All Progressives Congress declares victory for its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari over Goodluck Jonathan.

The 72-year-old Buhari built an early lead in northern state [AP]
The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared victory for its candidate, Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria's bitterly contested presidential election in a vote marred by confusion, arguments and violence.  
Victory for former military ruler Buhari would mark the first time in Nigeria's history that an opposition party has democratically taken control of the country from the ruling party.
Nigeria's 2015 Elections Explained in One Minute
The spokesman for the APC, Lai Mohammed, told the AFP news agency that his party had declared victory after pulling ahead in the votes.
"This is the first time the opposition has voted a government out of power in Nigeria's history," he said.
Asked if he was confident of having won after the APC claimed victory, Buhari said "I am very confident."
With just one of 36 states left to declare, Buhari's APC had 15.1 million votes versus 11.7 for Jonathan and the PDP, according to a Reuters news agency tally. 
Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from the capital Abuja, said the election commission was still to make a definitive announcement.
To win the election, Buhari needed to win more than 50 percent of the total votes nationally - and take at least 25 percent of the vote in two thirds of the states. 
The 72-year-old built an early lead in northern states dominated by the mainly Muslim, Hausa-Fulani ethnic group of which he is a member.
Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, whose five years in office have been plagued by corruption scandals and an insurgency by Boko Haram fighters, was trailing by around 500,000 votes before votes in pro-opposition areas were counted
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HALIFAX - Accident investigators will spend their first full day today at the scene of Sunday's crash landing of an Air Canada passenger jet at Halifax's airport.
The Transportation Safety Board expects its full crew of 12 to 15 investigators to be at Stanfield International Airport today.
The regional manager of air investigations, Mike Cunningham, says the main focus will be on surveying the accident site and recovering pieces of wreckage.
Cunningham says flight AC624 touched down about 335 metres short of the runway, ran into an antenna array where the A320 Airbus lost its landing gear, and then slid another 335 metres down the runway on its belly before coming to a stop.
The 133 passengers and five crew members all survived the crash, but some two dozen people were taken to hospital where most were treated for minor injuries.
Cunningham says it may take some time before investigators can determine the cause, and the focus today will be on gathering information.
“At this point it's collect information as much as we can as fast as he can,” he told a Sunday evening news conference.
“First of all is the site documentation, because there's things there on the site that if we leave them too long we might lose some of that information.”
The investigation team includes engineering experts and “human performance” specialists. There are also officials coming from the French accident investigation board and the manufacturer of the Airbus A320, Cunningham said.
He added the flight recorders have already been recovered and sent to Ottawa for analysis.
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After suspected pilot suicide killed 150 in France, Australian deputy PM says two people must always be in the cockpit.


Investigators believe that the crash was a result of the co-pilot's suicide attempt [Reuters]

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Australia has responded to the Germanwings air disaster by mandating that at least two crew members be present at all times in cockpits of larger domestic and international airliners.
Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said that airlines, including Qantas and Virgin Australia, would implement the changed security protocols from Monday afternoon.
It would apply to all commercial flights with at least two flight attendants or more than 50 passengers. A flight attendant would enter the cockpit if one of the two pilots left it for any reason.
Previously, most Australian airlines have allowed their pilots to be alone on the flight deck.
French prosecutors blame co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, for the crash of Flight 9525 that claimed 150 lives in southern France last week. The cockpit voice recorder has revealed that the pilot had been shut out of the cockpit when the Airbus A320 crashed.
Truss said there were already mental illnesses that stopped sufferers from being pilots in Australia, and that pilots' health was regularly assessed.
"There is a need to balance the fact that people with proper treatment can recover from mental illness and be able to undertake normal careers with the critical priority of ensuring that aircraft are always safe," Truss told reporters.
"So this is a challenging issue for airlines and indeed for that matter for other employers, to be fair to their employees who have mental health issues but at the time ensuring that those mental health issues do not put at risk the lives of other Australians," he added.

No conclusive evidence
The German press has reported that searches conducted at Lubitz's homes in Duesseldorf and in the town of Montabau revealed a torn-up doctor's note that would have stopped him from flying on the day of the crash and that he had interrupted his pilot training in 2009 to receive psychiatric treatment for depression.

Investigators have yet to find conclusive evidence linking the crash to Lubitz's mental health.
Pilot suicide is one of the theories behind the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which flew far off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 last year and is believed to have crashed off the Australian coast with 239 passengers and crew on board.
Truss said pilot suicide was suspected behind more than a dozen plane crashes over the past 40 years.

Flight 9525 had 144 passengers and six crew members on board and began the journey in Barcelona, heading for the German city of Dusseldorf.

The plane belonged to Germanwings, a budget airline owned by Germany's largest airlines, Lufthansa.
Australia unveils cockpit rules germanwings crash
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The African Union on Monday praised the conduct of Nigeria’s general election but urged political parties to go to court to resolve any disputes, given fears of violence.
The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) said in preliminary findings that the vote was “conducted in a peaceful atmosphere within the framework that satisfactorily meets the continental and regional principles of democratic elections”.
Teams of international observers, including from the European Union and the Commonwealth, as well as the United Nations, have been on the ground to monitor the vote, held on Saturday and Sunday.
Political campaigning has been closely run between President Goodluck Jonathan and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari in what is the first serious opposition challenge in the country’s history.
There have, however, been problems with new technology to “read” biometric voter identity cards, the non-arrival of election officials and materials plus protests about irregularities.
Some 1,000 people were killed after Jonathan beat Buhari to the presidency last time round in 2011.
The AU said the election was “generally peaceful during the accreditation as well as voting and counting processes” but said any challenges of the results should not be fought on the streets.
“The AUEOM encourages all parties to resort to legally established channels, should there be a dispute on the outcome of the process,” it said in a statement. 
“The AU long-term observers will continue to observe the post-electoral process.”
Nigerian election meets continental and regional standards-AU
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By Ben Agande
Abuja—The former Chaplain of the Presidential Villa during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime and the Founding General Overseer of the All Christians Fellowship Mission, Abuja, Rev. (Dr.) William Okoye, yesterday pointedly told president Goodluck Jonathan that he made mistakes in office and urged him to correct those mistakes if he wins the presidential election.
In a sermon to Mark Palm Sunday, Rev. Okoye said though the president has achieved so much in office, many Nigerians do not seem to appreciate these achievements.
He said the disposition by the president that he was not desperate to remain in office was a welcome relief as he does not see politics as a do or die affair.
“If God gives us another opportunity there are three things we must do: One, we must acknowledge God as our source of victory and helper. Two, review all you have done in the past, learn from past mistakes because you have done well but you must admit you have made mistakes. Thirdly, repackage the mistakes you have made so that you can launch out in full force. Every leader in public office is in a position of trust we must account for the position we have been given and do things right” he said.
President Goodluck Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan
Unlike the boisterous attendance that characterised the Villa chapel services in the past, yesterday’s was sparsely attended with only a few of the President’s family members and aides, Chairperson Civil service Commission, Executive Secretary National Christian Pilgrims Commission and a couple from the diplomatic community.
Reverend Okoye noted that those who said President Jonathan has not performed in his four years in office were either being mischievous or economical with the truth as his achievements were glaring for all to see.
According to him, if performance was a yardstick for election, the president’s performance would have guaranteed a sure victory, adding that Nigerians have done their bit by voting while the rest now lies in God’s hands.
The clergy whose message was titled “Victory Rest with The Lord”, and using the text from Proverbs 21:31, said there is nothing the Jonathan administration has not done to move the nation forward.
He said its only God that puts people in authority and called on the congregation to respect them.
He admonished the president that people in their usual sycophantic nature will go to various places claiming they prayed and will want to take the glory as facilitators of victory when the result goes the way of the principle, urging President Jonathan not to make that mistake but attribute the victory (if he eventually wins) to God and not to man.
“It is God that puts people in authority and we have done all we have to do, we have to look to him (God) and I believe we are going to sing a new song,” he said.
He added: “Thank God we have a President who wants to serve and not engage in do or die politics. Some of us were here during the third term agenda and I kicked against it from this alter.
“As a villa chaplain under Obasanjo, the third term agenda was not originally his idea , hence he rejected it when it was suggested. But those behind it went and repackaged and presented it to him and he bought it. When he told me I kicked against it but before you knew it he was sidelining me and so I was forced to use the pulpit to tell him God was not with him on this matter because the idea was not God’s and that was why the idea failed.
“Thank God we have a president that says I want to serve but I’m not desperate. So it is not a question of do or die thing.
‘Election not do-or-die’
“This election is not a do or die. If we loss we will go and use the experience to serve humanity. So there is nothing to worry about. I know with what this government has done if given opportunity in another four years Nigeria will be better. That is why we are not to be proud because God resist the proud”.
In his short remarks, the Aso Villa Chaplain, Venerable Obioma Onwuzurumba, expressd happiness that the elections held despite wicked insinuations that the president didn’t want it to hold because he wanted to stay longer in power.
“It was said the President will not allow elections to hold because he wanted to hold unto power but it held. A friend of mine sent me a text that God has chosen who will govern before the foundation of the world and we just voted to authenticate that person” he said.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/you-made-mistakes-ex-aso-rock-chaplain-tells-jonathan/#sthash.gz5gD9ET.dpuf
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