Home Blog Page 3133

President Buhari Fires Military Chiefs, Replacements Still Unknown

Editorial
-
0
President Buhari Fires Military Chiefs, Replacements Still Unknown
President Muhammadu Buhar meeting with service chiefs
President Muhammadu Buhar meeting with service chiefs

There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari has fired all service chiefs Monday.

The hint was dropped by the special adviser to the President on media, Femi Adesina, while speaking to state House correspondent at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Adesina said simply that the President had removed the service chiefs but gave no further details. He said that their replacements would be announced later.

The sacked military chiefs are Alex Badeh, Chief of Defence staff; Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Army Staff; Usman Jibrin, Chief of Naval Staff and Adesola Amosu, Chief of Air Staff.

They were all appointed into office by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

There had been a spike in attacks by Boko Haram insurgents in the North east, leading to the killing of more than 500 people since the new administration came into power.

 

Authorities Shut Ife Varsity

Editorial
-
0
Authorities Shut Ife Varsity

Obafemi Awolowo University

By Abiose Adelaja Adams
The authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile – Ife in Osun State have shut down the institution and advised students to vacate the campus.

The action came after a meeting of the institution’s administration following unending protest by members of the Non Academic Staff Union, NASU.

Early on Monday morning, before the closure was announced, the two gates of the main campus of the institution had been locked, preventing human and vehicular movement in and out of the university.

According to a lecturer of Fine Arts, Segun Ajiboye, who spoke with our reporter, the strike had been long in the offing, with several warning strikes in the past few weeks.

“We know they are fighting for hazard allowance. They said it has been paid in University of Ibadan and other schools.”

The non-academic workers had raised a number of issues with the university authorities, including the non-payment of hazard allowance to workers.

In an interview with an OAU newspaper, Wole Adewunmi, the NASU chairman, said the federal government had  agreed to pay the workers since 2009 eight different allowance of which the hazard allowance is just one.

“The federal government instructed individual universities to start implementation from 2013 February, and since then our own university has never deemed it fit to even start the implementation. We have been on it since 2012. Till today, they just keep promising and promising without any fulfilment and their argument was that federal government have not released money to pay or to implement these earned allowances,” he stated.

Ajiboye continued: “Last week, they put off light and water. So the school authorities had a meeting with them and told them they don’t have money. But the NASU members insisted they money is available and they had to pay.”

The university is in the 2014/2015 harmattan semester and is at the point of preparing for exams.

Our reporter gathered that there had been no lectures in the institution since last week due to the strike action and that the school’s authorities might have sent the students home in order to buy time to resolve the crisis.

 

Soldiers Kill TCN Staff, Injure Three Mistaken For Insurgents

Editorial
-
0
Soldiers Kill TCN Staff, Injure Three Mistaken For Insurgents

PHCN-men-at-work-360x288

By Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

Soldiers deployed to Benesheik, one of the towns seriously affected by Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, on Saturday mistook a military-escorted team of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, staff for insurgents and opened fire, killing one of them and injuring three others, including two soldiers.

The firm’s team was in the town to help restore electricity to parts of the state.

Ibrahim Garba, a staff of the company confirmed the incident to journalists on Sunday in Maiduguri, the state capital.

“The incident occurred when our staff accompanied by the military, who went to repair a transmission line near Benesheik, were opened fire on by the military personnel attached to Benesheik who thought they were insurgents,” Garba said, adding that two of the company’s vehicles were destroyed in the attack.

“In the gunshot our driver was killed and three other persons injured including two soldiers”.

Garba said the injured persons are being treated in a hospital but that one of the drivers was missing.

Lack of electricity is one of the numerous problems residents of Borno State have had to grapple with since the insurgency began six years.

In 2014, a large part of the state was without electricity for about six months, as it was impossible to rectify the problem, especially as the insurgents laid siege to Damboa, where transmission lines run through.

About five week ago, five soldiers lost their lives when the vehicle they were traveling in along Maiduguri/Damboa stepped on a landmine, as they escorted a team of engineers to fix power installations.

Saturday’s mishap has not gone down well with residents of the state, who questioned the soldiers’ inability to differentiate their men from insurgents.

“We have never heard of the insurgents mistaking themselves and engaging each other in gunshots why should our soldiers be making this grievous mistake?” Abba Aisami, a resident complained.

“This is an indication that there is no proper coordination among the military, if not, how can they send a team from Maiduguri without communicating with their counterpart in Benesheik?” he queried.

Governor Shettima Reiterates Amnesty Call For Boko Haram

Editorial
-
0
Governor Shettima Reiterates Amnesty Call For Boko Haram

Kashim

By Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, on Sunday reiterated his call for amnesty for Boko Haram members, stressing, however,  that the gesture should be for repentant members only.

The governor, whose thought was conveyed by his adviser on communication and strategy, Isa Gusau, pointed at the recent attempt by 16 members of the sect to denounce their membership of the sect as evidence that there are some who are willing to leave but may not know how to go about it.

Gusau, who spoke with a select group of journalists in Abuja, said the governor’s stance has not changed since 2011 when he first contested to be governor.

“Shettima has held this position from his campaign days ahead of the 2011 elections for his first term. He had always advocated a combination of three approaches, military which is what we have in place, an economic approach to provide jobs for people and discourage citizens that Boko Haram terrorists are recruiting,” Gusau told the journalists.

Shettima had on May 29 this year called for amnesty for the group, a call that was widely condemned but Gusau said the governor was misunderstood.

According to him, his boss made the call because he believes such a move would create division among the insurgents, something that can be exploited for their defeat.

“What Governor Kashim Shettima has been saying is that hundreds of these forcefully arrested and initiated young men may want to run away and drop their arms and there should be a policy and programme to admit them so that insurgents lose members and their strategy of arresting youths and forcing them to join them which is what they apply in sustaining their membership, can be deflated and I think the governor’s call on May 29 has been vindicated less than two weeks ago,” he explained.

Had there been amnesty in place for willing members of the sect, Gusau said, the 11 defectors recently killed by the insurgents would have provided the military with useful information about the sect.

Providing some insight about what happened in the incident, the governor’s aid said according to accounts by some locals, “what happened was that some members of the sect who are indigenes of some villages in Damboa Local Government Area indicated interest in abandoning the ideology but most of them were afraid of the consequences. Out of them, 16 summoned courage to renounce the ideology and they moved to Miringa village in Biu local government area of Southern Borno.”

He continued: “They wanted to join some residents of villages like Ajigin and Talala in Damboa who have been taking refuge in Miringa due to re-occurring attacks on the two villages by insurgents. The 16 insurgents went to Miringa on Friday, July 3 according to locals, then at night, commanders of Boko Haram sent a team to Miringa to fish out the 16 members that denounced the sect.

Gusau said that insurgents “went from house to house and got the 16 members intact, they didn’t fire any shot in order not to attract soldiers, they took the members out of Miringa and slaughtered 11 of them and went away with five.

 

Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Leader To Be Tried For Extortion

Editorial
-
0
Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Leader To Be Tried For Extortion

ICPCThe Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has been given to go ahead to prosecute the leader of the Goodluck Support Group, Aminu Abubakar, who spearheaded a campaign for the reelection of former President Goodluck Jonathan, and Okechukwu Geoffrey on a three-count charge bordering on extortion and  blackmail.

Aminu and his partner are facing trial for trying to blackmail and extort money from some officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

The two accused claimed to be in possession of documents relating to wrongdoings committed by the officials and demanded to be paid N50 million in order not to leak the documents to the public.

The accused challenged the court’s jurisdiction in the case and sought to quash the charges, but Justice Ishaq Bello of a Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court dismissed their claims, saying there was no basis for that as the prosecution had successfully linked them to the crimes.

“The charge clearly shows where the first accused had a meeting with the officials of the petroleum ministry, where he demanded for the sum of N50million and even went ahead with threats, and even went into a meeting where he collected the sum of N5million, even writing an undertaking,” counsel to the ICPC, George Lawal, argued against the accused application.

The accused persons were earlier granted bail in the sum of N15 million and two sureties in like sum and the case adjourned to October 21, 2015 for trial.

Buhari Wields The Big Stick, Sacks Ambassadors

Editorial
-
0
Buhari Wields The Big Stick, Sacks Ambassadors

He Smiles A lot

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday night recalled the country’s ambassadors to foreign countries, in what is so far the biggest sack of political appointees since he assumed office almost two months ago.

The President’s directive was believed to have been communicated to the affected ambassadors by the permanent secretary in the foreign affairs, who asked them to hand over to most senior staff in their embassies.

High on the list were Dalhatu Tafida, who headed former president Goodluck Jonathan’s 2011 campaign organisation; former foreign affairs minister, Ojo Maduekwe; Ade Adefuye, and Bianca Ojukwu. They had represented Nigeria in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America and Spain respectively.

The Nation newspaper quoted a source who said that some of the ambassadors had already complied with the directive and were already on their way.

“The President has issued a directive to the Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recall all the political appointees currently serving as ambassadors in all parts of the world. It doesn’t matter whether they have just few months to the end of their tenure,” the source told the newspaper.

While the sack did not come as a surprise, considering that this is done by every new government, it has got people talking because the President, who some say is moving rather slowly, is keen to take his time in making decisions.

 

Bomb Blast Rocks ECWA Church In Jos

Editorial
-
0
Bomb Blast Rocks ECWA Church In Jos

Jos Bombing

A bomb has exploded at one of the churches of Evangelical Church Winning All, popular called ECWA, in Jos, Plateau State capital, in the early hours of Sunday.

A witness who lives close to the church at Tudun Wada, Angwan Yashi, near the Federal Secretariat, said there was no casualty because the explosion occurred before worshipers arrived for the day’s service.

“You know ECWA services begin from 8am but the blast happened earlier. Maybe those who planted the bomb taught it was a catholic church, which service starts as early as 6am,” the witness, who did not give their name, said.

READ ALSO:

The latest bomb blast is coming one week after a twin blast at a restaurant and a mosque left more than 40 people dead.

Nobody has claimed responsibility but the attack bore the hallmark of suspected Boko Haram, who over the years has targeted worship centres and crowded places.

 

Suicide Bomber Kills Three In Borno Explosion

Editorial
-
0
Suicide Bomber Kills Three In Borno Explosion

Kashim-Shettima

By Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

A suicide bomber riding a tricycle on Saturday killed himself and three passers-by and injured three others as he unsuccessfully chased after his target, a bus that had just left a motor park in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

The tricyclist had waited for the vehicle outside Borno Motor Garage, the biggest motor park in the state, tried to ram into the vehicle as it drove out but missed, and thus gave chase.

An eye witness, Abraham Mshelia, said after about a kilometre of futile chase, the tricycle exploded, killing three passers-by and injuring three others around 7.00am.

“I was at the motor park to board a vehicle when the explosion occurred. The park is near the SSS office and a tricycle was targeting a bus that just left the motor park but triggered off the explosion before the tricycle could get to bus. Four people including the bomber were killed,” Mshelia said.

The spate of suicide bombings by suspected Boko Haram members has recently increased, with states outside the North east targeted as well.

More than 300 people have been killed in the past one month, as Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Kaduna, and Kano states all witnessed suicide bombings.

President Muhammadu Buhari has made ending the insurgency his top priority, with 8, 000 troops from a multinational joint force ready to deploy at the end of the month to join the fight against insurgency.

Groups Call For Release Of Ethiopian Bloggers

Editorial
-
0
Groups Call For Release Of Ethiopian Bloggers
(Photo Source: Online)
(Photo Source: Online)

Following this week’s release by the Ethiopian government of three journalists and two bloggers who had been in jail for more than a year, some civil society organisations are calling for the release of other imprisoned writers.

United States President Barrack Obama is due to address the African Union later this month in Addis Ababa, a visit believed to be behind the Ethiopian justice ministry dropping terrorism charges against three journalists, Tesfalem Wadyes, Asmamaw Hailegiorgis and Edom Kassaye and two members of the blog Zone 9, Zelalem Kibret and Mahlet Fantahun.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, and ARTICLE 19, the global non-governmental organisation that promotes freedom of expression and information, want the Ethiopian government to release other jailed writers, especially four members of Zone 9, Abel Wabella, Natinael Feleke, Befekadu Hailu, Atinaf Berhane. A fifth blogger, Soliana Shimelis, was sentenced in absentia.

“While this is a small victory, the Ethiopian government needs to start undertaking comprehensive legal reforms to repeal most laws which restrict freedom of expression and of the media. Other incarcerated journalists serving long sentences should also be released,” Henry Maina, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa Regional Director, said.

CPJ, while commending the release of the journalist and bloggers, condemned the clampdown on journalists, which has seen an increase in the number of journalists jailed in the last few years.

It called on the government of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to release the other members of Zone 9.

“We call on authorities to release the remaining Zone 9 bloggers and all the journalists in jail for their work, and to drop all charges against them,” Tom Rhodes, East Africa representative at CPJ, said in a statement.

The journalists and bloggers were arrested on April 25 and 26 and accused of terrorism activities, just two days after Zone 9 announced its return to activism.

 

FCT Police Charges Religious Leaders On Security Alertness

Editorial
-
0
FCT Police Charges Religious Leaders On Security Alertness

mosque bomb

By Tosin Omoniyi, Abuja

The Commissioner of Police, FCT command, Wilson Inalegwu, has urged christian and Islamic leaders in the capital city to assist the police in its renewed quest at fortifying places of worship and crowd
attracting areas across the city.

According to a press statement issued by the command’s spokesperson, Manzah Anjuguri, the police chief made the call when he received a delegation of Muslim leaders in FCT at his office.

While commending the existing cordial relationship between the command and various religious groups, Inalegwu harped on the need for religious groups to complement the effort of the police personnel deployed to their places of worship for the purpose of providing security.

He said they could do this by setting up security committees that will be saddled with the task of screening prospective worshippers before they gain access into the places of worship.

Inalegwu also noted that this can be effectively done through the deployment of handheld metal detecting scanners at key entrances to the houses of worship.

In his brief response earlier at the meeting, leader of the delegation,Tanim Yusuf, informed the police commissioner that the visit was to identify with the achievements of the command in its fight
against crime.

He also seized the opportunity to intimate the police chief that the Islamic leaders were currently reaching out to adherents of the Islamic faith to observe the Itikaf in their immediate environments to curtail the unnecessary exodus of people into FCT.

1...3,1323,1333,134...3,439Page 3,133 of 3,439