₦airaland Forum

THE Borno State Security Council has described as fake, the video clips being circulated among the residents of Maiduguri and the neigbouring towns of Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, over an alleged plot of reprisal attack by the Boko Haram sect against the government and its security agents.


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Rising from a crucial meeting at the Government House, Maiduguri, following growing fears over imminent attack by the members of the sect, the State Security Council members - drawn from the Police Force, the Nigerian Army, The Nigeria Immigration Service, and the Nigeria Customs Service - said the video clips were being circulated to cause "confusion and panic" among the residents of Maiduguri and other strongholds of the sect in Yobe, Bauchi, Adamawa and Kano states.

Reacting to the issue in a radio and TV broadcast, Borno Police Commissioner, Ibrahim Abdu, said: "We want to draw your attention to the video clips on the resurgence of Boko Haram sectarian group, led by Abubakar Shekarau, to launch an attack on the government and citizens of this State.

According to him, "the purported attacks as claimed in the circulated video clip, was not only faked, but designed to cause panic and confusion among the residents and threats to government and other security agents in the state."

He said that since the second-in-command of the Boko Haram sect, Mallam Abubakar Shekarau, who was killed in a crossfire with the joint military/police force during the August quelling of the armed sect members, is no longer alive, the speculations were unfounded. He, therefore, urged the people to dismiss the video clips of reprisals by the Boko Haram and go about with the Christmas and New Year celebrations, assuring that the police and other security agents would ensure the safety of lives and property in the state.

Meanwhile, the Police, through the instrumentality of the Operation Flush II, have embarked on a "stop and check" exercise on strategic points in the metropolis, as well as four major roads leading into Maiduguri, the state capital with a view to averting any reprisal attack.

Unrepentant militia group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), may send another round of shock wave across the oil region if it makes good its fresh threat.

The group, which claimed responsibility for last weekend’s bombing of a Shell/Chevron-operated pipeline in Abonnema, Rivers State, said in an electronic mail response to Sunday Sun enquiry that it was not intimidated by the warning of the Minister of Defence, Major-General Godwin Abbe (rtd), or even the presence of the Joint Task Force (JTF), a government security outfit deployed in the region to check insurgency and oil bunkering activities.

Among other reasons for the attack, the insurgent group said a situation where ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua’s absence from the country had stalled the peace process in the region was unacceptable.

Sunday Sun gathered that security has been beefed up in the region, with the military embarking on regular air, land and coastal patrol, especially around suspected flash points.

The Abonnema attack was said to have caught the JTF unawares regardless of the fact that it had a base near the oil facility that was destroyed. It had tried to downplay the incident, saying it was not aware of it and that it would be investigated.

Efforts to speak to the JTF Commandant, Major-General Sarkin Bello, on MEND’s fresh threat proved abortive as calls to his mobile phone were left unanswered. There was also no response to a text message soliciting his response on the threat at the time of filing this report.

But an officer attached to the JTF, who spoke to Sunday Sun on condition of anonymity, said the security outfit was combat-ready against any further attack by the insurgent group.

“We are determined to repel with equal force any further attack on oil facilities by this group of hoodlums. We cannot allow disgruntled elements to continue to hold the country to ransom after all the government had done through the amnesty granted former militants and other concessions to the region. We won’t allow the peace, security and economic well-being of this country to be threatened by these dissidents. We are determined to put a stop to it,” the officer said.

MEND, however, poured ice on the JTF’s combat-readiness. Its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said last weekend’s “warning strike” was a wake-up call to the country that the unrest was far from over if issues were not dealt with the speed and seriousness they deserve.

“It is only logical that if a warning shot is ignored that you fire another. We initially thought the new JTF spokesman was a more polished and exposed professional than his predecessor, but it is now evident that they are the same. Under his watch, he denied the vandalizing of the residence of a former MEND commander, Christian don Pedro, and offered a silly reason for their presence in the community. This recent denial is another obvious cover-up by a confused JTF, which believes that an outright denial is the way to go.

“How can the government deal with what it cannot grasp? If they decide to carry out punitive strikes on any oil bearing community as a way of intimidating the region, Abbe will meet a response he never anticipated.

“The JTF cannot attack what it cannot see or locate, and even past commanders, who choose to act as informants and traitors, will have nothing to grasp because as it stands they are not even aware of the identity of the commanders that replaced them. We have established mobile camps and new commanders all over the region for both land and creek operations,” Gbomo stated.

MEND explained that contrary to reports, none of its ex-commanders condemned the Abonnema attack because, according to Gbomo, they understand the strategic reasoning for it.

It also claimed that Soboma Jackrich alias Egberipapa, who it said was being sponsored to condemn the strike, was never a MEND commander as claimed and that his opinion was irrelevant.

Gbomo maintained that the amnesty programme, which has now been bedeviled by several hiccups, was a blessing in disguise because it helped to differentiate the real freedom fighters from businessmen.

“You must realize that a large number of the so-called 15,000 militants are not genuine freedom fighters but jobless youths and criminals, who took advantage of the amnesty to escape from the police wanted list. Only a handful are genuine fighters who wanted to take a break. No real freedom fighter will engage in riots and despoil.

“For now, we will not need any ex-militant because the number of unrepentant fighters are capable of getting the job done. Besides we do not need many fighters for an unconventional war.”

The resumption of hostilities, Gbomo further explained, would not affect the status of the Admiral Mike Akhigbe-led Aaron Team it constituted to negotiate with the federal government.

Other members of the team are Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka (Observer), Brig-Gen Luke Kakadu Aprezi, United States-based Dr Sabella Ogbobode Abidde, and Mr Denzel Kentebe, an architect, who is MEND’s liaison.

“They (Aaron Team) will continue as mediators between MEND and the government,” even as it defended its position that the militia group remained apolitical despite citing the succession controversy in the Presidency as one of the reasons for the last attack.

“MEND is talking about continuity and delegation. If Yar’Adua is not able to continue negotiations, then someone else should be delegated to continue. This has nothing to do with who rules the country. Any way the attack is perceived is beyond our control. Our statement, which announced the warning strike, has been self-explanatory,” Gbomo said.

MEND has made the issue of true federalism, resource control and the ownership of land by communities the main plank of its demands, arguing that the Niger Delta, which produces over 90 per cent of the nation’s wealth, cannot continue to be neglected and left in abject poverty.

It has equally backed calls on the government to implement recommendations in the report of the Niger Delta Technical Committee. The Ledum Mitee-led committee, which was constituted last year by the federal government, submitted its report a year ago but the government has sat on the White Paper and spurned calls for its implementation.

The militant group, which commenced a deliberate sabotage of oil facilities three years ago, to draw attention to the plight of the Niger Delta, had declared an indefinite ceasefire in October to pave way for dialogue with the government.

Following the unrest in the region occasioned by the activities of militants, President Yar’Adua on June 25 granted an unconditional 60-day amnesty to the insurgents, which commenced on August 6 and expired on October 4. To underscore the success of the exercise, the government said about 3,000 weapons were surrendered by no fewer than 15,000 former militants.

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.

Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.
Lori Kurt Haskell.jpgKurt HaskellLori and Kurt Haskell
Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.

Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.

While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'”

Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.

The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.

Haskell said the flight was mostly unremarkable. That was until he heard a flight attendant say she smelled smoke, just after the pilot announced the plane would land in Detroit in 10 minutes. Haskell got out of his seat to view the brewing commotion.

“I stood up and walked a couple feet ahead to get a closer look, and that's when I saw the flames,” said Haskell, who sat about seven rows behind Mutallab. “It started to spread pretty quickly. It went up the wall, all the way to ceiling.”

Haskell, who described Mutallab as a diminutive man who looks like a teenager, said about 30 seconds passed between the first mention of smoke and when Mutallab was subdued by fellow passengers.

“He didn't fight back at all. This wasn't a big skirmish,” Haskell said. “A couple guys jumped on him and hauled him away.”

The ordeal has Haskell and his wife a little shaken. Flight attendants were screaming during the fire and the pilot sounded notably nervous when bringing the plane in for a landing, he said.

“Immediately, the pilot came on and said two words: emergency landing,” Haskell said. “And that was it. The plane sped up instead of slowing down. You could tell he floored it.”

As Mutallab was being led out of the plane in handcuffs, Haskell said he realized that was the same man he saw trying to board the plane in Amsterdam.

Passengers had to wait about 20 minutes before they were allowed to exit the plane. Haskell said he and other passengers waited about six hours to be interviewed by the FBI.

About an hour after landing, Haskell said he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody.

Kunbee:
Who are you

chiogo:
@topic, Nah, the bills can be shared. . . .Likewise the house chores.

Airports and airlines across Europe moved rapidly to tighten security on U.S.-bound flights on Saturday after a man tried to set off explosives on a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Authorities in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands either increased passenger checks or reinforced security measures already stepped up ahead of the busy Christmas and New Year travel period, officials said.

The measures follow a formal request from the U.S. Department of Transportation to airports worldwide to ratchet up security following the failed Christmas Day attack on a Delta Air Lines flight by a Nigerian suspect, officials said.

German authorities said they were considering increasing airport security but hadn't done so yet.

British airports group BAA, which manages two of the 10 busiest airports in Europe -- Heathrow and Gatwick -- said airlines had strengthened security and travellers should expect delays during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

"Passengers travelling to the United States should expect their airline to carry out additional security checks prior to boarding," the company said in a statement.

A spokesman for Aeroports de Paris said the U.S. transport authority had specifically asked airports to search passenger luggage more thoroughly and to carry out extra pat-down searches of passengers before they board U.S.-bound flights.

"We received instructions from the U.S. Federal Transit Administration last night and it's up to the individual airlines to put them in place," the spokesman said, referring to a unit of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

"The instructions were sent to all the countries in the world and apply to all airlines travelling to the U.S."

The vice-president of the European Commission, Jacques Barrot, said European authorities were in touch with the United States and would do everything to keep airline security tight.

"This incident shows once again that vigilance is necessary at all times in the fight against terror," he said.

Airports on alert

In Rome, home to Europe's sixth busiest airport, civil aviation authority ENAC confirmed it had ordered security for all flights bound for the United States to be beefed up.

In Madrid, passengers were being held in a "sterile zone", similar to measures taken after September 11, and were being told to check in as much luggage as possible to reduce carry-on baggage, an official with a U.S. airline said.

The Dutch national counter-terrorism agency NCTb said procedures at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, used by the attacker as a transit point from Nigeria, had been heightened in line with the U.S. request.

A spokeswoman said the measures would be implemented for "an indefinite period", but declined to elaborate.

Germany's interior ministry said it would keep security measures under review. "As always we assume a very high danger for Germany, but the incident in America has not changed the security situation," a spokeswoman said.

"We are reviewing at the moment whether we will selectively raise our standards. We are in close contact with the Dutch security authorities."

British Airways, which operates dozens of flights to the United States daily, said passengers would be subject to baggage restrictions in order to process tighter security.

"For all customers departing on a flight from Heathrow or Gatwick to the U.S. only one item of hand luggage is allowed," the airline said. "Customers travelling to other destinations outside the United States are not affected."

A 23-year-old Nigerian, named by U.S. media as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, was in custody on Saturday after attempting to set off the explosive device shortly before landing in Detroit.

He was overwhelmed by passengers and crew as he tried to ignite the device, and suffered severe burns in the process. At least two passengers received minor injuries, authorities said.

Dutch counter-terrorism authorities said they were trying to figure out where the suspect had come from, how he had been screened and how he had managed to board the flight.

British authorities are investigating reports the man had been a student in Britain, a counter-terrorism source said.

coded guy:
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Nneomaj:
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The mind-boggling revelation by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, of a massive fraud of about $10 million in the nation’s foreign ministries is disturbing. The minister, who spoke at a two-day seminar organized by the ministry on ‘Restoring the Standards of the Foreign Ministry’ in Abuja, said that he had discovered[b] in all the nation’s missions abroad that career diplomats claimed tuition fees for non-existing children.
[/b]
He pointed out that the operations in the nation’s Foreign Service had not been immune to corruption. The scam, which was made possible by the ministry’s method of electing to pay school fees directly to officers serving abroad instead of paying such to their children’s schools, involved at least five officers per mission with claims ranging from $25,000 to $30,000 each, yearly, as school fees for their wards. In one of the affected missions, one officer allegedly collected about $25,000. This was done in breach of standard diplomatic practice. The nation, with 102 missions abroad would have lost enormously due to the entrenched sleaze.

It is scandalous and outrageous that at a period the government is finding it difficult to finance education and satisfy other needs, some unscrupulous Nigerians in our foreign missions are busy siphoning scarce funds through the scholarship fraud.

It is, indeed, a pity that transparency and accountability, essentials of an efficient public service, are loose in our foreign service hence the hefty scam and the rot in the system. It appears that those who operate our foreign service operate different laws from those we have in Nigeria.

Good enough, this is coming at a time the anti-graft agency is tightening its noose on corrupt government officials. Let this case be one of those to be used in furtherance of the fight against corruption in our polity. We do not want any cover up. Let those involved be used as examples to others on the undesirability of fraud.
As a result of the malfeasance, the anti-corruption unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been mandated to investigate the alleged fraud. The investigation will focus mainly on allegations that[b] certain officers made false claims on their children’s school fees and sundry allowances.[/b] It will be good for them to go beyond this so as to unearth all the unwholesome practices in these missions. And those found to have compromised their positions should be prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-graft agencies, where necessary.

Though, the revelation is coming a little late, we commend the minister for letting the cat out of the bag so that Nigerians can be abreast of the activities in our foreign missions. We believe that there might be other instances of fraudulent practices yet uncovered, especially on estacode claims.

We also suggest that the Inspectorate Unit of these missions be given more powers to fight the incipient corruption. The need for transparency and accountability should be emphasized in our missions, taking into due consideration the effect of the global financial crisis on the nation’s economy. There is also the need for periodic audit of the finances of our missions abroad.

To forestall future occurrence, let the foreign missions revert to the system of paying the school fees of wards abroad directly to the schools. Doing so would plug the loopholes created by paying such fees to the parents of the affected students.

Kunbee:
Watevs

sexyLeamon:
here https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-234024.0.html