₦airaland Forum

The Defence Headquarters has said that it was aware that members of the outlawed Islamist sect, Boko Haram, were in the habit of looting its armoury.

The military authorities stated that they were making efforts to secure all armouries in its various formations across the country.

Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, made the disclosure during his first real-time Twitter chat which held on Sunday night.

The army general was, however, not categorical about the grades of weapons just as he did not name the armouries that have so far been looted by the insurgents.

“We are taking measures to ensure that our armouries are secured. We agree and are aware Boko Haram has stolen arms,” Olukolade said while responding to an inquiry by one of the participants of the Twitter chat.

The Defence spokesman explained that the military high command frowned on the proliferation of arms, noting that inter-agency cooperation had recently been heightened to contain the menace.

According to Olukolade, the policing of Nigerian borders with other West African neighbours have been repositioned in view of the security threats posed by the Boko Haram insurgents.

“Interagency collaboration has been heightened; from all indications policing of our borders has increased. Our strategic information-sharing policy considers transparency, security, propriety and accuracy in reporting to the public,” he added.

Warning that the military would deal decisively with saboteurs among its officers and men engaged in the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the North East, Olukolade said the service chiefs were “monitoring all personnel both in the frontline and rear”, adding that “suspicious people are being vetted.”

Dismissing the insinuation that top military commanders were feeding large on the entitlements of the rank and file of the armed forces, the military spokesman argued that the quality of food being provided for the officers and men at the battlefront are the same.

He claimed that the welfare package for the slain officers and men who die on the battlefield was attractive.

“The food they (officers and men) eat is within standards and best diet design as practicable. All eat the same food, be it officers or soldiers.

“By the way, there are two levels of insurance covering all soldiers and men involved in the anti-terror war. There is the Personnels’ Service Arm insurance, the Defence Headquarters Insurance package which is different from the gratuity, death benefits and children scholarships. On honour for slain soldiers, we do give due and befitting burials,” Olukolade said.

According to him, since Shekau has been killed by the military forces, the Armed Forces would remain focused by maintaining the tempo of “firepower to ensure that we sweep them (Boko Haram) off their nuisance hotspots.”

Insisting that the Defence Headquarters would not concede any portion of Nigeria to terrorists, Olukolade said the surveillance and air operations were ongoing with a view to exerting control and ensure minimum collateral damage.

Olukolade further said that the Nigerian Armed Forces were better armed, responsive and service oriented when placed in comparison with their Cameroonian counterparts.

“We welcome input from allies. It still remains our duty to get best results for our people. We are exchanging ideas and intelligence.

“We have a Nigerian-led Multinational Joint Task Force particularly on the Lake Chad Basin area. Cameroon is inactive in this.

“Any campaign to suggest that our Army is weaker than Boko Haram, Cameroon’s or any other force is a campaign against Nigeria.

“There is so much eagerness to discredit us and make us bow psychologically. I am working for my country. No denials.

“They are trying to pitch the soldiers against the leadership. Any military that loses leadership is doomed for the nation.

“Officers are paid to manage soldiers. Civilians can’t control them. Anarchy looms if authority loses grip.”

Olukolade added that there was no time frame to putting an end to the insurgency as terrorism is usually a long fight.

He, thereafter, warned the media against what he described as the undermining of structures.

“This is not the time to prove that the pen is mightier than the sword. Nigerian media should not undermine structures. We appeal to foreign and the local press to be circumspect and be consistent with democracy and public interests.

“We agree that there is such a need to review its (military) communication mechanism and we have engaged with various stakeholders to maintain robust counter-terrorist communications,” he said.


http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/boko-haram-looting-our-armoury-dhq/

At almost the same time that Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom on October 1, 1960, several other countries also achieved the same feat.

For instance, Cyprus, an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, also got its independence from the United Kingdom on August 16, 1960, but also celebrates it on October 1, 1960, the same day with Nigeria.

Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country, is only about three years older than Nigeria. It also got its independence from the United Kingdom on August 31, 1957.

Singapore is Nigeria’s ‘younger sister’ by five years. It seceded from the Malaysian Federation on August 9, 1965.

However, 54 years after, while some of these countries have got global reputations for their improved economies through manufacturing and export of their products, Nigeria still seems to rely on other countries of the world for her survival.

Here are the brief histories of Nigeria and her Independence ‘age mates.’

Nigeria

The site of many ancient kingdoms and empires, Nigeria has its origins in the British colonisation during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries where it emerged from the combination of two neighbouring British protectorates: the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate.

During the colonial period, the British set up administrative and legal structures whilst retaining traditional chiefdoms. The most populous Black country achieved independence in 1960, but plunged into civil war several years later. It has since alternated between democratically-elected civilian governments and military dictatorships, with its 2011 presidential elections being viewed as the first to be conducted reasonably freely and fairly.

Nigeria is a Federal Republic modelled after the United States, with executive power exercised by the president. It is influenced by the Westminster System model in the composition and management of the upper and lower houses of the bicameral legislature.

Ethnocentrism, tribalism, religious persecution, and prebendalism have affected Nigerian politics both prior and subsequent to her independence in 1960. Kin-selective altruism has made its way into Nigerian politics, resulting in tribalist efforts to concentrate Federal power to a particular region of their interests.

Despite the abundance of natural resources in Nigeria, she is yet to develop industries that could convert them to global use.

Nigeria is often referred to as the “Giant of Africa,” but that is majorly due to its large population. With approximately 174 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world.

Even though Nigeria’s economy (Gross Domestic Product) became the largest in Africa in the year she is celebrating her independence, not much is reflected in the lives of her citizens. For example, electricity is yet to stabilise in many parts of the country; water in many Nigeria’s communities is a source of worry; many lives are lost daily on poor roads; and corruption in both the low and high places is not a secret topic.

Millions of Nigerians have emigrated at times of economic hardship, primarily to Europe, North America and Australia. It is estimated that over a million Nigerians have emigrated to the United States and constitute the Nigerian-American populace.

Her human rights record remains poor and government officials at all levels continue to commit serious abuses.

According to the US Department of State, the most significant human rights problems are: extrajudicial killings and use of excessive force by security forces, impunity for abuses by security forces, arbitrary arrests, prolonged pretrial detention, judicial corruption and executive influence on the judiciary, rape, among other issues.

The health care system is continuously faced with a shortage of doctors, known as ‘brain drain,’ due to the fact that skilled Nigerian doctors emigrate to North America and Europe. In 1995, it was estimated that 21,000 Nigerian doctors were practising in the United States alone, which is about the same as the number of doctors working in the Nigerian public service, a sign of a country that has failed in its healthcare system.

Singapore

Modern Singapore was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles as a trading post of the East India Company with permission from the Johor Sultanate. The British obtained sovereignty over the island in 1824, and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826.

In 2011, the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index ranked Singapore among the top countries surveyed with regard to “Order and Security”, “Absence of Corruption”, and “Effective Criminal Justice.”

Singapore has a generally efficient healthcare system, even though their health expenditures are relatively low for developed countries. The World Health Organisation ranks Singapore’s healthcare system as 6th overall in the world in its World Health Report.

In general, Singapore has had the lowest infant mortality rate in the world for the past two decades. Life expectancy in Singapore is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing the country 4th in the world for life expectancy. Almost the whole population has access to improved water and sanitation facilities. There are fewer than 10 annual deaths from HIV per 100,000 people. There is a high level of immunisation. Adult obesity is below 10%.

Singapore is a very diverse and young country. Yet, it has developed so rapidly.

Singapore is also the 14th largest exporter in the world. The country has the highest trade-to-GDP ratio in the world at 407.9 per cent, signifying the importance of trade to its economy. The country is currently the only Asian country to receive AAA credit ratings from all three major credit rating agencies: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch.

Singapore also possesses the world’s eleventh largest foreign reserves, and has one of the highest net international investment position per capita. In recent years, the country has been identified as an increasingly popular tax haven for the wealthy due to the low tax rate on personal income and tax exemptions on foreign-based income and capital gains.

Singapore is a world leader in several economic areas: it is the world’s fourth leading financial centre, the world’s second largest casino gambling market, one of the world’s top three oil-refining centres, the world’s largest oil-rig producer, and a major hub for ship repair services. Its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. In fact, the World Bank has named Singapore as the easiest place in the world to do business.

It is an education hub, and many foreign students, including Nigerians study there.

Singapore has the world’s highest percentage of millionaires, with one out of every six households having at least one million US dollars in disposable wealth (excluding property, businesses, and luxury goods, which if included would increase the number of millionaires, as property in Singapore is among the world’s most expensive). It also has one of the highest income inequality levels among developed countries, coming in just behind Hong Kong and in front of the United States.

Acute poverty is rare in Singapore. The government has rejected the idea of a generous welfare system, stating that each generation must earn and save enough for its entire life cycle. There are, however, numerous means-tested assistance programs provided by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Some of the programmes include providing money to needy households, free medical care at government hospitals, money for children’s school fees, rental of studio apartments and training grants for courses.

Singapore, as a country, in general is conservative socially, but some liberalisation has occurred. At the national level, meritocracy, where one is judged based on one’s ability, is heavily emphasised.

Malaysia

Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates.

Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing at an average 6.5% per annum for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fueled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.

The 222-member House of Representatives is elected for a maximum term of five years from single-member constituencies. All 70 senators sit for three-year terms; 26 are elected by the 13 state assemblies, and the remaining 44 are appointed by the King upon the Prime Minister’s recommendation. The parliament follows a multi-party system and the government is elected through a first-past-the-post system.

Malaysia is the only country in Southeast Asia which manufactures indigenously designed automobiles.

The infrastructure of Malaysia is one of the most developed in Asia. Its telecommunications network is second only to Singapore’s in Southeast Asia, with 4.7 million fixed-line subscribers and more than 30 million cellular subscribers.

Traditionally, energy production in Malaysia has been based on oil and natural gas. The country has 13 GW of electrical generation capacity and has 33 years of natural gas reserves, and 19 years of oil reserves. In response to the increasing demand for energy, the government is expanding into renewable energy sources. Sixteen per cent of electricity generation is hydroelectric, the remaining 84 per cent being thermal.

Cyprus

Cyprus was placed under British administration in 1878 until it was granted independence in 1960, becoming a member of the Commonwealth the following year. In 1974, seven years after the intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, an attempted coup d’état by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta with the aim of achieving enosis (union of the island with Greece) took place.

Turkey used this as a pretext to invade the northern portion of the island. Turkish forces remained after a cease-fire, resulting in the partition of the island, an objective of Turkey since 1955. The intercommunal violence and subsequent Turkish invasion led to the displacement of over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots, and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north.

Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean. An advanced, high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index, the country was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on May 1, 2004. On 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the Eurozone.

Cyprus has a highly developed system of primary and secondary education offering both public and private education. The high quality of instruction can be attributed to a large extent to the above-average competence of the teachers, but also to the fact that nearly 7% of the GDP is spent on education, which makes Cyprus one of the top three spenders of education in the EU along with Denmark and Sweden.

State schools are generally seen as equivalent in quality of education to private-sector institutions.

In conclusion, it is the expectation of many Nigerians that the “Giant of Africa” steps up its game to meet up and perhaps excel above its ‘age mates.’


http://www.punchng.com/feature/independence-nigeria-and-her-age-mates/

There were indications in Abuja on Thursday that the authorities of the Nigerian Army might soon arraign 13 soldiers for cowardice and failure to obey orders from their superiors to advance at the (war) front.

Investigations revealed that the soldiers directed to join their counterparts at the 7 Division, entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating the on going counter-terrorism operation in the North-East early in the year.

It was gathered that the General Court Martial set up to handle the cases emanating from the on-going operation led by Brig. Gen. CC Okonkwo will hear the cases against the soldiers .

A military source, who made this known in Abuja, did not give the exact date for the hearing of the cases.

He said that the soldiers ‘’failed to advance when an order was given to them to do so.” Their action, according to him, was against military laws.

It was learnt that the affected soldiers had all been moved to the Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, which is the venue of the GCM.

When one of our correspondents contacted the Public Relations Officer of the Defence Headquarters, Garrison, Mogadishu Cantonment, Col. Aliyu Yusuf, he said that the GCM was not treating any case for now.

Yusuf said, “For now, there is no court martial inaugurated. When the court martial is inaugurated, I will brief you appropriately on the issues before it.”

It was learnt that many military personnel in detention were waiting to face the court martial for misdemeanours.

The misdemeanours include negligence of duty, cowardice, failure to perform military duty, failure to advance with orders, leakage of information to the enemy and others.

The PUNCH gathered that the military authorities had cleared the detention facility at the Mogadishu Cantonment where 12 who were sentenced to death on September 16, 2014, are kept to create room for the 13 soldiers from the 7 Division.

It was learnt that the convicted soldiers had been moved to the detention facility of the Directorate of Military Intelligence in Lagos.

The GCM had found the 12 soldiers guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and mutiny and sentenced them to death by firing squad.

When our correspondent contacted the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, he neither confirmed nor denied the planned trial of the 13 soldiers .

He said that the GCM was a standing court that would continue until all the cases before it were treated.

The DHQ spokesman said, “Normally, the court martial as a standing court is continuous until all the cases before it are disposed of.”

Meanwhile, a pastor, teacher and 18 other residents of Shaffa and Shindiffu in the Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State have been killed by Boko Haram insurgents.

The insurgents also razed down 10 churches, including the Living Faith Church and private homes during the attacks on Wednesday.

Sadly the incidents took place hours after the Defence Headquarters announced on Wednesday that troops killed Mohammed Bashir aka Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram.

An eyewitness gave the name of the killed pastor as Eliud Gwamna Mshelizza of the Living Faith Church.

He also claimed that all the murdered people, including the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Shaffa teacher, were Christians.

A resident said apart from the 10 burnt churches, including the E.Y.N 1, 2 and 3 in Shaffa and Shindiffu, the insurgents destroyed a clinic as well as some staff quarters and other structures at the GSS.

The terrorists, according to him, invaded Shaffa at about 8pm on Wednesday and wreaked havoc before moving to the nearby Shindiffu at about 11am on Thursday.

The insurgents had in the last two months attacked Tashan Alade, Hirzhi, Pela Birni, Debiro, Kwajaffa Bura, Jubwuwhi and Dalwa in the LGA.

The Public Relations Officer of the state Police Command, Gideon Jubrin, confirmed the attacks to journalists on the telephone on Thursday .

He said, “There was an attack on some villages of the Hawul Local Government Area by suspected members of Boko Haram but I have yet to get details due to lack of telecommunication services in the affected areas.”


http://www.punchng.com/news/13-soldiers-to-face-trial-for-cowardice/

A former chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Tom Ikimi, has said that he has confidence in the national leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, adding: “We shall have a common agenda of working for the party in Edo State and Nigeria in general.”

He insisted that he was not leaving the APC for the PDP to vie for any elective political office. “I left the APC for the PDP where my personal dignity shall be respected. I am not interested in being in a party of enemies, where a party man will plot against the party. I am at peace with all the leaders of the PDP whether big or small. I have implicit confidence in Chief Anenih and we have had several meetings and I believe we have bridged the gaps. We shall have common agenda in working for the party in the state and Nigeria,” he said.

Chief Ikimi, who spoke yesterday in Benin at a reception organised in his honour by the state leadership of the PDP at the party’s secretariat on Sapele Road, also thanked the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party and Chief Anenih, who visited him in Abuja to urge him to come back to the party.

He added that during the visit by Chief Anenih and the NEC, he promised that he would consult with his political associates. He said: “I have consulted with them and my family members and they have given me the go ahead to return to the PDP.

“I came here today (yesterday) not as a new member, but to fully identify with my group of 1999 and 2003. In politics, the party is supreme. We came here as cooks to cook the food and share it to others. But those who came in took the food, plates, pots and everything away and left the cooks with nothing. The PDP will take over the state once again. Once beaten, twice shy.”

On his dumping of the APC, Chief Ikimi said, “It is good night,” adding that the then Action Congress of Nigeria was formed in his house in Abuja by himself and one Opadokun with the aims and objectives of the party written by them.

“Everyone knows that it was my baby and those who believe in it are singing a new song.” He added that what is seen in Igueben Local Government today was achieved through the Federal Government.

Earlier, while receiving Chief Ikimi, Chief Orbih said that the reception was just a rehearsal of what will happen this weekend when President Goodluck Jonathan will be in Benin for the party’s rally.


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/ill-work-anenih-others-pdp-says-ikimi/

Social media platforms are fast becoming a meeting point for job seekers to gain access to recruiters and hiring managers alike. In order for job seekers to use social media to their advantage they have to make a conscious effort to build symbiotic and not parasitic relationships on the platform. Unfortunately many do the latter to their own peril.

Says Joshua Waldman, author of Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies, “Social media is probably one of the most hyped-up technologies you can use for a job search today. And often, things that get a lot of hype also come with a lot of misunderstanding. Companies, as well as individuals, have made some very damaging mistakes because they didn’t take the time to really understand social media.”

In my line of work as a recruiter, with special interest in social recruiting, I spend quite a number of time on social media and I do encounter quite a number of funny cum annoying scenarios exhibited by a few job seekers who lack how best to use social media in their favour. Permit me to cite a few of such mistakes job seekers make on social media and how to avoid them:

Social media sense of entitlement

A few weeks back, a job seeker on my LinkedIn contact asked me for a LinkedIn Job Introduction to another recruiter who is on my contact as well. I would have granted his request without any issue except that I don’t know him well enough for me to stick my head out for him. When I communicated to him that I couldn’t grant his request, he replied thus – “I am sorry I have to remove you as a connection, you are of no use to me”. I just told myself, this individual just made a big mistake, which is what I term social media sense of entitlement! He felt because we were connected on LinkedIn, he is doing me a favour, he was so wrong! Add value to people on social media and value would flow back to you in return. That is the secret of social networking that this fellow failed to realise.

Failure to know their social media audience

Every social networking channel has its unique audience; this is so because understanding of your audience is very important to leveraging social media platforms. As a job seeker, make sure your messages are appealing to the people who read them. Don’t use Facebook language on LinkedIn; Facebook has a more casual audience compared with LinkedIn’s professional outlook. On LinkedIn, your audiences are professionals in your industry and potential employers. So focus on what makes you different, the value you can bring to the table, and your level of understanding and motivation about a field. Make all these very obvious to your audience.

Ignoring Social networking etiquette

From the way some job seekers interact on social media, it is obvious that they don’t have a clue that social networking is governed by etiquettes similar to face-to-face social networking. Do you know that what is acceptable on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn differ? Many are found of asking for a follow back on Twitter with phrases like – “@segunakiode now following you, pls follow back”, that is so wrong. In face-to-face discussion, this is analogous to saying “I came to visit you at home tonight, so you must follow me back home tonight.” Guess my point is clear. When job seekers fail to recognise these social media etiquettes or rules, then they are making a major mistake.

Lack of a professional online presence

Often before I accept LinkedIn invites, I do check such LinkedIn profiles first. This is to ascertain how professional such profiles look and to weigh value demonstrated by viewing such profiles. Another big mistake job seekers make is having a less-than-professional online presence. It is the way you look online that you would be addressed – if you look professional online, you would be given a professional treatment and otherwise. Your social media profile photo must not be one taken at a party or a beach, endeavor to use a professional photo. Recruiters and hiring managers are watching; let them see you as a serious-minded individual as they can make an impression of your offline person just by looking at what you share online. Don’t give any conflicting view about yourself to recruiter and hiring managers.

Substituting social networking with face-to-face networking:

Many job seekers forget that social media is just a tool to ease offline networking and not completely erase it. So what this means it that you ought to treat social networking as you do face-to-face networking. Build your relationships on social media over time and with care. I am sure you would dare not go for a business meeting dressed in a beach wear? So it is so important for you to leverage social media as a tool that is it and you have to use that tool wisely and effectively.

So job seeker, social media can either be a friend or a foe, so beware how you use it!



http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/social-media-mistakes-job-seekers-should-avoid/

The Senate has begun moves aimed at permanently banning the manufacturing, consumption and promotion of tobacco in Nigeria.

But the development generated controversies among senators, yesterday, during debate on a bill to that effect just as the Senate President, David Mark, lamented that powerful individuals who were against the ban and regulation of tobacco in the country influenced Presidency to withhold assent on a similar bill sponsored and passed by the 6th Senate.

Senators, who spoke during debate on the bill which was presented by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP, Delta North for deliberation, were sharply divided.

Although the bill, as presented by Senator Okowa merely sought repeal of the act on tobacco manufacturing, sale, promotion and sponsorship in the country, majority of the senators who contributed to the debate on the issue, insisted that tobacco should be outrightly banned in the country.

But the Senate President explained that the bill, as he understood, merely seeks to regulate advertisement about smoking in the country, given the danger associated with tobacco.

He said: “The essence of the Bill is to highlight the dangers inherent in smoking and it also seeks to regulate advertisement about smoking. We have gone one step further to ban it also but when it goes to public hearing, then we will get public opinion on that.

Why the bill failed earlier

Recalling how a similar bill sponsored and passed in the 6th Senate was killed by the Presidency, Mark appealed to relevant authorities not to repeat withholding of assent if the current one scales through.

He said: “Let me remind us that we passed this bill actually in the Sixth Senate and Senator Olorunmibe Mamora was the sponsor. He talked extensively and we had a similar debate the same way we talked now.

“Powerful groups are behind the bill and I remember that in the Sixth Senate a lot of lobbyists were all over the place when this bill was being debated. So I am not surprised that we eventually didn’t sign it but we should have courage to at least do something. I don’t think we should just leave it that way this time around.

“The dangers inherent in smoking are very obvious and I think that at the end of the day we would be able to get feelers from the general public. My prayer is that this time around once we pass this bill, I hope that it will be signed because we are just left hanging at the moment. It is neither here nor there. Nothing has been done.

“Hopefully this time around the executive would be able to sign it. Those who would determine will be the general public – Nigerians – but let me remind us also that this Bill is not just a Nigerian bill. It is far more important because there are a lot of countries that have tried to debate the issue of total ban on cigarette and smoking.”

Contributing to the debate on the bill, the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, PDP, Cross River Central, said: “I support and concur with all the arguments as canvassed in the lead debate by Senator Ifeanyi Okowa but I want to ask that in this bill, there is the health component just as it has the economic component.

“In spite of the dangers of tobacco, we have to deal with the use of tobacco in such a regulated manner that it doesn’t create any economic distortion because if we don’t address the economic issues properly, then we will end up with more of smuggled tobacco that is unregulated and our own tobacco industry here will become un-protective. So when it gets to public hearing, I want to urge the relevant committees to balance the health issues with the economic issues.”

Also, in his contribution, Senator James Manager, PDP, Delta South, said: “This is a very harmless bill about something that is very harmful to human health. I used to wonder why the world is shying away from banning tobacco. Instead, they are advertising it. We should not talk of the economic benefit of something that is harmful to human health because you need to be alive for you to enjoy economic benefit of something. Tobacco consumption supposed to be banned. This tobacco, I don’t know how it tastes, by the grace of God, Mr President, I have never attempted to smoke it and I don’t want to know.”

On his part, Senator Smart Adeyemi, PDP, Kogi West, said: “I rise to support this bill. To support this bill, I took time to look at all the various recognitions and issues that this bill intends to address but I want to also say that tobacco deserves to be banned in this country. Today, as we are here deliberating on this bill, I have looked round and said to myself that how many of our colleagues are smoking here.

“ I doubt if there is anybody here that smokes and I want to say here that the rich, the highly placed Nigerians have come to realize the harm that smoking does to the health, that is why they don’t smoke. Smoking was fashionable, so to speak in the 60s and 70s.Then, people smoked and they looked at it that they have attended a particular class, they would smoke and show that they were smoking. Now, Nigerians have come to realized that it is not something to be encouraged.

“So, the question now is, who are the people that engaged in smoking? When you go to Nigerian universities, you see student smoking in the afternoon and night and those who smoke among the students are the poor people, people who are going through the hard economic situation, they resort to smoking as a way of easing pressure. I do not see any reason why we should be here and still encourage tobacco in Nigeria because I do not believe in any economic benefit the cigarette is contributing to our economy. I think we are a blessed nation and we should do everything possible to save the younger ones.”

Senator Anyanwu, PDP, Imo East, while also speaking, said: “I support the bill because I have come to see that all the countries where people smoke openly are the poorest countries in the world. ”

This bill is really to save lives, we want money, we want jobs but we don’t want jobs in an area that will lead to massive death. We should make it very uncomfortable for people to smoke.”

Senator Akin Odunsi, APC, Ogun West, also supported the bill, saying: “I rise to lend my voice to this bill, particularly, to express an opinion that is in tandem with those already expressed by two earlier speakers—Senator Adeyemi and Senator James Manager. I think my position is very clear; any goods that is legally produced should be legally promoted. As I speak today, there has been continuous restriction on the promotion of cigarette and I know that the reason is because we all know that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health.

“And of course, if we look at the economic angle, because of what we derive from the manufacturers of tobacco and the employment that it generates, then of course, we will be cutting corners. I believe that this bill has come short of what we expect, if we all agree that smoking is injurious to heath, even the smoke is injurious to non smokers, then the is no reason why we should continue to encourage the production of this product. I think we should be bold enough at this stage to stop the production of tobacco products completely, because that way, they can still engage in another area of production that can employ the youths of this country. On this basis, I think that we should stop paying lip service to this problem we have at hand.”

But Senator Abdul Ningi, PDP, Bauchi Central, kicked against the ban being canvassed by some of his colleagues. He said: “ I think we should only look at clearly what this bill seeks to achieve. This bill seeks to regulate and then control the production- the manufacturing and promotion of tobacco. One of the cardinal principles of creation of human beings is for him to be able to identify what is good and what is right. The issue of banning tobacco hinges on fundamental human rights of an individual and therefore, if you ban tobacco, you must ban several other things. Example, you must ban corruption, you must also ban chewing stick, you must also ban illicit sexual intercourse, you must also ban lesbianism.

“ A human brain is created with the freedom of choice. There is no doubt that tobacco affects somebody’s health and that is what the bill seeks to achieve but no human being will tell me what to do and what do do because I have human capacity to choose what I want. Therefore, some of these choices, we must be caution sometimes when we try to do things that infringe on the choices of human beings. Some people, if they don’t smoke tobacco, they go into coma. There are people who cannot work without tobacco, what we need to do as a parliament is to identify the cardinal problems with a view to regulate. This bill is not aimed at banning tobacco and therefore we should not even go there. Nobody, no nation, no country has gone there and Nigeria should not go there.”

Earlier, in his lead debate, sponsor of the bill, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa explained that scientific evidence has unequivocally established that tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke cause death, disease and disability.

He further said the bill provides generally for protection of present and future generation from the devastating health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.

He appealed to senators to support the passage of the bill, explaining further that the bill seeks to regulate tobacco products and disclosure of information about tobacco production to the government in order to effectively exercise its regulatory powers.

He recalled that the World Health Assembly, WHA, at its 56th meeting, adopted a treaty on World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, saying the treaty, which came into force on February 27,2005, became the first WHO treaty adopted under Article 19 of the WHO constitution that was legally binding in 176 ratifying countries of which Nigeria was one.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/senate-moves-ban-tobacco-production-consumption/

Six men were on Wednesday arraigned along with their company, Oshine Resources Ventures Limited, for unauthorised fishing by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The men, said to be apprehended by the Nigerian Navy on March 27, 2014, were arraigned before Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court , Lagos, on two counts.

The accused names were given as Adekunle Oshingbosi, Momodu Ibrahim, Idowu Tuesday, Yogbosi Christian, Benjamin Ayele and Anthony Mendeho.

In a charge tagged FHC/LG179C/2014, the EFCC alleged that the men fished in the Nigerian territorial waters without obtaining lawful authority.

According to the commission, the accused violated sections 1(1)(2) of the Seas Fishery Act Cap S4, 2004 by their actions.

Consequent upon their arraignment, their lawyer, Mr. Kehinde Yekeen, reminded the court of a bail application filed on their behalf.

Yekeen pleaded with the court to admit the accused persons to bail in liberal terms, “especially in view of the poor health of some of them.”

As the prosecution was not objected to the application for bail, Justice Buba admitted the six accused persons to N10m bail each with one surety each, who is to produce two recent passport photographs.

The court ordered that the accused should be remanded in the Ikoyi Prison pending when they would perfect their bail conditions.

Their lawyer, Yekeen, however pleaded with the court to allow one of the accused persons to be remanded in the EFCC’s custody on account of poor health condition but the prosecutor, Mr. Aliyu Yusuf raised an objection to the prayer.

The court subsequently adjourned the case till November October 27, 2014 for continuation of trial.



http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/efcc-arraign-six-for-unauthorised-fishing/

The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday said it would not plead with the Nigerian Army to spare the lives of 12 soldiers recently sentenced to death for mutiny.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, George Sekibo, said this in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with the nation’s service chiefs.

The service chiefs were led to the high-profile meeting, which lasted over three hours, by the Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, Mr. Sekibo said the senate was not under pressure to intervene to save the lives of the soldiers because the judgment convicting them was in the best interest of the Nigerian military.

“No we are not (under pressure) because the Armed Forces is established by an Act of the National Assembly.

“The Act spelt out categorically the conduct of soldiers and the way they are to behave wherever they are.

“If you join the military that Act is to guide you and your conduct.

“If you go contrary to any of the prescribed sections of the Act the punishment prescribed for the Act you violated will come on you.

“So the military did not just wake up one day and say that they are going to kill Mr A or Mr B.

“They (military) went through the necessary processes and they found them guilty,” he said.

The committee chairman however said that those found guilty could go on appeal and the rulings from the appeal would be binding on them.

“But I think that those found guilty also have a way out. They can go on appeal and if the appeal finds them not guilty that will be it.

“But for what the military has done, they have done the best thing because you must instil discipline in the Armed Forces.

“If you don’t do so one day all of us here will be sacked and you will not hear of this place again,” he said.

Mr. Sekibo called on Nigerians to encourage the military to ensure that it discharged its duties effectively.

The 12 Nigerian soldiers were on September 16, sentenced to death for mutiny after firing shots at their commanding officer, Abubakar Mohammed, in Maiduguri on May 14.

A nine-member military tribunal, sitting in Abuja, convicted the soldiers.

Court president Chukwuemeka Okonkwo said the sentences were subject to confirmation by Nigeria’s military authorities but added there was no doubt about the gravity of the offence.

But while the Senate believes the soldiers deserve to die, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, is pleading with
the Nigerian Army to lighten the death sentence.

The Acting President of the Union, Promise Adewusi, made the appeal at a news conference to express the view of the union on the verdicts passed on the soldiers.

The union said that in view of the numerous challenges confronting the military hierarchy, the execution of the convicts would not in any way restore discipline in the army.

Mr. Adewusi said although the convictions could not be faulted legally, the death sentence was harsh and unacceptable.

“We expect that the Military Council or the appropriate authority, whose responsibility it is to review sentences of this nature, should commute this sentence to a more tolerable or acceptable one.’’

Mr. Adewusi said the appeal was hinged on the fact that the execution of the soldiers, rather than restore discipline, “could sow the seed of a major security problem in the armed forces”.

He said that in confronting the nation’s lingering security challenges, it was important that commanders earned the confidence of their troops.

Mr. Adewusi said: “Nowhere is cohesion needed more than in the armed forces, especially in conflict period.”

He urged the military hierarchy to ensure that the ongoing war on terror was waged in a more transparent and coordinated manner.

“We are urging the military authorities to commute the death sentence on the 12 to a lighter sentence.

“As part of the process of addressing the conflicts and crises in our armed forces, we demand that the war be prosecuted in a more transparent, humane and orderly manner,’’ he said.


https://www.premiumtimesng.com/headlines/168540-nigerian-senate-says-soldiers-sentenced-to-death-for-mutiny-deserve-to-die.html#sthash.MKwzAOpH.dpbs

The Nigerian Army, 3 Battalion Effurun, Delta State yesterday arrested an overzealous soldier on guard at the Alegbor Check point for violently cutting the hair of General Overseer and Founder, Tower of Faith Ministries, Rev. Felix Omas.

The humiliation of the clergy, Vanguard gathered, infuriated the 3 Battalion’s command who promptly arrested and detained the soldier with promise to charge him for improper conduct.

Narrating his ordeal almost in tears at the Warri NUJ Secretariat, the molested victim, Rev Omas said, “I was driving in my SUV but due to the traffic situation, I boarded a tricycle. The soldiers stopped our Keke as we were coming from Alegbor, forcibly seated me on the ground as one of them pulled a scissors and stroke three ugly cuts on my hair, saying my hair style violates their rules.”

Omas who was heading to Warri with one of his colleagues when encountered the humiliation from the army said he succumbed to the public disgrace as the soldiers threatened to shoot him with a gun.

A top military official at the 3 Battalion who pleaded anonymity abhorred the conducted of the alleged offender, confirming that he has been arrested and facing pretrial while the Sergeant believed to have ordered the molestation of the Reverend would also be summoned for questioning.

“What he did was wrong; He said that the community asked them to cut hair of youths with weird styles, so that was why he did it. We never sent soldiers to cut people’s hair. We sent them for security of lives. The Pastor is an elderly person, he will face military discipline.”

Reacting to the development, National Coordinator, Centre for the Vulnerable and the Under Privileged, CENTREP, Oghenejabor Ikimi described soldiers act as “Inhuman and degrading treatment under Section 34 (1) of the I999 Constitution as amended.

“I will take the Army to court to enforce the Pastor’s human rights. This will serve as deterrent to other gun trotting uniform personnel who sees civilians as non humans. No security can be done without consideration for human rights.”

Ikimi, a lawyer promised to offer free legal aid to Omas and other victims of military brutality.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/army-arrest-soldier-cutting-pastors-hair/

The Presidency has explained the reason why the late Consultant Physician and Endocrinologist, Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, did not make the list of the 305 Nigerians who will receive national honours this year.

Adadevoh was credited for halting a wider spread of the Ebola Virus Disease by restraining the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who brought the Ebola Virus Disease to Nigeria.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, wrote on Twitter that he had sought clarifications from the appropriate quarters confirming that only living Nigerians and friends of the country could be conferred with the national honours.

“I have received enquiries as to why Dr. Adadevoh was not included in the honours list. By the law establishing it, national honours cannot be given post-humously,” the presidential aide wrote on Twitter.

Okupe, however, noted that President Goodluck Jonathan had commiserated with the immediate family of the late physician, stating that his principal spoke with the deceased’s first son, Bankole Cardoso, shortly after the funeral service on September 12.

The presidential aide explained that there was “no need to break the law” on the basis of honouring the heroic acts of Adadevoh.

Okupe stated that Nigerians should not take the post-humous centenary award conferred on the late military dictator, Gen. Sanni Abacha, for the yearly national honour award.

“Abacha’s last year’s honour was a centenary award, not the institutionalised one done yearly. There is no need to break the law when we can still achieve same result without violation of our own laws. At the appropriate time Dr. Adadevoh will receive a befitting honour,” Okupe added.

Medical doctors and public commentators had kicked against the non-inclusion of Adadevoh on the honours list which included the Head of Presidential stewards in the Presidency, Onuh Michael, a driver at the Nigerian High Commission in Canada, service chiefs, politicians and other top government functionaries.

A medical doctor, Hamid Adediran, lamenting the exclusion of Adadevoh on the national honours list, stated that the development was unexplainable.

“I still wonder what the criteria for national honours are. How can one explain the conspicuous absence of Dr. Adadevoh’s name?” Adediran tweeted.

Another physician, Chijioke Kaduru, in a protest message to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, insisted that Adadevoh must be post-humously recognised.

“There is a list of people nominated for awards, but a real hero is missed out. She gave her life serving humanity and her country. She must be posthumously recognised,” Kaduru said in a tweet to Abati.

But a social commentator, Jeff Okoroafor, stated that while concerned Nigerians were not advocating for the circumvention of the laws of the land for the purpose of honouring the late physician, the Federal Government ought to do the needful by promptly recognising her sacrifices.

According to Okoroafor, there should be an exception to the law especially considering the “extraordinary bravery” exhibited by Adadevoh.

“Shouldn’t there be an exception to the law, for such an extraordinary bravery that saved Nigeria and Nigerians alike? This month, the United States government gave a posthumous award to a civil war hero who made an ultimate sacrifice. They respect heroes in America.

“There should and must be an exception in special cases and you (Okupe) know that. Adadevoh deserved that exception. No one is advocating for the violation of our law, the point is that we must recognise our own people and do the needful.

“Don’t you think that Nigerians will be more willing to sacrifice when they know that their contributions won’t be trivialised? Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are in anguish due to this virus but we were saved from it and all we care about is the law? Laws are made by humans and for humans, and same laws can be modified or altered by humans, for humans,” Okoroafor wrote on Twitter.

An online activist, Michael Oyebanji, asked the Presidency to promptly explain how and when it intended to honour her, stating that Nigerians were eager to know.

Oyebanji argued that it would be unfair if “rogues” were being honoured while a patriotic Nigerian who sacrificed her life to save the lives of her countrymen and women was not recognised.

“So, what form of recognition can be given for the dead who merited honours with their life and sacrifice?” Oyebanji asked on Twitter.


http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/why-adadevoh-was-excluded-from-national-honours-list-presidency/

In spite of a decline in oil reserves and increasing competition for investments from other African countries, Nigeria remains sluggish in attracting new investments estimated at $100bn needed to grow reserves and production.

The country, which aims to ramp up production to four million barrels per day and grow the reserves to 40 billion barrels in 2020, has seen its reserves slump to 35 billion barrels from 37 billion barrels, according to the Department of Petroleum Resources.

Oil production in Nigeria, Africa’s top producer, has continued to hover between 1.9 million bpd and 2.3 million bpd in recent years. The country pumped an average of 2.21 million bpd in the three months to June 2014, up from 2.11 million bpd in 2013, due to an increase in production, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics early this month.

The lack of reserves growth has been attributed to the fact that little or no significant investment has been recorded in oil exploration in the last five years and the number of wells drilled has also been on the decline since 2006.

Oil wells completed in Nigeria, which include development and exploration of oil and gas wells, dropped from 124 in 2011 to 107 in 2012, according to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ annual statistical bulletin 2013.

Energy analyst at Ecobank, Mr. Dolapo Oni, in an emailed response to questions from our correspondent, highlighted some of the implications of the decline in the country’s oil reserves.

He said, “We have lesser years of production left. Nigeria currently has 35 billion barrels of oil reserves left. At 2.2 million barrels per day, this gives us roughly 45 years of production, compared to 53 years previously when the reserves were at 37.2 billion and production was 2mbpd.”

“More importantly, because more of our reserves are likely to lie offshore in deep and ultra deepwater, exploration costs are more expensive. If oil companies are not given attractive fiscal terms to quickly assess these reserves, falling oil prices could make them uneconomic in the future.”

Global oil prices recently fell by 12 per cent to below $100 a barrel. Nigeria’s benchmark Bonny light crude oil traded at $97.9 per barrel on September 12, down 14 per cent from $111.9 per barrel in May, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Nigerian oil and gas industry is currently being undermined by a poor investment climate, a situation which industry analysts have attributed largely to the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.

“Nigeria needs $100bn investment to achieve four million barrels per day of oil production,” the General Manager, Development, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, said at a recent conference in Lagos, adding that a balanced PIB could be an enabler to funding, as billions of dollars investments were awaiting the passage of the bill.

International oil companies under the aegis of the Oil Producers Trade Section of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently said that Nigeria’s deepwater had the potential to generate $66bn in investments up to 2025, contributing additional 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day production in 2020 to offset natural decline.

The country has in recent times seen a decline in revenue from the industry as crude oil theft and pipeline sabotage continue to hold sway in the oil-producing areas of the country.

Oil accounts for more than 80 per cent of the country’s revenue, and the decline in oil export revenue in August saw the total revenue fell to N601.6bn from N630.3bn in July. Oil revenue declined to N481.3bn in August from N483.5bn in July due to disruptions to crude production and a force majeure declared by Shell, according to the Finance ministry.

“The implication of not growing our oil reserves is obvious. We may soon become a net importer of oil for our domestic needs apart from losing oil revenue,” said the Executive Vice Chairman, Terra Energy Services Nigeria Limited, Mr. Akin Adetunji.

Industry analysts have continued to stress the need for Nigeria to create an enabling environment for investors to invest in the country’s oil industry, urging the National Assembly to expedite action towards the passage of the PIB, which is expected to overhaul the industry.



http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/nigeria-fails-to-attract-100bn-oil-investments/

The founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Temitope Joshua, has pledged to visit South Africa once every month to honour scores of South Africans who died in his church’s building collapse.

The South African High Commission had said 84 of the 90 people who died when the church’s guest house collapsed on September 12 were South Africans.

During Sunday’s worship service, Mr. Joshua said his decision to visit South Africa often was a revelation from God and a blessing to the people of the country.

“Those who are affected in one way or another and those who passed onto glory, their greatest desire is to see that the work of salvation they died and suffered for continues and reaches unreachable places,” the cleric, also called T.B. Joshua, said.

“For that, what they are coming here for should be taken to meet them in their country,” he stated to an applause from foreigners but what appeared a muted response from the Nigerian congregants.

“Once in a month, I will be travelling to South Africa to meet people from South Africa and other nations who find South Africa easier to visit, in memory of martyrs of faith,” the cleric stated in the sermon which was also transmitted live on Emmanuel TV, the church’s television station.

He added that his “ministration in South Africa will not be on Sunday so that people wills have the opportunity to attend their respective churches.

“This kind of faith expressed by South Africans deserves this kind of blessing from God.”

Mr. Joshua thanked the worshippers for the messages of condolence and encouragement his church had received from supporters around the world.

“I have been your pastor, preaching to you. Now, it is your turn that you are preaching to me. It is your turn that you are giving back what you have received in terms of preaching, teaching and counselling,” he said. “There is a time to give and a time to receive. There is a time to laugh and a time to cry. There is a time to be born and a time to die. Thank you for understanding the time that I am in.”

The pastor said the decision to go to South Africa would have some adverse effects on Nigeria but insisted it was a “revelation from God” that he must obey.

He called on the South African government to be involved in organising the monthly meetings, as “mammoth crowds” would attend.

South Africa’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu Mnguni, had said that apart from the 84 South Africans that died from the building collapse, 265 others survived while 17 were unaccounted for.

He said the number of South Africans who were in the church could be higher, as some organized the trip themselves without using travel agents and were thus difficult to account for.

Mr. Mnguni said there were about 349 South Africans visiting the popular church at the time of the collapse.

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, put the death toll at the building collapse at 90 people while131 others were rescued from the rubble.

The building collapsed while the church was trying to increase the number of floors from 2 to 5, a move the Lagos State Government said appears not to have been approved.

Mr. Joshua has blamed external forces for the collapse and said a plane which flew over the building before the collapse caused it.


https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/168436-synagogue-building-collapse-t-b-joshua-pledges-to-visit-south-africa-every-month.html#sthash.GkgimGV2.dpuf

Properties worth millions of naira are destroyed by fire daily in Nigeria and lives are lost. Many go unreported. But do we give a thought to what causes fire in homes, offices, shops or our surroundings and how best to avoid them?

The Operational Commander for Federal Fire service, Ime Eyo, outlines 10 ways to avoid fire.

Always put off appliances when not in use

For those who go to work, put off all appliances at home to avoid voltage surge that may follow when power is restored after an outage. The same applies for the office when leaving.

Do not overload electrical sockets

Avoid overloading electrical sockets/outlets to prevent sparks that may lead to fire.

Do not smoke at bed time

This is for smokers. After a late night party or stressful day, it may be tempting to have stick just before bed. With the possibility of dozing off, there is a tendency to toss the butt anywhere while it has half-lit. If that lands on the rug or mattress, the consequences can only be imagined.

Do not use phones in the kitchen

In this era of phone and social media, many people go into the kitchen with their phones. The temptations are many. For one, an incoming call may provide a distraction too costly. A story is told of a lady who received a call as she attempted to light the gas. While speaking on the phone, she forgot the cooker had been switched on. With a strike of the match, flames engulfed the whole building.

Fuel your generator before, not during a football match

With the recent league that has just begun, many football fans will be watching many matches. For one, PHCN cannot be trusted. Any plans for a backup should factor in sufficiently fuelling the generator. Doing so while the generator is on may be dangerous.

All generators should be kept in an open space for cross-ventilation and not in an enclosed environment.

Put off phones while in the filling stations

This is common amongst car owners. Receiving calls and making them in a highly inflammable environment like a petrol station is risky as mobile phones are emitters of small amount of charges that could explode in contact with petrol.

Do not be an emergency engineer or electrician

Avoid fixing electrical faults personally when you apparently do not have the skill. Violating the basic rule of aligning like charges can lead to a spark which may result in fire.

Get a Thunder Arrestor

Thunder storm delivers a huge amount of electrical charge. The work of a Thunder Arrestor is to safely lead this current away from the building to the earth to avoid fire. Get one.

Keep the candle on a candle stand

We put candles and leave them beside curtains or clothes or even on tables made from wood. The candle may fall off or a nearby object may get burned.


https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/168389-10-ways-to-avoid-fire-outbreak-fire-service-commander.html#sthash.6bAXWr42.dpuf

Her wedding day was one of happiness and merry making. But that was a few years ago when Wunmi Oyediji was still in love. Fast forward eight years and you have a completely different story from the sweet romance that led Oyediji to the altar.

Her marriage to Damilare had so much promise, but her hope of a blissful union gradually faded into a living hell before her eyes, albeit a silent one since her frustrations are being bottled up. Oyediji’s constant source of worry is her husband.

Oyediji, a banker with a reasonable income, met Damilare when he was working in an IT firm in Lagos. But shortly after their marriage, Damilare lost his job and has had none since then, except for the mostly futile hustling he does at the Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos State capital. The village is Nigeria’s IT hub.

For over five years, Oyediji has been shouldering the financial responsibilities at home like paying their children’s school fees, feeding and clothing the family.

Twice, she has tried to set up business for her husband and twice he has been unable to account for the money invested in the businesses. On several occasions, Oyediji has caught Damilare cheating on her and on a few other instances suspected him of attempting to dupe her.

“It’s just like he’s contented with the situation because he has since stopped looking for job or trying to take care of his responsibilities at home. If I ask him for any money, he will say ‘shebi you have money, go and do it now,’” she told Saturday PUNCH.

“Over a year ago, I gave him over N1.5m to get some equipment from overseas which he said he would sell at the Computer Village. Till now, he insists the goods have not arrived in Nigeria and each time I ask, he keeps giving different reasons. Some months ago, he asked for another N300,000 to clear some issues causing the delay in bringing in the goods but I didn’t believe him; so I didn’t give him.

“Earlier, I had given him about N1m for another project but nothing also came out of that one. I know he also cheats on me because I go through his phones but he always denies it. In spite of everything I do for him, he still connives with my mechanic to increase the cost of auto parts so that he can take cuts. ”

However, Oyediji is not considering divorce or separating from Damilare yet for a few reasons including the fear of raising their children without a father figure.

“Apart from the fact that I don’t want to raise the children as a single parent, I also don’t want my marriage to fail. People will say the marriage failed because I’m richer than my husband and that’s why I’m not submissive to him. But that’s far from the truth. Some of my friends wonder if I’ve been charmed but those are the reasons I don’t want a divorce,” she said.

In many of such cases, the women suffer in silence because of a range of reasons including the stigma and the cultural issues associated with divorce. In Nigeria, divorce is frowned at culturally and so divorcees often have a hard time getting someone to remarry.

New trend?

Findings by Saturday PUNCH show that what Oyediji is going through appears to be increasingly becoming common in marriages, which goes against a culture of having men as predominantly breadwinners in homes.

Although many people blame the situation on the country’s socio-economic situation, which has thrown more men out of job, findings show that more men these days appear to be content with abdicating their responsibilities at home to their women.

However, this is not to say that some men in such circumstances are not genuinely working hard to provide for their families. But even such efforts have been described as little by a cross section of respondents who spoke with our correspondent.

Some of the respondents said the way the girl-child is often saddled with more domestic responsibilities than the male-child toughens and helps her to cope better with life challenges than the male child.

Indeed, most of the parents who spoke with our correspondent said they are more likely to send their female children on errands than their males. And often times, while the female child is being sent on multiple errands, the male child is sitting idle or clutching to his video game.

In the United States of America, a research by the Prudential Financial Group already found that over half of the country’s women are primary breadwinners in their households- 53 per cent precisely.

The research further “shows that 40 per cent of these women are either single or divorced and support themselves entirely, while 22 per cent of married women earn more than their husbands.”

Another recent study carried out in the US by Pew Research tracking back 50 years seems to confirm the trend. The research also shows a recent record share of wives being more educated than their husbands.

The report acknowledged that it used to be more common for husbands to have more education than their wives but that for the first time, the share of couples in which the wife is the one marrying a man with a lower level of education is higher than those in which the husband has more education.

For instance, the report stated that “among married women in 2012, 21 per cent had spouses who were less educated than they were—a threefold increase from 1960,” according to a new Pew Research Centre analysis of census data.

A sociologist, Mr. Monday Ashibogwu of the Republic Media Limited in a phone conversation with Saturday PUNCH, identified Kenya in East Africa as also having a high number of women breadwinners in households.

“It’s even worse off in Kenya where there is a high prevalence of lazy men who will not do anything and wait on women because a lot of their women are very industrious,” he said.

Looking at similar situations in Nigeria, the case of Mr. David Popoola comes to the light.

Like Damilare, Popoola was into IT until his business crashed about five years ago. Since then, he has depended on his wife, Funke, who manages a thriving catering business in Lagos.

Since losing his job, Popoola has had a few job offers, but he turned them all down for one reason or the other each time an offer came. The latest one came when Popoola rejected a job offer by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, facilitated by his uncle.

This attitude infuriated Funke and her appeals to get Popoola to work have so far been shunned by him.

In an informal interaction with Popoola by our correspondent, he revealed he had turned down the latest job offer because he felt the job did not befit his status.

“The job is beneath me. Can you imagine me doing a LASTMA job with my master’s degree? He said.

Funke, however, explained that she has been providing for the home and paying the children’s school fees, singlehandedly, for five years.

A source close to the family also shared with our correspondent how Popoola wondered why there was so much fuss over his decision to wait for his dream job.

“He told me that after all, he’s been supporting the home since by taking care of the kids when his wife is at work. His wife is tired of the whole thing, but she’s enduring it because she doesn’t want to go through divorce,” the source said.

Like Popoola, Mr. Akpan, who is also jobless, has been taking care of the home while his wife, Gloria, is at work.

Gloria, a director in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has been embarrassed by her husband’s situation.

Akpan, a chartered accountant was a banker until he resigned some years ago after a recapitalisation policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria led to mergers which affected his bank.

His complaint was that a younger worker was being put above him as his superior.

After a few months of searching for job, Akpan got another one but resigned six months later, citing a similar excuse. In all, Akpan has resigned from three jobs before deciding that he was no longer interested in working for anyone.

Since Akpan’s last job in 2008, he has been relying on his wife to carry out the financial responsibilities in the home.

Gloria told our correspondent that in addition to such responsibilities, she has had to constantly upgrade her husband to keep up with her status as a senior federal civil servant.

“I buy him cars and give him money because it will be shameful for the husband of a director to look wretched. The situation bothers me but what can I do? It’s my cross,” she said.

Tolulope, who is from a rich family, met her husband in church. They courted briefly before getting married 10 years ago. Shortly after the marriage, Tolulope realised that Daniel was not a comfortable businessman he had claimed to be. He always insists that Gloria, a banker, is earning more than him and should therefore foot the bills in the house.

Tolulope said she has grown tired of shouldering all the financial responsibilities at home, but does not know what to do.

She said, “He doesn’t do anything at home. We used to share our children’s tuition fees between us but after some time, he stopped paying. He said after all, I was earning more than him.

“I never really knew him before we got married because the marriage was arranged in our church. He gave me the impression that he was responsible and had a comfortable job. It was later that I got to know that he wasn’t a businessman as he had claimed.

“Sometimes, he would not come home. He would say he had one business to attend to but none of the businesses ever brought in money for the family. So I knew he must have been cheating on me. I went through his phone one day and saw a text message from someone claiming to be pregnant for him. He denied and swore to me that he knew nothing about it.

“I don’t mind putting down more money at home, I just want him to be putting something down too even if it’s only N5,000. I bought him a car when he complained about taking public transport.

“He gets jealous every time he sees me with any man and if he asks for money and I don’t give him, he gets very violent. The painful part was that he beats me in the presence of our children.”

But interestingly, the trend is not peculiar to the country’s educated class alone. It cuts across all strata of the society.

For example, a sample carried out in major markets in Lagos shows a scenario similar to the ones earlier highlighted.

A lot of the women at Ketu and Mile 12 markets in Lagos are travellers from adjoining states like Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Kwara, sending money home for the upkeep of their families.

One of the these traders from Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, identified herself as Mrs. Ramota.

Ramota said though she labours everyday to send money home to her family, reports getting back to her concerning her husband had been unpleasant.

“In spite of all I do to feed my husband and four children, travelling up and down, I hear that he cheats on me whenever I’m not around. And he doesn’t do anything. He always waits for me to send money,” she said.

The Books frown at it

Speaking on the issue, a Muslim cleric, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, said that the Quran specified that the man should provide for his home and not the woman.

He said, “The Quran says the man should be the breadwinner. That is according to Quran Chapter 4 verses 24-27. There is nothing wrong if the woman is empowered. If she can work, she should be allowed to work. The Quran says that men have reward for their work and women too have reward for what they do.”

Also, Pastor Seyi Adeyemi, the senior pastor of the Worship Centre and Apostolic Church, Oregun, Lagos, said the “Bible is very clear with regards to the responsibilities of a man in a home as the breadwinner.”

He continued, “The Bible clearly states that whosoever does not provide for his home has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. It is not out of place to have a situation whereby the woman who is supposed to be a helper but blessed to be equally as buoyant probably because of the work she is doing, stands to bridge the gap in the time of challenges. The man may have lost his job or be going through some hard times.

“But it does not mean that the man should sit down and reverse the role established by God. The man should not become the househusband and leave the woman to go out and fend while he sits back idling away doing nothing and expecting the woman to bring everything. A man should find something to do, no matter how the situation may be.

“It is worse to be a beggar in your own home or sit down doing nothing when the woman is bringing in income. It is more dignifying for the husband to do something, even if it is small and earns little income than to be a dependant or a beggar in his home. Men should not take it for granted that since their wives are working or earning more, then they should now sit back.”

In her contribution, a marriage counsellor, Rev. Shade Toyin-Kehinde, agreed that the added responsibilities being given to the girl-child could be responsible for the perceived laziness in some men today. She, however, appealed to women going through such situations to shun divorce and seek counsel. She also advised young women in the process of making a choice for marriage “to pray, look well and also seek for counsel.”

She said, “Divorce is not an option; that a man is lazy is no grounds for divorce. He’s become your cross and you have to carry it. For such a woman, it is better to find a counsellor or somebody both of them respect. She can seek for counsel from such a person and it will be very helpful.

“A man that is full of ego will not want to listen if the woman is trying to encourage him; he may say she’s trying to control him because she is the one making the money or that people will say it’s his wife that is controlling him. So the woman needs a lot of wisdom.”

She also encouraged such men to do any legal work they can lay their hands on and not wait for the job that suits their desires when their options are limited.

“Some of our men like to wait for white collar jobs which are very scarce these days. So sit at home while the woman hawks around, trades, does everything , brings money and shamelessly, such a man will sit down and eat .

“Some of them have been sitting down for ages, some for 10 years and don’t see anything bad in it. It is very wrong. There are businesses and petty trading that a man can engage in and will still fetch money and he will still maintain his pride as the head of the home. Such men are ashamed to take any other job apart from the one they are looking for but are not ashamed to take money from their wives.”

She also encouraged counsellors and pastors to try to connect such men with opportunities that could help them become productive beyond the usual prayer and counselling sessions organised for affected couples.

However, Ashibogwu’s opinion is that the trend is not necessarily on the increase but that the situation is being brought to the fore more than before because of increasing access to data in the country.

He said, “Women are naturally more industrious. It has been the case for long. We are having more access to data, so it’s beginning to show that more women are more industrious than men.


http://www.punchng.com/feature/female-breadwinners-lament-we-slave-to-feed-our-househusbands-yet-we-cant-divorce-them/

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday expressed gratitude to a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps, Ezemagu Sunday Nnamdi, who was said to have donated N10,000 to his re-election bid.

A statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, quoted President Jonathan as saying in his appreciation letter to Nnamdi that he was deeply touched and encouraged by the donation.

“Your gracious gesture is particularly gratifying, coming as it does from one of our nation’s vibrant and gifted youths who are our successor generation and for whom our Administration is unequivocally committed to providing the requisite environment to optimally realize their tremendous creative and productive potentials.

“As I carry on with the task of positively transforming our country for its God-ordained greatness and prosperity, I will continue to count on the goodwill as well as the practical and prayerful support of committed patriots like you,” President Jonathan wrote to the young Nigerian, Ezemagu Sunday Nnamdi who is currently serving in the National Youth Service Corps.

Nnamdi was said to have sent the donation before the Peoples Democratic Party adopted Jonathan as its sole candidate in the forthcoming presidential election in 2015.

Abati quoted the President as thanking Nnamdi and welcoming his expression of faith in the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to reposition Nigeria for sustained growth and development.

“The President assured Sunday and other young Nigerians that he will continue to do his best in the service of the nation in keeping with their trust and expectations,” Nnamdi was said to have stated in his letter forwarding his donation to the President, assured President Jonathan of the continued support of patriotic Nigerians and urged him to seek re-election in 2015.

The corps member added, “Nigerians are behind you. We see your good works in power, transportation, education, housing, ICT, sports, electoral reforms, observation of the principle of federal character and the creation of investment opportunities.

“The insurgents who are trying to destabilise your Administration are enemies of peace and progress. You will surely defeat them.”


http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-lauds-corps-members-n10000-donation-to-re-election-bid/

A United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit sitting in Illinois has declared a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) chieftain, Buruji Kashamu, a fugitive wanted in America for trial over allegations of importing drug to the country.

Delivering judgment in an application by Kashamu for a writ of mandamus, Justice Charles R. Norgle refused to quash an indictment issued against the PDP chieftain.

The court held that the indictment against him had no expiration date.

The court held: “Should he ever come to the United States, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, he could be put on trial in the Federal District Court in Chicago, since the indictment has no expiration date.

“An original indictment remains pending until it is dismissed or until double jeopardy or due process would forbid prosecution under it.”

Kashamu, a dual citizen of Nigeria and Benin, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Chicago, along with 13 other persons, with conspiracy to import heroin into the United States and distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 963.

The U.S. government believes that Kashamu was the leader of the conspirators.

He was indicted both in his own name and under what the government believed to be two aliases that he used: “Alaji” and “Kasmal”.

Based on the refusal of a magistrate in the United Kingdom to grant a request by the U.S. to extradite him, Kashamu filed an application in the U.S. seeking to nullify his indictment.

The UK magistrate had refused to grant the application to extradite Kashamu on the ground that the U.S. did not conclusively prove that he was the same Alaji wanted in the U.S. for trial.

The court noted that 11 other defendants indicted alongside Kashamu pleaded guilty, one proceeded to trial and was convicted, and another could not be found and remained a fugitive.

The court noted that despite knowing that he was wanted in the U.S., “Kashamu remains in Nigeria, living openly, a prominent businessman and a politician belonging to the ruling party”.

The court wondered that “although the United States had an extradition treaty with Nigeria, our government has made no effort to extradite him”.

While asking him to buy a flight ticket to U.S. to come and stand trial, the court said: “There was a good deal of evidence against him. We noted in our previous opinion that among other bits of evidence, Kashamu’s co-defendants who had pleaded guilty had admitted their participation in the charged conspiracy and identified ‘Alaji’as the leader of the conspiracy.

“Two of them identified Kashamu as Alaji in a photographic lineup, and in the extradition proceeding the government submitted their affidavits to that effect.”

In opposing the petition for mandamus the Justice Department had told the court that “the prospects for extradition (from Nigeria) have recently improved and, as a result, the government is optimistic about extraditing Kashamu”.

The court held that Kashamu’s motion to dismiss the indictment against him was premature, “as he may soon find himself in the district court in Chicago, able to present a fuller case that his right to a speedy trial is being violated”.

The court, however, noted that it might be difficult to extradite him because he was a very influential person in Nigeria.

“Given Kashamu’s prominence in Nigerian business and government circles, and the English magistrate’s findings and conclusion, the probability of extradition may actually be low”, the court held.

Kashamu had argued the threat to extradite him had prevented him from travelling outside Nigeria lest the United States seek extradition of him from another country, as it did albeit unsuccessfully when it found him in the United Kingdom.

He also claimed that the outstanding indictment had besmirched his reputation and by doing so had impeded his business and political ambitions in Nigeria.

But the court held: “These are reasonable concerns, but do not support the relief that he seeks from us.

“He was indicted 16 years ago. At any time during this long interval he had only to show up in the Federal District Court in Chicago to obtain a determination of his guilt or innocence.

“When a suspected criminal flees from imminent prosecution, becoming a fugitive before he is indicted, the statute of limitations on prosecuting him is suspended.

“Similarly, when a defendant flees the country to escape justice, the inference is that he didn’t want a speedy trial—he wanted no trial.

“And if he doesn’t want a speedy trial, he can’t complain that the judiciary didn’t give him one.”

The court found that the indictment against him to be very serious criminal charges.

The court noted that one of Kashamu’s co-defendants was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The judge said: “If Kashamu was indeed the ringleader of the drug conspiracy, as he may have been, he might if convicted be given an even heavier sentence – quite possibly a life sentence; 21 U.S.C. § 960(b)(1)(A), authorises a life sentence for a conspiracy to import at least a kilogramme of heroin.

“If he wants to fight the charges, he has only to fly from Lagos to Chicago; there are loads of reasonably priced flights.

“How then can he argue with a straight face that the failure of the United States to extradite him entitles him to dismissal of the charges? He can’t; and the petition for a writ of mandamus is therefore denied,” the judge ruled.

In his reaction to the judgment refusing his application to quash the indictment against him, Kashamu said he would fight till he got justice.

In a statement he personally issued last night, Kashamu said that he had been cleared of the indictment by courts in Britain.

He said that despite the British judgment and the defeats the Americans had suffered in their attempts to place a false accusation on him, they had neither attempted to extradite him nor withdraw the charges.

He accused the U.S court of appeal of making ? some wide-ranging generalized statements, which were not borne out by the records.

He said that the charge against him should have been quashed because the trial was delayed and no effort was made to extradite him.

He said ?”I have several complaints against that judgment and my lawyers are exploring the opportunities available for appeal.”

“However before my political adversaries begin the usual perversion of truth I wish to make the following comments on the judgment for the records.

“Again Mr. Posner has ignored the facts on record and the findings of the English Courts in coming to his conclusions that: I have no rights under the American Constitution because I have never been in the United States and “it would be very odd that someone with so attenuated a connection to the United States would have rights under the US Constitution”.

“But no matter; even if the government is incorrect and Kashamu does have constitutional rights, he still loses, because they haven’t been violated”.

He said that the court of appeal came to a wrong conclusion by holding that ?only two options were available to him.

The first is to “return” to the U.S. and “stand trial and at the trial renew his motion for dismissal on the basis of the speedy trial clause” The second “is to obtain from us, as he is trying to do, a writ of mandamus ordering the District court to dismiss the indictment”.

He said: “Judge Posner comes to these wrong conclusions in order to create a scenario of a stalemate between me and the U.S authorities whereby he posits that I will not come to the U.S. to fall into the clutches of the U.S. judiciary and that the U.S. authorities in turn have little hope of ever extraditing me to the U.S in view of my prominence in Nigeria and the findings of the British Courts, thus he then surmises: “as he won’t risk the first path to relief, which would require him to come to the United States and fall into the clutches of the federal judiciary, he must rely entirely on mandamus”.

He said that the appeal court? proceeded to reject the application for mandamus for the reason that he had not come to the U.S. to “face the judicial music”.

According to him, the court feigns ignorance of the statistics that show a serious racial prejudice against blacks and foreigners (especially from developing countries) by the mainly white dominated federal judiciary of the United States.

He said that the prejudice of the justice of the appeal court was patent in the casual manner it treated ‘this important matter and attempts to “call a dog a bad name in order to hang it.”

He accused the court of trying to change a fundamental principle of criminal and International Human rights law by placing upon a suspect who had never been in the U.S. before (merely upon being informed of allegations against him before a U.S. Court) the responsibility to buy a cheap ticket from www.priceline.com, come to the U.S. to surrender himself into the arms of the U.S. judiciary (to prove his innocence of the charges against him?).

He said: ?”I do not believe that justice has been done. And it is not over yet.”


http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/09/pdp-chieftain-kashamu-loses-bid-stop-drug-trial-u-s/

Thousands of Nigerians are detained and tortured, and some killed, yearly by their country’s security forces, a damning report by the global rights organization, Amnesty International, said Thursday.

The report indicted the Nigerian military and police for brutal torture and extra judicial killing of Nigerians, including children held in their custody.

It also said between 5,000 and 10,000 Nigerians have been detained since 2009 when military operations began against the armed group, Boko Haram, and that many of them have either been tortured or otherwise ill-treated.

The report, presented in Abuja Thursday compiles 10 years of abuses.

“Torture is a routine occurrence in Nigeria, largely to extract “confessions” or as punishment for alleged crimes and that hundreds of suspects in police and military custody across the country are being subjected to a range of physical and psychological torture or other ill-treatment while security forces act in a climate of impunity,” Amnesty International said.

The report came as Nigerian officials complained about an alleged decision by the United States government to stop Nigeria from procuring arms to tackle Boko Haram.

The United States accuses Nigeria of extensive human rights abuses in its fight against Boko Haram and says its laws forbid arms transaction with any country so accused.

Amnesty International’s report is certain to complicate efforts at resolving the issues to allow Nigeria obtain military support and equipment.

The 62-page report, presented by Nicola Duckworth, a Senior Researcher and Netsanet Belay, Africa Advocacy Director with AI, is titled “Welcome to Hell Fire’ Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Nigeria.”

AI is a global movement of more than three million supporters, members and activist in more than 150 countries and territories who campaign to end grave abuses of human rights.

AI listed in the report the techniques employed by the military and the police to torture their victims as:

-Beating, (including with whips, gun butts, machetes, batons, sticks, rods and cables); Rape and sexual assault (including inserting bottles and other objects into woman’s vagina); Shooting people in the leg, foot or hand during investigation; Extracting nails, teeth, fingerprints and toenails with pliers; Suspending detainees upside down by their feet for hours.

Other methods are tying detainees to a rod by their knees and elbows and suspending them as on a roasting spit; Starvation; Forcing people to sit, lie or roll on sharp objects, such as glass or board with nails; Electric shocks, including administering shocks to the genitals; Choking with ropes until victims faint; ‘Tabay’ – when officers tie detainees elbows are behind their backs and suspend them; and ‘Water Torture’ – when hot and cold water are poured on naked bodies.

The report says by allowing torture to go unchecked, the Nigerian government is breaking its agreement under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights; United Nation Convention Against Torture and the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

It said the abuses also violate the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women; Convention on the Rights of the Child and The Geneva Convention – common Article 3 and the Second Additional Protocol.

Torture by the military

AI said there has been a marked increase in reports of human rights violations by the security forces including torture and other ill-treatment, since the emergency rule was first announced in the three North Eastern States of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

It added that new regulations under the state emergency empowered the Joint Task Force, JTF, and military to arrest anyone suspected of terrorist related offence.

“Thousand of people – estimates ranges between 5,000 and 10,000 – suspected of association with Boko Haram have been detained. A large number of appear to have been subjected to torture, while virtually all are held in extremely poor conditions of detention that amount to ill-treatment,” it said.

“Of the thousand arrested and detained, few are eventually released. Some were extra-judicially executed. Other died from a combination of lack of medical care for injuries, starvation and/or inadequate food, and overcrowding and other poor detention conditions. An unknown number still remain in detention.”

AI said most of those it interviewed were detained by the JTF and the military in Giwa barracks in Maiduguri in Borno State and Sector Alpha military facility (known locally as Guatanamo) in Damaturu, Yobe State.

It said it also interviewed several people who were detained at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, and a detention centre in Abuja (a police facility known as ‘the abattoir’).

The organisation stated that most of those arrested and detained are held incommunicado – denied access to the outside world, including lawyers, families and courts, and are held outside the protection of the law – in conditions that may amount to amount to enforce disappearance.

It added, “Detainees are usually not informed of why they have been arrested, and their families are not told of their fate or where they are going to be held,” it said

Torture by Police

AI said in researching the report, it visited police stations throughout Nigeria over many years and documented hundreds of allegations of torture or other ill-treatment in police custody.

It stated that most victims are poor and from vulnerable groups, and are tortured either to extract information and “confessions” or as punishment for their alleged offences.

According to the organisation, “Amnesty International found that torture is such a routine and systemic part of policing that many police sections in various states, including the SARS and CID, use designated ‘torture chambers’: special interrogation rooms commonly used for torturing suspects.

“These are often known by different names such as “the temple” or “the theatre”, and are in some cases under the charge of an officer known informally as “O/C Torture” (Officer in Charge of torture).

“Although reports of torture emanate from most police stations, several human rights defenders, lawyers and police officers told Amnesty International that torture is particularly common in the SARS police stations across Nigeria. Amnesty International was able to visit the SARS detention centre in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja – known as the abattoir – in July 2009. Suspects were held in a disused warehouse located outside the city.

“Amnesty International delegates saw at least 30 empty bullet cases on the floor and chains hanging on the wall. There were visible signs of blood in the gutter. The situation was similar during a second visit in October 2012.”

Children also

The organisation said it received report about children under 18 being tortured in police custody.

It said, “Nigeria has three three juvenile offender institutions and several state remand homes, but in most police stations and prisons, children are held in cells together with adults.

Methodology

AI said apart from carrying out extensive investigation, it also interviewed victims of torture, some of whose harrowing experiences were published in the report.

The organisation said for over 10 years, it documented more than 500 cases of allegations of torture and other ill-treatment by the Nigerian security forces against suspects held in their custody.

Police kick

In a statement by its spokesperson, Emmanuel Ojukwu, the police said while it would not question the freedom of Amnesty International to earn its relevance and bread, the force takes serious exceptions to some “blatant falsehoods” and innuendoes contained in that report.

“For one, it smacks of indecency and intemperate language to liken our dear nation Nigeria, to hell fire. That cannot be true. We believe that Nigeria is a growing nation, green and largely peaceful,” it said.

“While the Nigeria Police and other operators in the criminal justice sector are undergoing systematic reforms, and aligning themselves with the demands of democracy, there is no gain saying the fact that the Nigeria Police Force has since improved its operational efficiency and effectiveness.

“Since the dawn of democracy in 1999, the Nigeria Police Force has significantly improved on its human rights records, owing largely to training and re-training, community policing, attitudinal change and structural transformation.”

The police faulted AI’s claim that it visited police formations during which it interviewed some family member of suspects.

It said, “At no time in its report, did Amnesty speak or interface with the Police authorities. This obviously shows their disdain and apparent lack of character where the democratic tenets of fair hearing are concerned.

“The report covered a seven year period of 2007-2014. I dare say that some of the issues raised have since been dispensed with and settled.

The police said torture is not an official policy of the force and that whenever such complaints arise, culpable officials are promptly sanctioned.

The police also explained that contrary to AI’s claim, it is women-friendly and that it does not target sex workers, nor routinely adopt rape as a weapon.

“Instead, the Police has established a family and human trafficking unit to protect the rights of women, children and the vulnerable members of our society,” it said.

The force however said it “shall meticulously scan through the document, and investigate any current human rights abuses linked to any officer or formation. Any identified and established case of malfeasance or misconduct shall be treated in line with the laws and regulations.”


https://www.premiumtimesng.com/headlines/168339-nigerian-security-forces-maim-kill-thousands-in-torture-chambers-amnesty-international.html#sthash.cmswxvcc.dpbs

Nigeria summoned the Egyptian ambassador Thursday to protest the maltreatment of a 17-year-old Nigerian by Egypt’s national carrier, Egypt Air.

The foreign ministry summoned the Egyptian ambassador, Ashraf Salama, to formally lodge a protest over the treatment meted out to Joshua Abdul-Azeez, and demanded an unreserved apology from the Egyptian Government.

The Minister of State 1, Foreign Affairs, Viola Onwuliri, accused Egypt Air of “child-abuse” for starving the young Nigerian of food for three days, after wrongly routing his air ticket.

She said it was unacceptable that Egypt Air had failed to respond to repeated enquiries from the Nigeria Embassy in Cairo on what led to the treatment of the Nigerian.

The Nigerian authorities had sought explanation from the airline on reports that the Nigerian passport of the 17-year-old Nigerian was torn to shreds by a staff of Egypt Air in Istanbul, Turkey.

Ms. Onwuliri expressed dismay that the Egyptian ambassador’s initial reaction to the issue was to question the authenticity of local media reportage on the Nigerian who was treated like “a common criminal’’ by Egypt Air.

“Egypt and Nigeria are friendly countries and they have built this friendship over the years, but I don’t think we should allow things like this to happen,” she said.

“You (the ambassador) are worried about four pages of newspaper report on the issue, but I am surprised that you are not worried that a Nigerian passport was torn by an official of Egypt Air.

“I am surprised that you are not worried that a young boy, a Nigerian citizen, was left without food and water by an airline operated by your government.

“I am really surprised at you Mr. Ambassador,’’ she said.

The minister told the ambassador that the Nigerian government would not hesitate to demand compensation for the citizen when it concludes investigation on the matter.

“One Nigerian citizen is important to us and part of our multi-track diplomacy is that every Nigeria everywhere must be fully accounted for.

“The young boy in questions was going back to school in Ukraine and he complained here that he was issued the wrong ticket.

“Did you (Egypt Air) employ people who cannot read tickets and issue correct codes even after complaints,’’ she said.

The minister therefore demanded a formal explanation from the Egyptian government, which had 100 per cent control of Egypt Air.

In his defence, the Egyptian ambassador earlier blamed the Nigerian media for escalating a “small incident’’ involving a Nigerian passenger and Egypt Air.

Mr. Salama said that a Nigerian newspaper devoted four-pages to the issue.

He said the embassy had contacted Egypt Air and his home government on the incident but had yet to receive a formal report.

“We have respect for our Nigerian brothers and if this incident really happened, we will see who is responsible and punish accordingly.

“But we must taste and verify the credibility of the news report on the issue before we make a judgment,’’ he said.

Mr. Salama called for restraint from the Nigerian authorities on the issue, saying “I do not think this incident should escalate so much to affect our good relations built over the years.

“We have been supporting and standing by each other and I think we should continue that way,’’ he said.

He told the foreign minister that so many Nigerians travel to Egypt every day, adding “we have 16 flights daily and seven daily flights from Cairo to Abuja.’’



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/168325-nigeria-summons-egyptian-ambassador-demands-apology-over-maltreatment-of-teenager.html#sthash.b12DIhZJ.dpbs

The on-going strike by members of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria could result in nationwide power outage as major power stations have suffered gas cut off.

Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, confirmed this in Abuja on Thursday while speaking on the effect of the workers’ action on gas supply to the power plants according to a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Kande Daniel.

Nebo observed that the actions taken by members of NUPENG and PENGASSAN in the course of their on-going strike have cut off gas supply to major power stations including Egbin, AES, Olorunsogo, Geregu and Sapele.

NUPENG and PENGASSAN had on Tuesday embarked on a strike action because of the cancellation of the closed pension system for the workers by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The unions also claimed that the management of the NNPC had also refused to fund contributions to the scheme, which they said remained the workers’ legacy pension plan.

Nebo called on workers to call off the industrial action.

He regretted the adverse effect of the strike on power supply at a time he claimed the government had recorded substantial progress in solving the gas problem, thereby raising peak generation in recent weeks to an average of 4,500, with a spinning reserve of about 300 MW.

According to him, reports from across the country had indicated noticeable improvement in the quantity and quality of power supply to homes and businesses.

He, therefore, decried the current setback arising from the oil and gas workers’ action, curtailing supply of gas to power stations, and reducing power generation.

This has inevitably led to a drastic reduction in power supply across the country, he added.

The minister assured that efforts were on to ensure a speedy and amicable resolution of the matter, and appealed for the understanding of electricity consumers affected by the development.

While appreciating the concerns and fears of the workers, Nebo appealed to members of NUPENG and PENGASSAN to take into consideration, the enormous damaging socio-economic effect of their action on the nation, and return to work.

Nebo who also inspected Apo substation where a weather-induced explosion occurred during the week, assessed the extent of damage, and was assured by the Transmission Commission of Nigeria engineers that efforts were on to restore supply to parts of Abuja affected by the incident.

He further assured that results of government’s efforts to effect a significant improvement in power supply would become even more evident in the coming weeks.

The minister emphasised that the cause of fire that gutted the facility was nature-induced from lightening sparks.

He dismissed the insinuation that the accident could have been by attack or sabotage.


http://www.punchng.com/news/workers-cut-gas-supply-to-egbin-geregu-darkness-looms/

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, yesterday, said he was part of those that aided his predecessor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel to claim indigeneship of Ogun State in 2003.

According to Amosun, Daniel was an indigene of Isoko in Delta State, but, requested for assistance from him and some other unnamed persons to get a family house in Sagamu ahead of his 2003 governorship ambition in the state.

Amosun spoke yesterday, at Odeda Local Government in continuation of his local government tour which began on Tuesday.

The governor was reacting to allegations levelled against his administration by Daniel when the latter was at Odeda penultimate week.

Daniel had accused Amosun of selling off all the farmlands in the area to other states, claiming Amosun’s administration had short-changed the people of Odeda.

According to Amosun, “when they came into power, the farmlands were over 60, when we came in, it remains only five. Our forefathers will never forgive them and the generations coming will also curse them. They thought we were like them, we are not.

“We are not bastards from Isoko. They came to us then, we are the one they ran to and we helped them to get where they are claiming today as their home. Although, it was not time for political campaign, yet, I will not hesitate to respond to Daniel’s allegations which he levelled against my administration here in the same Odeda Local Government.

“He is envious of our achievements and successes recorded within the past few years. We need to let them know that we are not thieves like them. They will not be able to stand and campaign for vote here in Odeda by the time I start exposing them. They are treasure looters. If not for the type of the country we are, they ought to have covered their heads in shame rather than boast around the town.”

In a swift reaction, former governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel described the statement credited to Amosun on his nativity status as diversionary.

Daniel in a statement by his media aide, Ayo Giwa said: “It is now glaring that the clock is fast ticking towards electoral defeat hence his attempt to stand history on its head by reverting to the same scenario that played itself out some 12 years ago. The statement that Otunba Gbenga Daniel is not from Sagamu is an insult on the entire good people of the historical town of Sagamu as well as a taboo and effrontery on the traditional institutions in the land especially the thrones of the Akarigbo of Remoland as well as the Ewusi of Makun in Remo Kingdom.

“Precisely on Saturday 23 February, 2002, Otunba Gbenga Daniel was made the Aare Asoludero of Makun Sagamu with traditional rites performed by the Late Ewusi, Oba Efuwape Ogunsowo, Inanuwa II. To all intents and purposes, Oba Ogunsowo declared that Otunba Daniel was a freeborn of Makun in Sagamu and of the Ojelobaye family origin. Prominent among those who were present on that occasion was the former Governor of Lagos State and the leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

“Has he quickly forgotten that Otunba Daniel also holds the traditional title of the Arole of Remoland as well as many across the state? If he has respect and honour for traditional authorities and customs how dare he challenge such authorities? That Otunba Daniel sold all the state’s patrimony is in itself cheap blackmail. Is concession not different from outright sale? What has happened to the companies since he came to power some three and a half years ago and why did he not attempt to revive them if they are viable? The outburst from the incumbent is belated and immature.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/assisted-daniel-claim-ogun-indigeneship-amosun/#sthash.8atYEiBT.dpuf

Founder of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, Prophet Temitope Joshua, says he has been facing hard times since the collapse of his church guesthouse in Lagos.

He, has however said that he would survive the trying times.

A six-storey guesthouse belonging to the church collapsed last Friday, killing no fewer than 80 persons.

A message on SCOAN official Facebook page quotes TB Joshua as saying that he would not be “destroyed” by the incident.

“Hard times may test me, they cannot destroy me,” TB Joshua said, adding, “To withstand hard times, stand with Christ. When you face trials, hard times, you can count it all joy if you add faith.”

Quoting the Bible, TB Joshua appeared to be reaching out to his thousands of followers across the world via the social network, just as he stated that God sometimes makes use of hard times to “draw us to Himself.”

According to TB Joshua, God visits His people with hard times because people often become “proud and stupid with wealth and pleasure.”

He added, “It is through hard times that you gain the necessary experience and maturity to handle whatever responsibility given you. We are most likely to go astray from God and forget Him when things are easy with us in the world because we often become proud and stupid with wealth and pleasure.

“God visits His people with hard times that they may learn His way. His ways, though hard to the ungodly men, are desirable and profitable because they lead us to safety unto eternal life. God allowed the enemy to overcome Israel so that they may learn the difference between serving God and serving the devil.

“If not for our hard times, we would not have sought the face of God. I mean, if not because of hard times, man by his wicked nature, would not have sought the face of God. This means, God sometimes uses hard times to draw us to Him so that we can take our proper position and possession in Him.

But despite his words of admonition, some commentators appeared to be sore with the popular televangelist.

A South African public affairs commentator, Allan Taylor, expressed concerns over the number his compatriots lost in the tragedy.

South African President, Jacob Zuma, on Tuesday noted that in recent times, the country had not witnessed the death of a large number of her citizens in one incident in a foreign land.

Taylor lamented that TB Joshua was allegedly deceiving and luring South Africans to his church.

Taking a swipe at TB Joshua, he accused him of unfairly personalising the tragedy at the expense of the “unfortunate victims.”

“I’m saddened by the death of up to 67 South Africans in the Nigerian church collapse and at the hands of TB Joshua’s greed. It is also important to expose those who lured the unfortunate victims to Nigeria on false pretences.

“Innocent lives of people have been lost; yet TB Joshua makes the tragedy about himself. He is a disgrace,” the enraged South African wrote on Twitter.

Another Bloemfontein-based South African, Portia Tsotetsi, said TB Joshua owed the families of her compatriots lost in the building collapse some answers.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the 67 South Africans who lost their lives in Nigeria. What bothers me most is the silence of TB Joshua and his church concerning the 67 who died.

“Where are messages of condolence? When is the church (SCOAN) offering a statement of condolences to the families? When is TB Joshua speaking about this tragedy? What bothers me is the amount of blind loyalists who refuse to see facts. They will do anything to protect their church,” Tsotetsi tweeted.

But a member of the church based in South Africa, Neo Motlokoa, stated that her faith in the Christian leadership of TB Joshua “is not shaken” despite the criticisms that has followed the church disaster.

“I am a South African who loves Jesus. This morning every TV station and newspaper is carrying the news about the tragedy.

“Has Prophet TB Joshua all of a sudden become questionable to you? Is he still a servant of Christ? This is about not only SCOAN and the Prophet (TB Joshua). My faith is not shaken,” Motlokoa wrote on the church’s official Facebook page.

A Ghanaian follower of the clergyman, Ebenezer Donkor, insisted that despite the widespread criticism of TB Joshua, nothing would keep him away from the church

“Even if another building collapses to kill one billion people, I will still follow Christ through Prophet TB Joshua. My faith is unshakable. God bless the man of God and all those who follow him,” Donkor said.



http://www.punchng.com/i-punch/im-facing-hard-times-tb-joshua/

The former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and chieftain of All Progressive Congress, APC, Nasir El-Rufai on Tuesday announced his bid for the Kaduna State governorship.

Mr. El-Rufai visited Fadan Kagoma, the hometown of former governor of Kaduna state, late Patrick Yakowa, who died in a helicopter crash in 2012.

Speaking at the palace of Kpop Gwong, Paul Zakka Wyoms, the former FCT minister said he was at the palace to formally inform the people of Gwong Chiefdom of his gubernatorial ambition which he said is hinged on justice, responsible and sensitive leadership that will take the state to another level.

He paid tribute to Mr. Yakowa whom he described as a responsible and sincere leader whose death left a big vacuum in the polity of the state.

“I came here to formally inform you of our decision to seek the highest office in our dear state. It is a demonstration of deep commitment to the peace, development and unity of Kaduna state. I am set and ready to move to action, justice is paramount to development and that is my direction. I am seeking your blessings and moral backing,” Mr. El-Rufai said.

“I am not new to our state; I did my primary school, secondary school and university in our state. And also practiced here in our state before moving to Abuja where we both served with Yakowa in General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s government, and so I know our problems and together we will run a responsible and participatory government together. Justice is paramount in development and unity of any nation.”

The former minister concluded that diversities are strength and a cornerstone of purposeful development, saying, “Diversities and differences are strength as instituted by Almighty God and it is His making and so we must harness it for common good.”

The former minister has continued his familiarization tour in Southern Kaduna area of the state ahead of his public declaration.



https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nwest/168258-el-rufai-visits-yakowas-hometown-as-he-declares-kaduna-guber-bid.html#sthash.EefCqHiA.dpbs

Microsoft has bought Mojang, the Swedish firm behind the popular video game Minecraft, for $2.5bn (£1.5bn).

The title, which has sold over 54 million copies, allows players to build structures with retro Lego-style blocks, as well as explore a large map and battle others.

The deal was announced by Xbox chief Phil Spencer.

Mojang, whose three founders will leave the company, assured fans that “everything is going to be OK”.

Some analysts have speculated the deal is designed to attract more users to Microsoft’s Windows Phone devices.

The acquisition comes a year after Microsoft bought the Finnish mobile phone firm Nokia.

Minecraft is one of the top-selling apps on both Apple’s iOS store and and Android’s Google Play, and has recently been released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, further boosting sales.

Last month, it was the third most popular console game, according to market research firm NPD Group, despite being on sale for a while.

The game’s developer, Mojang, which was founded in 2009, brought in over $100m in profit last year, and employs about 40 people.

Microsoft said the Mojang team would join its game studio, which is responsible for titles such as Halo, Forza and Fable.

The tech giant’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said: “Minecraft is more than a great game franchise – it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft.”



http://www.punchng.com/news/microsoft-buys-minecraft-for-2-5bn-2/

The Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, yesterday noted that with over 121 million active subscribers, the country’s tele-density has increased to 86.62 percent as against 114.76 million in 2011 and 95.9 million in 2010.

Johnson, who spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, during the third regular meeting of the National Council on Communication Technology, said the country had made appreciable progress in the ICT sector and was the largest internet market in Africa.

She said: “With over 121 million active subscribers, the country’s tele-density has increased to 86.62 percent up from 114.76 million in 2011 and 95.9 million in 2010.”

Citing the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, she said as at June 2012, Nigeria was home to 48.4 million internet users up from 45 million at the end of 2011.

“The 2012 figure represents 28 percent internet penetration and 29 percent of total internet users in Africa, making Nigeria the largest internet market in Africa.

“On ICT in government, in recent ranking of countries in the United Nations e-government index, Nigeria moved up 21 places to number 141 and improved her participation cores by 22 points.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/nigeria-largest-internet-market-africa-minister/

Energy firms are owing banks in Nigeria about N2.644 trillion as at end-December 2013, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has stated.

The amount, according to the CBN in its recently released Financial Stability Report for December 2014, represents 24.21 per cent of the total private sector credit in the period under review.

Specifically, the CBN report revealed that oil and gas firms borrowed N2.45 trillion from the banks, while power and energy firms borrowed N193.98 billion, representing 1.93 per cent of the total.

Generally, total bank loans and advances to the various sectors of the economy stood at N10.043 trillion, rising by 13.9 per cent from N8.814 trillion recorded at the end of June 2013.

The report said, “Total bank loans and advances to the various sectors of the economy grew by 13.9 per cent to N10.043 trillion at end-December 2013. The oil and gas sector recorded the highest growth rate, with a share of 24.4 per cent, followed by manufacturing 12.9 per cent and the general sector 11.6 per cent.

“The share of the agricultural sector declined to 3.7 per cent, from 4.0 per cent in the first half of 2013.”

The CBN, however, warned that “The continued dominance of short-term deposits constrained the ability of banks to lend long term loans and especially to the real sector, which typically has a preference for longer loan maturities. Thus, the observed mismatch portends refinancing and re-pricing risks for the system.”

In view of the loans given out by the banks, the CBN stated that Non-Performing Loans, NPL, decreased to 3.23 per cent, compared with 3.65 per cent at end-June 2013, reflecting an improvement in the quality of banks’ assets, remaining within the regulatory threshold of five per cent.

According to the CBN, total NPLs increased by 0.72 per cent to N324.13 billion at end-December 2013, from N321.80 billion at end-June 2013.

The CBN said, “Furthermore, credit concentration remained a concern as the top 50 and 100 borrowers constituted 31.88 and 40.51 per cent, respectively, of gross credit at end-December 2013. This compares with 32.57 and 40.76 per cent, respectively, at end-June 2013, indicating a marginal decrease in credit concentration.

“Liquidity risk remained subdued during the review period as all banks exceeded the minimum required ratio of 30 per cent and the industry maintained an average of 50.63 per cent.

“The downside risk, however, was the cost of liquidity management in order to contain inflationary pressure and to protect the naira exchange rate.”

Going forward, the CBN warned that the continued decline in oil revenues due to challenges in the oil sector, among other factors, could elevate market risks in 2014.

“Measures taken by the CBN, however, helped in moderating the rates towards the end of the reporting period.

“Notwithstanding the stable rates, the continued decline of foreign reserves and decrease in oil receipts due to challenges in the oil sector, coupled with possible foreign portfolio investment reversals following the tapering of the US quantitative easing programme, could elevate market risk,” the report stated.

In its projections for 2014, the CBN said, “For the Nigerian economy, real Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth is expected to remain strong at 7.3 per cent in 2014, up from the 6.4 per cent recorded in 2013.

“Similarly, real GDP growth in the non-oil sector is expected to remain strong, driven largely by agriculture, trade and services, while activities in the oil sector are projected to recover in 2014.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/energy-firms-owe-nigerian-banks-n2-6trn/

The Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar, has said that a cabal surrounding the ailing Governor, Danbaba Suntai, is holding him hostage in their bid to hold onto power to the detriment of his health.

Danbaba, who returned to the country from overseas treatment last Saturday, is still holed up in Abuja, more than 48 hours after he is expected to resume duties.

But reacting to the development through his Special Assistant, Media, Mr. Aaron Artimas, Umar said that the cabal was also thinking and acting for the ailing governor because he was not capable of doing so himself.

He decried a situation where a clique had decided to hold the ailing governor in perpetual hostage and made all the decisions for him because they wanted to perpetuate themselves in power.

Artimas said that the cabal was also shielding Danbaba from everybody because the acting governor was prevented from welcoming the ailing governor at the airport.

However a group, Tarabans United for Suntai, said that Umar was prevented from seeing the ailing governor because he (Umar) had been sponsoring all sort of falsehood and half truths in the media against his boss.

The group said that it was the highest point of hypocrisy for Umar to see Suntai when he (Umar) had few days before his boss’ arrival.

However, Artimas said that despite all the antics of the Suntai loyalists, the state government had continued to foot Suntai’s medical bills as well as taking care of his family and would not shirk from that responsibility.

He said, “Suntai returned from treatment abroad and he is still in Abuja because these people are the ones thinking for him. It is those who want power that are looking up to him as the solution to their immediate problem. The truth must be told one day because no matter how long they continued to hold him and shield him from the people of Taraba State, they are still answerable to Tarabans, who elected him.

“The government, which he heads, has been supporting him financially, materially and morally. All mortals are susceptible to falling sick at any time, including death and the people around Danbaba should allow him to recover fully and he needs all the rests to do that.”

He added, “The government has continued to foot his medical bills 100 per cent and take care of his family 100 per cent. Whatever they tried to do will not stand the test of time because you cannot continue to hide the truth. We cannot shy away from our responsibility to Danbaba as the duly elected governor of Taraba State. After being governor, Danbaba still has a long time to live and they should just allow him to live life to the fullest.”

But the pro-Suntai group, in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Ezekiel Gambo, said that since Suntai’s ailment, the acting governor had spent huge funds on a relentless media campaign against his benefactor; from photo cropping to outright falsehoods.

The statement said, “Right now, a rattled Umar, who sees power slipping from his quivering hands, is getting desperate sponsoring all sorts of attack against the governor. He has for instance, said he was blocked from seeing his boss at the airport and that this could only mean that the governor is not medically fit.

“But the truth is that he couldn’t see his boss on the grounds of principles. The handlers of Suntai rightly reasoned that for a deputy who just last Wednesday mandated the speaker to start the impeachment process on his boss, coming to the airport to receive or welcome that same person smacks of dishonesty. Was Umar there to ascertain if he was justified in branding his boss a vegetable? Or was he there to cause confusion? Are friends and family members not right to be wary of a man who thinks and speaks only negatively of their benefactor? And even if it is true that his boss was indeed incapacitated, should Umar, a man Suntai never offended, go after him so ferociously?”

http://www.punchng.com/news/suntai-not-fit-to-rule-now-says-acting-gov/

South African police are investigating two Nigerians and an Israeli citizen who tried to bring $9.3 million in cash into the country illegally, a spokesman said on Monday, in what might have been part of an arms deal.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) seized the funds at Lanseria Airport, north-west of Johannesburg, on September 5.

According to a Reuters report, SARS spokeswoman, Marika Muller, said that the funds were held at the central bank as police investigate.

“The passengers’ luggage was searched after Customs officials detected irregularities,” Muller said.

South Africa’s City Press newspaper reported that bundles of unused $100 bills packed in three suitcase were transported in a small business jet from Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

South African airport security spokesman, Solomon Makgale, confirmed a police investigation was under-way but declined to give further information about the individuals.


http://www.channelstv.com/2014/09/15/s-africa-probes-two-nigerians-israeli-9-3mln-cash-seizure/?fb_action_ids=940978682582816&fb_action_types=og.comments

Facebook has announced the number of its monthly users in Africa is about 100 million out of the continent’s 200 million active Internet users.

According to HumanIPO.com, Facebook Vice President for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Nicola Mendelson, said more than 80 per cent of Facebook users in Africa accessed the social media platform via mobile devices.

“People in high-growth countries want to be connected to the world around them. In countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, and elsewhere, mobile devices are increasingly becoming the way in which people find new information, and share their experiences in the world. How people experience the world is also unique, especially in high-growth regions,” Mendelson said.

In designing brand and advertising strategies, she said such should be tailored to meet the expectations of the targeted audience.

She said, “A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t necessarily work when it comes to building products and solutions that address diverse local needs, which is why Facebook is committed to crafting solutions specifically for high-growth markets.”

She revealed that Facebook is collaborating with clients and agencies to test mobile-first solutions and work together to deliver rich brand messages at lower data costs through solutions such as bandwidth targeting or new products.

http://www.punchng.com/business/technology/facebook-monthly-users-in-africa-hit-100-million/

The Federal Government on Thursday said it had in the last one month received 66,402 applications for the first phase of its 10,000 mortgages under the Affordable Home Ownership Scheme.

The project, to be spearheaded by the newly established Nigerian Mortgage Refinancing Company, will enable Nigerians to own their houses through mortgage loans at low interest rates under a flexible payment package.

Findings revealed that under the housing scheme, a unit of two-bedroom apartment would be sold for between N7.5m and N10m, depending on the location; while a three-bedroom house would be sold for N10m and above.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, while giving an update on the implementation of the scheme in Abuja on Thursday, said since the commencement of the programme on August 11, many people had expressed interest in the project.

She said the applications were spread across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, with 63 per cent of applicants being male.

Okonjo-Iweala said, “As of Friday, September 5, 2014, the initial closing date of the registration exercise, we had received 66,402 valid applications, with more still calling. That is more than six times oversubscription to our initial 10,000 pilot. We are extremely pleased with this outcome

“The applications were spread across the 36 states, including the FCT. Sixty-three per cent of applicants were male, while 37 per cent were female.

“Eighty-nine per cent of applicants applied for themselves – that is in their own names, even our women. Everybody seems to want to own their homes.”

Of the 66,402 people that applied, Okonjo-Iweala said 96 per cent of them were currently living in rented accommodations, while 51 per cent of the applicants preferred to live in Abuja and 18 per cent in Lagos.

“This shows that almost 70 per cent of applicants want to live in the two main urban areas and there is a strong belief in Nigeria showing that Abuja is truly the centre of unity,” she added.

The minister, who said only 11 per cent were joint applications (husband and wife), also added that about 60 per cent of the applicants were in the 31-40 year age bracket, and 15 per cent in the 21-30 year bracket.

Interestingly, she said Nigerians showed that they preferred three-bedroom flats/houses, with 62.7 per cent of the applicants signifying intention to acquire this property type.

Okonjo-Iweala added that 32 per cent of the applicants wanted two-bedroom flats, while a small percentage applied for one-bedroom flats and one-bedroom self-contained apartments.

In terms of employment status of those seeking to own these properties, the minister said that 92 per cent of the applicants were in stable employment positions, while only eight per cent were self-employed.

When asked what the government would do now that the first phase of the housing scheme had been oversubscribed, she said, “Now, due to the over subscription by six times, a decision has been taken to give all applicants to the lending members of the NMRC to share on a pro-rata basis.

“Lending members of the NMRC are expected to have the refinancing window of up to 20 years. They will sift through, then analyse and pre-qualify all applicants, culminating in the amounts each lender is willing to advance to the applicant.

“This lets the applicant know the value of property he/she can afford. Lending members of the NMRC have promised to complete this exercise within six to eight weeks from the receipt of the list.”

The minister said owing to the importance that President Goodluck Jonathan attached to the scheme; the first completed 10,000 mortgages would be published in the media, while subsequent qualified applicants would be notified.


http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/66402-apply-for-fgs-10000-housing-units/

Where others might see a house of horror, Louwtjie Louwrens — the man who bought Oscar Pistorius’s home — thinks he got the deal of a lifetime and a secure residence, even if his wife isn’t so sure.

Louwrens bought the Paralympic Gold medallist’s villa where Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead in the bathroom for a bargain $420,000 (4.5 million rand).

In 2011 Pistorius had tried to sell the house, tucked away in a prestigious gated community in the capital Pretoria, for nearly double that amount.

“I would say at the end of the day it will be a good buy,” Louwrens told AFP. “I’m sure the property value will increase going forward.”

Despite the bargain price, his idea to purchase the property met resistance from his family, who balked at the idea of living at the now world famous scene of Steenkamp’s alleged murder at the hands of Pistorius.

“For starters my wife wasn’t that happy,” Louwrens said.

Pistorius admits having shot and killed his girlfriend Steenkamp in the house on February 14, 2013, but says he mistook her for an intruder.

His trial on charges of premeditated murder began in March this year and will climax Thursday when Judge Thokozile Masipa begins her verdict.

The 27-year-old star sprinter, who is free on bail, has not lived in the house since the killing.

Louwrens, a mining consultant, said the house caught his attention when he was watching the Pistorius trial on his television.

“I saw a photo of this house on TV,” said the 57-year-old, “it was a nice looking house.”

Since then it has been cleaned and Louwrens said his wife was warming up to the move, which will take place in a couple of years when he retires.

“Now that they’ve started working, I could sense that she’s feeling a bit better about the place,” he said.

Ironically, Louwrens, a resident of Boksburg, a city an hour’s drive outside Johannesburg, said he bought the Pistorius house in the pursuit of safety.

South Africa is plagued by sky-high rates of crime, including hijackings and burglaries.

“I’ve been around there, you see the kids playing in the streets, some of the people mentioned to me that when they go out they don’t even lock,” he said, adding “you know my family is very important to me.”

Silver Woods Estate is “enclosed with a solid, electrified security wall” and regards safety as a “high priority,” according to the developers.

“I remember the day that we came to look at stands (plots), I wanted to just come in here and look at the estate, they just flatly refused to let me in,” said Tracy, a 38-year-old woman who lives on Pistorius’s former street.

“I said ‘geez I just want to have a drive,’ they were friendly about it, but they refused,” said Tracy, who declined to give her last name.

Tracy said she bought her house in the estate because it offered such exceptional security services.

“They do patrols on foot, they do patrols in a vehicle,” she said, “there’s an electric fence, there’s a big wall.”

“Everyone has an opinion,” said Tracy, “but I don’t feel scared.”

Khalil Goga, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, an independent policy think tank in South Africa, said that South Africans continue to shield themselves behind walls and fences even as their safety improves.

“In terms of crime, we’ve seen a reduction over the years since the highs in the early 2000’s,” said Goga.

He added that gated communities like the one Pistorius lived in are the choice for people with the means.

“In South Africa gated communities are becoming more commonplace with security measures becoming more strict and more sophisticated,” he said.

Still, the situation is not ideal, said Goga.

“If your neighbour can see your yard and it’s well lit, and people are walking on the streets, it’s actually a safer neighbourhood than in one that you can’t see behind the walls.”


http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2014/09/10/pistorius-house-a-good-buy-says-new-owner/

Youths and vigilance group members in Michika and Madagali local government areas of Adamawa State on Tuesday night killed about 80 Boko Haram insurgents fleeing the areas.

The insurgents, who had been wreaking havoc on some boundary communities in Adamawa and Borno states, were said to have run into the bush after running out of arms and ammunition.

It was gathered that normalcy had returned to the the LGAs with troops stationed in strategic places.

A resident of Michika, Vandi Joseph, told journalists on Wednesday in Yola, that the insurgents were overpowered by youths and vigilantes who shot them to death.

He said, “As I am speaking to you, our youths and vigilance group members ambushed and killed over 80 insurgents who escaped from soldiers and hid themselves in the bush. Our youths and vigilantes saw them and killed them.”

Meanwhile, the Mubi Emirate Council of Adamawa State has refuted media reports (The PUNCH not included) that the Emir of Mubi, Alhaji Abubakar Ahmadu, left Mubi and his palace for Yola, following an attack by Boko Haram on the town.

The spokesperson for the council, who is also the Danruwata Mubi, Chief John Elias, said at a news conference on Wednesday, that the Emirate was dismayed by the report.

Elias explained that the Emir who is the Amirul Hajj for the 2014 Hajj operation for Adamawa State , went to Yola to meet members of the delegation over preparation for the pilgrims.

He said, “The Emir did not leave Mubi for Yola as an escape from the insurgents but rather for meeting with members of the 2014 pilgrimages delegation committee which he is the leader. He returned to Mubi immediately the meeting was over.”

The Danruwata Mubi cautioned people to desist from spreading information that had no source and creating panic in the Emirate and the state in general.

He claimed that there was no attack on Mubi and anywhere in Mubi North and Mubi South LGAs as well as Maiha LGA.

Elias,who however said only Michika and Madagali had been affected by insurgency, called on the public to remain calm .

However, report from Michika indicated on Wednesday night that the attacks on the people might be linked to the fact that some people in the town harboured insurgents.

An indigene of the town, who gave his name simply as Daniel said, “Some people who have sympathy for the sect are frustrating military’s efforts at flushing out the insurgents.”

Meanwhile, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to relieve the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, of his job.

Agbakoba said since the military had failed in its mandate to win the war against Boko Haram, Badeh had no right as the CDS, to remain in office.

Agbakoba made the call on Wednesday at a press conference where he spoke on sundry issues of national interest in his office.

Agbakoba said that the CDS who was appointed in January this year had lost control of the army, citing the case of about 480 Nigerian soldiers who ran into Cameroon during a confrontation with the Boko Haram insurgents as a confirmation of his position.

The SAN, who was a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, said it was worrisome that Boko Haram was now copying the tactics of the ISIS by declaring a caliphate in the North-East.

He therefore called on the President to show more seriousness in tackling the insurgency , adding that the first step to take was for him to sack Badeh.

He said, “I think our first task is to look around the world and ask whether our Nigerian intelligence and military infrastructure are doing just what they ought to do. If I were the Commander-in-Chief, I would invite the CDS , Alex Badeh and tell him that if he loses any command in the army, it’s over. If the President fails to send a strong message that the mission is not accomplished, then the chain of command would be weak.

“In the army, it is obedience to superior orders. How can you have Nigerian soldiers carrying our equipment into Cameroon and running away? It tells you that the Army is degraded. The only way that you can solve the Boko Haram problem is by a resolute decapitation of the leadership. There is no other way.”


http://www.punchng.com/news/adamawa-youths-vigilantes-kill-80-fleeing-insurgents/