UN Endorses Campaign to Lower Age Criteria for Political Office

The United Nations (UN) has thrown its weight behind the campaign to lower the age criteria for running for political office in Nigeria.

The endorsement was made by UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth, Mr. Ahmed Alhendawi, who spoke Wednesday at an interactive session with young people at the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports in Abuja.

The #NotTooYoungToRun campaign was launched to drum support for passage of a Bill in the National Assembly to reduce the age limit for contesting into certain elective offices in the country.

Mr. Ahmed Alhendawi said the bill is important considering not only the age of the continent but also the overwhelming youth demographic in Nigeria, noting that “interventions for youth without the youth are not for youth.”

A statement by Samson Itodo of the Youth Initiative for Advancement, Growth and Advocacy (YIAGA) said the UN envoy noted further that “working with and for young people is one of the priority areas for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, saying his office specifically focuses on strengthening the position of young people across government, civil society, academia, media, and the agencies of the United Nations.”

According to the statement, “the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign welcomes this endorsement with gratitude and commends the UN Youth Envoy for his dedication and support to the advancement of youth issues across the globe. This endorsement will in no small measure boost the campaign and mount pressure on the National and State Assemblies to pass the #NotTooYoungToRun bill which is currently under consideration by the Constitution review committee in the House of Representatives having passed first and second reading.

“The #NotTooYoungToRun bill seeks to alter Sections 65, 106, 131, and 177 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) to reduce the age of qualification for the office of the President, Governor, and House of Representatives from 40 to 30, 35 to 30, and 30 to 25 respectively. The reduction will take the age of candidacy for Senate from 35 to 30, and that of State Houses of Assembly from 30 to 25.  The Bill sponsored by Hon. Tony Nwulu, member representing Oshodi/Isolo constituency also seeks to mainstream independent candidacy into Nigeria’s electoral process.”

SOURCE: OrderPaperToday 

Police Rescue 13 Children, 15 Adults Chained in House in Lagos

The Lagos State Police Command at the weekend rescued 13 children and 15 adults chained and locked up by one Emmanuel Adeyemi at the Oke-ira area of Ojodu, Lagos.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP Fatai Owoseni, acting on a tip-off, had deployed operatives from the Area G Command Headquarters to the scene.

Although the initial intelligence report was that a teenager was chained in the house at Oyinbo Unity Estate, Olamidun Close, Yakoyo, Oke-Ira, Ojodu, subsequent search of the residence by the police revealed 27 others apart from the 17-year-old Toba Adedoyin the Police had gone to rescue.

Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police, said, “The command received a report through Area ‘G’ Command Headquarters, Ogba, that a child was chained in a house at Oyinbo Unity Estate, Olamidun Close, Yakoyo, Oke-Ira, Ojodu.

“Consequently, a team of policemen was mobilized to the location where a teenager named Toba Adedoyin ‘m’, aged 17, was found in a room with a chain on his legs.

“The victim was allegedly chained by one Emmanuel Adeyemi ‘m’ who claimed to be his father, in order to restrain him from going out.

” Further search of the premises led to the discovery of other people chained by the suspect.

“A total number of 28 persons, comprising six adult males, nine adult females, seven female children and six male children were rescued and taken to protective custody.

“A suspect has been arrested and is currently undergoing interrogation as the command is working assiduously to get to the root of the occurrence.”

SOURCE: Thisdaylive

Boko Haram insurgents burnt down Borno village, open fire on fleeing residents

Degraded Boko Haram insurgents, on Sunday, burnt down the whole of Shawa village, in Askira Local Government Area of Borno State.

Members of the Islamic sect were said to have invaded the village on bicycles at about 4am on Sunday.

Leader of the Civilian JTF in Mussa district, Istifanus Apagu, on Monday, said the insurgents burnt down the entire village and injured many residents, adding that nothing was left, Punch reports.

According to Apagu, “They (insurgents) came on bicycle around 4am on Sunday morning while people were sleeping and started opening fire on the helpless civilian as the villagers fled into bushes but many were critical injured.

“No lives were lost but the whole village was set ablaze and nothing was left standing. In fact, they went away with the six bicycles.”

SOURCE: Dailypostng

12 Killed in Ebonyi Jail Break Attempt

Abakaliki — Two prison warders and 10 inmates are feared dead following an attempted jail break at the Abakaliki federal prison yesterday.

Our reporter gathered that the incident occurred early on Thursday.

An official, who craved anonymity, told Daily Trust that some of the inmates protested over the poor breakfast served to them by prison officials.

Another insider, a warder, said a warder was killed and about 10 wounded by the inmates who tried to escape.

The prison warder said the situation was brought under control by soldiers and mobile policemen, who arrived the scene in 2 Hilux vans.

He said "the report that I am hearing from the prison is that over 12 persons lost their lives and many others injured, one is a warder and rest were inmates."

When contacted, the Controller of Abakaliki Prison, Mrs. Adaobi Oputa confirmed the incident but declined to give the casualty figure.

Meanwhile, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has declared a state of emergency on Abakaliki Prisons.

He spoke when he visited the prisons after returned from Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he attended the Peoples Democratic Party national convention.

SOURCE: DailytrustNg

Nigeria

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Boko Haram: International media group condemns Nigerian Military for threatening Salkida

The Nigerian military should cease threatening freelance journalist Ahmad Salkida with prosecution for not acting as an informer, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The military has said the journalist could face terrorism charges if he does not provide it with information he gained in the course of his reporting on the militant group Boko Haram.

In a statement carried by Nigerian news websites on August 14, military spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman declared Salkida and two civil-society workers – Aisha Wakil and Ahmed Bolori – “wanted for interrogation” regarding the location of over two hundred school girls Boko Haram abductedin April 2014.

In the statement, Col. Usman invoked the 2011 Terrorism Prevention Act, under which “Nigerians could be punished for failure to disclose information about terrorists or terrorists’ activities.” He said, “We are also liaising with other security agencies for their arrest if they [fail] to turn up.” Salkida has lived in the United Arab Emirates since August 2013.

“Journalists must sometimes rely on the trust of dangerous people. Coercing them to become informants risks putting all journalists under suspicion and in danger,” CPJ West Africa Representative Peter Nkanga said. “Nigeria’s military should not threaten Ahmad Salkida and instead ensure that he is free to work.”

On August 16, Nigerian Director of Defence Information Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar said that the military was only inviting Salkida and the two civil-society workers for questioning. “We are only inviting them to shed light on pending issues that will support current military efforts, and not to arrest them,” Abubakar said in remarks quoted by the broadcaster Channels Television.

Salkida wrote on his personal blog on August 15 that he would accept the military’s invitation. The journalist told CPJ that he believed the military was trying to punish him for his persistent reporting on Boko Haram since 2006. He said that he had returned to Nigeria three times since May 2015 at the invitation of various federal government agencies.

Salkida told CPJ that he feared for his life, and that anonymous callers had threatened him about his articles and posts to social media websites and his contacts with Boko Haram. Salkida has received similar threats in the past, CPJ reported at the time

Salkida has been covering Boko Haram since mid-2006. Police detained him in 2009 over his reports on the activities of the militant group when he was a reporter for the independent Daily Trust newspaper.

He fled his home in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in July 2011 after callers identifying themselves as Boko Haram members threatened him with death, following the publication of his profile of Boko Haram’s first suicide bomber.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of people, including Nigerian television journalist Zakariya Isa, who the organization claimed was a spy for the government.
SOURCE:PremiumTimesNg‎

Former PDP chairman refunds N6m to EFCC

Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Bagoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Andrew Adamu, has refunded N5 million out of the N12 million received.

Adamu was said to have received the said amount ahead of the 2015 presidential poll from the office of former petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The PDP chieftain had earlier refunded N1 million to the anti-graft agency in order to avoid prosecution.

The former chairman reportedly made the refund via bank draft to the EFCC North East Zonal Office in Gombe State.

EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, who confirmed the payment, said embattled Adamu admitted to the zonal office of the commission during an interrogation that he signed and collected the said amount in the presence of Marcus Bulus Makama, a current member of Bauchi State House of Assembly and former caretaker chairman of the local government, Mrs. Hasanna Arkila, who signed as witnesses for the collection of the amount.

Adamu told EFCC operatives that the former Commissioner for Rural Development, Mr. Bukata Bayero Bukar, was the chairman of the stakeholders while Mr. Moses Hankali was the secretary.

SOURCE: Dailypost

Churches destroyed, Bibles burned: Nigerian church leader on Christians returning home after Boko Haram

For years a key state in Islamist terror group Boko Haram's attempt to create a caliphate, parts of Adamawa state in northeastern Nigeria have now been liberated by government forces. However, as civilians begin returning home, they are finding it difficult to adjust to life after the insurgency.

"Sporadic attacks by Boko Haram continued, but the Christians I met returned home despite the dangers. Worse still, Boko Haram had all but destroyed their villages," church worker Isaac (name has been changed) told World Watch Monitor.

"The first thing I noticed after arriving was the great emotional strain on the returnees. A lucky few were able to reunite with family members, but many widows and orphans experienced afresh what life without their lost loved ones really means."

Isaac said that many Christians were keen to return home after living in camps for displaced people, because some had "faced pressure to convert to Islam just to get food".

"An estimated two million people were displaced by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria and the government wants people to return home because it's unable to provide for so many," he said.

However, the return home has not been easy.

"To have fled violence and returned to ghost-towns was hard on them," Isaac said. "Boko Haram destroyed whole communities – homes, schools, health centers and churches were not spared. They systematically destroyed water pumps and polluted wells by dumping corpses in them.

"Farms that were deserted have led to a shortage of food, and malnutrition – especially among children – is common."

In July, the UN's children's agency, Unicef, warned that nearly a quarter of a million children were suffering from life-threatening malnourishment in Boko Haram's home state of Borno, which neighbours Adamawa, and one in five are at risk of dying.

Furthermore, Adamawa has a large Christian population, and Boko Haram has systematically targeted churches and Christians since its uprising in 2009.

"Church buildings suffered," Isaac said. "One pastor told me there wasn't a single Bible left – all were burned."

"This is one of the most painful things for us to deal with – not having the word of God in our hands" the pastor told him.

However, despite the difficulties, Nigerians are trying to move forward, Isaac added.

"These Christians refuse to let the challenges stop them from taking back their homes," he said.

Families are rebuilding temporary houses out of wood, grass and mud, and churches have begun holding services again.

"Some were rebuilt, but many others couldn't afford the costs, so gathered under trees or met in the ruins of their former church building," Isaac said.

"One church was little more than a skeleton, with no roof or walls. The congregation placed anything resembling a seat on the ground so they could hold a service without having to sit in the dirt.

"[Their] desperation was matched by determination."

SOURCE: Christiantoday