NIGERIANS REJECT LINK TO TERROR NATIONS BY U.S. w/pix of Akunyili
Jan. 5 (GIN) – Act “Nigeria as a country doesn’t have terrorist tendencies. It’s not in our culture. It’s not in our ways. It is not part of us. It is alien to us. We cannot be stigmatized or labeled as likely terrorist because of the…behavior of one person,” said Information Minister Dora Akunyili. “This young man spent almost all his life outside Nigeria …“He was recruited outside this country and trained outside this country. Nigeria never supported him. … So we feel very sad that over 150 million people can be stigmatized because of one person. It is very unfair.” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s botched attempt to blow up a plane headed for Detroit has “seriously” undermined government’s efforts to improve their country’s image, she said, adding that U.S. airport rules, which took effect Monday, discriminate against 150 million Nigerians. Abdulmutallab has been charged with "willfully" attempting to destroy Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas day with almost 300 people on board. Meanwhile, there has been no statement from Nigerian Pres. Umaru Yar’Adua who left his country for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23 and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. “The mystery over (President) Yar’Adua is so bizarre as to be comical—if the consequences weren’t so severe,” wrote Todd Moss, vice president and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. “This 43-days-and-counting power vacuum is being swiftly filled by an insular cabal bent on exploiting the situation for their own gain.” “A decade of constitutional democracy is threatened by the specter of mass violence and a possible military coup.” 
ion against Nigeria by the U.S. over the so-called “underwear bomber” of Nigerian birth who carried explosives into a U.S.-bound plane has sparked an uproar among Nigerians, who are protesting a discriminatory policy against Nigerian nationals.
Jan. 5 (GIN) - Ugandan environmental watchdogs are taking the government to court to force the release of oil production agreements signed with four exploration companies.
The Kampala-based Greenwatch filed suit at the High Court last month, demanding the release of agreements signed with Britain's Heritage Oil and Tullow Oil, Dominion Oil and Neptune Petroleum.
"According to our constitution, every citizen is entitled to information within the possession of the state,” Kenneth Kakuru, Greenwatch's lawyer, told Reuters. "So the state is acting illegally in refusing to release the agreements."
Platform, a London-based environmental advocacy group, published a report in November noted that exploration companies would be making hefty profits from the oil proceeds, leaving Uganda worse off in real cash terms.
President Museveni is closely involved in the plans for oil, raising fears that he will tap the new revenue to consolidate his grip on power. He is expected to seek a fourth term in 2011.
Meanwhile, the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom citing a pre-independence agreement with the British Protectorage government, is looking forward to a “substantial share” of the new oil monies from discoveries on their lands.
U.S. PENSION FUNDS GROUP UNLOADS SUDAN-LINKED OIL SHARES
Jan. 5 (GIN) - TIAA-Cref, asset manager for some of the largest employee pension funds in the U.S., has become the first to divest itself of stakes in four Asian oil groups over concerns about human rights abuses in Sudan.
The move is a victory for rights organizations who have been demanding a sell-off of shares in companies doing business with Khartoum.The move will increase pressure on other investors to sever ties with those companies.
"Today's announcement demonstrates that TIAA-CREF has honored its commitment to genocide-free investing," said Eric Cohen of the Boston-based Investors Against Genocide. "TIAA-CREF has taken a public stand supporting the overwhelming majority of Americans who do not want their savings and pension funds connected to genocide.”
Hye-Won Choi, TIAA-Cref’s head of corporate governance, said her organisation had decided to take action after unsuccessful talks with the four companies to pressure Sudan on human rights issues. “Divestment is not something we take lightly and it was a measure of last resort,” she said. “[But] we could not see eye-to-eye with the companies.”
Three of the four Asian oil companies hit by the divestment are Chinese. The fourth is Indian.
RADICAL CLERIC, DEPORTED FROM KENYA, HEADED FOR JAMAICA w/pix of El Faisal
Jan. 5 (GIN) — A Jamaican-born Muslim cleric who served time in a British jail for stirring racial hatred, is being deported from Kenya for a visa violation.
Kenyan authorities said that Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal is being expelled for preaching in mosques, a violation of his tourist visa.
Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang said el-Faisal entered Kenya from Tanzania on Dec. 24, but officials did not know at the time that he was on an international watch list because of computer malfunctions.
El-Faisal drew international attention over his sermons at London's Brixton mosque in the 1990s. In 2003, the cleric was sentenced to nine years in a British prison after being convicted of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews. He was paroled in 2007.
Before coming to Kenya, El-Faisal traveled from Nigeria and overland through Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Immigration offices in Lunga-Lunga, a Kenya border point with Tanzania, were reportedly unable to do a background check because their computers were not connected to a database which was shut down to install new software.
His arrest took place on New Year's Eve by anti-terror police as he was leaving a mosque in the coastal town of Mombasa. Kenya has a minority Muslim population, mostly on the country's Indian Ocean coast.
The deportation to Jamaica is awaiting transit visas from South Africa, Tanzania and the U.K. which have so far declined to approve them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment