African press review 16 September 2017

Nigeria's military classifies IFOP Igbo separatists in terrorism blacklist, as South-South governors denounce its agenda while a constitutional crisis looms in Kenya.

We start in Nigeria, where the Indigenous People of Biafra campaigning for a separatist Igbo state has been classified by the country's military authorities as a “militant terrorist organization”.

The Nation reports that the Defence Headquarters claimed in a statement issued in Abuja that IPOB poses security challenge to the country after the formation of a Biafra Secret Service, a Biafra National Guard, and extortion of money from innocent civilians at illegal road blocks.

The statement followed clashes between IPOB members and the security officials which have led to several injuries in Abia State and the burning down of a police station.

Meanwhile Daily Post reports that the Igbo Community Association in Kano State has distanced itself from the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

The President-General of the association, Ebenezer Chima, reportedly made the position of the association known at a joint news conference in Kano on Friday.

In related development Saturday Punch claims that there was palpable tension in the North on Friday as Igbo living in the region feared there could be reprisals against them by northerners over alleged attacks on northerners in the South-East and parts of Rivers State in the South-South.

And Premium Times reports that Governors of South-eastern States rose from a security meeting on Friday to announce the proscription of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, in all the five states of the zone.

According to the newspaper, the governors also appealed to President Muhammad Buhari to withdraw soldiers from the zone while the police carry out their constitutional duty of securing lives and property.

The Nigerian Guardian underlines that the security meeting was attended by the governors of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu while Imo was represented by the deputy governor.

In Kenya, uncertainty continues to hang over the rerun of the Presidential election now scheduled on October 17 as NASA candidate Raila Odinga insists on boycotting the ballot if conditions tabled before the Electoral commission are not met.

According to the Standard, one of NASA’s main grievances now is that the Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Wafula Chebukati is reportedly “acting as if the Supreme Court did not find the commission culpable of bungling the elections.”

The Star reports that the coalition backing Raila Odinga laid down 25 demands to be fulfilled before it could take part in the vote.

They include a full audit of the elections technology, a change of the ballot printing firm and the criminal prosecution of the IEBC's CEO Ezra Chiloba and 10 other senior staff suspected by NASA of masterminding the irregularities.

Meanwhile the Nation leads with a statement from the French biometrics firm that supplied the electronic system used to tally votes in Kenya's cancelled presidential poll, claiming that it found no traces of manipulation of data, after an audit of the system.

According to the publication Raila Odinga had accused the company, OT-Morpho, of being complicit in alleged rigging of the election, which was declared null and void by the country's Supreme Court due to "irregularities and illegalities" in the transmission of results.

The Standard carries a warning from experts that Odinga's boycott of the repeat poll could plunge the country into a constitutional and legal quagmire given that the law does not espouse a situation where one candidate withdraws from the polls.

And in South Africa, the Sowetan takes up the ordeal of 68 tourists rescued from a sinking ferry as it made its way to Robben Island on Friday.

According to the newspaper, the passenger ferry Thandi nose-dived into a large swell in stormy conditions about halfway between Robben Island and the mainland.

The Sowetan reports that the passengers were huddled on the listing deck where they waited for 30 minutes before being rescued and transferred onto a larger passenger ferry‚ on her way back to the mainland.