₦airaland Forum

0key: This is stale. This issue happened some years ago. So, what is the motive of recycling stale news? Besides, there is no major national newspaper that reports d news if it did happen of recent.

In what appears to be a scene in a James Bond film, wanted former Chairman of the dissolved Pension Reform Task Team[PRTT], Abdulrasheed Maina today emerged from his hiding in a flambouyant apparel to embark on a victory tour round the capital city of Abuja in a manner that further depicts Nigeria as a morally drowned country and the administration of President Jonathan as a harbinger of corruption.
Maina had been accused of stealing over N21 billion from thepension funds in his care. Both chambers of the National Assembly had unanimously voted for the dismissal of Maina, an Assistant Director in the Customs, Immigration and PrisonsPensions Office, CIPPO, who was appointed to run the PRTT for 30 months after the lawmakers discovered that he had been overwhelmed by scandals involving pensions funds management running into billions of Naira.
After a stand-off with the presidency over its failure to act on resolutions passed by the entire national assembly, the federal government deceitfully pretended to have sacked Maina and got the police to declare him wanted while the embattled pension task force boss was asked to go underground. A principal officer of the senate told iReports-ng.comin Abuja today that “the insincerity of the presidency over the fight against corruption was totally exposed to us when in the heat of the Maina’s controversy after the senate had ordered his arrest, same man was seen walking into President Jonathan’s office with security escorts while other senior government officials were seated and have been waiting for hours to see the same president. Imagine the senate leader, Senator Ndoma Egba was right there and some of them had to leave the president’s office. This infuriated all of us and our colleagues in the House of Reps.”
The local media was used to sell the dummy that Maina had fled the country even while remains in Abuja with tacit instructions to security agencies not to touch him. The warrant of arrest issued on him was quashed by a court in Abuja last week to pave the way for Maina to return to the centre stage and enjoy his loot. Indeed, he started that today with his sudden appearance at the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ office in Abuja today.
Clad in a white babanriga with a black cap to match, Maina went straight to the office of the NUJ FCT Chairman, Chuks Ehirim for discussions and to thank him and his colleagues for standing with him when the national assembly heat was on him. “I do not bear any grudges against anybody and I do not consider anybody as my enemy”, boastfully told his hosts.He categorically told them that he never went into hiding as fed the media by the police, adding that he never left his house in Abuja throughout the period police claimed he has been declared wanted.
*Abdulrasheed Maina,
Although the immediate past Head of Service, Bello Sali, had said the PRTT had been dissolved and pensions funds management transferred to his office, a new Director, OlabisiJaji, was appointed by the HoS to take over from Maina with immediate effect. Jaji, a level 17 officer, was moved from theMinistry of Environment to take over Maina’s seat at CIPPO.
She is to be supported by a deputy Director, Elizabeth Zenetini, a level 16 officer deployed by the HoS from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to CIPPO. A letter from the office of the HoS directed the two officers to take over from Maina on or before March 6. The HoS letter was, however, silent on Maina and what disciplinary actions had been taken against him for absconding from his duty post without approval.

chino11: The same point we have been making. The lazy poor states should take it up with FG..

They want to be oil states over night. Do they know how much time and money Anambrans put in to be able to join the elite oil states?

ndu_chucks: Sani wants a place on the Amnesty committee. shi kena

LAGOS—Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, flagged off the newly-constructed Ikeja Millemium Housing Estate, naming it after former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
He equally flagged off the Rauf Aregbesola Model Primary Health Centre, PHC, in Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area, LCDA, to aid healthcare delivery at the grassroots.
The governor, who spoke at the premises of the 76-unit four-bedroom duplexes located on Muiz Banire Street, GRA Ikeja, said the completion of the project had taught the state government other methods of planning and managing project in the state.
He said: “The lesson we learnt here has been transferred to all ongoing construction of Lagos HOMS scheme, with detailed soil testing, proper foundation design and engagement of qualified workers in the construction the projects.”
On why the government named it after Anyaoku, he said: “After we completed this project, a new challenge aroused. And it was who the estate should be named after. I think that events made that decision very easy.
“We resolved that if we have to dedicate any public service and building after anyone, whether living or dead, it will be those who have contributed to the development of our nation,especially Lagos state.”
In reaction, Anyaokwu said: “I am humbled by this kind gesture of the Lagos government led by a performing governor. It is a great honour to cut the ribbon of this new estate.
“My connection with Lagos is deep and longstanding. Although I come from across the Niger, I started my career in Lagos and I have been married for over 50 years to a native of Lagos, from Egba precisely.”.

Eze Promoe: STATISTICS HAS IT THAT;
1 Igbo life worth 20 Yoruba lives
1 Igbo life worth 100 Hausa lives
So i'm not angry at all at worth Ohaneze did because that is just the best medium for saving precious lives. If Boko Haram strikes, the loss of does whom their lives have much value will be felt by their brothers while those whom their lives are valueless will come out and pretend as if nothing happened.
All they'll say is "YOU BETTER KILL WHO EVER YOU WANT TO KILL IN YOUR LAND O. DON'T COME TO OUR LAND O, UNLESS WE'LL CALL OUR ANCESTORS FOR YOU." Words from old local village champions still living in the stone age.

:: VMF :::
I am a Kogite (Igala by tribe) but far from the talked about area. To avoid conflict, why don't the federal government take sole ownership of the said oil-well and totally blot out claims by any of both parties!

dayokanu: ^^ Exactly OGBANJE party the party died

Four members of staff of LEADERSHIP Newspapers Group are being detained at the Police headquarters in Abuja over a recent exclusive story on a “presidential directive” targeting the opposition and containing plans to raise petrol prices, among other things.

LEADERSHIP had earlier reported that between Wednesday when the newspaper first published the story and yesterday, police officers have visited the newspaper’s head office in Abuja three times, demanding to see the journalists who wrote the story.

The psychological siege climaxed yesterday with a summons to the newspaper to appear at Force Headquarters in Abuja this morning.

Thus, our Managing Editor Mr. Chuks Ohuegbe, Head of Human Resource, Mrs. Chinyere Fred-Adegbulugbe, News Editor Mr. Tony Amoekedo and our correspondent Chibuzor Ukaibe presented themselves for questioning earlier today.

Tony Amoekedo and Chibuzor Ukaibe were asked to write a statement, which they did. They were then asked to disclose the source of the bromide published with the article. But the news editor replied that it is against the ethics of the profession to do so.

Based on their insistence to keep the source secret, the Police have refused to let them go.

At the moment, they are being kept by three officers from the office of the DIG on the 7 th floor.
More details soon.

Governor Rotimi Amaechi
By Femi Makinde And Olalekan Adetayo

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has ruled out the possibilityof having a violent revolution in the country.

Amaechi spoke in Ekiti State on Saturday at the second Nigeria Symposium for Young and Emerging Leaders.

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, Prof. Pat Utomi, Chief Executive Officer of Sahara Group, Mr. Tonye Cole, and representative of Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, among others, attended the symposium, organised by The Future Project.

Amaechi said many Nigerians had become used to suffering rather than pushing for a change.

According to him, Nigeria has experienced worse situations than what led to revolution in some other countries.

Amaechi said he was sure that those who gathered to protest against the removal of oil subsidy in January 2012 would flee immediately the President drafted soldiers to the Freedom Park in Lagos and other states to quell the uprising.

He said, “Yes, revolution can happen outside Nigeria. But here, I do not think so. Tell me what happened in Sudan, Libya, Zimbabwe and other countries that have not happened here. Our elasticity has no limit. You do not pray for electricity to be regular but you know that some Nigerians pray ‘God, let the light be stable today.’

We pray without working to solve our problems and we think God will do what we are supposed to do for us.”
Noting that courage was required to make any change, he said those who were truly seeking a change would never be afraid of guns.

The governor, however, said he was not in support of the call for the disintegration of the country, saying there were many advantages in being together.

Meanwhile, Presidency on Sunday faulted the claim by Amaechi that Nigeria was gradually sliding back to the era of dictatorship.

Before reading his speech where he was honoured with the Vanguard Personality of the Year Award in Lagos on Saturday, Amaechi was said to have explained that he decided to read a prepared speech, because “I am becoming more careful, given that we are gradually going back to the era of dictatorship in this country”.

But in an interview with one of our correspondents, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said the governor could not have been referring to the President.

Gulak said so far, the President had been ruling the country by adhering strictly to the nation’s constitution.
He said Jonathan, in the spirit of democracy, has also been consulting widely before he takes any decision and so could not be said to be a dictator.

The presidential aide said since Amaechi was one of those ruling the country by virtue of being a governor, he might be admitting by his statement that he was ruling his state like a dictator.

He said, “As a governor, Amaechi is one of those ruling this country. Is he admitting that he is a dictator in his state?

“We are in a democratic administration. We are ruling by the constitution. The President is committed to the rule of law. I am not sure the governor is referring to the President.”

noblezone: I have read your post again. Perhaps, are you suggesting that Jonathan is more of a flip flop than a dictator?
I will disagree on with you on the flip -flop theory.
It takes a great man to listen to opinion especially from the led.



1. I will like to know what exactly is wrong with honoring Abiloa by changing UniLag to his name since you called it shiit.
2. You mean that the President should have called the University authority and beg them to accept the change of name? or to ask them whether they will accept the change? You will tell me whether the Unilag authority consults the students before they increease school fees or fix exam date. Honestly the easiest profession on the earth is that of a critic.
Carry on.
3. Let us assume that the change was a mistake,a dictator will stick to his guns even if he has made a mistake.

noblezone: And what exactly is your point?
To immortalise Abiola by naming UniLag after him was a show of appreciation to what the man contributed to the nations democratic system:
that Nigerians said NO to it and the Presidency accepted to the reverse is a show of a government that is very democratic. A tyrant would never had listened, no matter whose ox is gored.


I don't need any other example, but your reference makes a case for the opposite of a dictator as postulated by Amechi.
On the other hand, I have understood that a critic will always want A when given B, but will always demand for B as soon as you given A.

koruji: Look at it this way.
GEJ has been goofing by setting up ex-militants to patrol our coastal waters.
Tompolo is now a multi-billionaire based on those contracts.
What do you think GEJ would do, after having been openly called out?
He is not strong enough to do what is right by withdrawing those ND contracts.
Instead the man is "balancing" by sending money to the other regional groups - N2.4 billion for OPC.
Find the story that said $100 million (about N1.6 billion) was allocated for oil exploration in the north - there is no oil exploration, it is another payoff to another group.
GEJ is committing so many atrocities these days, and that is why 2015 is a do-or-die for him.

Barely 24 hours after iReports-ng.comexclusively reported the desperate move by President Jonathan to break the Bola Tinubu- led ACN’s control of south west states ahead of the 2015 presidential election, the ruling party in the region, ACNhas raised the alarm over a multi-billion naira contract awarded the founder of a militant group in the region, OoduaPeoples Congress, OPC, Dr Fredrick Fasheun to mobilize members of his group to cause mayhem in Yoruba land.

iReports-ng.comlearnt that the contract awarded Fasheun is similar to the ones awarded Niger Delta ex-militants leaders to protect oil pipelines, same responsibility the Nigerian constitution has placed on the security agencies in the country. Beside mobilizing OPC boys for possible mayhem in south west states, funds released to Fasheun is alreday beingspent to revive the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN founded by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. It was gathered thatcrisis in the region, according to the plan, will begin with the struggle for the control of the region between ACN and the Fasheun -led UPN. iReports-ng.comhad reported on SaturdayJonathan’s plan to also cause divisions in south west by appointing notable persons in the region into his cabinet in an imminent cabinet shuffle.

The ACN at a press conference addressed by its spokesman, Lai Mohammed in Lagos today accused the Jonathan administration of “promoting policies that will plunge the nation into crisis and scuttle the 2015 elections.” The full text of the briefing reads:

“We are compelled to once again raise the alarm about some disturbing developments in the polity. To be sure, this is not the first time we are raising concerns about what seems a deliberate ploy in certain quarters to plunge Nigeria into a deep crisis, by instigating widespread violence and insecurity and engaging in scaremongering tactics

“On January 8th, 2013 we issued a statement which said interalia: ”For the Jonathan-led Administration, and not minding its deceptive aloofness from it all, the race for 2015 has started in earnest and it is a do-or-die affair, and all means foul and unfair are on the table to cripple the opposition, by ensuring that nothing will be left of the integrity of its key leaders even if they are fortunate to make it to 2015.”

“As recently as April 2nd, 2013, we issued another statement calling attention to the plan by the Federal Government to frustrate the coming together of progressives by targetting key leaders for intimidation and harassment. We also said the Federal Government intends to ensure that elections do not hold in 2015 or they will be held under curfew.

“Today, the situation is even more alarming, and it is also notunconnected with the politics of 2015.

“It is no longer a secret that the PDP-led Federal Government has failed the nation in all ramifications. In the provision of social amenities and standard infrastructure, ensuring the security of lives and property, provision of jobs for our teeming unemployed youths and generally ensuring better life for our people, the party that has presided over the affairs of our nation since 1999 has fallen short. To make matters worse, the party itself is imploding as a result of its own failings, and its tattered umbrella can no longer provide shelter from the elements for its increasingly disenchanted members.

“Against this background, the PDP is keenly aware that it has totally lost the confidence of all Nigerians, and the long-suffering people of this great country are now ready andeager to vote out this clueless party. Keenly aware of this fact, the PDP has now realized that if indeed the 2015 elections are free and fair and conducted in a conducive environment, there will be no chance for the party.
“What is the way out for the PDP? The party has decided to gofor broke: Either there will be no elections in 2015 or the polls will be conducted in an atmosphere of chaos, thereby paving the way for the PDP to do what it does best – rig the elections!

“Recent events corroborate this, and I will elaborate on them.

“Since the Boko Haram crisis broke out in some parts of the north, it has been largely restricted to those parts. This has made it possible to say to prospective foreign investors and others that the whole country has not been engulfed in violence and insecurity. But now, the areas that have been largely peaceful are being targetted by those who will only be happy when the whole country is in turmoil.

“Let’s take the South-west for example.

“Three recent events, all at the instance of the Federal Government, raise the red flag.

1. A multi-billion naira contract has suddenly been awarded for the protection of oil pipelines in the region.
2. The main beneficiary of the contract has suddenly realizedthat the Unity Party of Nigeria, formed by the respected statesman Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is no longer in existence, and has thus decided to revive it.
3. Just about the same time, suspected Boko Haram members have been arrested in Lagos, specifically at a house belonging to the government of Bayelsa state.

“The questions that arise are:

What is the real intention of the Federal Government in awarding this oil pipeline protection contract?
Is it a mere coincidence that the main beneficiary of the multi-billion naira oil pipeline protection contract is also the same fellow who is promoting the revival of the UPN?

Could the huge contract have been meant to provide the seed money for the promoters of this party?
Is it true, as it is being alleged in certain quarters, that the essence of the contract is to recruit 30,000 youths who will ostensibly protect the pipelines, but in the real sense are ready hands to foment violence on demand in the South-west?

Is it true that the so-called revival of the UPN is to provide a platform for anarchists and end-gamers in the South-west to infiltrate the ranks of the progressives and throw the region into chaos?

“Why is it that suddenly, Boko Haram suspects are popping up in Lagos, and some of those who have been arrested wereresiding in a building owned by the Bayelsa state government? Is the Bayelsa state government aware of this and, if so, what has it done to evict them from the building? Who are the ragamuffins paraded by security agencies as Boko Haram suspects working for?

“Why have some people in the South-west been engaging in Boko Haram baiting in recent times, vociferously warning that if Boko Haram comes to the region, they will be crushed?Is it a coincidence that this Boko Haram baiting has become stronger since the oil pipeline contract was awarded?

“Who are the brains behind the continuous efforts to sabotage the merger of the progressives? Who bankrolled the tatterdemalions, the disreputable people who are parading themselves as African Peoples Congress? Only this morning, it was reported that a new group is trying to registerAPCN, in continuation of the sabotage attempts. And who are the real faces of the so-called ANPP stakeholders who have been making spurious claims concerning the All Progressives’ Congress (APC)?

“Gentlemen of the press, ponder these pertinent questions, and place the stated developments in the South-west against the new threat of resurgence of violence by MEND in the Niger Delta, the worsening Boko Haram crisis in the north, and the unrelenting attempts to stop the APC, and you will understand why we have decided to raise this alarm once again.

“We are also concerned by the allegation that the Federal Government may be promoting a policy of inciting some parts of the country against the other, as well as Christians against Muslims. We sincerely hope this is not true.

“May we also use this opportunity to restate our stand, that the Boko Haram crisis – which by the way is a social rather than a religious problem – has festered either due to the ineptitude of the Federal Government or because it fits into the game plan of those who are bent on erecting a road block on the path of free, fair and peaceful polls in 2015.

CONCLUSION

1. We make bold to say that the stand of the PDP is that having seen the handwriting on the wall, the party realizes it cannot win any free and fair elections in Nigeria in 2015. PDP and its stalwarts are therefore perfecting a sinister plan that will make free and fair elections impossible in 2015, or if at all the elections will be held, they will hold under curfew to give the party the cover it needs to rig the polls.
2. Also being considered is a plan under which emergency rule will be imposed on most parts of the country, following which elections will

be put in abeyance, paving the way for tenure elongation. Instigation of violence in hitherto peaceful parts of the country is one of the means to achieve this plan.

3. We are therefore alerting the good people of Nigeria as well as friends of the country around the world to closely monitor events as they unfold in the days ahead, along the lines that we have enunciated above.

4. On our part, we will be keenly watching events as they unfold, either in the South-west or elsewhere. After all, it is said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. In this regard, we call on all our supporters, all progressives and indeed all Nigerians to be vigilant. We will also like to warn that no nation can survive a combination of ethnic and religious conflagration, and that those who will instigate crisisto push a personal and selfish agenda risk being consumed by it.

5. We say NO to violence! We say NO to do-or-die politics! Wesay NO to any anti-democratic measures as a means of retaining power at all cost.

6. And lest we are misunderstood, the constitution of our great country allows freedom of association and anyone who so desires can form a party. But where the purpose of the party being formed is to instigate chaos and scuttle democracy, every right thinking person must be concerned!

“I thank you for your attention.”

From FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa
Grief and fear enveloped the Bayelsa state Police Command at the weekend as 13 policemen were killed along the waterways of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state. Ex-militants in the State that felt shortchanged in the amnesty programme, allegedly killed the policemen.
The State Commissioner of Police, Mr Kings Omire who stated this,shortly after briefing Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, said the ex-militants that carried out the attack were former members of the Young Shall Grow camp and they were angry over their unpaid allowances.
Omire said an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Tuesday Asayamon, has been appointed to lead a committee set up by the state command to launch a full scale investigation into the incident. He said also that three policemen and the boat driver have been rescued by the police divers sent to the area to recoverthe bodies and arms of the policemen.
Omire explained that those missing included two Inspectors, four non- commissioned officers and six constables. The policemen drawn from the security pool of the Bayelsa State Government House and the state Police Command were on a special duty to Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw local government area where an aide to the state governor, Mr Kile Selky Torughedi, was burying his mother, when they were ambushed. Mr Torughedi alias Young Shall Grow, was the South wing Commander of MEND at the peak of the militant group’s agitation in the Niger Delta region.
He was recently appointed a Senior Special Adviser to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson on Marine Waterways Security, as part of the State government’s efforts to curb the spate of pirate attacks in the riverine area of the state. Checks indicated that 15 policemen were in the boat providing escort to dignitaries attending the burial when their boat suddenly developed a fault and while they were trying to fix it, a speedboat conveying some armed men opened fire killing 13 of them on the spot while the other two jumped into the river.
The armed men were said to have gone away with some of the rifles of the dead policemen. The drivers of the other boats coming behind were said to have turned back and alerted patrol teams of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) Operation Pulo Shield on the attack. Eyewitness account stated that the gunmen escaped into the creeks on sighting the JTF patrol teams. On receipt of the report on the attack, the Commissioner of Police, Mr Kings Omire, immediately deployed policemen to the waterways to recover the bodies of their felled colleagues and fish out the killers. Sources at the Police headquarters said Omire also presided over a meeting yesterday afternoon where strategies were mapped out to apprehend those behind the attack.
The Public Relations Officer of the command, Mr Alex Akhigbe, said the command was still collating the details of what happened.Sources in Azuzuama community said Torughedi had been havinga running battle with some ex-militants who accused him of abandoning them after embracing the Federal Government’s amnesty.
It was gathered that some ex-militants had warned Torughedi not to attend the burial but he insisted that he would be there having secured police escort. The security situation in Bayelsa waters haddeteriorated recently with sea-pirates and illegal oil bunkerers having a field day. The Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and theShell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) shut down their flow stations recently following growing insecurity concerns

ladychoice: The niger delta had a course dey were fighting for. Underdevelopment and depraivation even tho over 60percent of d nations wealth was from deir region! Dey whr granted amnesty as a settlement term for years of depraivation in d region.
Boko haram is a faceless group! Hausa uneducated dambo namas trying to prove a stupid point. Dey should all b imprisoned and jailed for life. Amnesty my foot!

otokx: I know my president will have the last laugh.

By SaharaReporters, New York
The Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) yesterday announced a mass action, scheduled for April 10, against cheats of pensioners, who are collectively owed over one trillion Naira throughout the country.
The announcement followed a press briefing at the headquarters of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), on Friday.
LASCO said it was adopting the decision of the central working committee of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NCL), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint Action Front (JAF) taken in a meeting of April 3, to intervene on behalf of pensioners who have been denied their entitlements in a long time. That meeting made sympathy for the owed pensioners its major subject of deliberation and emerged with the resolution to hold a mass protest in order to compel the government’s attention to the plightof the deprived pensioners.
The protest, dubbed ‘Mass Action against Corruption and Impunity in Government’, will be held in Lagos and Abuja, LASCO said, and will demand among others, justice for pensioners, a review of the pension fund to ensure living pensions and its prompt payment to the aged, and the scrapping of corruption and impunity in Government.
The announcement called on workers, artisans, transporters, market women and men, professionals, students and youths to join in its protest to collectively demand justice in all the workings of the government.
Pensioners have always been denied their entitlements throughout Nigerian history. Firm resistance of the deliberate holding back of deserved pension entitlements will end the regimeof cheating, LASCO stressed.

nig2change: Can't she live her private life Sahara reporters. She is free to sought for experts for her medical condition anywhere they abound.

By SaharaReporters, New York
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commended President Goodluck Jonathan for constituting an Amnesty Committee on the Boko Haram insurgency, calling the development ‘another demonstration’ of his sincerity and forthrightness in handling national issues.
“We believe the initiative of the President in setting up the Amnesty Committee is the best decision at the moment and we are optimistic that this drive will yield the desired results in the general good and restore the unity of our nation,” the National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh said in a statement.
He said that in giving the committee the terms of reference to consider the feasibility or otherwise of granting amnesty to the Boko Haram adherents and to collate the clamor arising from different interest groups who want the federal government to administer clemency on members of the religious sect and to recommend the modalities for granting amnesty if necessary, the President has again shown his humility and commitment to carry all Nigerians along in all his actions in line with the tenets of democracy.
“We assure Nigerians that the PDP remains resolute in the commitment to restoring peace in the country, especially in the north and to return the region to its lost glory as the hub of unity, investment and trade in the country and the West African sub-region.
“It is on record that the north is the most receptive region in the country. Indeed there is no part of the country that is more accommodating than the north which has always been home for all people, irrespective of religious creed and tribal affiliations.”
The party called on the leaders of the north to take advantage ofMr. Jonathan’s initiative and pursue peace so as to return the entire north to its lost glory.

Red-Light:
can u proof its barefaced lie? did u carry out any survey urself? do u have people that die always in ur neighborhood as a result of poverty?

A new plan by President Goodluck Jonathan to grant amnesty to members of the violent Boko Haram sect has upset Nigeria’s military chiefs.

Sources at the Presidential Villa, where the military brass met with the President for several hours today, said they tried in vain to convince Mr. Jonathan not to fall into the trap that has been set for him by prominent northern leaders on the issue.

They were said to have told him the security implications of the action and that it could also be interpreted to mean that the President is not a man of his word. Mr. Jonathan has flip-flopped on federal policy against Boko Haram since he took office in 2010.

The military bosses reminded him of his words when he visited Borno State a few weeks ago when he said that there was no way he would grant amnesty to ghosts, stressing that nothing has changed. Mr. Jonathan once said there were members of Boko Haram in his government, but it is not clear if they are still ghosts or he has identified them.

He was also said to have been reminded that many of their men and other security officers have been indiscriminately killed, warning him that telling the rank and file the decision on amnesty could ignite anger in the barracks.

At the end of the lengthy discussion, which lasted for five hours, the President had his way against the genuine advice of the military chiefs, except one. He set up a committee to handle the issue of amnesty.

The committee, whose members are yet to be announced, is to work with the office of the National Security Adviser.

A Presidential source said that the committee will consider the feasibility or otherwise of granting pardon to the Boko Haram members and collate the views of those clamouring for amnesty, as well as recommend modalities for the granting of pardon should such a policy be adopted.

President Jonathan seems to have adopted the argument of the northern elements after meeting with some of their prominent members in Abuja on Wednesday night. Although today he seem highly disposed to the amnesty idea, he is known to change his mind fairly easily.