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Over 500 Killed In South Sudan Clash

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Over 500 Killed In South Sudan Clash

About 500 people are believed to have been killed in recent fighting in Sout Sudan, Africa’s newest country, officials in the country have said.

Another 800 persons wounded.

Information minister Michael Makuei Lueth told CNN that some bodies are still being found in forests and many of those who were wounded are dying in hospitals.

U.N. officials have expressed deep concern about the unrest, saying between 15,000 and 20,000 people have taken shelter in the organization’s compounds in the capital, Juba.

The spokesperson for the Uganda Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fred Opolot said the government had closed its embassy on Wednesday in Juba, South Sudan amid clashes.

Opolot told Xinhua on the telephone that it was prudent to close its mission in Juba for the safety and security of the staff.

“At the height of the skirmishes, it was prudent that the mission be closed to ensure security and safety of the staff. As soon as the situation stabilises, our staff will return back to resume work at the mission,” he added.

He said that the move came barely a day after the U.S. closed its embassy in Juba and advised its citizens to immediately leave the country.

Opolot said that if the clashes between soldiers loyal to the sacked former Vice President Riek Machar and incumbent President Salva Kiir continued to escalate, the government would evacuate the embassy staff and citizens trapped in the fighting.

“At the moment our staff are still there helping us to monitor the situation, once the situation escalates then they will be evacuated,” he said.

The clashes in Juba started on Sunday following an alleged coup attempt by a group of soldiers who raided an armoury at the army’s main barracks in Juba.

PDP To Sue 37 House Members For Defection

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PDP To Sue 37 House Members For Defection

The National Working Committee, NWC, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that it will go to court to challenge the decision of 37 of its members in the House of Representatives to defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The national publicity secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja.

The members had on Wednesday in a letter to the Speaker of the House announced their decision to defect to APC

“As lawmakers, the defectors must be aware of provisions of section 68 (1) (g) of the amended 1999 constitution, which states conditions upon which a member of the Legislature will change platforms,” the party said.

He said the courts have declared that the PDP remains one united party and that any member of the national or state assemblies who renounces his membership of the party, must be ready to face the consequences of defection in line with provisions of the constitution.

The PDP spokesman said that the defection of the PDP House members to the APC os treacherous.

He added that the action, if confirmed, would be a huge betrayal to the PDP and millions of voters who worked timelessly to ensure their election on PDP platform in their respective constituencies.

Metuh said further that it was a desperate attempt by some selfish politicians to cause confusion in the polity.

He, however, assured PDP members and supporters nationwide that the party remains “unshaken by the departure of fifth columnists,” adding “We shall undoubtedly emerge stronger and more cohesive after these events.”

He said the PDP was unshaken by the purported defection of some members and urged party members to utilise their majority to strengthen the support for President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda and the PDP national leadership.

EFCC Denies Reports That It Is Broke

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EFCC Denies Reports That It Is Broke

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has disowned comments by the secretary of its board, Emmanuel Aremo, that it is broke and has less than N2 million left in its account.

Aremo, who led a delegation of the EFCC to the public hearing by the Senate committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes on the Bill to establish the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency, had said the commission urgently needed urgent injection of funds as it could barely pay staff salaries.

“If we can pay salary this month, that is all. That is the position under which we operate,” he told the Senate committee.

However, the commision’s head, media & publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, said Wednesday that the report is a “gross misrepresentation” of what transpired at the hearing.

Uwujaren said “The mention of N2 million by Aremo was not in respect of the total financial health of the EFCC, but a direct response to a remark by the Chair of the Committee, Senator Victor Lar, to the effect that his committee had observed during an oversight visit to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU that it has no power generating set while its ceiling had caved in.”

He continued: “To this, Aremo remarked that the Commission had complained to the committee during the visit on the state of its finances and that the situation has not improved.”

He said the comment has no bearing whatsoever on the operations of the commission.

But Aremo had complained bitterly about the poor financial position of EFCC, saying the commission need urgent injection of funds.

He also kicked against the NFIU Bill, arguing that even as part of the EFCC, it was discharging its responsibility efficiently without complaints from financial institutions, adding that if granted autonomy, the unit would become exposed to desperate politicians capable of securing court injunctions to frustrate its operations.

Doctors Begin 5 Days Warning Strike

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Doctors Begin 5 Days Warning Strike

In a country where downing of tools seem to be to only legitimate means of communication, doctors under the auspices of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, have embarked on a five – day warning strike from today.

This is coming a day after the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, suspended its over five-months-old mass action from which the education sector is still yet to recover.

It would be recalled that NMA had given a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to fulfil a promise it made regarding its welfare which expired last week.

The implication of the action of the doctors is that services in public hospitals across the country would be withdrawn.

The national president of the NMA, Osahon Enabulele, said the the strike is to protest government’s failure to implement a mutual agreement to meet demands in terms of improved wages, funding of healthcare and to resolve issues of discrepancies in salaries.

“We were in a meeting with government officials from 3:00pm Monday evening to 5:00am on Tuesday morning. All we got was the usual promissory note and MoU to stay action till January 6, 2014,” Enabulele told journalists.

He added: “They said most of the parastatals that would attend to our demands would be on break this festive period. This showed that they did not realize the urgency of the matter. Government has been sloppy in its response. NMA would not rescind on its position.”

The strike is expected to last for five days in the first stage, after which the body says it will proceed on a indefinite strike action if its demands remain unattended to.

2015: Do Not Exclude Adamawa, Borno, Yobe From Election – Gov Shetima

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2015: Do Not Exclude Adamawa, Borno, Yobe From Election – Gov Shetima

The Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, says excluding the three states under emergency rule from elections in 2015 would be amount to capitulating to the Boko Haram sect.

Shettima was reacting to a statement by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, that elections may not hold in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states if the present breach of peace continues.

The governor noted that the decision may have grave repercussions for the country, as suspending the general election in 2015 in any part of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, on account of Boko Haram activities would amount to making the insurgents supreme over the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“It will be defeatist on our part as a nation. The goal of Boko Haram is to impose their beliefs on us, subvert our constitution and our democracy and replace them with inhuman laws that support killings and destructions and should we suspend any part of the country whether in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa or any place at all from taking part in the 2015 election, the insurgents would presuppose successes on their part and itching close to achieving their goals and we cannot allow that,” he said.

According to him, if Boko Haram is allowed to stop elections in three states, they might in no time target additional states and gradually succeed in stopping elections in The whole country.

He stressed that the sovereignty of the country must be defended and that a minority few should not be allowed to force their views on the majority.

“I expect that as a strategy, Borno and Yobe and indeed any place so affected by the insurgents, should be the main focus for conduct of the 2015 elections by INEC so that we send a clear message to those who want us to go into extinction that we will not cave in to their violent needs, we will move on,” Shettima stated.

He stressed further: “Suspending the 2015 elections in Borno will make mockery of the sacrifices made by those who laid their lives; to defend our constitutional democracy, we will be insulting their memories that we should preserve. I, like all good citizens of Borno, firmly believe in a creed, that we must with courage, say no to those who desire our destruction.”
The governor therefore called on the federal government all stakeholders in the country to examine the issue at stake “with analytical mindset far beyond what reasons we might be talking about now”.

Tambuwal Blames Budget Office For Poor Funding Of Govt Agencies

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Tambuwal Blames Budget Office For Poor Funding Of Govt Agencies

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Tuesday blamed the Budget Office and ministry of finance for the poor funding of ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs.

Tambuwal said this when the chairman of the board of directors of Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, Hamman Tukur, who led members of the board on a courtesy visit, accused the National Assembly of not showing the desired interest in the power reforms project.

Responding, the Speaker said that the budget office and not the legislative house was the problem.

“We seek your understanding, we are not your problems, not the problem of any MDA in this country. The problem is the budget office…until we address the challenges of the budget office, which normally changes the submissions of the MDAs whimsically without any expertise, we will continue to have problems, not only of funding budgets but also of implementation,” he said.

Continuing, he added: “Let me say this, we are very ready and amenable to complement the efforts of the government in ensuring that we have stable affordable power supply in this country. That was why the legislation towards the unbundling of the PHCN was passed in 2005.”

He, however, assured that the National Assembly would continue to render support in terms of funding.

“The national assembly will continue to support you in terms of funding but we will also continue to follow the money through oversight,” Tambuwal said.

On the oil benchmark problem, he dismissed the reason adduced by the executive for seeking the pegging of the price at 76.5 dollars in the 2014 budget, arguing that the country could not be saving money on empty stomach.

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He said that efforts should be geared towards fixing the nation’s infrastructure, rather than on saving money.

Contrary to expectations, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, proposed a reduction in capital expenditure from 32 percent to 26 percent and increase in recurrent expenditure 68 percent to 74 percent in 2014.

The federal government had lamented that “the level of outlay of personnel cost is crowding out expenditure on capital spending needed to develop the nation and constitutes a major drain on public resources.”

Police Arrest Woman, Pastor-Lover For Murder In Edo

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Police Arrest Woman, Pastor-Lover For Murder In Edo

Caption: Pastor-lover, Udoka Nkanchukwu

From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

The police in Benin has arrested a Pastor, Udoka Nkanchukwu, and his lover, Enebong Victor Isonguyo, for the murder of her husband Victor Isonguyo, a deputy manager at the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC.

The duo was paraded alongside 17 other suspected criminals arrested for various crimes such as pedophilia, kidnapping and armed robbery committed in the state.

The state commissioner of police, Foluso Adebanjo, who paraded the suspects, narrated how Isonguyo’s death was staged by his wife and her Pastor lover.

“What happened was that the pastor called the deceased to come and meet him somewhere along Sapele Road. When the deceased got there the pastor stabbed him twice and then burnt the car. The woman gave the husband’s new car to the pastor and we found the car with the Pastor. A 2013 model of Volkswagen car. It is a very sad and wicked act,” Adebanjo said.

According to him, after killing the man in his vehicle, it was set ablaze.

“The pastor changed the plate number of the car and put a fake one after he murdered the man. It was when we saw the burnt car in his hand that we knew that he was involved. Though he has confessed and after now we will take them to court,” the CP added.

The wife has however denied having extra marital affairs with the pastor but confirmed that she gave her husband’s new car to the pastor so that he can pray for the safe return of Victor when she discovered he was missing.

“When I did not see my husband I ran to the pastor because we have known for a very long time. I took my husband’s new car to him to sow a seed in the church so that my husband will be found. I told him to take it to the church but I don’t know that he went and changed the plate numbers. I had to ask him to pray harder because I love my husband and I don’t want anything to happen to him. I did not kill my husband because I loved him,” she said.

Victor was the father of three before his untimely death

Commenting on another case, Adebanjo said he was yet to receive a court order for the exhumation of the bodies of four armed suspects, including one Samuel Imaikop, who were allegedly killed by operatives of the command in Benin about three weeks ago.
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It would be recalled that a Benin Magistrate Court presided over by Magistrate F. E. N. Igbinosa, ordered the exhumation of the bodies for autopsy to be carried out on them to determine how they actually died.

“We did not commit any extra judicial murder and you people saw one of the armed robbers confessing. However, the police is always a law abiding organisation and we will always abide by any court ruling if we have an order,” the police commissioner said.

Borno Govt Decries Porous Borders

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Borno Govt Decries Porous Borders

Musdapha Ilo, Maiduguri

The Borno State government says that there are over 1,000 illegal routes through which dangerous drugs are smuggled in to the state, a situation which has led to a high utilization of drugs by youths.

This, the government reasoned, has contributed to the growth of terrorism in the region.

The state attorney general and commissioner of justice, Kaka Shehu Lawan, stated this on Tuesday while making public the achievements of Borno state drug abuse control committee.

Lawan, who is also the chairman of the committee, said the challenge for the state government is that most of these routes are unknown, making it difficult to rid the state of illicit drugs.

Notwithstanding, he said that his committee has done so much with the available information at its disposal to curb the activities of illegal drug dealers and that a total of 6,089.575kg of drugs have been seized.

These includes 4,780.565 kg of Cannabis, 979,010 kg of psychotropic substances and 330.000 kg of Cocaine.
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In addition, about 61 suspects have been arrested, with 13 charged to court and convicted to various jail terms.

“Through its intelligence gathering and operations sub-committees carried out raids in areas identified as black spots within the Maiduguri metropolis where such illicit drugs are commonly dispensed and consumed. The raids accounted for several arrests as well as seizures of drugs from the suspects,” the commissioner said.

He lamented that drug abuse partly accounts for the emergence of terrorist activities in the state, but added setting up the committee was part of efforts introduced by the state governor, Kashim Shettima, to restore the state on the path of peace, and socio-economic development.

Lawan added that drug dealers and traffickers are dynamic and always evolving new strategies to beat security checks, but that government is also devising information management strategies to track and arrest them.

Finally, ASUU Calls Off Strike

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Finally, ASUU Calls Off Strike

Nma Shekwolo, Minna

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Tuesday afternoon called its over five months old nationwide strike action.

The decision to call off the strike was announced by the national president of ASUU, Nasir Isa Fagge, after a meeting of the National Executive Council, NEC, of the union at the Federal University of Technology, FUT, Minna.

Fagge directed lecturers to return to classrooms and commence lectures in all public universities immediately.

“NEC resolved to suspend the strike embarked upon on the 1st July 2013, with effect from Tuesday December 17th, 2013 and directs its branches to resume work forthwith,” he said.

The ASUU president said that the decision to end the strike action was taken after consultations with the national secretariat and state chapters of the union which all accepted the agreement signed between the union and the federal government on the 11th December, 2013 with the NLC president, Abdulwahed Umar, acting as witness.

The ASUU boss assured that lecturers would try to put in an extra effort to mitigate some of the effects of the strike action and cover lost ground, even as he thanked parents and other Nigerians for understanding the union’s position and supporting it.

“We have undertaken to go back to the classroom, laboratories etc, to do our best for our students, their parents and our country. We are going back to rekindle the motivation and aspiration in our members to strive to encourage our students to excel, all in its expectation that government will sincerely honour its own part of the bargain,” he stated.

Fagge said that ASUU would facilitate the inauguration of the implementation and monitoring committee on the report of the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities and ensure compliance of relevant stakeholders.

He also expressed the hope that the federal government would deal promptly with areas of the agreement between the parties that require policy or legislative action in order to address some of the challenges facing public universities.

Gunfire, Explosions In South Sudan After Failed Coup Attempt

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Gunfire, Explosions In South Sudan After Failed Coup Attempt

Gunfire and explosions were heard overnight in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, where President Salva Kiir had declared a night time curfew in response to an attack on the army headquarters.

The renewed shooting followed what witnesses said was heavy gunfire that began late Sunday and had subsided by Monday afternoon.

The city’s airport has been closed and the state TV channel SSTV went off air for several hours.

Shortly after it came back on air, SSTV broadcast an address from Kiir, wearing military uniform rather than his usual civilian clothing and flanked by government officials.

He said the violence “was an attempted coup”, but that the government was now in full control and the attackers were being chased down.

The President said in the broadcast that the fighting began when unidentified uniformed personnel opened fire at a meeting of members of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, SPLM, and was followed by an attack on army headquarters.

He said the attack on the army headquarters was carried out “by a group of soldiers allied to the former vice-president Dr Riek Machar and his group”.

Kiir, however, reiterated: “I will not allow or tolerate such incidents once again in our new nation. I strongly condemn these criminal actions in the strongest terms possible,” he said.

Some arrests have been made and the government vowed to prosecute all those responsible for the disturbance.

The American Embassy in Juba remained closed Tuesday and most cellular telephone services in the city are not working.

The U.S. State Department described the situation as very fluid and called on all parties to resolve their differences peacefully.

Spokeswoman Marie Harf said that given the history of conflict in the region, the United States is concerned that the violence could spread.

U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon is also deeply concerned by the fighting , saying the government must guarantee the security of all civilians regardless of which community they come from.

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