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Last Updated: Monday, November 15th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page
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2007: Opposition mounts against S�South
By Felix Ofou (Lagos)
Bassey Inyang (Calabar) and
Chinwendu Nnadozie (Minna)
Key leaders of the South South Peoples Assembly (SSPA) may have been placed under security watch following the
group�s resolve to press ahead with the demand that the next President should come from the zone.
Abuja is also rattled by the SSPA�s insistence that the region be paid 50 percent derivation as share from revenue
generated from oil, conclusions reached at the conference in Calabar.
Sources confirmed that SSPA Steering Committee Chairman and owner of Daar Communications (operators of the African
Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower), Raymond Dokpesi, was summoned by the State Security Service (SSS) director
general to �provide insight� on the activities of the group last Thursday, a day after the conference.
Fears that the SSPA was formed to extend the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo have allegedly pitched some
leaders of the South South against the group, with the Chairman of the caretaker committee of the All Nigeria Peoples
Party (ANPP) and member of the House of Representatives, Nya Asuquo, leading the offensive.
Already, some politicians from the zone, comprising serving and former council chairmen, past and present lawmakers
and governors, and other interest groups have started mobilising to halt what they perceive as a deceptive ploy
by SSPA conveners to �mortgage the people of the area for their selfish interests�.
Asuquo said the idea is to overheat the polity such that some Nigerians employed to execute the plot would advise
that Obasanjo should be allowed to continue in office beyond his second term because of his ability to keep Nigeria
united and maintain law and order.
The second option, according to him, is to ignite a war between Nigeria and Cameroun close to the end of his tenure
in 2007, so as to instigate the National Assembly to pass a law that Obasanjo be allowed to continue in office
since the country is at war with its neighbour.
In any case, Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu became the first person in the entire South to throw his hat into
the 2007 Presidential ring at the weekend.
That has heated up the quest for credible candidates from especially his native South East which insists that the
next occupant of Aso Rock should be an Igbo man.
Kalu has a herculian task ahead, nonetheless, which was probably not helped by making the declaration when he visited
former military President Ibrahim Babangida in Minna, a man well known for his burning desire to regain Presidential
power, if only to �right the wrongs of the past�.
Babangida, besides having his North Central almost within his grasp, is making bold initiatives to also garner
the Igbo vote. And the general is someone with considerable wealth.
Kalu spoke when he paid a �Sallah homage� to Babangida after which he visited Niger State Governor Abdullahi Kure.
He said he would oppose a third-term tenure for incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo. �I am contesting for the
Presidency in 2007, so I cannot support Obasanjo�, he insisted, admitting that he came to Minna to receive the
�political blessing� of Babangida whom he calls his godfather.
�Both Kure and IBB are aware of my political plans which will be unfolding at the appropriate time�.
�.
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Copyright? 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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