01/14/2004
opinion Lagos - Make us heed the passionate call of Pope John Paul II who not long ago had cause to say to the men and women of the world: "On my knees I beg you to turn away from the path of violence and return to the path of peace." Let our hearts nurture peace and cultivate forgiveness and love instead of hatred and vengeance. Show the angry men and women around me that the Christian teaching of indiscriminate love, embracing friend and so-called enemy, has become an imperative, a practical necessity, for with the present level and dimensions of violence, humanity is on the verge of committing suicide. Yes, make our people recognise with Martin Luther King Jr. the fact that the choice before us today is no longer one between violence and non-violence. It is either non-violence or non-existence.01/12/2004
ANAMBRA State Traditional Rulers have reacted to the on-going political crisis in the state and called for the immediate restoration of Governor Chris Ngige's security details. The traditional rulers also condemned any attempt by anybody to subvert judicial process or an attempt to use extra-judicial mechanism to frustrate the attainment of democratic ideals in Anambra State. Rising from a meeting in Awka attended by 58 traditional rulers from the state's 177 communities, they called for the continued preservation of law and order in Anambra State. The traditional rulers' condemnation came on the heels of a similar condemnation from the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) which lashed at the PDP forthe political crisis in Anambra State. MASSOB slammed the party for planning to "unseat their imposed Governor in Anambra State," saying it is a decisive plan to destabilise the Igbo race and stop them from pursuing the Biafran mandate.
