ASUU vows to continue with strike

Says govt’s sack threat tragic for Nigeria, Africa

• Denies making fresh demands, alleges misrepresentation

FOR the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the threat by the Federal Government to sack its members has a “tragedy of huge proportions for Nigeria and Africa.”

  The union denied the allegation by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, that it had given the government new conditions for suspending its strike.

  ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, disclosed the position of the union Monday in Abuja while briefing journalists at a press conference titled “Misrepresentations and intimidation: How not to manage the crisis in the university system.”     

  According to him, university teachers have a duty to defend the rights of Nigerians to sound public education and to succumb to the threat by the government is to give up on the country.

  “We in the academic profession have no such intention”, he said.

  His words:  “While ASUU has been struggling for conditions in which Nigerian students would benefit from a very much enhanced academic environment in teaching and research facilities, the minister of education is thinking of a thoughtless sack as a resolution of the problems arising from government’s non-implementation of an agreement reached with ASUU as if Nigerian rulers have made no intellectual progress since Abacha!

  “The threat to sack all lecturers exercising their rights was made in 1993-1996 by Gen. Babangida and Abacha regimes. Prof. Ben Nwabueze, who was the Minister of Education in Gen. Babangida’s regime and who was instrumental to the military assault on the right of Nigerians to strike, is still alive. It is unfortunate that close to twenty years of national life have not taught politicians and their government the simple lesson that the job of the lecturer is bound by the university statues, which stipulates conditions for employment, promotions and dismissal of lecturers at all levels.

  “The ongoing crisis was exacerbated when one side to the dispute, government, represented by the Secretary to the Federal Government announced to the public and ASUU that the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding (a document authorised by himself) was not binding on government since it was not signed by a permanent secretary and was, therefore, a mere promise and a non-binding piece of paper. The valid endorsement of agreed resolutions by both sides is a sine qua non for a just and lasting resolution of the present dispute. It is a universal position, not a new method.”

  According to him, there are over 30,000 university teachers in Nigeria, each with certain rights that cannot be pronounced away by any government or minister.

  He added: “To be clear: Nigerian lecturers - from graduate assistants to professors, are not begging anybody for jobs. It is now well known that since 2003, successive governments have told the Nigerian people reportedly that the solution to Nigeria’s social economic crises is to kill public and educational institutions and institute the reign of private control of the economy and education, whereas the constitution of Nigeria states clearly that the commanding heights of Nigeria’s economy shall be publicly owned.

  “The President of Nigeria in 2003, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, told ASUU that the solution to Nigeria’s university crisis is massive privatisation. From all indications, the minister of education, on behalf of the present government, is set to carry out in the sphere of education what one of its predecessors did with Transcorp and the Airways. The way is being paved for the privatisation of education.”

  On the allegation made by the Federal Government that the union after meeting with the President came up with fresh demands, Fagge said: “I will establish to all discerning minds that ASUU did not bring any ‘new conditions’ as claimed by the minister of education and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Mr. Doyin Okupe. It is government that is trying to avoid taking responsibility.”

  Justifying ASUU’s request to the President to disburse the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for public universities, he said: “If you look at the government’s paper of  November 6, 2013, it states that the Federal Government shall provide N200 billion in 2013. ASUU’s letter to the President does not change that agreement. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of ASUU’s position, conveyed to His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan through the minister of education, only said the following: ‘Our members are suggesting that the N200 billion agreed upon as revitalisation fund for public universities should be deposited in the CBN and disbursed to the benefiting universities within two weeks.’”

  He also disclosed that it would be “unreasonable to suggest that it is a new demand. ASUU NEC’s position that the funds for the revitalisation due to universities in 2013 should be released within the first two weeks of December 2013 is not a new demand. It is a sensible suggestion to guard against implementation failure.”

  According to him, the inclusion of the non-victimisation clause is a universal practice, and ASUU’s insistence that the resolutions accepted by both sides be documented is not a new demand but a requirement of all agreements.

  The ASUU President noted that the union would welcome Nigerians abroad to come and join the academic development of Nigerian universities.

  “This will benefit the ASUU’s struggle to reverse the braindrain. Let the minister of education find thousands of them to replace those he wants to sack”, he said. 

  He also denied allegations that the APC was behind the strike, adding that ASUU was not a political party neither did it have any political affiliations.

  According to him, however, the ASUU is always open to negotiation with the government and willing to call off the strike when its demands are met.

  “We shall only bow to what we as academics are convinced will serve the interest of Nigeria and its people, no matter their ethnicity, religion or class. This is where we stand. We shall never be cowed,” he said. 

   Fagge also appealed to all Nigerians who cared about the country to prevail on the government to “do what is just and noble as its present approach will only compound the deepening yet avoidable crisis.” 

  The Chairman of University of Uyo Chapter of ASUU, Mr. Nwachukwu Ayim, said that his members would not succumb to any threat, as the December 4 deadline was not binding on them.

  He told The Guardian that the announcement by the university’s management for students to get prepared to return to school had nothing to do with ASUU’s stance on the strike as the union was not in any way bound by such statements.

  “We are not the people that shut the school in the first place, the university management can ask students to come back, but ASUU members are not bound to return to work”, he said.

  According to him, the UNIUYO ASUU congress has resolved to continue with the strike until the Federal Government fulfils its promises to the union.

  The chapter of ASUU at the University of Ibadan (UI) berated Okupe for calling the union “enemy of the state” and directed its members not to sign any register.

  The teachers appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to read the letter sent to him by the union so as to know that ASUU was not out to disrespect him.

  The union spoke as students of UI defied the school management’s order directing them to resume.

  The aggrieved teachers, who held a congress at UI, resolved not to sign any register and insisted that the government must perfect the resolution paper and implement the agreement reached with them.

  The Chairman, UI chapter of ASUU, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, told reporters in Ibadan that there was no going back in the fight for proper funding of public universities by the Federal Government.

  But lecturers at the Ondo State-owned Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, resumed in the institution yesterday.

  Although lectures did not start fully in all the departments, a visit to the school campus showed that the lecturers, who responded positively to the directive of the university management to report for duties on Monday, resumed in their various departments, particularly at the faculties of arts and education.

  Meanwhile, the Lord Bishop of Ife Anglican Diocese, Rt. Rev. Oluranti Odubogun, has appealed to ASUU to resume work in the interest of the nation and the innocent children who are being adversely affected and disregard the threat of the Federal Government.

  According to him, the teachers have made a point that is very clear to the entire nation and the fact that battle is not won just once.

  Speaking at the weekend during the Diocese of Ife Carnival for Christ 2013 Grand Finale at Ife Anglican Grammar School, Arubidi, Ile-Ife, the cleric indicted the government for not being ready to accept its blame and that the kind of threat issued to ASUU had never worked.     

  He said that the Federal Government had failed and was only playing on emotion, noting that the then Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, during his administration did the same thing but failed.

Gunmen attack Air Force base in Borno, many die

 Raid houses, police outpost, Maiduguri airport 

• Military personnel, others killed 

• State govt declares 24-hour curfew 

OVER 400 suspected Boko Haram gunmen Monday broke the peace that was gradually returning to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in the last six months.

  They attacked the 204 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base and killed several military personnel and residents in the area.

  The attack on the base, which is used by the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in fighting terrorism in the state, commenced around 3.00 a.m. 

  The gunmen chanted “God is great! God is great!” before storming the Air Force base through three villages, Njimtilo, Shuwari and Moronti, west of Maiduguri International Airport.

  They also attacked the 777 Housing Estate police out-post; the trailer park under construction; Maiduguri International Airport, several petrol and police stations and houses, including four NAF quarters in Gomari ward located south of the base.

  According to an eyewitness and resident of Gomari ward, Ibrahim Isa, the gunmen started firing at the base around 3.00 a.m., targeting about three fighter jets and helicopter gunship stationed at the base. 

  Isa said: “We could not sleep throughout last night, as the exchange of gunfire and explosions of several Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) continued for over four hours at the base and its environs comprising three neighbourhoods on Maiduguri-Kano Road. Even though I cannot tell you the exact number of people killed, I am certain we lost three of our neighbours in yesterday’s attack at the Air Force base. It is only the military that can tell you the exact number of people killed.

  “Some of the gunmen that participated in attacking this Air Force base were also shot dead, as some of the bodies were still lying on the air field today (Monday). But the civilians killed yesterday have been buried according to Islamic rites.”

  Barely two hours after the attacks, all the major roads and streets, including Airport Road, were closed to motorists, forcing many people, including school children, to trek to their respective destinations at 7.00 a.m.

  A top military officer, who was not authorised to speak on yesterday’s incident, said: “These attacks on our military base were well-planned and co-ordinated, as the gunmen did not use the conventional routes of roads and streets, but used the dirty village tracks west of the Maiduguri airport. Even their movements with arms were not sighted by any of our men on patrol, until our base was attacked by these hoodlums, destroying several lives and military facilities that may take time to replace in the fight against terrorism in the North-East sub-region of this country.”

  The spokesman of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Col. Mohammed Dole, also yesterday in a statement confirmed the terrorists’ attacks, stating that troops had successfully repelled the insurgents.

  The statement reads in part: “In the early hours of Monday, December 2, 2013, Boko Haram terrorists attempted to gain access to our locations in the Seventh Division. But the Nigerian Army successfully repelled the insurgents and inflicted serious casualties on them. The situation around Njimtilo and Maiduguri International Airport general areas is calm and under control.

  “Our troops supported by the Nigerian Air Force aircraft are presently pursuing the terrorists towards the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road. Members of the general public are requested to remain calm and comply with the 24-hour curfew imposed by the Borno State government.”

  The curfew, according to the statement, will be reviewed periodically as the security situation improves.

  On the curfew, the Secretary to the State Government, Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, noted in a statement made available to reporters in Maiduguri: “The Borno State government in consultation with the GOC 7 Division, Nigerian Army, has decided to impose a 24-hour curfew on Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and environs starting from 11.00 a.m. today, Monday, December 2, 2013.

  “The imposition of the curfew is necessitated by an attack in Maiduguri by people suspected to be Boko Haram members in the early hours of today. During the period of the curfew, the Borno State government pleads with all citizens to remain calm and law-abiding until the situation is put under control as the security agencies will do everything possible to maintain lives and property of the citizens. Only vehicles on emergency calls and essential services are allowed to move during the period. The curfew will be lifted as soon as the situation improves.”

Man, 50, allegedly rapes 12-yr-old girl

BY GBENGA            OLARINOYE
OSOGBO — A 50-year-old man, Tajudeen Omole, has been arraigned before an Osogbo chief magistrate’s court for allegedly having carnal knowledge of a 12-year-old girl.

The accused person was said to have committed the offence on November 27, 2013 at 1, Ikolaba, Osogbo, the capital of OsunState.

It was reliably gathered that the accused went to the house of the victim to ask after her sister who he claimed was his friend.

The sister was not in the house and the accused cunningly lured the girl into her room where he allegedly defiled her.

It was further gathered that although the girl attempted to scream for help, she was over powered.

She, thereafter, reported the case to those she found around the house.

The suspect was later arrested by the residents who  handed him over to the police.

The Police prosecutor, Inspector Solomon Oladele, told the court that the offence committed was punishable under section 218 of the criminal code cap 34 vol II laws of Osun StateNigeria, 2003.

Counsel to the accused, Mr. Okobe Nagite, applied for the bail.

Presiding magistrate, Mr. Olusola Aluko, in his ruling ordered that the accused  be remanded in Ilesha prison while counsel to the accused is to file a formal application for his bail.

t: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/man-50-allegedly-rapes-12-yr-old-girl/#sthash.ztjxwZnv.dpuf

Oshiomhole donates N2m to widow

Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo on Monday donatedtwo million naira to a widow he allegedly insultedwhile on an inspection tour of the state.

The widow, Mrs Joy Ifije,who was invited to theEdo Government House by the governor,was also offered automatic employment by Oshiomhole.

Oshiomhole had invited the widowto personally apologise to her over hisuncomplimentary remark that had generated controversies in the conventionaland social media in the last few weeks.

'' Let me apologise to you for the way I spoke to you, I am very sorry about the statement.

“I have also realised that even in anger, one could still achieve the same result that he set out to without provocative outburst.

'' I apologise from the bottom of my heart, but sometimes you get angry when people compromise your efforts.''

He saidthat government was trying to change the face of the state capital by doing its best to make the city beautiful.

The governor said that it was frustrating and bad for some people to truncate government efforts.

He stressed that trading on the road and walk ways could hinder free flow of traffic as well as cause accidents.

Oshiomhole, therefore, appeal to the widow to join in thecampaign against road and walkways trading.

The governor saidthat exposing consumables to unhygienic sanitary conditions could alsocause”disease and pose dangerous health hazards to humans”.

Oshiomhole, who also announced the automatic employment to the widow, said that the employment would help her ease the burden of widowhood and give her children good and proper education.

He further assured the widow that his family would assist the widow's second child in furthering his education, while also appealing to her to resist the temptation of law breaking.

The widow had earlier apologised to the governor for her action, saying '' I know I was wrong, that was why I quickly knelt down to beg when I realised I was face to face with the Governor''.

She promised to work with the stategovernment in its campaign against street trading and obstruction.

She alsopromised to make judicious use of the money donated to her by the governor.

EFCC Re-arraigns Sylva For Alleged N19bn Scam

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will on Tuesday re-arraign former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, and six others on 42 counts before Justice A. R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The other accused persons are Francis Okuburo, Gbenga Balogun, Samuel Ogbuku, Marlin Maritime Limited, Eat Catering Services Limited and Haloween Blue Construction and Logistics Limited.
According to a statement on Monday by the Acting Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, Sylva’s re-arraignment is sequel to fresh evidence linking him with a bouquet of fraudulent transactions that border on money laundering during his tenure as governor of Bayelsa State between 2009-2012.
The anti-graft agency had earlier arraigned Sylva over six counts of criminal conspiracy and conversion of state’s property and resources amounting to N2.45bn before Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The Prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo, said Sylva allegedly perpetrated the fraud through proxies under the false pretences of using the amount to augment salaries of the Bayelsa State Government.

Ekweremadu Calls For Extension Of Jonathan's Tenure To 2017

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, CFR has for the second legislative session running been the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review.

In his first advent between 2007 and 2011, he led the committee in the first substantive alteration of the 1999 Constitution after two failed attempts in the preceding legislative sessions.

The Ekweremadu Committee is again headed towards other fundamental alterations of the Committee before the middle of next year. Senator Ekweremadu, in a session with newsmen expounds on the committee’s positions on some of the issues and juxtaposes his own personal position on some of the issues which he affirms would bring solution on some of the raging issues in the polity.

Ekweremadu who was a key associate of Senate President David Mark in the postulation of the Doctrine of Necessity, in the session suggests the invocation of another doctrine of necessity for the extension of the term of President Goodluck Jonathan and all serving governors for the realization of a single term for executive office holders and then the El dorado he says the nation urgently needs.

Excerpts:
When the matter came up at the level of our committee we were mindful of the political atmosphere, we also tried to draw inspiration from what happened in other jurisdictions, especially in Latin America in the seventies where they had circumstances in which the issue of transition from one president to another was a major issue and was causing crises within their region and they decided to amend their constitution at the time to create single term in each of those countries, and it was for a transition period.

This helped to stabilise their democracy and now, some of them are amending their constitutions to go back to two terms of maybe four or five years. So, we felt that it was something we could recommend to our country.

If you look at what is going on in Nigeria, in both the new PDP and APC are based on the issue of succession. We believe strongly that that matter is something that could be revisited.

But I think the mistake we made in our recommendation was when we said incumbents would not benefit from it, and I think there was then some kind of coalition of forces to defeat it.

Yes, I believe that if the players in the polity, that is, the stakeholders are able to come together, I believe strongly that it is one way to deal with the situation.

It could be a win-win situation for everybody and I believe that the one way it could work is…now people have been elected for four years, now let everybody complete the four year tenure for which they have been elected and we can through the doctrine of necessity do some kind of transition of two years in which case, those who are now present occupants like the president and the governors who are finishing their term, could now do another two years that will end in 2017.

You see, some of those who are fighting the president, I hear that their complaint is that if the president gets a second term when they are gone that they may start chasing them. Now if we agree that that could be a way to solve the problem, after two years both the president and those other governors will now exit and the fear will not be there and I believe it will bring down the temperature of politics.

Of course we don’t have much problem with the legislative positions, we can go ahead and hold the legislative elections in 2015. The advantage will be that if we do the legislative elections in 2015, and then we do executive elections in 2017, then we will have two year gap for INEC to have a breathing space to prepare well. You can see what is happening in Anambra now. INEC needs sufficient time to recover from one election to another.

I think it is something that we need to reflect on and see if it is something that can help to resolve some of the challenges that are having now. And I do hope that if we are able to do that and we all agree to it, that it is going to solve even some of the security challenges because I do believe that some of the security problems we are having, some of them are from the tension arising from politically charged atmosphere.
So, somehow, everybody will benefit from it, both the president, the governors and all that and all we need to do is to exercise some patience and give them two more years and they will all exit and we will start on a clean slate and go forward.

If you say it is five years, six years or seven years, we will all agree so that the cost of all these re-elections and all that and all the problems that come with it would have been resolved and people will now know that if I am a president or a governor, I have a certain number of years and when I finish, I am not going to hunt the president or stop him from running again.

Right now what is happening is that if the governor wants a re-election, he will do all kinds of things to stop the opposition and on the other hand someone else will accuse the governor of all kinds of silly things because he wants to have himself elected, so it causes all kinds of problems.

Even the cost of the election itself, I don’t think that Nigeria can continue to sustain that. I know how much money we have spent on INEC and besides I know that politicians themselves spend a lot of money which most of them don’t ever declare. So, it is a huge cost to the country, but if we say let there be single term especially for the executive positions, some of these costs will have to be reduced.

So, I am sure that it is something that we have to reflect on, it has the potential of dealing with the politically charged atmosphere, it has a way of helping to reduce the cost of election in this country and I believe that it will even help in driving a solution to the security challenges.

State Police
Every Nigerian knows my position on this. I have my personal position, I have my official position because I belong to an institution. The Senate at the level of the Committee on Constitution Amendment rejected the suggestion for state police and so we could not take it even to the floor and as a person, it was my job and responsibility to present the report of the committee and I needed to explain to my colleagues why we were unable to make that recommendation and the reason we gave was that though it has its advantages, but that Nigeria was not ripe for it and that it was something for the future. That is the official position of the committee that I head.

Now as an individual, I believe strongly that we can never, never resolve our security challenges in Nigeria as long as we are doing what we are doing now. Never, never! Let’s continue what we are doing, in five years if we meet again, it would be the same problem that we would be having.

The reason is clear. No other country is doing what we are doing in terms of policing. Most countries, especially the federations, have adopted what I call decentralised policing and indeed, the issue of state police is even anachronistic. What is done is multilevel policing or decentralised policing.

You see, the security challenges have become very complicated, so you will have to bring a complicated process to address it. You cant have a federal type of government and then adopt the unitary police system and expect that to succeed.

Even the white men when they came, they knew that a centralised police can not work in Nigeria and so, the kind of police they set up was the Native Authority Police and it worked.

They also introduced the Prisons which were Native Authority based and it was later, I think in 1936 that the Federal Police was set up.
So both the Federal Police and the local government police were existing together until 1966 when the army took over.

Unfortunately, the army had set up a committee, to review that type of policing at the time and it came to the conclusion that people were using it to intimidate political enemies and it was bound to happen because the white men did not bother to set up a structure that would regulate that kind of police. There was nothing like Police Service Commission with clear guidelines on how to structure these Native Authority Police and to be able to determine what bounds they must stop.

But instead of the army finding a solution to reform that arrangement and make sure that there was a level of control or regulation, what they did was that they threw away the baby with the bath water and now cancelled other levels of police and set up a central police system which we have now.

What happened after that? First was armed robbery because armed robbers were now going about their business everywhere because you keep posting policemen from Kano to Enugu, from Enugu to Calabar, from Calabar to Ibadan, so you bring people who do not know the place and the armed robbers are taking advantage of it. So, after the armed robbers have taken over the place, now you have kidnappers, ritualists and all sorts of people coming into the crime business.

The police we have they are not grounded, they don’t know the environment they are operating. Let’s give an example that you send a male Southerner, maybe, a Christian to Sokoto and then in the course of his beat and he starts pursuing the person. Once you run into a house, he cannot go further because if there is a woman who is staying there, he is not allowed to go into the house.

So, there are cultural differences that we have to respect and the only way we can do that is to get a policeman who is part of the culture of the place, who respects the culture and knows the environment and who stays there and as long as he is doing the police work, he knows everybody there.

What they do now in most countries is not state police, but decentralized policing or multi-level policing which means that in Abuja for instance, we will have the federal police, then we will have the Abuja Federal Capital Territory Police, then those of us who live in Apo, will have our own police and then the University of Abuja will have its own police and these are all well coordinated.

So, if there is an offence in Apo for instance, the first police you will call is the policeman who lives on your street and the man appears there in seconds.

So, if he thinks it is something that he cannot handle, then he will call his colleagues who live in other areas of Apo and if it becomes too much for them, they will call the FCT police and if it is still too much for them, they will now call in the federal police and by the time you finish all these, they would have arrested the criminal.

In America they commit crime everywhere and everyday, but the difference is that no matter where you go, they will find you because they are everywhere and they know what happens within the environment they operate.

Are you going to debate the recommendations of the National Dialogue?
What problem do you have with our debating it?

There is a perception that if the people say that this is what they want that you shouldn’t tamper with it?
Legislative process is a time consuming process and it is meticulous. The product of a legislative process is expected to endure for a very long time and that is why it is painstaking. So, if it is brought to parliament it has to go through the whole process because people’s lives are involved and there is no legislation more important than the constitution. So, if some people come together and agree on a constitution and bring it to the parliament, we have to look at it line by line, to make sure that everything is right because after all, they are the duly elected representatives of the people.

There may not be fundamental changes to it, but they are going to be subjected to debate because several heads are better than one. It is critical that it should be subjected to legislative process and when that happens we would be assured that the whole process has been completed.

There is no way you can sit down in Abuja, bring some people together, they craft a constitution together and it becomes law. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world.

Assuming we had a military regime, it is possible that you can bring people, set up a Constituent Assembly because there is no parliament and so they can agree on whatever they want to be the constitution. But not where you have an institution recognized by the constitution as the ultimate legislative body and you go and duplicate that institution by bringing another set of people by asking them to go and do a constitution. You are asking for anarchy.

We hope that those who will come for the national dialogue will realize this, and know that nobody can escape the necessity of sending the outcome to the National Assembly and even to the State assemblies so that it will go through the whole hog in accordance with the law.

You have been hot and cold on creation of new states?
We have never said that it is impossible, what we have consistently said is that it is very difficult and I still maintain that it is difficult. Because a situation where you have to generate certain signatures and then bring it to the National Assembly, which will then deliberate on it and then send it to the Independent National Electoral Commission for referendum within the area that wants to be a state and after that you will now send it to all the states of the federation irrespective of where the demand is coming from.

If you are requesting for a state in Calabar, you will have to send it to Sokoto and when they finish, in those State Houses of Assembly, you will bring it back to the National Assembly to vote and it is only when it passes through that it now becomes a state. If that is not difficult, I wonder then what is difficult.

We are not saying that it is impossible, but we encourage people to try the process, let’s see how far that they can go.

Ekweremadu’s postulation
*Proclaim a Doctrine of Necessity
*Instead of contesting in 2015, President Jonathan’s tenure should be extended to 2017 and he leaves office.
*The tenure of all governors would also be extended to 2015 and they would all leave office in 2017.
*The new president and new governors would serve a single term
*National Assembly, and State Assembly Elections would still hold in 2015 which will give a break between executive and legislative elections
*Introduce Multi Level Policing in the Country.

Did Chris Okotie really say all Catholics will go to hell because they worship satan?

According to a report by PM News, he did! Hard to believe but read their report below...

From PM News Nigeria

    All Catholics in the world will go to hell because they worship Satan and are led by an Anti-Christ Pope who is a friend to the devil, Nigeria’s controversial preacher Chris Okotie, told his congregation on Sunday, leaving members bewildered.

    Okotie, while preaching in his Household of God Church in Lagos, said the Catholic church is “a counterfeit church set up by Satan” and that Catholics “bow to idols and crucify Jesus every Sunday when they eat bread claiming they are eating Jesus’ body.”

    “They are not Christians and have never been. They don’t know Jesus. They believe that when they eat bread on Sundays, they are eating the body of Jesus. It’s ritual,” Okotie told a stunned congregation.

If he really said this then it's a damn shame. Is this pastor really a man of God? He can't make his marriages work and now he's condemning a religious denomination? See the rest of what he allegedly said yesterday after the cut...

He said Pope Francis is an Anti-Christ who does the job of the devil and that time is fast approaching when the Catholic church will pledge allegiance to Satan.

    “The pope is an Anti-Christ and the Catholic church will soon declare for Satan. This is the end of times,” Okotie erupted.

He advised members of his church to come to the rescue of Catholics and evangelise them.
This, he said, was not out of disrespect but out of respect for the word of God.
He said those who know the truth should bring it to those who do not know it in the Catholic Church.
Okotie said one of the Catholic most revered Popes, Pope John Paul 11, surrendered the Catholic Church to Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus Christ, instead of Jesus himself. He said even the current Pope Francis has also done same.

He said Catholics are not Christians and do not worship the same Christ that he preaches in his church, at least the one spoken about in the Bible.
Okotie said he did not write the Bible but it was clear to him that those in the Catholic church were lost and were heading to hell fire.

    “They don’t believe in heaven. They believe in purgatory, the purgatory that they invented,” Okotie said.

    “That church, the Catholic church has been there for Satan and at the right time, they will declare for Satan,”Okotie said.

Okotie who has been married twice and divorced also twice said a beauty pageant will take place in his church next Sunday to select the most beautiful woman in his church.
He also said his yearly “Grace programme” where he makes donations to charity organisations will also take place next Sunday.

The once rock star turned celebrity preacher and politician has been controversial for years.
He once said it was the devil who told him for the first time that he was going to be a preacher.
He also said Nigeria’s famous preacher Prophet T.B. Joshua is the son of the devil and his followers will go straight to hell.
In recent years, he has been saying that God has anointed him to be Nigeria’s president. That prophecy has not come to pass in two presidential elections that he participated in.