₦airaland Forum

Abubakus

Her certificate is being questioned. Where did she school? Who was her maths teacher? Is her certificate with the secretary, military board like her oga @ d top?

That day u left your house, your house left you. Make do with what u gat. I paid for my own accommodation. Last word! Be grateful

Royco was sold for 4600 today it's 5600

That Nigeria is under going turbulent economic times is no longer news. Prices of goods have skyrocketed in the past week.
Please state your experience in the market this week on prices.
Thanks

Rip.

By Ochereome Nnanna
EVERY administration enjoys its share of
honeymoon after assuming power. The allure
of newness and expectations are high during
this period, and the people are willing to
overlook and excuse little blunders here and
there. But months down the line, one or two
major things happen, and the honeymoon is
over.
When former President Goodluck Jonathan
took over in 2011, his trajectory from Deputy
Governor to Governor and from Vice President
to President was a major talking point during
his honeymoon. His being the first ethnic
Minority Nigerian to recieve the overwhelming
vote of the electorate, even when ranged
against powerful Northern opponents was
something people found inspiring. But the
moment he attempted to remove the
petroleum subsidy starting from January 1,
2012, the romance quickly vanished.
Unfortunately, Jonathan backed off from
completely removing the subsidy, with the
resultant effect that Nigeria went on to spend
over two more trillion Naira on fuel subsidies;
an amount that could have turned around the
massive infrastructure deficit of the country if
properly invested.
President Muhammadu Buhari came on the
crest of what some romantically termed:
“Change Revolution”. It was the first time a
sitting president seeking a second term was
voted out in Nigeria and he left without
making any fuss. In Africa, it was the second
time it ever happned, following the noble
example of former Senegalese President,
Abdoulaye Wade, who conceded victory to his
former Minister, Macky Sall, on Monday 26th
March 2012.
Even if the election that brought Buhari in
was not that copasetic (what with millions of
under-age voters and non-use of the card
reader in the Muslim North, his main political
base), the transitional process was second to
none. This was obviously why many
newspapers awarded both the former and
incumbent presidents their joint Man-of-the
Year 2015.
On assumption of power, Buhari’s media
magicians, notably Femi Adesina (alias
Kulikuli) and Garba Shehu, stoked his
mystique with fairytale characterisations: “the
New Sheriff in Town”, who accomplished great
feats of change through his “Body Language”,
feats which were fondly attributed to “The
Buhari Effect”. You will recall that as soon as
Buhari was announced winner of the
presidential election, the Naira, which was
going for 228 against the US Dollar,
appreciated by seven percent to 211. His
supporters boasted that if he could achieve
this without lifting a finger, then his campaign
promise to make the Naira equal to the Dollar
would be accomplished before long. But today,
the story is different. At the last check, the
Naira exchanged for the Dollar at 313: 1, with
many proffering the bleak prognosis that we
might be headed eventually for 500:1 or an
outright devaluation (which Buhari’s Western
backers have asked him to do).
In June 2015 the comatose refineries suddenly
restarted refining petroleum products without
the regime spending a kobo. Today, Kaduna
and Port Harcourt refineris remain shut and
will not resume production till end of this
month.
While “the Buhari Effect” held sway, there was
a noticeable improvement in power supply,
even when the new leader had not made a
policy pronouncement on which way his cat
was going to jump. Some even claimed they
now had between 18 to 24 hours of power
supply a day. They forgot that this was the
cool and rainy season when, traditionally, the
hydrothermal plants were full with water
which results to more available megawatts for
the national grid. What do we have now? The
power supply has nosedived, though the
administration has reported that we have
crossed the 5,000 megawatts threshold “for
the first time”. The Power Distribution
Companies (DISCOs) which bought over the
assets of erstwhile state monopoly, Power
Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), on
February 1, 2016, made good their threat to
raise electricity tariff by 46 percent. Nigeria’s
Organised Labour, which had been in
hibernation since Comrade Adams Oshiomhole
stepped down as Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) President, also made good their threat
to picket their offices nationwide.
That is the most poignant sure sign that the
honeymoon is over. This honeymoon usually
stops when concrete governance starts.
However, the power tariff hike is a small thing
compared to the great damage to the Buhari
administration’s image which the 2016 budget
saga is beginning to turn up. The insanity of
the 2016 budget is twofold. On the one hand
is the massive amount of corruption
(paddings, duplications) which are being
unearthed at the House of Representatives
and the Senate. The second is Federal
Government’s inability to discover these
crooked intents to steal our public funds right
under the nose of an anti-corruption president,
which reeks of gross incompetence from the
Budget Office and the Federal Ministry of
Finance to the Presidency.
Not only that, an aide of the President,
Senator Etta Enang, has been accused of
being behind the tampering with the budget
which President Buhari presented before the
National Assembly. The confusion and
corruption surrounding the budget is so much
that one of the Ministers, Prof. Isaac Adewole,
who is in charge of the Health Ministry,
openly disowned his ministry’s budget when
he was supposed to defend it before the
Legislature. He said “rats” (which are also
known as “budget mafia”) had doctored it.
Frustrated, the Chairmen of the Appropriation
Committees of the House and Senate,
announced that the February 25 date for the
passage of the budget had been postponed
indefinitely.
The President has promised to punish the civil
servants who were responsible for sabotaging
the budget and using it to paint his
administration in corrupt colours. We wait to
see.Buhari’s Budgetgate exposes an irony.
Remember, during the four-month delay in
naming his cabinet, Buhari betrayed his
confidence on bureaucrats and disdain for
ministers. He told France 24, a television
station and I quote:
“No. It is what we know – and which we
learned from the Western system. The civil
service provides the continuity, the technocrat.
And in any case, they are those that do most
of the work. The ministers are there, I think, to
make a lot of noise.... But the work is being
done by the technocrats. They are there; they
have to provide continuity, dig into the
records and then guide us who are just
coming in”.
Buhari was heavily criticised (I lent my voice
to it here) for making it seem like ministers
are unimportant. Is it not an irony that the
same civil servants on whom Buhari depends
for “guidance” are now the ones corrupting his
first budget with a view to stealing public
funds? Buhari’s trusted civil servants who
orchestrated the disgrace of former Health
Minister, Professor Adenike Grange (she has
since cleared her name in court) are the ones
who want to scam us once again through this
Budgetgate.
Nine months into his regime, our President,
who is permanently on foreign tours, no longer
possesses the body language to deter civil
trusted servants from attempting to loot the
treasury. They are no longer deterred by the
exploits of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) which is grabbing people,
detaining them, arraigning them and sealing
up their properties.
In fact, it has come to a point where Buhari
will criticise the Judiciary and the Chief
Justice of Nigeria and the Nigerian Bar
Association will answer back. Boko Haram,
which had been ‘“technically defeated”
resumes invasions of communities and a rash
of suicide bombings. It has become obvious,
even to Buhari’s ardent supporters that
governance is not a fairytale; it is not a
daydream. You must do the work and do it
well. In this our democracy, whatever you sow,
you will reap.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/610250/

The end of time is near

Gay spotted

That man is confused. He even called Ifeanyi ubah. Ifeanyi has to call to call him the biggest liar!
See how far an enemy could go to seek revenge. Psalms 55 comes to mind

Investment in a woman that is not yet pregnant for you is like trying to sandfill the ocean.
You want to marry out of pity abi..... Continu
People always find there way out. With or without you in her life, if she is determined, she will pull through school.
Don't you have a brother to invest in?

The way they are moving, Abuja could be hit this week or Jos. The attacks are coming downwards if u take time to notice.
Don't quote me

Public opinion in the southeast and South south are pro pdp no matter how they try to paint us with the brush of corruption. We are educated and read between the lines. Congrats to Wike

irepagbor:
I schooled in east. I know all 5 states of igbo...... please brother, i want to learn from you.

1. NAME ONE FOOD CROP OR CASH CROP IN LARGE QUANTITY THAT IS PRODUCED IN IGBO LAND?

2. CAN YOU GIVE US STATISTICS OF TRUCK CARRYING GOODS FROM EAST TO OTHER PART COMPARED TO THE STATISTICS OF TRUCKS TAKING FOOD FROM OTHER PARTS TO EAST?

3. NAME ANY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE OR NATURAL RESOURCES FROM IGBO LAND THAT NIGERIANS OR AFRICANS DEPEND ON?

waiting for your reply.

Brains and ingenuity. That's what we export!

Who are all these sources that dish out info to the media after the huge cry to stop media trial? Civil servants should be seen not HEARD!

I remember writing exams for one dull girl. I was answering her questions in my answer booklet. If I had answered it on hers, the hand writing would be different. She was in ND while I was HND writing two different papers at the same time. Was almost caught by the supervisor but I'll escaped by whiskers. He flipped each page but except the last page.

Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
Wednesday gave a press conference at the
Geneva Press Club to a packed audience of
diplomats, policy makers and journalists
where he gave details of his post presidential
focus and touched on some of the roles his
administration played in key areas of the
Nigerian and West Africa polity, with
particular emphasis on Security and
Education.
Read speech below
Press conference on Security, Education and
Development in Africa Geneva Press Club -
Wednesday the 27th of January, 2016
Protocols
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, I thank
you for coming to hear me speak on the twin
issues of education and security.
Though this event is billed as a press
conference on a Better Security and Education
for West Africa, for the sake of time, I will
focus on my experience in government which
gave me a practical demonstration of how
education impacts on security.
I will thereafter touch on my post presidential
focus which is on advancing democracy and
good governance in Africa and increasing
access to opportunity for wealth generation in
Africa.
If you peruse the official UNESCO literacy
rates by country, what you will find is that all
of the top ten most literate nations in the
world are at peace, while almost all of the top
10 least literate nations in the world are in a
state of either outright war or general
insecurity.
Lower education levels are linked to poverty
and poverty is one of the chief causative
factors of crime whether it is terrorism or
militancy or felonies.
With this at the back of my mind, I began the
practice of giving education the highest
sectoral allocation beginning with my very
first budget as President in 2011.
My policy was to fight insecurity in the
immediate term using counter insurgency
strategies and the military and for the long
term I fought it using education as a tool.
As I have always believed, if we do not spend
billions educating our youths today, we will
spend it fighting insecurity tomorrow. And you
do not have to spend on education just
because of insecurity. It is also the prudent
thing to do.
Nigeria, or any African nation for that matter,
can never become wealthy by selling more
minerals or raw materials such as oil. Our
wealth as a nation is between the ears of our
people.
It is no coincidence that the Northeast
epicenter of terrorism in Nigeria is also the
region with the highest rate of illiteracy and
the least developed part of Nigeria.
In Nigeria, the Federal Government actually
does not have a responsibility for primary and
secondary education, but I could not in good
conscience stomach a situation where 52.4%
of males in the Northeastern region of Nigeria
have no formal Western education.
The figure is even worse when you take into
account the states most affected by the
insurgency.
83.3% of male population in Yobe state have
no formal Western education. In Borno state it
is 63.6%.
Bearing this in mind is it a coincidence that
the Boko Haram insurgency is strongest in
these two states?
So even though we did not have a
responsibility for primary and secondary
education going by the way the Nigerian
federation works, I felt that where I had
ability, I also had responsibility even if the
constitution said it was not my responsibility.
Knowing that terrorism thrives under such
conditions my immediate goal was to increase
the penetration of Western education in the
region while at the same time making sure
that the people of the region did not see it as
a threat to their age old practices of itinerant
Islamic education known as Almajiri.
For the first time in Nigeria's history, the
Federal Government which I led, set out to
build 400 Almajiri schools with specialized
curricula that combined Western and Islamic
education. 160 of them had been completed
before I left office.
I am also glad to state that when I emerged
as President of Nigeria on May 6th 2010,
there were nine states in the Northern part of
the country that did not have universities. By
the time I left office on the 29th of May 2015,
there was no Nigerian state without at least
one Federal University.
Now the dearth of access to formal education
over years created the ideal breeding ground
for terror to thrive in parts of Nigeria but there
are obviously other dimensions to the issue of
insecurity in Nigeria and particularly terrorism.
You may recall that the fall of the Gaddafi
regime in August 2011 led to a situation
where sophisticated weapons fell into the
hands of a number of non state actors with
attendant increase in terrorism and instability
in North and West Africa.
The administration I headed initiated
partnership across West Africa to contain
such instability in nations such as Mali, which
I personally visited in furtherance of peace.
And with those countries contiguous to
Nigeria, especially nations around the Lake
Chad Basin, we formed a coalition for the
purpose of having a common front against
terrorists through the revived Multinational
Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
Those efforts continue till today and have in
large part helped decimate the capacity of
Boko Haram.
Another aspect of the anti terror war we
waged in Nigeria that has not received enough
attention is our effort to improve on our
intelligence gathering capacity.
Prior to my administration, Nigeria's
intelligence architecture was designed largely
around regime protection, but through much
sustained effort we were able to build
capacity such that our intelligence agencies
were able to trace and apprehend the
masterminds behind such notorious terror
incidences as the Christmas Day bombing of
the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla,
Niger State.
Other suspects were also traced and arrested
including those behind the Nyanya and Kuje
bombings.
Not only did we apprehend suspects, but we
tried and convicted some of them including
the ring leader of the Madalla bombing cell,
Kabir Sokoto, who is right now serving a
prison sentence.
But leadership is about the future. I am sure
you have not come here to hear me talk about
the way backward. You, like everyone else,
want to hear about the way forward.
I am no longer in office, and I no longer have
executive powers on a national level. However,
I am more convinced now than ever about the
nexus between education and security.
My foundation, The Goodluck Jonathan
Foundation, was formed to further democracy,
good governance and wealth generation in
Africa.
Of course, Charity begins at home and for the
future, what Nigeria needs is to focus on
making education a priority.
Thankfully, the administration that succeeded
mine in its first budget, appears to have seen
wisdom in continuing the practice of giving
education the highest sectoral allocation. This
is commendable.
I feel that what people in my position,
statesmen and former leaders, ought to be
doing is to help build consensus all over
Africa, to ensure that certain issues should
not be politicized.
Education is one of those issues. If former
African leaders can form themselves into an
advisory group to gently impress on
incumbent leaders the necessity of meeting
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommended
allocation of 26% of a nations annual budget
on education, I am certain that Africa will
make geometric progress in meeting her
Millennium Development Goals and improving
on every index of the Human Development
Index.
Data has shown that as spending on
education increases, health and well being
increases and incidences of maternal and
infant mortality reduce.
In Nigeria for instance, Average Life
Expectancy had plateaued in the mid 40s for
decades, but after 2011, when we began
giving education the highest sectoral
allocation, according to the United Nations,
Nigeria enjoyed her highest increase in
Average Life Expectancy since records were
kept. We moved from an Average Life
Expectancy of 47 years before 2011 to 54
years by 2015.
I had earlier told you about the connection
between education and insecurity.
I believe that it is the job of former leaders
and elder statesmen to convince Executive and
Legislative branches across Africa to work
together to achieve the UNESCO recommended
percentage as a barest minimum.
I intend to offer my services, through The
Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, for this
purpose and I invite interested organizations
to help us make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, this, in a
nutshell are some of my thoughts for a Better
Security and Education for Africa and I will
now entertain your questions...

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/604814/

bennaz:
Thanks. Really like it. But I can't afford getting a camera and other aids

With 30k u are up and running. A fairly used camera, 10k, printer 15k and 5k for paper, background cloths and a stool. I could just be selling a business idea to someone besides you. But be assured this job is flexible and mobile

Photography like taking passport photographs to start with. Attend occasion, go to schools to take their passport for students who want write external exams

Waiting

Please, how powerful is IBB? Most respondents doubt he could be probed. Just how powerful is IBB

Keneking:
Did OBJ, Late Yar'Adua and Jonathan not run a one-man show? Has the government failed in meeting its financial obligations so far? Has the budget been passed? Are you aware that the government's part of spend in the fiscal year is "zero based budget approach"?

Agreed, oil prices have been forecasted to be extremely low this year, where is the saving all these years? Can Okonjo and Soludo tell us where it is?

You are daft.
When the governors threatened court action saying excess crude account is unconstitutional and admission twisted the government into sharing and depleting the account now u are here blaming as usual which is typical of a programmed zombie. The Nigerian constitution dies not allow for savings on whatever form. It is built on a parasitic relationship of SHARE IT!

Good to see a judge stand his ground. You don't fight illegality with illegality #teamruleoflaw

Illiteracy mixed with religion is equivalent to an hydrogen bomb

With the rude shock staring Nigeria on the face in the glut in the oil market and the crash in the price of crude, it's time the government establishes MARKETING BOARDS either in a state basis.
With the cost of producing Nigeria crude put at $30 pb and crude selling for less than that and could hit the $20 mark if mother less with it budget benchmark currently at 38$ which means we are running at a deficit long before we started implementation means that the government needs to focus on agricultural to first of all guarantee national security because folks will hit the streets when the pay for a loaf of bread hits 500 and may not be available. At that point, even the minister of interior won't be safe with all the security.
I advocate that we are able to fees ourselves in areas we comparative advantage than rushing to export while we starved.
The land use act will have to be amended because agricultural lands are shrinking due to urbanization and land speculators.
Real farmers should be subsidized not St the point if production but after hast with a price guarantee scheme. This will curb corruption instead of the pre production subsidy of giving fertilized to farmers before of which most get diverted.
Farmers henceforth would only get subsidy if the source their seeds from reputable seed companies or Agric development boards in their area.

Besides the aforementioned, whatever Buhari does with forex restriction et AL is just a play in the park without educating the people on what the country finds itself.

Kikero112:
Exactly.

Anytime i hear someone sing ''Agric will save us''....I always get the feeling the chap is still in the 1960's....when we had guaranteed markets.Not anymore.

And then there are the African countries that do rely on agric...most of them are heavily reliant on loans to fund their budgets.

And your point about modernisation?....Fully taken. Anyone who thinks we can be a major agric exporter on the backs of subsistence farming..with 10% of our farming done on not so modern mega farms is just dreaming.

With the buhari budget where communication and propaganda ministry gets 10 billion more than Agric then we are in for a long thing because it means the government will feed us more with propaganda and less food

omenka:
Brother, you seem to grossly underestimate the capability of the agric sector. Look, if properly harnessed, it can propel the economy completely out of its current deplorable situation. Beauty of it is that one doesn't need formal education to be successful in it, unlike in the oil and gas industry- just about everyone can get involved in it. Now just imagine all that!!

Commodity prices are down because of the slow down of the Chinese economy. We can only farm to feed but for trade..... Forget it until 2020.
International Agric business are done years ahead based on orders and I don't think we have such for now.
Agric Wil continue to sleep until marketing boards are brought back so that farmers would know before the commence production the guaranteed market price.
Secondly, our use of land would have to be reviewed because agricultural lands are shrinking. Where u currently built ur house was most probably a farm land due to massive urbanization. Residential areas should be well mapped out, encourage the building if sky scrapers or high rise buildings to minimize land use
Agric has gone through modernization so lot of know how is involved. Let's do lot of research on hybridization, short duration crops & extension services with private sector involvement.
My doubt Is apc is a socialist oriented government which would have its hands tied.

These Aisha rice eaters would rather insult than answer potent questions raised by fayose. Must everyone eat Aisha white Maggi rice?

Strong man

Lawyers are to file a complaint before the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against
Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, on
alleged human rights abuses against members
of the pro-Biafran separatist movement.
Dutch lawyer and professor, Göran Sluiter, who
specialises in international criminal law, is
leading the team that will file the complaint
at the Hague in the Netherlands in February.
Sluiter and his colleague, Andrew Ianuzzi, are
working full time on the case and are
occasionally assisted by a team of 20 other
lawyers.
Sluiter told IBTimes UK they had been
representing the 'Biafran minority' since the
arrest of pro-Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in
October 2015. "We have found evidence of
some crimes directed against the Biafran
minority in Nigeria," he said. "Violations
include violence against demonstrators,
torture, murder, enforced disappearances and
incarcerations.
"There is a whole list of incidents and with
Buhari coming into power, this is becoming
more of a structured nature, exemplified by
Kanu's arrest and how the government is
dealing with demonstrations calling for Kanu's
release."
Sluiter also made reference to the use of
Skype in sourcing evidence and the issue of
human rights.
He said: "In addition to information on public
sources, I have conducted phone and Skype
interviews with individual victims as we
wanted to hear the first-hand evidence.
"I also received pictures of victims of police
violence during demonstrations. We will be
presenting anonymous interviews with about
20, 25 people, but there are many more
victims.
"There has been a systematic denial of human
rights of the Biafran people, who are
oppressed by the government. We hope that
the ICC will bring justice to the victims with
serious investigations and hopefully a trial.
We also hope that Mr Kanu – whose
treatment is symbolic of the treatment of the
entire Biafran minority in Nigeria – will be
released."
Thousands of people – mainly from Igbo
extraction – identify themselves as Biafrans, a
term used to define people living in the
Biafran territories forcibly annexed to present-
day south-eastern Nigeria during the British
colonisation.
Pro-Biafran calls have intensified since
October 2015, following the arrest of Kanu,
who is also the director of Radio Biafra. In
spite of a High Court ruling in favour of his
release, Kanu is being detained by the State
Security Service (DSS) amid allegations of
torture. A day after the ruling, officials
pressed new charges against him.
Pro-Biafrans have often accused the police
and army of unjustified violence against
demonstrators. In one of the latest episodes of
alleged violence, the army was accused of
killing between four and 10 people who were
celebrating the high court verdict on Kanu on
17 December. During several interviews with
IBTimes UK, the Nigerian police have always
denied the killings.
When asked to comment on the allegations,
Buhari's spokesperson, Femi Adesina, told
IBTimes UK: "The lawyers have a right to their
opinions. It does not make what they say
gospel truth."[center]Lawyers are to file a complaint before the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against
Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, on
alleged human rights abuses against members
of the pro-Biafran separatist movement.
Dutch lawyer and professor, Göran Sluiter, who
specialises in international criminal law, is
leading the team that will file the complaint
at the Hague in the Netherlands in February.
Sluiter and his colleague, Andrew Ianuzzi, are
working full time on the case and are
occasionally assisted by a team of 20 other
lawyers.
Sluiter told IBTimes UK they had been
representing the 'Biafran minority' since the
arrest of pro-Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in
October 2015. "We have found evidence of
some crimes directed against the Biafran
minority in Nigeria," he said. "Violations
include violence against demonstrators,
torture, murder, enforced disappearances and
incarcerations.
"There is a whole list of incidents and with
Buhari coming into power, this is becoming
more of a structured nature, exemplified by
Kanu's arrest and how the government is
dealing with demonstrations calling for Kanu's
release."
Sluiter also made reference to the use of
Skype in sourcing evidence and the issue of
human rights.
He said: "In addition to information on public
sources, I have conducted phone and Skype
interviews with individual victims as we
wanted to hear the first-hand evidence.
"I also received pictures of victims of police
violence during demonstrations. We will be
presenting anonymous interviews with about
20, 25 people, but there are many more
victims.
"There has been a systematic denial of human
rights of the Biafran people, who are
oppressed by the government. We hope that
the ICC will bring justice to the victims with
serious investigations and hopefully a trial.
We also hope that Mr Kanu – whose
treatment is symbolic of the treatment of the
entire Biafran minority in Nigeria – will be
released."
Thousands of people – mainly from Igbo
extraction – identify themselves as Biafrans, a
term used to define people living in the
Biafran territories forcibly annexed to present-
day south-eastern Nigeria during the British
colonisation.
Pro-Biafran calls have intensified since
October 2015, following the arrest of Kanu,
who is also the director of Radio Biafra. In
spite of a High Court ruling in favour of his
release, Kanu is being detained by the State
Security Service (DSS) amid allegations of
torture. A day after the ruling, officials
pressed new charges against him.
Pro-Biafrans have often accused the police
and army of unjustified violence against
demonstrators. In one of the latest episodes of
alleged violence, the army was accused of
killing between four and 10 people who were
celebrating the high court verdict on Kanu on
17 December. During several interviews with
IBTimes UK, the Nigerian police have always
denied the killings.
When asked to comment on the allegations,
Buhari's spokesperson, Femi Adesina, told
IBTimes UK: "The lawyers have a right to their
opinions. It does not make what they say
gospel truth."[/center]Lawyers are to file a complaint before the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against
Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, on
alleged human rights abuses against members
of the pro-Biafran separatist movement.
Dutch lawyer and professor, Göran Sluiter, who
specialises in international criminal law, is
leading the team that will file the complaint
at the Hague in the Netherlands in February.
Sluiter and his colleague, Andrew Ianuzzi, are
working full time on the case and are
occasionally assisted by a team of 20 other
lawyers.
Sluiter told IBTimes UK they had been
representing the 'Biafran minority' since the
arrest of pro-Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in
October 2015. "We have found evidence of
some crimes directed against the Biafran
minority in Nigeria," he said. "Violations
include violence against demonstrators,
torture, murder, enforced disappearances and
incarcerations.
"There is a whole list of incidents and with
Buhari coming into power, this is becoming
more of a structured nature, exemplified by
Kanu's arrest and how the government is
dealing with demonstrations calling for Kanu's
release."
Sluiter also made reference to the use of
Skype in sourcing evidence and the issue of
human rights.
He said: "In addition to information on public
sources, I have conducted phone and Skype
interviews with individual victims as we
wanted to hear the first-hand evidence.
"I also received pictures of victims of police
violence during demonstrations. We will be
presenting anonymous interviews with about
20, 25 people, but there are many more
victims.
"There has been a systematic denial of human
rights of the Biafran people, who are
oppressed by the government. We hope that
the ICC will bring justice to the victims with
serious investigations and hopefully a trial.
We also hope that Mr Kanu – whose
treatment is symbolic of the treatment of the
entire Biafran minority in Nigeria – will be
released."
Thousands of people – mainly from Igbo
extraction – identify themselves as Biafrans, a
term used to define people living in the
Biafran territories forcibly annexed to present-
day south-eastern Nigeria during the British
colonisation.
Pro-Biafran calls have intensified since
October 2015, following the arrest of Kanu,
who is also the director of Radio Biafra. In
spite of a High Court ruling in favour of his
release, Kanu is being detained by the State
Security Service (DSS) amid allegations of
torture. A day after the ruling, officials
pressed new charges against him.
Pro-Biafrans have often accused the police
and army of unjustified violence against
demonstrators. In one of the latest episodes of
alleged violence, the army was accused of
killing between four and 10 people who were
celebrating the high court verdict on Kanu on
17 December. During several interviews with
IBTimes UK, the Nigerian police have always
denied the killings.
When asked to comment on the allegations,
Buhari's spokesperson, Femi Adesina, told
IBTimes UK: "The lawyers have a right to their
opinions. It does not make what they say
gospel truth."


http://tribuneonlineng.com/lawyers-take-buhari-to-international-criminal-court-over-pro-biafra-agitation

Commendable

Use to see post of cram Jones but never new his brain was that BALD just to draw attention