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

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Visits 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

Alleged injurious comments: Okah brothers to sue Jonathan in Nigeria, S/Africa

The Okah brothers, Henry and Charles, both leaders of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, undergoing trials in South Africa and Nigerian courts respectively, have vowed to institute legal actions against former President Goodluck Jonathan in the two countries over his purported scornful and damaging statements regarding them.

Spokesperson of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, Jomo Gbomo, disclosed this in an online statement while reacting to Jonathan's response to the accusation by the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, RNDA, that he (Jonathan) was the grand patron of Niger Delta Avengers, NDA.

MEND asserted: "A substantial portion of Mr. Jonathan's statement unfortunately dwelt on judicial matters, which are pending in various courts in Nigeria and South Africa. For instance, Mr. Henry Okah's appeal in South Africa's Constitutional Court is due for hearing this August; while his brother, Charles' ongoing trial in Nigeria is pending before Hon. Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja."

"The former President's statement was, therefore, contemptuous and prejudicial to the success of the ongoing trials of Henry and Charles Okah in South African and Nigerian courts, respectively. Consequently, both brothers shall, because of the former President's prejudicial statement, institute legal action against him in South Africa and Nigeria within 60 days, commencing from today, August 8, 2016.

"Accordingly, they have briefed their respective solicitors to formally engage the former President in litigation," Jomo Gbomo stated.

Commenting on Jonathan's attempt to dissociate himself from the RNDA allegation, MEND said: "With all due respect, the entire statement was deeply provocative and embarrassingly misconceived as it woefully failed to address the core issue of whether or not the former President was, indeed, the grand patron of NDA."

"Rather, the statement employed diversionary tactics which dwelt extensively on sour grapes! Any follower of events in Nigeria and the Niger Delta privileged to read the statement released by Mr. Jonathan, would immediately observe that the former President had a score to settle with the Okah brothers as well as MEND, which have since May 30, 2014 stopped attacks on Nigeria's oil and gas assets.

"And are currently engaged in dialogue with the Federal Government to find sustainable ways and means of ending the festering Niger Delta crises, which was exacerbated by the former President's ineptitude, incompetence and corruption during the six (6) years he governed the country, " it added.

The group noted: "Indeed, the problem in the Niger Delta today has nothing to do with the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Far from it, the problem is simply the failure of Mr. Jonathan to address the root issues confronting the region when he was at the helm. "

"Even though he was from the impoverished region and had by his own admission in numerous electioneering campaigns, experienced the utter poverty and abject neglect of the region foisted by successive Nigerian Governments and the International Oil Companies since the discovery of oil in 1958 at Oloibiri (a few meters away from his native Otuoke) in Bayelsa state. Mr. Jonathan disappointingly frittered away the opportunity to rescue his people when the Nigerian Presidency fortuitously landed on his laps virtually on a platter of gold.

"For six whole years, Mr. Jonathan was busy drinking, making merry and generally chasing shadows at the State House. Such a fellow deserves to be ostracized from the assembly of reasonable men because the Nigerian Presidency might never come back to the region as cheap as it came to Mr. Jonathan; perhaps in the next 100 years," the group stated.

It said: "Lest we forget, MEND was at the forefront of the armed struggle back in 2006/2007, which forced President Olusegun Obasanjo to consider the option of drafting an Ijaw man into the mainstream of Nigerian politics. That was how the perpetually timid and naïve Goodluck Jonathan became Vice President and later, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

"When he assumed therein as President, he did the unthinkable; he tracked down perceived MEND leaders and promptly got them imprisoned on a trumped-up charge of attempt to assassinate him. Up until today, Mr. Jonathan is still suffering from an Assassination Paranoia Complex (APC).

"Back to the core issue, MEND cannot hold brief for the RNDA, which pointedly accused the former President of complicity in fuelling the ongoing Niger Delta crisis and patronizing the NDA, apparently for political reasons. We are, however, quick to point out the fact that the RNDA has merely vindicated MEND's belief and conviction that the former President and his cronies, who lost the 2015 Presidential election were using the NDA platform to destabilize President Buhari's government," the repentant militant group asserted.

It reiterated that MEND was committed to working with the current administration to bring peace, stability and development to the Niger Delta region and the process had since commenced with the constitution of the Federal Government/MEND Aaron Team 2 Dialogue, Peace and Development Initiative.

"Between August 22, 2016 and October 07, 2016, the Aaron Team shall embark on a tour of the Niger Delta region. The proposed tour is code-named "Operation Moses" and the key focus of the tour is to persuade militants to ceasefire and support President Muhammadu Buhari in his determined and sincere effort to develop the region.

"The tour shall also help to boost Nigeria's oil production capacity as well as improve host community relations with oil and gas companies in the country," it added.

SOURCE: Vanguardng

No Plan to Increase Fuel Price - Nigerian Govt

The federal government has denied reports of an imminent increase in pump price of fuel.

There had been speculations of a fresh raise, two months after the government increased the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145 a litre.

Reports said the government was considering new rates as Nigeria's foreign exchange crisis continues to hamper importation of products.

But speaking to journalists on Tuesday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru, said the government had no such plans.

"I have not been directed to increase pump price, even the other price was based on recommendation from the regulated body," he said.

"I'm not aware that they are planning to do any increase; you know there are several factors that necessitated that especially the issue of exchange rate that has moved and we don't expect any serious changes.

"So far the request for forex for importation of gasoline popularly called petrol has been met, and our own supply situation is robust, we are meeting demands. We have over 1.4 billion liters on ground.

"So I don't see any basis for increase. However, the review could be done by the right body, you should contact PPPRA; that is the regulatory body as far as petrol pricing is concern."

SOURCE: Premiumtimesng