100 killed in Benue communities, refugee camps.

MAKURDI—Over 100 persons, mostly women, children and the elderly, were feared killed early Sunday morning in villages and refugee camps located at Ukura, Gafa, Per and Tse-Gusa in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State, in one of the bloodiest attacks on Benue communities by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

The areas, which until the latest onslaught, hosted most refugees from previous attacks by the herdsmen, is where the home town of Governor Gabriel Suswam is located.

Vanguard learned from a reliable source that some of the attackers dressed in military uniform, stormed the affected villages in large numbers and after sacking the communities, matched into the camps and opened sustained fire on the helpless refugees.

He said: “What happened was like a war situation where people were killed like animals, irrespective of their ages and gender. This is, indeed, a sad day for the people of Benue State.

“At the moment, a mass burial is taking place for the over 100 victims whose bodies have so far been recovered.
“Most of them were women, children and the elderly, and they are decomposing already.
“Search for more bodies is still ongoing in the area, because so many persons are still missing and unaccounted for.”

Govt confirms killingsThe Senior Special Assistant to Governor Gabriel Suswam on Media Affairs, Mr. Joseph Anawa, confirmed the incident.

He said: “Indeed, over 100 people were killed last Sunday morning when heavily armed suspected Fulani herdsmen, some of whom were dressed in military uniform, stormed the communities from Kente in neighbouring Taraba State.

“They attacked the villages and refugee camps at Ukura, Gafa, Per and Tse-Gusa, where they began shooting indiscriminately at the people at 4a.m. and continued till 10.30a.m.
“As we speak, the communities have been sacked, hundreds of houses, huts, farmland and property worth millions of naira have been destroyed and the inhabitants and survivors have all fled their homes and the communities.”

Neighbours fleeVanguard further learned that the development had sparked a mass movement of thousands of people, who are fleeing their communities for fear of being attacked and killed by the marauding herdsmen.

Reacting to the development, the paramount ruler of the area, Tor Sankera, Chief Terkura Suswam, who described the attack as unfortunate and condemnable, said he was collaborating with other traditional rulers in the area and the Fulani herdsmen to find a lasting solutions to the problem.

Commenting on the attack, the Police Commissioner, Hyacinth Dagala, said four persons were confirmed killed and that some people were speculating that over 20 to 25 persons were killed.

Dagala, who appealed for calm, said a detachment of policemen had been dispatched to Logo to maintain peace, adding further that calm had returned to affected areas. Source Vanguard

Pastor, 69 Christians ‘murdered in Plateau’

70 Christians have been reportedly murdered in Plateau State, including one pastor. The body count was said to have piled up after at least a half dozen attacks allegedly perpetrated by cattle herders. Herders frequently terrorize Christian farmers in Plateau, Bauchi, Kaduna, Taraba, Benue, among others.

The herdsmen regularly raid Christian villages opening up a hail of gunfire, burning homes and churches, and shooting their victims when they run outside to escape the fires.

“The jihadists, in their quest to eliminate Christians in Plateau State and their thirst for blood, have succeeded in killing Christians and burning their houses,” said Gyang, a local man whose full name is withheld to protect his safety.
The most deadly attack occurred on May 2 when herdsmen reportedly set fire to the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) located in Foron Town, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area (LGA), killing 27 Christians. The victims included Rev. Luka Gwom and a congregant named Pauline who was married just two weeks prior in the same church building.

The recent raids have all occurred in two areas of Plateau State: Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas. These frightening experiences have become nearly a weekly terror for Christians in the region. From April 25 to May 11, Gyang reported at least six attacks on more than eightvillages, some of them targeted more than once during that time span.
“We in Riyom and Barkin Ladi LGAs have been under siege and invasion. Lives have been lost almost every day, and [there is] no serious action from any quarter by the government. But we are still faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Gyang said as he recounted an attack that killed two members of the Rim Town community as they were returning from the burial of fellow Christians who were slaughtered in a Fulani raid that happened just days before.

Sadly, this recent string of assaults is nothing new for brothers and sisters in Christ in the Middle Belt region. In mid-March, Muslim Fulani cattle herders massacred 82 Christians in a village in Benue State, according to Nigerian news reports. However, the secular media and Nigerian authorities have been slow to acknowledge these events as Christian persecution.
“It is the longstanding issue over grazing rights and cattle rustling between Egba and Fulani people,” police spokesman Ezeala Austin said after the March attack.

Despite the historic tensions Austin cites, witnesses to the assaults often recount that the herdsmen chanted “Allahu Akhbar” during the attack, the Arabic saying, “God is Great,” which has become associated with jihadist Muslim terrorism. The herdsmen also continually and specifically target Christian villages.

One Plateau State government official vaguely referenced recent incidents of cattle rustling by predominantly-Christian tribes in Wase LGA in connection to the attacks of the past month, but reports suggest no linkage between the events. Wase LGA is located 160 miles away from Barkin Ladi and Riyom.

International Christian Concern’s Regional Manager of Africa, Mr. Troy Augustine, said: “The world should wake up to the forgotten persecution happening all over Nigeria’s Middle-Belt region. Extremist Muslim Fulani herders are regularly and consciously attacking Christian villages and slaughtering our brothers and sisters in Christ. I don’t know what else needs to be explained to acknowledge that these people are persecuted because of their faith”.Read more

Herdsmen, Anambra communities in cat and mouse relationship .

AWKA — HERDSMEN who have set up what looks like a permanent abode at the border town of Ugwuoba close to Awka, the Anambra State capital, have become a pain in the neck for the surrounding communities of Amansea, Utoko, Nibo and even the Awka Capital Territory as a result of the menace of their cattle on the farms in the area. Unfortunately, the affected communities appear to be scared of confronting the herdsmen who are often wielding sophisticated weapons while grazing on the people’s farmlands.


Herdsmen… as death merchants
So far, the much the people did was speak in hushed tones and the herdsmen seem to be ready to face anybody who dare challenge them for destroying their crops.

Apart from the destruction of farmlands, the presence of the herdsmen at Ugwuoba has created a chaotic traffic situation in the area such that the dual carriage way has been reduced to almost half of one lane due to indiscriminate parking of trailers by drivers, most of who end up there and spend days after discharging their goods in parts of Anambra and Delta states.

An indigene of Amansea, Mr. Jacob Okoli said the menace of cattle on their farmlands has forced them to move across the Amansea River to farm since the herdsmen cannot ferry the cattle across for grazing. According to him, they had previously complained to their traditional ruler over the matter, adding that although meetings were held in that regard in the past, the herdsmen had continued with the destruction of the farms.

He said: “Initially we were driving them out of our farms, but we later noticed that the herdsmen acquired guns which they hung on their backs while grazing. This development frightened our people with the result that we had to abandon our farms close to the area they have converted as their new community at Ugwuoba. “We chose to ignore them because nobody confronts somebody with gun empty handed. We had wondered how the herdsmen acquire the guns they brandish, which they use to intimidate us on our farms.

“Even our river, which is the source of our water supply, had been polluted by the herdsmen as they frequently take the cattle to river where they drink and defecate indiscriminately. In addition, the herdsmen have become a real security and social threat to our people as many girls from our community had become pregnant for the herdsmen who do not even care to marry the girls formally.”

Another community, Utoko in Awka South Local Government Area is also complaining of the menace of cattle in the area. The mainly agrarian community said the herdsmen often graze on their backyards and sometimes frightening children and women with their presence. According to John Ibeh, it is usually disturbing to see people with guns very close to your compound with cattle scattered all over the place.

However, one of the herdsmen, Mallam Aminu said they decided to be carrying guns following frequent theft of their cattle by unknown persons, adding that the theft had reduced considerably since they decided to be providing security for themselves and their cattle. He denied the allegation that the herdsmen take their cattle to farmlands to destroy crops, explaining that such a thing could only happen if they farmland was on their way to a grazing area.

Aminu said: “The people are creating the impression that we are destroying their farms. This is not true. Anytime we have the cause to pass through any farmland, we ensure that out cattle do not eat the crops until we get to our destination.”Read more

Herdsmen, Anambra communities in cat and mouse relationship .

AWKA — HERDSMEN who have set up what looks like a permanent abode at the border town of Ugwuoba close to Awka, the Anambra State capital, have become a pain in the neck for the surrounding communities of Amansea, Utoko, Nibo and even the Awka Capital Territory as a result of the menace of their cattle on the farms in the area. Unfortunately, the affected communities appear to be scared of confronting the herdsmen who are often wielding sophisticated weapons while grazing on the people’s farmlands.


Herdsmen… as death merchants
So far, the much the people did was speak in hushed tones and the herdsmen seem to be ready to face anybody who dare challenge them for destroying their crops.

Apart from the destruction of farmlands, the presence of the herdsmen at Ugwuoba has created a chaotic traffic situation in the area such that the dual carriage way has been reduced to almost half of one lane due to indiscriminate parking of trailers by drivers, most of who end up there and spend days after discharging their goods in parts of Anambra and Delta states.

An indigene of Amansea, Mr. Jacob Okoli said the menace of cattle on their farmlands has forced them to move across the Amansea River to farm since the herdsmen cannot ferry the cattle across for grazing. According to him, they had previously complained to their traditional ruler over the matter, adding that although meetings were held in that regard in the past, the herdsmen had continued with the destruction of the farms.

He said: “Initially we were driving them out of our farms, but we later noticed that the herdsmen acquired guns which they hung on their backs while grazing. This development frightened our people with the result that we had to abandon our farms close to the area they have converted as their new community at Ugwuoba. “We chose to ignore them because nobody confronts somebody with gun empty handed. We had wondered how the herdsmen acquire the guns they brandish, which they use to intimidate us on our farms.

“Even our river, which is the source of our water supply, had been polluted by the herdsmen as they frequently take the cattle to river where they drink and defecate indiscriminately. In addition, the herdsmen have become a real security and social threat to our people as many girls from our community had become pregnant for the herdsmen who do not even care to marry the girls formally.”

Another community, Utoko in Awka South Local Government Area is also complaining of the menace of cattle in the area. The mainly agrarian community said the herdsmen often graze on their backyards and sometimes frightening children and women with their presence. According to John Ibeh, it is usually disturbing to see people with guns very close to your compound with cattle scattered all over the place.

However, one of the herdsmen, Mallam Aminu said they decided to be carrying guns following frequent theft of their cattle by unknown persons, adding that the theft had reduced considerably since they decided to be providing security for themselves and their cattle. He denied the allegation that the herdsmen take their cattle to farmlands to destroy crops, explaining that such a thing could only happen if they farmland was on their way to a grazing area.

Aminu said: “The people are creating the impression that we are destroying their farms. This is not true. Anytime we have the cause to pass through any farmland, we ensure that out cattle do not eat the crops until we get to our destination.”

Senator Praises "Northern Unity" For Buhari's Victory.

A former Senator representing Zamfara Central Senatorial District in Zamfara State, Senator Saidu Dansadau has canvassed for the Northern region to be in control of Nigeria’s politics.


Dasadau who spoke to Daily Trust opined that God used President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari to unite the region so they can take charge of Nigerian politics. the politics of Nigeria.


According to Dansadau, ”Nigerians should take note of the voting trend since independence. In fact, since the 1950s, the North Central per se had never voted in the manner it did along with the other parts of the North as it did at this particular time. These are the kind of things we have been looking for a long time. Various initiatives have been put in place in order to see that northerners from wherever they are, from the 19 states, become one as far as voting is concerned.

”We are not saying 100 percent of northerners should be in one political party but that northerners should have one voice, they should decide and dictate the politics of Nigeria; like it has been before independence and even during the First Republic because of the numerical strength of the North. But of recent we became divided so we became so vulnerable. But God in His infinite wisdom and mercy used the goodwill of General Muhammadu Buhari and we have gotten the kind of unity that we have been yearning for for so long. We have realised this dream now.

”So now that we have achieved the unity we long for because of Buhari’s goodwill, it is only fair that we now make some efforts to consolidate these gains because General Buhari will not be the president for ever. So that after him, we have consolidated on this goodwill and we will be able to grow this unity, political cooperation, electoral cooperation from strength to strength so that the North will as much as possible dictate the political landscape of the country and what happens in Nigeria as it used to do”.



Reports had indicated that a brewing supremacy battle between the dominant Hausa-Fulani bloc of the incoming ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) and the South-West bloc of the party will soon snow-ball into a major crisis.

There are insinuations that Tinubu and the Yoruba APC leaders may have played into the hands of Buhari and the Northern ‘hawks’, who had never hidden their desire to capture power by all means. They are now set to scheme out the Tinubu group and ultimately incapacitate them politically.

Meanwhile, there are strong indications that the South-East geopolitical zone might be sidelined in the zoning formula of the APC as regards the position of Secretary to the Government (SGF) of the Federation because of Tinubu’s endorsement of Chief Audu Ogbeh for the position.

Anambra–based mechanic fabricates N10m dredging equipment

AWKA — THE old spare parts market at Nkpor, near the commercial city of Onitsha, has virtually turned into a Mecca of sort following the completion of a dredging machine which cost about N10 million by a motor mechanic in the area, Mr. David Ezenwa. The equipment, which took five months to complete has been transported to Aguleri water-front in Anambra East local government area where it is expected to be put to use soon, Ezenwa’s workshop at No 5 Awgbu street, Nkpor was the cynosure of all eyes as people gathered to admire the equipment because of its size and sophistication.

Materials that formed the major components of the equipment include a 12mm metallic pan, 10 inch sand sorting pump, 10 cylinders Mercedes Benz engine, self loader sand sucking pump, blaster pump which helps to soften the sand, a sand cutter, another four cylinders 608 Mercedez Benz engine for the pump, a dashboard for electrical indication and pipes that carry the sand from the water to its place of deposit.
On completion, the equipment is almost the size of a small bridge. Ezenwa, who is from Abatete in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, said his interest in fabrication started when he was young which was why he became a motor mechanic after leaving school.
He said: “I have a friend who is an engineer and is into machine fabrication and he advised me to go into equipment construction because he discovered that I am talented in the area.
On my own, I started assembling the materials after designing it. I developed interest in the dredging machine after seeing one in operation and determined that I would build it. “Despite the high cost, I picked up courage and started it in December, 2014 and completed it in May, 2015. The machine has been tested and proved to be in perfect working condition and arrangement has been completed for it to be mounted on the bank of Omambala River in Aguleri where it will be used for sand dredging.”
The dredging machine, Ezenwa said, has a pumping capacity of 300 trips of sand per day and has a discharging capacity of over 800 meters from the river bank where trucks can load the sands to various destinations. Though Ezenwa said he did not borrow money to complete the equipment, he explained that he could mass produce it if he was able to get financial assistance from government or financial institutions.
According to him, financing the project was very difficult, adding that although some people had made inquiries about the cost for me to build the machine for them, they were discouraged by the enormous cost. “All these while, many people who came to this workshop were wondering what I was doing, but I am happy that despite the initial hiccups, we have been able to complete it to the glory of God,” he said. See more

Time for Ndigbo to face and accept reality

ELECTIONS 2015, came with some realities that are difficult to be understood by many Nigerians. For example, while GEJ and his ruling People Democratic Party, PDP,may feel betrayed by many of their supporters in the North and South west of Nigeria, GMB even in his victory, would be surprised, if not shocked by the gale of defections from the ruling party to his own party, following the announcement of the March 28 results, and the godly concession of victory by GEJ.

GMB will soon realise also, that the people who can really be trusted in Nigerian politics are the Igbos, who have remained predictable in every election, since we started our walk with democracy after the civil war.

From the NPN/NPP accord in 1980s to the present day PDP, Ndigbo had voted en-block in support of the North, who has continued to exploit the suspicion between the Igbos and Yorubas on one hand, and between Ndigbo and the South -South on the other hand, to dictate the pace and beat of Nigeria politics and leadership.

You may call it divide and rule tactics, but the last elections has more than any before it, re-echoed that times have changed, the game of Nigerian politics have brought some stack realities, with it, which Ndigbo refused to accept all the while.
Some of these stack realities as unpleasant as they may appear , include first, that ethnicity, religion and greed are the three main pillars of Nigerian politics.

The North voted massively for one of theirs in an election that was manipulated badly by the umpire, INEC under the leadership of a northerner. Even, members of the ruling PDP in the North voted for one of theirs GMB, in Bauchi, Kaduna, Plateau, and Niger against GEJ who was a Christian and perceived as an Igbo man by the North.
Second, the North has remained in their fear of an Igbo man, becoming President, 45 years after the civil war, but the Igbos painfully, have failed to accept and face this reality.

Governor Rochas Okorocha,of Imo, the only Igbo APC Governor, who boasted, that GMB promised to hand over power to him come 2019, will have realised by now, that it is what APC decides as a party will happen and not any of those merry- go- round electoral promises by GMB. They are now in power, and the rest is history! That is change!

No northern President will hand over power to you as an Igbo man, when you lack any political base, because you have the organised South West and North Central to contend with, and more importantly, you were defeated in a civil war, and your existence today is by a concession owed to General Yakubu Gowon, a northerner, who apparently from recent reports, still has issues against the avowed Igbo leader, late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu.

As clear as these issues appear to be, Ndigbo will not accept, face and deal with the political reality of it all.
Third, is that no ethnic group really likes the Ndigbo in Nigeria. With every due respect, Ndigbo, to other ethnic Nigerians, appear like the proverbial house fly that has perched on the scrotum. If you hit it hard you hurt yourself, and if you leave it you bear great discomfort.

In the North they call us “Nyamiri” , which means Nyem Mmiri, “give me water” an unfortunate reminder of the pleadings of the victims of the 1966 genocide, in Kano, Kaduna and most northern states. In the South West, they call us “Aje okuta ma mu omi” meaning “people who eat stones without drinking water”, in acknowledgement of the survival spirit of the Igbo man!
No matter how long the mangrove stays under water, it can never become a crocodile. Just like the Jew will remain a stranger no matter how long he lived in Egypt, so will an Igbo man remain a visitor, no matter how long he lives in Yoruba, Tiv, Idoma, Urhobo, Ijaw, Efik, Ibibio, Igbira or Housa Land in Nigeria. Ndigbo are afraid to accept and face this reality.

Fourth,is that the feeling among Ndigbo, of betrayal by the South Southerners during the civil war has worked more to the loss of both regions than any other fact. It has remained a weak link, that has been fully exploited by the North and South west since after that war.

Elections 2015, have merged them together, reinforcing their bonds, and it is about time, they opened their eyes to the potentials in their working and walking together. A common political base among them will give them 11 solid states, and with oil as bedrock, no one will overlook them or push them around any more in this country. The questions remain;will the South East and South- south team up to stop their detractors from driving sledge hammers in between their relationships ? And who will bail the cat?

The South East, and South South can close their eyes and develop a deep sea port that will serve both regions in Bayelsa state, which has one of the deepest sea port potentials in sub-saharan Africa.
If United Arab Emirates could create a world class deep sea port from the desert in Dubai, why can’t we have same to serve the Lower Niger Area in Bayelsa? They can also muster the resources to standard rail lines and transportation systems, also, without the monthly federal allocations.

I do not yet see why the Ndigbo who refined their own oil during the war within one year, cannot wake up and build three or more refineries borrowing ideas from Singapore, that has no oil, but operate twelve refineries.
Why can’t Ndigbo close their eyes to this cursed oil money of Nigeria, and focus on reforming their agriculture, and industrial revolution, by a deliberate shift from importation to manufacturing?

Let Igbo land be the source of eggs and poultry, sheep, goats, piggery, and aquatic agriculture for the West African sub region.
We can surely do it, if we can shut our minds and doors, and call the bluff of the north, and all. Read more

My brother stole 21 phones in one month –Adebayor.

Former African Footballer of the Year Emmanuel Adebayor has launched an astonishing attack on his family, in which the Tottenham Hotspur striker accuses them of turning their backs on him, renting out property he paid for without his knowledge. In the case of his brother Rotimi, Adebayor accused him stealing mobile telephones while at a football academy in France.

In a lengthy Facebook post, the Togo international Adebayor talked about the financial burden of supporting his family but his reasons for bringing the issues light were an effort for other families to “learn from what happened in mine”, adding “keep in mind that none of this is about money.”

In the post, he has claimed he was prevented from seeing his now-deceased brother Peter who was seriously ill and was told by his mother to “just give money”. He also says that, after a 2005 meeting to resolve their family’s problems, he was told to build each member a house and to pay them a monthly wage.

“I was in Ghana when I received the news about my brother Peter being seriously ill,” Adebayor claimed. “I drove the fastest I could to Togo in order to meet him and help. When I arrived, my mother said I could not see him and I should just give the money and she would solve everything. Only God knows how much I gave her that day.

“I organised a meeting in 2005 to solve our family issues. When I asked them about their opinion, they said I should build each family member a house and give each of them a monthly wage.”

Adebayor, who played for Metz and Monaco before moving to the Premier League with first Arsenal in 2006, then on to Manchester City and Tottenham, said of his brother Rotimi, “When I was in Monaco I thought it would be good to have a family of footballers. So I made sure my brother Rotimi gets into a football academy in France. Within a few months; out of 27 players, he stole 21 phones.”

He has also claimed that his sister rented out a house he bought in Ghana for her to stay in without his permission. “A couple years ago, I bought a house in East Lagon (Ghana) for $1.2m,” claimed Adebayor. “I found it normal to let my older sister, Yabo Adebayor stay in that house. I also allowed my half brother (Daniel) to stay in the same house.

A few months later, I was on vacation and decided to go to that house. At my surprise, I saw many cars in the driveway. In fact, my sister decided to rent out the house without me knowing.

“When I called her and asked for explanation, she took about 30 minutes to abuse and insult me over the phone. I called my mother to explain the situation and she did the same as my sister. This same sister says I am ungrateful.”

Last November, Adebayor denied stories he had kicked his mother out of his house in Togo and accused people of practising witchcraft against him. He has now claimed she has turned her back on him, despite using his face in order to promote a cookie business.

“At the age of 17, with my first wages as a footballer, I built a house for my family and made sure they are safe,” he wrote. “As you all know, I have received the trophy of African Player of the Year in 2008. I also brought my mother on stage with me to thank her for everything. In that same year, I brought her to London for various medical checkups. When my daughter was born, we contacted my mum to inform her but she immediately hung up the phone and didn’t wanna know hear about it.

“Apart from all that l also gave my mother a great amount of money to start a business of cookies and different items. Naturally, I allowed them to put my name and picture on them so they can sell more. What else can a son do in his power to support his family?”Read more

8 more Nigerians face execution in Indonesia – Diaspora Group.

A GROUP, United Nigerians In Diaspora, UNID, has called on the Federal Government to prevail on the Indonesian government to stay action on its plans to execute eight more Nigerian citizens for drug related offences.

Briefing newsmen in Lagos, the group’s president, Mr. Paschal Okolie, condemned what it described as the poor attitude of the government towards the recent execution of four Nigerians in Indonesia.

His words: ”Considering that the next batch of execution will take place in no distant time in Indonesia, we urge the good people of Nigeria and our government to rise up with the entire world to stop further executions of Nigerians. Enough of the killings. Nigeria should leverage on the strong bilateral relationship it has with Indonesia and negotiate to stop the execution of the eight waiting to be killed. In as much as we totally condemn drug trafficking and wish to sensitise intending traffickers on the consequences that awaits offenders, we also condemn capital punishment especially since it has not been able to quell the issue of drug trafficking in Indonesia.”

Okolie who gave names of those awaiting further execution as, Michael Titus Igwe, Kingsley Okonkwo, Uchenna Onyewuru, Eugene Ape, Hunphery Ejike, Obinna Nwajiagu, Benjamin Onuoha and Ikenna Abanukwu, said, ”Nigerian Embassy in Indonesia is longer concerned with passport renewals than the welfare or security of Nigerians. Those Nigerians killed were not giving fair trial, there is language barrier which made it impossible for them to defend themselves properly, Nigerian embassy did not even send representatives to court to assist them, so they were left at the mercy of Indonesia which was bent on killing them.”
‘’Most times Nigerians are thrown into prisons for more than four months without anyone knowing about it. They are tortured and some even die in the process. The way a country treats her citizens, is a reflection of how the citizens will be treated in foreign lands. Therefore, we feel it is high time our government rose to the occasion to ameliorate the plight of its citizens.’’

“we expected our government to show concern just like other countries whose nationals were involved. The way a government treats its citizens, is a reflection of how the citizens are likely to be treated in foreign lands. Therefore, we feel it is high time our government rose to the occasion to ameliorate the plights of its citizens no matter the circumstance.

We use this opportunity to appeal to the youth, to beware of the kind of friendships they keep as well as activities they engage themselves. One of the reasons there are many young Nigerians in prisons in different countries of the world today, is due to get rich quick syndrome, fast track. But in the end, they lose everything including their lives.Read more

Igbos Vote Based On Their Stomach, Says Soyinka

Nobel Laureate and foremost social critic, Wole Soyinka, is of the opinion that Nigerians of Igbo extraction are the only people in the country who can be predicted accurately.


Delivering a lecture titled ‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, the revered scholar described people from that part of the country as “greedy”.
“Igbos remained unrepentant and resolute towards their strategic objective of secession at worst; or a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction at best,” he said at the lecture, which held on April 29.

“The climax of MASSOB’s war against the Nigerian state was the call for sit-ins and civil disobedience that shut down markets and public services, as Igbos stayed at home in a symbolic gesture to assert Biafran independence. The call was honoured by governors in the two principal Ibo states, though without fanfare.

“The Igbos are probably the only group of Nigerians that you can predict with great accuracy whom they will vote for in an election, because they tend to put their votes where their stomachs take them; suffering as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they would stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial gain.”

Commenting on the result of Nigeria’s presidential election, Soyinka said the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan would have been “disastrous”, as Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president-elect, is better option.
“Muhammadu Buhari was the better of the two evils as the incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan had been an unmitigated disaster and failure,” he said.

“It was a painful decision to tell people to vote Buhari, but the country needed a new beginning. I was more against Jonathan, than I was pro-Buhari.

“Nothing is more unworthy of leadership than to degrade a system by which one attains fulfillment, and this is what the nation witnessed time and time again under Jonathan, who was increasingly becoming intolerant of opposition in an escalating streak of impunity and authoritarian madness, which was most blatant and unconscionable.
“The ‘militricians’ – soldiers turned politicians in power – aren’t looking for excellence; their civilian cohorts are worse. Short cuts and how to circumvent the system for the profit of a few are the norm of governance. Those who do honest work are derided as lacking the skill to fit it. Ironically, things haven’t quite changed a bit after 16 years of democracy in the country.” Source Thecable

B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G News!!! Another Church Destroyed By Muslim Youths In Kano.

Some Muslim youths in Kano have destroyed a another House of God belonging to the Baptist

church in Gidan maso village in Rogo LGA of Kano state.

The Church was burnt down by Muslim hoodlums who were neither provoked not challenged by

elders and local religious and political leaders who monitored this destruction.
One of the Pastor's daughter who was not allowed to live the raging fire, died of

suffocation in the fumes.

This is the 6 church destroyed by Muslim youths since Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner

of the March 28, 2015 Presidential election.

About 15 of these arsonists were were arrested in connection of this attacked and locals

claimed that they have also being released to go back to their normal lives.
The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Muhammed, has promised the church members that he will

rebuild the church after assessing the damages.

In a related development, a group of Fulani gunmen, killed over 30 people in villages in

Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Other areas attacked includes Vat and Zakupang villages of Foron district, where the

Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Serah Ochekpe, hails from.

A pastor, identified as Luka Gwom, who was working with the Church of Christ in Nations

was slaughtered with some of his church members.
Over 13 Churches have been burnt by overzealous Muslim youths and Herdsmen since the

Presidential election.

Boko Haram:214 rescued girls pregnant – UNFPA

FOLLOWING—THE latest rescue of additional 234 women and children by the Nigerian Army from the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, indicated, yesterday, that a sizeable number of the rescued girls were visibly pregnant, even as unofficial reports put the latest number of pregnant girls in one of the camps in Borno as at last Saturday at 214.

Giving this indication in Lagos, Executive Director, UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, also disclosed that in the last one year, the organization had taken deliveries of over 16,000 pregnancies in the troubled North East part of the country.

Osotimehin, while giving update of the response to the rehabilitation of the rescued women and children, said the organization, in anticipation of the magnitude of the problem on hand, had put in place a formidable team in collaboration with the Federal and state governments, to first restore the dignity of the girls, who, he said, are facing severe psychosocial trauma.


On the state of the girls, he explained that most of them, due to the long period spent in captivity, required a special set of services that would facilitate their integration into society.

“What we found is that some of the women and girls that have come back actually have much more in terms of the stress they have faced, so the counselling has to be more intense and working with them one-on-one.

“I’m glad the communities are not excommunicating them and are taking them back. That is an important therapy too. We anticipate this is going to escalate because the military intervention is continuing, we find that more people are now needing our services and we will continue,” he stated.

Further, he explained that the UNFPA had earlier collaborated with the Federal and state governments to train 60 counsellors to offer psychosocial services to the affected women and children. He noted that those trained were people from the communities, who understand the context and sociology of the people.

“UNFPA is providing dignity for women. In conflict and disasters, most people would only think of water and sanitation, provision of tents and housing, and food, which are all important. But women and girls have specific needs that nobody else looks after; it is only UNFPA that is doing this. We are giving psychosocial counselling.

“Beyond that, in the growing young people, we will always have pregnant women, but nobody segregates the needs of the pregnant women which are very important and different from the needs of the average community. We look after them, and ensure they get antenatal care and that they deliver properly and that they even get Caesarean Section when necessary.See more

How the AFP trapped the Bali Nine.

WHEN Lee Rush learned in April 2005 that his son Scott was off to Bali, he felt sick.

Scott had no money, no passport - as far as his father knew - and a history of drug use. Rush phoned an old lawyer friend, Robert Myers, who voiced his worst fears: that Scott might be travelling as a paid courier to carry drugs.

The two men agreed the 19-year-old had to be stopped. Myers rang a contact in the Australian Federal Police and asked him to have Scott intercepted before he left the country, on suspicion of illegal activity. By his account, he was assured this would happen.

But the AFP took a different course. Instead, as the young Queenslander was preparing to fly out of Australia, the AFP tipped off their counterparts in the Indonesian National Police. Nine days later Rush was arrested with three other mules at Bali's Denpasar airport as they were about to return home with nearly 8kg of heroin strapped to their bodies. In September 2006 an Indonesian court sentenced Rush to death.

Yesterday, Scott Rush, now aged 24, appeared in court in Denpasar to appeal against the death sentence, which was handed down in a shock decision after prosecutors appealed against his original sentence of life in prison.

Rush's hopes for avoiding the death penalty rely heavily on letters from the AFP saying he was only a courier, not an organiser. But the AFP's belated intervention in Rush's favour may be too late. His supporters ask, if Scott Rush is sent to the firing squad, will the AFP, to quote Myers, have "his blood on their hands?"

Rush's journey from Brisbane to Bali's Kerobokan prison began in his teens when he started using cannabis and then amphetamines, ecstasy and finally heroin. He was expelled from Brisbane's Saint Laurence College in Year 10 for drug use, and pleaded guilty in the Inala Magistrates Court in 2004 to drug possession, drink-driving, theft and fraud.

Around this time, at a karaoke bar in Brisbane, Rush met a young Vietnamese-Australian, Thanh Nguyen, three years his senior. In early 2005 Nguyen offered Rush and an old school friend, Michael Czugaj, also 19, a free holiday in Bali, Czugaj later testified.

Unknown to Rush, Nguyen and his cohorts were already under investigation by the AFP. A few months earlier some of the group had travelled to Bali to organise an importation of heroin but, according to AFP intelligence, "the importation was cancelled because there was not enough money to buy the stuff." Nguyen recruited Rush for a second attempt.

Lee Rush learned of his son's trip when a travel agent phoned the family home about his flight booking on April 7, 2005, the day before Scott was due to fly out.

"This phone call made us feel absolutely sick in the stomach," Lee Rush told ABC's Australian Story in 2006. "It was a gut feeling more than anything, possibly there was some link with drugs."

His barrister friend, Myers, called a Queensland policeman he knew, Damon Patching, who was on secondment to the AFP, and asked if Rush could be stopped at the airport, on the grounds that he had prior convictions, was on bail at the time, and suspected of "being up to no good". Myers later told the Federal Court that Patching assured him it would be taken care of. But Patching testified: "My conclusion at this stage was that there was no reason for Scott Rush to be detained and that he should be allowed to leave without being disturbed. My view was that despite the concerns of Lee Rush, Scott Rush was an adult and there was no basis for detaining [him]."

On April 8, the same day Rush flew out of Australia, the AFP sent a letter to the Indonesian National Police, headed "Subject: Heroin couriers from Bali to Australia."

The letter, since tendered in evidence, set out in great detail what the AFP knew about the looming heroin importation.

Four couriers recruited by Nguyen and the accused organiser, Andrew Chan, had already left for Bali. Another three including Rush were due to leave Australia that day. They would return a week later with heroin in packs strapped to their legs and back. They had been instructed by the organisers to wear oversized clothes for concealment, avoid carrying metal so as not to set off airport detectors, and to bring back wooden carvings to declare to quarantine in order to bypass Customs. They had also been instructed not to smoke cigarettes for two weeks prior to travel as they would be unable to smoke on the return flight and the organisers didn't want them looking nervous.

The AFP letter requested the INP to attempt to keep the group under surveillance, identify the source of the drugs, and obtain as much evidence and intelligence as possible to help the AFP nail the organisers in Australia, other than Chan. The most crucial paragraph of the AFP letter advised the INP: "should they suspect that Chan and/or the couriers are in possession of drugs at the time of their departure, that they take what action they deem appropriate."

Four days later, on April 12, 2005, a second letter was sent by the AFP to their Indonesian counterparts, providing the dates, times and flight details of the group's return to Australia. Chan and four of the couriers were due to fly back to Australia on April 14, while Rush, Nguyen and Czugaj were due to fly two days later, on Saturday the 16th.

This letter, from the AFP's senior liaison officer in Bali, Paul Hunniford, advised: "If arrests are made [in Indonesia] on 14 April, it is likely that Nguyen, Czugaj and Rush will become suspicious of the arrest and decide not to attempt to board the Saturday flight with narcotics. I therefore request that you consider searching Nguyen, Czugaj and Rush soon after the first group are intercepted."

The AFP's letters sealed the fate of the Australians who became known as the Bali Nine.

"The federal police knew at the time that it was inevitable the nine of them could face the death penalty and that's the abhorrent thing about it," Myers says.

"They would have known there was a real risk that all nine of them would die, and they were prepared to sacrifice them."

He believes the AFP was trying to curry favour with the Indonesians to win their support on counter-terrorism. "And I think they felt that if they gave them nine lives the Indonesians couldn't resist their pleas for co-operation on terrorism."

As per the AFP's instructions, the Indonesian police moved in as the first group of couriers waited at Denpasar airport for their return flight to Australia. Rush, Michael Czugaj, Renae Lawrence and Martin Stephens were caught at the airport with 8kg of heroin strapped to their bodies. Four others, Nguyen, Myuran Sukumaran, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman, were arrested at a Kuta hotel. The alleged organiser, Chan, was detained without drugs after boarding a plane for Sydney.

The accused ringleaders of the group, Chan and Sukumaran, were sentenced to death in February 2006. Norman, Stephens, Czugaj, Chan and Nguyen are serving life terms while Lawrence is serving twenty years.

Rush's life term was unexpectedly replaced with a death sentence after prosecutors appealed in September 2006.

Since the Bali Nine's capture, the AFP has been widely criticised for tipping off the INP and authorising their arrest in Indonesia, rather than allowing them to return to Australia where they might have led police to the leaders of the drug ring and then faced punishment under Australian law. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has described the AFP's conduct as "outrageous", saying "If these Australians are put before a firing squad, it will be because the AFP helped to put them there."

In 2006, the Rush family took the AFP to the Federal Court, alleging police had acted negligently and without lawful authority by disclosing information to the Indonesians that led to Australian citizens facing the death penalty.

The Mutual Assistance Treaty that sets out the terms of police co-operation between Australia and Indonesia allows for assistance to be refused in cases where the death penalty may apply. The AFP's own Death Penalty Charge Guide provides that "assistance may be refused in the absence of an assurance from the requesting country that the death penalty would not be imposed". However, this applies only to cases in which charges are pending, whereas in the case of the Bali Nine, no charges had yet been laid.

As a result, Justice Paul Finn ruled that the federal police's conduct "fell squarely within the lawful functions of the AFP. Scott Rush and his colleagues were the authors of their own harm," the judge ruled.

However, Finn urged the federal government and the AFP to review the procedures followed when providing information to foreign police forces that could expose an Australian citizen to the death penalty.

On instructions from the attorney-general, the AFP guidelines on co-operation were overhauled in December last year. "It's been fixed up so the same thing can't happen again," says Myers. "I think the new guidelines are about right and had they been in place we wouldn't have three Australian citizens on death row."

Aside from the AFP's role, there are many unanswered questions about the Indonesian police's handling of their end of the Bali Nine investigation, including why they failed to identify the source of the narcotics in Indonesia, as requested by the AFP. A Thai prostitute whom Chan is said to have used as a contact has reportedly disappeared, while a major heroin trafficker suspected of supplying the drugs was shot dead in a police raid in Jakarta, according to press reports. One theory - which remains unproven - is that corrupt Indonesian police may have had a hand in the deal.

In a hearing in Denpasar yesterday, Scott Rush's lawyers argued that the imposition of the death penalty in his case is manifestly unjust. If this argument fails, his last chance to escape the firing squad will be an appeal to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has never granted clemency in a drug case.

Rush's best hope lies in a letter written by former AFP commissioner Mick Keelty before his retirement last year, which describes Rush as merely a courier. "There is no indication that Scott was an organiser or aware of the scale of the organisation behind the volume of drug importations," the letter says.

Keelty could not be reached for comment, and Scott Rush's parents, Lee and Christine, said they would make no statement while their son's appeal is before the court.