimidation, without fear for their safety, it is their right to vote he said”

He added that the armed forces, together with other security organisations, have made adequate arrangements for security during the general elections.

On the court order barring soldiers from election duty, Minimah responded thus: “I can interpret it further, this is not your first elections, you have seen several elections in Nigeria, and you have seen soldiers providing security for the elections.

“Have you seen soldiers at polling booths? Have you seen soldiers counting ballots or carry ballot material, papers, boxes or whatever? So I don’t know what you are asking? I should even ask you,” he said.

Answering earlier questions, the army spokesman said allegations that the Presidency is planning to hand over power to the military is uncharitable.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said in Abeokuta Tuesday that there are rumours in the country that the government might hand over power to the military.

He warned that if such rumour becomes a reality, it would undermine the integrity of Nigeria among the comity of nations.

Reacting, the Army spokesman said: “For anybody to say such a thing that person is being uncharitable to the Nigerian army.

“I stand to be corrected if there is any institution more than the army that has been in the vanguard of sustenance of democracy in the country.”

On the counter terrorism campaign, Col Usman said the army had been acquiring new equipment which is being deployed in the north-east, and that troops were being trained on how to handle them.

In some cases the training was being conducted in the theatre of war, but added that this had given rise to the false report about mercenaries were engaged in the fighting.

Col Usman announced that the army had begun the payment of scholarship to children and dependants of all deceased personnel who died in active service.

He said the payment, based on approved criteria, would end at the end of the month.