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By Nuruddeen M. Abdallah

The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate retired General Muhammadu Buhari has formally dragged the First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan to International Criminal Court (ICC) for urging PDP supporters to stone anyone who ask for change.

Patience Jonathan, during a rally in Calabar, Cross River State last week, called on PDP supporters to "stone" anyone who came to the state asking for change.

The complaint letter to the ICC was signed by Rivers State Governor and Director General of All Progressives Congress Presidential Organisation the Rotimi Amaechi.

Copies of the letter will be sent to the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police (IG) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among others.

Governor Amaechi said "Change, as the entire country must know by now, is the slogan of the APC - the rallying cry of a political party that wishes to bring hope of greater and better things to come for Nigeria and Nigerians. By her statement, Mrs. Jonathan was clearly calling on PDP supporters in Calabar to attack supporters and campaigners of the APC in the state."

He also likened some of Mrs. Jonathan's inciting statements and conduct during this political campaign season, to those of Mrs Simone Gbagbo, wife of the former president of Cote D'Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, prior to that country's 2010 election.

The ICC indicted Mrs. Gbagbo for her part in planning to perpetrate brutal attacks - including murder, rape, and sexual violence, on her husband's political opponents in the wake of the 2010 election.

Mrs. Jonathan does not occupy any formal office in the Nigerian government, as the position of First Lady is not recognized by the Nigerian constitution. But Mrs. Gbagbo's case shows the ICC's awareness of how someone beyond formal governmental and military hierarchies can be identified as responsible for serious international crimes.

The APC campaign pointed out that Mrs. Jonathan's incontrovertible hate speech not only contravenes the laws of the land, but also goes completely against the Abuja Peace Accord jointly signed by the two presidential candidates, General Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan - a gesture which is aimed at forestalling violence before, during and after the 2015 election.

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Nigeria: Buhari Taking Patience Jonathan to International Criminal Court

The All Progressives Congress has alleged plans by one of the security agencies to harass and intimidatesupposed sponsorsof the party, which it says is part of the ongoing efforts to cripple its activities in the run up to the March 28polls.

APC believes the agency is apparently acting at the behest of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration.

In a statement in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party however said the agency could only target phantom financiers, since the APC was, in reality, being financed by Nigerians, not some moneybags.

Though the Federal Government has used some national institutions to stifle our partys fund-raising efforts, Nigerians have utilised the available platforms to make their donations. It is therefore a futile exercise for anyone to harass some innocent people for supposedly financing the APC, it said.

The APCsaidsecurity agenciesshould only serve national, rather than partisan, interests, because while governments would always come and go, Nigeria as a country would remain.

For example, there is a plan for at least 500 security agents to apply to work as ad hoc INEC staff so they can rig for the PDP, while military and police uniforms are being sewn in a Peoples Democratic Party-controlled state in the South-West, with a view to making them available for PDP thugs to wear on election day, so they can harass and intimidate the opposition.

There is also the disturbing case of four senior officers of the State Security Service, who are being retained for some ignoble role during the general elections, even though they are already due for retirement.

It is interesting that these officers, including three at the states and one at the headquarters of the SSS, are all from the South-East and the South-South, which the Jonathan-led administration considers its stronghold.

Equally disturbing is the fact that a section of the security services has been making sensitive information available to certain PDP members, including a loose-lipped state Governor, just to get at the opposition.

This is sad because Nigeria is bigger than any political party.

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APC alleges planned clampdown on suspected partys financiers

About 60 people participated in the fourth annual Awake The State rally of political progressives Wednesday in West Palm Beach.

The gathering, organized by Tom Conboy, met to draw attention to a series of liberal platform issues as the Florida Legislature gets started in Tallahassee.

Those at the rally outlined a five-point platform they want lawmakers to pass, including:

-expanded access to health care

-more efforts to protect water quality

-expanded use of alternative energy sources

-raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour

-pass anti-corruption legislation.

Of course, a group of progressives arent likely to gather without tossing a few shots in the direction of the conservatives who reign in Tallahassee.

Under Gov. Rick Scott, Florida has only worked for the wealthy and the well-connected, Conboy said. Its important that we make our voices heard in Tallahassee.

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Dozens attend Awake the State rally of progressives in WPB

Illustration: John Spooner

In trendy cafes across the nation people are talking about Malcolm Turnbull. They talk mostly in whispers, eyes darting round the room, palms sweating. "I'd do it for Malcolm," the hipsters confess.

Should Turnbull become prime minister - a scenario that even after Monday's spill is poised somewhere between dead certain and entirely likely - these once diehard lefties seem prepared to do what was previously unthinkable: defect, turn, bat for the other team. Vote 1 for the Liberal Party.

I've heard the sentiment expressed frequently during the past week, and the polls are saying it too; progressives adore Turnbull, conservatives do not. For years left-leaning voters have harboured a fantasy of flipping Turnbull to lead the ALP, figuring it wasn't so far-fetched given he had briefly contemplated joining the party when he was young. That fantasy shelved, these voters now contemplate flipping themselves: embracing the man, even as they throw a metaphorical paper bag over his party.

In this cynical age, how can one man inspire such messianic faith? Many people want to believe Turnbull can steer the Coalition back to the political centre. And it's true the Liberals are a broad church. But unlike Labor which has largely purged its caucus of ideologues and replaced them with pragmatic careerists the Coalition has a bedrock of true believers. People who truly believe global warming is a myth, for instance. And that wealth always trickles down.

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In the progressives' wet dream Turnbull rides in as a saviour. He not only abolishes knights and dames but ushers in the republic. He not only exposes the climate sceptics, but restores the price on carbon. Not only repudiates the idea that women are responsible for the household ironing, but introduces same-sex marriage. Not only arrests the march to a surveillance state, but guarantees for evermore our freedom to illegally download Game of Thrones- a reference to which he need never drop into his public statements because in contrast to the Prime Minister, noone would doubt Malcolm's pop culture cred.

To some extent, Turnbull's mystique is bound up with his background. The self-made man brought up by a single father in a rented flat; who overcame loss and tragedy to become a Rhodes scholar, journalist, corporate lawyer, investment banker and politician; who is so ruggedly urbane he even boasts the late art critic Robert Hughes as an in-law; who has a touch of Gatsby, projecting a restless hunger for affirmation despite his Point Piper mansion with its breathtaking harbour view.

Most intriguing about the faith in Turnbull is that it rests on a paradox. He seems to be popular despite even because of the various contradictions he's been forced to straddle, especially since losing the Liberal leadership in 2009.

Climate change is the big one, having declared before he was ousted: "I will not lead a party that is not as committed to effective action on climate change as I am." During the intervening years it became apparent that this declaration is no longer sacrosanct. This week he reportedly confirmed that if elected leader he would not change the Coalition's climate change policy unless the world's major polluters changed theirs.

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Turnbull: why the left is so in love with him

The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign on Sunday described as felonious, claims by the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign, which seems to call to question Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buharis commitment to Nigeria.

The APC campaign dismissed questions raised about the civil war role and commitment to the nation of its Presidential candidate.

This was contained in a statement by the Directorate of Media and Publicity of the APC Campaign, Mallam Garba Shehu.

Shehu described the PDP as questioning the the continued existence of Nigeria as single entity.

He added, This is nothing short of treason. It rocks the foundation of the oneness of Nigeria, its constitution, its flag and desecrates the blood of fellow citizens, who fought on both sides of the war as part of their commitment to one, united nation.

He dismissed the PDPs attack on Buharis illustrious war record and inspiring patriotism as a grim pointer to the desperation by the President to return even if in the process, he causes a permanent damage to the well being and continued existence of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Shehu accused the PDP of riding roughshod over the emotions of the Nigerian peoples, saying the latest statement beamed an unflattering light on the PDP and its government and lent credence to those who accused the ruling party of having lost interest in the unity of Nigeria.

The APC noted in the statement that the world history had shown that in the process of the development of any nation, challenges bordering on national unity always crop up.

The statement added, This is the case with most developed nations. Take the United States of America for example, the civil war they fought did not decimate the nation but rather set up the base for unified development. Today, we all know how great the United States is.

So, as it happened there, we, Nigeria as a nation, equally faced this type of challenge. We had to take actions, difficult as they were, to ensure peace, unity and progress. As a soldier of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Buharis participation in efforts to keep the country together was not because he loved the Igbos less but because it was imperative that we develop as a unified nation.

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PDPs war accusation against Buhari felonious APC campaigners