₦airaland Forum

http://www.dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22594:maiduguri-shuts-down-as-army-launches-search&catid=2:lead-stories&Itemid=8

Written by Hamza Idris & Yahaya Ibrahim, Maiduguri Thursday, 07 July 2011 00:00

A bomb explosion followed by bursts of sporadic gunfire hit Maiduguri shortly after 7am yesterday, leaving at least one soldier dead and four others critically injured. The unusually loud blast in the Abbaganaram area caused widespread panic and led to a shutdown of activities in the Borno State capital, where the Boko Haram sect has been waging a campaign of violence since last year.
 

Commander of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Major General Jack Nwaogbo, who confirmed the blast, said no civilian was affected but that three of his personnel were injured. The injured soldiers were receiving treatment at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) yesterday.

Residents of the area where the bomb exploded said they saw six corpses of security personnel close to a check point where they normally park their vehicles for routine surveillance, but military sources said only one soldier died.

It was not possible to confirm the actual casualty figure because the area was barricaded throughout yesterday.

Military sources said the explosive was apparently planted late Tuesday night by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect, knowing that the JTF members would stay in the place in the morning for the usual stop-and-search of vehicles.

But another source in the area said a small boy came carrying a big water cooler disguised as a sachet water vendor and left the container close to the military checkpoint early yesterday.

“It was after the blast that the security operatives realized that an explosive was concealed in the water coolant and a remote control was used to detonate it shortly after the JTF men arrived the place in their Hilux vehicle,” the source said.

Our correspondents report that there was tension in Maiduguri throughout yesterday as security operatives kept on shooting in the air while a helicopter hovered in the sky.

No curfew was officially imposed but most banks, markets and business places in the city closed around 12pm yesterday while military and police mounted countless road blocks in the metropolis.

“It is unfortunate that if you don’t have an ATM, you cannot withdraw money…we are really in trouble here,” Mr Joseph Nkem, a school teacher, said.

The entire Abbaganaram area was cordoned off by the policemen and soldiers even as they launched a house-to-house search for those behind the bombing.

Residents of Lawan Bukar, Kumshe, Shehuri North and Kawar Maila areas who could not go out of their houses till late in the afternoon yesterday alleged that the JTF operatives subjected them to a lot trauma.

“The soldiers entered all the houses in this area and arrested our husbands and children who are above the age of 16. They beat and harassed anyone that complained or attempted to resist arrest,” Amina Musa, a housewife in Abbaganaram, said.

The military have reportedly vandalized over 20 vehicles along the road leading to the Shehu of Borno’s place.

“Unfortunately when the soldiers realized that some of their men have been killed, they lost control and smashed the windscreens of our vehicles and punctured the tyres,” Zanna Musa, a resident of Hausari, said.

A journalist, Sadiq Abubakar, said he was also attacked. “Two military men at the Ahmadu Bello Way stopped me around 1pm and punctured the tyres of my car without asking me to identify myself or where I was going,” he said.

As at the time of filing this report, there was no official comment from the military regarding these allegations.

ZnO:
For me, it is an indictment for nonperformance that he had to be replaced with another minister
Add to that, Lagos where he has lived all his Nigerian life, does not want him to represent them any longer
Why not move back to his former job? Or has that one eluded him too
Ngozi left during her first outing and went back to her job
Why would Aganga, an MD of a strong financial institution, take shyyte from GEJ and from Lagos indigenes?
I would not stay back if meted with such shabby treatment. My 2cents.

ZnO:
You have yourself to blame for being brainwashed by Tinubu to go tribal. I pray you remain tribal for life, so that the spoils of war will be enough for us [size=20pt]nationalists[/size].

Referring to the Nigerian situation as a mess would, to most observers, be an exercise in tautology. Yet this piece is aimed at introducing the concept of a "social mess" as a definitive characterization of the Nigerian condition. The "social mess" phrase derives from an expansion of the more romantic sounding concept of "wicked problems", which are defined as problems that are "difficult or impossible to solve" due to a number of characteristics. Robert Hom, currently a professor at Stanford University, listed 14 characteristics of a social mess which IMHO fits well the Nigerian condition. For the purpose of this piece I have compressed these 14 characteristics into 7 categories:

1. Multiple, contradictory views of the problem none of which can be described as the uniquely "correct" view. No consensus on the consequences of the problem.
2. The overall problem is a connected network of multiple sub-problems.
3. Ideological, cultural and religious differences generate multiple value conflicts leading to a-logical or illogical or multi-valued thinking about the problem.
4. Interrelated political/economic constraints
5. Considerable uncertainties, ambiguities and multiplicity of interrelated sub-problems lead to numerous possible intervention points.
6. There is great resistance to change.
7. Problem solver(s) are out of contact with the problems and potential solutions.

In generating the above list I have taken the liberty of modifying some of the items on Robert Hom's list to suit what I now call the characteristics of the "Nigerian Social Mess". Interested readers can find the original list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem

Given the above list do you agree that Nigeria can be defined as a "social mess"?

ZnO:
All these dorty grammar because Fasola has FAILED WOEFULLY. When we insist that Fasola is all hype and no substance, they saw we are kidding. Look where it has landed them all, frothing in the mouth like epileptic patients

dem_people:
State police is good but I'm a champion of regionalisation both in economy, governance and security matters.

Onlytruth:
In Nigeria, everything is upside down for the sake of "unity".
How can a country at war maintain unity?
Isn't security a priority and a precursor for unity?

This issue won't go away because there is no other solution to Nigeria's perennial security problems.

jmaine:
They are trying to make them the eye of the SSS on Boko affairs . . .twist and turns abound in this development . . .i support their approach if thousands of their kind would be discovered and demobilized effectively . . . cos trying a few chaps without getting some good information from them by any means would just be a temporal victory while their infection deepens within

OAM4J:
I guess they will be given special security allowances.

cold:
His words, “in the early 1990s two applications were received and processed for Islamic banking licence: Al Barka Bank and Al Qaeda Bank.  However, those two banks could not meet the requirement for the grant of a final licence”.
>>>>>>>Question: Which "requirements were these"? Please tell us - did it include Sharia-Compliance or not? Probably not - note the next statement.

“The history of Islamic Banking in Nigeria dates back to 1991 with the promulgation of BOFIA, Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act which provided the legal guidelines for the regulation of non-interest of profit/loss sharing banking in the country”, he said.
>>>>>>>Note: The 1991 rules provide for "non-interest profit/loss sharing banking" - not SLS's Islamic Banks.

Mallam Sanusi added that by  1996, the then Habib Bank sought and obtained CBN approval to operate Islamic banking model.
Also Jaiz, a company that has been promoting Islamic banking in Nigeria, “got an approval in principle in 2004 but could not take off due to lack of capital”.
>>>>>>>Note: These banks would have been licenced under the 1991 rules, which said nothing about Islamic Banking. This here put paid to the LIE that Soludo started Islamic Banks first. Soludo was not CBN Governor in 1991, and when he approved Jaiz Bank he was using the same rules used for the 1996 Habib Bank approval  i.e. the 1991 non-interest profit/loss sharing banking"

His words, “we have the responsibility to continue to explain that the CBN is neither promoting nor establishing an Islamic bank.  The CBN is licensing and regulating Islamic banking and that is under the law”.
>>>>>>>Note: This is where the Mallam became too clever by half. How are you issuing guidelines anew in 2011 when two banks have already being approved under the 1991 rules. Is SLS telling us those were mistakes? If SLS finds a need to issue new "guidelines" then it is another proof that they are lying by using Soludo as cover. Why issue a rule that somebody has already issued. The CBN is yet to show us "Soludo's Circular" which specified Sharia-Compliance and all those religious rules as in SLS's.

“I think it is because of Nigerian politics- highly divided, highly sectarian.  I think we are in the habit of using every opportunity to exploit religion or ethnic difference for political ends”, he said.
>>>>>>>Comment: Nigerian politics is highly divided, highly sectarian precisely because of careless public officials like SLS. If he did not give the job of writing the rules to Mullahs and then rubber-stamping it there will be no eggs on his face now - and it is already a foul, smelling egg on SLS and CBN's face!!!

The governor said that the CBN was acting within the Provisions of the Banks and Other financial Institutions Act, BOFIA, and that those who felt otherwise should go to court.
>>>>>>>Comment: If I am not mistaken the same BOFIA rules actually spelt out religious words that a bank should not include in its name, talkless of allowing the CBN to set up one that must follow "Islamic Jurispudence"

“Anybody who feels Islamic banking is illegal should go to a court of law because it is only the court that decides if something is illegal or not.  If a court says it is illegal, we will stop it.
“But we don’t think the court will say so because we know it is within the realms of the law.  It is only a court of law that can make a pronouncement on the legality of anything”.
>>>>>>>Comment: I have said this times without number. This is the method of zealots in authority. Force religious ideas down your throat then challenge you to fight it if you are not comfortable. Go figure, they never fail to show true colors.

He said that Nigeria had become an Executive member of the Board of the Islamic Development Bank, IDB, and would benefit from the near $ 1 trillion assets of Islamic banks across the globe.    Mr. Isamil Toure who represented the President of the IDB, Dr. Ahmed Ali said that with the population of Nigeria, it would become the largest market for Islamic banking as well as IDB financing
>>>>>>>Comment: This is real reason SLS went about writing a religious law for our banking system that even some of those countries do not practice. Nigerian religionist are always ready to be more catholic than the pope at the expense of the comfort and life of the ordinary Nigerian down the road. We know he sees himself as Emir of Kano one day, but did he have to endanger all of us to satisfy his religious "peers" abroad.

Five persons have been confirmed dead and 10 injured in a fresh bomb attack at a drinking joint in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State (North-East Nigeria).

Reuters reports that the explosion, which occurred at a spot close to a police barracks on Sunday evening, was suspected to have been caused by outlawed Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

The Commander of the joint military and police task force in the city, Maj. Gen. Jack Nwaogbo, confirmed the incident to Reuters.

The attack marks a sour point in joint security operations to rout the sect, which has been accused of masterminding bomb attacks and assassinations in parts of the North as well as last month‘s blast at the headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force.

•Buhari, Fani-Kayode talk tough

Written by Taiwo Adisa, Jacob Segun Olatunji and Wale Ajayi Sunday, 03 July 2011

A former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, was in the early hours of yesterday (Saturday) picked up by

the operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) upon his arrival from the United Kingdom.

The State Security Service (SSS) yesterday said it picked Mallam Nasir el-Rufai for questioning because he published falsehood which runs contrary to the recently enacted freedom of Information Act.
The service, in an online statement made available to journalists in Abuja, narrated how and why the former minister was arrested.

According to the statement, el-Rufai was arrested for publishing incorrect, inciting and misleading news, both on the internet and in a newspaper published on Saturday.

According to the SSS the stories caused to be published by el-Rufai were inciting and capable of igniting chaos in the country in the face of security challenges the nation is facing currently.

The statement read thus “ at about 0500 hours of 2nd July, 2011, Mallam Nasiru EL-RUFAI, the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was intercepted on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

“This became necessary following Mallam EL-RUFAI’s recent articles in the cyber and print media which have been considered by well meaning Nigerians to be inciting, inflammatory and grossly misleading.

“For instance, his column on the back page of 1st July, 2011 edition of Thisday newspaper titled “What Nigeria Pays FG” clearly attests to this.

“It is pertinent to note that the Freedom of Information Bill (FoI Bill) has been passed into law, yet he refused to crosscheck his facts before publishing. He rather chose to misinform the public with mischievously orchestrated data with the intent of causing disaffection among the populace thereby subverting government.

“It is expected that the former Minister should have been more circumspect against the backdrop of current security challenges in the country.

“Nigeria belongs to all of us and no one should take laws into their hands as no one is above the law”.

According to el-Rufai’s media advisor, Muyiwa Adekeye, “the detained former FCT minister was returning from a week-long trip to the UK where he attended the Chatham House presentation by General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the CPC, who discussed recent events in Nigeria. He also visited his kids schooling there.

“Feelers indicate that the immediate trigger for his arrest is his diclosure in his Thisday column of Friday, 01 July 2011 that the National Security Adviser (NSA) was allocated N208 billion in the 2011 budget. This figure is in the 2011 Appropriation Act which is a public document. Bringing a information in the public domain to the people cannot by any stretch of the imagination be a crime even if it embarrasses security chiefs who, on the evidence of insecurity in the land, are not delivering value after despite securing tidy budgetary allocations! If the facts in El Rufai’s article, What Nigerians pay FG, are wrong in fact or context, that cannot be remedied by a denial of liberty. The government should simply publish its alternative narrative, and let the public decide.

Mallam El Rufai has not done anything illegal by encouraging discourse about what our government costs us. He has been outspoken about his concerns regarding the direction the current government is taking this country, and he has written critical pieces on this matter on Nigerian and international media platforms. Free speech is a constitutional right, and it implies the obligation by the state to defend even those whose views are not congruent with the powers that be. El Rufai’s views have been opposed by commentators more sympathetic to the Jonathan government. That is the way civilised discourse ought to go in a democratic country, not an illegal resort to arm-twisting and harassment.

El Rufai’s family and friends demand his immediate release and a halt to the growing instinct for intolerance,” Adekeye stated.

Mallam el-Rufai had left the country some weeks ago in company of the presidential candidate of the CPC, Major General Muhammad Buhari and vice presidential candidate of CPC, Pastor Tunde Bakare among others.

El-Rufai who was immediately taken to SSS headquarters, Yellow House, Abuja, is under intensive interrogation.

Meanwhile the Presidential candidate of the CPC, General Muhammadu Buhari, has demanded the immediate release of the former minister.

A release signed by Mr Yinka Odumakin, General Buhari’s spokesman reads.

“Gen Buhari condemns this brazen act of intimidation, harassment and flagrant violation of citizens right in a democratic atmosphere. It only shows that there are more people in our country who know how to win by hook and crook than those who know how to make proper use of their 'victory”, he said.

He added that hounding innocent citizens to detention in less than a month in office while failing to rise to the security challenges facing the nation shows a regime that does not understand what its priorities should be.

"He therefore called for the immediate release of el-Rufai from by the SSS who can then proceed to prefer whatever charges they have against him in court if he has committed any offence known to the laws of the land. To keep him in gaol without any charges will only cast the administration in the mould of a vindictive regime that is launching a wave of political repression because it is jittery”. he concluded.

In a swift reaction, a former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, described the arrest of Ribadu as a disgrace for the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan's.

According to him, “the arrest of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai is a disgrace and a monumental error on the part of this administration. Since when has it become a crime to be critical of government? I thought this was meant to be a democracy.

“Those that speak out are not the ones that President Goodluck Jonathan should be worried about. It is those that do not speak out but bomb, maim and kill that his SSS should be hunting down.

“They should release El-Rufai immediately and stop these childish games and this display of shameless paranoia. You cannot silence dissent and opposition by brazen display of brute force and intimidation.

When you do that, you only make it grow. It is el-Rufai today, who will it be tomorrow?“

haka_nai:
Yes Islamic banking will be.For people saying that it will discriminate.The NSCIA has spoken.You should hold them responsible or the bank if anything of its kind happens.That's the assurance of its tolerance to other non-Muslims and also the issue of its merits in other countries before Nigeria.Also you've being told that Sanusi was not the person who initiated or licensed it.
You can't deprive Muslims what they want.Especially where it is not proven such has caused any problem.Islamic banking is just coming to Nigeria. Since its never being in Nigerian,you can't associate it to negative vices in the country and the fact that it has worked successfully/peacefully outside Nigeria speaks for it. There is no reason denying us the services period!

haka_nai:
^^^Then is Europe or America predominantly Muslims? Your point is full of ignorance  

hercules07:
I believe christians will be allowed to participate, I am already putting together a business plan that I will take to the banks when they take off, when Islamic banking takes off, I expect Sanusi or whoever is the CBN governor to see how the existing policies work and to evolve them, it is the fallibility of the system that makes it imperative to iterate.

maclatunji:
Tell them hercules, if you like call a car an automobile it does not change it from being what it is- hehehe!

Evil Brain:
Be quiet!

How dare you speak against the government of our great and prosperous nation Nigeria? How dare you question the wisdom of our dear leader President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? Mr. El Rufai is guilty of the crimes of sedition and divisionism, that is why he was arrested. Soon, he will receive a fair trial and be sent to prison.

Let his fate be an example the posters on this site. We have been monitoring your activities for several months and have compiled comprehensive files on a number of your members.  All of you would be wise to be very careful of your utterances from now on. The government will no longer tolerate the kind of irresponsible speech we have seen in the past. Do not forget that since the sim card registration exercise, we now have a comprehensive database of all your personal information. Your phone conversations are being monitored, your ip addresses are being logged and your locations are being tracked. Do not think you can escape by using fake names. The State Security Service has the technology to unmask you. All those who incite anti-government sentiments will be severely dealt with! No one will escape punishment.

From today onward, all those who make seditious comments will be arrested. All those who criticize the government shall be jailed and all unapproved protesters will be shot. The Federal Government is willing to go to any length to preserve our free and open democracy from the threat of dissidents and malcontents.

You have been warned.

Signed,

Alhaji Evil D. Brain
Assistant Director for Electronic Intelligence Monitoring
State Security Service,
Abuja.

Libyan rebels, Gadhafi forces exchange fire; 11 rebels wounded
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/02/libya.war/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 2, 2011 3:23 p.m. EDT

The rebel-held city of Misrata and the embattled city of Dafniya were attacked Saturday

Dafniya, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan rebels and troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi shelled each other for hours on Saturday in clashes at the highly contested frontline of Dafniya, an embattled town just west of the besieged port city of Misrata.

At least 11 rebels were wounded in the exchange of fire and treated at one of the two field hospitals in what has been the most active day in Dafniya this week, according to a CNN team.

Heavy government shelling on Misrata and Dafniya began shortly after Gadhafi rallied his supporters in an audio message on state TV and threatened to take the fighting to Europe in retaliation for NATO's bombing campaign.

"As soon as Gadhafi's speech ended, they started shelling Dafniya and around midnight there was a salvo of about eight rockets inside Misrata itself, and it continues on the front this morning," said CNN's Ben Wedeman, who was in Misrata Saturday.

Gadhafi has vowed vengeance for NATO bombings in Libya. He said the Libyan military could be "like locusts, like bees" in Europe, potentially targeting homes and offices.

"You are mistaken, you are involved in a battle that you don't know what you are going to face, so withdraw and run away," Gadhafi told a pro-government gathering in Tripoli. "Our people is able in one day to move the battle to the Mediterranean, and able to move the battle to Europe."

Gadhafi referred to NATO, which began bombing military targets in Libya after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution in March authorizing force by whatever means necessary -- with the exception of a ground invasion -- to protect civilians.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim on Saturday reiterated Gadhafi's call for vengeance.

NATO's "aggression is killing our children (and) Europe will have to face the consequences," he said. "You will have people attacking Europe, joining terrorist organizations against Europe, and building a culture that makes legitimate all violence against Europe."

Ibrahim claimed rebel fighters "have no popular support."

"The rebels have no future," he added. "They know it and they are terrified."

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the NATO mission in Libya is on track, with pressure on Gadhafi mounting and the rebel forces growing stronger.

"We need to see this through, and we are in complete agreement that we will," she said alongside the Spanish foreign minister in Madrid Saturday.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was taking seriously the Libyan leader's remarks. "Certainly this is an individual who's obviously capable of carrying out these kinds of threats," he told reporters. "It's what makes him so dangerous. But he's also someone who's given to overblown rhetoric."

He said the United States would continue to support NATO's mission of increasing pressure on Gadhafi to step aside.

The French government was in talks with Libyan rebels about supplying them with weapons and ammunition, a Libyan opposition military spokesman in Misrata said Thursday.

The French government has not confirmed the claim, which follows an acknowledgment earlier this week that its military has previously dropped light weaponry to rebels elsewhere.

The government has proposed to charge him with sedition and public incitement in connection with an article he published on June 30 questioning the defense spending of the Jonathan government. The federal government is expected to put out a rejoinder to be widely circulated debunking the critical piece.

ideylaff:
[b]Seun please can we raise the age of posters on here as well as have a section to train people on how to behave in the public domain either if its face to face or in a
faceless environment like NL

Pukkah:
@seanet, it's PDP's business please because they're Nigerians and may be, Osun state indigenes.

Sincerely, is it in the interest of the state not to have Commissioners for 7 months, no matter the reason? Look beyond PDP and tackle this question.

Democracy thrives when there's constructive criticism. We need ideas on how to move every part of this country forward regardless of political affiliation and religious leanings. One of the ways to do it is to put our leaders (notwithstanding their political colouration) under scrutiny without fear or favour but with equity and fairness.

ACN should be mindful not to get carried away by this newfound victory. It's more important to manage/sustain success or power than to acquire it. For now, we are watching how ACN plans to do that.

@OAM4J, kudos for your objectivity. This is one of the ways to lift this long-suffering country out of under-development. Poverty knows no tribe and it has no religion.