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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015 INTERNATIONAL Nigeria faces critical six weeks to polling day LAGOS: Nigerians had been due to elect National Electoral Commission’s accept- uine concerns” for a free, fair and credible violence-wracked northeast. Court lawyer Festus Keyamo warned: “Any fur- a new president yesterday until the elec- ance of advice from the country’s security election, the spokesman said. action could equally come from the PDP ther postponement beyond the 30 days toral commission delayed the vote by six chief and its impact on the political cam- if there are further problems in issuing to the May 29 handover date will be a weeks, citing fears about security and the paign. The All Progressives Congress Legal action all voter cards to the 68.8 million regis- recourse to civil disobedience and ongoing Boko Haram insurgency. The (APC) and its candidate Muhammadu Should elections go ahead on March tered electors or if there are claims from unrest.” Violence “may prompt the mili- country will now go to the polls for presi- Buhari were seen as mounting the first 28, they would be within the timeframe either side of voter fraud. A key question tary to seize power and truncate the cur- dential and parliamentary elections on serious opposition challenge to President under electoral laws that stipulate vot- will be whether any disputes can be rent democratic dispensation”, he March 28, with gubernatorial and state Goodluck Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic ing cannot be held later than 30 days resolved before the handover, particu- added. house assembly polls two weeks later on Party (PDP). before the handover of power. larly if there is a repeat of the deadly Political risk consultants Verisk April 11. The delay has triggered wide- The result was even predicted to be Jonathan, whose term of office expires post-poll violence that killed some 1,000 Maplecroft said unrest could at worst spread debate about what happens next, close to call, with the prospect of the PDP on April 30, has twice described the May people in 2011. inflame tensions between the largely particularly if no significant progress is being dumped out of power for the first 29 date for the transfer of power as Christian south and Muslim-majority made in tackling the Islamist insurgency time in 16 years. Buhari, a former military “sacrosanct”. But should he and his party Further delay north. It warned of a “post-election crisis- raging in the north and there is a further ruler, called the election delay “a crude not gain any advantage from the pro- National security advisor Sambo similar to Cote d’Ivoire in 2010/2011 or postponement. Amid fears of widespread and fraudulent attempt to subvert the longed campaign and stall the APC’s Dasuki has said the vote will not be Kenya in 2007/2008 - potentially even violence, the coming weeks are seen as electoral process”, while the APC has momentum, the vote is likely to remain rescheduled again but many believe his escalating as far as civil war”. The APC and among the most important since civilian alleged that the PDP used the military for close-and could even lead to a re-run. six-week deadline to effectively crush others have recalled the political turmoil rule was restored in 1999. “The next six political ends. Jonathan’s campaign Legal action is a real possibility, par- Boko Haram is unrealistic. “Despite the after military ruler Ibrahim Babangida can- weeks are laden with difficult struggles to spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode described ticularly if the military is unable to recent interventions by Chadian and celled elections in June 1993, when the protect Nigeria’s hard-won democracy,” the APC as having “paranoid delusions” secure and stabilize the restive north- Cameroonian forces, Boko Haram has business tycoon Moshood Abiola was set the International Crisis Group’s Nigeria and “far-fetched and childish conspiracy east, allowing hundreds of thousands of proved its continued ability to disrupt,” to win. But Nigeria’s Attorney General researcher Nnamdi Obasi wrote. theories” about the date shift. The distri- displaced people to vote. The APC has wrote Obasi, noting that a wider region- Mohammed Bello Adoke dismissed talk of Political argument bution of voter identity cards, which is already said the integrity of the overall al force has yet to deploy. A slight delay a military “interim national government”, Much of the discussion in the last not yet complete, and the ability to result would be in doubt if voters are after March 28 would still fall within the saying there was no provision in the con- week has centered on the Independent ensure security were “legitimate and gen- disenfranchised in its stronghold in the 30-day limit before May 29. But Lagos stitution implemented in 1999. —AFP Boko Haram invades restive city of Gombe Islamists take fight into Chad KANO: Hundreds of Boko Haram A Nigerian fighter jet encircled The Boko Haram fighters launched its first offensive on the Islamists yesterday invaded the the city but made no attempt to appealed to residents to boycott city, killing 14 people in a bomb restive northeast Nigerian city of attack the insurgents, said witness the elections which had originally attack on a police station. Soldiers Gombe, firing heavy guns and Kabiru Na-Gwandu. He said the resi- been planned to take place yester- repelled another attack on a near- throwing leaflets calling on resi- dents had been warned to evacuate day before they were postponed by prison. Locals said prior to yes- dents to boycott upcoming general Gombe, which has been attacked until March 28. Gombe has been terday’s invasion, the militants had elections, locals said. “The Boko by the insurgents previously. “I repeatedly hit by suicide attacks camped at Hani village, 36 kilome- Haram gunmen are now at the received calls from friends in and other bombings blamed on ters from Gombe, where they preached to locals and informed them they were on their way to take over the governor’s office in the city. “They came around 6:00 VATICAN CITY: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (right) greets Pope Francis in St am (0500GMT) and took over the Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican yesterday. Pope Francis welcomed 20 new car- military checkpoint that was curi- dinals yesterday into the elite club of churchmen who will elect his successor ously abandoned by soldiers on and immediately delivered a tough- love message to them, telling them to Thursday,” resident Mustapha Baba put aside their pride, jealousy, self-interests and anger and instead exercise told AFP. perfect charity. _AP Ongoing offensive He said the insurgents had fled Pope to new cardinals: Put from the Galda forest in neighbor- ing Yobe state following ongoing aside pride, jealousy, anger offensive on their camps by Nigerian troops. The Nigerian mili- VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis welcomed 20 Christmas to Vatican bureaucrats. Then, he tary last week launched a ground new cardinals yesterday into the elite club of ticked off 15 ailments including “spiritual and aerial offensive on Boko Haram churchmen who will elect his successor and Alzheimer’s” and the “terrorism of gossip,” camps in the Galda forest, from immediately delivered a tough-love mes- that can afflict men of the church even at its where the Islamists are believed to sage to them, telling them to put aside their highest levels. be planning attacks in the area. In pride, jealousy and self-interests and instead This is Francis’ second consistory creating the past few weeks, the group has exercise perfect charity. Francis issued the new cardinals and once again he looked to stepped up its offensive both with- marching orders during the ceremony in St the “peripheries” to give greater geographic in Nigeria and against border Peter’s Basilica to elevate the new “princes of representation to the Europe-centric towns of neighboring countries, the church” into the College of Cardinals and College of Cardinals. His choices, though, forcing Nigerian general elections give them their new red hats. Retired Pope also reflect his vision for what the church that were scheduled for yesterday Benedict XVI was on hand for the ceremony, should be: One that looks out for the poor to be postponed by six weeks. sitting off to the side in the front row of the and most marginalized, guided by shep- On Friday, Boko Haram fighters basilica, in a unique blending of popes past, herds who have what he has called the attacked Chad for the first time, tar- present and future. Francis embraced him at “smell” of their sheep. They include Cardinal geting a village on the shores of the start and end of the service and a cluster Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga, a tiny NOUGBOUA: A picture shows the village Nougboua after it was attacked by Nigeria’s Boko Lake Chad. The attack marked a of cardinals lined up to greet him before island state in the middle of the Pacific Haram rebels. Nigeria’s Boko Haram rebels carried out their first attack inside neighboring new escalation in the group’s processing out. Ocean on the front lines of global warming. Chad, targeting a village on the shores of Lake Chad as part of a widening insurgency that has bloody six-year campaign to estab- Many of the new cardinals hail from far- Another is Cardinal Francesco Montenegro sucked in four countries. —AFP lish a hardline Islamic caliphate in flung, often overlooked dioceses where of Agrigento, Sicily, whose church - which northeast Nigeria, which borders Catholics are a distinct minority - a reflection extends to the island of Lampedusa - has Jeka-da-Fari roundabout in the cen- Kwadam, which is five kilometers the Islamists in the six-year insur- Cameroon, Chad and Niger, a cam- of Francis’ insistence that the church look to coped with the arrival of tens of thousands tre of the city, firing indiscriminate- away, warning me to leave because gency in Nigeria’s northeast.

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