Clashes in Gabon as Bongo narrowly wins re-election

Gabon’s president Ali Bongo was declared winner Wednesday of contested weekend elections, extending half-a-century of rule by the Bongo family which sparked clashes in the Central African nation.

Protesters shouting “Ali must go!” tried to storm the offices of the election commission shortly after authorities announced his re-election by a narrow majority.

Security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to push several hundred protesters back.

Bongo won 49.80 of the vote against 48.23 percent for his rival Jean Ping, or a razor-thin 5,594 votes of a total 627,805 registered voters, Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet-Boubeya.

Bongo, whose father held onto power for four decades, sought relection after winning a first term in 2009 in a poll that was marred by violence.

His rival, half-Chinese ex-diplomat Jean Ping, had also claimed victory, sparking fears of violence and the deployment of anti-riot police around the capital Libreville.

Any appeal by Ping would be likely to focus on disputed results in one of the country’s nine provinces — the Haut-Ogooue, the heartland of Bongo’s Teke ethnic group.

In Saturday’s vote, turnout was 59.46 percent nationwide but soared to 99.93 per cent in Haut-Ogooue, where Bongo won 95.5 percent of votes.

“It’s going to be difficult to get people to accept these results,” one member of the electoral commission confided to AFP, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

“We’ve never seen results like these, even during the father’s time,” he added.

Opposition delegates in the electoral commission boycotted a vote to approve the results on Wednesday and they have vowed to fight for a recount.

‘Credible results’As fears rose of a contested result and violence, the electoral commission and Bongo came under pressure from fellow politicians and the international community to deliver a fair outcome.

“The European Union repeats the call made by the head of its observer mission that results should be published for each polling booth,” a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement.

The ruling party’s number two, Faustin Boukoubi, also broke ranks, calling for “fundamentally credible results” in order to maintain peace, “the most precious acquisition of the last decades.”

On Tuesday afternoon anti-riot police took position around the capital Libreville and later established checkpoints in various parts of the capital, blocking access to the presidential palace.

Light armoured vehicles also began to patrol along the Atlantic coast.

Giwa FC vs NFF: Court suspends football league

A Plateau High Court sitting in Bukuru, near Jos, has suspended the Nigerian Professional Football League pending when the League Management  Company  would reinstate Giwa Football Club Nigeria to the league

The court had,  in  a ruling on August 12, overturned the suspension of Giwa FC from the league by the LMC, and directed the company  to reinstate the football club to the league.

But the LMC had not, prompting Giwa to rush back to the court to demand for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights and asking that the orders be obeyed.

Justice I. I. Kunda in his ruling on Wednesday decried what he described as the “delay tactics” being employed by the counsel to the LMC, Olumide Olujimi, to prolong the case; knowing fully well that the Nigerian league is time-bound, and the league would have effectively ended before the case was determined.The judge, while declaring the case adjourned sine die,  also told the defendants that they could proceed with their appeal at the Appeal Court if they so wish.

He said the counsels to the Nigerian Football Federation and the LMC had not filed response to the motion on notice, nor the orders given; and had not sorted out the legal representation of the league. Thus, the case is a live one.

The judge agreed with the counsel to the applicants that the league might have ended and may not favour Giwa FC should the club wait for the case to go to the appellate court.

This, Kunda said, would have rendered the whole court process a mere academic exercise. He thus ordered for the suspension of the league pending the determination of the appeal court and granted the prayers of the league management company and the NFF for notice of appeal at the appeal court.

Chairman of Giwa Football Club Supporters Club, Mustapha Abubakar, had gone to court to challenge the expulsion of Giwa FC from the Nigerian professional football league.

Kunda had, on August 12, ordered NFF and LMC to reinstate Giwa FC to the league.

Meanwhile, the LMC has filed an appeal against the ruling at the Appeal  Court.

Brazil’s Senate impeaches Rousseff

Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff was stripped of the country’s presidency on Wednesday in a Senate impeachment vote ending 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Rousseff, 68, was convicted by 61 of the 81 senators of illegally manipulating the national budget. The vote, passing the needed two-thirds majority, meant she was immediately removed from office.

Cheers — and cries of disappointment — erupted in the blue-carpeted, circular Senate chamber as the verdict flashed up on the electronic voting screen.

Pro-impeachment senators burst into a rendering of the national anthem, some waving Brazilian flags, while allies of Rousseff stood stony faced.

“I will not associate my name to this infamy,” read a sign held up by one senator.

Brazil’s first female president, holed up in the presidential palace on the outskirts of the capital Brasilia with close aides, was expected to make a statement soon after the vote.

Her vice president-turned bitter political enemy, Michel Temer, will be sworn as her replacement at about 3pm.

The veteran center-right politician, whom Rousseff accuses of using the impeachment process to mount a coup, was then to leave for a G20 summit in China.

About 50 leftist demonstrators gathered outside the presidential palace to show their support.

“We are protesting against the coup and fighting for democracy,” said 61-year-old farmer Orlando Ribeiro.

In the center of the capital, extra security and the closing of avenues near the Senate caused massive traffic jams. Police said they were preparing for large protests later in the day.

Anti-Rousseff anger

Rousseff, from the leftist Workers’ Party, is accused of taking illegal state loans to patch budget holes in 2014, masking the country’s problems as it slid into its deepest recession in decades.

She told the Senate during a marathon 14-hour session on Monday that she is innocent and that abuse of the impeachment process put Brazil’s democracy, restored in 1985 after a two-decades-long military dictatorship, at risk.

Recalling how she was tortured and imprisoned in the 1970s for belonging to a leftist guerrilla group, Rousseff urged senators to “vote against impeachment, vote for democracy… Do not accept a coup.”

However, huge anti-Rousseff street demonstrations over the last year have reflected nationwide anger at her management of a country suffering double-digit unemployment and inflation.

The once mighty Workers’ Party, meanwhile, has struggled to stage more than small rallies.

Temer, who was in an uncomfortable partnership with Rousseff before finally splitting, will be president until the next scheduled elections in late 2018.

The 75-year-old, known more as a backroom wheeler-dealer than street politician, took over in an interim role after Rousseff’s initial suspension in May.

He immediately named a new government with an agenda of shifting Brazil to the right after more than a decade of leftist rule that saw 29 million people lifted from poverty, but became bogged down in corruption and the economic slump.

Temer has earned plaudits from investors, but it remains uncertain whether he will have voters’ support to push through the painful austerity reforms he promises.

Emotions spill over

Lawyers presenting closing arguments on Tuesday could not hold back their emotions as the clock wound down on a crisis that has paralyzed Brazilian politics for months, helping deepen national gloom over recession and runaway corruption.

A lead lawyer for the case against Rousseff, Senator Janaina Paschoal, wept as she asked forgiveness for causing the president “suffering,” but insisted it was the right thing to do.

“The Brazilian people must be aware that nothing illegal and illegitimate is being done here,” she said.

Rousseff’s counsel, veteran lawyer Jose Eduardo Cardozo, retorted that the charges were trumped up to punish the president’s support for a huge corruption investigation that has snared many of Brazil’s elite.

“This is a farce,” he said in a speech during which his voice alternated between shouts and near whispers.

“We should ask her forgiveness if she is convicted,” he added. “History will treat her fairly. History will absolve Dilma Rousseff if you convict her.”

Niger Delta militants are confused, says NNPC

There is an indication that the Federal Government has yet to commence any negotiation with the Niger Delta militants as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has declared that the militants are confused.

According to the NNPC, the confusion has made government officials more cautious, as it has triggered “serious concern” in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

The corporation noted that the inability of the militants to abide by the ceasefire agreement announced earlier in the month and the dissenting voices among the various agitating groups in the region had shown that there was confusion among them.

When asked to state the militant group that government was negotiating with, considering the fact that there had been different statements from various agitators in the region, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Mohammed Garba-Deen, referred our correspondent to the Media Head, FMPR, Mr. Idang Alibi.

But Alibi could not be reached as he did not answer calls to his telephone and did not respond to a text message sent to him up till the time of filing this report.

However, when probed further, Garba-Deen stated that the ministry and, in fact, the NNPC, were concerned about the confusion among militants in the Niger Delta.

He refuted claims that the Federal Government had also been thrown into confusion as touching which group to negotiate with.

Garba-Deen said, “There is no confusion on the part of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources. If anybody is confused, it is the militants that are confused because they are disorganised. They have refused to organise themselves into one, instead they have NDA, MEND and many others.

“So under this circumstance, the petroleum ministry is taking its time so that it does not negotiate with the wrong people. And that is not confusion. That is caution. The situation is causing concern and not confusion on our side, because we will like a situation where a credible and authentic group emerges.

“And whichever group emerges, it should have all the backing of those making agitations in the Niger Delta. So it is therefore important to state that we are not confused but cautious, because from all indications, the confusion is on the part of the militants from the region.”

Nigerian economy performing better than IMF’s prediction – Presidency

The Presidency on Wednesday claimed that the nation’s economy, which is currently in recession, is performing better than the predictions of the International Monetary Fund.

This is just as it admitted that the inflation and unemployment rates in the country had remained “stubbornly high” despite government’s efforts.

The Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, stated this in a statement while reacting to the Gross Domestic Product figures for the 2016 second quarter by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Dipeolu said the report, while confirming a temporary decline, has also indicated what he called hopeful expectation in the country’s economic trajectory.

He said there were clear indications that the second half of the year will be better.

“Besides the growth recorded in the agriculture and solid mineral sectors, the Nigerian economy in response to the policies of the Buhari presidency is also doing better than what the IMF had estimated with clear indications that the second half of the year would be even much better,” he said.

He said the current administration would continue to work diligently on the economy and engage with all stakeholders to ensure that beneficial policy initiatives were actively pursued and the dividends delivered to the Nigerian people.

The presidential aide quoted the recently released data from the NBS as showing a decline in GDP by -2.06% in the second quarter of 2016 on a year-on-year basis.

He attributed the outcome to a sharp contraction in the oil sector due to huge losses of crude oil production as a result of vandalisation and sabotage.