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22-546: The Njiko Igbo Movement has garnered immense support among Igbos and the wider Nigerian community domestically and abroad, and today boasts branches and support groups throughout the diaspora. Former Nigerian Senator, international lawyer, and human rights activist Emmanuel Onwe is a founding and executive member of the Njiko Igbo Movement. This Nigeria -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Emmanuel Onwe Emmanuel Onwe

44-607: A central tool in combating terrorism following the bomb blast in Abuja on the occasion of the celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of Nigeria's independence on 1 October 2010. Onwe remained in the PDP and ran in the primary election for a Senate seat in Ebonyi Central in January 2011. Election violations were reported widely in the media, prompting Onwe to boycott the results, stating that

66-564: A columnist with the New Telegraph newspaper. David Mark David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark GCON ( ( listen ) ; born 8 April 1948) is a retired Nigerian Army brigadier general and politician . He served as the 12th president of the Nigerian Senate from 2007 to 2015 and was the Senator for Benue South senatorial district from 1999 to 2019. He is a member of

88-607: A policy of dismantling under-utilized telecom facilities citing political considerations for giving allocations to towns with limited use of phone networks. Mark was elected to his position as President of the Senate of Nigeria on June 6, 2007. David Mark ran for re-election to the Senate for Benue South in April 2011 and was elected for a fourth term. David Mark noted that the polls pointed to his decisive victory and called for his opponents to work together to improve Nigeria. When leading

110-683: A scholarship at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he earned his bachelor's degree. After his graduation, he entered University College London , where he embarked on postgraduate studies in law. Onwe trained as a barrister at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. He was admitted to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn in 1999 and called to the English Bar . While at

132-533: A two-week battle ensued before the commission complied with the ruling. After three failed attempts, Senate President David Mark finally allowed Onwe to take his oath of office as a senator on 10 August 2010. However, in January 2011, the Nigerian Supreme Court overturned Onwe's victory in the appeals court. Onwe stated at the time that the ruling violated the Constitution of Nigeria , which precluded

154-641: Is a lawyer, human rights activist , newspaper columnist, and former member of the Nigerian Senate . He is presently the Commissioner for Information in Nigeria's Ebonyi State. He is also a founding and executive member of the Njiko Igbo Movement . Onwe supports the need for transparency and non-politically driven anti-corruption reforms in Nigeria. He has stated that internal squabbles continue to paralyse

176-514: The Inns of Court School of Law , Onwe received the Sir Thomas More Award. He later undertook his pupillage at Two Garden Court Chambers, Middle Temple, London. Onwe has worked for the non-governmental organisations, Y-Care International, Friends of the Earth and Amnesty International . At Y-Care International, he worked chiefly on mobilising and delivering relief materials for the victims of

198-663: The Nigerian Defence Academy . He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1970 and became a Captain in 1971. He was Commandant of Static Communications in 1974, then later held a political post as Chairman Abandoned Properties Implementation Committee in the Eastern region in 1976. Mark headed the Communications Ministry and its two major parastatals: Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST). As Minister of Communications, Mark

220-637: The People's Democratic Party (PDP). Although Onwe won the election, he would later spend nearly 3.5 years in court litigation before successfully retrieving his mandate to serve. On 16 July 2010, the Court of Appeals in Enugu upheld his appeal and declared that he was the duly elected candidate to represent Ebonyi Central, ordering the Independent Electoral Commission to issue him a Certificate of Return, but

242-614: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Prior to his senatorial career, Mark was the military Governor of Niger State from 1984 to 1986, and is a one-time minister of communication. He is the longest serving president of the Nigerian Senate. Mark was born in Otukpo Benue State in April 1948. He attended St. Francis Catholic Practicing School before attending the Nigerian Military School . After that he attended

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264-713: The Rwanda Genocide in 1995. At Amnesty International, he worked in the campaigns department and took a special interest in the organisation's campaigns on issues such as the death penalty and in the 1991–1992 campaign against the Maoist guerrilla insurgent organisation Sendero Luminoso ( Shining Path ) in Peru . During this period, Onwe attended the historic World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria in June 1993. The conference gave rise to

286-646: The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on Human Rights. As a prelude to the conference, Onwe wrote an essay published in the New Internationalist in June 1993, which extolled the principle of universality and indivisibility over the concept of the cultural relativity and peculiarity of human rights. Onwe was a founding member of the Civil Liberties Organization's United Kingdom Section alongside Dr. Amazu Anthony Asouzu. After joining

308-586: The British Labour Party in 1992, he worked on the election campaigns of MPs Bernie Grant and Paul Boateng between 1992 and 2005. Both Grant and Baoteng were long-serving members in the British Parliament . Onwe returned to Nigeria after a successful legal practice in the United Kingdom to run for a seat in the Senate to represent Ebonyi Central in the 2007 general elections on the platform of

330-520: The Supreme Court's jurisdiction in respect to election petition matters, declaring: “There is a burning perversity at the heart of the Supreme Court's ruling. The court’s assumption of jurisdiction over the matter is not supported by a single precedent in the annals of our laws." In the first few weeks as a senator, Onwe co-sponsored several motions, including a motion exhorting President Goodluck Jonathan to concentrate more on intelligence gathering as

352-454: The country," suggesting that they may need to temporarily disband to allow for reconstruction. In September 2018, making plans to contest for the Nigerian presidency, appointed Zainab Abdulkadir Kure as his campaign manager and Abba Ejembi as campaign's spokesperson. David Mark enjoys golf , tennis , and squash . He is an Idoma by tribe and is married to at least 4 wives. Mark has

374-662: The government and "if gone unchecked, could result in national paralysis and the tragic death of hope itself." Onwe is from ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State in south east geographical location of Nigeria. He received his early education at Our Lady of Fatima (later renamed the Community Primary School) in Ikwo and the Presbyterian Secondary School, Abakaliki in Anambra State . Onwe studied law on

396-602: The process was “a complete disgrace to democracy," and declaring that he was ashamed to belong to "such a country that calls itself a democracy." Onwe ran again for the Senate seat in 2011 on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance . Halfway through the National Assembly elections on 2 April 2011, the Independent Electoral Commission called off the elections, citing the inadequacy of election materials. The exit poll results showed that Onwe led at

418-522: The review of the Nigerian Constitution , Mark reportedly urged his colleagues to set aside their personal interests and focus on the interests of the Nigerian people. After the UK criticized Nigeria's Prohibition of Same-Sex Marriage bill, threatening to pull their foreign aid, Mark responded that they "should keep [their] aid." Mark called Nigeria's National Football Federation the "centre of corruption in

440-475: The time when the balloting was stopped. Onwe opted against participating in the rescheduled election a week later, and called for the results to be annulled. Following the election, he led a protest march against the police, accusing them of facilitating the electoral fraud that allegedly marred the election. The police responded by firing bullets and teargas at the crowd, injuring several protesters. Onwe’s campaign came under intimidation and violence, leading to

462-412: The vandalisation of his campaign offices, the destruction of his campaign vehicles, the kidnapping of his campaign aides, and a physical attack on others who variously received knife and gunshot wounds. On 29 October 2010, Onwe claimed that his life was under threat solely as a result of his political aspirations. Onwe is also the author of the book Serpents and Doves , which was published in 2009, and

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484-465: Was sometimes known for his blunt talk; during a two-day walking tour of facilities in Akure in 1989, some union workers complained that some of its members had not been promoted since 1978. Mark's response was that those who have not been promoted may have to be retired, meaning that unproductive workers will have to be let go. He also espoused the opinion of death penalty for telecom cable thieves, as well as

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