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Wednesday, 10 June 2015
Boko Haram: African Military Chiefs meet in Abuja
Boko Haram: African Military Chiefs meet in Abuja
Monday, 8 June 2015
‘Joshua is back to his best,’ says Garba
Cristiano Ronaldo's mother detained for carrying €55,000
Cristiano Ronaldo's mother got herself into trouble with the law recently when she was found to have been travelling with €55,000 in her hand luggage. according to reports in Spain.
Podolski: I can add a lot to Arsenal
The 30-year-old moved to Inter on loan in January after failing to start a single Premier League game for Arsenal, but the Serie A outfit decided against a permanent move after a return of just one Serie A goal.
Photo: Lionel Messi chills with his family after champions league win
The Barcelona star shared this photo of himself with his son and his parents on instagram, showing him enjoying some well-deserved family time after helping his club secure the Champions League trophy in Berlin on Saturday June 6th.
Soldiers in gun battle with Boko Haram suspects in Kaduna
A soldier was feared killed in the early hours of Monday during a gun battle between the military and two Boko Haram suspects at Ungwan Keke-B, near Danbushiya suburb in Chikun Local Government area of Kaduna, residents of the area reported on Monday morning.
Witnesses who pleaded anonymity said the suspects, two brothers, moved to the area and lived in a rented apartment three years ago.
“We never knew that they are Boko Haram people.
“We just sighted a team of military personnel cordon the house, then gun shots filled the air at about 11:56 p.m. which led to their escape and the killing of one soldier after several hours of shooting.
According to witnesses, although the two Boko Haram suspects, whose names could not be ascertained, escaped, their wives were arrested by the security operatives after the gun battle that left their building shattered.
“One of the suspect got married to his wife who is from Bauchi eight days ago and brought her to Kaduna. Two of the wives have been taken away by the soldiers,” the witnesses said.
The Village Head of Keke B, Suleiman Mohammed, who confirmed the incident to journalists said he started hearing gun shots at about 1 a.m.
“The team of security operatives later announced that the neighbours should all come out of their houses and ordered them to leave the area,” he said.
The house was completely deserted, there were blood stains on the floor, but the security operatives had left the area when a correspondent left the vicinity Monday morning.
Efforts to reach the Deputy Director Army Public Relation of the 1 Army Division Kaduna, Abdul Usman, failed as his phone lines were unavailable. He is yet to respond to a text message sent to him.
The Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria has caused the death of over 20,000 people with hundreds of thousands still displaced mainly in the north-eastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.
BREAKING: APC Crisis: Governors call emergency meeting as Osinbajo meets Reps-elect
Governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have called an emergency meeting to seek ways of reuniting the ruling party that is threatened by a major crisis over the choice of new leaders for the Senate and the House of Representatives.
It was confirmed at the national secretariat of the APC that the meeting was called by the chairman of the APC governors’ Forum and Governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha.
A source at the secretariat said the meeting would hold by 5p.m. Monday at the Imo state governors lodge in Asokoro Abuja.
The source said the meeting would discuss how to find a solution to the crisis generated by the election of a new Senate President and Speaker.
The APC had conducted a mock election to elect candidate for the two offices on Saturday and Messrs. Ahmed Lawan from Yobe and Femi Gbajabiamila were elected as Senate President and Speaker of the House respectively.
However, the two main challengers to the posts, Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, who are also members of the party, boycotted the election and rejected its outcome.
They also vowed to defy the party and seek for the mandate of their colleagues in an election billed for Tuesday.
The APC national secretary, Mai Mala Buni had on Sunday issued a statement urging Messrs. Saraki and Dogara to abide by the decision of the party.
The two contenders rejected the plea by the party leadership and vowed to challenge the party’s candidates on Tuesday.
Osinbanjo meets with Reps elect
Meanwhile, it was understood that after several failed attempts by the party leadership to persuade Messrs Saraki and Dogara to drop their ambitions, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has decided to wade into the matter.
One of the lawmakers loyal to Mr. Dogara confirmed that the Vice President had invited all members to a meeting, even as he said they would boycott it.
“We received text messages from the party informing us of a meeting with the Vice President today; however, we see no difference between the Vice President and those trying to impose leaders on the House of Representatives, so we would not be attending,” he said.
Nigerian govt. schools reject students displaced by Boko Haram over “academic documents”
Government schools in Abuja are turning away hundreds of students displaced by Boko Haram from northern Nigeria, denying them education on the grounds that they are unable to produce the appropriate documents they failed to grab as they fled the rampaging terrorists.
The FCT government secondary schools are demanding the originals of age declaration, birth certificate, testimonials, transfer certificate from the last school and junior school leaving certificate before the displaced students can be given admission.
Denied education, these students have resorted to odd jobs to fill their time and make ends meet. No papers, no education.
Back in December 2014, Jeremiah Andrew, 17, and many others ran to Abuja for safety, fleeing repeated Boko Haram attacks in the northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
Jeremiah said he fled his village – Gwoza, Borno state – with his uncle when the terrorists attacked.
“When the attack started, we had to run and the only place we found was under a tree,” he said. “We stayed there for days, till we spotted a bus. I and my uncle ran to it and joined (the passengers) to Abuja.”
Jeremiah said he was in senior secondary school when they fled. He is now a carpenter in Waru, an Abuja suburb popular with displaced persons.
When he arrived Abuja, he tried to continue his education at the Apo Government Secondary School, but he was turned away by the authorities because he could not produce the documents the school demanded.
“I can’t go back to Gwoza to get those credentials,” he said. “Now I’m a carpenter. I make furniture.”
A displaced mother of seven, Mary Paul, has two of her kids out of secondary school due to the rejections. She told PREMIUM TIMES that the registrar at the Apo Government Secondary asked parents affected by the insurgency to go back to their states to get the credentials before their kids can be admitted.
“When we got to the school the registrar said I should go and get the original age declaration, birth certificate and junior school leaving certificate before they can admitted into the school,” she said.
“When we were all running for our dear life, when would we even remember to get documents? Some of us could not even carry our clothes let alone certificates.”
Mrs. Paul’s story cuts across many IDP camps in Abuja.
In Waru, many school age kids loiter around the community. The girls turn to hairdressing while the boys become Okada riders.
Rules are rules
PREMIUM TIMES visited three schools in the FCT – Government Secondary School, Apo resettlement, Junior Secondary School, Jikwoyi and Government Secondary School, Karu – and found the claims of the displaced persons to be true.
The documents demanded by the school authorities were indeed a prerequisite for any of the IDP students to be admitted into a class. That condition could not be waived, the schools said.
The vice principal in charge of admissions at the Government Secondary School Apo told PREMIUM TIMES that it was rather unfortunate that the IDPs were affected by the insurgency but they had to bring the “necessary’ documents”.
“They need to get the original of their birth certificate, junior leaving certificate, age declaration, testimonial, and transfer certificate, or they should go to court to get the papers,” the vice principal, who refused giving his name, said.
The Education Resource Centre in Abuja, in charge of all government secondary schools in the city, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES the decision to keep IDP students away from school is backed by the authorities and inspired by the government’s inability to differentiate IDPs from regular admission cheats.
“In a case where they cannot provide those documents, then we ask them go back to the state and get a letter from the Ministry of Education to give to us here, and based on that we give them the admission,” Ramatu Ibrahim, the director of the centre told PREMIUM TIMES.
She explained that the reasons for demanding such documents was because a lot of people have hidden under the umbrella of IDP to seek admission into government schools.
“Unfair and unfortunate”
Some members of the civil society have condemned the government embargo on school admission for kids who are willing to go to school after they were displaced by Boko Haram.
They blamed the government for the unfortunate attack by Boko Haram terrorists in the Northeast Nigeria, noting that the government had failed to provide security for its country.
Shola Okpodu, group managing director of School Hunters, told PREMIUM TIMES that the government is exposing the kids to grave danger by denying them education.
“Not giving them an opportunity to go to school simply means they may end up as miscreants, they may end up discouraged, this is like creating more thieves,” Mrs. Okpodu said. “I see no reason why those kids should be stopped from attending schools. Some of them, from my experience are going through depression. They are traumatised. So how do you expect them to go back to that same place they ran away from (to pick up documents).”
Mrs Okpodu argued that it was inconsiderate and unfair for the government to place such demands on the displaced school children.
A youth advocate, Samson Itodo, described the situation as “pathetic and unacceptable”.
He explained that if the children affected by the insurgency show interest in going to school and the government is giving them reason not to, then it should be condemned.
“If the government is asking them to go back to the state to get a letter from the Ministry of Education, are they willing to give them transportation fare?” he asked. “Will the government guarantee the safety of their lives?”
He argued that it was the government’s responsibility to identify each IDP and ensure they are properly attended to, rather than traumatise them.
Photos: Ramsey Noah, Monalisa Chinda at Desmond Elliot's inauguration
Photo: Nigerian student solves 30-year-old maths equation & breaks academic record at Japanese university
Independent UK reports
A Nigerian student has broken a 30-year-old maths equation and achieved the highest grades at a university in Japan for 50 years.
Ufot Ekong, who studied at Tokai University in Tokyo, achieved a first class degree in electrical engineering and scored the best marks at the university since 1965, the Flotilla Magazine reported.
He began his success early at the university, solving a 30-year-old maths equation in his first semester.
Throughout his university career Mr Ekong has won six awards for academic excellence. The brilliant mathematician worked two jobs alongside his studies to pay his way as a student.
Mr Ekong also speaks English, French, Japanese and Yoruba and won a Japanese language award for foreigners. He is currently working for Nissan and already has two patents for electronic car design to his name.
Tokai University is a prestigious private university based in the Japanese capital, which was founded in 1924. It is focused on the sciences and technology and roughly 60 per cent of all students are enrolled in these schools.
Huge 52nd birthday bash announced for TB Joshua in South Africa
The Nigerian cleric’s popularity in Southern Africa has shown no signs of waning, despite the tragic building collapse that claimed the lives of 84 South Africans in his church last year.
Indeed, family members of those who lost their lives and survivors of the incident are among those organising the celebration for Joshua, alongside ‘The SCOAN Family in Southern Africa’.
Joshua has uncannily not appeared in public since his crusade in Mexico last month. It was announced on his Christian network Emmanuel TV yesterday that the cleric had arrived back in Nigeria over a week ago but was “waiting for God's command on what to do next”.
Speculations are rife that Joshua may soon be leaving Nigerian shores on a more permanent basis, fuelled further by the message yesterday which stipulated no birthday celebration would be held within Nigeria.
Photo: Nassarawa gov adopts 6 years old disabled boy
Tempting Fate coming to the cinemas on July 17th (watch trailer)
A KevStel Production distributed by Silverbird Distribution and supported by
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Watch the trailer below...
Organizations Urge the President to Reinterpret Helms Amendment and Aid Nigerian Refugees
Catholics for Choice in partnership with the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) launched a campaign last week in response to more than 200 girls raped and impregnated by Boko Haram members, urging President Obama to reinterpret the Helms Amendment to include abortion care.
via Andrea
Over 400 women and children who were kidnapped by Boko Haram were returned earlier this year, many of whom are pregnant as the result of rape. Organizations hoping to aid these women are calling on President Obama to sign an interpretation of Helms that could allow for foreign assistance in providing abortion care. The law currently says, “No foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.” However, as abortion in the instance of rape, incest, or life endangerment is not a method of family planning or birth control, Catholics for Choice and CHANGE are urging the President to sign into effect an interpretation of Helms that would allow the girls in Nigeria, some of whom are very young, to access what could be life-saving abortion care.
While the Nigerian government has made abortion illegal except in the case of life endangerment, Nigerian officials signed the Maputo Protocol which demands “the right to abortion in cases of rape, incest, or where pregnancy would pose a danger to the woman’s physical health, mental health, or life.” Even so, there has not been U.S. pressure on the Nigerian government to act in accordance with the Maputo Protocol and allow for abortion in cases of war rape.
Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe, domestic program director at Catholics for Choice said in a press conference on Friday, “This policy is a disgrace to who we are as Americans… The Obama administration knows this—Catholics for Choice and our partners have spent six and a half years pleading, prodding, but to no avail.”
Other organizations have been struggling to get the President’s attention as well. Last year, Rev. Harry Knox, CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, stated that the Helms Amendment, “… has been misused to deny compassionate abortion care to women and girls who face a pregnancy that results from rape.” He also said it was the United States’ “moral imperative” to provide abortion care.
The schoolgirls raped and impregnated by Boko Haram are running out of time to access safe abortions. Bea Arthur, a therapist and activist who often works with victims of sexual violence, warns of the long-lasting effectsthat denying a victim of violence can have. “Telling someone they can’t have a choice extends that trauma and denies them their own humanity, integrity, and basic human self-respect,” she says. Studies also indicate that women who are impregnated as a result of rape and bear children are especially vulnerable to mental health issues such as depression and post-traumatic stress. There is also a strong likelihood of these women experiencing severe negative psychological consequences from facing stigma or isolation within their communities.
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