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IRIN-WA Update 402 of Events in West Africa (Monday 15 February)
NIGERIA: PDP chooses Obasanjo as presidential candidate
Former military ruler General Olusegun Obasanjo has won the presidential nomination of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and is favourite to win the poll, news organisations reported today (Monday). He achieved a "crushing victory", according to the BBC, winning over 60 percent of the vote at this weekend's PDP convention in the central town of Jos. His nearest rival, the former civilian vice-president, Alex Ekwueme, won only 20 percent of the vote and described the poll as "fair".
Speaking after his nomination, Obasanjo said the "polarisation of society between soldiers and civilians" had come to an end, the BBC reported.
The PDP swept recent local and state elections making it the largest party in Nigeria and this puts Obasanjo in a strong position to win the presidential elections on 27 February, agencies noted.
Obasanjo, who held power between 1976 and 1979, stands out as Nigeria's only military ruler voluntarily to hand over power to elected civilians. The current military leader, General Abdulsalami Abubukar, has said that he will step down on 29 May after handing over power to the first civilian president in 15 years.
APP names candidate
Meanwhile, the All People's Party (APP), Nigeria's second largest party, has named Ogbonnaya Onu as its presidential candidate. According to news reports, he is a little-known former governor from Abia state, eastern Nigeria, who is considered to be a compromise candidate.
The APP recently formed an alliance with the third party fighting the election, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which has already named former finance minister Samuel Olu Falae as its candidate..
According to electoral rules, the alliance can only put forward one joint presidential nomination and although Falae is widely thought to be the favourite, no announcement is expected until after a meeting between the two parties due to take place later today.
Today is the deadline for informing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of presidential candidates.
Fuel shortage protests in Lagos
People protesting against fuel shortages threw stones
and bottles at passing vehicles in Lagos today, news
reports said. "The protestors were cursing the
soldiers and police and those with enough fuel to drive,"
one witness told Reuters.
Fuel shortages have intensified since last week when petrol tanker drivers went on strike to protest about the alleged torching of their delivery trucks by cattle rearers after clashes between the two groups, the independent 'Guardian' said. The drivers may start work again today, following the relocation of the cattle workers to a new site, it added.
According to Reuters, fuel costs as much as US $1.70 per litre on the black market, compared to the usual pump price of US $0.22.
SIERRA LEONE: ECOMOG rejects allegations of summary executions
The West African intervention force, ECOMOG, has denied allegations in a UN report that it is summarly executing rebels, news reports said. In a radio broadcast on Saturday, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Olukolade said ECOMOG soldiers were "aware of the conventions that operate in war and none of us have been mandated to execute anyone".
A report by the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) on the human rights situation cited eyewitness accounts alleging the summary execution of suspected rebels or their sympathisers by ECOMOG and Civil Defence Forces (CDF). The UN report said, however, an evaluation of the behaviour of ECOMOG and CDF had to take account of the "provocative environment created by the extreme barbarity of the rebel forces".
Olukolade said ECOMOG had exercised restraint in carrying out its operations "even to some extent that they amounted to serious risks on the lives of ECOMOG soldiers". "We have also dissuaded the public who feel cheated, harassed and had borne the burnt of rebel atrocities...having gone that far, we would not again turn around and start executing people," he said.
Freetown port, airport operating again
The Sierra Leone trade ministry announced on Saturday that Lungi International Airport and the port of Freetown had reopened. "Ship owners, importers and shipping agencies can now resume normal commercial activities, as security is assured," a ministry statement said. In a news release sent to IRIN today, ECOMOG denied claims that Freetown port was unsafe. Spokesman Chris Olukolade said Sierra Leone's territorial waters were under "effective and vigilant patrol" by ECOMOG naval forces and there was "no cause for alarm".
ECOMOG command structure changed
ECOMOG has changed its command structure, creating a new Freetown Garrison to defend the capital. In a news release received by IRIN on Saturday, ECOMOG said all operations would henceforth be directly controlled by ECOMOG headquarters, with Brigadier General Abu Ahmadu as Chief of Staff. The existing Sierra Leone task force, set up while ECOMOG was still based in Monrovia, Liberia, had therefore been scrapped. ECOMOG moved its headquarters from Monrovia to Freetown last year.
According to the news release, the changes were ordered by overall ECOMOG commander Major General Timothy Shelpidi. Brigadier General Gabriel Kpamber remains commander of ECOMOG's Nigerian contingent and Colonel Buhari Musa commands the Freetown Garrison.
Bodies of missing cabinet ministers found
State radio on Saturday said the bodies of two cabinet ministers, missing for about a month, have been found in shallow graves near Freetown. Public Affairs Minister Mohammed Sesay and Minister for the Northern Region Y.M.Koroma went missing on 12 January, shortly after the rebels stormed the capital. Last week, the president's office said it believed they had been kidnapped by the rebels. The radio said they were found at Kissy Brook, adding "they had been murdered by the rebels".
GUINEA BISSAU: Protagonists meet
Rival leaders in Guinea Bissau's war have agreed on measures to bolster the fragile peace, on disarmament and the quartering of all troops, news reports said today.
Agreement on this between President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the leader of the self-styled military junta, Ansumane Mane, was reached yesterday(Sunday) at an hour-long meeting chaired by European Commissioner Emma Bonino. She described the meeting as "an important step" in the return to peace, AFP reported.
This was the first meeting of both men since November 1998 when they signed an accord ending five months of war in a leadership struggle. Renewed fighting erupted in the capital, Bissau, earlier this month ending the truce just as West African peacekeepers were due to land. Nevertheless, some 600 of these troops - from Benin, The Gambia, Niger and Togo -- are now being deployed as a buffer between rival forces.
On Saturday, Guinea Bissau Prime Minister-designate Francisco Fadul announced his government of national unity would take office on either 20 or 21 February. Fadul and the military junta have always stated the departure of Guinean and Senegalese troops from Guinea Bissau as a condition for the formation of the government, .
Senegalese troop withdrawal delayed
The withdrawal of the 1,200 Senegalese troops, due to begin yesterday, has not yet materialised, a Senegalese military source told IRIN today. He declined to comment on the delay or when the withdrawals would begin.
Reports last week said the Senegalese pullout, the first of an estimated 3,000 Guinean and Senegalese troops, would begin 14 February and all would be out by the end of the month. Guinean troops, like Senegal's, have been propping up Vieira's administration and under a deal reached ending the latest round of fighting, they must all leave by the end of February.
SENEGAL: Government releases 120 Casamance rebels
The Senegalese authorities have released at least 120 southern Casamance anti-government guerrillas who had been detained on charges of violating state security and undermining public order, a Senegalese defence official told IRIN today.
The measure follows a meeting on Friday between the prime minister and different parties involved in the search for peace in Casamance, the privately-owned 'Sud Quotidien' said over the weekend. It added that a decision to release members of the rebel Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MDFC) was taken during this encounter.
The meeting also decided that the army, gendarmerie, police and intermediaries must work directly under the governors of Ziguinchor and Kolda, the largest towns in Casamance. The meeting was attended by the MDFC political leader, Father Diamacoune Senghor, and its top military commander Sidy Badji. The meeting decided that any actions by the guerrilla group must be authorised by these two men.
In another development, European Commissioner Emma Bonino was due to visit Casamance today to inspect programmes funded by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), news organisations reported. The projects, amounting to some US $530,000, cover medical treatment to victims of mines and helps people displinvolved in the search for peace in Casamance, the privateluinea on this tour, is scheduled to go to Sierra Leone on Tuesday.
GUINEA: Lawyers fear for opposition leader's health
Lawyers for detained Guinean opposition party leader Alpha Conde have expressed concern for his health since being held in solitary confinement.
One of Conde's lawyers, Christian Sow, told Radio France Internationale on Saturday, that they had had no contact with their client for a week; whereas before they had more or less unrestricted access.
"I fear that such conditions of detention may again weaken his health," Sow said.
He added that Conde had been denied newspapers and other reading material. Conde's present condition of detention, the radio said, was allegedly linked to the publication of an interview he granted the weekly magazine, 'Jeune Afrique'.
"The reason is the fact that Mr. Conde succeeded in talking to people from outside," Sow told the radio. "In my opinion, it is only because he succeeded in doing so. They want to reduce Mr. Conde to absolute silence."
Conde, leader of the Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee (RPG), was arrested near the border with Cote d'Ivoire and accused of trying to leave the country during the 14 December presidential election, in contravention of the law.
Conde ally released
Meanwhile, the Guinean authorities released opposition leader Marcel Cross on Wednesday after two months in detention. Cross, the secretary-general of the Parti democratique africain de Guinee (PDAG), was Conde's campaign manager during the presidential elections. He was arrested on the eve of the elections, accused of illegally keeping arms and munitions, and held in Conakry's central prison. Police found four hunting rifles in his home.
A Guinean political analyst told IRIN today that Cross was a political lightweight and his detention did not have the same public impact as Conde's.
Abidjan, 15 February 1999, 17:50 gmt
[ENDS]
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 17:53:46 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 402 for 1999.2.15
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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