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Gabon’s presidential election “lacked transparency”, the head of the 73-strong EU electoral monitoring team in the country said on Monday, a day before the official results were due out. Speaking to reporters in the capital Libreville, Bulgarian MEP Mariya Gabriel said Saturday’s vote in the oil-rich Central African country, was “managed in a way that lacked transparency.” “The mission condemns the lack of transparency in the electoral bodies which failed to make essential information available to the campaigns, like the electoral roll or a list of polling stations,” she said. The EU observers said that a week before the election only half of voters had received their ballot cards. The remarks came after a bitterly disputed election in which both sides accused the other of electoral fraud. Official results will not be published until Tuesday, and there are fears that the tensions may erupt into a repeat of the violence seen after the disputed 2009 election. Opposition candidate Jean Pi...

Strongman Uzbek President Islam Karimov is in intensive care after suffering a brain haemorrhage, his younger daughter wrote on social media on Monday. Islam Karimov “My father was hospitalised after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage on Saturday morning, and is now receiving treatment in an intensive care unit,” Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to UNESCO, wrote on Instagram of the 78-year-old leader. She added that “his condition is considered stable” but that “at the moment it is too early to make any predictions about his future health.” Uzbekistan’s cabinet of ministers said Sunday that the leader of the ex-Soviet country had been “hospitalised” in a statement published by the state news agency that gave no details. Authoritarian leader Karimov has long been the subject of rumours of ill health that are difficult to verify, since information in the Central Asian country is very tightly controlled. He has held power in the strategic country bordering Afghanistan ...

A Federal High Court, Abuja, has declined the application of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, seeking his immediate release from detention by the Department of State Service (DSS). El-Zakzaky El-Zakzaky is the leader of Shi`a Movement in Nigeria. Justice Okon Abang, the vacation judge, who declined the application, had in the past one week refused the applications of Honourable Abdulmumini Jubril’s house planned suspension. The others were application from his kinsmen seeking stoppage of the appointment of the Managing Director and commissioner into NDDC board and a suit into Oron Federal constituency. Abang said that Zakzaky ought to have obtained the leave of court for the matter to be heard during vacation. He explained that the applicant failed to serve the DSS, the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation joined as respondents. He said, no matter the urgency of the matter, the applicant ought to have serve the respondents. The judge said that the matte...

Oba Ogunlade Aladetoyinbo, the Deji of Akure has condemned the placing of fetish object at the Secretariat of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Akure on Monday morning. This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Michael Adeyeye, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deji on Monday. He condemned the attitude of those who sealed the entrance of the party secretariat with palm fronds which is the traditional means of sealing-off premises in Akureland. The sacrilegious act carried out at the Ondo State Secretariat of the All Progressive Congress early this morning is condemned in its totality. We want to state that carrying out traditional sealing-off of premises remains the prerogative of the palace. APC secretariat, Akure The Deji of Akure remains non-partisan and a father to all political aspirants and never authorised such. “The palace is apolitical and therefore should not be dragged into the internal wrangling of any party,’’ Adeyeye said. According to him, Oba Ogunlade frowne...

DEAR Mr. President, Last year, when you assumed office, the chant of “Change”, your campaign slogan, ushered you into the Presidential Villa. Today, cries of “hunger” could be heard across the length and breadth of our vast country. Nigerians hunger, not only for food, but also for good leadership, for peace, security and justice. This letter is to appeal to you to do something fast, and, if you are already doing something, to redouble your effort. May it not be written on the pages of history that Nigerians die of starvation under your watch. As President, you are chief servant of the nation. I therefore urge you to live up to the huge expectation of millions of Nigerians. A stitch in time saves nine. Okogie The way forward This is the second year of your administration. You and your party promised to lead the masses to the Promised Land. It is not an easy task to lead. But by campaigning for this office, you offered to take the enormous task of leadership upon yourself. Nigerian...

Sen. Tayo Alasoadura, an APC governorship aspirant in Ondo State, said the party could lose the forth coming governorship election if the party leadership did not resolve the crisis in the state chapter. Sen Alasoadura Alasoadura, representing Ondo Central in the Senate, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Akure on Monday. NAN reports that 23 governorship aspirants in the party will participate in the party primary scheduled for Sept. 3, ahead of the Nov. 26 governorship election. He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of APC to urgently resolve the disaffection amongst party members in the state over allegation of imposition of one of the aspirants as party’s candidate. Alasoadura, who was the state Commissioner for Finance between 2003 and 2009, said he was not impressed with the high level of disaffection among party members in the state. “I am just praying that God will use his key to open the gate of victory for APC in the ...