Clark carpets EFCC as commission denies probing Tinubu, Atiku

                                                                                    Chief Edwin Clark

A Former Federal Commissioner of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, has said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has lost focus.

He called on President Goodluck Jonathan to re-organise the anti-graft agency for effective discharge of its duty.

Clark spoke while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Friday.

The Ijaw leader said the anti-graft body had lost focus of prosecuting corrupt officials but now go after those involved in cyber and petty crimes.

Clark spoke against the background of the claim by the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) that his fight against corruption would start on May 29, 2015 if he wins the March 28 election.

MASSOB protests in South-East, demands Jega’s sacking

                                                         INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega

Members of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra on Friday protested in the five South-East states to demand the removal of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Atahiru Jega.

In Enugu State, the placards-carrying MASSOB members, in their hundreds, marched through major streets, chanting “Jega must go!”

They asked the Federal Government to remove Jega in order to prevent violence that might trail the general elections the INEC boss was allegedly planning to conduct in favour of the All Progressives Congress.

The group stressed that Jega was not capable of conducting free and fair polls.

Jonathan says I didn’t offer Tinubu interim govt slot

                                                                    President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday said there was no truth in the claim by a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that he offered the former Lagos State governor the opportunity to serve as Vice President in a proposed Interim National Government.

Jonathan, who spoke with State House correspondents in Abuja through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, described Tinubu’s claim as absurd and ridiculous.

Tinubu had in a statement by his media office on Thursday claimed that the recent attacks on his person were because he rejected the offer by Jonathan to serve as the Vice President in an ING.

He claimed that having refused the offer, the President was looking for ways to take him out either by killing him or getting him arrested based on trumped up charges.

Jonathan denies speaking with Moroccan king, orders probe

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday admitted that he had not at any time engaged King Mohammed VI of Morocco in a telephone conversation as claimed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said he had also not told anybody that he spoke with the Moroccan monarch.

Jonathan made the clarification in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.

There is an ongoing diplomatic row between Nigeria and Morocco over whether or not Jonathan recently engaged the monarch in a telephone conversation.

While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement claiming that Jonathan spoke with the Moroccan king, authorities of the Kingdom denied the claim and thereafter recalled their ambassador to Nigeria.

INEC poorly prepared for elections –PDP govs

L-R: Governors Sule Lamido, Jigawa State; Babangida Aliyu, Niger; Godswill Akpabio, Akwa Ibom/Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum; Jonah Jang, Plateau; and Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo, during the PDP Governors’ Forum interactive session with the media and Civil Society Organisations, in Lagos...on Tuesday.

The Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum has kicked against the use of card readers for the March 28 and April 11 general elections.

The governors, at an interactive session with the media and civil society organisations in Lagos on Tuesday, also faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission   preparedness for the elections.

Before the interactive session titled ‘Sustenance of Democratic Values and National Development,’ ended, The PUNCH learnt that   INEC had summoned leaders of all the   political parties in the country to a meeting on Thursday over the polls.

As if acting a script with its governors, the PDP also on Tuesday sent a letter to the electoral body detailing its observations on Saturday’s Card Readers mock in 12 states.