₦airaland Forum

More than 50 Nigerian soldiers sentenced to death last year by a military court have been left to fend for themselves since April, an investigative report by Premium Times says.

Some of the convicted soldiers told a reporter they had been feeding themselves, as well as providing their basic necessities, for over eight months.

The soldiers are being detained in two groups of 30 and 24 – with the latter group being held in an underground facility.

“They said we should feed ourselves,” said one of the soldiers detained at Arakan Barracks in Lagos.

“We survive by giving our ATM cards and the pins to our colleagues to help us withdraw money from our accounts which we use for our upkeep.

“We have been using our money to buy food, soap, and other things.”

The 54 soldiers, who served in 111 Special Forces, were convicted in December 2014 for conspiracy to commit mutiny and mutiny.

They were sentenced to death by a firing squad.

Femi Falana, who represented the convicted soldiers at the military court martial, confirmed the soldiers had been abandoned and insisted it was the duty of the military authorities to feed the convicts.

“They ought to have been taken to prison since February this year,” said Falana.

“They were simply abandoned because the system has collapsed. This is just one example of the many violations in the military.”

Falana said he had brought the soldiers’ plight to the attention of the military hierarchy but got no explanation.

“Once they have been condemned, there’s no longer any regard for them.”

Colonel Sani Usman, the Nigerian army spokesperson, declined to comment in detail on the matter, saying he had “no information.”

“There is no way that could be unless there was a problem, like a communication gap,” said Usman.

The condemned soldiers were found guilty of refusing to help recapture three towns that had been seized by Boko Haram in August 2014.

The soldiers said they had not received enough weapons and ammunition to take on the terrorist group.

Their death sentences came shortly after the Nigerian government moved to scrap the capital punishment moratorium in 2013 after seven execution free years.

https://www.naij.com/677143-report-nigerian-soldiers-death-row-left-without-food-since-april.html

Why the warning

Let them do what they know how to do best......shoot at unarmed civilians


I am beginning to dislike the once honorable NA

What has Buhari given to our soldiers to eat

This topic will never hit front page


Imagine a society where bloggers and social networks are controlled by the government....

This is poo of a country

Imagine imploring brutal force where diplomacy is highly needed owing to the fragile state of the nation.

Infact..........I NO LONGER HAVE CONFIDENCE IN BUHARI GOVERNMENT

Buhari pay workers their wages and stop loitering at the airports

This administration is bound to fail, from every way you look at it.

May sango with its ferocious thunder, detach Buhari's blokos should he ever attempt to remove the subsidy he opined doesn't exist

What do you expect from an economically daft Daura dictator...the mofo knows nothing pertaining economics as shown in his concocted WAEC result.

Honestly waiting for the back-stabbing Awo descendants to OCCUPY NIGERIA like they did when Jonathan partially removed petrol subsidy

Knowing how economically daft Buhari is, I am sure he will completely remove the subsidy on petrol next year

Deceiver.....

We will take you serious only when that happens

I just hate this Daura thief

The national chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, has stated that the eventual removal of fuel subsidy is inevitable.
He said the gradual removal of subsidy is necessary in view of emerging and current realities.
Mr. Odigie-Oyegun made the disclosure on Tuesday when he received a delegation of the APC National Coalition for Peace and Mobilization on a courtesy visit to him at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

He said the current administration inherited an “infected system of subsidy run by corrupt cartels”.
“In one way or the other, subsidy must go”, the APC national chairman stated at the meeting.
He said a situation where the government spends almost a trillion naira yearly on the corruption-tainted subsidy regime is unacceptable and can no longer be sustained.

According to the APC chairman, oil cartels and their cronies resisting change have continued to blackmail and sabotage government on the issue of subsidy, a development that has resulted in the lingering nationwide fuel scarcities despite serious government efforts.
He described the fuel scarcity that the country is currently grappling with as a “national disgrace”.


Mr. Odigie-Oyegun said there is need to restructure the country’s oil and gas sector which has been marred by corruption and inefficiencies.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to adjust its pricing template to reflect competitive and market driven components may not necessarily result in increase in the pump price of petrol.
He said the presidential directive to the PPPRA would‎ result in a more efficient and realistic pricing system for petroleum products and also result in constant availability of fuel.


Earlier, the group’s national president, Ahmed Saleh, said the fuel scarcities impacted negatively on the party.
“The unbearable fuel queues along filling stations are indeed avoidable. The situation is impacting negatively on the integrity of the party and this noble administration of positive change.” he said.

Mr. Saleh also called on the “total overhauling” of heads of federal government Commissions, Parastatals and Agencies.
“During electioneering campaign, the APC went around the length and breadth of Nigeria informing the citizen on the ills and mal-administration of the past regime.

“However, there is need for total overhauling and new trusted heads of commissions, parastatals and agencies to be appointed for effective, efficient and result oriented service to the Nigerian citizens.
“With this our noble observation, we believe the nation will move forward and the government will be free from administrative sabotage,” he said.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/195587-fuel-subsidy-removal-inevitable-apc-chair-oyegun.html

Prophet Fayose predicted hard times come 2016 only for unrepentant and narrow-minded APC goons to call for his head


Now another member of Buhari's cabinet has predicted/prophesized the exact things

Buhari needs the healing balm seriously

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has said that although 2015 has so far been a tough year for Nigerians, 2016 would be tougher.

Adesina, according to a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, gave the submission while featuring on an interview programme on a private radio station, Radio Continental 102.3 FM.

The presidential spokesman argued that as much as the dwindling oil price continues, things would be tougher especially in the early part of the new year.

“I agree that 2015 has been a tough year, but then it’s like 2016 would still be tougher, at least in the early part of that year. We have been running a mono-product economy based on oil, and as long as oil prices remain down, things will be tough,” he said.

Adesina however assured Nigerians that with President Muhammadu Buhari in the saddle, Nigeria is in good hands.

He recalled that things were also rough for the country as at 1983 when Buhari took over as a military Head of State.

He said things started looking up for the country after a few months before the President was ousted.

Adesina argued that Buhari can do it again.

He said there was hope after the turbulence in the country.

He therefore solicited the support of all Nigerians, irrespective of their political affiliations.

He said, “What I like to say is that Nigeria is in good hands. The times are rough, it could get rougher in the nearest future, but it would then get better.

“Don’t forget that in 1983, times were really very rough with Nigeria also. Then, there came a Head of State who began to reset the buttons, began to relay the foundations.

“And 20 months after, things were getting better, before a spanner was thrown in the works. That person, who is now the President, can do it again. I will just tell people to be patient. Rough times would come, but we will survive it.

“Tough times may be here but it will be over. There may be some turbulence, but after some time, we would begin to cruise. This President would get it right.

“We need to be patient and lend support. A number of people have decided to be critical, even when criticisms are not necessary. We are not in pre-election mode again.

“I would like to tell them that elections are over. In other parts of the world, when elections are over, they all team up and move the country forward. Let’s do the same with Nigeria.”

On the recent increase in electricity tariff, Adesina said unless the tariff was increased, there is no hope for better electricity supply in the country.

He added that Nigerians would have to trust and believe the administration that if tariff went up, things would get better.

“It has become inevitable that if things are going to get better, then tariff would have to increase. I would like to join Mr. Fashola to say, can we then trust the government, trust the minister and believe that with higher tariff, things would get better,” he said.

http://www.punchng.com/17869-2/

afanide:
Don't Worry! Very soon you shall address him as PRESIDENT..........

What do you mean

Are you guys planning something sinister against Buhari??

Am afraid the security should swoop on you

Their ugly past keeps hunting and starring at the face

Who know OSUNBADE before

The mere commissioner is a bloody nobody prior to the election and has unfortunately remained a nobody before the North

His appearance/statue is synonymous to that of a village cabinet member

Lagos environment......

Always breeding hardened hearths owing to harsh economic and living conditions

They should relocate to the east where there is serene and environment

omenka:
I love the Dedicated account for lodgement of looted funds to make it easier to evaluate their application.

The only problem is that would run afoul of the government policy on TSA.

Regardless, I have strong confidence in Baba's ability to adhere strictly to the tenets of good governance and accountability. He WILL not re-loot recovered loot like the past administrations.

Which loots are you talking about sir?

Remember Buhari has categorically stated that Abacha is as clean as the snow

Now we know why Falana didnt make the ministerial list

He would have been on collision course with the Daura urchin

Bubu said Abacha did no steal a penny and you are here telling us you have evidence of the recovered loots

Who ever still insist that Buhari is not corrupt should have his head examined

Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (S.A.N) has stated that he has a major revelation about the disputed recovered loots of former military president, Late General Sani Abacha.

Speaking on Sunrise, a morning breakfast show on Channels Television today, December 21, Falana said he has evidence that the former military dictator stole over $4billion during his time as a military president.


Giving more insight on the issue, Falana said: ‘’The Abubakar junta set up a panel of inquiry that came up with a report to the effect that the late military president, General Sani Abacha, stole about $5billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

‘’The government identified about $1billion largely removed in cash that they recovered a billion billion dollars and gazetted it.’’

Making reference to former president Olusegun Obasanjo recent book, ‘’My Watch’’ Falana said: ‘’Obasanjo stated in his book that by the time he was leaving office in May 2007, he had recovered $2billion, £100million and N10billion.

‘’When the case of the $446m theft came up, the repatriation of the recovered loot abroad under the Jonathan administration and we were told N930million has been recovered. Excluded is the $458million that had been seized by the United States government.

‘’Even madam Okojo-Iweala have now confessed that in one fell swoop, she released $22million to the then National Security Adviser, Colonel Dasuki and that $700million expected.’’

Falana also challenged the Muhammadu Buhari government to develop the political will to fight corruption, adding that all former files of corruption cases should be reopened.

He also canvassed for a dedicated account opened to lodge all recovered loots, so that according to him, ‘’we can be able to identify projects that have been completed with those funds.’’


Meanwhile, Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom recently disclosed that former president Goodluck Jonathan reportedly left N13.6 billion loot recovered from Abacha in the Nigerian treasury.



https://www.naij.com/673962-evidence-4billion-recovered-abacha-loot-femi-falana.html

Please you guys should extend the occupation to Abuja.....

Anything that will portray this government in the bad image of which it really is must be welcomed

Buhari has brought monumental shame to the country


What a world.....what a country

DeviIhimself:
my brother who are the cowards? you mean Nupes? but they are the one doing the sacking


#prayforyoruba

So you dont know the region known for exhibiting high degree of morale cowardice

I am talking about the back-stabbing oil soup addicts

Hope the cowards dont flee to Lagos to converge and verbally attack the Igbos

Seems kwara too is a no mans land

Its obvious the supermod knows nothing other than indiscriminate banning and infringing on people's right

Just look at the lame assertion he put up there

Please Iran should direct their anger and looming destruction on North and and North alone......

CAN and southerners were never part of the sunni muslims that massacred the shiites in Zaria

Northerners will be the first to call for Buhari's sack after four years

Data published by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group over the weekend showed that its West African division (Boko Haram) planned and successfully executed as many as 100 attacks in the past two months in which more than 1,000 people were killed or injured.

A site dedicated to the furtherance of terrorist propaganda and Jihadi monitoring said Boko Haram’s attacks between October 14 and December 12 involved 67 suicide attacks and 120 rockets fired.

Recall that Boko Haram had pledged allegiance to ISIS back in March 2015, and a recent study had ranked the group (Boko Haram), which began its terrorist activities in 2009, as the most deadly terror group in the world.

The study said Boko Haram killed 6,664 persons in 2014, in attack rates that have increased by 300 percent, while ISIS only managed to kill 6,073.
According to the site, the infographic published on Twitter and Telegram was obtained from different media reports on Boko Haram activity in the period under review.


http://www.theheraldng.com/boko-haram-organised-100-deadly-attacks-two-months-isis/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

Buhari is an animal-alcmene

serves gullible Nigerians right

We had Jonathan but never gave him an enabling ground to perform

Now we are all suffering from the silly mistakes of some APC change chanters

I pity the north though

Suspected Boko Haram terrorists have once again besieged the hometown of Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, to wreak havoc for the second time in space of five months, Leadership reports.

The dreaded Islamic sect had in August taken the bull by the horn by attacking Buratai’s village in Biu local government area, Borno state, killing many and destroying houses including that of a former Commissioner, Barrister Isa Buratai.

“I cannot say how many were killed in the raid by Boko Haram because we left the town while they were still on it. I saw corpses and I saw the house of our former commissioner, Isa Buratai on fire. I don’t know about the people in the house, but about two corpses were seen along the way apart from many others that we saw, ” a fleeing local, Audi Bukar, had told newsmen.

The first attack on Buratai’s village came just weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Buratai the new chief of army staff on July 13.

In a visit to Borno some months back, Boko Haram militants ambushed the convoy of the Nigeria chief of army staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai but were fought off by soldiers under his command.

The convoy was ambushed while travelling the unsafe Maiduguri-Gamboru-Ngala highway controlled until recently by Boko Haram militants.

One soldier was killed and another two wounded when the Boko Haram militants ambushed an advance team of troops moving ahead of the chief of army staff’s vehicle. However, soldiers led personally by Buratai returned fire, killing five Boko Haram members at the spot.

https://www.naij.com/672190-happening-now-boko-haram-attack-army-chief-tukur-buratais-hometown.html

I have heard many trumpet the line, Nigeria is indivisible, but tell me, what parameters make Nigeria indivisible?

I really need to know.

Boko Haram are staking their claim,

the gutful Easterners are staking their claim,

Some Afenifere freeminds(Not prisoners) are equally staking their claim.

Now tell me what is the meaning of the statement "indivisible"

Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) is a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA. Agbakoba co-founded the Civil Liberty Organisation, CLO, in Nigeria and founded Human Rights Law Services. In this interview, he spoke on the state of the nation, communication importance in government, President Muhammadu Buhari’s economy policies and others.

Excerpt:

We have seen at least 195 days of General Muhammadu Buhari as President of Nigeria, what is your view on the state of the nation?


Agbakoba
Well, it is good when you listen to perception; know what people think because action of government is to reflect what people want. When I was NBA President, I always do what I call sweeping. I will make sweeping calls to about 10 Chair persons to know what lawyers are thinking.

Perception is very important. It is for the President to pay more attention to the way people feel and that is why we need a communication strategy, such as having a Director of Communication. You find different people say different things about the President.

Some say that he does not know what he is doing and some say he is too slow. But my interest in the President is not as General Buhari as a president because I have not met him, I do not know what he does. The country is suffering what I call economic anaemia. There is no money in the system because a lot of parameters are not working. There is no investment law, competition law, which is why MTN can do what it likes.

Does this suggest that in 2016, communication should be one of the key things for effecting the change President Buhari intends to deliver to Nigerians?

I hope that the present administration will understand that in 2016, communicating their strategy should be of prime importance so as to dispel all doubts. Also, the Biafra thing is what a good communication strategist will communicate. I think this administration has not done well in communication. In abroad, what attracts people is the programme. If I look at your programme and I am able to compare, then I can make my choice.


Many Nigerians seem not to understand President Buhari’s economic policies. Looking at your good sense of economy, can you share what you know about it?

The nature of person’s ideology changes with where he is. So the natures of what countries do depend on where they are at any time. Basically, Nigeria as an emerging economy is a very poor country, typified by the fact that we are in the primmest land yet I have no water. Anyone who wants to design a programme for a poor country will take into account what the people want and what their need is. There is no template.

A group better known as the Washington Consensus came together and felt that in the context of the war between the west and east, that imposing democracy and imposing the western economy thought will keep the sovereignty away. If you understand it and do not believe it, that is too bad. But for us who are international political economist, I know that the biggest challenge we face is the west and the east, the conflict that they have had and how it has affected us.

So the first thing they will do is to bring their doctors of economy and say structural adjustment programme, which we resisted in Gani’s house in 1985 when IBB started it. We said it cannot work in a poor country. You cannot be doing structural adjustment programme when people are hungry. It may be good in the west, but here, it is difficult because people are poor. So if we agree that people are poor, then the last thing you will want to do is to inflict further harm on the people.

But I think I understand what President Buhari’s economic policy is, it has two components. It is a derivative of social regulation. Underpinning the programme, as I understood, it is social regulation, which makes provision for people who are at the bottom and trying to bring them up and at the same time leaving space for market efficiency so that the markets can run.

Social regulation means we cater for those who need government support but we will allow the Dangotes and the Otedolas space to work, then we task them to about 30 percent to 40 percent, which will be well collected. Once that is done, the money would drizzle down to assist the social regulation policy. It is a mixed economy model that I think it is what this administration want to present.

Those who feel like doing business in the country will find that they have the space but they are not going to do it like they have in America. Even in America, there have been questions on the republican model of running an economy.

What programme do you think would thrive in Nigeria today, considering the poverty rate you just mentioned?

If you have a programme, the one that is commonly referred to as market feudalism, which means asking everybody to go and the best person to sell wheat flour wins. Then you will find out that the person can drive his price up, in the exclusion of others, and make money. So market feudalism, which was Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s doctrine, failed because in the years you will see that her policies did not work.

The other one is social democracy and you will find it in Denmark, Norway and other countries. That is why they are the richest countries in the world, even if they have small population. They do social democracy where they plan for everybody. They know the need of everybody and try to meet it. I think social democracy is a better programme for Nigeria than market feudalism. Now, I go back to the challenge of not communicating effectively.

In your recent letter to President Buhari, you talked about conspiracy of the elite, can you expatiate?

The problem Obama is facing in America is that of the conspirators. Do you know that he was so frustrated in the last 3 killings and he said he was tired of sitting and being helpless as the America President whereas the gun lobby will not allow him to control guns? Who is benefitting? The last person that killed had 13 guns in the house. How can that be? Why is America unable to raid the gun supply? It is simply because people are making billions.

What is your perception of the various election tribunal judgements across the country, especially the judgement of the Taraba Governorship Tribunal?

These people who go to court have absolutely lost their senses. The reason why they are so mad is to access the money that is available in government house. Is it not the Taraba man that flew a jet and broke his leg? I am discussing the foolishness of the elite. We need to make this type of Taraba example obsolete. It should not be discussed. We need to make the quest for power to be only for those who want it.

My view is that if you give N1 million as allowance in the national assembly many will go and not return. We need to understand that the elites and elite’s structure are the ones who propose people to the tribunal. Of course, they pay lawyers to do the cases. I am tired of unravelling the conflicting decisions. You look at Taraba, you look at Kogi and somebody told me that they will end in absolute mess.

Have you seen any election that is different? It is the same complain that INEC did not bring materials on time or they did not provide enough material. Until we help Nigerians understand that they need to take up arms and begin to exercise their right, Nigeria is not going to change.

In your letter to President Buhari, you noted that many Nigerians feel alienated and disconnected. Don’t you think that is the reason for recent Biafra struggle?

The Biafra thing is not an agitation. People there are very hungry, I am from there. They have been dispossessed and abandoned by different political leaders who deceive them when they come for their votes. APC, PDP and APGA- all kinds of parties deceive them and led them to exactly where they are. The last time I was at the area, I was shocked when I drove around. I was shocked at the level of poverty and unemployment.

So when somebody who is an elite wants to manipulate them, which is what is going on now, they will fall for it. I I think the best case has been explained by Prof. Wole Soyinka. We should not say that this country is indivisible. There is nothing indivisible about Nigeria. If we cannot live together, let us go in pieces. Who is to say that it is indivisible and treason? It is not.

If you were President Buhari, how would you handle the Biafra issue?

If I were President Buhari, I will first find out what the people are agitating. When I know the problem, then I will know how to deal with it and move on. The Nigeria configuration, the Nigeria country, needs to be panel beated around again so that everybody can feel happy.

You will need to assign space and a room in a country called Nigeria. But right now, 180 million Nigerians are outside, they have no room and they can see a few Nigerians eating very well inside a room. So they wonder if it is not their own meal too. The more they eat, the more these men get angry.

The wall separating the two is so huge and the elite keep constructing it and they have reached a position where they just ignore the people and do not care about what the people say. They do what they like and say to hell with you because you will collect their money and vote for them. This is the time to deal with the elite.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/theres-nothing-indivisible-about-nigeria-agbakoba/

Effect of change

He has probably inhaled too much of bubu's stinking odor

Who no go sleep after endless trips

Buhari has unleashed untold HARD TIMES on Nigerians