Anti-3rd term protest claims three lives in Katsina
•Eschew violence, embrace dialogue, says EU
From ANDY ASEMOTA, Katsina and Kenny Ashaka, Kaduna
Sunday, February 19, 2006

Even as the nation eagerly awaits the commencement of public hearings on amendments to the 1999 Constitution Wednesday, opposition to the idea took a grimmer twist yesterday with a demonstration in Katsina claiming three lives.

Among the three feared dead is said to be a policeman.
The protest which began around mid-day as a march by some muslim faithful against a cartoon published by a Danish newspaper perceived to be anti-Islam was soon hijacked by some youths and hoodlums chanting anti-3rd term slogans.

Elsewhere in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, a group of demonstrators were also said to have staged a protest against the scheduled public hearing on the constitutional amendment with an uncomfirmed report that several buildings were torched.

Interestingly, six members of the National Assembly had Friday obtained an injunction from a Federal High Court restraining the Senator Ibrahim Mantu-led National Assembly Joint Constitutional Review Committee from conducting the public hearing pending the determination of a substantive suit.
Even as Mantu vowed that no amount of attacks on his person and other members of his committee would deter them from carrying on with the process of amending the Constitution.

Sounding defiant, Mantu said Friday: “No amount of intimidation or attacks on my person, NASS, the JCRC and all the State Houses of Assembly that will be involved in the process of this constitution review to give Nigerians an enduring constitution, would deter us from continuing with the good work we have embarked upon.”

The Deputy Senate President, who said constitutional amendments were not for farmers but an elitists exercise, further said that there are several other “fundamental and contentious” issues that require amendment, wondering why some Nigerians chose to hammer only on the extension of tenure.
Waving placcards with anti-3rd term inscriptions, the Katsina demonstratotrs engaged security operatives in a protracted street battle.

Unable to access the State House in the GRA which had been cordoned off by stern-looking anti-riot policemen, the protesters took to the city centre.
An eye witness told Sunday Sun that shop owners and residents of the affected streets hurriedly locked up their shops and homes as police replied the missles hauled at them by the youths with tear gas.
The riot left the city paralysed for over two hours.

Normalcy was restored after the anti riot policemen had removed the bonfire on the streets and drafted heavily armed security operatives in several vehicles to strategic locations in the city.
Several attempts to reach the spokesman of the state police command, Adamu Yusuf, for his comments proved abortive as at press time.

Reacting to the disturbance in Maiduguri, Governor S. A Sheriff blamed the incident on those he described as his detractors and vowed to bring the mastermind to book.

In another development, the meeting of elders of the South-South Peoples Assembly, was weekend aborted by security operatives who claimed to be working on instructions from above.
Some of the elders, including Chief Edwin Clerk were denied access to PTI, venue of the meeting.
Meanwhile, indications emerged that the European Union (EU) may have decided to adopt a passive position on the perceived third term agenda.

EU ambassadors to Nigerian who broke their long silence on the issue at the weekend in Kaduna said that the third term issue was purely an internal affair of Nigeria.

They also expressed concern over the increasing violence in the Niger Delta region and urged the Federal Governement to approach the issue of the Niger Delta crisis with caution, pointing out that only dialogue could resolve the issues at stake.

Spokesman of the Ambassadors and the Representative of the EU President in Nigeria who is also the Austrian Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Christian Fellner who made the position of the EU known, said that the body has no business taking any position on the issue.

He dissociated the EU from the third term debate for President Olusegun Obasanjo, pointing out that they have not even discussed the issue at any level.
Dr. Fullner said that there is no official position of the EU on the third term bid:
"It is none of our business. It is the internal mater of Nigerians. America can take whatever position it desires. But the EU does not have any position regarding third term."

Fellner disclosed that the EU has, however, been following the debate with keen interest, stressing that even though America has made its position known on the alleged third term agenda of the present administration, the EU will not take a cue from it.

"Of course, we are following the developments closely. We want to see an outcome that will increase stability and prospects of good elections in 2007. That is a strong interest for us."
He noted that the youth restiveness and imbroglio in the Niger Delta deserve careful handling and advocated for concrete dialogue with the people as the only way out of the problem.