₦airaland Forum

Adejoro74: Topic should read ''In SW Nigeria, it's no crime selling human parts - Suspect''

THE Federal Government may soon commence a clampdown on “extremist groups”, especially the Oodua People’s Congress and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra.

President Goodluck Jonathan has said the OPC, MASSOB and the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, constitute threats to national security.

“The Nigerian state faces three fundamental security challenges posed by extremist groups like Boko Haram in the North; the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra in the South-East; and the Oodua People’s Congress in the South-West.

“The activities of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and OPC, though not as violently intense as those of Boko Haram, they still pose a serious security challenge to the Nigerian state,” Jonathan said in his 234-page mid-term report presented to Nigerians as part of the activities marking the nation’s Democracy Day, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent on Thursday.

But both factional leaders of the OPC, Dr. Fredrick Fasheun and Chief Gani Adams, on Thursday denied the allegation that their group constitute security challenges to the country. They spoke separately to one of our correspondents on the telephone.

While Fasheun described the allegation as unfair, Adams said such assessment did not take into consideration the activities of the group in the last eight years.

“OPC does not constitute any security threat to any people let alone Nigeria. So, anybody that ties the rope of insecurity around our waist is being unfair to us. We love Nigeria but we love social justice more,” Fasheun said.

Adams added that rather than constituting a security threat to the country, OPC had for the past eight years, helped to promote peace in the South-West Zone of the country and by its festivals, helped to develop Nigeria tourism.

The MASSOB also denied that its members constituted threat to national security.

Its Director of Information, Mr. Uchenna Madu, told our correspondent on telephone that the President could not have said MASSOB had been a threat to national security.

He said this was because MASSOB supported and voted for Jonathan in the last election because of the role he played in the burial of the late Biafran leader, Chief Emeka Ojukwu.

Madu said, “MASSOB is not a threat to Nigeria’s security. We have been conducting ourselves in a non-violent manner in line with the Constitution of Nigeria.

“If they are looking for those that are threatening national security, they should go after Boko Haram. They should go after government officials who through corruption have become the greatest threat to national security,” he said.

Already, The PUNCH learnt that the Federal Government had put both OPC and MASSOB under security watch while a full-blown military offensive against Boko Haram is ongoing under the emergency rule declared in the three northern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

Curiously, Adams was among the dignitaries at the event where Jonathan presented the document on Wednesday in Abuja. Some former Heads of State, including ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, had shunned the event.

The President stated in the document that the Nigeria Police Force was upgrading its intelligence and counter-violence infrastructure across the country to respond appropriately to the threats being posed by the groups.

He said, “… the greater challenges are in the North where Boko Haram continues its intense violent campaign against citizens that have led to loss of lives and the destruction of poverty in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi and Gombe states.

“While attacks have been launched on government and international institutions like the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters and the United Nations House in the Federal Capital Territory, government has contained the violent activities of the Boko Haram sect by restricting it to communities in the North-East where the Joint Task Force, of our national security agency, is currently engaged in anti-terrorism battle.

“The challenge of containing a group with no identifiable structure is huge: but within our broad counter-terrorism coordinated framework, government has scored several successes with the arrests and trials of many insurgents.”

Jonathan said whenever any group organised itself against the prevailing laws and established democratic institution, government would stand up and effectively remove such threat to ensure that the protection of lives and property was not compromised.

Abdul Adam56: Front @mode pls

vallycan: Wat a tragedy,poverty kill's faster dan HIV;
u murder ya belove wife over #500(keke change) wen odas are murderin an fadarin for million:
God shall judge u?

A man identified as Gbadebo Elegbede, in Abule Egba area of Lagos State, on Monday morning, allegedly beat his wife to death over a disagreement that started from missing N500 note.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the incident reportedly occurred at Oronna Street, Off Puposola Street, Abule Egba area of the state, where the 60-year-old Elegbede raised the alarm over his missing N500, which he claimed to have kept in their room.

He had reportedly accused one of the sons of the deceased of being responsible for the missing money, after which the deceased defended her son, which then led to a serious argument between duo and subsequently to a fierce scuffle between them.

It was gathered that the man allegedly hit the woman with an unnamed object, which made her to fall to the ground with blood gushing out of her mouth, and the 17-year-old son, Johnson, who the father accused of stealing the N500 came in and met the lifeless body of his mother.

The suspect was said to have locked the lifeless body of his wife in his apartment and prevented even her relatives from seeing the body, insisting that she owned her “whether dead or alive.”

A relative of the deceased, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, said “since he did not allow us see the corpse, we are now back in Ogun State. We are confused as to what to do whether to report the matter to the police in Ogun State or in Lagos State.

The Emir of Daura in Katsina State, Alhaji Umar Farouk Umar has rejected the house-to-house search embarked upon by the Army and other security agents in his domain after the attack on the ancient city by terrorists suspected to be from Niger Republic.

The emir described the action as inhumane and unwarranted, insisting that the people in his domain were peace-loving people and should not be subjected to such experience.

The emir, who spoke when he received members of the National Assembly from Katsina State, on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), who visited his palace to commiserate with him over the unfortunate incident, said such things had never happened in Daura Emirate because the emirate council had a comprehensive data of all the people residing in the domain.

He said the policy that the security agents had adopted to checkmate the insurgents in the country would not address the security challenges, but would rather compound the security challenges.

“We traditional rulers are the custodians of the people and are ready to support and cooperate with security agents with a view to achieving a common goal,” he said.

He commended the three senators from Katsina State and the 10 House of Representatives members from the state for their concern, and appealed to them to come up with laws that would transform the lives of the people.

Speaking with journalists after the visit on behalf of the lawmakers, Honourable Mansur Abdulkadir Funtua said lack of good governance by the ruling party was the major problem affecting Nigeria.

He said for almost 15 years, the ruling party had failed to address the problems of poverty, unemployment, corruption and insecurity while no good government in the world could fold it’s arm and watch criminals kill innocent souls.

ninja4life: Lol so u dey attend those kind church revivals i do remember when i used to pray all those kind of useless funny prayers now looking back i call myself a fool.

pistol: Rip to the departed.

Am yet ti get a comprehensive report about what really happened.
Take heart to the families and may God give u the fortitude to bear the loss.

purpinkx: Air strike ... I'm seeing a bike