Today's News

A strong editorial from NEXT complains that the government and opposition are both being dishonest and disingenuous regarding the October 1 Abuja bomb blasts. NEXT regrets that both sides have politicized the issue (as indicated in this Daily Trust report, opposition politicians have demanded Jonathan's resignation, and asked the National Assembly to impeach him if he doesn't resign). NEXT's editorial demands honesty from the president, less flame-fanning from the opposition, and a credible investigation.

Business Day talks to sources about the on-going forensic audit of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The audit may raise questions about the role of the NSE’s External Auditors, Messrs Akintola Williams Deloitte ... which is interesting, since the current, interim Director-General of the NSE was only recently the chairman and CEO of Akintola Williams Delloite, for West and Central Africa.

And This Day quotes the leader of the "Niger-Delta Peoples Volunteer Force" (another crude oil bunkering, election-rigging "militia") Mujahid Asari-Dokubo blaming Henry Okah exclusively for the October 1 bomb attack in Abuja, while accusing the Nigerian intelligence and security agencies of ignoring the warning he (Dokubo) gave them before the event. Asari-Dokubo further says Henry Okah hates Goodluck Jonathan, that Jonathan was the target of Henry Okah's attacks, and insists Okah is saying the Jonathan administration attempted to get him (Okah) to participate in a cover-up of MEND involvement in order to embarass the Jonathan administration because (again) Okah hates Jonathan.

Henry Okah is a criminal, and lacks credibility. With that said, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo is also a criminal, and also lacks credibility. The various militia groups in the Niger-Delta have frequently gone to war with each other on behalf of different politicians, and sometimes (like most organized crime syndicates) for control of lucrative territory for criminal enterprise (go to the Human Rights Watch website, they have many reports about the violence in the Niger-Delta). Asari-Dokubo indirectly admits in the article that he and Henry Okah are currently enemies, which makes his statements lose even more credibility; the fact that he is clearly currying favour with the government (something he also did under the preceding Obasanjo and Yar'Adua regimes) lowers the already nonexistent credibility even further.

The politicians and their underworld cronies are still playing silly games. Whatever "leads" investigators may have had have probably gone cold by now. The Nigerian Police Force is bad at preventing the contamination of crime scenes, bold-facedly lies to the public about how, why and when suspects in detention died, and has a tendency of arresting innocent people and locking them away for years claiming them to be guilty of a crime (or related by blood to someone they claim is guilty of a crime) with this conviction-by-police-fiat never adequately tested in any court. As for the "intelligence" agencies, the only thing they are good at is harassing the political opponents of whoever/whatever is the government of the day.

It is getting to a point where we may never know who carried out the Abuja Bombing. Like so many other such events (including the murder of Dele Giwa) it may become a thing that everyone spreads rumours and suspicions about, but no one knows for sure.