After the July 7, 1979 elections, during which Alhaji Shehu Shagari was declared the presidential winner in the polls, the National Party of Nigeria had 36 Senate seats, the Unity Party of Nigeria had 28, the Nigerian People’s Party had 16 seats, the Great Nigerian People’s Party had eight, while the People’s Redemption Party had seven. He declared, “It is our belief that the system shall: (a) Provide a grassroots basis for the emergence of political parties (b) Establish a grassroots or mass platform for the emergence of new leadership (c) Give equal rights and opportunities to all Nigerians to participate in the political process irrespective of their wealth, religion, geo-political backgrounds and professional endeavours (d) De-empasise the role of money in politics (e) Reduce, to a minimum level, the element of violence in our electoral process (f) Preclude the emergence political alliances along the same lines as in the First Republics and, therefore, give Nigerians a new political structure within which to operate. Others detained for shorter or longer periods, usually without charge, included the Editor of the defunct Weekly June 12, Bunmi Aborishade; in May, the defence correspondent of the Vanguard Newspaper, George Onah; the Editor of The PUNCH Newspaper, , Tunji Adegboyega, for a front-page story relating to the arson attack on the home of one of the prominent NADECO members in self-exile; Kate Odigie-Oyegun, the general manager of the newspaper company that publishes The Observer, over a story that speculated about changes in the military following large scale military promotions to the rank of general.
Author: Punch Newspapers
Published at: 2026-01-12 23:06:22
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