Some armed men, suspected to be members of the Boko Haram yesterday attacked a police station and a branch of BankPHB Plc in Kankara local government area of Katsina State, killing six policement and two civilians.
An eyewitness informed LEADERSHIP that the Boko Haram members first attacked a police station before proceeding to the bank. He added that the group detonated some explosives which damaged both the building of the police station and the bank.
According to the eyewitness, three of the policemen including a DPO were killed at the police station while the remaining three were killed at the bank. They allegedly carted away millions of naira.
Two bank officials were said to have been killed accidentally, just as the perpetrators were said to have distributed some of the money they looted from the bank to people.
They reportedly fled the scene of the incident in two vehicles.
A resident of the area, Ibrahim Sulaiman, also told our correspondent that the sect members used one of the vehicles of the bank customers to escape from the scene, adding that the members later abandoned the vehicle near Yankumaki town.
Ibrahim further stated that policemen diverted traffic from the area after the incident, saying that police officers were now at the two places and dispersed onlookers from converging on the police station and the bank.
But the police denied the claim that the attack was perpetrated by Boko Haram.
In a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP, the force PRO, Olushola Amore, a deputy commissioner of police, said the signals the force received from Katsina showed that it was purely a robbery incident.
He said: “The signals we received showed that the attacks were carried out by armed robbers and not by Boko Haram members. The robbers attacked the police station, which was very near to the bank, in order to have free access to the bank.
“The robbers also carted away undisclosed sum of money. To the best of my knowledge, the attack was not from Boko Haram but from armed robbers.
“We are also not aware of the claim that some of the money looted from the bank were being shared to the people by the perpetrators of the attack.”
The Boko Haram sect yesterday issued a fresh threat of attack in some northern states with Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba and Benue marked as prime targets.
A statement from the website of the group said the terrorists were now ready for the Nigerian state after the training of their commandos in Somalia. In an e-mail sent to media houses by Yusuf Mohammed from the website www.yusufislamicbrothers..com, the sect stated that the alert was to warn civilians to avoid public places especially military formations. “This alert is meant to notify civilians to avoid military formations, especially the police.
We are stepping up our attacks in the coming weeks in all northern states. The failed assassination attempt on the IG of police will not deter us as we are going to attack the entire northern parts of the country, including Abuja.
“Avoid crowded places and gatherings. We are ready for the Nigerian state, after the training of our commandos in Somalia. Northern states such as Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba, Benue should watch out for us especially Kaduna State.”
The group said that what the country lawmakers were taking as allowances was unacceptable. “We wish to warn the RMAFC chairman, Mr. Elias Mbam, of his plan to increase the salaries and allowances of Nigeria’s thieving legislators.
“We have been monitoring his statements over the past days and it seems he is bent on his devilish agenda, when millions of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty and deprivation and state governments cannot even pay the N18, 000 minimum salaries. We would be forced to place a fatwa on the chairman of RMAFC, Elias Mbam, the commission responsible for setting allowances and salaries for public servants, if he does not review downwards the salaries and allowances of these thieving lawmakers with immediate effect,” the email added.
The sect also alleged that the pay of 469 federal lawmakers gulped N339bn in four years while the actual salary (on pay slip) was only N18.245bn. The group argued that at N45m per senator per quarter (N720m in 4 years), N42m per house member per quarter (N672m in 4 years), it takes N4, 881,394,960 to maintain 109 senators while N13, 364,450,550 is needed to maintain 360 house members.
“This is so because the rest of what is normally marked as jumbo pay will surface really in form of quarterly allowances the two chambers approved for themselves and called running cost quarterly allowances.
“The breakdown is: N42 million for every member of the (lower) house, amounting to N168 million per annum, or N672 million in four years. Similarly, the very ‘distinguished senator’ will go home with N720 million in four years (N45m per quarter, or N180m per annum). What will reflect on the pay slips of the lawmakers would be the statutory salary, which will come to a meagre N18.245 billion for the two chambers in four years. Of these statutory figures, N4, 881,394,960 will be spent on the 109 senators while the remaining N13, 364,450,550 will be spent to maintain the 360 members of the House of Representatives,” the group stated.
In a bid to meet the challenges of the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram, the inspector-general of police (IGP), Hafiz Ringim, has summoned commissioners of police in the 36 states of the federation and FCT, even as he has placed all the commands on 24-hour alert.
Responding to the recent threat by the sect, the deputy force public relations officer, Mr. Yemi Ajayi, a chief superintendent of police (CSP), urged Nigerians to remain calm as the threat was the handiwork of persons bent on causing panic in the country.
He explained that the IGP would be giving further directive to the commissioners of police and other senior police officers, pointing out that intelligence monitoring was on the highest alert.
Ajayi appealed to members of the public to report suspicious movements and persons to the nearest police division as the perpetrators of crime live among the people.
The police spokesperson asked Nigerians to be security conscious at all times, adding that the force was on top of the situation.
He, however, would not confirm if arrests had been made in connection with Thursday bombing of the Force Headquarters by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly, in particular the Senate, has come under fire over their prolonged absence while the country is literarily under siege.
Some lawmakers are already complaining that the seeming coordinated silence of the upper chamber to current vexing issues of national importance, like the slow pace of the new government as a result of non-constitution of the federal cabinet, and the raging bombing of individuals and public institutions by the terrorist oorganisation Boko Haram, portrays the Senate as insensitive.
The Senate which closed down for a three-week recess immediately after its inauguration on June 6 will resume on Tuesday, June 28.
However, some lawmakers echoed yesterday that they had expected the Senate to cut short its recess to return and handle pressing state matter, like the confirmation of ministerial list which, LEADERSHIP exclusively reported last week, had been sent to the upper chamber by President Goodluck Jonathan.
“I had expected the Senate to reconvene for an emergency session in the light of the latest development. It is even most unfortunate that the Senate failed to issue a coordinated response to the bombing of the Police Headquarters in Abuja, except the condemnation of the act by the Senate president.
Meaenwhile, security has been beefed up in the National Assembly. Visitors now have a herculean task gaining access into the complex, with staff and journalists being subjected to excruciating security checks before they are allowed to enter the premises. Aside the search, the car park has been moved out from the public arcade and is now located behind the new buildings housing the lawmakers of both chambers.

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babaowo:

we cant have it all in this life,no matter how, human would still have
things to cry on. that is why d rich also cry. sorry MR ( I WAS DETERMINED)

Good talk.

Look at George Weah, one time World Footballer of the Year and he has never been to the World Cup as a player and JJ Okocha who has won BBC African Footballer of the Year for several years but was never so declared by CAF.

Kanu was a great player and history remembers him as that but he should be satisfied with the much God has done for him. We knew he was shocked when the coach told him that he wouldnt play, but he was determined to prove him wrong.

Affalatus:

@chikejude

What do you know about Consolidation? As the Bible was written by God through men so too was Consolidation written by me and presented through this devil you are in love with. Glory be to God.

Affalatus sorry o.

Not everyone was destined to be a star. Alexander the Great, Napoloen Bonaparte, Mark Anthony, Julius Casaer e.t.c rode on the back of many men to be who they were. Even Awolowo, Azikiwe and Sardauna. Should those men (whose backs were ridden) commit suicide? Wait for ur time, if God said that it would come, it surely would as Mark Anthony's did.

timmfikk:

I guess you just said that,

No, I mean it.

"U look like ice cream and I am feeling thirsty".

Are you kidding me? You mean I earn more than the CBN Governor?

Poor Soludo.

Simple answer: try the ugly ones.

UBA Plc claimed to have promoted 855 staff out of the staff strength of about 8,000 at the cost of N1bn (out of the N57bn profit declared last year by the bank).

The bank nods its head in self adulation. Does it deserve any accolade?

samorijack:

Prof Dora Akunyili has always been one of them. She's just an attention hungry fraud. I lost all respect for her when I saw her in Benin Campaigning for Yaradua. She was also listed as one of the beneficiaries on Government house to be sold. It might interest you to know she purchased that property in Ikoyi at over a Hundred Million Naira. She's just a fraud, simple and short. Anyone with a little integrity would have rejected it.

What is bad in buying government houses when you have the money? Afterall, she won a lot of International Awards with monetary rewards attached to them. Haba, that a person has integrity doesn't mean that she shouldn't have money now.

The rise and fall of Dora Akunyili? Too bad! Remember Lot's wife Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Those against Ribadu said he had selective justice, what they did not tell us is: who amongst the people he selectively 'witch hunted' was clean as it were?

What is wrong with us in Nigeria? Which young man would want to work for Nigeria again with all his heart and strength?

When did it become a crime to receive rapid promotion, don't we all pray for it? Didn't Maj Gen Shehu Musa Yar'adua benefit from same? What about Gen Murtala Mohammed, Gen Yakubu Gowon, Lt Gen T.Y Danjuma and Dr Pat Utomi?

Why should Ribadu's own be different? [b]Augustus Aikhomu was even promoted after he had retired from the force![/b]No one saw that as an anomaly but this young and dynamic Ribadu whose grand father had served this country meritoriously?

I cry for Nigeria.

Too long a letter, too little a sense.

The journalist's beareau chief said that he could not contact him because his phone was switched off. Well, he should know that his vengeful subordinate has probably gone to be decorated with his deserved medal at Guantanamo Bay ceremony room.

damola1:

SINCE RIBADU LEFT EFCC, HOW MANY GOVT. OFFICIAL HAS BEEN PROSECUTED, OR HAVE WE SO QUICKLY FORGOTTEN THE GOVERNOR WHO DRESSED LIKE A WOMAN TO ESCAPE THE UK AUTHORITIES? OR BETTER STILL THE IG, WHO WAS HANDCUFFED?

THESE THINGS ARE RARE IN THE UK.

I TELL YOU. I LOVE RIBADU, AND I WILL STAND BY HIM ANY DAY ANYTIME, I WILL GIVE HIM ASYLUM IN MY HOUSE IF HE WANTS, BECAUSE HE HAS DONE MORE THAN ANY OTHER MAN HAS DONE FOR NIGERIA.

Sensible talks at last! _{Only that your house may not be safe enough for those Ribadic head hunters.}

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YAR'ADUA AND OBAMA:

1. One campaigned for himself,the other had the incumbent campaign for him.
2. One charmed the whole world with his charisma, the other astonishes the whole world with his lack of charisma.
3. One was congratulated by his opponent less than 24 hrs after the elections, the other is still being challenged by his opponents one year and seven months after the elections.
4. One wears suit, the other wears babanriga.
5. One read law and practiced as a lawyer, the other read chemistry and never practiced as as a chemist.
6. One wrote books, the other wrote his will.
7. One smiles, the other frowns.
8. One defeated a war hero, the other was allocated more votes than a coup hero.
9. One immediately elected his own chief of staff, the other borrowed his predecessor's chief of staff and when he ran out of idea on how to appoint his own, scrapped the office.
10. One would attend to his secretaries (ministers) directly, the other placed an SGF between the minsiters and himself.

Gamine:

Not only will i discard my maiden name

i will ask my Husband to Rename me completely.

If I were he, let me guess the most suitable name: Razormouth, no Baracuda!