₦airaland Forum

danjohn: This Eko Atlantic project is too small. If Eko Atlantic supposed to be the Nigerian Manhattan then the 250K residents and 150K workers number is too small. In 40 or 50 years, Eko Atlantic would be over crowded and too small to handle the number of people who commute there. Just my 2 cents.

ilugunboy: I don't know why ...but I enjoy reading your input on this forum....you know so many confidential and top secret stuff...

[size=14pt]Eko Atlantic set for opening on 21st of February[/size]

The multi billion naira land reclamation project along the Bar Beach coastline called Eko Atlantic City is set to be launched tomorrow. Expected at the launch are the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Also expected are former U.S. President Bill Clinton, state governors, ministers and other dignitaries

Eko Atlantic will be a new home to 250,000 people and the workplace of another 150,000. The ten square kilometre development will have waterfront areas, tree-lined streets, efficient transport systems and mixed-use plots that combine residential areas with leisure facilities, offices and shops.

Eko Atlantic will enhance the status of Lagos and create a new and stronger financial hub for the whole of West Africa.

[size=14pt]Nollywood Legendary Actor Justus Esiri Is Dead![/size]

Another day another incredibly sad news. Legendary actor Justus Esiri has died. The Member of the Order of the Niger (MON), famous for his role as the Village Headmaster in popular 80's sitcom of the same name, passed on last night. No details yet on the cause of death, but will update you guys as soon as I know something.

Justus Esiri has featured in several Nollywood movies and is the father of Mavin artist, Dr Sid. May his soul rest in peace...amen

[size=14pt]Militants kidnap French family in north Cameroon[/size]

Reuters - 4 hrs ago

YAOUNDE/DAKAR (Reuters) - Islamist militants from neighboring Nigeria abducted a French family of seven, including four children, in northern Cameroon on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said.

The risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa has risen since France sent forces into Mali last month to help oust Islamist rebels occupying the country's north.

"They (French family) have been taken by a terrorist group that we know and that is in Nigeria," Hollande told reporters during a visit to Greece.

The men on motorcycles, armed with Kalashnikovs, intercepted the family in their car at 0700 GMT and forced them to drive to the nearby Nigerian border, an aide to the governor of the province told Reuters. The four-wheel-drive vehicle was later found abandoned.

Islamist radicals in northern Nigeria now pose the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil-producing state.

Western governments are concerned that Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists may link up with groups elsewhere in a region with poorly secured borders, especially al Qaeda's North African wing AQIM given the conflict in nearby Mali.

The seven French nationals were abducted in Dabanga about 10 km (six miles) from the Nigerian border near the Waza national park, where they had spent the night in the extreme north of Cameroon, an area where Westerners often go for holidays.

The parents of the family, which included two boys and two girls as well as another relative, worked for French utility firm GDF Suez.

GDF, which is building a liquefied natural gas project in south Cameroon, confirmed one of its employees and his family had been kidnapped while on holiday.

Cameroon state radio reported that witnesses said the three adults had been separated from the four children and Cameroonian defense forces had been deployed to the area.

It was the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony.

"I see the hand of Boko Haram in that part of Cameroon. France is in Mali, and it will continue until its mission is completed," Hollande said.

France intervened in Mali last month when Islamist rebels, after hijacking a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg MNLA separatists to seize control of the north in the confusion following a military coup, pushed south towards the capital Bamako.

Eight French citizens are already being held in West Africa's Sahel region by al Qaeda-affiliated groups.

"It shows that the fight against terrorist groups is a necessity as they threaten all of Africa," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told reporters.

"I think there is a terrorist threat in much of West Africa, as far as Cameroon," Fabius said.

France's foreign ministry issued a travel warning on Tuesday advising its nationals not to travel to the extreme north region of Cameroon and those already there should take precautionary measures and leave as soon as possible.

TRACES OF BOKO HARAM

Cameroon is a largely secular state where 70 percent of the population is Christian and about 24 percent moderate Muslim. Most Cameroon Muslims live in the three northern regions of the country. Until now, there have been no known links between Muslims in north Cameroon and Islamists in northern Nigeria.

Most kidnappings of Western nationals in the region have been committed by pirates operating off Cameroon's southern Bakassi peninsula and the Gulf of Guinea, though the French foreign ministry advises against all travel in the north.

Charles Gurdon, managing director of Menas Associates, a London-based risk analysis consultancy, said there had been growing concerns over a possible spillover from Nigeria into the north of Cameroon.

"Traces of ... Boko Haram had been discovered (in Cameroon), but the Cameroon government has been covertly trying to undermine the threat," he said.

On Sunday, seven foreigners were snatched from the compound of Lebanese construction company Setraco in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state, and al Qaeda-linked Ansaru took responsibility.

Northern Nigeria is increasingly afflicted by attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militants. Ansaru, which rose to prominence only in recent months, has also claimed the abduction in December of a French national who is still missing.

Ansaru said the abductions were driven by "the atrocities done to the religion of Allah by the European countries in many places, such as Afghanistan and Mali."

Ansaru is thought to have loose ties to Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds during a three-year-long insurgency focused mostly on the security forces, religious targets and politicians, rather than foreigners.

(Additional reporting by John Irish and Diadie Ba in Dakar, Jean-Baptiste Vey in Athens, Vicky Buffery, Alexandria Sage, Marion Douet and Muriel Boselli in Paris; Writing by John Irish and Bate Felix; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Keneking: Imminent

Joey82: I beg to disagree, joshua dogonyaro did not stop charles taylor and co.
victor malu did,

I went through hell. If there was hell on earth, I saw it...apart from the initial mental torture, the agony I had to go through was enormous, because I was the only officer that was subjected to various cells transfer. I was taken to the worst cell and when I asked question, I was told Abacha directed that I should be kept in the worst cell. In fact, that cell...it’s dark, there is not light, it’s infested, it’s so narrow that in fact you have to stand both day and night...That was the first stage of the torture. And for two, three nights I spent there, it was harrowing. After complaining, they had to push me out to another cell. I think I went through about four or five cells in that place.

We were there for three months, and nobody came to talk to you so that you can even ask what was going on...They sent for me; with the usual chaining, arms shackles, whatever and took me to the interrogation centre somewhere in Ikoyi, off Bourdillion. We got in there and I met one of the panels. Omenka was there. One other officer, whose name I have forgotten, and Zakari Biu. And they asked me if I knew why I was there, I said no. They said they were surprised. They said okay, what was my movement like in the last two or three years?… They said, “Look, don’t you know why you are here? Don’t you know the plan you have to topple the government? I said, “This is news to me. I don’t know of that. I have never planned to overthrow any government right from the day I was commissioned”... they were very hostile and they said okay, since I was not willing to cooperate, I should go and put down my statement. So...at about 6 to 6.15 p.m. a private soldier came and said he had instruction that we should come out. We got out. He said we should UnCloth. We took off our shirts and trousers. He said no, no, we should be naked completely. So, we took off everything. We were naked and we were chained, back to back, and that was how we walked into the open. We stayed there right from about that time till 7 a.m. We spent the night standing...Another funny thing was while they kept us there, Bello-Fadile was chained alone and kept close to us. Maybe they wanted to hear if there had been anything; maybe we could talk, they’ll pick it up. They sent out some men to monitor what was going on. And we kept asking Bello-Fadile, “What is going on? Please if you know, let us know and save us from this humiliation”. He said he did not know, so that was our first ordeal. The following morning, when people started coming to work, they pushed us in, we wore our dresses; and we were still chained hand to hand, leg to leg and kept in the open field in the scorching sun. My colleague asked for water, he was refused water. At about 4 p.m. the second day, we were now thrown into one dungeon behind, so that nobody would see us… After some time, I heard nothing. And a week or two later, that was when they came picked me up, took me back to the same place, this time, me alone, to ask the same question. I said, “Please, I really don’t know what you people want”. They said well, it would appear I was not ready to cooperate. They claimed that in my movement, they observed that at a point in time, I spoke to Bello-Fadile in his office. I said, “Yes, but I told you, when I came, I had this tooth and eye problem. I went to Bonny Camp which was where Bello-Fadile was ad director of legal services, and we had just finished from Enugu, and he is my course-mate and friend, I felt like saying hi to him. And that was exactly what I did. In fact I spent less than two minutes with Bello-Fadile”. But they said no, no, we spent about two, three hours talking…They took me behind a cell and of course had to hang me. They call it the spider hanging - your hands up, the two legs all suspended, I was there throughout the night. They pulled my shirt off so, I was in my pant only. Look. Name all the kinds of insects, they preyed on me. I told them you are punishing an innocent man. The following day, they took me back to my cell...About three weeks later, the same Zakari Biu came...With shackles on, I was blindfolded. The next thing, they pushed me into a waiting vehicle and sped off, driving roughly…I didn’t know where they were heading to. But somehow, having had a little knowledge of Lagos, through the cries in the various bus-stops, I was able to kind of guess where they were taking me to. They took me to that particular area and I heard shouts and cries, like some other people were being tortured. “Colonel”, they kept asking me, “tell us what you have done. Tell us how much Bello-Fadile gave to you. How much was promised you by some generals. And I said, “Look I’m sorry. Nobody ever gave me money”...They said okay, I am not ready to talk. This time, I was in chains. I had been blindfolded, I didn’t know what was going on. Then later, that other man that was being tortured was now… I heard a kind of silence, I believed he has passed out and they dropped him. They said I should come out.

In fact, they themselves just brought me out like a bundle of firewood and the next thing, they just threw me on the ground, folded my legs, folded my hands behind and they tied me like they tie logs and they carried me like that. All I knew was a pole was inserted under my armpit and like a barbecued chicken; I was there suspended for hours. In fact, by the time I passed out, everything about me, the limbs, all were gone. While there, they would strike a match and put under my nose, my eyes, to say something, to confess… so after almost about two hours of torture, I was finished, and by the time I regained consciousness, I could not shout, I couldn’t even move. They knew I was passing out. They just removed me, and dumped me like you dump… if you’ve been to abattoir, you must have seen how they throw a slaughtered cow...For 10 good days, I was lying prostrate on the bed. I couldn’t move my knees. Even eating, they had to spoonfeed me

At the end of Emokpae’s “trial” he was sentenced to death by firing squad. “As soon as he [Patrick Aziza] said it, I said, “I’m rejecting it in the name of the Lord”. Openly, he shouted at me, “Shut up and sit down”...Before we knew it, vehicles, tanks and all these things had been brought in, we were shackled again and we were taken back to the black Maria. It was on July 14, 1995 that the judgement was passed”.

How on earth can we explain this, a professor of my own calibre and age who has served the country for so
many years in different capacities being subjected to indignity and utmost brutality by some majors and privates
who are nitwits ordinarily. I’m not being boastful. It’s like you take a jewel and you start messing it up in the mud. You cannot explain it. Any time I recalled the humiliation meted out to me by those nitwits I started
weeping, not for myself, but for Nigeria, country, which was being savagely reduced to nothingness.

Yar’ Adua was hale and hearty inside Abakaliki Prison. Then some people came saying they were from Abacha and they wanted to take Yar’Adua for medical check-up. They picked him up hale and hearty but he arrived
the University Teaching Hospital, Enugu dead. What happened between Abakaliki and Enugu nobody seems to know. But something happened and if pressure is put on those people who picked him up they would give an answer to the country.

Zakari Biu is an animal. He’s just wicked..he is dead to feelings. I fact, I don’t know why such people should still be walking the streets of Lagos or this country. I am surpised as I am told that he has even been promoted, even given special assignments. I am surprised at this government. Zakari Biu, for what, they know him to have done, that they could still keep him. This government itself is culpable of all acts they committed...Omenka started the whole thing. He co-supervised our torture. But the main actor in my case was really Zakari Biu. I say both of them have the same instincts, if we compare them.

I have called for the arrest and trial immediately at the Abuja High Court the following government officials for the atrocities committed against Nigeria and Nigerians in the course of the late Gen. Abacha’s administration: Alhaji Ismaila Gwazo; Brigadier-Gen. Sabo [rtd].., Col. Frank Omenka..There are also Lt. Col. M. Garuba..and Lt. Ibrahim who was one of the people beating Generals in Jos...For the purpose of true national reconciliation and genuine peace, these people should be retired and be put on trial.

..the experience I had when the government decided to send Operation Sweep, a para-military outfit to break
up the farewell reception the human rights groups and pro-democracy activists organised for me, personally was a vivid demonstration of the dehumanisation Nigerians were going through everyday under the General Abacha administration. It was very surprising and careless about international protocol, hence they could break a reception held for an ambassador.

Joey82: I assure u dudu that there crack head soldiers out there who will not even blink not to talk of shedding a tear in such circumstances.
i just gave u examples of vatsa and orkar, their body languages and reactions during their trials is a pointer to the fact that they didnt give a damn, they sure knew the consequences of their actions.
i think during Diya's time soldiers became too much involved in politics and started thinking of themselves as civilians
the core discipline was no longer there and a lot of them were only interested in looting our treasury.