President Muhammadu Buhari has allegedly ordered that the monthly allowances and similar stipends paid to the ex-militants from the Niger/Delta and students from the region of the country currently studying in foreign schools be stopped immediately.

FirstAfricanNews exclusively learnt that the presidency has also suspended any form of statutory findings payable to the Presidential Amnesty Office.

The development was said to have been prompted by a recent directive from the presidency through the Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA to the Amnesty Office mandating a strict adherence.

Before his inauguration, the president who had been inundated with alleged financial irregularities in the handling of the Amnesty Program under former President Goodluck Jonathan from certain quarters has been under pressure to act.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has allegedly ordered that the monthly allowances and similar stipends paid to the ex-militants from the Niger/Delta and students from the region of the country currently studying in foreign schools be stopped immediately.

FirstAfricanNews exclusively learnt that the presidency has also suspended any form of statutory findings payable to the Presidential Amnesty Office.

The development was said to have been prompted by a recent directive from the presidency through the Office of the National Security Adviser, NSA to the Amnesty Office mandating a strict adherence.

Before his inauguration, the president who had been inundated with alleged financial irregularities in the handling of the Amnesty Program under former President Goodluck Jonathan from certain quarters has been under pressure to act.

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House Of Reps In Disarray As PDP, APC Members Clash - See more at: http://firstafricanews.ng/index.php?dbs=openlist&s=23971#sthash.4eZCljl9.dpuf

taken down

Gunmen on Tuesday, killed a local campaign coordinator of the Kaduna state governor-elect, Nasir El-Rufai.

Mr. El-Rufai’s spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, disclosed this in a statement.

According to the statement, the gunmen trailed Markus Ishaya to his village, Atuku Kasa, Atuku Ward of Jema’a local government area of the state and shot him several times. He was the governor-elect’s coordinator in Atuku Ward and did very well in mobilizing support.

Mr. Aruwan said, “His family informed us that unknown gunmen stormed his residence and shot him several times.

“The men, two in number, were well armed and did not pick any property in his residence except carrying out the ungodly act.

“The Police have confirmed the incident. The Police have also visited the scene of the crime and have commenced investigation.

“While we appreciate their prompt action, our expectation is that the security agencies will fully investigate this killing and prosecute the perpetrators.

“Security agencies must adequately protect all Nigerians irrespective of their status and standing,” he said.

Condoling the family, Mr. El-Rufai who prayed for the soul of the deceased said “Our empathy and prayers go to the family of Mr. Markus Ishaya and the entire community over this callous murder and desecration of human life.

“May Almighty God grant his soul eternal rest and give his family and friends the fortitude to bear this painful loss.”

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nwest/181812-gunmen-kill-el-rufais-campaign-coordinator.html

A group of Igbos living in the Northern part of Nigeria under the Igbo Conversational Group (ICG) have decried the spate of losses they have suffered as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in the region, saying that they have lost at least 7 billion US dollars.

Congratulating the President-elect, Gen. Mu­hammadu Buhari, for his victory at the polls, the ICG called on him to keep to the promise he made to Nigerians over ensuring that Boko Haram will be a thing of the past.

ICG chief convener and former Imo State governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, who stated this while briefing news­men in his office in Abuja, said the group believes that the President-elect has what it takes to live up to expectations in order to allow Ndi Igbo return to their businesses in the affected areas having lost over $7 billion to insurgency.

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Dear Nigerians, The Moment Of Decision Is Here. You can send in pictures, reactions and eyewitness reports from your various polling units using the hashtag #FirstAfricaNews and #NigeriaDecides or send a mail to info.firstafricanews@gmail.com

News reaching us is another fresh blast in Jos.....about 20 feard dead....see here: http://www.firstafricanews.ng/index.php?dbs=openlist&s=16641

The Commissioner of Police in Kano State, Ibrahim Idris, Tuesday confirmed 12 people, including two suicide bombers dead in a bomb attack on Kano Line Motor park on Zaria road.

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Ebonyi House of Assembly Burnt Down....See more at: http://firstafricanews.ng/index.php?dbs=openlist&s=16289#sthash.MKusHAsv.dpuf

British newspaper, The Mail on Sunday today unmask an anonymous sperm donor who boasts that an astonishing 32 women are expecting his babies and another 15 are about to take pregnancy tests after asking him for Sperm donations.

Declan Rooney, 42, claims he is ‘Britain’s most successful sperm donor’ and says he has donated sperm to two more women who have already given birth.

He also has six children born naturally with three different mothers – meaning he has the potential to be the father of 55 children.

The former web designer runs his website under the alias Upton North and advertises himself on Facebook to single women, lesbians and couples desperate for a baby.

Last night experts called for an investigation into the unregulated and potentially dangerous service he provides to women he meets online, with one sociologist saying that Mr Rooney was ‘determinedly engineering a one-man eugenics movement’.

Medical experts fear he could create a ‘ticking timebomb’ by flouting official guidelines for sperm donation, which limit the number of families that legitimate sperm donors can help create to a maximum of ten.

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There is an ongoing terrorists attack on villages around Aza community and Kintako areas of Niger state by
unknown gunmen with AK 47 Riffles numbering over 50! So far Abugi, Kpada & Atsu areas had been attacked and women rapped!

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Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has dumped the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), stating that, he is no longer interested being a member, saying he is no longer interested in partisan politics as he is now a statesman.
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Aggrieved parties hijack, smash ballot boxes

… Details later

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Twitter Suspends Obasanjo’s Account

The Twitter account of Nigeria’s former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has been suspended.
When he checked the account, @segunobasanjo, this afternoon, he saw the following message: “Sorry, that user is suspended.”

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Yesterday, it was the emotionally-charged international ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

That event is now enshrined as Holocaust Memorial Day in honour not only of the 1.1 million Jews murdered here but of all six million Jews and five million others executed at all those synonyms for cruelty – Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka, Sobibor, Buchenwald…

There was scarcely a dry eye in this airport-sized marquee yesterday as three prominent survivors delivered passionate pleas for more than mere remembrance. ‘We do not want our past to be our children’s future,’ declared Roman Kent. ‘That is the key to my existence.’ As he tried to repeat those words, his voice gave way and the tears came forth.

Regaining his composure, Mr Kent went on to attack not only those who seek to deny the Holocaust but also the casual, unthinking language of daily life.

‘It has been routine to use the word “lost” when referring to loved ones,’ he said.

‘Six million Jews? They were not “lost”. They were murdered. Those that died did not “perish” but were murdered. By using sanitized words, we are helping the deniers.’

He concluded that he would like to add an eleventh commandment to the Old Testament list: ‘You should never, never be a bystander!’

Seventy years on, the world is faced with another horror in the form of growing radical Islamist ideology, An American philanthropist and president of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder. Delivered a thought provoking speech saying.

‘But after the recent events in Paris and around the world I cannot ignore what is happening today. Jews are targeted in Europe once again because they are Jews.

‘There are mass demonstrations with thousands of people shouting death threats to the state of Israel and to Jews.

‘It happened so slowly and it all seemed so unimportant that few people paid any attention. Until now, when Europe suddenly awoke to find itself surrounded by anti-Semitism again and it looks more like 1933 than 2015. Once again, young Jewish boys are afraid to wear yarmulkes on the streets of Paris and Budapest and London and even Berlin.’ At the root of it all, he said, were ‘lies about Israel’.

He went on: ‘We all learned that when you tell a lie three times and there is no response, then the lie becomes the truth.’

As we remember the lost, it is time we stand together - whatever our faith, whatever our creed, whatever our politics and we stand united in our resolve to fight prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.



By Alonge Femi

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Former Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has reacted to the words of the Presiding Bishop of the Winners Chapel Ministry of The Living Faith Church Dr. David Oyedepo.

Obasanjo on his alleged Twitter account attacked Bishop Oyedepo and incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that no pastor can tell Nigerians who to vote for.

'Don't let any pastor tell you who to vote for. Does Oyedepo experience the effects of misgovernance?. #BeWise, You should know that voting GEJ is a guarantee of another 4 years of insurgency that will claim more lives and disintegrate Nigeria'.

He added that 'We all want #CHANGE. Vote based on what you know not on religious or tribal sentiments! No one has the key to hell! Don't be threatened! How many of the Pastors that are telling you to vote for GEJ have children who are unemployed graduates sitting at home ?

Did Bishop Oyedepo speak out to condemn the manner in which the almost 300 Chibok girls were kidnapped?, Did Bishop Oyedepo condemn the failure of the President to rescue the Chibok girls 9 months after they were kidnapped by the insurgents? Has Bishop Oyedepo spoken out to condemn the legalized looting of billions of dollars taking place under the watch of President Jonathan?

It should be noted that President Jonathan, Sunday, visited the Winners Chapel Church.

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Yes its true up GEJ

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Dieziani Allison-Madueke has announced a drop in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol from N97 to N87 due to the drop in global crude oil prices.

The Minister said the directive is to take effect immediately during a press conference at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday.

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A Yemeni reporter says he met in 2010 one of the gunmen responsible for last week's massacre at a French newspaper, saying that the man claimed to have lived with the Nigerian who tried to carry out the failed al-Qaida "underwear bomb" plot five years ago.

Yemeni journalist and researcher Mohammed al-Kibsi said he first met Said Kouachi in the capital, Sanaa, while the gunman was studying Arabic.

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Manchester City's Yaya Toure has been named the African Player of the Year 2014 by the Confederation of African Football at an awards ceremony held in Lagos on Thursday evening.



The Ivoirian won the title for a fourth straight time beating off competition from local favourite Vincent Enyeama and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the title.



In a ceremony dominated by Nigeria who also won the African Women Player award, many had expected Lille's Enyeama to win the top gong on the back of the Super Eagles exploits at the 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil.

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President Goodluck Jonathan has said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, did not pay attention to the development of the military while he was military Head of State.

Jonathan said Buhari did not buy a single rifle for the military while he was in government, adding that talking about fighting insurgency now would only end up as lip service.

The President, who spoke in Lagos at the flag-off of the presidential campaign of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, for the February general election, said if Buhari and those who had ruled the country before now had properly equipped the military, the fight against insurgency would have been won long ago.

- continue reading at: http://firstafricanews.ng/index.php?dbs=openlist&s=11125#sthash.c6Cy0iZF.dpuf

Former Minister of Transport, Ebenezer Babatope, on Tuesday berated former President Olusegun Obasanjo, accusing him of feeding Nigerians with false information aimed at tarnishing the image of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and President Goodluck Jonathan.



Babatope, who spoke to newsmen on the latest statement credited to Obasanjo where he claimed that Jonathan has depleted Nigeria’s foreign reserves, said he would no longer watch while Obasanjo churns out information that may incite Nigerians against the PDP and the president.



He said he believed that the former president was no longer a member of the party, though the national leadership of the PDP has not disowned him as a member.

“I haven’t got detrimental against Obasanjo in terms of speaking. He can say anything he wants to say but it is in the nature of the man to believe that his opinion is the best in the world.

“One has to be careful. You cannot be right all the time. And that is why he provokes controversy all the time. What I know is that henceforth, we will not allow him to make reckless statements that can dampen the interest of our party before the Nigerian people,” Babatope stated.



On whether there were plans by the PDP to checkmate Obasanjo, he said: “We are doing something now that I can’t reveal at this moment. But people have been talking about the contents of his book, ‘My Watch’. And I said ‘Obasanjo is a writer, he can write anything he wants to write. But if he writes anything about me in his book, I will immediatelty write my own because he is not the only one gifted in writing. Those of us who are younger than him believes that if he hits us, we will hit him back.

“He said he is a PDP man. The party has not disproved that; so I will not say he is no longer in PDP but as far as I am concerned, I no longer regard him as a member of PDP. If he attacks us, I will take my counter-attack to him.”



Babatope, who is a member of PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) said it is expected that Obasanjo would still issue further provocative statements in the days ahead because he already has a set programme aimed at maligning the president and the PDP ahead of the general election.

“Obasanjo has got his set programmes that he is going to be unleashing as the election draws near. What he is going to be saying next week, he already has it. But he now knows that some people are hovering over him to counter-him and nail him,” he said.

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Alhaji Muhjahiddin Asari Dokubo, the leader of the Niger Delta People’s Salvation and Volunteer Front (NDSVF), who is also the founder of King Amachree African University, Republic of Benin, has said President Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 Presidential election, “has already won”.

Asari said: “2015 Goodluck Jonathan will win, in whatever way they want him he will win. I am not afraid of anybody. My confidence is that he has already won, but in River state I don’t know because there is injustice in Rivers state.”

- Read more on this at: http://firstafricanews.ng/index.php?dbs=openlist&s=10203#sthash.xpGfgisE.dpuf

The national chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Muazu, has taken on the opposition All Peoples Congress headlong on the issue they most use in running down the current administration – terrorism.



He said if it was that easy, there would have been no terrorism in Afghanistan where the best militaries in the world had been battling it for 10 ten years, according to a statement signed by the Chief Press secretary to the PDP national chairman, Tony Amadi.



"What the Nigerian opposition All Peoples Congress should think about is why Afghanistan with the combined presence of America, Britain, France and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, armies have not succeeded in halting Taliban insurgency in the past decade,” Mu’azu said. “Why have al-Qaeda, El Shabab or the various insurgency groups around the world not disappeared from the face of the earth with the military might ranged against them?”



He added: “What the opposition party have failed to do is to cooperate with government in fighting terrorism to reduce the incidence of insecurity in the land as is international best practice. In Britain, Prime Minister, Dave Cameron and Opposition Leader Ed Miliband only agree when their national security is threatened. In Nigeria, APC would rather confirm their unholy alliance with Boko Haram as they have done in one of their public utterances.

"The administration of President Jonathan will continue to ensure that terrorists of all shades are rooted out of our dear country."



He reiterated that the forthcoming 2015 Election campaign of the party would be based on issues and President Jonathan’s record since he came to power as Acting President and later President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

"Politics may be a game, but games have their rules,” Mu’azu noted. “Politics is not always about lies and spin doctoring. PDP will in this election show the light so that the blind opposition may find their way in the murky waters they have spurn in their wake. The straw that they hold dearly is the matter of insurgency, making it look like President Jonathan personally created insurgency and invited Boko Haram to take over Nigeria.”

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A 74-year night watchman, Emmanuel Igbokwe was early Boxing Day found dead in his place of work in Ohokobe Ndume in Umuahia North LGA of Abia State.

Igbokwe who work for Easy On Petroleum, Ohokobe Ndume was found with his hands tied behind him, the legs bound with rope and his mouth and nose tied with his cloth, by unknown people suspected to be robbers.

Speaking at her home, the wife of the deceased, popularly called "Nwanne" by him, disclosed that on the night of Christmas Day, Emmanuel had asked her to prepare food for him before he resumes his work as night watchman.

As if he had a pre-monition of his death, asked Nwanne to escort him to the filling station, while pointing at a particular place that he was seeing some movements and does not know if he will see the next day.

The man, she said requested her wife to come early in the morning next day being December, 26 and see if he was alive and to wash his body should anything happen to him.

"I immediately rejected what he said and prayed over it", the wife said and pleaded with the deceased to come back to the house with her, but he refused stating that if any robbery should take place there, he would be suspected as having masterminded it with his family.

His premonition came to be as very early Boxing Day around 4 pm, the wife went to see her husband, only to see him tied with ropes and already dead.

She alerted people through loud cry and the police invited. The body has since been deposited at the morgue.

Speaking, the first daughter of the deceased, Chinenye regreted that her father was said by close heighbours to have shouted asking his assailants what he did to them, but was immediately gaged with his cloth.

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Christians and Muslims in Kaduna yesterday seized the opportunity of Christmas celebration to worship together in a church as part of efforts to maintain and sustain peaceful co-existence irrespective of religious and ethnic differences.

Pastor Yohanna Buru, Head of Christ Evangelical Church, invited members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Kaduna zone, to celebrate the Christmas with members of his church.



Responding on behalf of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Dr. Shu’aibu Musa extended a goodwill message from the Leader of the movement, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky to the Christian faithful at Christmas, and called for more collaboration to rid the society of religious extremism.

Both Muslims and Christians, he said, were equally oppressed and therefore had a common enemy. He called for closer ties to salvage the society.

However, in his sermon, Pastor Buru said: “Every man and every society expect a saviour at the end of time. Both Muslims and Christians have always been waiting for saviours in the names of Imam Mahdi (AF) and Jesus Christ respectively.”



The presence of Muslims in his church on Christmas Day, he said, should not be out of place, explaining that it was to celebrate and anticipate the re-emergence of the awaited saviours both religions professed. “We call you here not as guests, but as brothers and neighbours,” he stated.

Highlights of the occasion were special song by Malam Rabi’u Tudun Iya on peaceful co-existence, songs of praise and feast.

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In what is increasingly becoming a change of tactics from Boko Haram terrorists, another suicide bomber who has attempted to destroy Bogoja military checkpoint in Gombe State has been captured.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade, who said the terrorist who rammed the car into a military check point Wednesday, failed to achieve his mission.

Olukolade said: "His attempt to escape also failed as he was brought down by vigilant soldiers when he tried to flee after hitting a military Amoured Personnel Carrier with his Improvised Explosive Device (IED) laden Honda car."

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A four-month-old baby was on Tuesday crushed to death by a heavy duty truck in Ughelli, Delta State.



The truck which was conveying crates of soft drinks crushed the baby who had fallen off the back of her mother along the Okorodafe Roundabout.



FirstAfricaNews gathered that the mother simply named Ese was travelling on a commercial motorcycle, popularly known as Okada, when the baby fell off.



According to witnesses, the mother of the baby, who is in her 30s, was struggling to adjust her wrapper with which she strapped the baby to her back, while the Okada was in motion.



One of the witnesses, identified as Efemena Okiemute, revealed that the baby fell on the middle of the road and was immediately crushed by the truck, which was directly behind the Okada.



Officials of Ughelli Command of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, later cleared the remains of the dead baby from the road.



The baby and the bereaved mother were going to the family house to mark Christmas when she met her untimely death.

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A bomb explosion has occurred at a market in Bauchi State, hours after a blast killed nearly 20 people in Gombe State.

Details of the latest attack are sketchy, but one witness said the blast occurred at about 5:30 p.m. as traders were preparing to close for the day.

Witnesses said the explosion occurred near a police outpost inside the market.

Large sections of the central market area were on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the air, he said. Medics were driving some wounded away in ambulances.

The police spokesperson, Haruna Mohammed, confirmed the attack but said he had no details yet.

Some witnesses said at least 15 people were killed in the attack.

The blast came hours after another explosion killed 19 people in neighbouring Gombe State.

Police said the Gombe attack occurred at a crowded bus station, and that 25 people were injured.

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