Buhari Fires Service Chiefs

President Muhammadu Buhari has fired Nigeria’s Chief of Defence, and the heads of Army, Navy and the Air Force.

The service chiefs were relieved of their appointments Monday.

They were appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Their replacements were not immediately announced.

Military officials told PREMIUM TIMES last week that the delay is removing the military commanders was compounding the fight against the jihadist sect, Boko Haram.

The group has intensified its attacks in the last one month, with multiple suicide bombings and gun attacks killing hundreds of people.

Military experts said the service chiefs expected they would be fired any day, as such, they were hardly settled for the complex war against Boko Haram.

@Premiuntimes

Boko Haram Militants Attacked the Northern Nigerian Town of Buni Yadi in Yobe state

By Joe Hemba DAMATURU, Nigeria (Reuters).
Boko Haram militants attacked the northern Nigerian town of Buni Yadi in Yobe state late on Thursday and it was unclear how the fighting had ended, military sources said.

There was no information on any casualties after the attack that started  at around 9 p.m. (4.00 p.m. EDT), the sources said on Friday.

A Reuters correspondent saw a detachment of troops with armoured personnel carriers and a fighter jet heading towards Buni Yadi on Friday morning.

"Those boys (Boko Haram) came to Buni Yadi yesterday and attacked our people. They came in about nine Hilux (pick-up trucks) and opened fire... Our people have mobilized for reinforcement,"one the sources said.

Buni Yadi was one of the towns that was captured by the insurgent group in 2014 and then reclaimed in March this year by Nigeria army. Boko Haram has been trying to carve out a state adhering to strict sharia law in the country's northeast since 2009.

The group took over large swathes of territory last year but were pushed back into their last stronghold in the Sambisa forest reserve with the combined efforts of Nigerian and regional forces.

The militants have since dispersed and reverted to guerrilla tactics and including hitting towns well outside its Borno state heartland such as in Kaduna and Plateau states over the last two weeks.

President Muhammadu Buhari has made quashing the insurgency his number one priority and is building up a base in Chad's capital N'Djamena out of which regional forces can deploy and attack the militants.

Bomb Blast Kills 20 in Zaria

The reign of terror by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect continued Tuesday with a deadly bomb blast killing at least 20 people in the Sabon  Gari area of Zaria town, Kaduna state.

The governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, confirmed the casualty figure via his Twitter handle.

The attack came hours after a suicide bomb attack at a Mosque in Kano on Monday.

Similar explosions killed 44 people in Jos, Plateau State, on Sunday, the same day six persons were killed at a church in Potiskum, Yobe State, by a suicide bomber.

A resident of Zaria, Umar Mohammed, told PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday’s blast occurred at the local government secretariat where civil servants’ screening was taking place.

He said it was unclear who the bomber was, but said the attacker detonated explosives in the middle of the crowd.

“I have seen more than 10 bodies on the ground,” Mr. Mohammed told PREMIUM TIMES.

@http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/186220-breaking-bomb-blast-kills-20-in-zaria.html

Doctor Told Hundreds of Healthy People They Had Cancer

The office of Dr. Farid Fata in Oak Park, Mich. (Image via AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Dr. Farid Fata put hundreds of people through hell in order to line his own pockets, and now federal prosecutors are seeking to put the Detroit-area oncologist away for 175 years. Fata has admitted that he misdiagnosed patients — 553 of them, according to prosecutors — and ordered chemotherapy and other unnecessary treatments for patients who didn’t even have cancer, report NBC News, which says some 9,000 needless injections or infusions were allegedly given. 

Fata’s sentencing begins today. The hearing could take more than a week, according to the Detroit Free Press, as patients and experts testify for a sentence that could fall between 25 and 175 years. 

Prosecutors say patients who really did have cancer were lied to about their chances of survival so he could give them more treatments. The doctor, who bilked patients and insurance companies for millions, in September pleaded guilty to fraud and will face some of his victims at a sentencing hearing that begins today, reports WXYZ. 

Dr. Farid Fata. (Photo: WXYZ-TV Detroit | Channel 7 | YouTube)

One of the people in the Detroit courtroom will be Robert Sobieray, whose teeth fell out after Fata falsely diagnosed him with a rare kind of blood cancer and gave him chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “His name causes an instant headache,” the 62-year-old autoworker tells NBC. “The things I want to do to that guy I couldn’t say in public.” The wife of another victim who’s disabled because of the unnecessary treatments tells the Detroit News that she wants to look Fata in the eyes and tell him: “You gave us a life of the unknown, of misery, and now you’re going to have a life behind bars." 

The Detroit News notes that while it’s "common” for victims to speak in criminal trials, “it’s unusual in a sentencing proceeding for victims of Medicare fraud.” WXYZ reports Fata’s lawyers have asked for a 25-year sentence. (An anesthesiologist had to pay $500,000 for mocking a sedated patient.)

By Rob Quinn

From Newser.com

Dozens killed in Nigerian town as Boko Haram attacks intensify

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have rounded up and shot dead dozens of people in a raid in a town in northeast Nigeria, military and local sources said, part of a resurgence of attacks in Borno state in the past month. A member of a local self-defence group said he had been told by a colleague who fled the attack and then returned to the town that 97 bodies had been found, some badly charred because the attackers had set houses on fire.

There was no immediate official comment from the security forces, or a confirmed death toll. Separately, a young female suicide bomber killed at least 12 people when she blew herself up in a mosque in the northeast of the country, a witness said. The witness, a member of a vigilante group aiding the military against Boko Haram, said the girl was "aged around 15" and was seen outside the mosque before afternoon prayers yesterday.

Boko Haram insurgents have killed thousands of people and left about 1.5 million others displaced in a six-year-old insurgency to create an Islamic caliphate in the northeast of Nigeria. A further seven people were injured in the attack. At the end of last year the group controlled an area roughly the size of Belgium but lost huge chunks of territory when the military went on the offensive in the months before a presidential election in March. By then, the military said it had taken back all but three out of 20 local government areas previously controlled by the Islamist militants. But the last month has seen a resurgence in attacks, many in Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria. New President Muhammadu Buhari moved the army's command centre for the campaign against Boko Haram to the Borno state capital after coming to power.

On Tuesday, gunmen attacked two nearby villages elsewhere in Borno state killing 48 people, according to a police spokesman. Mr Buhari, who was inaugurated on 29 May, has held talks with officials from neighbouring countries Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin to set up a regional force to tackle the insurgents. The fight against Boko Haram is also expected to be high on the agenda when President Buhari travels to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama on 20 July. @Rtenews

Six Nigeria school children drown as boat capsizes

Lagos (AFP) - Six children have drowned after the boat taking them to school capsized in a waterway in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, an emergency management agency spokesman said on Thursday. "Fourteen school children were aboard the boat when it overturned," Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told AFP. "Eight of them were rescued alive. We recovered three corpses yesterday (Wednesday) and three more today, bringing the total death toll to six." The tragedy occurred in the Irawe western district of the oceanside city on Wednesday when the boat lost control and upturned, he said. Many communities and residents on islands in Lagos and other parts of the country commute to work, school and markets daily on water, in some cases to avoid monster traffic jams. NEMA recently warned users and operators of vessels on Lagos waterways to take extra precautions during the current rainy season, when ocean levels and tidal waves increase. @yahoonews

PANIC OVER BVN LONG QUEUE

Nigerians love dire-minute/rush-hour act or maybe the world if I am right. It is bad to have heard some bankers are taking bribe from some customers to get their BVN done.But come to think of it, are the bankers to be blame? I saw the long queues in banks on my way to work and I asked people, I hope all is well, then I was told customers are trying to beat BVN deadline. I did my BVN almost a year without hiccups and was called to pick up my BVN card( a form of identity) after two months. I remember the banks were practically begging people to come register but most customers were reluctant, and I wonder if financial transactions will not be halted just because of the heavy queue for BVN I think the earlier we do things, the better for us.