Togolese President's Brother Detained Over Alleged Coup Plot

The brother of Togo's president has been detained in connection with an alleged plot to take power in a military coup.

Security forces arrested former defense minister Kpatcha Gnassingbe outside the U.S. Embassy in Lome.

A statement posted on the Togolese government web site says he was denied refuge at the embassy and authorities waiting outside detained him as he left the compound.

American officials in Lome say there are very few cases in which individuals are granted refuge at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, and after reviewing Kpatcha Gnassingbe's case, the embassy determined that it was not appropriate to offer him refuge at this time.

The Togolese government statement says an arrest warrant was issued for Kpatcha Gnassingbe following an investigation that found he is one of the principal organizers of a plot to take power while his brother was on a trip to China.

Togo's Chief Prosecutor Robert Bakai says President Faure Gnassingbe canceled that trip Sunday when the security services of a foreign country warned that an attack against him was imminent.

Bakai says security forces sought to question Kpatcha Gnassingbe about the coup plot Sunday evening. But when they arrived at his home, they were attacked by bodyguards and troops loyal to the former defense minister.

The chief prosecutor says the shoot-out that followed in the Lome suburbs was entirely unprovoked, and security forces called for reinforcements before forcing their way into the compound.

Five army officers and members of Kpatcha Gnassingbe's entourage were questioned following that raid, but the president's brother was not detained.

When security forces returned to his compound late Tuesday to arrest him, he was not at home. They stepped-up surveillance of foreign missions in Lome and picked him up outside the American embassy Wednesday morning.

Kpatcha Gnassingbe is a member of parliament for the northern Kara District, and as such, the U.S. embassy says it understands that he is protected by immunity under Togolese law. But the embassy recognizes this is a domestic matter for deliberation by Togolese legislative and judicial authorities.

Embassy officials say they are aware of the events which precipitated his request for refuge and say the United States does not wish to undermine the investigative and judicial process outlined by Togo's constitution.

An embassy statement encouraged Togolese authorities to respect Kpatcha Gnassingbe's right to due process and said it is critical that the government in Lome respect the civil and human rights of all Togolese including political leaders and government officials.

Kpatcha Gnassingbe says he is the victim of an assassination attempt. Chief Prosector Bakai says an investigation into the events of the last several days continues.

Kpatcha Gnassingbe remains an influential member of the ruling Togolese People's Party. He was elected to parliament in 2007 after his brother sacked him as defense minister.

President Faure Gnassingbe was elected in 2005 following the death of his father, the long-time Togolese leader Gnassingbe Eyadema. Election observers said that violent 2005 election was seriously flawed. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2010.

Liberia: American University Confers Honorary Degree On Ellen

Monrovia — Furman University in South Carolina, the United States, has conferred on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities.
In a citation, supporting the conferral, the President of the University, David Shi, described the Liberian leader as a leading promoter of peace, justice and democratic processes, who has worked tirelessly to bring about progressive changes in Liberia.
According to an Executive Mansion dispatch from Greenville, the Furman University President spoke of the Liberian leader’s courageous efforts over many years, resulting in imprisonment and threats on her life.

The risks, Dr. Shi noted, did not deter the Liberian President from continuing to work to free her country and remain a true champion of the rule of law.
“Her relentless efforts have helped Liberia’s transition from a long period of abusive, chaotic and horrific dictatorships to a stable democratic government, working to improve the lives of all its citizens,” Dr. Shi pointed out in the citation.
The Furman University President described the President’s personal courage and unwavering commitment to the pursuit of justice and peace, as an inspiration to people around the world.
Addressing students and faculty earlier during the forum, the President spoke of the progress Liberia has made over the last three years.
She cited among other developments, the restoration of electricity and safe drinking water to some parts on Monrovia and its environs; the opening of schools throughout the country, leading to increased enrollment; and efforts to cancel the staggering US$4.7-billion debt Liberia owes multilateral financial institutions.

Most importantly, the Liberian leader said, the country’s once battered image has been restored and the children of Liberia are now smiling again.
“It brings me the greatest satisfaction that hope has been restored, and our children now have a right to education and clean drinking water, where everyone has an opportunity to reach his/her potential with equal opportunity for all,” the Liberian leading told an capacity crowd Monday at the McAlister Auditorium in Greenville.

Despite the moderate progress, the President said, domestic violence against women and rape continue to pose a problem, in spite of the passage of a strong legislation, making rape a non-billable offense.
Unemployment, the President pointed out, also continues to undermine the gains the country has made.
The global financial crisis, the Liberian leader indicated, is also threatening the economic gains the country has made since her ascendency to the presidency of the country.

The President reiterated her call on American and other investors to visit Liberia and explore the investment opportunities Liberia offers. She cited the successful conclusion of the recent International Women’s Colloquium held in Liberia as another indicator that the country is opened for business.
Turning to students, the President admonished those aspiring for leadership to set their goals and start to work towards those goals. “Determine what you want to be; work towards it and pursue your dream, standing up with courage and motivation and above all, demonstrating a spirit of care for the people,” the President advised.
The forum was presented by the Riley Institute at Furman, a non-partisan organization affiliated with the Department of Political Science at Furman University.
Named for former Governor of South Carolina and United States Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, and inaugurated in 1999, the institute engages students and citizens across South Carolina in the arenas of politics, public policy and leadership.
It brought together a cross section of residents of South Carolina, including students, faculty, politicians, among them Mr. Richard W. Riley, former U.S. Secretary of Education and former Governor of South Carolina, as well as Liberians residing in South Carolina and other neighboring states including North Carolina and Georgia.

Rights group to protest Zimbabwe reforms

HARARE (AFP) — A leading rights group in Zimbabwe vowed Wednesday to campaign against the way a new constitution is being drafted for the southern African country under a recent power-sharing deal.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an umbrella group of rights bodies, churches and other activists, said it should not be written by parliamentarians but on the basis of public consultations.

Lovemore Madhuku, the group's chairman, said he would lead a campaign against the constitution, which should go to a referendum next year.

"The NCA will campaign for a No vote, because any document that comes from a defective process is defective," Madhuku told a news conference.

"We are going to start a campaign of opposing this process. We will obviously be holding demonstrations," he added.

On Sunday, parliamentary speaker Lovemore Moyo announced the creation of a 25-member committee to spearhead the constitutional reforms.

The committee includes parliamentarians loyal to both President Robert Mugabe and the new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai -- longtime rivals who formed a unity government in February.

Moyo said that civic groups like the NCA would be consulted during the drafting process, but Madhuku complained that the process lacked transparency and was too focused on politicians.

"The current process is a parliament-driven process. Others are embracing it, however the NCA will not participate in this at all," he said.

"This process is not transparent. This process is parliament-driven, which is being done by politicians, and not by the people."

Under Mugabe and Tsvangirai's power-sharing deal, Zimbabwe must draft a new constitution to be tabled in parliament by February 2010.

In 2000, Zimbabweans rejected a constitution backed by Mugabe after critics including the NCA argued that the charter gave the president too much power.

That led to a wave of farm invasions in which commercial farmers were pushed off the land, accused by Mugabe supporters of having lobbied against the proposal.

In the 1990s, the NCA led its own process of holding public meetings in towns and villages across the country to draft a new charter that Mugabe refused to accept.

Nigeria sets up panel to probe US bribery scandal

ABUJA (AFP) — Nigeria on Wednesday set up a panel to probe a multi-million dollar cash-for-contract scandal embroiling US giant Halliburton and reportedly implicating three former presidents, the justice minister said.

"Pursuant to the determination of the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua to ensure zero tolerance for corruption in the country, the president has constituted a high-powered committee to commence an in-house investigation of the Halliburton bribery scandal," a statement said.

The committee, headed by the national police boss Mike Okiro, will be launched in Abuja on Tuesday, the statement said.

The panel will include the heads of the anti-graft agency EFCC, the National Intelligence Agency and the State Security Service. The statement said Nigeria had requested the US government for mutual legal assistance.

Earlier this month, Justice Minister Michael Aondoakaa went to Washington to seek US cooperation in getting the names of Nigerian officials implicated in the scandal.

Aondoakaa has written to his US counterpart for a list of the names.

Nigerian media and NGOs said three former Nigerian presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar and the late Sani Abacha were among those who accepted bribes.

US authorities announced in February that Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root had agreed to pay 579 million dollars (438.6 million euros) in fines related to the case, the biggest fines ever paid by US companies in a foreign corruption case.

Halliburton, which will have to pay the bulk of the fine, admitted it had paid 182 million dollars to Nigerian government officials over a 10-year period to win a six billion dollar contract to build a liquified natural plant on Bonny Island, southern Nigeria.

Nigeria: PDP Set to Strip BOT of Executive Powers

Abuja — The National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set to take the final steps to completely strip its Board of Trustees (BOT) Chairman and members of the executive powers, surreptitiously handed it in the party's "hood and dagger" constitutional amendment of 2006.
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Daily Independent learnt on Tuesday that constitutional amendments proposed for the special convention of the party scheduled for this second quarter and the design of a programme for the implementation of the Alex Ekwueme National Reconciliation Committee report, dominate the agenda of the party's national executive meeting scheduled for Abuja Thursday.

It was also found that the working paper for tomorrow's meeting is the memorandum by the party's National Working Committee on the Alex Ekwueme report.

The memorandum, which is heavily favoured by current PDP Chairman Vincent Ogbulafor, recommends at paragraph 9 (III) that "the BOT should revert to its advisory role" in the 2001 constitution as amended.

It also recommends that "there should be no provision limiting the chairmanship of the board to particular and specific qualifications as this is undemocratic." Former president Olusegun Obasanjo currently chairs the board.

Further, the NEC is expected to approve a programme to implement the recommendations to reconcile estranged members of the party. It is expected that the NEC will proffer solutions to fresh crises that erupted in some states in the attempt to reintegrate some estranged members in the process of reconciliation.

A summit of such members still standing on the fringes, to be organized by the PDP, may also be considered tomorrow. The purpose of the summit is to reassure such people that they are valued and that the party is being repositioned to enable them achieve their individual political dreams.
Relevant Links

* West Africa
* Nigeria

Meanwhilem, another summit of founding fathers of the party and other stakeholders to reflect upon and deliberate on how to revert to the original values and principles upon which the party was formed may also be announced after tomorrow's meeting.

This recommendation, contained in the memorandum by the National Working Committee, which heavily influenced the agenda for the meeting, is said to be favoured by the NEC. They believe that it will help to rebuild party spirit as recommended by the Ekwueme committee.

Arik Begins Operation As S’Leone’s National Carrier

Arik Air yesterday commenced operation as the national carrier of Sierra Leone. With this development, the airline also plans to extend such flight operations to Niger Republic and Angola before the end of the year.
In a ceremony at the Freetown International Airport, Lungi, which was attended by the President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, the Minister of Aviation, Babatunde Omotoba and the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, Arik dedicated the two aircraft, B737-700 and B737-800 to the country The aircraft were delivered by the manufacturing company, Boeing, last week.
The new aircraft, according to the airline, was designated for London-Freetown route, while the other was designated for regional operations from Freetown .
Welcoming the Nigerian delegation, President Koroma described the partnership between Arik Air and his country as the dawn of a new era in regional cooperation and interdependence of nations which had become a reality.
“The coming of Arik Air to Sierra Leone heralds another phase of relations between Nigeria and Sierra Leone . In the past, Nigeria gave us military support and helped to end civil war in our country even before United Nations came and this time they are giving us economic support,” he said.
He traced the commencement of flights by Arik as a national carrier in his country as a deal that started about 18 months ago and lauded the role played by the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, whom he said facilitated the talks.
He stressed that there was need for African countries to fast track air link as a veritable tool for economic and social development.
In his remarks, Aviation Minister, Babatunde Omotoba , said that the Arik deal would encourage better relationship among West African countries and help to ease air movement in the region, lamenting that in the past it was difficult to connect flights from one state capital to another, sometimes forcing passengers from the region to fly to Europe to connect flight to another country in the region.
Chairman of Arik Air, Sir Johnson Arumemi Johnson, said he was delighted with the coming of the airline into Sierra Leone and noted that the absence of intra-African connections has stiffed trade and economic growth in the sub-region.

SAfrica's Motlanthe heads to G20

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South African President Kgalema Motlanthe left Tuesday for London to join the key G20 summit where Africa's sole representative will try to swing the focus onto developing economies.

"As they look at packages to salvage their own economies, G20 countries must be thinking about the economies of developing countries, particularly in Africa," Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement.

Accompanied by a delegation including Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Motlanthe will join world leaders at the summit which will examine ways to restore the world economy.

"As the only African country in the G20, South Africa has consistently stressed that a global response is required to mitigate the impact of the crisis and prevent its contagion to emerging markets and developing countries, in particular Africa," the minister said.

South Africa is the G20 member on the African continent, which has been hard hit by the loss of credit lines and investment from industrialised nations battling the crisis.

Commodity prices have also fallen sharply, directly impacting emerging markets which are heavily dependent on export mineral markets.

Hlophe seeks to appeal in ConCourt

Cape Judge President John Hlophe will take his challenge to the complaint against him to the Constitutional Court, his lawyer confirmed today.

# Hlope to appeal in ConCourt

# A bad day for Judge Hlophe

# BLOG: Another victory for the right to know

"I have now been informed that instructions have been taken to bring an application for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court", said Vuyani Ngalwana at the stuttering start to the Judicial Service Commission’s hearing on the complaint at a Johannesburg hotel.

The Constitutional Court judges last year complained to the commission that Hlophe had allegedly tried to influence judgment on a matter relating to ANC president Jacob Zuma.

He took the matter to the High Court in Johannesburg, arguing that the Constitutional Court had infringed his dignity by making public the nature of their complaint and not giving him a chance to be heard.

He also wanted the JSC hearing stopped.

The high court ruled that the Constitutional Court judges had infringed his rights, but that the JSC hearing go ahead as planned.

The Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday held that the Constitutional Court justices did not act unlawfully when they made a complaint to the JSC against Hlophe without first affording him an opportunity to be heard.

They had also not acted unlawfully by issuing the media statement.

"So this is not the end of the matter," said Ngalwana.

An application to the Constitutional Court would place the judges in a difficult position as they would be adjudicating a matter relating to themselves.

Meanwhile, the start of today’s hearing was taken up with Ngalwana explaining that Hlophe could not be present due to a "mischievous bout of influenza", with a short break for him to produce a doctor’s note.

Hlophe was booked off between March 30 and April 3 by a Khayelitsha doctor, leaving the commission debating whether to press ahead without him.

Ngalwana also had to defend his client’s apparent planned appearance at an engagement in Durban on Thursday night, saying that although he was billed to attend a talk on the Constitution, he had not confirmed.

However, the JSC was concerned that if they allowed the postponement for Hlophe to recover, he would use the time to file an application for an urgent court interdict relating to his claim that certain members of the JSC were biased against him.

The sitting adjourned until 2pm for Ngalwana to take instructions on whether the committee could start the proceedings with the testimony of Chief Justice Pius Langa, who made a brief appearance earlier, and Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, in Hlophe’s absence.

Ngalwana objected to having to take instructions from Hlophe, saying it would be inconsiderate.

"The man is indisposed - we have a great deal of unease in interrupting a client every time a legal issue is raised," he said.

The JSC committee members then went into a private session to discuss a letter that Hlophe sent on March 27 complaining of bias and threatening to stop the hearing, and suggesting collusion between the SCA and the JSC.

Justice Minister Enver Surty recused himself from the hearings as he had been trying to help the parties resolve the matter, JSC spokesman Marumo Moerane said on the sidelines.