Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission has declared opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari the winner of Nigeria's presidential election.
Buhari, a retired major general, defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan by about 2 million votes.
Earlier, Jonathan phoned Buhari on Tuesday to concede defeat.
The outgoing president also issued a written statement to his nation.
"I thank all Nigerians once again for the great opportunity I was given to lead this country, and assure you that I will continue to do my best at the helm of national affairs until the end of my tenure," he said.
"I promised the country free and fair elections. I have kept my word."
Buhari, 72, will take the helm of Africa's most populous nation at a critical time, as Nigeria grapples with the violent militant group Boko Haram.
A leader again
This won't be Buhari's first time leading Nigeria -- but it's his first time in nearly 30 years.
A military coup brought Buhari to power in late 1983, closing a brief period of popular rule by Shehu Shagari. But Buhari himself was ousted in another military coup in August 1985.
His presidential win comes after four attempts at leadership since he was ousted from power in 1985.
Buhari campaigned as a born-again democrat to allay fears about his strict military regime, while stressing that Nigeria's security needs to be the next government's focus.
His campaign was also fiercely anti-corruption. He ran under the slogan of "new broom," and his supporters were often pictured holding brooms in the lead-up to the vote.
Facing extremists
Nigeria's vote had been scheduled for February 14. But on February 7, Nigeria's election commission announced the vote would be postponed for six weeks due to security concerns, as the military needed more time to secure areas controlled by Boko Haram.
Jonathan has been criticized for not doing enough to combat Boko Haram, which is waging a campaign of terror aimed at instituting a stricter version of Sharia law in Nigeria.
On Saturday, residents in the northeastern state of Gombe said at least 11 people were killed and two more injured in attacks at polling stations, apparently by Boko Haram extremists.
Documentary filmmaker and African affairs analyst Ayo Johnson said earlier this month that the elections would come down to who could make Nigeria feel safe.
"Many Nigerians will not forget (Buhari) was a military leader during a dictatorship," Johnson said. "Or maybe they will feel that they need a military leader to address fundamental problems such as terrorism."
Buhari is a Sunni Muslim from Nigeria's poorer North, while Jonathan hails from a Christian and animist South that is rich with oil.
Ahead of this year's election, Jonathan and Buhari signed a nonviolence pact, the Abuja Accord, in January. On March 26 they renewed their pledge and reiterated their commitment to "free, fair and credible elections."
But violent protests broke out after polling on Saturday. Protesters fired gunshots and torched a local electoral office in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers state on Sunday as they marched to protest the elections amid claims of vote-rigging and voter intimidation.
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - The second day of vote counting in Nigeria's bitterly contested presidential vote started late on Tuesday and electoral officials hope to announce later in the day who will govern Africa's richest and biggest nation.
Early returns from half the states have President Goodluck Jonathan winning nine states and the Federal Capital Territory and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari winning nine states. But Buhari won 8.5 million votes to Jonathan's 6.48 million. A candidate must take at least 50 percent of all votes and at least 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of the states to win.
About a dozen of the 18 remaining states still have to send results to the counting center in Abuja. Final results are hoped for by the end of the day but results from only a few of the remaining states have been delivered, electoral commission spokesman Kayode Idowu told The Associated Press.
It's the first time in Nigeria's history that a challenger has a real chance of defeating a sitting president. This is only the eighth election since independence from Britain in 1960.
Buhari swept the northern states of Kano and Kaduna, as expected, but margin of his victory was unexpected. In Kano, the state with the second-largest number of voters, Buhari won 1.9 million votes to Jonathan's 216,000. In Kaduna, Buhari won 1.1 million votes to Jonathan's 484,000.
The count in Abuja is being carried out in the presence of party representatives, national and international observers and media. The counting has started late on both Monday and Tuesday, with no explanations given for the delays.
The U.S. and Britain on Monday warned of "disturbing indications" that the tally could be subject to political interference. In a joint statement the two countries said they would be "very concerned" by any attempts to undermine the independence of the electoral commission and distort the will of the Nigerian people.
"So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process. But there are disturbing indications that the collation process - where the votes are finally counted - may be subject to deliberate political interference," said the statement, signed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart, Philip Hammond.
Jonathan's party called the suggestions "absolute balderdash" and demanded evidence. Campaign spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode told foreign reporters that they "completely reject the assertion or the notion that we are in any way interfering" with the electoral commission.
"I will challenge John Kerry or any other foreign official to provide the evidence," he said.
Widespread rigging has occurred in many previous elections, along with violence after those votes. New biometric cards aimed at stemming fraud were used but some newly imported card readers were not working properly, and voting was extended to Sunday in 300 out of 150,000 polling stations where that problem occurred, the election commission said.
Turnout was high Saturday among the nearly 60 million people eligible to vote in the high-stakes election, which took place despite a campaign of violence by the Islamic extremists of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A lead prosecutor in the trial of the Uganda terror suspects responsible for the July 2010 bombings was shot dead in the capital Kampala.
Joan Kagezi was shot dead by men on a motorcycle while she was driving home from work late on Monday, according to the military.
Kagezi was the lead prosecutor in the trial of terror suspects responsible for the July 2010 bombings in Kampala that left close to 80 people dead and dozens injured.
"It is so disheartening that she has been shot dead. She has been instrumental in the prosecution of the terror suspects," Paddy Ankunda, an army spokesperson, told Xinhua news agency over telephone.
"At the moment we cannot say it is a terrorism act or not. We cannot rule out terrorism," he added.
Somali militant group Al Shabaab claimed responsibility of the attack, saying they were avenging Uganda's deployment of peace keeping troops in Somalia.
Joan Kagezi last week was in court when the terror suspects appeared for trial.
Kagezi's murder comes after police warned last week of a possible terror attack by the Al Shabaab. Police had called on the public to be vigilant.
A British tourist killed in a terror attack in Tunisia died of gunshot wounds to her abdomen and pelvis, a coroner has heard.
Mother-of-two Sally Adey, of Caynton, near Shifnal, Shropshire, died in the shooting at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis on March 18.
She had been on a Mediterranean cruise with her 52-year-old husband Robert, who survived the attack.
Today, at the opening of her inquest, senior coroner for Shropshire John Ellery was told it was Mrs Adey's husband who identified her body at the Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis, the day after the attack.
Coroner's officer Julie Hartridge said retired solicitor Mrs Adey and her husband had "disembarked from the MSC Splendida in Tunis on March 18" before going to the museum.
"It is reported the museum came under fire from gunmen and she received fatal gunshot wounds," she added.
Ms Hartridge said a post-mortem examination carried out in the UK by a Home Office pathologist on March 25 had established provisional cause of death as "consistent with gunshot wounds to the abdomen and pelvis".
More than 20 people were killed in the attack, including 17 cruise ship tourists, with Mrs Adey among them.
Two gunmen who carried out the atrocity were subsequently killed in a firefight with security forces.
The Islamic State group based in Iraq and Syria later claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Sunday, the Tunisian government said another leading suspect implicated in the terror assault had been killed near the Algerian border.
Mr Ellery, opening today's proceedings at Shrewsbury's Shirehall, adjourned the hearing until July 2.
A British tourist killed in a terror attack in Tunisia died of gunshot wounds to her abdomen and pelvis, a coroner has heard.
Mother-of-two Sally Adey, of Caynton, near Shifnal, Shropshire, died in the shooting at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis on March 18.
She had been on a Mediterranean cruise with her 52-year-old husband Robert, who survived the attack.
Today, at the opening of her inquest, senior coroner for Shropshire John Ellery was told it was Mrs Adey's husband who identified her body at the Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis, the day after the attack.
Coroner's officer Julie Hartridge said retired solicitor Mrs Adey and her husband had "disembarked from the MSC Splendida in Tunis on March 18" before going to the museum.
"It is reported the museum came under fire from gunmen and she received fatal gunshot wounds," she added.
Ms Hartridge said a post-mortem examination carried out in the UK by a Home Office pathologist on March 25 had established provisional cause of death as "consistent with gunshot wounds to the abdomen and pelvis".
More than 20 people were killed in the attack, including 17 cruise ship tourists, with Mrs Adey among them.
Two gunmen who carried out the atrocity were subsequently killed in a firefight with security forces.
The Islamic State group based in Iraq and Syria later claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Sunday, the Tunisian government said another leading suspect implicated in the terror assault had been killed near the Algerian border.
Mr Ellery, opening today's proceedings at Shrewsbury's Shirehall, adjourned the hearing until July 2.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Ugandan police said on Tuesday they are investigating whether the killing of a prosecutor in Kampala late Monday was carried out by Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.
Joan Kagezi, a prosecutor in the ongoing trial of about a dozen men facing terror charges, appears to have been the victim of a targeted assassination, Patrick Onyango, a police spokesman in the Ugandan capital, said Tuesday.
There are many possible suspects, including al-Shabab, but it is too soon to make any arrests, he said.
"We cannot rule out al-Shabab ... because that's the major case that she was handling," he said, referring to the trial in Uganda of suspects accused of being involved in the July 2010 bombings here in which more than 70 people were killed while watching a soccer World Cup final on TV.
The U.S. Embassy in Uganda condemned the prosecutor's killing in a statement Tuesday that described Kagezi as a "heroine in the forefront of the fight against crime and terrorism."
"The United States reiterates its support for the Ugandan government's efforts to combat international terrorism, in which Joan Kagezi played a leading role," the statement said. "We stand in solidarity with Ugandans and the Ugandan government as they seek to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous crime."
Onyango said Kagezi was shot twice by gunmen after she left her car - in which she was traveling with two of her children on the way home from work - to buy groceries in a Kampala suburb. After shooting her twice in the head and neck, the gunmen fled on a motorcycle during heavy vehicular traffic, he said, citing eyewitness accounts.
The killing has shocked Uganda amid repeated warnings that al-Shabab is plotting fresh attacks in Uganda.
The latest warning, issued last week by the U.S. Embassy, said there was a terrorist threat against locations in Kampala where foreigners often congregate.
Uganda has contributed troops toward an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, the reason al-Shabab cited for carrying out the 2010 attacks.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The second day of vote counting in Nigeria’s bitterly contested presidential vote started late on Tuesday and electoral officials hope to announce later in the day who will govern Africa’s richest and biggest nation.
Early returns from half the states have President Goodluck Jonathan winning nine states and the Federal Capital Territory and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari winning nine states. But Buhari won 8.5 million votes to Jonathan’s 6.48 million. A candidate must take at least 50 percent of all votes and at least 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of the states to win.
About a dozen of the 18 remaining states still have to send results to the counting center in Abuja. Final results are hoped for by the end of the day but results from only a few of the remaining states have been delivered, electoral commission spokesman Kayode Idowu told The Associated Press.
It’s the first time in Nigeria’s history that a challenger has a real chance of defeating a sitting president. This is only the eighth election since independence from Britain in 1960.
Buhari swept the northern states of Kano and Kaduna, as expected, but margin of his victory was unexpected. In Kano, the state with the second-largest number of voters, Buhari won 1.9 million votes to Jonathan’s 216,000. In Kaduna, Buhari won 1.1 million votes to Jonathan’s 484,000.
The count in Abuja is being carried out in the presence of party representatives, national and international observers and media. The counting has started late on both Monday and Tuesday, with no explanations given for the delays.
The U.S. and Britain on Monday warned of “disturbing indications” that the tally could be subject to political interference. In a joint statement the two countries said they would be “very concerned” by any attempts to undermine the independence of the electoral commission and distort the will of the Nigerian people.
“So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process. But there are disturbing indications that the collation process — where the votes are finally counted — may be subject to deliberate political interference,” said the statement, signed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart, Philip Hammond.
Jonathan’s party called the suggestions “absolute balderdash” and demanded evidence. Campaign spokesman Femi Fani-Kayode told foreign reporters that they “completely reject the assertion or the notion that we are in any way interfering” with the electoral commission.
“I will challenge John Kerry or any other foreign official to provide the evidence,” he said.
Widespread rigging has occurred in many previous elections, along with violence after those votes. New biometric cards aimed at stemming fraud were used but some newly imported card readers were not working properly, and voting was extended to Sunday in 300 out of 150,000 polling stations where that problem occurred, the election commission said.
Turnout was high Saturday among the nearly 60 million people eligible to vote in the high-stakes election, which took place despite a campaign of violence by the Islamic extremists of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.
The US mission in Uganda has sent a condolence message to the family of Ms Joan Kagezi , the senior principal State Attorney who was murdered on Monday evening in Kiwatule, East of Kampala.
“On behalf of the U.S. government, U.S. Mission Uganda extends our deepest condolences to the children, family, and friends of Senior Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi. She will be remembered as a brave and tireless promotor of justice, dedicated to ensuring peace and stability in her country,” read part of the message.
“The United States reiterates its support for the Ugandan government’s efforts to combat international terrorism, in which Joan Kagezi played a leading role. We deplore this senseless act of violence and cowardice and join Ugandans in mourning the loss of this heroine in the forefront of the fight against crime and terrorism. We stand in solidarity with Ugandans and the Ugandan government as they seek to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous crime,” further read the message.
Ms Kagezi was shot dead on Monday evening in what police say was a planned assassination.
According to police, she was shot at around 7:15 by two assailants who had been trailing her on a boda boda motorcycle.
Ms Kagezi had been prosecuting a high profile case involving the July 2010 Kampala bomb suspects.
The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) must “throw out” Ivory Coast’s application for an injunction on oil exploration activities by Tullow Oil plc in the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) oilfields over which the Francophone West African country is fighting with Ghana, former Attorney General Nii Ayikoi Otoo has told Morning Starr’s Kafui Dey on Starr 103.5FM.
According to Mr Ayikoi Otoo, stopping exploration activities now would be damaging to both Ghana and Tullow Oil plc. He also believes the pendulum tilts in Ghana’s favour.
“There are a lot of things that would influence a tribunal in taking a decision one way or the other: one of them is the balance of convenience.…They looked on while we spent so much, so at this stage why must we be stopped.
“Allow us to continue while the case also goes on because you could be compensated in damages. But to say: ‘Stop now’, when we’ve gone so far, the equities and the law appear to weigh in our favour, so it seems to me that the tribunal should look at how much money has been sunk and the damage that will be caused if this thing should come to a standstill pending a final determination.
“…So what happens for three years? We are talking about the corrosive nature of the sea and all that. All the machines there will get damaged if there is no maintenance for three years and all that so I think that in terms of balance of convenience, I think the application they have sent there should be thrown out,” Mr Otoo said.
His concerns are in tandem with those of Ghana’s current Attorney General who said at the second day of the hearing Monday that Ghana would be dealt “irreparable damage” and “irremediable injustice”, if the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg rules in favour of Ivory Coast by determining that the Anglophone West African country stops all oil exploration activities in the disputed oilfields until the Court makes a final determination.
“One of the more surprising things that was suggested yesterday [Sunday] by Cote d’Ivoire was that Ghana should diffuse the situation pending determination by the tribunal, by stopping work in the area.
“We agree that pending determination of a dispute, a party and a tribunal should not take steps that are likely to aggravate it. It is, we suggest, clear that Cote d’Ivoire’s attempt to prevent the continuation of the existing activity is likely to seriously aggravate this dispute and make its resolution much harder.
“In short, the measures sought by Cote d’Ivoire would guarantee disproportionate irreparable damage to Ghana. They would aggravate this dispute and they would cost irremediable injustice,” Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, who is leading Ghana’s legal team argued. “On behalf of Ghana, I therefore formally request that their application for provisional measures be declined.”
Meanwhile Ivory Coast has cast doubts over maritime maps and data being used by Ghana to argue out its case as far as the dispute over the TEN oil fields operated by Tullow Oil is concerned.
An external lawyer for Ivory Coast said on the second day of the hearing that: “Ghana cannot be trusted to have independently secured these maps and the data without Ivory Coast having copies.”
“Since these maps are in the sole possession of Ghana, they should be prevented from using them in this litigation, because the authenticity of these maps cannot be independently verified,” the Lawyer said.
Ivory Coast argued at the tribunal on Sunday that allowing Ghana to continue oil exploration in the disputed offshore area pending the ruling would do irreparable damage to its economy and energy policy.
London-listed Tullow Oil is due to finish work on its TEN project in the disputed zone and start pumping oil by mid-2016. A final ruling by the court on the dispute could be in three years.
In its first round of oral arguments, Ivory Coast said Ghana was accelerating development in the zone, which would leave it to face a fait accompli.
Reuters reported Sunday that Michael Wood, a special adviser to the Ivorian delegation, said that not granting the suspension "could irreparably compromise Cote d'Ivoire's entitlement to formulate and pursue a national policy with respect to the use of natural resources".
Paul Reichler, a member of Ghana's legal team, said that Ivory Coast had for at least the last 40 years accepted the demarcation that Accra considers to be the boundary between the two nations.
"There was an agreed border separating their respective maritime territories, and it consisted of an equidistant line whose specific coordinates were identified and were reflected in their oil concession agreements," he said.
The argument was rejected at the tribunal by Ibrahima Diaby, director-general of hydrocarbons for Ivory Coast's energy ministry.
"I regret that Ghana should rewrite our shared history by asserting that Cote d'Ivoire expressly accepted as a maritime boundary between the two states the line along which oil blocks were granted by the two states," he said.
Ghana is seeking a dismissal of Ivory Coast's request for a provisional suspension.
Ghana downplayed fears of a possible suspension of the TEN project earlier this month after Ivory Coast introduced its request, saying a ruling in favour of the Ivorian government was "highly unlikely".
But Tullow lost over 200 million pounds ($308 million) of its market value on March 2 over concerns that the boundary dispute could delay its TEN project.
Ghana’s legal team argued Sunday that Tullow Oil plc risks making huge losses if the Court upheld Ivory Coast’s application for a suspension of further exploration until a ruling is made.
The firm recently said it was informed by the Government of Ghana that Côte d'Ivoire had applied to the International court, which is hearing the oil boundary dispute to restrain further exploration until the case is determined.
In a statement issued early March this year, the oil exploration firm said it “understands that a decision on this application for provisional measures should be handed down before the end of April 2015.”
In September last year, Appiah-Oppong said at a press conference that the young oil producer is certain of winning the arbitration case it filed against Côte d'Ivoire over the matter.
“We’re extremely confident in our case. I don’t think we’ll lose. Many laws support the position we’ve taken so I’m confident that it will go our way”, Appiah-Oppong told Journalists.
She said the line drawn to delineate Ghana’s maritime territory from Côte d'Ivoire has “existed for decades” since the 1950s “so Ghana is not ready to shift its position”.
Ghana resorted to the International Court after more than 10 rounds of negotiations with Côte d'Ivoire since 2008 without success of resolving the impasse.
The young oil producing country of 25 million people wants the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea to declare that it has not encroached on the Ivorian territorial waters in the exploration of oil.
Appiah-Oppong said the arbitration process started by Ghana is not a “hostile” move intended to create tension between the two neighbours.
“This is not a hostile act. All we’re are doing is to bring certainty and finality to the matter. It does not mean we’re at loggerheads or the two heads of state are fighting”, Ghana’s chief lawyer said.
The case, according to the AG will take at least three years. The two parties are to agree on three independent arbitrators by mutual consent. The president of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which both countries belong, will be compelled to appoint the arbitrators should the two parties fail to reach an agreement on the arbitrators.
The decision of the arbitrators will be final. There will be no room for appeal. The Minister said all Ghana’s operations in oil fields that fall within the disputed boundary will continue operating in the interim.
Energy Minister Emmanuel Amah Kofi Buah said at the press conference that the claim of Côte d'Ivoire indeed affects some of Ghana’s concessions.
Also Minister of Communication, Dr Edward Omane Boamah said despite the warm relationship between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, the former British colony has “a sacred duty of protecting our natural resources not just for this generation but also generations unborn”.
Ghana filed the suit based on Article 287 Annex VII of the 1982 UNCLOS.
The statement of claim avers, among other things, that pursuant to articles 286 and 287 of the 1982 UNCLOS, and in accordance with Article 1 Annex 1, the Republic of Ghana had served notice to the Republic of The Ivory Coast to the effect that “having failed to reach a settlement after successive negotiations and exchange of views over an extended period of time, Ghana has elected to submit the dispute concerning the determination of each maritime boundary with Cote d’Ivoire to the arbitral procedure provided for under Annex VII of UNCLOS”.
Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities offshore the Western Region in June 2007, but the Ivorian authorities have been laying claim to the discovery.
The dispute received wide media attention in the past, resulting in leaders from both countries engaging in talks to resolve their differences.
And to compound the issue, oil companies operating in the oilfields have been receiving threatening letters from The Ivory Coast asking them to leave site.
The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) must “throw out” Ivory Coast’s application for an injunction on oil exploration activities by Tullow Oil plc in the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) oilfields over which the Francophone West African country is fighting with Ghana, former Attorney General Nii Ayikoi Otoo has told Morning Starr’s Kafui Dey on Starr 103.5FM.
According to Mr Ayikoi Otoo, stopping exploration activities now would be damaging to both Ghana and Tullow Oil plc. He also believes the pendulum tilts in Ghana’s favour.
“There are a lot of things that would influence a tribunal in taking a decision one way or the other: one of them is the balance of convenience.…They looked on while we spent so much, so at this stage why must we be stopped.
“Allow us to continue while the case also goes on because you could be compensated in damages. But to say: ‘Stop now’, when we’ve gone so far, the equities and the law appear to weigh in our favour, so it seems to me that the tribunal should look at how much money has been sunk and the damage that will be caused if this thing should come to a standstill pending a final determination.
“…So what happens for three years? We are talking about the corrosive nature of the sea and all that. All the machines there will get damaged if there is no maintenance for three years and all that so I think that in terms of balance of convenience, I think the application they have sent there should be thrown out,” Mr Otoo said.
His concerns are in tandem with those of Ghana’s current Attorney General who said at the second day of the hearing Monday that Ghana would be dealt “irreparable damage” and “irremediable injustice”, if the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg rules in favour of Ivory Coast by determining that the Anglophone West African country stops all oil exploration activities in the disputed oilfields until the Court makes a final determination.
“One of the more surprising things that was suggested yesterday [Sunday] by Cote d’Ivoire was that Ghana should diffuse the situation pending determination by the tribunal, by stopping work in the area.
“We agree that pending determination of a dispute, a party and a tribunal should not take steps that are likely to aggravate it. It is, we suggest, clear that Cote d’Ivoire’s attempt to prevent the continuation of the existing activity is likely to seriously aggravate this dispute and make its resolution much harder.
“In short, the measures sought by Cote d’Ivoire would guarantee disproportionate irreparable damage to Ghana. They would aggravate this dispute and they would cost irremediable injustice,” Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, who is leading Ghana’s legal team argued. “On behalf of Ghana, I therefore formally request that their application for provisional measures be declined.”
Meanwhile Ivory Coast has cast doubts over maritime maps and data being used by Ghana to argue out its case as far as the dispute over the TEN oil fields operated by Tullow Oil is concerned.
An external lawyer for Ivory Coast said on the second day of the hearing that: “Ghana cannot be trusted to have independently secured these maps and the data without Ivory Coast having copies.”
“Since these maps are in the sole possession of Ghana, they should be prevented from using them in this litigation, because the authenticity of these maps cannot be independently verified,” the Lawyer said.
Ivory Coast argued at the tribunal on Sunday that allowing Ghana to continue oil exploration in the disputed offshore area pending the ruling would do irreparable damage to its economy and energy policy.
London-listed Tullow Oil is due to finish work on its TEN project in the disputed zone and start pumping oil by mid-2016. A final ruling by the court on the dispute could be in three years.
In its first round of oral arguments, Ivory Coast said Ghana was accelerating development in the zone, which would leave it to face a fait accompli.
Reuters reported Sunday that Michael Wood, a special adviser to the Ivorian delegation, said that not granting the suspension "could irreparably compromise Cote d'Ivoire's entitlement to formulate and pursue a national policy with respect to the use of natural resources".
Paul Reichler, a member of Ghana's legal team, said that Ivory Coast had for at least the last 40 years accepted the demarcation that Accra considers to be the boundary between the two nations.
"There was an agreed border separating their respective maritime territories, and it consisted of an equidistant line whose specific coordinates were identified and were reflected in their oil concession agreements," he said.
The argument was rejected at the tribunal by Ibrahima Diaby, director-general of hydrocarbons for Ivory Coast's energy ministry.
"I regret that Ghana should rewrite our shared history by asserting that Cote d'Ivoire expressly accepted as a maritime boundary between the two states the line along which oil blocks were granted by the two states," he said.
Ghana is seeking a dismissal of Ivory Coast's request for a provisional suspension.
Ghana downplayed fears of a possible suspension of the TEN project earlier this month after Ivory Coast introduced its request, saying a ruling in favour of the Ivorian government was "highly unlikely".
But Tullow lost over 200 million pounds ($308 million) of its market value on March 2 over concerns that the boundary dispute could delay its TEN project.
Ghana’s legal team argued Sunday that Tullow Oil plc risks making huge losses if the Court upheld Ivory Coast’s application for a suspension of further exploration until a ruling is made.
The firm recently said it was informed by the Government of Ghana that Côte d'Ivoire had applied to the International court, which is hearing the oil boundary dispute to restrain further exploration until the case is determined.
In a statement issued early March this year, the oil exploration firm said it “understands that a decision on this application for provisional measures should be handed down before the end of April 2015.”
In September last year, Appiah-Oppong said at a press conference that the young oil producer is certain of winning the arbitration case it filed against Côte d'Ivoire over the matter.
“We’re extremely confident in our case. I don’t think we’ll lose. Many laws support the position we’ve taken so I’m confident that it will go our way”, Appiah-Oppong told Journalists.
She said the line drawn to delineate Ghana’s maritime territory from Côte d'Ivoire has “existed for decades” since the 1950s “so Ghana is not ready to shift its position”.
Ghana resorted to the International Court after more than 10 rounds of negotiations with Côte d'Ivoire since 2008 without success of resolving the impasse.
The young oil producing country of 25 million people wants the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea to declare that it has not encroached on the Ivorian territorial waters in the exploration of oil.
Appiah-Oppong said the arbitration process started by Ghana is not a “hostile” move intended to create tension between the two neighbours.
“This is not a hostile act. All we’re are doing is to bring certainty and finality to the matter. It does not mean we’re at loggerheads or the two heads of state are fighting”, Ghana’s chief lawyer said.
The case, according to the AG will take at least three years. The two parties are to agree on three independent arbitrators by mutual consent. The president of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which both countries belong, will be compelled to appoint the arbitrators should the two parties fail to reach an agreement on the arbitrators.
The decision of the arbitrators will be final. There will be no room for appeal. The Minister said all Ghana’s operations in oil fields that fall within the disputed boundary will continue operating in the interim.
Energy Minister Emmanuel Amah Kofi Buah said at the press conference that the claim of Côte d'Ivoire indeed affects some of Ghana’s concessions.
Also Minister of Communication, Dr Edward Omane Boamah said despite the warm relationship between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, the former British colony has “a sacred duty of protecting our natural resources not just for this generation but also generations unborn”.
Ghana filed the suit based on Article 287 Annex VII of the 1982 UNCLOS.
The statement of claim avers, among other things, that pursuant to articles 286 and 287 of the 1982 UNCLOS, and in accordance with Article 1 Annex 1, the Republic of Ghana had served notice to the Republic of The Ivory Coast to the effect that “having failed to reach a settlement after successive negotiations and exchange of views over an extended period of time, Ghana has elected to submit the dispute concerning the determination of each maritime boundary with Cote d’Ivoire to the arbitral procedure provided for under Annex VII of UNCLOS”.
Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities offshore the Western Region in June 2007, but the Ivorian authorities have been laying claim to the discovery.
The dispute received wide media attention in the past, resulting in leaders from both countries engaging in talks to resolve their differences.
And to compound the issue, oil companies operating in the oilfields have been receiving threatening letters from The Ivory Coast asking them to leave site.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan police say they are investigating whether the killing of a prosecutor in Kampala late Monday was carried out by Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.
Patrick Onyango, a police spokesman in the Ugandan capital, said Tuesday that Joan Kagezi, who had been a prosecutor in the ongoing trial of a dozen men facing terror charges, appears to have been the victim of a targeted assassination.
The U.S. Embassy in Uganda described Kagezi on Tuesday as a "heroine in the forefront of the fight against crime and terrorism."
Onyango said Kagezi was shot twice by gunmen after she left her car to buy groceries in a Kampala suburb.
The killing has shocked Uganda amid repeated warnings that al-Shabab, which carried out deadly bombings here in 2010, is plotting fresh attacks.
A British tourist killed in a terror attack in Tunisia died of gunshot wounds to her abdomen and pelvis, a coroner has heard.
Mother-of-two Sally Adey, of Caynton, near Shifnal, Shropshire, died in the shooting at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis on March 18.
She had been on a Mediterranean cruise with her 52-year-old husband Robert, who survived the attack.
Today, at the opening of her inquest, senior coroner for Shropshire John Ellery was told it was Mrs Adey's husband who identified her body at the Charles Nicolle Hospital in Tunis, the day after the attack.
Coroner's officer Julie Hartridge said retired solicitor Mrs Adey and her husband had "disembarked from the MSC Splendida in Tunis on March 18" before going to the museum.
"It is reported the museum came under fire from gunmen and she received fatal gunshot wounds," she added.
Ms Hartridge said a post-mortem examination carried out in the UK by a Home Office pathologist on March 25 had established provisional cause of death as "consistent with gunshot wounds to the abdomen and pelvis".
More than 20 people were killed in the attack, including 17 cruise ship tourists, with Mrs Adey among them.
Two gunmen who carried out the atrocity were subsequently killed in a firefight with security forces.
The Islamic State group based in Iraq and Syria later claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Sunday, the Tunisian government said another leading suspect implicated in the terror assault had been killed near the Algerian border.
Mr Ellery, opening today's proceedings at Shrewsbury's Shirehall, adjourned the hearing until July 2.
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ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - The second day of vote counting in a bitterly contested presidential vote started late on Tuesday and electoral officials hope to announce later in the day who will be governing Africa's richest and biggest nation.
Early returns from half the states have President Goodluck Jonathan winning nine states and the Federal Capital Territory and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari winning nine states. Buhari won 8.5 million votes to Jonathan's 6.48 million. A candidate must take at least 50 percent of all votes and at least 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of the states to win.
Electoral commission spokesman Kayode Idowu told The Associated Press he hopes for final results by the end of the day but results from only "a few" of the remaining states have been delivered.
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Top Ugandan state prosecutor Joan Kagezi involved in the trial of 13 men who allegedly conducted a deadly al-Shabab bomb attack, has been shot dead in the capital city, Kampala.
According to BBC, Kagezi was shot dead on a motorcycle by gunmen on her way home.
In 2010, the suicide bomb attack in Kampala had killed 76 people as they watched the football World Cup final.
The embassy of the United States in Kampala had warned last week that Westerners including Americans may be the target of terrorist attack in Kampala.
Kagezi headed the directorate of public prosecution's anti-terrorism and war crimes division.
THREE friends who took on one of the world’s highest mountains have raised £7,000 for a Swindon charity which supports people with mental health, drug and alcohol problems.
Electrician Lee Breakspeare, property developer Haydn Beer, and chartered accountant Paul King scaled the 5,895m peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa, in support of Twigs.
The community garden group, based in Manor Gardens, helps participants to regain confidence, self-esteem and to learn new skills. Impressed by the work of the group, the men took on the feat last month and spent seven long, hard days scaling the gruelling heights, in Tanzania.
Hadyn, a partner with BLB Kilminster Beer construction, said the feeling of jubilation at the top made all the hard work worthwhile.
“We were all elated at having made the summit,” he said.
“We were supported by an amazing team of local guides and porters who took the most wonderful care of us and got the whole team to the top. They kept our spirits up when we were tired and were a fantastic source of humour and education about the people, the country of Tanzania and the mountain.
“Elements of the trek were gruelling, each of the team enjoyed a sense of achievement, and we are thrilled to have raised money for Twigs, such a tremendous and worthwhile charity.”
When the trio reached the top, they posed for photos with a tablecloth made at Twigs bearing the organisation’s name in recognition of those they were helping back home.
The expedition was the fifth Kilimanjaro fundraiser in aid of Twigs, with the total number of people that have climbed the mountain for the charity rising to 16.
Twigs will be hosting a spring open day at their base, between 11am and 4pm on Sunday, April 12.
Visitors will be able to buy plants, see Twigs’ displays and enjoy a range of refreshments. There will also be live music performances during the event.
Anyone who would like to sponsor the trek can visit http://ift.tt/1crpJVX and search Twigs. To find out more about the charity, call 01793 523294 or email twigs.reception@gmail.com.