SIX days away, year 2004 would have run its complete race. It will be bye to a year, like others before it, started with so much promises and projections.
As a nation, there were genuine hopes that the needed rebirth was imminent, thanks to the pledges by President Olusegun Obasanjo after he won the April 19, 2003 presidential polls for another term. It was an era for optimists who preached to fellow compatriots that the new dawn was finally here.
opinion
Lagos - THE Igbo have been talking about Project 2007, which means having one of their own occupying the seat of power at the Presidential Villa.
There is nothing bad in such a desire. However, if wishes were horses, as the saying goes, beggars would surely ride. It is not a bad wish at all. However, such wish must be backed up with concrete action. Such action should in turn be based on realistic assessment of the situation on ground. The Igbo just have to know that mere wishing for the presidency will not make one of their own occupy Aso Rock, come 2007. They really have to reach out to other parts of the country.
Lagos - PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has been called upon to prevail on the Nigerian police to stop their incessant arrests, detention and torture of members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).
Owerri - THE State Security Service, SSS has said that the clamour for Sovereign National Conference in the country constitutes a threat to national security.
The security outfit therefore urges those holding the opinion to change their line of thinking as such calls amounted to subversion.
The Independent (Freetown)
A pro-Biafrian group has emerged in Sierra Leone.
The group known as "RISINGSUN" says it empathizes with the people of
what they call "former Eastern Nigeria" who fought a three -year
civil war from 1967 to 1970.
analysis
Lagos - Judicial Cleansing
Justice Egbo Egbo: In the wake of the of the Ngige abduction in July, 2003, the Uba group went to the Federal High Court in Abuja with Wilson Egbo-Egbo presiding. In a particularly ludicrous judgment, Egbo-Egbo ruled that Gov. Ngige vacate his office for his deputy, Dr. Okey Ude, one of the principal conspirators in the failed coup plot against Dr. Ngige. Egbo-Egbo, already sufficiently reputed to be a government lackey, dramatically reversed himself and blamed one Asogwa, a court registrar, for the order which he claimed he signed without reading the contents! But the incensed public, especially the legal community, could not be persuaded. Nor did any person believe him. After an exhaustive examination of the case against him and his defence, the National Judicial Council unanimously came to the inescapable conclusion that Egbo-Egbo was a judicial misfit. The Council consequently suspended him and recommended his outright dismissal to the executive arm of government which surprisingly chose to retire him with benefits. Three months after the National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended the retirement of Justice Samuel Wilson Egbo Egbo from the bench, the federal government finally approved the recommendation and subsequently Justice Egbo Egbo was sent on indefinite suspension following the completion of investigation on the petition by Anambra State government protesting the ex-parte injunction he granted on July 22. The judge had in the injunction restrained Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State from parading himself as governor and therefore urged him to handover to his erstwhile deputy Dr. Okey Udeh.
opinion
Lagos - President Olusegun Obasanjo on December 7 inaugurated an eight-man
committee, which includes Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed
Makarfi as chairman, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Professor Jerry Gana,
Professor Okwudiba Nnoli and Professor Joy Ogwu to tackle every conceivable
problem under the sun afflicting Nigeria.
opinion
Lagos - When in November last year the Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze
elected its current leaders, many heaved a sigh of relief. The thinking then
was that the new helmsmen would give the almost moribund organisation a new
lease of life and free it from the grip of old and tired men. There was
promise of a new bite driven by the force of a renewed vision.
Owerri - LEADER of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of
Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike yesterday said he is alive and well,
three days after a combined police and State Security Services (SSS)
invasion of his Okwe, Imo State residence.
Owerri - THREE days after security operatives from the Imo State police command
invaded his home and stopped a meeting of his Movement for the Actualisation
of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), the whereabouts of Chief Ralph
Uwazuruike remains unknown.
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