Photo: Boy found wandering at Ikorodu road

The boy pictured above was found wandering at Odogunyan bus stop along Ikorodu road this morning. According to Facebook user Chioma Peter, who found him, she said the boy could only say where he lives in Ibadan but could not give his name or his parents name. Anyone who knows him should please contact the Sagamu Police station where he is presently at.

Angry Babe Blasts Boyfriend For Not Buying Her Fuel (Photo)

Let's presume it's just a banter. Nigerian way of cooling off stress.

Boko Haram Cause Heavy Casualty’ on Nigerian Troops

Boko Haram insurgents have inflicted heavy casualties on troops of the Nigerian army, BBC is reporting.

The insurgents were said to have stormed the base of the soldiers in Kareto village in Borno state in large numbers. Sani Usman, spokesman of the army,had earlier confirmed the attack, but refused to go into details.

 The BBC quoted a soldier as saying the militants came with “heavy weapons which we didn’t have”. A resident of Kareto said troops managed to regain control of the village with the support of fighter jets. “Several of the militants were killed in the fighting which lasted for several hours,” the resident was quoted as saying.

However, the army subsequently released a brief statement to say its troops had repelled the insurgents. Usman said the insurgents had “attempted an incursion into 113 battalion at Kareto ” but were warded off.

“The timely response of the troops involved air cover as more reinforcement have been deployed,” he said. “The area is now cool and calm.” Despite the claim of the government to have brought the sect under control, attacks have not entirely ended, although they have become less frequent than the pre-Muhammadu Buhari days.

Credit; BBC

Soldiers arrest 92 armed herdsmen in Abuja

The soldiers of the Guards Brigade of the Nigeria Army have arrested 92 Fulani herdsmen in Abuja. The Assistant Director, Army Public Relations of the Guards Brigade, Capt. Bashir Jajira, said that 36 of the suspects were arrested by the troops at a military checkpoint between the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa State.

The suspected herdsmen were said to have told the soldiers that they were on a mission to recover their stolen cows. He said that 56 others who were also armed were arrested by the soldiers at a military checkpoint at Dantata, along the Abuja Airport Road.
He said that the troops recovered ‘one pump action gun, 19 cartridge dane guns, 118 cartridge ammo, 28 cutlasses, 3 jack knives, 14 sticks, 7 torch lights, certificate of occupancy, assorted charms and hard drugs.’
He said, “A group of 36 herdsmen in Diana Truck and Toyota Camry car with registration number Abu Kuje 994 FX and Niger SUL 541 XA were intercepted and arrested at 177 Guards Battalion location by Keffi checkpoint. “During the interrogation by troops at the checkpoint, they claimed to be going to Nasarawa Local Government in Nasarawa State.” He said that the arrested herdsmen would be handed over to the police for prosecution.

 This came just as President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the deployment of military to all parts of the country currently witnessing bloody clashes between herdsmen and farmers. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this while featuring on a breakfast programme of Channel s Television, Sunrise Daily, on Monday.

The programme was monitored by one of our correspondents in Abuja. Shehu said there was no truth in the claim that Buhari had been largely silent on the issue of the clashes. He recalled that the President had taken the issue before the National Council of State with a view to getting state governors’ inputs to the solutions.

 In the meantime, he said the government was contemplating carving out of grazing reserves for cattle rearers. Meanwhile, no fewer than 23,000 Internally Displaced Persons in the Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State are battling with the problem of shelter as the rains set in.
The Chairman, Caretaker Committee, Agatu Local Government Area, Mr. Joseph Ngbede, stated this on Monday when Governor Samuel Ortom visited Ugbokpo, Ojantele and Ataganyi communities of the Apa Local Government Area, where the camps of the IDPs are located.

The IDPs are Benue indigenes displaced during the clashes involving Fulani herdsmen and Agatu people. Ngbede said that only the LGEA Primary School at Ayila was standing in the over 20 villages destroyed in Agatu by herdsmen, maintaining that some of the displaced persons insisted on going to their farms to see what was left of their crops.

On the feeding of the displaced persons, the chairman said the items donated by individuals, government and non-governmental organisations as well as emergency management agencies at the state and at federal levels were being distributed to them on a daily basis.

He said those not displaced were also contributing towards the upkeep of the IDPs. He explained that the three villages of Ocholonya, Abugbe and Odugbeho that were occupied by herdsmen had been secured by soldiers. Meanwhile, the state’s deputy governor, Benson Abounu, has said that Agatu people have been rescued by soldiers.

Credit: Punch

Akwa Ibom to prosecute 9000 workers for alleged salary scam

No fewer than 9000 employees in the Akwa Ibom civil service were to be prosecuted for alleged fraudulent drawing of salaries from more than one pay point in the state. Governor Udom Emmanuel who disclosed this to newsmen on Monday in Uyo said the massive fraud was uncovered in the preliminary bio-metric exercise recently conducted by the office of the state Accountant-General.

 “It is shocking to know that a section of the employees in the state are drawing salaries from more than a pay point. “We have given the affected employees and those yet to be uncovered, the option to refund the salaries they have fraudulently taken or be prosecuted,’’ he said. The governor directed the Permanent Secretaries in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) in the state to commence finger print verification of all employees.

 He said that employees who failed to participate in the verification exercise would have their names deleted from the automated salary paying system and nominal roll. The governor noted that more than 1,000 employees were yet to comply with the directive. He reiterated his administration’s commitment to making discipline and zero tolerance for corruption its watchwords.

(NAN)

Stop Boko Haram if you are a true Man of God.. Ghana Pastor dares TB Joshua

General Overseer of the Church of Rabbi is urging Nigerian prophet, TB Joshua to stop the activities of Islamist group, Boko Haram in Nigeria if he wants his prophecies to be taken seriously.

 Prophet Kwabena Tawiah said he is baffled at how the supposed prophet did nothing and now the Boko Haram insurgents have infiltrated and carried out several bombings in Nigeria. In his view, TB Joshua who is the head of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) should concentrating on driving away Boko Haram from Nigeria and “leave Ghana alone”. Prophet Kwabena Tawiah’s comment is in reaction to TB Joshua’s prophecy of an eminent attack on Ghana and Nigeria.

Last Sunday, the renowned prophet asked his congregation to pray against the attack which could happen either on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. The Nigerian Prophet was emphatic in prophesying that, “I see Thursday, Friday. Pray for these two nations – Nigeria and Ghana – over gathering in any way; over an attack. I am seeing the attack and that will be in a foreign way. The attack will come not in a local way. So please open your lips and pray for these two nations for protection.”

 But his prophecy has been met with a lot of criticisms with many religious bodies including the Christian Council calling on security agencies to ignore it since Ghana cannot run on “the back of prophecies.” In support, the outspoken Kwabena Tawiah stressed that the prophecy must be treated with the contempt it deserves.

Describing TB Joshua’s prophecy as unnecessary, the Church of Rabbi leader said assuming without admitting that the prophecy is true, God would have revealed it to a Ghanaian prophet and not a foreigner. “What is TB Joshua saying; he should leave Ghana alone and concentrate on Boko Haram in Nigeria” he fumed.

Rather, Kwabena Tawiah called on TB Joshua to support President Buhari with his prophecies to help arrest the Boko Haram insurgents terrorizing citizens in Nigeria.

Mothers write heartbreaking letters to stolen daughters by Boko Haram

On April 14, 2014, 276 girls ages 16-18 were kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents from their school in Chibok, Borno State. Fifty-seven of them courageously escaped on their own. Zero has been rescued and 219 remain in the hands of the world’s deadliest terrorist organisation whose members force grown men to swallow bullets for breakfast and utilise women as detonating weapons of war. April 14, 2016 marked two years in captivity.
 Yet, #HopeEndures.

 I am an attorney and the Founder/Executive Director of Pathfinders Justice Initiative, Inc. (www.pathfindersji.org), an international NGO which seeks justice and provides rehabilitation for survivors of child sex abuse, rape and sex trafficking in the developing world (primarily in West Africa).
 I am also an activist and an organiser for #BringBackOurGirls, the global movement demanding the rescue and rehabilitation of the Chibok Girls of Nigeria. I am Nigerian. I am a mother.

 Over the last week (April 4-9, 2016), I had the honour of walking with the families of three of the abducted Chibok Girls in an effort to document their lives over the last two years without their daughters. I am honoured that they have trusted me with their truth. The result is this photo essay entitled, “Letters to Our Daughters: #HopeEndures”.
It is comprised of photographs reflecting the hollow reality of life for mothers Esther Yakubu, Rebecca Samuel and Martha Enoch without their daughters, Dorcas, Sarah and Monica. The excerpts are captured below:

Letter from Martha Enoch to her daughter,
Monica Enoch

Life has been difficult without you these last two years. My life is in discomfort and I have been living with hypertension since they stole you from me on April 14, 2014. We miss you whenever we remember the role that you played in our family, especially your sisters. You were so kind and so special because you touched the lives of everyone that met you. Our prayers have never ended for you and we still sing your favorite choruses that you would sing in church. We sing them every morning and every evening in Hausa and we remember your voice. I always end up in tears. I wanted you to be a doctor and in fact, we have nicknamed [our other daughter] ‘doctor’ because of you. Your father had a dream where he saw you walking up a ladder to heaven. My hope is that I will see you here on earth again but if I do not, I know you are in heaven. Please serve God faithfully and I pray that God brings you back to me. I miss you, my daughter.

From your mum, Martha Enoch.

Letter from Rebecca Samuel to her Daughter,
  Sarah Samuel

You were only eighteen at the time of your abduction. By now you would be twenty years; that means it’s been two years since you were taken from me. I am suffering, I am bitter, I cry every time and I am praying and fasting. Many things are hard and we are just managing life. I know and believe in God that if there is still life, one day we will see you again. People say that the [abduction] is a lie, but it is true.
I want to tell them that if it were their children, how would they feel? The 219 children have not returned since then. If not because of God’s grace, we all would have died. Some of us [parents] got hypertension, while others got different illnesses because we were thinking about our abducted children. If you were dead, we would have cried and been able to move on. But we do not know if you are still alive or dead.
 That is why we are worried. I cry and my heart is bitter every night. I am praying that if you are alive, God should rescue you. I believe God will save you. As your mother, I am begging God for you to continue praying wherever you are. I want to tell you to be strong and continue praying. I lost everything, I lost everything when I lost you.

From your mother, Rebecca.

Letter from Esther Yakubu to her Daughter,
 Dorcas Yakubu

 April 14, 2016

 It has been long I heard from you. How are you and your friends, wherever you are? Hoping that you are doing better, or managing life, and I know that the angel of the Lord Almighty is with you, and He will continue to be with you wherever you are. You don’t know – you don’t have any idea of the plans I have been planning for you all this while. From birth, I’ve been planning for you, your life, your education, your health, before you were kidnapped.
Before marriage, I wanted you to go to the university, because I have not been there. My hope is that you will be a fashion designer as a woman. I had even bought a sewing machine for you, and a travelling bag, and some set of clothes. But up till now, for two years, I have not seen or heard anything from you.
But I would like to advise you, wherever you are, please be strong in the Lord and He will see you through. I know I miss you, but I have the heart and I have the hope that one day I will see you again. I believe that one day I will fulfill my promise to you, and I will see you again, and my happiness, my joy, my life will be complete with you and I will be a happy mother again.
 The Lord is your strength and I have that hope in me that I will see you again and I will rejoice in the Lord Almighty.

 From your mum, Esther Yakubu

"The beauty of kids is they don't care who you are" writes woman whose little daughter threw a tantrum at the White House

As Barack Obama came in, my two-year-old daughter threw herself on the floor". Claudier Moser became an internet sensation last year after a photo of her throwing a tantrum at the White House went viral.

Official White House photographer Pete Souza captured the photo of the two-year-old daughter of White House correspondent Laura Moser, with her face down on the floor. "It was just before the president walked in the room that I had to tell Claudia, my two-year-old daughter, “No, you cannot take your clothes off.” She wanted to wear a sheet, which is what she likes to do at home. She started screaming. As he walked in we said: “Look, Claudia, it’s Barack Obama" That’s when she threw herself on the floor," Laura Moser writes on The Guardian This was our seventh Passover seder at the White House.

The tradition started on the campaign trail in 2008 when my husband Arun (who was then Obama’s videographer; he’s at the back of the picture) and a few other staffers held an impromptu seder, the traditional Passover meal, in a hotel in a small town in Pennsylvania. Obama has hosted one at the White House for roughly the same 20 people every year since. We read out the Emancipation Proclamation, which is an Obama innovation.

It is really powerful to hear the first black president read aloud about freeing the slaves, which is what Passover is all about, but in a different context. Every year we bring a family member who joins us for mingling and photographs, and then takes the children home before the seder begins.

 Last year we took my father, who you can see standing just behind the president. Claudia was on the floor for only a second; I didn’t actually just let her lie there, as some internet commenters accused me of doing after the photograph went viral. I am looking at my dad, saying, “All right, time to go.”
He had to drag her out and she screamed as they walked down the corridor with the secret service escort. We weren’t thrilled, but I wasn’t particularly anxious about it. Everyone wants their children to be cute and smile for the president. But Obama just makes everyone feel at ease – you don’t feel awestruck because he is so human. Neither he nor the first lady cared that Claudia was screaming. It was funny. You can see Obama turning to Pete Souza, the official White House photographer, like, “Check this out.” The beauty of kids is they don’t care who you are, which is why people like the Obamas like them so much – they treat them like normal people.

 A month or two later I was sent the photo and posted it on Facebook for family and friends. I didn’t see the storm coming. My brother tweeted it and tagged me. I was shopping and didn’t see my phone until I got back and had 118 new notifications. It went from there.

It was crazy to watch it. think Claudia will like the photograph when she is old enought to understand it. We have it framed next to another picture of her with Obama sniffing her hair, when she was four months old; he said, “She still has that new baby smell.” Arun worked for Obama for four years, and we have pictures of my son Leo with him at Halloween over the years.

 Obama posed with Leo whose costumes included Franklin D Roosevelt, a secret service agent and, when he was two, Thomas Jefferson. I used to think it was a shame Claudia never got in those sorts of pictures, but she’s surpassed him in one shot.

 Source: The UK Guardian

Acting DG, National Centre for Women Development dies in car crash

The Acting Director General of the National Centre for Women Development, Abdulmalik Dauda, died in an auto crash along the Abuja-Kaduna express way this morning while on his way back from an official assignment. His protocol officer, Mohammed Aliyu confirmed the death to newsmen. He was 57 years old. He's survived by two wives ‎and five children, and has been buried according to Islamic rites in his hometown.

Dauda took over from Onyeka Onwenu on February 16, 2016, following the removal of 26 heads of government agencies and parastatals.

'No evidence' to take actions against Panama papers law firm

Panama’s public prosecutor against organized crime said Wednesday there was no evidence so far to take action against the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal, following a raid lasting 27 hours on its offices. “Right now we don’t have any strong evidence allowing us to take any sort of decision” against the firm Mossack Fonseca, the prosecutor, Javier Caraballo, told reporters.
 He said the swoop on its law offices, located in Panama’s banking district, had begun on Tuesday on the basis of the news reports about the offshore businesses it created and in some cases ran for wealthy clients around the world.
“The information we have collected is what will permit us to have evidence to take a decision later on,” Caraballo said.
 He said the investigation was complicated by the fact that the firm kept most of its records in digital form, on more than 100 computer servers, and not on paper.
 But he added that the firm had “cooperated” with his investigators. Nearly 40 years’ worth of archives from Mossack Fonseca have been pored over by hundreds of journalists around the world since being given to a German reporter a year ago.
They have resulted in the so-called Panama Papers: a series of reports exposing politicians, celebrities and some criminals who used Mossack Fonseca’s services to stash assets in offshore companies. Advertisement Mossack Fonseca’s founders, lawyers Ramon Fonseca and Juergen Mossack, insist they did nothing illegal.
 They stress that offshore companies in themselves are not illicit — and they were not responsible for any activities their clients did with the entities. Fonseca is a friend to Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela and, until March, served as a senior advisor on his cabinet.

The Panama Papers revelations have triggered a multitude of probes around the world as authorities look for evidence people named in them might have committed tax fraud, money laundering or other criminal acts. Varela’s government is currently fighting to prevent other countries responding to the scandal by putting Panama back on international blacklists of nations that facilitate money laundering or tax evasion.
Panama’s chief state prosecutor, Kenia Porcell, earlier Wednesday gave a news conference in which he noted that “in Panama, tax evasion does not constitute a crime.”
 He said, however, that the country was extending “all necessary cooperation” to address the scandal. Porcell said he had been contacted by counterparts from Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, but did not elaborate.

See letter Buhari wrote to join the Royal Nigerian Army @ 18

A letter written by President Muhammadu Buhari to apply for application to write an examination into the Nigerian army has surfaced online.

The letter obtained by Premium Times showed that the army was referred to as the Royal army at the time and the president, in his handwriting, stated his age and what academic qualification he had.

 President Buhari who is in far away China on a four-day diplomatic visit, where he is strengthening ties between Nigeria and the Asian country, was an 18-year-old teenager at the time.

 The letter President Buhari wrote to join the Nigerian army at the age of 18. Some Nigerians think, however, that little has changed about the president about 55 years after applying to join the soldiers.

 People say his Fulani mentality is still always on display when the president takes certain decisions, while some are of the opinion that he did not write the letter himself. Naij.com also recently gathered five pictures that not just prove the president’s literacy, but that he is one of the people to have worn the camouflage of the Nigeria army.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian army on Wednesday, April 13, announced the commencement of recruitment for young officers who are interested in becoming soldiers.

Source : Premium Times

Lmao!! Angry tenants print flyers to embarrass landlord for making life hard for them (photos)

A group of angry tenants took laws into their hands by printing posters of their erring Lekki landlord and posting it around their neighbourhood to embarrass the man.

Below is how an eyewitness narrates the hilarious drama.

 "So I went to the Fidelity Bank VGC branch and came out to meet a rather curious flyer on my windshield.

The contents read:

"Oga Landlord Pay Me my Money. Moses Kamanya of Munak Group, stop making life hard for others. 2 months in your apartment, no light, phcn disconnected, no water, no services...etc embarassed lipsrsealed."

From what I gathered he owes his tenants N2million naira for apartments they rented from him inclusive of service charge for 24 hours standby generator power, however a month into living there, PHCN was disconnected, then the gen packed up and they were thrust into 24 hour darkness, coupled with no water as the pump couldn't work.

They made several complaints, he did nothing but to ask them to move out and expect a refund in 2 weeks this was since January and now he is not responding. "I have taken personal interest in this and doing my bid to help a fellow Nigerian because not too long ago I too experienced the severe wickedness and selfishness of Nigerian Landlords.

They operate with such recklessness and lack of human sympathy since this country allows them act unchecked! How can you collect somebody's hard earned money and not provide them basic amenities like electricity and water?

Haba now and in Lekki Phase 1 too? "The numbers left on the flyers to call and help ask for their money is Moses Kamanya CEO of Munak Group 08033453185, 08033061712, 08037191029, 08130662791. Munak Group KM 14 Lekki Epe Expressway, Opp. Fidelity bank VGC Branch, just after Mega Chicken."

*LoveScam* Be cautious of Nigerian men, Kenyan Police warns female citizens

The Kenya Police has issued an alert warning wealthy Kenyan women over the influx of Nigerian immigrants will ill intentions towards them.

According to the Star, government spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the foreigners travel to Kenya as tourists but do not register formally with their High Commission in Nairobi.

 “They come here after identifying their targets and bypass getting any kind of formal identification so that they can operate without suspicion,” explained Kiraithe as quoted in the Star. He also added that this was a scam where they target rich women and seduce them into marriage only for them to con and steal from them, or commit a crime and disappear.

 “The department of immigration is creating strong laws to be tabled in Parliament before the situation gets out of control,” added Kiraithe.

 According to officials at Immigration, the immigrants end up working in the country without permits and operate comfortably in mid and high end estates. Some of the areas they can be found in multitudes includes Eastlands’ Donholm, Komarock and Umoja estates, Thika road’s Thome, Kasarani and Roysambu areas, and lavish areas like Kileleshwa and Runda.

 Common methods most men use are phishing whereby they create fake accounts using women’s pictures to befriend you and then later recommend themselves to you.

This is mostly rampant on Facebook. Kenyan women have been said to fall for Nigerian men easily because of the façade these men put on to appear rich.

 They are known to flaunt their worldly belongings as well as using their accents to appear exotic in charming women.

Other ways Nigerian men lie to Kenyan women is by creating sob stories where they were promised football careers in Europe by an agency in Nigeria only to end up at the agency’s offices in Nairobi, stranded after being abandoned in the process of catching a connecting flight to a European country.

NLC commends FG on recruitment of 10,000 police personnel

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC has commended the Federal Government for fulfilling its promise to recruit 10, 000 personnel in the next two months. The NLC president, Ayuba Wabba made the commendation on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing newsmen. He said that President Muhammadu Buhari deserved commendation for keeping his promise to recruit 10,000 police personnel in response to security challenges in the country.

 He said: “It is gratifying to note that about six months after, the government has decided to make true its promise. “The recruitment of 10, 000 Nigerians into the police force, though will not solve the unemployment problem in the country, will almost certainly ease tension in the land. “We want to appeal to the police authorities and other Nigerians in position of authority to conduct this exercise with all sense of responsibility. “Every Nigerian that is eligible should get employed and the processes must be well thought out.

“The process of the exercise must include care, transparency, justice, equity; the applicants should not be made to suffer discomfort or pain.’’ The NLC president noted that there was hardly any Nigerian family that does not have large number of applicants due to the growing army of unemployed youths in the country.

He said though there would be desperate scramble to fill up the vacancies or positions, the unfortunate incident that occurred during the last Immigration recruitment exercise should not repeat itself. “If we are able to get 10,000 of our youths out of the unemployment market, I think it is something that is highly commendable. “A similar gesture in other sectors will cause a positive spark. “We therefore urge the government to demonstrate the necessary commitment to further employment generation,” Wabba said.

NAN

FG comes to the aid of 14 years old girl with kidney disease

Respite has come the way of a 14 year old girl identified as Faith Andrew whose treatment for a kidney disease has been stopped for a while because of the inability of her widowed mother of 6 to pay for her weekly dialysis or the N7 million kidney transplant fee.

 Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, visited Faith at the Gwagwalada Teaching hospital yesterday April 12th and said the Federal government will henceforth take responsibility of the girl's medical bill. See tweets from the Ministers twitter handle after the cut...

Man cries out on Facebook after friends bedded his wife to get him a job

A Harare man has cried out on Facebook after his wife confessed to bedding two men in a bid to help him secure a job.

Charlene Dzokese (24) said she cheated with Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition boss, Phillan Zamchiya and her husband’s best friend Beloved Chiweshe. Dzokese said her husband, Mehluli Dube had been unemployed since 2004 and Zamchiya and Chiweshe had promised to help him.

 Mehluli discovered the love affair last Wednesday when he rummaged through his wife’s WhatsApp chats.These affairs had been running concurrently since last year November. “Indeed I cheated on Mehluli not that I wanted to but I had no choice, we have been suffering for years now and we have a minor to fend for.

I know how hard life can be because at some point I once stayed in the streets and I am an orphan, I only want the best for my son. “So when his best friend presented me that he would get my husband a job and his former boss Zamchiya promised to get him something at Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition where he is the director, I jumped at it,’ she said.

“Chiweshe knew that I was going out with Zamchiya and we would arrange to meet in town and at times he would come to our home in Zimre Park when Mehluli was away,”

Dzokese said. Dzokese and Mehluli have been married for three years and Mehluli says his wife was a victim of circumstances and he will make sure that his colleagues will pay for what they did.

“I have known Chiweshe since 2003, he has been my best friend since then and what he did really broke me down.
 “I have been Zamchiya’s right hand man since last year when he took over directorship at Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition. “I still have my son to think about so I have decided to forgive my wife and sort out our differences but I have decided to take legal route to deal with Zamchiya and Chiweshe,”said Mehluli.

 Source: H metro

347 killed in December 12 Shiite/Army clash —Kaduna govt

Kaduna State Government, yesterday, said 347 persons were killed during the December 12 Shiite/Nigerian Army clash in Zaria.

The Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Alhaji Balarabe Lawal, disclosed this in a government submission at the ongoing public hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the clash. Lawal, who led six government witnesses before the panel, said that 191 corpses were taken from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria, and were buried in Mando area in Kaduna. He said 156 corpses were also conveyed from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, ABUTH, Zaria, to the same Mando area.

 The state government said the corpses were committed into a mass grave at the Mando area jointly supervised by the state government officials and about 40 men of the Nigerian Army, led by an officer with the rank of a Major. The SSG said 189 suspects were being prosecuted for alleged involvement in the Zaria crisis while one suspect had died in custody. He said the state government had received several security reports from the Directorate of State Service, DSS, on the activities of the movement.

 According to him, several measures had been taken to address the situation before it finally escalated into the clash with the Nigerian Army. Another witness and Director-General, Kaduna State Interfaith Agency, Mr. Namadi Musa, said the mass burial was conducted on December 14 and 15, respectively, and it took the officials about six hours to complete the burial. Musa said while six tonnes of Mercedes tippers conveyed the 191 corpses from the ABUTH, the Army used three heavy duty trucks to convey corpses from the Zaria Army Depot. “The mass burial was authorised through a warrant of burial obtained from a Kaduna Chief Magistrate’s Court in Kaduna,” he said. The state government blamed some of the lapses and the excesses of the movement on the laxity of the previous government which did not take serious action to curtail the activities of the sect.

On alleged demolition of buildings and structures of the IMN leader, the witnesses said that the demolitions were based on recommendations of a committee set up by the state government. The witnesses, including officials of KASUPDA, KAPWA and the state ministry of Works, Transport and Housing, told the panel that several other structures belonging to individuals had been demolished due to poor building specifications and standards. Mrs. Saratu Haruna, General Manager, KASUPDA; Mr. Namadi Musa, D-G Interfaith Agency; and Prof. Adamu Ahmed, Deputy CMD, ABUTH, appeared before the panel.

How gunmen killed policeman, injured NSCDC personnel in Ebonyi

Unknown gunmen in the wee hours of Friday reportedly shot and killed a policeman and wounded a Civil Defense personnel in Ebonyi state.

According to Premium Times, the gunmen, who were returning from a robbery operation along Abakaliki-Enugu expressway, started shooting sporadically, killing a policeman and injuring several others in the process.

The situation reportedly caused a major gridlock across the state capital, Abakaliki, as heavily armed police officers cordoned the roads especially the Abakaliki end of the federal highway.

Confirming the report, the State Commissioner of Police, CP, Peace Ibekwe-Abdallah, said “The command is preparing a release on the matter and would make it available to the press soon. “Investigation into the matter has commenced,” the CP stated. Likewise, the Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, Ebonyi State Command, Jibril Shyabu, explained that his wounded staff, a driver, was already at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, receiving treatment.

Shyabu described the incident as unfortunate and ugly, stating that the incident had brought about the need for effective synergy among security agencies in the state.

The NSCDC boss said his staff sustained both hand and leg injuries. He, however, assured. members of the public of adequate protection by security agencies in the state.

Photos: 11 persons perish in a road accident on the Benin-Ore road

11 people (9 males, 2 females) died and 6 others (4 males, 2 females) in a road crash that occurred after Owena bridge, about 18km from Ore on the Benin-Ore road.
 The accident that occured in the early hours of today, April 10 involved a truck and a Toyota Hiace bus.

According to FRSC, "the crash was an head on collision resulted as a result of driving against traffic on the dual carriageway by the driver of the truck.




Two vehicles, a blue Daf truck crane with registration number BEN 371 XY and a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number FKJ 62XH were involved .

The injured and the corpses were taken to the General Hospital, Ore. Personal effects such as clothes, bags, phones and a sum of N32,490:00 were recovered at the scene"

Source: Linda Ikeji

Shocking Details: Boko Haram demands 17.5Billion naira ransom for Return Chibok Girls

Boko Haram is seeking a ransom of nearly £40m for the release of the 219 schoolgirls that it kidnapped from the Nigerian town of Chibok two years ago, sources close to the group have told The Sunday Telegraph.
 The terror sect is thought to have issued the demand during secret contacts with the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has said he is willing to negotiate for the girls’ freedom.
The group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, had previously demanded therelease of jailed comrades in exchange for the girls. But a deal along those lines – brokered by the Red Cross – fell through after Nigerian prison officials said that commanders on a list given to them by Boko Haram were not in their custody.
 Details of the new ransom request emerged ahead of the second anniversary of the girls kidnapping on the night of April 14, 2014, when they were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen posing as soldiers.
Despite their case receiving global attention because of the celebrity-backed #bringbackourgirls campaign on social media, diplomats and sources close to the negotiations say they are no closer to knowing the girls’ whereabouts.
 The Nigerian military has made significant gains against Boko Haram in the last 18 months, raiding a number of the sect’s camps in Nigeria’s vast Sambisa forest, and freeing at least 1,000 women and children taken in other mass abductions. Yet in none of the raids have any rescued prisoners or captured fighters been able to give any convincing accounts of meeting or seeing any of the Chibok girls. That indicates they are still being kept well away from other captives, and that their kidnappers see them as having huge symbolic value as hostages – thanks partly the publicity given to them by the social media campaign.

“I think they are probably in clusters rather than all in one place, but probably not far from each other,” said Shehu Sani, a Nigerian senator and civil rights activist involved in peace attempts with Boko Haram. “Boko Haram knows they are a prized catch.” One source close to Boko Haram said that around three months ago, Boko Haram sent a message saying it would exchange the girls for a ransom of 10bn Naira, the equivalent of around £36m. “The ransom demand has split the government,” said the source. “Some think it would be worth it just to resolve the Chibok situation, but others say it will simply allow Boko Haram to hire yet more insurgent recruits.”
 The same source also said that a month after the ransom demand, Boko Haram had secretly passed the government a new video tape showing 15 of the kidnapped girls. “The girls are asked what their Christian names are and what their new Muslim names are,” he said, referring to the “conversion” that Boko Haram forces Christian prisoners to undergo. “They are also asked if they have been raped or mistreated, but they say no – they look relaxed.”

Asked about the ransom demand, diplomats said only that they were aware of “rumours” of contacts of various sorts. However, others involved in past attempts to free the girls claim that no proper “proof of life” video has ever been issued by Boko Haram, and dismiss talk of the group being interested in either ransom demands or prisoner swaps. Among them is Dr Stephen Davis, an Australian clergyman and former Nigerian government advisor who spent four months in Nigeria in 2014 attempting to negotiate the girls’ freedom.
He came close three times to negotiating the release of some of the Chibok schoolgirls, only for the group’s high command to rule it out. “They realise that these girls are the ace in their hand,” he said. Instead, he claimed now says that the only way to get the girls back is to exploit the “combat fatigue” that is now growing on all sides of the conflict, be it the Boko Haram fighters, the combat-weary Nigerian army, or the terrified civilian population caught in the crossfire. “If you offer Boko Haram fighters camps where they can get shelter, food, clothing and education, you can demobilise them quite quickly, as there are a lot of them who want to give up,” he said. “Take away the footsoldiers, and you will also start getting information about where the girls are. Any other way is putting the cart before the horse.”
 Last week, Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters launched “Operation Safe Corridor”, a program to rehabilitate repentant Boko Haram fighters through camps where they will be offered jobs and training in return for undergoing biometric profiling. The military said some 800 fighters had already signed up for the program, and that other camps would open across north-east Nigeria in coming months.
 Dr Davis added that during his visits to Nigeria in 2014, a Boko Haram commander had once been passed him a grisly video showing what purported to be the human remains of some of the Chibok girls. However, he had never passed it on because there was no proof that it was definitely them. “There was nothing identifiable in the video, and without any proof that it was the girls, there was no way I was prepared to pass it to anguished relatives,” he said. “On the other hand, I can’t think of any other reason why the commander would have passed it to me.”

Credit: The Trent