₦airaland Forum

This is preposterous, inhumane and demonically wicked.
The guy should be stabbed 40 times on his balls, silly animal

These girls though young should not be treated like criminals but should be corrected and helped.

I know that most of Indonesia laws are gruesome and wicked yet their leaders are corrupt including the country as a whole.

Get this family to vote for you and you are sure of winning lol

In a bid to create a level playing field for telecoms  operators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed MTN Nigeria Communication Limited to raise internal mobile tariffs.
NCC in its recent industry review, phone calls between MTN customers cost three times lower than calls to other networks. The report stressed: “This is indicative of the likely establishment of a calling club for MTN subscribers.”

MTN, which has about 44 per cent of the market, must cut the difference in price and face further scrutiny to ensure the competitive landscape is even for all operators, the NCC insisted.
Nigeria, Africa’s fastest growing telecoms market with a population of 167 million people has a subscriber base that is slightly above 113 million at the end of 2012, according to the NCC. MTN Nigeria is the market leader with 47 million lines.

Globacom had 24 million subscribers, Airtel-23 million customers while Etisalat had 14 million, according to data on the NCC’s website.
The report also showed that MTN and Globacom were found to “jointly control about 62 per cent of the public terrestrial transmission infrastructure,” raising concerns they may “squeeze the margins of their competitors who are also their customers.”

“As a result of the determination outlined above, the Commission has resolved that the Dominant Operator in the mobile voice market shall be required to adhere to the following obligations:
“Accounting Separation: The Commission will immediately enforce and implement Accounting Separation on the dominant operator
“ Collapse of On net and Off net Retail Tariffs: The differential between the on–net and off net retail tariffs will be immediately collapsed. The tariff for on net and offnet will be the same, and subject to periodic review.

“ Submission of Required Details: The Commission may require the dominant operator to submit details on specific aspects of its operations from time to time as the need may arise.” The regulator added that the Commission shall make a determination of pricing principle to address the rate charges for on-net and off-net calls for all other operators

On the dominat operators in the Wholesale Leased Lines and Transmission jointly dominated by MTN and Globacom, NCC said it will impose price cap/price floor for wholesale services and price floor for retail services which shall be subject to periodic review. It also plans to “immediately enforce and implement accounting separation on the joint dominant operator.”
The regulator added that it may require any of the joint dominant operators to submit details on specific aspects of the operations from time to time as the need arises.

“The determination shall take effect from 1st May 2013 and remain valid and binding on licensees for the services specified in relevant market segment of this sector until further reviewed by the commission,” the NCC said.

source: http://www.thenationonlineng.net%2Fnew%2F

Source: http://news.naij.com/redirect.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.punchng.com

President Goodluck Jonathan has offered the federal government’s assistance to Borno State to rebuild Baga, a border town in the state in which between 36 and 190 people were killed in a gun duel between troops of the Multinational Task Force (MTF) and Boko Haram insurgents penultimate weekend.

A presidency source confided in THISDAY at the weekend that the presidential offer was one of the decisions reached during a closed-door meeting held at the State House, Abuja, on Friday between Jonathan and Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima.


Although the agenda of the meeting was not made public, it was learnt that the governor came to Abuja to update the president on the incident in Baga, where the displaced residents were still trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after the orgy of killings and destruction in their town.

As the controversy over the actual death toll in the incident rages, a fact-finding team constituted by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim, to ascertain the exact casualty figures, has presented its findings in which it said contrary to reports and allegations by some northern leaders, no mass grave was found after two days of searching in the town.

But the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) yesterday faulted the military high command’s account of the incident and made a case for the redeployment of the MTF commander as well as the withdrawal of the multinational troops.

However, a Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has urged the federal government to direct the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate the Baga massacre and all cases of extra-judicial killings in the course of the anti-terror war to avoid government officials being reported to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for conspiracy and crimes against humanity.

THISDAY learnt that Shettima was at the State House on Friday to brief the president on the destruction of lives and property in Baga and seek the assistance of the federal government in re-settling victims.

He also sought financial assistance from the federal government so that the state could upgrade its intervention in the beleaguered area, which has become the enclave of the insurgents since 2009.

Shettima, it was gathered, outlined the security challenges the state was facing and ended his presentation with the situation in Baga, which he said would require the federal government’s assistance to rehabilitate the residents.
The presidency source said: “President Jonathan acquiesced to the request of the governor whom he had taken a liking to after his visit to Borno and Yobe a couple of weeks back.

“The president agreed to do everything possible to rebuild Baga town and also give the state some financial leverage to enhance its security operations against the Boko Haram insurgency.”


Shettima, who attended the meeting with the president with an unidentified aide, declined comments when State House correspondents approached him after the meeting.

Dismissing the high death toll reported in the media, the fact-finding team constituted by the CDS, after a three-day visit to the town, said there was no evidence of mass graves to justify the high death toll.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ), in a statement yesterday by the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Brig-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said contrary to reports and allegations from some northern leaders, no mass grave was found after two days of search.

It said the team, which was led by the Defence Chief of Training and Operations, Major-Gen Lawrence Ngubane, interacted with the commander, officers and troops of the MTF as well as some community leaders, the police, aid workers and residents of the town with a view to getting their accounts of the incident.

It explained that the team also went round the town interviewing those who participated or witnessed the encounter between the terrorist group and the troops in a bid to ascertain the casualty figure and the conduct of the troops.

“In its particular concern to ascertain the claims of massive loss of lives, the team was taken to cemeteries in the town as it tried to locate where the reported large number of civilian casualties were buried.

“It however found no mass grave after nearly two days of search,” it added.
The statement, quoting the report by the team, said: “The district head of Baga, Alhaji Babagana Zanna, who was accompanied by the (immediate past) Kukawa Local Government Area chairman, Alhaji Lawal Kone, while responding to enquiries from the fact-finding team, told the members that he had not received any report of mass burial in his domain.
“Kone, who was earlier quoted to have given some figures, said he was not in the town during the incident and as such he did not know the number of civilians who died in the incident.

“Earlier, MTF Commander, Brig-Gene Austin Edokpayi, who briefed the team on how the operation was conducted, said the situation in the town had stabilised until the arrival of some politicians and government officials who addressed the community, making a series of allegations, which raised fresh tensions.

“He added that they were the ones behind the campaign of the high death toll, which was being levelled to discredit the military.
"Edokpayi had explained that the operation was only targeted at stopping Boko Haram terrorists who had established a pattern of burning buildings and property as a mode of operation in the area.

“He had cited instances of how the terrorists used arson as a terror tool in communities such as Duguri, Metele and Kangarwa where they operated recently.
“Edokpayi also briefed the team on details of the casualties recorded during the encounter, stating that some civilians who were wounded were treated at the task force medical facility and were subsequently discharged."

But faulting the military's account of the Baga incident, the northern elders queried the rationale for involving troops from foreign countries in the anti-terror campaign and demanded the redeployment of the troops’ commander.

Their spokesman, Professor Ango Abdullahi, expressing concern over the involvement of foreign troops in fighting terror in Nigeria, explained that it would be dangerous for Nigeria to align with any country that appears to nurse a phobia for Islam.

Abdullahi, who had spoken in Bauchi last week, was reacting to a statement credited to the military authorities that the Baga incident that led to the killings of civilians was conducted in conjunction with troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad.

He said people were suspicious that Nigeria was going into another multilateral agreement with other countries on the security situation in the country, querying in what forum, agency or level of discussion was the decision taken for military troops from Niger and Chad to fire guns at Nigerians.

He had expressed dismay that the Borno military commandant was involved in the operation in which about 200 Nigerians were killed and thousands of houses razed.


He recalled that some months ago, the commandant at the Jaji Military Cantonment, Major General M.D. Isa, was not only posted out of Jaji but retired for what was then described as his lapses in the Jaji bomb explosion.

Also reacting to the Baga incident, Falana, in a statement at the weekend, urged the federal government to order the human rights commission to probe the death and destruction in the town and other extra-judicial killings in the course of the anti-terror war.

He said this was necessary so that the ICC would not add the Baga case to the list of extra-judicial killings in Nigeria being probed by the commission.
According to him, the ICC special prosecutor had previously confirmed that the commission was investigating allegations of rampart extra-judicial killings in Nigeria by security forces.

He said the investigation was confirmed by the ICC Special Prosecutor, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, in an interview published in the August/September 2012 edition of the New African Magazine when she said: “The OTP is currently conducting preliminary examinations in a number of situations, including Afghanistan, Georgia, Guinea, Columbia, Honduras, Korea and Nigeria.”

Falana explained that the ongoing inquiry was sequel to a petition he had lodged with the special prosecutor two years ago on behalf of the Socio-Economic and Accountability Project (SERAP).

Falana urged the federal government to show the world that it does not condone extra-judicial killings by ordering a probe into the Baga incident to avoid a situation whereby some highly-placed public officers and security personnel are reported to the ICC for conspiracy and crimes against humanity.

source - ThisDay

i totally concur with this guy and hope fifa approves it

In an arrangement that may put a stop to the 2015 ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution has recommended non-renewable single six year tenure for the office of President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies.



The Senate panel’s recommendation also disqualifies Jonathan and incumbent governors from benefitting from the new arrangement if the recommendation becomes law.

Members of the committee, who held a three-day working retreat which ended in Lagos on Sunday, arrived at the decision after a heated debate.

A National Assembly member who was privy to the recommendation confided in one of our correspondents that, “We thought hard before arriving at this decision. We considered the current heating up of the polity by those interested in running for office in 2015.

“We also looked at what normally happens each time we are about to enter into an election year.

“If the recommendation scales through, none of the current office holders from the President down will benefit from it.

“It is couched in such a way that if someone is elected as Vice-President for instance and he becomes President for the reason of the removal from office of the President, either through ill health, impeachment or death, he can only serve out the term of the President even if it is just one month.

“He or she, as the case may be, will be ineligible to present himself for election as President in subsequent elections; the same applies to the office of the governor and deputy governor.”

The source revealed further that the committee also recommended autonomy for local government administrations and if the recommendation scales through the legislative process, local government councils will collect their monthly allocations from the federation account.

“There is a caveat. Only local government councils with elected council chairmen and properly constituted councils will receive such payments,” the source added.

There is however fear that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency will oppose these recommendations.

Jonathan had in the past expressed his preference for a seven-year single tenure for elective officers.

This he justified during his first media chat on assumption of office.

He had said, “The issue is that in Africa, elections create social unrest and we need to manage this. In a situation where you elect a governor and that governor has not sat down, another election is around the corner.

“Every four years you conduct elections, you create so much tension in the political environment. As we are talking, some people are busy holding meetings for the 2015 elections.

“It creates series of confusion in the political environment. I am not saying that single tenure, alone, will bring one hundred per cent stability.

“There is no political system that is one hundred per cent stable, you must have some tension. That was why I came up with that.”

The President had also on November 17, 2011 empanelled the Justice Alfa Belgore-led committee, officially designated as Committee to Review Outstanding Issues from Recent Constitutional Conferences.

The committee was mandated to identify gaps in the current constitution and propose amendments as adopted by previous constitutional conferences.

The committee was, however, limited in scope as it was only required to making suggestions on issues adopted by consensus by the previous constitutional conferences.

The Belgore panel did not delve into the issue of tenure as earlier proposed by the President.

Public opinion weighed heavily against the item following fears that the President was interested in tenure elongation.

When asked to confirm the Senate committee recommendation, the Clerk of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Mr. Innocent Mebiri, did not deny the development but said details would be made available to the Senate at plenary.

“Don’t bother yourself, when it gets to the Senate at plenary, you will know whether it is true or not,” he told one of our correspondents.

The report of the People’s Public Sessions conducted on the constitution by the House of Representatives indicated that Nigerians massively supported autonomy for local government councils.

More than 90 per cent of voters in the 360 federal constituencies where the sessions were held supported abolition of State/Local Government Joint Account in order to grant financial independence to the councils.

But, they opposed a single term of five, six or seven years for the President, state governors and other political office holders.

Rather, they voted in support of retaining the present two terms of four years each.

The public sessions were held on November 10, 2012.

The results of the sessions will be incorporated into bills on constitution amendment to be passed by the House.

source: punch nigeria

Can you stop this nonsensical brouhaha already? I live here & I've seen a couple of those sh1ts called solar panels that have rotten, fallen or even stopped working. Why are there so many hypocrites licking the as$ of this present no. 1 citizen?

Just yesterday, I was so disappointed at the nature of the drainage channels along the central area. And I started wondering if at all GEJ sometimes come out at night to see things & how there are.

If time permits me before today runs out, I'll snap & upload some for Nlanders to see.

Bloody hypocrite.

see this olodo, are you the only one living in abuja? so cos the guy showed a singular camera destroyed by a nigerian like you, you now stupidly rushed to conclude that the entire system has packed up.

do not forget to also upload the good ones when your senses are in order.

a teen will always be a teen, its as a result of their developmental stage during which they need help, understanding and proper guidance instead of locking them up in a religious prison

Five Indonesian teenage girls have been accused of blasphemy and may face jail after making a video in which they mixed Islamic prayer with dancing to a Maroon 5 song, police said Tuesday.

The girls were expelled from their high school in Tolitoli city, on Sulawesi island, and reported to police after the video of their dance to the US band's hit "One More Night" went viral online.

It is just the latest in a string of blasphemy cases in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, which have prompted rights groups to call for a change in a law they say is outdated and misused.

In the five-minute clip, the girls, wearing school tracksuits, switch between Islamic prayer rituals and mostly innocent dancing, with the occasional pelvic thrust and suggestive hand gesture thrown in.

Several versions of the video on YouTube have been viewed more than 500,000 times.

It sparked anger in the remote community, with dozens of members of hardline group the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) protesting outside the local police station on Monday.

The school brought the video, which was posted online in March, to the attention of police who questioned the girls on suspicion of blasphemy.

"The school and members of the community were offended by the video and felt it insulted Islam," Tolitoli police chief Rudi Mulyanto told AFP.

"We are considering the case, and if we think it is serious, we will recommend they be officially charged in court."

He said the girls, who are not in custody, could be jailed if found guilty but did not know what length of sentence they might face.

Blasphemy in Indonesia carries a maximum sentence of five years, though minors usually face half the adult sentence and are locked up in juvenile detention facilities. The girls are in grade 12, where students are normally aged 17 or 18.

Police did not give their ages but said they were being treated as minors.

The school principal told a local news website that the school had consulted the country's top clerical body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, as well as the FPI on the matter.

see video link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6PgDs3VQhx0

@ OP
these pix are the ones a car ran into and hoodlums vandalized the solar panel. in contrast, many of these cameras are still in good shape and they are being maintained even though the response time to such damages done to these cameras maybe slow.

the cameras are functioning very well and more are still being installed.
pls verify your story before posting even though we know that FCT minister and the federal government are not living up to expectation, pls be constructive when reporting.

Twenty-year-old Favour Nnaemeka Odozor was penultimate Saturday in South Africa, awarded license as a commercial pilot, making him the youngest in South Africa and Nigeria commercial pilot.


He talks about his journey to becoming a pilot and what he has planned next;

Q: How do you feel being the youngest commercial pilot in Nigeria and South Africa?

Favour Odozor: It is not a feeling out of the ordinary; it was that of a childhood dream of being a commercial pilot which finally came through and at the age of 20. That I was able to achieve this in countries advanced in aviation like Nigeria and South Africa, is equally rewarding. But I know there are many younger ones out there who do have the wherewithal to achieve this even while younger than I am now.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am, was born in Umuoma Amucha in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State by Mr and Mrs Odozor. I attended Adimery nursery/primary Oguta, Imo state. I had my secondary education in Lagos and Enugu before proceeding to Caritas University, Enugu State where I enrolled for Computer Science and Information Technology. I deferred this in my second year to go to South Africa’s prestigious Afrika Union Aviation Academy to undergo training as a commercial pilot. This I have completed within a good time and currently licensed on a multi engine airplane with instrument rating.

Q: What were your aspirations growing up?

I’d always desired to become a pilot right from childhood. I remember always running out of the building just to catch a glimpse of an airplane on hearing its cruising sound possibly at 36 – 38 thousand feet overhead. It usually depressed me the moment it disappears. Then my mother would calm me down by saying ‘don’t worry one day God will make this a reality but focus on your studies for now in order to obtain brilliant results if you would like to be a pilot’. That motivated me a lot that I made sciences my bread and butter while at school just to achieve this dream.

Q: Could you explain what it felt like for you when you were awarded the license?

I felt very good when being awarded this license. I pursed it vigorously and competed with many other students from all over the world with some dropping from the school halfway into the training. Also the presence of Nigerian dignitaries at the graduation was very heartwarming. I’ve never been so proud, as a Nigerian achieving what I had. I felt honoured by their presence, meeting and sharing photos with them. They are very humble as against what you would read in the newspapers about them. Yet I felt very accomplished but then also realized that there is even more to do from here onwards.

source: daily trust

A former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on Sunday accused the Federal Government of being insensitive to the plight of the people of Baga, Borno State.

He said it was saddening that the government was busy disputing the number of people killed in a clash between members of Boko Haram and a military task force instead of alleviating their suffering. Government had said only 25 people died and not 185 reported by the media as the casualty figure in the mayhem penultimate Saturday.

Fielding questions from journalists after at the 50th birthday reception in honour of a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, el-Rufai said God would hold those in government accountable for their actions.

He said, “It is unfortunate that we place so little values on human lives that we will be arguing whether six Nigerians have died or 185 or 200. When three people were killed in Boston, Obama left the White House to go and commiserate with the people of Boston.

Perhaps more than 200 have been killed here and our own President is still sitting in Abuja. It then shows the kind of government that we have. It is pathetic, it is disappointing and God will make them to account.” When asked to proffer solution to the Boko Haram insurgency, el-Rufai replied, “ They(government) know what to do; they should do it.

They should stop pretending that some Nigerians are not citizens; that they are not part of this country; that they should be killed without consequence.” The former minister also said he was optimistic that the All Progressive Congress would displace the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015.

“We are going to organise and entrench the APC all over the country and by God’s grace, in 2015, the ruling party will be the opposition party,” he added. But just as el-Rufai berated the government, one of our correspondents gathered that the government was working out the nature of support to be given to the people of Baga.

It was learnt that the assistance formed part of the discussion between President Goodluck Jonathan and Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday. The governor who briefed the President on the update of the incident, did not speak with journalists at the end of the parley. A source however said on Sunday that after listening to Shettima, Jonathan promised to mitigate the suffering of members of the community, most of whom no longer have houses.

“The President has promised Federal Government’s assistance. Although no one knows the form the promised assistance will take for now; but we are upbeat that the help will come,” he said. Meanwhile, a Defence Headquarters fact-finding team to the troubled Baga has said it found no mass graves in the community. This was contained in an electronic mail on Sunday by Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade.

In the mail, Olukolade said the report by team which was led by the DHQ Chief of Training and Logistics, Maj.-Gen Lawrence Ngugbane, contradicted reports attributed to Senator Maina Lawan, that “288 people died in the Baga incident with 4,000 homes destroyed.” The Senator reportedly said that he visited three graveyards and counted 228 in which civilians were buried.

Olukolade stated also that the Chairman of Kukawa Local Government Area, told the team that he didn’t know the casualty figure as he was out of town when the incident occurred. He said, “The DHQ fact-finding team has returned to present its report to the Chief of Defence Staff on the outcome of its three-day visit to Baga following the reports on last week encounter between the Multi National Joint Task Force and Boko Haram Terrorists in the town.

“The team interacted with the commander, officers and troops of the MNJTF as well as some community leaders, the police, aid workers and residents of the town with a view of getting their perspectives on the incident.

“The team also went round the town interviewing those who participated or witnessed the encounter at the various scenes connected with the incident as it tries to verify various claims reported in the media concerning the professional conduct of the soldiers.

“In its particular concern to ascertain the claims of massive loss of lives, the team was taken to cemeteries in the town as it tried to locate the reported large number of civilian casualties were buried. It however found no mass graves after nearly two days of search.”

source: http://news.naij.com/redirect.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nigerianeye.com

mikeansy: do you have a video of Buhari speaking? He coughs 5 times per sentence

you said it bro but you got me cracked up

Tony Spike: I'm sure from your point of view that you support the killing at Odi too, isn't it?

after bh visits your family or loved ones, the you can come back and ask me this question.

This issue must be seen from angles...communities should stop shielding terrorists, and the JTF should be more careful next time..

agree with you to some extent

Just say it openly that you are happy the women and children murdered are Muslims. You reasoning is manifestly flawed even by you myopic standard.

see this religious bigot, your sense of reasoning has been eroded by your blind and senseless belief.
its evident that bh is an offshoot of islam; there is no argument about that but if we want to flush them out then we all have to give them up not harbor them whether you are a muslim or christian.

if a community decided to groom them then they should be ready to be crushed muslim or christian

Olaolufred: soldiers are armed.
boko haram are also armed.
It is no issue when casualty is between Military and boko haram.
However, when a villager (that impoverished woman and her child,
looking so haggard because they are malnurished,
Are felled down by the bullet that is supposed to protect them.
IT IS UNFAIR because THEY ARE NOT ARMED.

IF YOU CLAIM THIS IS FAIR,
YOU ARE DIRECTLY SAYING THE DEATH OF ALL BIAFRAN CHILDREN OF 1960S IS FAIR.

when women and children were killed by bh on christmas day in suleja naija state, was that fair?
so a suspected bh member was traced to the village and they refused to produce the guy for further interrogation and you claim the killing of "innocent" children and women is unfair? do you know why guerrilla fighters deploy child soldiers to battle front?

these "innocent" women and children are weapons for bh to carry out their evil plans. if they have to level the whole village just to get at one bh member they were harboring, so be it.

berem: Did you read the thread? paying your bills according to what you consume is not the bone of contention, but for PHCN to give you outrageous bills is what caused the mayhem. stop talking like you don't live in this country!

does he?

@ OP
its same almost everywhere in this country about PHCNs' irregular and outrageous billings but destroying their properties would only result in worse power condition for that area.

they disconnect people illegally cos they can only make money from the reconnection fees the users pay.

@ OP
is it that bad that the best candidate a whole merger party can present is a 73yr old dying man?
if this is their best, then we are in a deep poo as a nation

we need a young, energetic, vibrant and intelligent leader with passion to serve the nation and not to perpetuate his hidden agenda even if he has to die in aso rock doing it.

@ olaolufred

It is unfair to let down the innocent bloods.

the soldier that was murdered by the baga community was not an innocent blood abi?

Borno State is Nigeria’s self- acclaimed ‘Home of Peace’. That is the appellation. But you may not be wrong if you now describe it as ‘The Home of Ruins and Pieces’. The truth about the state is that it has become a theatre of a war unleashed by the Islamist group called Boko Haram. Insurgency has been the order of the day in the state, leaving in its trail bombings, shootings and deaths.

When the residents are lucky, the death toll is low, but sometimes it can be high. Some analysts blame the problem on the international borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroun which they believe is porous as to allow Islamic extremists from the countries to enter the state at will.

The Federal Government raised a military outfit under the aegis of the Joint Task Force (JTF) which it deployed to contain the Islamists. However, the efforts to abate the violence in the state have led to the JTF’s stand-off with the intransigent Islamists, claiming more lives. One of such incidents was the face-off of last week between the JTF and the Boko Haram elements which reportedly claimed about 185 lives – the JTF is the arrowhead of a multinational force working in the state to contain the insurgents.

The face-off took place at Baga, a remote village in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State, believed to have been a haven for the Islamist group. Most of those killed in the four-hour battle were said to have been civilians thus sparking national outrage.


The dead, according to reports, include women and children, while hundreds of houses were torched.

Baga, about 235 kilometers away from Maiduguri, Borno State capital, is a border town with Niger and Chad. It produces fish. Troops from Niger and Chad were reported to have been involved in the operation.

Until this incident, the last reported insurgent activity in the area was the killing of a Customs officer. This time, the multinational force took the battle to the ‘home’ of the Boko Haram Islamists. Reports said the civilian casualty was high as the Islamists used residents as human shields from the multinational force fire.

A Baga resident, who gave his name as Mallam Bana, said he survived the battle by whiskers. According to him, it all started at about 8pm penultimate Friday. “The soldiers were heartless that night in their approach; they killed and burnt our houses, chased everyone into the bush including women and children. So far, we have buried 185 corpses. – some were burnt beyond recognition; others are hospitalized with various degrees of injuries,” Bana said.

But the commander of the JTF, Brigadier General Austin Edokpaye, who confirmed the incident, while conducting Governor Kashim Shettima round the affected area, on Sunday, debunked the claim that scores of civilians were consumed during the battle. “We lost an officer during an attack on our men on patrol. We received intelligence report that some suspected Boko Haram members usually prayed and hid arms at a particular mosque in the town. It was around that mosque that our men were attacked with several of them injured and an officer died”, Edokpaye said.

“When we reinforced and returned to the scene, the terrorists came out with heavy firepower including RPGs which usually have a conflagration effect that caused houses with tatched roof or fencing to catch fire.”

The commander revealed that the fire that consumed the community and the resultant deaths should be blamed on the Boko Haram Islamists who opened fire on soldiers and using civilians as human shields. He denied the residents’ allegation that the shootout was unprovoked.

Edokpaye noted that in his many years of stay in Borno State, he had cultivated civil and military relations to the effect that Baga and environs had enjoyed relative peace.

He said those who died as a result of the incident could be victims of the crossfire between the soldiers and the Boko Haram gunmen, which he said was highly regrettable.

Shettima drove through the village with a large retinue of government functionaries, including the member of the House of Representatives representing the area, Hon. Isa Lawan Kangarwa, and the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Baba Ahmed Jidda.

The governor and his entourage also visited the General Hospital, Baga, where he commiserated with the women, children and aged men admitted for various cases of burns.
The governor took time to pacify the aggrieved residents and pleaded with those in the bush to return home.

He directed that those in hospital with severe cases of burns be transferred to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital where they could get better treatment.


Shettima later expressed his displeasure with the way the soldiers carried out their duties on the fateful day, just as he implored the commander to “take full charge” of his operation and ensure he personally supervises his field officers from time to time “in order to avert such nasty incidents in the future.”

Before he left the town, he inaugurated a high-powered committee, led by Hon Isa Lawan Kangarwa, to ascertain the extent of the damage and how the people could be helped out of their “seemingly irreparable trauma”.

Sunday Vanguard checks revealed that food and other basic needs became a problem in the community throughout last weekend as a grocery merchant, who lost his house and business stall in the conflagration, Malam Bashir Isa, said, “Everyone has been in the bush since Friday night; we started returning to town because the governor came today. To get food to eat now is a problem because even the markets are burnt. We are still picking corpses of women and children in the bush”.

To cushion the effect of the hardship faced by the surviving residents, the Federal Government ordered the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, North East Zone to collaborate with Borno State government to mobilize to site on Wednesday to assist the victims with relief materials. Consequently, NEMA officials were deployed to the area.

source: news naij

While some dummy and greedy governors are busy "eyeing" the presidency at the expense of developing their states, this zamfara guy is busy working, what an irony.

Many leaders in this country thrive on deceit and open lies. They talk so much about what they never plan to do while straining the state purse.

God help my beloved country

that was a clear penalty there against success

these ivoriens am watching are nothing near 17, many of them are over 17

any online link to watch the game? cuz its raining eaglets and elephants here in abj and nta is frozen

The Zamfara state governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari has attributed the absence of activities of the Boko Haram sect in the state to the combined efforts of traditional rulers and good governance.

Speaking with state House correspondents after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan, governor Yari said Zamfara has always distinguished itself as a peaceful state because even when there were riots in parts of the north when Sharia law was introduced, there was no riot in the whole of Zamfara state.

The governor led a delegation of traditional rulers, former governors, members of the National Assembly and others prominent indigenes of the state to visit president Jonathan in his office Thursday.

Speaking on the absence of activities of Boko Haram, the governor said "The president also appreciated the way and manner that Zamfara state has peace.

He clearly mentioned that if there is any place in the country that would have the kind of Boko Haram activities if truly it has to do with Islam, then it should be Zamfara state. He appreciate the fact that there is no incidence like that in Zamfara state.

I think that has to do with the collective effort both from the traditional rulers and I can clearly mention the issue of good governance right from 1999 till date. When the sharia was established, all the crises that happened in other states never happened in Zamfara state. This is part of good governance," he said.

On the visit of the delegation to he president, the governor said the delegation was in Aso Rock to express appreciation to the president for some of he things he has done for Zamfara state recently.

"Recently, the federal Executive Council approved the establishment of a Federal university in Zamfara state. Since the establishment of the state, Zamfara has been struggling to get a university in place but as God will have it it did not happen until now. We came to express our appreciation to the president for this gesture.

You are also aware of our struggle with lead poisoning. Recently, the president approved about N900million for the remediation of some villages that were affected by poisoning.

As I am talking to you, work is on and myself and the Honouable minister of state for works and the Minister of Information will be at the site to see how the work is going. It is important for us as a community to come and appreciate these gestures by the president.

Mr president appreciates the way we came as a united team for progress in Zamfara state and he clearly said that he has not received this kind of team from any other state. It is good for people to appreciate when somebody does any good thing for you as prescribed in our religion Islam," he said.

source: news naij

Comedienne Princess Damilola Adekoya. the popular female rib cracker popularly called Princess has finally tied the knot with her husband, Ade. They made their union official today, 22 of April at the Federal Registry, Ikoyi Lagos.


Their traditional wedding would hold on the 8th of May, 2013.

People are talking in a low tone that Princess is some months gone, meaning, she has been put in a family way by Ade, and in bid to safe herself of the shame and controversies that will follow thereafter, she quickly dragged the man to the altar. This of course can’t be the case because Princess is a godly minded woman who respects and religiously follows the principle of godliness.

source: naij news