Fresh clashes between the DR Congo's army and a group of mutineers erupted Sunday in the eastern...

Fresh clashes between the DR Congo's army and a group of mutineers erupted Sunday in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu, defectors said, a day after fierce battles near a gorilla park.
"We're on the ground. We've been confronting the FARDC (the Democratic Republic of Congo's military) since this morning three kilometres (two miles) from Bunagana ... where we were yesterday," Vianney Kazarana, a spokesman for the mutineers' March 23 Movement, told AFP by telephone.
"The FARDC are using combat tanks. We're resisting. We're at the front, we're facing the enemy."
Nord-Kivu governorate spokesman Celestin Sibomana told AFP that since 1200 GMT fighting has been going on between national troops and mutineers at the strategic hill location of Mbuzi, which faces the Rwanda border, as well as at Chanzu, close to the Uganda border.
But the "road leading from Rutshuru to Bunagana, at the border with Uganda, is open," he added.
"The FARDC is controlling and securing the zone. But the population have been displaced from Bunagana, which is now deserted," he said.
Mutineers have been pushed back "to the end of the Virunga National Park, close to the border with Rwanda," said the spokesman.
The two sides have been mired in tit-for-tat clashes in the remote jungle region for weeks.
The mutineers are former rebels who were integrated into the army under a 2009 peace deal but started to defect en masse, complaining of poor treatment.
On Saturday, fighting broke out when the mutineers attacked army positions in the Rutshuru area near Virunga National Park, home to more than half the world's 700 or so mountain gorillas.
The toll arising from the attacks were uncertain.
Sources close to the army spoke of two dead and several wounded among national troops, according to Omar Kavota, vice-president of a Nord-Kivu non-governmental organisation.
"They also mentioned several mutineers killed," said Kavota.
"We recorded 13 wounded FARDC who were admitted Sunday to the general hospital of Rutshuru.
"Among them, four who are seriously injured were flown this afternoon by a MONUSCO helicopter to intensive care in Goma," he added, referring to the UN peacekeeping mission.
Kinshasa accuses former rebel leader General Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court for enlisting child soldiers, of leading the mutiny.

2015: ACN, CPC Consider Options to Dislodge PDP

With three years to go before the 2015 presidential election, opposition parties have started considering a number of options on how to join forces to wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

The stumbling block to their goal, however, is the much-speculated presidential ambition of the leader of the Congress for Progressive Change, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), who is considered a threat to the plan of forging a working relationship between his party and the Action Congress of Nigeria.

But the renewed romance between the ACN and CPC seems not to have ruffled the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, with its national publicity secretary, Olisa Metu, waving it off as a distraction to the party’s commitment to transform Nigeria.

The last effort at an alliance of the two parties before the 2011 presidential election fell through due to irreconcilable differences between the leadership of the two parties.

Source told THISDAY at the weekend that some stalwarts of the two parties are considering the viability of the Buhari candidacy with the ACN national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as running mate in the next poll.

If he runs in 2015, Buhari would have contested the presidency for a record four times since 2003 when he first took part in the presidential race on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party.

In the run up to the 2011 election, he stated that the contest will be his last, but in recent months speculation has been mounting that he may once more throw his hat into the ring come 2015.

Though Buhari is yet to take a clear stand on whether he would contest the 2015 presidential election, saying that he will continue to play an active role in the polity, his comment last week in Niger State warning PDP not to rig the 2015 election otherwise there will be bloodshed, was a pointer that he might take another shot at the presidency.

The snag in the Buhari-Tinubu ticket, if it becomes a reality, it was gathered, is that the CPC leader, who will be 73 by 2015, might be considered too old for the race in a world where younger elements are emerging leaders in other nations.

Considering this a setback, younger elements in the ACN and the CPC are canvassing another team, comprising former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a close Buhari ally, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, and the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola to fly the alliance ticket should things work out between the two parties.  Fashola, by 2015, would have served out his two terms as governor.

THISDAY gathered that following exploratory talks between both parties, a situation that saw Buhari visiting Tinubu on May 6 for further talks, members of both parties are concerned over whether Buhari would still present himself as a presidential candidate of the CPC.

One CPC member involved in the alliance talks between the CPC and ACN said the talks between the two parties were still ongoing, however, noting that Buhari’s political future was casting a cloud over negotiations.

The source said the young Turks in both parties, nonetheless, have been meeting to work out a Plan B.

“Our game plan is to present two younger elements for the presidential ticket. We are thinking that el-Rufai and Fashola will make a perfect combination. But we don’t know the game plan that Buhari and Tinubu have.

“el-Rufai is popular among the northern youths and Fashola’s commendable performance makes him the perfect match for the former minister. This is what we are thinking of at the moment, but there could be changes in the future,” the source said.

According to him, the younger elements in the both parties are worried that the alliance talks between CPC and ACN may be moving towards a joint presidential ticket comprising Buhari and Tinubu. 

“A joint Buhari-Tinubu ticket would mean closing the doors to the younger elements that have something to offer in the next dispensation,” he added.

On the terms of the talks between CPC and ACN, the source said, “From the initial talks, what is on the ground is an alliance and not a merger. We are discussing the possibility of presenting a unified presidential candidate and cooperating in subsequent elections and not an outright merger where one party will be subsumed by the other.” 

Asked to clarify what he meant by an alliance, the source said, “By cooperating during elections as contemplated in the 2015 presidential election,” adding, “the details are not known yet; with time, everything will become clearer.”

The CPC national secretary, Buba Galadima, when contacted on whether Buhari would contest the 2015 presidential election, simply said, “Buhari is a leader in CPC.

“He is qualified to contest for the presidential election, but the decision depends on him. You just wait and see as everything unfolds after all, power is from Allah.”

However, the PDP said it was not bothered about the rumoured alliance between the two parties. According to the PDP spokesman, Metu, “As a party, we are determined not be bothered by the unholy alliance of the ACN and the CPC whose ultimate target is to distract our irreversible commitment to the transformation of Nigeria.”

THE NIGERIAN JOINT TASK FORCE,(JTF) BURST BOKO HARAM'S HIDOUT IN JOS.

The military, police and members of the State Security Services were all involved in the joint security effort.
A statement by the spokesman of the STF, Captain Markus Mdahyela, revealed that the hideout was discovered by the security operatives following intelligence reports on a location where six women and 11 children of alleged Boko Haram members were kept in solitary confinement.
 According to the statement, arms and ammunition and improvised explosive devices were recovered from the hideout while one of the improvised explosive devices, detonated during the operation but no casualty was recorded.
“The first operation on Thursday 17th May, led to the rescue of six women and eleven children while items recovered from the bungalow include a laptop, external hard disk, eight cell phones, 23 SIM cards and 19 improvised explosive detonators, the statement read.”
The women and children were all rescued for further investigation and rehabilitation, the statement adds.
On further search in the early hours of Saturday, Captain  Mdahyela, stated that, one ak 47, four magazines fully loaded with 7.62mm special and 150m rounds of 7.62 special , 347 rounds of 9mm were also discovered.
Other items recovered are eight bags of urea nitrate fertilizer, two generators, four improvise explosive devices, 395 snipper ammo, 60mm cortex blue wire and other dangerous weapons.

More ammunitions

The Special Task Force statement warned citizens not to allow their houses to be used by terrorists as it will be demolished
It also advised landlords and agents to thoroughly screen tenants and report suspected persons to appropriate security agencies.
Meanwhile, the terrorists’ hideout and environs have been placed under heavy military surveillance.
Plateau state has witnessed repeated bomb explosions claimed by the fundamentalist sect that has been raging an insurgency in the northern part of the country.

FORMER MINISTER KICKS AGAINST DIALOGUE WITH BOKO HARAM

Speaking at a public lecture in honour of late Ijaw nationalist, Adaka Boro, in Abuja,  Mr Fani-Kayode said there is an urgent need for the federal government to bring the current security challenges under control by bringing the full weight of the law to bear on all terrorists.
The sect has in recent years being staging insurgency against the Nigerian government, using series of suicide bombings and strategic bomb blasts, jail breaks, attacks on police stations and academic institutions across the northern part of Nigeria.
Also speaking at the occasion, chairman of the Ijaw youth council, Abuja branch, Mr Francis Tambai appealed to youths from the north not to allow themselves to be used by persons who are bent on destroying the peace of the nation.
Vice-president, Namadi Sambo at a recent function in Abuja, declared that the federal government is willing to engage in dialogue with the sect.
More details to follow soon.

JOINT TASK FORCE (JTF) ARRESTS HIGH PROFILE BOKO HARAM COMMANDER.

Nigeria military task force (JTF) on Friday arrested a high-profile Boko Haram operational commander, along with his wife and five children, during a raid at his residence on Farawa Babban Layi Street in the northwest Nigerian city of Kano.

The arrested operation commander was identified by Nigerian authorities as Suleiman Mohammed, a Yoruba tribe member from Ogbomosho in  southwest Nigeria. Sophisticated weapons were recovered during the raid, including a rifle, 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), three pistols, and 1,000 rounds of live ammunition. No shots were fired during the raid on Mr. Mohammed’s home. 

The arrests are welcome news for the government after a spate of high-profile bombings and shootings across northern Nigeria, violence that has claimed thousands of lives since the Islamist group Boko Haram began its rebellion in 2009. Boko Haram, whose official name in Arabic translates as”People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad,” seek to overthrow the secular Nigerian government and replace the current Constitution with Islamic sharia law, at least in the Muslim areas of the north. Recently, Boko Haram spokesmen have offered to open dialogue with President Goodluck Jonathan, but Boko Haram has shown little room for compromise regarding its main mission, and Nigerian military operations against the group seem likely to continue. State police commissioner Ibrahim Idris confirmed the arrest of the sect leader, adding that “the arrest came after a tipoff by the society agencies, through the information from the general public of suspicious movement of the people into the sect leader house.” 
“Yes, security agencies successfully arrested the top sect leader in the state, whom we’ve alleged to be the operational commander of the sect in the state. {The] investigation commences after the arrest,” Mr. Idris told reporters. 
He explained that the security agencies suspect the arrested sect leader was behind a series of attacks against security forces, Christian churches, and the killing of other innocent citizens.
Police say that they have recovered more than a dozen IEDs from the premises of  Bayero University since the bomb attack of April 29 at the university.
Lt. Ikedichi Iweha, the spokesman of the joint military task force (JTF), also confirmed the arrest of the sect top profile leader.

MTN,ETISALAT AND OTHERS,FINED MORE THAN $2M BY NCC

UAE-based telco Emirates Telecommunications Corp has been fined more than $2m for failing to meet minimum service standards in Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Commission said it has fined the country’s mobile-phone operators a cumulative 1.17bn naira (One Billion, One Hundred and Seventy Million Naira, $7.4m) due to their

inability to meet the quality of service mandates of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Three other telecommunications operators fined by NCC are MTN Nigeria, Airtel and Globacom  as penalty for poor services  rendered to their different subscribers in the months of  March and April 2012.

Details of the penalties already communicated to the different operators indicate that MTN Nigeria Communications and Etisalat, will pay the sum of N360,000,000 ( Three Hundred and Sixty Million ) respectively while Airtel is to pay the sum of N270,000,000 (Two Hundred and Seventy Million Naira). Globacom, on the other hand attracted a penalty in the sum of N180,000,000 (One Hundred and Eighty Million Naira).

All the operators are expected to pay the penalties on or before May 21, 2012 or be liable to payment of additional N2,500,000 ( Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira) per day for as long as the contravention persists.

The penalties are as a result of the contravention of the provisions of the Quality of Service Regulations by the NCC as the operators failed to meet with the minimum standard of quality of service including the key performance indicators, KPIs.

The Commission has in line with the provisions of the regulation, monitored the performance of the operators on the different parameters as provided and the result showed that the service providers  are in contravention of the provisions.

Paragraph 13 & Schedule 3 Paragraph 2 of the Quality of Service Regulation 2012, provides that any company which contravenes this provision will be liable to pay fine as follows:  The sum of N15, 000, 000. 00 (fifteen million naira only) for each parameter for a service contravened in the month of March, 2012.

In addition, a further sum of N2, 500, 000 (two million five hundred thousand naira only) for each parameter for a service for each day the contravention continued throughout the month of April, 2012.

The Nigerian arm of UAE based telecom Etisalat said in 2010 it would spend up to $500m on its network next year, as it looks to double its customer base to 12 million.

Etisalat faces stiff competition in Africa's most populous nation from South Africa's MTN Group and India's Bharti Airtel.

Etisalat started full commercial services in Nigeria in October 2008 after buying a 40 percent stake in a new Nigerian telephone operator from Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co.

Nigeria: EFCC Files Fraud Charges Against Hembe, Deputy

 An Abuja High Court yesterday approved the arraignment of Iorwase Herman Hembe and Azubuogu Emeka Ifeanyi on May 17 over alleged diversion of public funds.
Hembe and Ifeanyi were serving as chairman and deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions respectively before a bribery allegation by the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms Arunma Oteh, during the public hearing on the activities of SEC, led to their
replacement. Ruling on the application by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seeking leave to prefer criminal charges against the lawmakers, Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar held that the application has merit based on the proof of evidence.
In the two counts charge brought by counsel to the EFCC Mr Onjefu Obe, the anti-graft agency alleged that Hembe and Ifeanyi converted to their own use the sum of $4095 given to them by the SEC as traveling allowance to a conference in Dominican Republic in October, 2011.
The offense is contrary to section 308 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The lawmakers had denied both allegations in their statements to the EFCC.

NJC reinstates Salami as President Court of Appeal

After considering the report of an adhoc committee set up to resolve the crisis within the judiciary, the National Judicial Council resolved to reinstate the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, who was suspended by the council on August 18, 2011.




The NJC rose from a two-day meeting on Thursday with a resolution to reinstate the embattled president of the Court of Appeal, after a nine-month impasse.

Although there was no official statement from the NJC, a source privy to what transpired at the meeting informed our correspondent that the council had forwarded a recommendation for Salami's reinstatement to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Efforts to reach the Council's spokesman, Mr. Soji Oye, were unsuccessful as his phone was switched off.

The source, who did not wish to be named, said that the decision was taken in a bid to reach a consensus on the matter.

A previous meeting on February 29, 2012, to consider the recommendation that Salami should be reinstated made by the 29-member Judicial Reform Committee, headed by a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammadu Uwais, had ended in a deadlock.

The Committee was raised by the CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, on October 14, 2011.

Salami's reinstatement was specifically recommended by a sub-committee of the panel made up of Justice Mamman Nasir, Justice U. Kalgo and Justice Bola Ajibola.

The February 29 meeting had failed to reach an agreement on Salami's reinstatement, mostly due to sharp divisions among the members.

It was gathered that council members seen as loyalists to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, were at the vanguard of the opposition to Salami's reinstatement.

Following its failure to arrive on a decision on Salami's fate at the February 29 meeting, the Council set up an ad hoc committee to facilitate a quick resolution of the matter.

The adhoc committee was headed by Justice Aloma Mukthar, who is expected to succeed Justice Dahiru Musdapher as the CJN.

The ad hoc committee was mandated to resolve the contentious issues and report back to the council.

According to a source, the adhoc committee advised Salami to withdraw suits he had filed to challenge his suspension, but as at the time of filing this report, there was no indication that the cases had been withdrawn.

It will be recalled that the NJC had on August 18, 2011, suspended Salami for refusing to apologise to the council and Katsina-Alu after a panel of the council said he breached the code of conduct by lying against the CJN.

The NJC had suspended Salami despite a pending suit he filed at the Abuja Federal High Court to challenge the reports of two panels, headed by Justice Umaru Abduallahi panel, and Justice Ibrahim Auta, respectively, which investigated him and Katsina-Alu for alleged misconduct.

The sub-committee, headed by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, in its report, recommended that Salami should tender a written apology to both Katsina-Alu and the Council.

The Auta's committee also recommended that Salami be cautioned, following which a letter of caution was sent to him.

The Auta panel had found Salami in breach of Rule 1(1) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers.

However, Salami had refused to apologise to the NJC and Katsina-Alu, and instead went to court.

He asked the Abuja FHC to set aside the proceedings and findings of the investigation panel headed by Abdullahi and the recommendations of the panel headed by Auta.

Salami asked the court to declare that the setting up of the NJC Investigation Committee and its composition were in gross violation of the principles of natural justice, and his constitutionally guaranteed right to fair hearing under Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended) and is therefore unconstitutional, null and void.

Salami had cause to head for the court again after his suspension by the council, which also asked the President to retire him from service.

Jonathan had approved the suspension and appointed Justice Dahiru Adamu as the Acting President of the Court of Appeal.

Kicking against the President's action, Salami dragged Jonathan, alongside the NJC and others, to the Abuja FHC, asking the court to declare the appointment of an acting PCA by the President as illegal and unconstitutional.

He also asked for an order directing that all actions in respect of his suspension be stayed and that the status quo ante bellum be maintained by all parties pending the determination of the suit.

Salami's suit is currently before the Court of Appeal, after the FHC stayed proceedings to allow the appellate court answer some questions.

Meanwhile, a former President of Court of Appeal, Justice Mustapha Akanbi has described the resolution to reinstate Salami as a triumph of justice and the rule of law.

In a telephone interview with our correspondent in Ilorin on Thursday, he said the development was a sign of hope for Nigeria and the nation's judiciary.

Akanbi said, “Justice and rule of law have triumphed. We are very happy at the development and that God and truth have revealed themselves. There is hope and bright future for Nigeria and for the country's judiciary. I commend the judiciary and those who are responsible for that position.”

However, the Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State has said it will challenge the NJC' recommendation.

The party urged President Goodluck Jonathan not to act on the NJC recommendation until all the cases pending in court on the matter were dispensed with.

In a statement by the state Chairman of the party, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa, the PDP said, “What was done at the NJC meeting of today (Thursday) simply amounts to an affront on the judicial system and the import is that, if members of the Bench could ignore pending court matters, other Nigerians will be right to do so, and the country will surely head for a state of anarchy.”

ARUNMA OTEH:- RAN SEC AS A ONE MAN SHOW-MANAGEMENT TEAM

The SEC management team which comprised of the Executive Commissioner, Operations-Daisy Ekineh; the Executive Commissioner, Finance and Accounts-Lawal Sani Stores, the Executive Commissioner, Legal and Enforcement-Charles Udora; and the Director of Human Resources-Useni Dauda, gave this indication at the public hearing on the near collapse of the capital market by an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
On the controversial recruitment of some Access bank staff as contract staff for the commission, all the members of the management team stated that, they were not informed of the Ms Oteh’s decision to recruit the two bank staff into the commission on secondment.
The Head of the Human Resources of the commission, Mr Daudu said he had written a letter to the DG to inform her that employing contract staff is alien to the commission and that the commission could either regularize the employment of the staff or let them go.
“When the DG resumed duty in SEC, she came along with some staff and then we did advise that those staff have to go through the process of employment. We recommended contract appointment. Approval was given with the aim that later on all those who were employed will be collated and passed on to the execute management for recruitment approval. But till now the board have not discussed the matter,” Mr Daudu said.
In responding to this issue, Mrs Oteh said in recruiting contract staff, she did not violate any law of the land.
She however, promised that the matter will be discussed in the next executive meeting.
Unknown donors/partners of Project 50
The ad-hoc committee also probed Ms Oteh on the 2011 Project 50 event organised by the commission to celebrate the 50th year anniversary of capital market regulation in Nigeria.
The committee had on Monday, demanded information on who were the financiers of the event but Ms Oteh promised to come along with the list of donors for the event which she said was part of a market development initiative.
The SEC boss however failed to mention the donors who contributed funds to the event.
“I will bring out a list if I can find it among the documents. I think the questions (of the probe panel) have moved to HR, to mergers and all of that and I am trying hard to make sure that I respond very accurately. We can make that submission, as I said previously,” she said.
After failing to submit list of sponsors, Ms Oteh said the event was not financed by donors but that SEC wrote to its partners to inform them of the needs for the event and that each of the partners including Reuters, Bloomberg handled different needs of the Project.