Bakare : Buhari’s government has failed

Tunde Bakare, serving overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly church, says the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in terms of protecting Nigerians.

Speaking at the 2nd annual Chibok girls lecture organised by the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement in Abuja, on Saturday, Bakare said the current administration and the previous one did not do enough to prevent Boko Haram abductions.

Bakare added that “our nation is sick” as a result of the “assault faced by the girl child today”.

He said the fact that schoolgirls were abducted in Dapchi, Yobe state, four years after the Chibok incident is “evidence of an anomie and alarming national malady”.

The cleric wondered why both incidents happened the year preceding a general election.

“There is something wrong when a nation is twice beaten. There is something undeniably wrong when the girl child repeatedly becomes the bargaining instrument in negotiation deals between the government and terrorists,” Bakare said.

“Let me ask this question, has this government handled the issue of the Chibok kidnap well?” the audience chorused, “No!”

He asked again, “What of the previous government?” The people responded negatively, and Bakare continued: “Sometime ago, the daughter of President Buhari got married here in Abuja. Just recently, the daughter of Vice-President Osinbajo also got married here.

“The other time a governor gave out his daughter to another governor and they had a very elaborate wedding. Now tell me if their daughters were among the Chibok girls, won’t they have done enough to rescue them?

“Any government that fails to prioritise the security and welfare of its people is a failed government, whether that of Jonathan or Buhari.”

He also chided Buhari over a comment he once made that Aisha, his wife, belongs in the kitchen.

In 2016 while on an official visit to Germany, Buhari had said Aisha “belongs to my kitchen … and the other room.”

The president had said so in reaction to a BBC interview where his wife said his government had been hijacked.

“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” Buhari had said at a press conference where he spoke alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Bakare described Buhari’s statement as “an expensive joke”, saying it was uncalled for.

“It is very sad that he (Buhari) stood beside one of the most powerful women in the world to make that statement,” he said.

“Even if the satement was a joke, that was an expensive joke that was uncalled for on the international scene. It was unnecessary, it was an embarrassment to even the mothers that bore us.

“Their place is not just in the kitchen; they also belong to the parliament. A day will come, that even the (presidential) villa will be occupied by a woman.”

In 2014, Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno state. Of that number, 163 are now free: 57 fled in the early days after their abduction, three more escaped later, and a Swiss-coached mediation secured 103. - Cable Nigeria

SAD !! Policeman allegedly kills pregnant teenager in Benue

Officers of the Nigeria Police Mobile unit deployed to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Daudu, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State on Saturday shot dead a pregnant displaced teenager, simply identified as Queen Zoho, who stays in the camp.

New Telegraph newspaper reports that she was killed during a melee that arose from an argument between youths of the area and the policemen.

The deceased was reportedly shot alongside two other men currently in critical condition.

It was gathered that the deceased had been staying in the IDPs camp since the outbreak of the farmers/herdsmen crisis and has since not been able to return to her ancestral home as the Fulani insurgents have taken over their communities.

According to eye-witnesses, the killing which ignited serious tension within and outside the vicinity of the camp, started when a man identified as Ornyiev, conveying a passenger on his motorcycle to a village in Daudu for a wake keep was intercepted by the Mobile Policemen at a roadblock they had mounted.

“On arriving at the roadblock, Ornyiev was flagged down by the Mopol who seized his motorcycle. He (Ornyiev) then called his district head on the telephone to intimate him about what had happened on his way to the burial.

“The district head swiftly sent words that the officers should please pardon the cyclist and release the motorcycle to him.

“As they were talking, the Mopol man started beating Ornyiev. The policeman hit him with his gun butt after he asked why they were maltreating him.

“This attracted onlookers and passers-by and the policeman, in the process, corked his gun and fired shot which killed the pregnant and injured the other two men.”

Mother of the deceased, Mrs Paulina Zoho, told New Telegraph that her daughter had gone to look for water from where she was informed of the police brutality.

Mrs. Zoho disclosed that they were staying in Kogi state but only came home for holidays when they were caught up by the Fulani herdsmen attacks on their community.

She said her husband was not in the state when the incident occurred but was making efforts to contact him.

State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu said he was yet to obtain full details about the killing and promised to provide later. - Daily Post

‘Save us from ‘Cannabis Cultivators’ in Ondo’

Timber farmers in Ondo state have accused some government officials  of aiding Indian hemp cultivation.

A petition written to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu through one of the victims, Mrs Adenike Adeolu, who was allocated Compartment 124 Akure/Ofosu Forest Reserve, alleged that some government officials were bent on destroying her business.

It was learnt that already, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF)Zone 11,Osogbo and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC) had sent an investigative team to know the veracity of the allegation.

Adeolu, said to have been in the business legally for more than 22 years, hinted that some persons (names withheld) were arrested in 2014 and made to sign an undertaking to stop Indian hemp plantation in the reserves.

Besides, she petitioned the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ondo State command, and reporting one Mrs Funmilayo Fayeun of planting and harvesting the illicit substance on her compartment.

She pointed out that some government functionaries that called themselves “Commissioner boys,” guarded by security agents, often raid the forest to destroy and extort the farmers, collecting huge amount of money from them.

According to her “These people storm the reserves and get as much as N500, 000 from the timbre farmers. And this money is not remitted into the state government’s purse.”

She lamented that several complaints had been made to government agencies, ministries and the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Agriculture, Pastor Akin Olotu, for assistance.

It was learnt that the Association of Olus and Baales Ala/Akure Ofosu Forest Area had sent a “Save our soul” plea to the governor on February 28, lamenting that those government functionaries were rubbishing his people-centred policies.

Adeolu, who vehemently opposed Indian hemp plantation in the reserves, said she had been the target of the illegal dealers, who influenced government officials to persecute her due to the inducement received from the former.

According to her, “I was banned unjustly through a stop work order, preventing me from doing my legal business just because I resisted the plantation of cannabis on the farmland which we inherited from our fore-fathers.”

He said the woman farmer leveled wrong allegations against the ministry to cover up all her illegal activities since she started the business.

Adeolu however warned that the action of the government will have multiple effects on the society, stressing that if the forest is allowed to be destroyed by the criminals, the teeming youths who get legal means of livelihood therein would storm the streets.

The aggrieved timber merchant shown the “Stop Work Order” paper from Ministry of Natural Resources, dated 21/03/2018 to our correspondent and alleged she was being victimized with trump-up charges.

She lamented that her business worth millions of naira were rotten away in the forest‚.

Mrs Adeolu urged Akeredolu to call his aide, Lawal and others who hide under government to give order, warning that the plantation of cannabis would not deplete the forest. - The Nation

You are elected to solve problems, stop blame game - Anglican Diocese tells Buhari

The Ibadan Anglican Diocese, on Friday urged the leadership of President Muhammadu Buari to stop what it called the blame game.

The Church stated that the absence of justice was the main reason many Nigerians were resorting to self-help.

It made these assertions in a communique issued and signed by the Most Reverend Joseph Akinfenwa at the end of its second session of the 22nd Synod of the Diocese, held at St David Anglican Church Ijokodo in Ibadan.

The communique said “The church notes that at every crossroad of the nation’s problems, we resort to and defend our sectarian interests, no wonder our national patrimony is so parlous and derelict.

“There is tension everywhere because of too much divergent opinions to issues as we don’t want the same thing, as what a section wants is inimical to to the interest of another section and nobody is ready to shift ground for the other.

“There is no justice in the land and it is difficult to preach righteousness – reasons why people now resort to self-help when they cannot get redress by just means.

“The Synod sees a nation with brutalized economy and solution cannot be achieved by trading blames as such keeps worsening the situation by keeping exchanging blame words.”

Nigeria, according to the communique would start becoming a nation when the yearnings of federating units were addressed rather than suppressed.

On the forthcoming 2019 elections, the synod counselled politicians to eschew violence and brigandage.

On the issue of restructuring, the synod wants a return to the 1963 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where each federating unit will consolidate “on their comparative advantage to generate funds for self sufficiency.”

The synod sought for a revisit of 2014 Confab Report and implementation of same. - Daily Post

Buhari lacks leadership qualities - Ex Reps Speaker, Na’Abba

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’Abba has declared opposition to President Muhammadu Buhari’s bid to re-contest in 2019.

He advised Buhari to rethink, adding that the president cannot meet the expectations of Nigerians.

“I really do not know what encouraged him to say he would re-contest for the 2019 general elections”, he told Sun.

“I do not see any quality of leadership in him that qualifies him to continue to govern this country.

“So, my advice is that he should have a rethink even though we are not surprised with his declaration but we feel that he cannot deliver'” he said.

On the statement by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that neither the APC nor the PDP has what it takes to reposition Nigeria, Na’abba said he supports his position.

He added: “But looking at the architecture of politics in the country, do you think that the new leaders you are talking about have what it takes to take power from the conservative political elite who are very powerful and not ready to let go?

“Nigerians are very conservative but this is a very challenging time for Nigerians. I am sure this time, Nigerians would be adventurous enough to bring forth a kind of leadership that would help them realise their goals and dreams. I have an open mind that anything is possible in 2019.” - Daily Post

Update : Death toll hits 32 in Taraba Fulani herdsmen attack

The death toll in Wednesday’s dusk attack by Fulani herdsmen in Taraba State has risen to 32, the locals said yesterday.

The marauding herdsmen have resumed their violence in full swing on innocent citizens despite the presence of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and a military panel probing allegations by former defence minister, Gen Theophilus Danjuma, that “the armed forces collude with armed bandits that kill Nigerians.”

Herdsmen had attacked Jandeikyula village in Wukari Local Government Area on Wednesday, at 6pm.

No fewer than 25 bodies were counted the following morning, in spite of the intervention by soldiers who were said to have battled with the killers for several hours.

A former Special Adviser to the late Governor Danbaba Suntai, Orbee Uchiv, an indigene of Jandeikyula, told The Nation that seven new bodies were recovered yesterday.

Some of the victims were buried in shallow graves, it was learnt.

Uchiv said some residents had crawled into the bush during the attack.

“But they died of injuries resulting from gunshots. Their bodies were recovered in the bush today,” he said.

Uchiv said a photographer had snapped and filmed the bodies for the purpose of documentation.

He said residents have deserted the affected village, despite the deployment of security personnel.

Women in Takum town yesterday protested the killings and alleged “brutality and collusion by the military.”

The women, in their hundreds, wearing all black, said their husbands and sons were illegally detained in the Takum barracks.

They called the peaceful protest: “Operation Mother’s Breast.”

Their placards read: “We are tired of intimidation; Stop harassing our people; We want to sleep with our eyes closed; We are not at war in Takum, etc.”

The protesters marched through major arteries of the town and blocked the gate of the 93 Battalion, Ada Barracks Takum.

They demanded the release of their arrested people as they demanded to see the Commanding Officer Lt. Col Ibrahim Gambari, who has since been accused by Governor Darius Ishaku of taking sides.

The leader of the protesters, Esther Yakubu, told The Nation “Houses are being searched by soldiers. Kitchen knives and cutlasses are being taken away. Children are being harassed.

“Youths looking strong enough to defend the community are whisked away. The youth whose names have appeared on a ‘gossip list’ as youth defence vanguard have been arrested.

“Our people are now left at the mercy of Fulani herdsmen whose business of killing and destroying lives and property continues.

“The army should go into the bush and disarm those killing us, so that we shall return to our farms.”

An Assistant Director of Publicity of the Army Exercise Cat Race, Major Adegoke, said he was gathering facts about the protest, which he would share with journalists.

Shiban Tikari, the council chairman of Takum, Gen. Danjuma’s home, yesterday called on the people of Takum to defend themselves.

Sharing a similar view with Danjuma that the military were not neutral, Tikari said the people can use “sticks and stones in the face of unprovoked attacks by the herdsmen.”

The council boss alleged that he saw soldiers escorting some herdsmen to Kashimbilla area of Takum on Tuesday when the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, was commissioning a mobile police base in Takum.

Tikari’s grouse is that the presence of the Army Exercise Ayem AKpatuma (Cat Race) in the southern part of the state has given rise to increased attacks and killings.

He said: “These killings have continued, and instead of stopping the attacks, the army are busy harassing innocent people in spite of the influx of herdsmen in Takum.

“Two people were arrested in Takum around 3 am this morning by the army without any reason, when Fulani militia were killing people in the villages of southern Taraba.

“As the chief security officer of the local government, the army did not inform me when they escorted herdsmen to Kashimbilla on Tuesday when the IGP was commissioning a mobile police base in Takum.

“It is unfortunate because these Fulani herdsmen are the ones killing people. Therefore, any Fulani herdsman in Takum is on his own.

“We don’t have AK-47 rifles, but we can use traditional sticks and stones. I have told my people to stand their ground and defend themselves with sticks and stones.

“In the story of David and Goliath in the Bible, it was a stone that David threw to kill the almighty Goliath.”

The Ussa Council Chairman, Rimansikwe Karma, also lamented the influx of herdsmen in his domain at the commencement of Exercise Cat Race, adding that the coming of the herdsmen heightened security threat in his local government.

He added that despite his complaints that the army were complicit in the attacks on his local government, nothing had been done to convince them that they were neutral.

Karma said they were armed with evidence to confront the committee set up by the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Burutai, to probe allegations by Danjuma that the Army were colluding with bandits to kill people.

Governor Darius Ishaku has backed Danjuma on the latter’s allegation that the armed forces “are not neutral” in the attacks on innocent Nigerians by “armed bandits.”

He told the military panel investigating the allegation, headed by

Retired Maj-Gen. John Nimyel, that the people of Taraba State were “fully in support of the statements by the former defence minister calling on Nigerians to defend themselves.”

Ishaku said the remarks by Danjuma, who once headed the Nigerian army, should be carefully looked into rather than criticised.

He said: “I didn’t sleep last night. At 1 am, I was woken up by a distress call on another herdsmen militia attack.

“Yesterday, fortunately, the military from Takum came in to help. They battled till this morning.

“In the morning, they counted 15 bodies. Some are in the hospital in Sondi.

“But as you are aware, now you can go to Sondi. This is not fake news. I spoke with the commanding officer of the army there this morning.

“Also this morning at 3 am, the military in Takum went about beating up youths, arresting them from their homes and taking them to the military barracks.

“The people are being killed and yet you are arresting them. Where is the fairness in this matter?” he asked the military panel. - The Nation

Nigeria’s population now 198m - NPC

Nigeria's population is currently pegged at an estimation of 198 million, according to the National Population Commission (NPC).

Nigeria currently rank as the 7th most populous nation in the world.

According to news source, Eze Duruiheoma, NPC chairman,  said this in New York while delivering Nigeria’s statement on sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration at the 51st session of commission on population and development.

The man said urban population was growing at an average annual rate of about 6.5 percent, adding that teenagers, women of child-bearing age and the working age population, were more engaged in urbanisation.

“Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa, the seventh globally with an estimated population of over 198 million,” Duruiheoma said.

“The recent World Population Prospects predicts that by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populated country in the world.

“Over the last 50 years, Nigeria’s urban population has grown at an average annual growth rate of more than 6.5 percent without commensurate increase in social amenities and infrastructure.

“It grew substantially from 17.3 in 1967 to 49.4 percent in 2017. In addition, the 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects report, predicts that by 2050, most of the population – 70 percent – will be residing in cities.

“The 2010 human mobility Survey report revealed that 23 percent of the sampled population were of more females than males.”

Duruiheoma said an estimated 1.76m internally displaced persons (IDPs) are from states in the six north-east.

According to him, existing urbanisation trend coupled with IDPs in cities, pose critical challenges to securing sustainability of our cities.

He said like in other developing countries, Nigerian cities host widespread poverty, under-employment and unemployment at an average of 18.4 percent, citing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 2017 report.

In an interview last year,  Ghaji Bello, director-general of NPC said, the commission might conduct census in 2018.

He had said the proposed census would cost an estimated N272 billion.

The last census was conducted in 2006

“Ordinarily, it ought to have a cycle of its own and that cycle should be five years or 10 years. We should have conducted the last census in 2016 but for a variety of reasons outside the control of the population commission, we were unable to do it,” he had said.

As of 2016, the World Bank said Nigeria had an estimated 186 million people living in it.

Odinkalu : Buhari responsible for deeply divided Nigeria

Chidi Odinkalu, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), says Nigeria has never been as divided as it is under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In an interview with The Sun, Odinkalu said Buhari acts as if “Nigerians don’t matter, as if we don’t exist”.

Odinkalu, who questioned the priorities of the president, said Buhari was quick to send a “very powerful message” when Winnie Mandela, ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, died, but kept mum on the deaths that occurred in the country days earlier.

“The country is deeply divided as it is now and I think the reasons are due partly to the actions and inactions of President Buhari,” Odinkalu said.

“ I am not the oldest Nigerian alive but in my limited lifetime I have never seen Nigeria this deeply divided and I think many of the issues have to do with this incumbent president. So far the president behaves as if Nigerians don’t matter, as if we don’t exist, as if he doesn’t need us and that he is doing us a favour. So on security, there is nothing.”

Odinkalu said Buhari who contested the presidency on the mantra of change is “incapable of change”.

He said though it is up to Nigerians to decide if they want Buhari to be president beyond 2019, “he is not a person to unite Nigeria and he is not the person to transform the economy”.

“President Buhari ran on a mantra of change, but nothing has changed, not even the thinnest drop in his performance,” he said.

“He has changed nothing and is incapable of changing nothing. He is incapable of change, he is incapable of fighting corruption. Let the people decide whether the country that Buhari has led over the last three years is the kind of country he promised he would create.Whether the kind of divisiveness, prejudices and subversion of the basic precepts of coexistence is the way to go, it is up to Nigerians to decide.” - Cable Nigeria

14-year-old Son of Syrian businessman rescued from kidnappers

Muhammad, son of a Syrian businessman Ahmed Areeda, who was kidnapped by gunmen has been released.

You will recall that suspected gunmen on Tuesday killed the Syrian businessman and kidnapped his 14-year-old son, Muhammad Ahmed in Kano State.

Police Public Relations Officer, SP Magaji Musa Majia on Saturday confirmed to journalists in the state that the boy has been rescued.

SP Majia said “The boy has been rescued. He was released without paying any ransom to the kidnappers.”

The Syrian national was shot dead by the gunmen after he resisted the kidnapping of his son.

Sweden Opened world's first electrified road for charging vehicles

The world’s first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks driving on it has been opened in Sweden.

About 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) of electric rail has been embedded in a public road near Stockholm, but the government’s roads agency has already drafted a national map for future expansion.

The technology behind the electrification of the road linking Stockholm Arlanda airport to a logistics site outside the capital city aims to solve the thorny problems of keeping electric vehicles charged, and the manufacture of their batteries affordable.

Energy is transferred from two tracks of rail in the road via a movable arm attached to the bottom of a vehicle. The design is not dissimilar to that of a Scalextric track, although should the vehicle overtake, the arm is automatically disconnected.

The electrified road is divided into 50-meter sections, with an individual section powered only when a vehicle is above it.

When a vehicle stops, the current is disconnected. The system is able to calculate the vehicle’s energy consumption, which enables electricity costs to be debited per vehicle and user.

The “dynamic charging” — as opposed to the use of roadside charging posts — means the vehicle’s batteries can be smaller, along with their manufacturing costs.

Sweden’s target of achieving independence from fossil fuel by 2030 requires a 70% reduction in the transport sector.

A former diesel-fuelled truck owned by the logistics firm PostNord is the first to use the road.

Hans Säll, chief executive of the eRoadArlanda consortium behind the project, said both current vehicles and roadways could be adapted to take advantage of the technology. In Sweden there are roughly half a million kilometres of roadway, of which 20,000 kilometres are highways, Säll said.

“If we electrify 20,000 kilometres of highways that will definitely be enough,” he added. “The distance between two highways is never more than 45 kilometres and electric cars can already travel that distance without needing to be recharged. Some believe it would be enough to electrify 5,000 kilometres.”

Säll said: “There is no electricity on the surface. There are two tracks, just like an outlet in the wall. Five or six centimetres down is where the electricity is. But if you flood the road with salt water then we have found that the electricity level at the surface is just one volt. You could walk on it barefoot.”

National grids are increasingly moving away from coal and oil and battery storage is seen as crucial to changing the source of the energy used in transportation.

The Swedish government, represented by a minister at the formal inauguration of the electrified road on Wednesday, is in talks with Berlin about a future network. In 2016, a 2-kilometre stretch of motorway in Sweden was adapted with similar technology but through overhead power lines at lorry level, making it unusable for electric cars.

The cost of electrification is said to be 50 times lower than that required to construct an urban tram line. - The Guardian