Militants Warn Mantu, Odili, Others

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) warned Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, and Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili, to save the country from political heat.

It alleged that both men are the �moving spirits� of the tenure extension project.

MEND Spokesperson, Cynthia Whyte, claimed in an interview in Port Harcourt that Odili is alone in the Niger Delta area as far as the plot is concerned.

�There is no basis to allow President Olusegun Obasanjo to remain in power for another four years after an eight-year sojourn that has left the Niger Delta damaged.

�Our resolve is to obtain self-determination for all Ijaw and the peoples of the Niger Delta. The process is already on course�, he said.

Although Odili has denied that he lobbied for the Joint Committee on the Review of the Constitution (JCRC) to sit in Port Harcourt, the MEND said it will, at the appropriate time, take him on as well as others behind the third term.

It disclosed that it had planned to storm the JCRC�s sitting in Port Harcourt but that the excercise was aborted by the detained Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NEPVF), Mujahideen Dokubo-Asari.

�But for (his) timely intervention, Port Harcourt would have witnessed a mass burial for the third term pushers, sycophants and apologists of Obasanjo. We would have blown them all out from the face of the earth�.

Whyte he and his fellow insurgents have identified enemy targets for the guerilla war, and that when it takes off, they will make the �Palestinians go green with envy and the Chechnyans will seek mentoring from us�.

The political arm of the Dokubo group, the Niger Delta Peoples� Salvation Front (NDPSF), is adamant that any negotiation that does not include his unconditional release and that of impeached Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, would not be popular.

�Besides the release of these leaders, the issues of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC), resource control, self-determination, environmental justice and of course, �No to the third term project�, are very paramount to us,� NDPSF Director of Administration, Mark Olise, stressed on Monday.

The extension of tenure scheme has also knocks from 84 per cent of Nigerians.

Only 16 per cent believe that the President should serve as many terms as he wishes.

These figures were contained in a most recent opinion survey by Afro-barometer, a research network in the United States which conducts regular public opinion polls in 18 African countries.

The latest, the fourth since the transition to democracy in 1999, was carried out from September to December 2005 among a random representative sample of 2,400 Nigerians aged 18 and above.

It strongly suggested that Nigerians are opposed to the extension of tenure and asked Obasanjo to obey the Constitution, including serving no more than two terms.

The survey found support among Nigerians for term limit, free elections, constitutional government, and a total disapproval for an indefinite tenure of the President.

The strongest opposition to elongation of tenure came from the North Central, North West and South West, outside Lagos.

The greatest degrees of acceptance of indefinite Presidential terms were expressed by those in the South East, South South, Lagos and North East.

In every zone at least three-quarters of the public support the current two-term limit for the President and governors.

In the South West and the Niger Delta, eight in 10 respondents affirmed the current term limit.

In the North West and North Central, nine in 10 prefer the existing dispensation.

Nigerians, the survey found, showed clear preferences for multi-party competition and electoral choice including turnover of the Presidency.

They expressed general lack of confidence in the electoral process and craved for free and fair polls.

More than two-thirds believe that elections do not work well at producing a desired turnover of leadership.

All the same, the Senate may reject the report of the JCRC which recommended the third term.

Regardless, Aso Rock may introduce an Executive Bill on the agenda, having gauged opposition to it

A source said �the Presidency will dust the Kanu Agabi/Jerry Gana proposal which was canvassed at the National Conference on tenure extension. We are waiting for them�.

Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi explained that the Senate may reject the report of the JCRC on the basis that it is fraught with illegalities.

He said in Abuja on Monday that proceedings at the Port Harcourt venue of the JCRC was characterised by gross violation of the standing rules of the National Assembly.

�The Senate may reject the report because it had resolved that no lawmaker should borrow money to fund the Constitution review� as the JCRC did, he sated.

Senate Spokesman Victor Ndoma-Egba, confirmed to journalists last week that the Constitution review was funded from a bank overdraft.

Afikuyomi insisted that joint committees are alien to the Constitution and the rules of the Senate and House of Representatives.

In his view, the resolution of the JCRC is not binding on the Senate.

He accused Senator Victor Kassim Oyofo of having breached the rules by sitting with members of the JCRC at the public hearing in Port Harcourt.

Besides, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora narrated that he had protested Oyofo�s presence at the hearing.

His words: �Oyofo is not even a member of the committee, talk less of being a member of the JCRC. He has no basis to sit there with the members of the committee. I protested to the chairman because his presence might be misconstrued as an attempt to influence the committee�, especially as he was said to be shuttling between his seat and where PDP Board of Trustee chairman, Tony Anenih was sitting.

But Oyofo reacted on Monday that �the story of shuttling is not true. If I am in any place where my political leader is, there is no rule prohibiting me from talking to him.

�I am from the South South and I attended the public hearing in that capacity. I am a senator and the public hearing was held in my zone. No responsible senator will stay away from the zone where important issues of serious national importance are being canvassed.

�I attended the public hearing because there are critical issues concerning my people. Issues of traditional rulers, what should go to them, immunity clause and derivation are critical to my people�.