₦airaland Forum

November 25, 2015



Contrary to widespread speculation, the United Kingdom Government on Wednesday clarified that only 48 Nigerians, not 500 were deported.

The British Broadcasting Corporation had reported in the morning that a plane carrying about 500 Nigerians deportees from the UK had landed at the MMIA. The reported quoted some of the deportees as saying that they were not happy to come back.

However, the NIS officials said only 48 Nigerians deportees arrived from the UK.

Nigeria had recently expressed concern over the UK’s plan to deport 29,000 Nigerians, and has insisted that due process be followed before Nigerians are removed from the UK.


Source:http://naijanewsmag.com/2015/11/uk-immigration-says-only-48-nigerians-deported-to-lagos/

Bayo Olesin

Nov 20,2015.

The Kwara State Government has denied media claims of an invasion and occupation of 16 villages in the state by a neighbouring country.
The state government, in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Alhaji Mahmud Ajeigbe, said the affected villages of Okuta district of Baruten local government area of the state are calm and still under the control of the federal government. The statement further stressed that although no foreign government has erected any structure nor hoisted their national flag in any of the villages as erroneously reported in the media, the state government has alerted the security agencies on the reports.
Ajeigbe said the Emir of Okuta, Alhaji Idris Abubakar, Chairman of Baruten Local Government Council and security agencies in the area have all confirmed that residents of the 16 villages are going about their normal activities without fear and that there is no sign of foreign security agencies or their structures in the area.

The government has therefore urged everyone to remain calm and go about their normal businesses as the Nigerian security agencies are up to the task of securing Nigeria’s borders and her people.
Also, the state police command said no single village was invaded in any part of the state.
The spokesman of the police command,ASP Ajayi Okasanmi said there was no iota of truth in some media publications on the alleged invasion of some villages in Baruten local government area of the state.
Okasanmi in a response to enquiry by our correspondent on the issue said”there is nothing like invasion of any village by foreigners in any part of Kwara state.
He,however, added that there was a boundary adjustment in the border town shortly before the last general elections and that the exercise was done peacefully.
A journalist with a federal government media who resides in Baruten also told our reporter that there was no invasion of any part of the local government by foreigners.
He said residents were going peacefully about their normal daily routines.

source:http://www.leadership.ng/news/476452/baruten-villages-in-kwara-not-under-invasion

12/11/2015 02:16 PM

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/sites/default/files/imagecache/455/theresa-may.jpg


PLEDGE: Home Secretary Theresa May

BRITAIN’S HOME Secretary has said the UK will be pledge additional aid to Africa in hopes of addressing the high levels of migration experienced this year.

Theresa May, who along with other EU leaders gathered in Malta, is pledging cash in exchange for help to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.

May said: “We want to work with African countries, the countries of origin, to ensure people don’t feel the need to make this journey to Europe.

“In the UK we are putting £200 million extra aid into Africa to help ensure we provide the circumstances there that ensure that people don’t make this journey.”

Describing the journey as ‘dangerous’, May is said to have shown concern over the number of migrants who risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean.

According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 800,000 migrants have reached Europe by sea this year, just under a quarter of them from Africa.

The EU predicts that three million more could arrive by 2017.

May’s address comes after the British government was accused of refusing to welcome a fair share of the hundreds of thousands of migrants now in the EU.

The government is said to have allocated more than £1 billion for refugee camps in nations neighbouring Syria, and offering safe haven to 20,000 vulnerable people by 2020.

Stefan Löfven, Premier of Sweden, which has accepted 160,000 refugees this year, said: “All countries have to step up and show we can do this together.”

Also emerging from the summit is an approved £1.27 billion Emergency Trust Fund for Africa that has been agreed by EU leaders in return for African initiatives assistance in reducing migration.

Source:http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/theresa-may-aid-africa-will-control-migrant-movement

Kareem Haruna, Oct 28, 2015.


Eight villagers fleeing their communities after Boko Haram terrorists’ invasion have been killed by the insurgents at a village near Maiduguri, Borno State capital, security sources said.

LEADERSHIP gathered that the incident happened at about 3pm yesterday.

The victims, according to a security source, were local Shuwa farmers who managed to escape from their community that was recently visited and taken over by some fleeing Boko Haram insurgents.

But just as they were about celebrating their escape at Jakana village which is located some 50km away from Maiduguri, the terrorists, who were riding motorcycles, arrived the outskirts of the town, rounded them up and summarily shot them dead.

The attack, according to a security officer who witnessed it all, had caused some confusing in Jakana.

The security officer, who sought anonymity, said “It was really unbelievable for all of us when we saw how they rode on bikes at a near neck breaking speed and summarily shot dead the eight villagers who were about entering Jakana.”

Source: http://leadership.ng/news/470399/boko-haram-kills-8-fleeing-villagers-in-borno

By Abbas Jimoh. Oct 28 2015.

Former Chief of Army Staff and Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Initiatives (PCNI) retired Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma has said

that the committee would on December 7 hold a national conference to evolve a national intervention plan to rebuild the terror ravaged region.

He told reporters yesterday in Abuja at a pre-conference meeting with 19 international organizations and donor agencies that the conference will adopt

a plan for use by all stakeholders including international bodies in the post-terror reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Northeast.

He added that yesterday’s meeting was to sensitize the participant of the forthcoming conference in the development of the National Plan and to also

benefit from their knowledge and experience, as well as their buy in on President Buhari’s Reconstruction Plan for the North East.

Source:http://dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/b-haram-danjuma-c-ttee-to-hold-confab-on-north-east/116820.html

By Tonye Bakare on October 26, 2015.

The Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has approved the appointment of a new Ooni of Ife.

He is Prince Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi of Giesi Ruling House of Ile-Ife, State of Osun.

The Secreatary to Osun state government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti said the choice of Ogunwusi as the Ooni follows the completion of the due process by the kingmakers and the communication of their decision to Government.

Until his appointment on Monday, Ogunwusi was non-executive director at Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Limited (a subsidiary of GTBank).

He is a graduate of Accountancy and a certified member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and of the Institute of Management.

Adeyeye is currently the Managing Director of Howard Roark Gardens Limited which is undertaking multi-million naira Jacob Mews Estate project in Yaba and the Lakeview real estate development in Lekki.

He has been involved in engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts locally and abroad for over 11 years. He was involved in the development of the Northern Foreshore Estate, Cityscape International Limited’s Buena Vista project in Lekki, Primewaterview Limited’s projects, Westcom Limited’s projects, and the Ajaokuta Steel’s and Delta Steel’s resuscitation projects.

source:http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/10/adeyeye-ogunwusi-is-the-new-ooni-of-ife/

Smh,when he's actually helping them to consolidate their 'hold' on Africa.He's simply their agent- a loyal one.

14 0ctober,2015.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday in Ibadan identified colonialism as an impediment to Africa’s progress and development.

‎Mr. Obasanjo spoke at the first edition of the International Conference of the African Studies Association of Africans which held at the University of Ibadan.

The theme of the conference was “African Studies in the 21st Century: Past, Present and Future.”

“As we are all aware, colonialism devastated and depopulated the continent through transatlantic slave trade,’’ the former president said.

‎He said that even after independence, colonial hegemony was not totally blurted out in the area of trade and economy.

‎” The ice is broken with this first step of bringing together the island of associations of African Studies dotted all over the world under one roof as ASAA,’’ Mr. Obasanjo said.

The former president said African studies should be increasingly strong in the production of knowledge on ‎Africa.

” I would like to see African studies that is truly interdisciplinary and which integrates the three branches of humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences.

Also, African studies should not be satisfied with merely contributing to the‎ accumulation of knowledge about Africa.

“Scholars should have novel priority which should slant toward indigenous-based tradition of knowledge, ” he said.

The Chairman on the occasion, ‎Akin Mabogunje, called for effective cooperation among African intellectuals.

” I wish to emphasise that the field of African studies in the 21st century can no longer ignore tropical issues of trade, migration, insurgency,’’ he said.

The President of the association, Lungisile Ntsebeza, said that the aim of the conference was to ensure that the continent becomes Africa- based.

Ntsebeza, who is of Cape Town University, South Africa, said that the objective of the association was to profound solutions to the problems and challenges facing the continent and to chart a new course for the future.

Also speaking, participants and experts at the conference said that the forum would enable them to identify more productive ways for Africa to attain real independence.

source:http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/191500-obasanjo-blames-colonialism-for-africas-underdevelopment.html

Published on Monday, 27 July 2015 04:00

Written by Ahmed Tahir Ajobe, Minna.



A clash between Fulani and Nupe youth groups on Wednesday at Kakakpangi village in Katcha Katcha area of Niger State claimed two lives, Daily Trust learnt yesterday.

The incident was said to have occurred when some Fulani youths were celebrating their
Sallah festival.
The Niger State Police Command said one person has been arrested in connection with the incident, while three motorcycles were recovered.
Police spokesman, ASP Bala Elkana, said one Ladan Idris and another unidentified youth died in the clash. He said the scuffle started when youths of Kakakpangi village tried to stop the celebration resulting in the use of dangerous weapons.
“The corpse of an unidentified Fulani youth suspected to be part of the scuffle was recovered the next day in the bush in Kakakpangi while the situation has been brought under control by a team of policemen deployed to the area”, he said.


http://dailytrust.com.ng/daily/index.php/news-menu/news/60854-2-die-in-fulani-nupe-clash-in-niger

MONACO IN TALKS WITH AWONIYI?




According to respected Nigeria online transfer guru @Muyiwalawal Flying Eagles striker Taiwo Awoniyi is in talks with French league heavy spenders Monaco about a transfer.

Awoniyi already has a re contract with Swedish outfit Kalmar but his fine form for Nigeria in the last six months has alerted other top clubs in Europe while in Africa Esperance of Tunisia failed with a bid to sign the 18 year old.

Talks are already at an advanced stage and according to @Muyiwalawal a deal looks imminent even though Nigeria is still competing at the Africa Youth Championship.

Monaco were reportedly weighing up a move for another Nigeria teen striker in Isaac Success who partnered Awoniyi in Nigeria 2-4 loss in her opening game against Brazil at the WYC but it seems they have now settled for Awoniyi.

Any deal for Success who spent the last two season on loan at Granada in the Spanish La-Liga from his parent owners Udinese in the Italian serie A will cost almost twice as much as what Monaco will pay for Awoniyi.

Credit:http://mowizsoccer..com/2015/06/monaco-in-talks-with-awoniyi.html?spref=tw

Oshoala, Nkwocha in Super Falcons 23-man world cup squad
Thirteen home-based players were included in coach Edwin Okon's 23-man list for the 2015 FIFA world cup championship in Canada.

The Super Falcons side that played a goalless draw with the host 7th edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals starting in Canada next week also includes BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year Asisat Oshoala, team captain Evelyn Nwabuoku and veteran goalkeeper Precious Dede.

Top Scorer at the 2014 African Women Championship Desire Oparanozie, defenders Onome Ebi, Josephine Chukwunonye and Ngozi Ebere, midfielder Halimatu Ayinde, veteran striker Perpetua Nkwocha and England-based Ini-Abasi Umotong are also included, as well as US –based forward Francisca Ordega.

There was no place for goalkeeper Sandra Chichi and 2012 FIFA U-17 World Cup top scorer Chinwendu Ihezuo.

Nigeria play Sweden, Australia and USA in Group D at the 7th FIFA Women’s World Cup, with their first match against Sweden in Winnipeg on Monday, 8th June.

THE FULL LIST
Goalkeepers: Precious Dede (Ibom Queens); Christy Ohiaeriaku (Rivers Angels); Ibubeleye Whyte (Rivers Angels)

Defenders: Blessing Edoho (Pelican Stars); Osinachi Ohale (Rivers Angels); Onome Ebi (FC Minsk, Belarus); Josephine Chukwunonye (Rivers Angels); Ugo Njoku (Rivers Angels); Ngozi Ebere (Rivers Angels); Sarah Nnodim (Nasarawa Amazons)

Midfielders: Evelyn Nwabuoku (BIIK Kazygurt, Kazakhstan); Halimatu Ayinde (Delta Queens); Martina Ohadugha (Rivers Angels); Cecilia Nku (Rivers Angels)

Forwards: Perpetua Nkwocha (Clemensnas IF, Sweden); Esther Sunday (FC Minsk, Belarus); Asisat Oshoala (Liverpool Ladies, England); Desire Oparanozie (En Avant Guingamp, France); Ngozi Okobi (Delta Queens); Francisca Ordega (Washington Spirit, USA); Loveth Ayila (Rivers Angels); Courtney Dike (Oklahoma State University, USA); Ini-Abasi Umotong (Portsmouth Ladies, England) NFF

kombats:
Can pls point out d Nigeria among then because we already know d Ghana(The very Dark one). I respect Ghana oooo even 4 black and white they blackness still stand out

From left to right, they are Miss Tanzania (Teresa Shayo), Miss Uganda (Rosemary Salmon), Miss Nigeria (Rosalind Balogun) and Miss Ghana (Araba Vroon).

May 26, 2015



Suspected Fulani herdsmen killed at least 23 people in central Nigeria, the latest clash in a long-running battle with farming communities in the restive region, police said Tuesday. “There was an attack by unknown gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen on three villages in Logo local government area, (Benue) state,” said police spokesman Austin Ezeani, referring to Saturday’s violence.

“As at yesterday, 23 people were (confirmed) killed,” he told pressmen. Benue is part of Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, where the mainly Christian south meets the predominately Muslim north. The Fulani, who are mostly Muslim, have been blamed for waves of attacks on largely Christian agrarian groups, with tensions high over access to land and other basic rights.

Fulani groups have accused farmers in Benue of stealing their cattle. Ezeani said the motive for the latest attack had not yet been established and that officers had been deployed to the targeted villages. “The people are still living under fear and panic but we have assured them of adequate security,” the spokesmen said.

Though often portrayed as the aggressors in central Nigeria’s sectarian strife, the Fulani receive inferior treatment under the law in Benue and neighbouring Plateau state. They are not considered indigenous to the area, meaning they have reduced access to land, education and political office, with most key positions held by members of Christian ethnic groups.

The Fulani are repeatedly accused of encroaching on farmland that belongs to so-called indigenous people but some Fulani have lived in central Nigeria for decades, or longer. The fighting has typically been cyclical, with one incident capable of sparking a series of reprisals. Ezeani said ethnic Tiv farmers in Benue had accused herdsmen of “destroying their farmlands and raping their women”. He did not say if there was any evidence to support such accusations.

Source:http://linkis.com/www.vanguardngr.com/OLctU

Congrats Asisat!

Ghana name Under-20 World Cup squad

Ghana coach Sellas Tetteh has released a list of 21 players to form his squad for the upcoming U-20 World Cup tournament in New Zealand.

Joseph Owusu Bempah, who led the team at the 2015 African Youth Championship (AFC) in Senegal earlier this year, has been included as captain.

Also in is Manchester City's Yaw Yeboah, voted the AFC's best player.

Ghana are in Group B of the 30 May to 20 June tournament, alongside Argentina, Austria and Panama.

The Black Satellites are the only African nations to have lifted the trophy.

Full squad:

Goalkeepers: Kwame Baah (Heart of Lions), Siedu Muntawakilu (Hearts of Oak), Lawrence Ati-Zigi (Red Bull Salzburg)

Defenders: Kingsley Fobi (Right to Dream), Owusu Bempah (Hearts of Oak), Joseph Aidoo (Inter Allies), Joseph Adjei (Wa All Stars), Emmanuel Ntim (Valenciennes), Patrick Asmah (BA United), Patrick Kpozo (Inter Allies)

Midfielders: Asiedu Attobrah (New Edubiase), Godfred Donsah (Calgliari), Kofi Yeboah (Wa All Stars), Prosper Kasim (Inter Allies), David Atanga (Red Bull Salzburg), Yaw Yeboah (Man City), Clifford Aboagye (Granada), Osei Barnes (Paios Ferriera)

Strikers: Benjamin Tetteh (Tudu Mighty Jets), Emmanuel Boateng (Rio Ave), Samuel Tetteh (WAFA)

FT

Flying Eagles (AlHassan, Saviour, Matthew, Usman) 4-1 Freiburg U23

THE FULL LIST



Goalkeepers: Joshua Enaholo (MFM FC); Dele Alampasu (Football College Academy); Olorunleke Ojo (Giwa FC)



Defenders: Musa Muhammed (FC Heart Academy); Mustapha Abdullahi (Spotlight FC); Zaharaddeen Bello (Dabo Babes Academy); Wilfred Ndidi (KRC Genk, Belgium); Izu Omego (Apapa Golden Stars); Chidiebere Nwakali (Manchester City, England)



Midfielders: Akinjide Idowu (Nigeria Young Academy); Ifeanyi Ifeanyi (Water FC); Kingsley Sokari (Enyimba FC); Ifeanyi Mathew (El-Kanemi Warriors); Musa Yahaya (Tottenham FC, England); Bernard Bulbwa (Esperance ST, Tunisia); Godwin Saviour (FC Sports)



Forwards: Taiwo Awoniyi (Imperial Academy); Chidera Ezeh (FC Porto, Portugal); Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City, England); Moses Simon (KAA Gent, Belgium); Success Isaac (Granada FC, Spain)

81. Many southern Africans have indigenous and pre-colonial words for ‘gun’. Scholars have generally been reluctant to investigate or explain this fact.

82. Evidence discovered in 1978 showed that East Africans were making steel for more than 1,500 years: “Assistant Professor of Anthropology Peter Schmidt and Professor of Engineering Donald H. Avery have found as long as 2,000 years ago Africans living on the western shores of Lake Victoria had produced carbon steel in preheated forced draft furnaces, a method that was technologically more sophisticated than any developed in Europe until the mid-nineteenth century.”

83. Ruins of a 300 BC astronomical observatory was found at Namoratunga in Kenya. Africans were mapping the movements of stars such as Triangulum, Aldebaran, Bellatrix, Central Orion, etcetera, as well as the moon, in order to create a lunar calendar of 354 days.

84. Autopsies and caesarean operations were routinely and effectively carried out by surgeons in pre-colonial Uganda. The surgeons routinely used antiseptics, anaesthetics and cautery iron. Commenting on a Ugandan caesarean operation that appeared in the Edinburgh Medical Journal in 1884, one author wrote: “The whole conduct of the operation … suggests a skilled long-practiced surgical team at work conducting a well-tried and familiar operation with smooth efficiency.”

85. Sudan in the mediaeval period had churches, cathedrals, monasteries and castles. Their ruins still exist today.

86. The mediaeval Nubian Kingdoms kept archives. From the site of Qasr Ibrim legal texts, documents and correspondence were discovered. An archaeologist informs us that: “On the site are preserved thousands of documents in Meroitic, Latin, Greek, Coptic, Old Nubian, Arabic and Turkish.”

87. Glass windows existed in mediaeval Sudan. Archaeologists found evidence of window glass at the Sudanese cities of Old Dongola and Hambukol.

88. Bling culture existed in the mediaeval Sudan. Archaeologists found an individual buried at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in the city of Old Dongola. He was clad in an extremely elaborate garb consisting of costly textiles of various fabrics including gold thread. At the city of Soba East, there were individuals buried in fine clothing, including items with golden thread.
Great Zimbabwe Walls
89. Style and fashion existed in mediaeval Sudan. A dignitary at Jebel Adda in the late thirteenth century AD was interned with a long coat of red and yellow patterned damask folded over his body. Underneath, he wore plain cotton trousers

of long and baggy cut. A pair of red leather slippers with turned up toes lay at the foot of the coffin. The body was wrapped in enormous pieces of gold brocaded striped silk.

90. Sudan in the ninth century AD had housing complexes with bath rooms and piped water. An archaeologist wrote that Old Dongola, the capital of Makuria, had: “a[n] … eighth to … ninth century housing complex. The houses discovered here differ in their hitherto unencountered spatial layout as well as their functional programme (water supply installation, bathroom with heating system) and interiors decorated with murals.”

91. In 619 AD, the Nubians sent a gift of a giraffe to the Persians.92. The East Coast, from Somalia to Mozambique, has ruins of well over 50 towns and cities. They flourished from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries AD.93. Chinese records of the fifteenth century AD note that Mogadishu had houses of “four or five storeys high”.

94. Gedi, near the coast of Kenya, is one of the East African ghost towns. Its ruins, dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, include the city walls, the palace, private houses, the Great Mosque, seven smaller mosques, and three pillar tombs.

95. The ruined mosque in the Kenyan city of Gedi had a water purifier made of limestone for recycling water.

96. The palace in the Kenyan city of Gedi contains evidence of piped water controlled by taps. In addition it had bathrooms and indoor toilets.

97. A visitor in 1331 AD considered the Tanzanian city of Kilwa to be of world class. He wrote that it was the “principal city on the coast the greater part of whose inhabitants are Zanj of very black complexion.” Later on he says that: “Kilwa is one of the most beautiful and well-constructed cities in the world. The whole of it is elegantly built.”

98. Bling culture existed in early Tanzania. A Portuguese chronicler of the sixteenth century wrote that: “[T]hey are finely clad in many rich garments of gold and silk and cotton, and the women as well; also with much gold and silver chains and bracelets, which they wear on their legs and arms, and many jewelled earrings in their ears”.

99. In 1961 a British archaeologist, found the ruins of Husuni Kubwa, the royal palace of the Tanzanian city of Kilwa. It had over a hundred rooms, including a reception hall, galleries, courtyards, terraces and an octagonal swimming pool.

100. In 1414 the Kenyan city of Malindi sent ambassadors to China carrying a gift that created a sensation at the Imperial Court. It was, of course, a giraffe.

76. Dr Albert Churchward, author of Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, pointed out that writing was found in one of the stone built ruins: “Lt.-Col. E. L. de Cordes … who was in South Africa for three years, informed the writer that in o

ne of the ‘Ruins’ there is a ‘stone-chamber,’ with a vast quantity of Papyri, covered with old Egyptian hieroglyphics. A Boer hunter discovered this, and a large quantity was used to light a fire with, and yet still a larger quantity remained there now.”

77. On bling culture, one seventeenth century visitor to southern African empire of Monomotapa, that ruled over this vast region, wrote that: “The people dress in various ways: at court of the Kings their grandees wear cloths of rich silk, damask, satin, gold and silk cloth; these are three widths of satin, each width four covados [2.64m], each sewn to the next, sometimes with gold lace in between, trimmed on two sides, like a carpet, with a gold and silk fringe, sewn in place with a two fingers’ wide ribbon, woven with gold roses on silk.”

78. Southern Africans mined gold on an epic scale. One modern writer tells us that: “The estimated amount of gold ore mined from the entire region by the ancients was staggering, exceeding 43 million tons. The ore yielded nearly 700 tons of pure gold which today would be valued at over $­­­­­­7.5 billion.”

79. Apparently the Monomotapan royal palace at Mount Fura had chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. An eighteenth century geography book provided the following data: “The inside consists of a great variety of sumptuous apartments, spacious and lofty halls, all adorned with a magnificent cotton tapestry, the manufacture of the country. The floors, cielings [sic], beams and rafters are all either gilt or plated with gold curiously wrought, as are also the chairs of state, tables, benches &c. The candle-sticks and branches are made of ivory inlaid with gold, and hang from the cieling by chains of the same metal, or of silver gilt.”

80. Monomotapa had a social welfare system. Antonio Bocarro, a Portuguese contemporary, informs us that the Emperor: “shows great charity to the blind and maimed, for these are called the king’s poor, and have land and revenues for their subsistence, and when they wish to pass through the kingdoms, wherever they come food and drinks are given to them at the public cost as long as they remain there, and when they leave that place to go to another they are provided with what is necessary for their journey, and a guide, and some one to carry their wallet to the next village. In every place where they come there is the same obligation.”

71. Lalibela is not the only place in Ethiopia to have such wonders. A cotemporary archaeologist reports research that was conducted in the region in the early 1970’s when: “startling numbers of churches built in caves or partially or completely cut from the living rock were revealed not only in Tigre and Lalibela but as far south as Addis Ababa. Soon at least 1,500 were known. At least as many more probably await revelation.”

72. In 1209 AD Emperor Lalibela of Ethiopia sent an embassy to Cairo bringing the sultan unusual gifts including an elephant, a hyena, a zebra, and a giraffe.

73. In Southern Africa, there are at least 600 stone built ruins in the regions of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. These ruins are called Mazimbabwe in Shona, the Bantu language of the builders, and means great revered house and “signifies court”.

74. The Great Zimbabwe was the largest of these ruins. It consists of 12 clusters of buildings, spread over 3 square miles. Its outer walls were made from 100,000 tons of granite bricks. In the fourteenth century, the city housed 18,000 people, comparable in size to that of London of the same period.

75. Bling culture existed in this region. At the time of our last visit, the Horniman Museum in London had exhibits of headrests with the caption: “Headrests have been used in Africa since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. Remains of some headrests, once covered in gold foil, have been found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and burial sites like Mapungubwe dating to the twelfth century after Christ.”

68. The Ethiopian script of the 4th century AD influenced the writing script of Armenia. A Russian historian noted that: “Soon after its creation, the Ethiopic vocalised script began to influence the scripts of Armenia and Georgia. D. A. Olderogge suggested that Mesrop Mashtotz used the vocalised Ethiopic script when he invented the Armenian alphabet.”

69. “In the first half of the first millennium CE,” says a modern scholar, Ethiopia “was ranked as one of the world’s greatest empires”. A Persian cleric of the third century AD identified it as the third most important state in the world after Persia and Rome.

70. Ethiopia has 11 underground mediaeval churches built by being carved out of the ground. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD, Roha became the new capital of the Ethiopians. Conceived as a New Jerusalem by its founder, Emperor Lalibela (c.1150-1230), it contains 11 churches, all carved out of the rock of the mountains by hammer and chisel. All of the temples werecarved to a depth of 11 metres or so below ground level. The largest is the House of the Redeemer, a staggering 33.7 metres long, 23.7 metres wide and 11.5 metres deep.

62. The Nigerian city of Surame flourished in the sixteenth century. Even in ruin it was an impressive sight, built on a horizontal vertical grid. A modern scholar describes it thus: “The walls of Surame are about 10 miles in circumference and include many large bastions or walled suburbs running out at right angles to the main wall. The large compound at Kanta is still visible in the centre, with ruins of many buildings, one of which is said to have been two-storied. The striking feature of the walls and whole ruins is the extensive use of stone and tsokuwa (laterite gravel) or very hard red building mud, evidently brought from a distance. There is a big mound of this near the north gate about 8 feet in height. The walls show regular courses of masonry to a height of 20 feet and more in several places. The best preserved portion is that known as sirati (the bridge) a little north of the eastern gate … The main city walls here appear to have provided a very strongly guarded entrance about 30 feet wide.’

63. The Nigerian city of Kano in 1851 produced an estimated 10 million pairs of sandals and 5 million hides each year for export.

64. In 1246 AD Dunama II of Kanem-Borno exchanged embassies with Al-Mustansir, the king of Tunis. He sent the North African court a costly present, which apparently included a giraffe. An old chronicle noted that the rare animal “created a sensation in Tunis”.

65. By the third century BC the city of Carthage on the coast of Tunisia was opulent and impressive. It had a population of 700,000 and may even have approached a million. Lining both sides of three streets were rows of tall houses six storeys high.

66. The Ethiopian city of Axum has a series of 7 giant obelisks that date from perhaps 300 BC to 300 AD. They have details carved into them that represent windows and doorways of several storeys. The largest obelisk, now fallen, is in fact “the largest monolith ever made anywhere in the world”. It is 108 feet long, weighs a staggering 500 tons, and represents a thirteen-storey building.

67. Ethiopia minted its own coins over 1,500 years ago. One scholar wrote that: “Almost no other contemporary state anywhere in the world could issue in gold, a statement of sovereignty achieved only by Rome, Persia, and the Kushan kingdom in northern India at the time.''

58. In Nigeria, the royal palace in the city of Kano dates back to the fifteenth century. Begun by Muhammad Rumfa (ruled 1463-99) it has gradually evolved over generations into a very imposing complex. A colonial report of the city from 1902, described it as “a network of buildings covering an area of 33 acres and surrounded by a wall 20 to 30 feet high outside and 15 feet inside … in itself no mean citadel”.

59. A sixteenth century traveller visited the central African civilisation of Kanem-Borno and commented that the emperor’s cavalry had golden “stirrups, spurs, bits and buckles.” Even the ruler’s dogs had “chains of the finest gold”.

60. One of the government positions in mediaeval Kanem-Borno was Astronomer Royal.

61. Ngazargamu, the capital city of Kanem-Borno, became one of the largest cities in the seventeenth century world. By 1658 AD, the metropolis, according to an architectural scholar housed “about quarter of a million people”. It had 660 streets. Many were wide and unbending, reflective of town planning.

54. In the mid-nineteenth century, William Clarke, an English visitor to Nigeria, remarked that: “As good an article of cloth can be woven by the Yoruba weavers as by any people … in durability, their cloths far excel the prints and home-spuns of Manchester.

55. The recently discovered 9th century Nigerian city of Eredo was found to be surrounded by a wall that was 100 miles long and seventy feet high in places. The internal area was a staggering 400 square miles.

56. On the subject of cloth, Kongolese textiles were also distinguished. Various European writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wrote of the delicate crafts of the peoples living in eastern Kongo and adjacent regions who manufactured damasks, sarcenets, satins, taffeta, cloth of tissue and velvet. Professor DeGraft-Johnson made the curious observation that: “Their brocades, both high and low, were far more valuable than the Italian.”

57. On Kongolese metallurgy of the Middle Ages, one modern scholar wrote that: “There is no doubting … the existence of an expert metallurgical art in the ancient Kongo … The Bakongo were aware of the toxicity of lead vapours. They devised preventative and curative methods, both pharmacological (massive doses of pawpaw and palm oil) and mechanical (exerting of pressure to free the digestive tract), for combating lead poisoning.”

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Many people have a misconception that Africa has no history, however, studies into history and archeological records has proven that Africa has more rich and great history than what the old historians tried to make us believe. A careful reading of the information below compiled by Dr Robin Walkin makes it abundantly clear that African has an unequal history in the world.

1. The human race is of African origin. The oldest known skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans (or homo sapiens) were excavated at sites in East Africa. Human remains were discovered at Omo in Ethiopia that were dated at 195,000 years old, the oldest known in the world.

2. Skeletons of pre-humans have been found in Africa that date back between 4 and 5 million years. The oldest known ancestral type of humanity is thought to have been the australopithecus ramidus, who lived at least 4.4 million years ago.

3. Africans were the first to organise fishing expeditions 90,000 years ago. At Katanda, a region in northeastern Zaïre (now Congo), was recovered a finely wrought series of harpoon points, all elaborately polished and barbed. Also uncovered was a tool, equally well crafted, believed to be a dagger. The discoveries suggested the existence of an early aquatic or fishing based culture.

4. Africans were the first to engage in mining 43,000 years ago. In 1964 a hematite mine was found in Swaziland at Bomvu Ridge in the Ngwenya mountain range. Ultimately 300,000 artefacts were recovered including thousands of stone-made mining tools. Adrian Boshier, one of the archaeologists on the site, dated the mine to a staggering 43,200 years old.

5. Africans pioneered basic arithmetic 25,000 years ago. The Ishango bone is a tool handle with notches carved into it found in the Ishango region of Zaïre (now called Congo) near Lake Edward. The bone tool was originally thought to have been over 8,000 years old, but a more sensitive recent dating has given dates of 25,000 years old. On the tool are 3 rows of notches. Row 1 shows three notches carved next to six, four carved next to eight, ten carved next to two fives and finally a seven. The 3 and 6, 4 and 8, and 10 and 5, represent the process of doubling. Row 2 shows eleven notches carved next to twenty-one notches, and nineteen notches carved next to nine notches. This represents 10 + 1, 20 + 1, 20 – 1 and 10 – 1. Finally, Row 3 shows eleven notches, thirteen notches, seventeen notches and nineteen notches. 11, 13, 17 and 19 are the prime numbers between 10 and 20.

6. Africans cultivated crops 12,000 years ago, the first known advances in agriculture. Professor Fred Wendorf discovered that people in Egypt’s Western Desert cultivated crops of barley, capers, chick-peas, dates, legumes, lentils and wheat. Their ancient tools were also recovered. There were grindstones, milling stones, cutting blades, hide scrapers, engraving burins, and mortars and pestles.

7. Africans mummified their dead 9,000 years ago. A mummified infant was found under the Uan Muhuggiag rock shelter in south western Libya. The infant was buried in the foetal position and was mummified using a very sophisticated technique that must have taken hundreds of years to evolve. The technique predates the earliest mummies known in Ancient Egypt by at least 1,000 years. Carbon dating is controversial but the mummy may date from 7438 (±220) BC.

8. Africans carved the world’s first colossal sculpture 7,000 or more years ago. The Great Sphinx of Giza was fashioned with the head of a man combined with the body of a lion. A key and important question raised by this monument was: How old is it? In October 1991 Professor Robert Schoch, a geologist from Boston University, demonstrated that the Sphinx was sculpted between 5000 BC and 7000 BC, dates that he considered conservative.

9. On the 1 March 1979, the New York Times carried an article on its front page also page sixteen that was entitled Nubian Monarchy called Oldest. In this article we were assured that: “Evidence of the oldest recognizable monarchy in human history, preceding the rise of the earliest Egyptian kings by several generations, has been discovered in artifacts from ancient Nubia” (i.e. the territory of the northern Sudan and the southern portion of modern Egypt.)

10. The ancient Egyptians had the same type of tropically adapted skeletal proportions as modern Black Africans. A 2003 paper appeared in American Journal of Physical Anthropology by Dr Sonia Zakrzewski entitled Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions where she states that: “The raw values in Table 6 suggest that Egyptians had the ‘super-Negroid’ body plan described by Robins (1983). The values for the brachial and crural indices show that the distal segments of each limb are longer relative to the proximal segments than in many ‘African’ populations.”

11. The ancient Egyptians had Afro combs. One writer tells us that the Egyptians “manufactured a very striking range of combs in ivory: the shape of these is distinctly African and is like the combs used even today by Africans and those of African descent.”

12. The Funerary Complex in the ancient Egyptian city of Saqqara is the oldest building that tourists regularly visit today. An outer wall, now mostly in ruins, surrounded the whole structure. Through the entrance are a series of columns, the first stone-built columns known to historians. The North House also has ornamental columns built into the walls that have papyrus-like capitals. Also inside the complex is the Ceremonial Court, made of limestone blocks that have been quarried and then shaped. In the centre of the complex is the Step Pyramid, the first of 90 Egyptian pyramids.

13. The first Great Pyramid of Giza, the most extraordinary building in history, was a staggering 481 feet tall – the equivalent of a 40-storey building. It was made of 2.3 million blocks of limestone and granite, some weighing 100 tons.

14. The ancient Egyptian city of Kahun was the world’s first planned city. Rectangular and walled, the city was divided into two parts. One part housed the wealthier inhabitants – the scribes, officials and foremen. The other part housed the ordinary people. The streets of the western section in particular, were straight, laid out on a grid, and crossed each other at right angles. A stone gutter, over half a metre wide, ran down the centre of every street.

15. Egyptian mansions were discovered in Kahun – each boasting 70 rooms, divided into four sections or quarters. There was a master’s quarter, quarters for women and servants, quarters for offices and finally, quarters for granaries, each facing a central courtyard. The master’s quarters had an open court with a stone water tank for bathing. Surrounding this was a colonnade.

16 The Labyrinth in the Egyptian city of Hawara with its massive layout, multiple courtyards, chambers and halls, was the very largest building in antiquity. Boasting three thousand rooms, 1,500 of them were above ground and the other 1,500 were underground.

17. Toilets and sewerage systems existed in ancient Egypt. One of the pharaohs built a city now known as Amarna. An American urban planner noted that: “Great importance was attached to cleanliness in Amarna as in other Egyptian cities. Toilets and sewers were in use to dispose waste. Soap was made for washing the body.Perfumes and essences were popular against body odour. A solution of natron was used to keep insects from houses … Amarna may have been the first planned ‘garden city’.”

18. Sudan has more pyramids than any other country on earth – even more than Egypt. There are at least 223 pyramids in the Sudanese cities of Al Kurru, Nuri, Gebel Barkal and Meroë. They are generally 20 to 30 metres high and steep sided.

19. The Sudanese city of Meroë is rich in surviving monuments. Becoming the capital of the Kushite Empire between 590 BC until AD 350, there are 84 pyramids in this city alone, many built with their own miniature temple. In addition, there are ruins of a bath house sharing affinities with those of the Romans. Its central feature is a large pool approached by a flight of steps with waterspouts decorated with lion heads.

20. Bling culture has a long and interesting history. Gold was used to decorate ancient Sudanese temples. One writer reported that: “Recent excavations at Meroe and Mussawwarat es-Sufra revealed temples with walls and statues covered with gold leaf”.

21. In around 300 BC, the Sudanese invented a writing script that had twenty-three letters of which four were vowels and there was also a word divider. Hundreds of ancient texts have survived that were in this script. Some are on display in the British Museum.

22. In central Nigeria, West Africa’s oldest civilisation flourished between 1000 BC and 300 BC. Discovered in 1928, the ancient culture was called the Nok Civilisation, named after the village in which the early artefacts were discovered. Two modern scholars, declare that “[a]fter calibration, the period of Nok art spans from 1000 BC until 300 BC”. The site itself is much older going back as early as 4580 or 4290 BC.

23. West Africans built in stone by 1100 BC. In the Tichitt-Walata region of Mauritania, archaeologists have found “large stone masonry villages” that date back to 1100 BC. The villages consisted of roughly circular compounds connected by “well-defined streets”.

24. By 250 BC, the foundations of West Africa’s oldest cities were established such as Old Djenné in Mali.

25. Kumbi Saleh, the capital of Ancient Ghana, flourished from 300 to 1240 AD. Located in modern day Mauritania, archaeological excavations have revealed houses, almost habitable today, for want of renovation and several storeys high. They had underground rooms, staircases and connecting halls. Some had nine rooms. One part of the city alone is estimated to have housed 30,000 people.

26. West Africa had walled towns and cities in the pre-colonial period. Winwood Reade, an English historian visited West Africa in the nineteenth century and commented that: “There are … thousands of large walled cities resembling those of Europe in the Middle Ages, or of ancient Greece.”

27. Lord Lugard, an English official, estimated in 1904 that there were 170 walled towns still in existence in the whole of just the Kano province of northern Nigeria.

28. Cheques are not quite as new an invention as we were led to believe. In the tenth century, an Arab geographer, Ibn Haukal, visited a fringe region of Ancient Ghana. Writing in 951 AD, he told of a cheque for 42,000 golden dinars written to a merchant in the city of Audoghast by his partner in Sidjilmessa.

29. Ibn Haukal, writing in 951 AD, informs us that the King of Ghana was “the richest king on the face of the earth” whose pre-eminence was due to the quantity of gold nuggets that had been amassed by the himself and by his predecessors.

30. The Nigerian city of Ile-Ife was paved in 1000 AD on the orders of a female ruler with decorations that originated in Ancient America. Naturally, no-one wants to explain how this took place approximately 500 years before the time of Christopher Columbus!

31. West Africa had bling culture in 1067 AD. One source mentions that when the Emperor of Ghana gives audience to his people: “he sits in a pavilion around which stand his horses caparisoned in cloth of gold: behind him stand ten pages holding shields and gold-mounted swords: and on his right hand are the sons of the princes of his empire, splendidly clad and with gold plaited into their hair … The gate of the chamber is guarded by dogs of an excellent breed … they wear collars of gold and silver.”

32. Glass windows existed at that time. The residence of the Ghanaian Emperor in 1116 AD was: “A well-built castle, thoroughly fortified, decorated inside with sculptures and pictures, and having glass windows.”

33. The Grand Mosque in the Malian city of Djenné, described as “the largest adobe [clay] building in the world”, was first raised in 1204 AD. It was built on a square plan where each side is 56 metres in length. It has three large towers on one side, each with projecting wooden buttresses.

34. One of the great achievements of the Yoruba was their urban culture. “By the year A.D. 1300,” says a modern scholar, “the Yoruba people built numerous walled cities surrounded by farms”. The cities were Owu, Oyo, Ijebu, Ijesa, Ketu, Popo, Egba, Sabe, Dassa, Egbado, Igbomina, the sixteen Ekiti principalities, Owo and Ondo.

35. Yoruba metal art of the mediaeval period was of world class. One scholar wrote that Yoruba art “would stand comparison with anything which Ancient Egypt, Classical Greece and Rome, or Renaissance Europe had to offer.”

36. In the Malian city of Gao stands the Mausoleum of Askia the Great, a weird sixteenth century edifice that resembles a step pyramid.

37. Thousands of mediaeval tumuli have been found across West Africa. Nearly 7,000 were discovered in north-west Senegal alone spread over nearly 1,500 sites. They were probably built between 1000 and 1300 AD.

38. Excavations at the Malian city of Gao carried out by Cambridge University revealed glass windows. One of the finds was entitled: “Fragments of alabaster window surrounds and a piece of pink window glass, Gao 10th – 14th century.”

39. In 1999 the BBC produced a television series entitled Millennium. The programme devoted to the fourteenth century opens with the following disclosure: “In the fourteenth century, the century of the scythe, natural disasters threatened civilisations with extinction. The Black Death kills more people in Europe, Asia and North Africa than any catastrophe has before. Civilisations which avoid the plague thrive. In West Africa the Empire of Mali becomes the richest in the world.”

40. Malian sailors got to America in 1311 AD, 181 years before Columbus. An Egyptian scholar, Ibn Fadl Al-Umari, published on this sometime around 1342. In the tenth chapter of his book, there is an account of two large maritime voyages ordered by the predecessor of Mansa Musa, a king who inherited the Malian throne in 1312. This mariner king is not named by Al-Umari, but modern writers identify him as Mansa Abubakari II.

41. On a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 AD, a Malian ruler, Mansa Musa, brought so much money with him that his visit resulted in the collapse of gold prices in Egypt and Arabia. It took twelve years for the economies of the region to normalise.

42. West African gold mining took place on a vast scale. One modern writer said that: “It is estimated that the total amount of gold mined in West Africa up to 1500 was 3,500 tons, worth more than $­­­­30 billion in today’s market.”

42. West African gold mining took place on a vast scale. One modern writer said that: “It is estimated that the total amount of gold mined in West Africa up to 1500 was 3,500 tons, worth more than $­­­­30 billion in today’s market.”

43. The old Malian capital of Niani had a 14th century building called the Hall of Audience. It was an surmounted by a dome, adorned with arabesques of striking colours. The windows of an upper floor were plated with wood and framed in silver; those of a lower floor were plated with wood, framed in gold.

44. Mali in the 14th century was highly urbanised. Sergio Domian, an Italian art and architecture scholar, wrote the following about this period: “Thus was laid the foundation of an urban civilisation. At the height of its power, Mali had at least 400 cities, and the interior of the Niger Delta was very densely populated”.

45. The Malian city of Timbuktu had a 14th century population of 115,000 – 5 times larger than mediaeval London. Mansa Musa, built the Djinguerebere Mosque in the fourteenth century. There was the University Mosque in which 25,000 students studied and the Oratory of Sidi Yayia. There were over 150 Koran schools in which 20,000 children were instructed. London, by contrast, had a total 14th century population of 20,000 people.

46. National Geographic recently described Timbuktu as the Paris of the mediaeval world, on account of its intellectual culture. According to Professor Henry Louis Gates, 25,000 university students studied there.

46. National Geographic recently described Timbuktu as the Paris of the mediaeval world, on account of its intellectual culture. According to Professor Henry Louis Gates, 25,000 university students studied there.

47. Many old West African families have private library collections that go back hundreds of years. The Mauritanian cities of Chinguetti and Oudane have a total of 3,450 hand written mediaeval books. There may be another 6,000 books still surviving in the other city of Walata. Some date back to the 8th century AD. There are 11,000 books in private collections in Niger. Finally, in Timbuktu, Mali, there are about 700,000 surviving books.

48. A collection of one thousand six hundred books was considered a small library for a West African scholar of the 16th century. Professor Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu is recorded as saying that he had the smallest library of any of his friends – he had only 1600 volumes.

49. Concerning these old manuscripts, Michael Palin, in his TV series Sahara, said the imam of Timbuktu “has a collection of scientific texts that clearly show the planets circling the sun. They date back hundreds of years … Its convincing evidence that the scholars of Timbuktu knew a lot more than their counterparts in Europe. In the fifteenth century in Timbuktu the mathematicians knew about the rotation of the planets, knew about the details of the eclipse, they knew things which we had to wait for 150 almost 200 years to know in Europe when Galileo and Copernicus came up with these same calculations and were given a very hard time for it.”

50. The Songhai Empire of 16th century West Africa had a government position called Minister for Etiquette and Protocol.

51. The mediaeval Nigerian city of Benin was built to “a scale comparable with the Great Wall of China”. There was a vast system of defensive walling totalling 10,000 miles in all. Even before the full extent of the city walling had become apparent the Guinness Book of Records carried an entry in the 1974 edition that described the city as: “The largest earthworks in the world carried out prior to the mechanical era.”

52. Benin art of the Middle Ages was of the highest quality. An official of the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde once stated that: “These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Cellini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him … Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”

53. Winwood Reade described his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace of Kumasi in 1874: “We went to the king’s palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandahs, and having two gates or doors, so that each yard was a thoroughfare …But the part of the palace fronting the street was a stone house, Moorish in its style … with a flat roof and a parapet, and suites of apartments on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silver plate, old furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster carpets, pictures and engravings, numberless chests and coffers. A sword bearing the inscription From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of the Times, 17 October 1843. With these were many specimens of Moorish and Ashanti handicraft.”

Feb 11,2015

Members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly are set to commence impeachment proceedings against Governor Martin Elechi, sources in Abakalili, the state capital, informed PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday.

PREMIUM TIMES also gathered that lawmakers loyal to the state deputy governor, Dave Umahi, are hatching the plot and they are presently locked in a meeting at the residence of the Speaker, Chukwuma Nwazunku.

“That is what they normally do these days, they first gather at the residence of the speaker, take a decision and drive in convoy to the Assembly complex,” said a source that preferred anonymity because he was not permitted to speak on the matter.

Mr. Umahi has been engaged in a political battle with his principal, Governor Elechi, since the PDP primary election last year.

The governor supported former Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, to replace him, but Mr. Umahi defeated Mr. Chukwu reportedly with the support of first lady, Patience Jonathan.

A fallout of the primary forced some lawmakers loyal to Mr. Elechi to defect to the Labour Party.

Another insider with knowledge of the impeachment plot, Wednesday, said members loyal to the Deputy Governor have perfected plans to first of all declare the seat of members who defected to the Labour Party vacant.

Among those who defected to LP include the Deputy Speaker, Blaise Orji.

We also gathered that a large consignment of Police Officers had cordoned off the House of Assembly complex along Nkaliki road preparatory to the sitting.

An armored personal carrier was also stationed in front of the complex.

Meanwhile, the defected lawmakers are also said to be meeting at a different location and will address a press conference any moment from now.

A member of the Assembly who spoke to our reporter in confidence said the planned action to declare the seats of the members vacant will be subjudice because a suit relating to the defection and matters that followed is already before a court.

“They defected because there was crisis in the PDP and moreover they have gone to an Abuja High court to determine if there was crisis in the PDP in the state”.

“The constitution provides for legislators to defect if there is a crisis in their party, so any move to declare their seats vacant will be subjudice and contempt of court,” he said.

The PDP in the state imploded following the acrimonious primaries it conducted last year leading to over 70 per cent of the members of the party defecting to the Labour Party.

Among those who defected apart from the lawmakers include, Local government Chairpersons, Commissioners, Development Centre Coordinators and many other top government officials.

Source:http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-east/176616-ebonyi-assembly-set-commence-impeachment-proceedings-governor-elechi.html

Feb 11,2015

A human rights activist, lawyer and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Titiloye Charles, filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court, Akure, the Ondo state capital, over the postponement of Nigeria’s general elections. The defendants in the case are the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, and INEC.

The elections, which were originally scheduled for February, have been moved to March and April.

In a statement sent to a correspondent of SaharaReporters in Akure, the plaintiff disclosed that he was asking the court to declare the INEC chairman’s decision to postpone the general elections from February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11 respectively as null, void and unconstitutional.

Mr. Charles further urged the court to declare that Mr. Jega compromised INEC’s independence and neutrality by acting and relying on a letter from the National Security Advisor, Sambo Dasuki, who is a political appointee and aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mr. Dasuki, a retired military officer, had proposed the postponement of the elections.

The lawyer said he would want the Federal High Court to interpret section 26 (1) of the Electoral Act and declare that INEC can only postpone election in areas where it is impossible to hold election based on a security situation that is cogent and verifiable.

He maintained that Mr. Jega and INEC wrongfully interpreted and relied on this section to postpone elections throughout Nigeria when only 14 local governments in the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa were affected by the alleged unfavorable security situation.

The activist asked the court to declare that INEC is duty bound to verify and ascertain all allegations of security breaches or unsuitability of conduct of election before postponing elections in any part of Nigeria, instead of merely relying on letters or correspondence from persons or authorities that are not under its supervision and control.

He urged the Federal High Court to perpetually restrain all the defendants, jointly and severally, from further relying on unverified correspondence written by persons and authorities outside INEC. He also asked the court to restrain the electoral commission and its officials from taking any other steps unknown to Nigeria’s Electoral Act or constitution.

Mr. Charles argued in his statement of claim that the monitoring of elections is the constitutional duty of the police, the Directorate of Security Services and Civil Defense, adding that these agencies have structures throughout Nigeria and are always available to undertake security tasks in Nigeria irrespective of military operation taking place in 14 local government areas in northeastern Nigeria.

He argued that, based on section 26 (1) of the Electoral Act, Mr. Jega and INEC can only postpone elections in the affected local governments and not the entire country, adding that the local governments embroiled in Islamist violence in the northeast of Nigeria were not up to 3 percent of the country.

Source: http:///13hwQf

Feb 10,2015

Suspected members of Boko Haram kidnapped 20 people from a bus in northern Cameroon, then executed 12 of them, a security source and resident said Monday.

The kidnapping occurred on Sunday and all of the survivors have since been released, said a resident, on condition of anonymity, whose wife was among those abducted. An official from a local NGO also confirmed the incident.

According to the security source, who is based in the region, the victims were travelling in a bus stormed by alleged Boko Haram members.

“The bus was coming from Koza and was travelling to Mora,” the source said, referring to two towns in the country’s extreme north near the Nigerian border.


Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/boko-haram-kidnaps-20-people-cameroon-executes-12/

Jan 24,2015


Nigeria international defender Azubuike Egwuekwe has joined Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv.

The lanky defender signed with the Israeli club on Friday after having completed his medical tests.

Egwuekwe only arrived in Israel on Friday to join the Red Demons for an undisclosed fee.

“Nigerian Egwuekwe Azubuike landed in Israel and signed after passing medical tests earlier this week,” the official website of Hapoel Tel Aviv announced with an accompanying picture of Egwuekwe in the club shirt.

Egwuekwe, who made his international debut for Nigeria in 2012, and has appeared in FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.He was called up to Nigeria’s 23-man squad for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.

He was selected for Nigeria’s squad at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. He was named to Nigeria’s squad for the 2014 African Nations Championship.

Egwuekwe has been assigned the squad number three jersey by the Tel Aviv club.

Source:http://footballlive.ng/footballnews/9ja-news/transferegwuekwe-joins-hapoel-tel-aviv/

The Presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari, has promised to restructure the Nigeria Army and Police, if elected.

Mr. Buhari made the promise on Thursday in Gusau at the inauguration of his campaign.

He said that his plan, if materialised, would boost the efforts of the two security institutions to battle insurgency with renewed vigour.

Mr. Buhari said that the need to restructure the army and police became necessary because the enemies had become more and highly sophisticated in the use of weapons.

“Our Army and Police will be highly equipped with all the required weapons, educated and uneducated youths will be employed through different programmes that will be created by our administration.

“We will rebuild our educational system and employ youths not on sentiment and god-fatherism.

We will as well find ways of restrengthening the country’s economy,” he said.

He called on the youth to remain vigilant but maintain peace during and after the elections so as to ensure free, fair and credible elections in the country.

The chieftains of the party, including its National Chairman, John Oyegun, and Yemi Osinbajo, Mr. Buhari’s running mate, attended the occasion.

Others were Kawu Baraje, Zamfara Governor Abdul’aziz Yari of Zamfara, and Senator representing Zamfara-West, Ahmad Yarima, among others.

Source:http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/175463-buhari-pledges-restructure-army-police-elected.html

Congrats Asisat!