Militocrazy !! Houses burnt as aggrieved soldiers sack Benue residents

Aggrieved soldiers invaded Naka, administrative headquarters of Gwer west local government area of Benue state on Thursday, burning several houses and destroying properties worth millions.

Channels quoted some residents as saying the soldiers went to the community in search of one of their colleagues.

They reportedly said trouble started on Wednesday when a man when a man in military uniform came into the town and bought bread worth over N7,000.

The locals, having watched the uniformed man who was said to have looked like a herdsman, approached him, demanding his identity but he failed to show a means of identification to prove he was a soldier.

Subsequently, the youth were said to have taken the man to a military camp near Naka where soldiers in the camp could not also identify him as their colleagues.

“When the soldiers could not identify him, the boys took him away and the next thing we heard was that he was killed,” one of the residents who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was quoted to have said.

But the story changed on Thursday morning when soldiers came into the town which is currently housing thousands of internally displaced persons from the Agagbe axis of the state saying the uniformed man was their colleague and should be released to them.

Failure by the youth to produce the man was said to have sparked off the mayhem.

Olabisi Ayeni, deputy director, army public relations, identified the deceased soldier as Danlami Gambo, saying he was killed and buried in  shallow grave on Wednesday.

According to him, after preliminary investigations showed that some locals were involved in the killing, a team of troops dispatched to the scene of the incident arrested some suspects.

“On 18 April 2018, at about 3:30 pm, troops of 707 Sf Brigade deployed at Naka in Gwer West LGA of Benue state observed the absence of PTE Danlami Gambo from his duty post. The soldier’s rifle was however found at the location,” he said in a statement.

“It was gathered that the soldier was last seen receiving a phone call but left in search of network and did not return. Troops immediately conducted patrols to search for the soldier during the search, at about 6.10 pm, our troops observed blood stains along a footpath leading to a newly dug grave. They immediately dug out the grave and the dead body of the missing soldier was found butchered. The corpse was later exhumed and deposited at the Nigerian Air Force mortuary, Makurdi.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that some locals were involved in the killing of the soldier which has led to the arrest of some suspects by a team dispatched from the unit to the scene of the incident. Investigations are ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to the death of the soldier and to also arrest all the culprits involved.” - Cable Nigeria 

Abattoir republic !!! Fulani herdsmen kill four construction workers in Plateau

Gunmen on Wednesday killed four construction workers at Angwan-Rogo village in Jebu-Miango area of Bassa, Plateau State.

NAN reports that the workers were fetching sand for an ongoing construction work when the gunmen descended on them.

Confirming the attack, Mr Terna Tyopev, spokesman of the Police Command in Plateau, told said the attack took place around 11 a.m.

“Yes, we received information of an attack on Angwan Rogo village; we can confirm that four persons were killed by the gunmen.

“We can also confirm that the men were labourers excavating sand for their construction work when they were attacked,” he said.

Tyopev, who claimed that the attackers were herdsmen, identified the deceased as Adam Sunday, 38, Jatau Akus, 39, Chonu Awarhai, 39, and Marcus Mali, 22.

The Police officer said that investigation had commenced into the incident, and vowed to arrest those responsible. - Daily Post

Shithole Countries !!! World Bank: African countries’ subsidies help the rich more than the poor

Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, says subsidies provided by African countries help the rich more than the poor.

Speaking to journalists at the ongoing Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC, Kim said African countries could raise revenue for investing in health and education by removing these subsidies.

“They should be better at collecting taxes, you know, to just provide the basic services we think countries should collect at least 15 percent of GDP in taxes,” he said.

“If African countries were to remove fossil fuel subsidies that are often very regressive, in other words, they help the rich more than they help the poor. Even agriculture subsidies, there are many agricultural subsidies that are also very regressive. They don’t help the smallholder farmers, but they help others in the value chain.”

According to Kim, the bank is concerned that African countries might not be able to compete with their peers in the nearest future.

“We’re extremely concerned that many Africa countries are not prepared to compete in what is increasingly becoming a digitalized economy. We also see lots of evidence that suggests that many of the low skill jobs will be taken over by technology.

“There’s tremendous hope that technology could help some African countries, many African countries we hope leapfrog and go forward and find new ways of driving economic growth. But that there’s no getting away from the need to invest much more and much more effectively in health and education.”

The World Bank chief also warned that loan conditions and interest rates be looked at carefully.

The US department of state sounded a similar warning in February specifically in relation to China’s investments in Africa. - Cable Nigeria

Domestic violence : Lagos recorded 138 cases against men in 10 months

The Lagos State Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence Response Team (DVSRT) on Thursday said it received 138 cases of domestic violence against men from May 2017 to March 2018.

Mr Adeniji Kazeem, Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, made the disclosure at the 2018 Ministerial Press Briefing to mark three years in office of Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode.

The event took place at Alausa, Ikeja.

Kazeem noted that 30 cases against men were reported from May 2016 to April 2017.

He said that a total number of 1,771 cases of domestic and sexual violence were reported during the period under review.

He advised members of the public to dial the helpline – #6820# to report cases of violence for prompt and appropriate action.

On the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre, established in September 2017, Kazeem said that the centre had received 316 inquiries and had over 71 active cases bothering on homicide, rape, toxicology, child trafficking, serology and others.

He said that the Special Task Force Against Land Grabbers received 1,300 petitions out of which 855 were concluded and 530 pending.

”In the period under review, 35 suspected land grabbers were arrested and 26 criminal prosecution cases are ongoing,” he said.

The commissioner said that the Special Offences Court (Mobile Court) recorded an increase in the number of offenders arraigned in the period under review compared to the figure of the previous year.

He said that 8,380 offenders were arraigned in the period under review for parking on walkways and yellow lines, use of BRT lanes, hanging on tailboard of moving vehicles, driving against traffic and some other offences.

According to him, 4,426 offenders were arrested the previous year.

Kazeem said that the Office of the Public Offender received 4,282 petitions to provide legal aid to residents especially the less privileged and the vulnerable.

He said that 2,264 of the petitions had been concluded while others were still at various stages of review, investigation and conclusion.

According to him, through the efforts of the office, N5.7 million was received on behalf of petitioners.

”The office also took up cases of 262 inmates at Badagry, Kirikiri and Ikoyi Prisons while five children, who were discovered at Ikoyi Prison, were transferred to appropriate homes and eventually released from custody,” he said.

The commissioner said that the Rapid Tax Prosecution Unit of the state, in collaboration with the state Internal Revenue Service, ensured that tax payers complied with tax laws.

He said that the unit filed 327 cases at the high court, prosecuted tax defaulters and generated over N107 million for the state government.

He also said that the Citizens’ Mediation Centre, saddled with the responsibility of providing free legal services to residents, received 47,292 cases during the period under review, out of which 25,191 cases had been resolved.

According to him, the centre achieved settlement of debt-related matters between parties in the sum of N1.4 billion within the period under review.

He said that no fewer than 40 inmates who, had spent from 20 years to 34 years in custody, were released by Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode based on recommendation of the Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy. 

The commissioner said that 2,249 offenders were sentenced to community service for various offences, and that the sentences were served in various public institutions.

May's immigration policy seen as 'almost reminiscent of Nazi Germany'

The hostile immigration environment Theresa May set out to create when she was at the Home Office was regarded by some ministers as “almost reminiscent of Nazi Germany” in the way it is working, the former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake, has said.

Who are the Windrush generation?

They are people who arrived in the UK after the second world war from Caribbean countries at the invitation of the British government. The first group arrived on the ship MV Empire Windrush in June 1948.

What is happening to them?

An estimated 50,000 people face the risk of deportation if they never formalised their residency status and do not have the required documentation to prove it. 

Why is this happening now?

It stems from a policy, set out by Theresa May when she was home secretary, to make the UK 'a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants'. It requires employers, NHS staff, private landlords and other bodies to demand evidence of people’s citizenship or immigration status.

Why do they not have the correct paperwork and status?

Some children, often travelling on their parents’ passports, were never formally naturalised and many moved to the UK before the countries in which they were born became independent, so they assumed they were British. In some cases, they did not apply for passports. The Home Office did not keep a record of people entering the country and granted leave to remain, which was conferred on anyone living continuously in the country since before 1 January 1973.

What is the government doing to resolve the problem?

On Monday, the home secretary Amber Rudd announced the creation of a new Home Office team dedicated to ensuring that Commonwealth-born long-term UK residents would no longer find themselves classified as being in the UK illegally.

Kerslake, who was speaking on BBC Newsnight, was the senior official at the Department for Communities and Local Government until 2014, a job that put him at the heart of Whitehall. He was commenting on the decision to scrap thousands of landing cards that was taken in 2010, which he insisted would have been referred to ministers.

The latest development in a highly damaging row comes as the prime minister prepares to address the opening session of the Commonwealth on Thursday afternoon. In the gathering with the Queen there will be the heads of government of the Caribbean countries, some of whose former citizens’ lives have been blighted by the chaos over documentation that immigration officials now demand.

Kerslake came to Whitehall from a highly successful career in local government, and rose rapidly to the top. But he later fell out with the Cameron administration. For two years from 2012 he was joint head of the civil service, sharing the running of Whitehall with Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, before departing abruptly after two years. 

The job was then reunited under Heywood, in what was widely regarded as a political move.

Permanent secretaries like Kerslake meet every week to discuss and coordinate government business, and he would have been very familiar with problems in other departments.

Former Liberal Democrat ministers in the coalition and some special advisers have been speaking out about their fight to try to soften the policy.

Sarah Teather, who was minister for children and families, revealed in 2013 that an internal working group on immigration was initially named the “hostile environment working group, with its name only changed following Lib Dem objections.

Teather, who is now the director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, said: “Theresa May was determined to transform things. She was proud of wanting to generate a really hostile environment.

“The Home Office has a culture of enforcement and disbelief which runs deep into the walls, but it is politically led. It’s a culture from the top, and it has been a bit rich for the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to blame civil servants. When you’ve had a Conservative home secretary that long, you cannot moan when civil servants deliver those policies.”

And a Lib Dem special adviser at the time, Polly Mackenzie, tweeted on Tuesday night that the “hostile environment” mission started with an inter-ministerial group set up on “migrant access to benefits and public services”.

Mackenzie claims that May’s mission was to make it systematically difficult to get by without papers, even though the Home Office had no firm evidence of the scale of the alleged abuse.

Work checks, school registration, hospital and GP appointments, bank accounts and credit were all among the everyday activities where proof of status could be required.

“I saw endless papers claiming the system was ‘unsustainable in the current economic climate’ but no evidence to back it up,” she tweeted.

A former head of the UK border force said on Thursday that something had gone “badly wrong” at the Home Office with the loss of experience and knowledge of immigration as a result of departmental reorganisations.

“Corporate memory and expertise has been lost with the abolition of the immigration service and subsequently the abolition of the UK Border Agency now as well,” said Tony Smith, a veteran official in immigration enforcement who was the interim director general of the UK Border Force between 2012 and 2013.

“A lot of people were let go who had that experience and we have tried to codify all that experience on the basis of documents that people may or may not have, and we don’t have an identity management system.”

This loss, Smith told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, was at the heart of problems with the hostile environment strategy.

“In summary you need an identity management strategy if you are gong to have a hostile environment. You can’t have one without the other,” he said.

He said: “We did not back the hostile environment with an identify management strategy. We thought about identity cards, didn’t we? We did start issuing biometric residence permits to newcomers in 2008 but we didn’t offer those to people who were already here, like a green card system in the US.”

Smith mourned changes to the traditional culture among officials working in immigration, who followed a career path which saw them accumulate expertise at home and abroad in various roles.

“I was called out regularly to police stations to talk to people who had been arrested for something or other and the police couldn’t tell whether they were allowed to be here or not. We were allowed to take pragmatic decisions based on what they told us – whether or not an enforcement decision could be taken.”

Smith described the controversy over the destruction of landing cards recording the dates of arrival in Britain of members of the so-called Windrush generation as a red herring, saying that there would have been other ways to carry out necessary checks.

He added: “All this blame culture about whether or not these landing cards would have made a difference is a complete red herring to me. It’s about being able to talk to people sensibly with a degree of knowledge or expertise and come to a sensible conclusion.” - The Guardian

Madness in action !!! Okorocha imposes N3,000 levy on all adults in Imo

The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has ordered all “leviable adults” in the state to pay N3,000 each as “development levy”.

This was contained in a statement by the State Commissioner for Community Government, Culture and Traditional Affairs, Louis Duru, on Thursday.

According to Duru, the money is to be used for “autonomous community adult development”.

At least 2,000 leviable adults in each of the 637 autonomous communities.

Okorocha warned that the traditional rulers of defaulting communities will have their allowances or salaries suspended.

“To facilitate the payment, the state government through the ministry of CGC, since September 2016, has provided community adult registers for all autonomous communities in the state where the communities will enlist the names of at least 2000 leviable adults”, the statement read.

“Consequently, His Excellency Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha has directed that all recognised autonomous communities in Imo State should pay the minimum adult development levy of N6,000,000 (Six million Naira only) without further delay.

“Any recognised autonomous community that fails to pay the development levy will be merged with sister autonomous community that had paid and the salaries/allowances of the traditional ruler ill be suspended.

“Government has concluded arrangements to embark on sensitisation meetings with traditional rulers at the local government areas to further emphasize His Excellency’s directives and monitor compliance,” he said.- Daily Post

7 people shot in N.C. city

Two people were killed and five others wounded in a shooting here, the city's police say.

Officers were called to the scene at 10:31 p.m. Wednesday, reports CBS Spartanburg, South Carolina affiliate WSPA-TV.

The Asheville Police Department says one person died on the scene and another at Mission Hospital.

Two of the others have life-threatening wounds, police add.

Asheville police say there's no threat to the public, but information about how the shooting unfolded -- including on any arrests -- hasn't been released.

Buncombe County Emergency Management officials say EMS and the fire department have cleared the scene. - CBS News

Italian priest gambles with over $620,000 belonging to parish

An Italian priest has gambled away more than 620,000 dollars of his parish money, reports said on Thursday.

Flavio Gobbo, 48, negotiated a plea bargain for a suspended two-year jail term for embezzlement, according Corriere della Sera, a newspaper in Italy.

As part of the deal, he has promised to gradually return the money and signed up for therapy against gambling addiction, with the support of his church superiors.

“In this long and streneous journey, Father Flavio has mainly found support in prayers, but also in the will to return soon,” to active ministry, the Diocese of Treviso said in a statement.

Gobbo left his post as parish priest in Spinea, near Venice, in October 2016.

At the time, the local church said he was suffering from exhaustion. - Cable Nigeria

Again, Policeman killed in bank robbery in Ekiti

Robbers yesterday attacked a first generation bank at Ifaki-Ekiti in Ido/Osi Local Government of Ekiti State.

One policeman was killed. Another was injured. He has been hospitalised.

The incident occurred barely two weeks after a similar attack on five banks in Offa, Kwara State. Over 30 people died in the robbery.

An eyewitness told The Nation that the incident happened about 4pm.

The robbers, whose number could not be ascertained last night, destroyed the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) gallery.

Activities were paralysed for about 30 minutes, as residents fled.

Human and vehicular traffic on Ifaki-Ado Road, Ifaki-Ido Road and Ifaki-Oye-Omuo Road were affected.

Police Commissioner Abdullahi Chafe, who confirmed the incident, refused to give details.

He said: “I cannot give you details now because we are in a meeting. We will give details in due course.” - The Nation

Falana : No legislative chamber has power to suspend or remove a member

Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, says it is unconstitutional for any legislative chamber to suspend or sack a member.

He said this on a Channels Television news programme on Wednesday in reaction to the suspension of Ovie Omo-Agege from the senate.

Falana said only a competent court of law can suspend or remove a member of the legislature whether at local, state or federal government level.

“No legislative house can suspend or remove a member. It is only a court of law or the constituency that elected them can order the removal or suspension of their representative,” said the senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

“This is because when you remove or suspend a legislator,  his constituency no longer has a representative in that house and that is not legal.”

Falana recalled a case involving a female lawmaker in the Bauchi house of assembly who was suspended indefinitely over a statement she made during plenary.

“I handled the case of Dino Melaye and others when they were been suspended from NASS in 2011. I handled the case of Dana vs Bauchi house of assembly from the high court to court of appeal. As of today, his case is the locus classicus on the tenure of members,” he said. - Cable Nigeria 

Killings out of control !!! Fulani Herdsmen sack Benue community, Guma, butcher elderly woman

Suspected herdsmen, Thursday morning invaded Agasha community in Guma LGA of Benue State, killing an elderly woman and setting many houses ablaze.

DAILY POST gathered that the gunmen, heavily armed with dangerous weapons, stormed the village at the wee hours of Thursday, shooting sporadically into air, thereby causing panic among villagers.

A source hinted this reporter that the shootings were still on at the time of this report, while over 15 houses have been razed by the gunmen. - Daily Post

Alimajiri presidency !!! Buhari’s NPC nominee remanded in prison over N182m fraud

Saadu Alanamu, a nominee as commissioner of the National Population Commission (NPC), has been remanded in prison over an alleged N182m fraud.

Alanamu was among the 23 nominees forwarded to the senate for confirmation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In August 2017, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who was acting president at the time, named Alanamu as one of the nominees to the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC)

But he was later dropped after reports revealed that he was being investigated for corruption.

Alanamu, a former chairman of the governing council of Kwara State Polytechnic, was arraigned alongside Salman Sulaiman, chief executive of Namylas Nigeria Limited, for allegedly receiving a bribe of N5m from a contractor.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges and they were granted bail in the sum of N2m.

However, a Kwara high court sitting in Ilorin, the state capital, on Monday revoked Alanamu’s bail and remanded him prison following allegations by the Mahmud AbdulGafar, the presiding judge, that some persons had offered him a bribe to dismiss the case.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rasheedat Okoduwa, ICPC spokesperson, said in the course of the trial, the defence counsel alleged that the accused was “forced, harassed, intimidated and coerced” into making his statement to the commission’s investigators and, therefore, it should not be admitted in evidence.

AbdulGafar consequently ordered a trial-within-trial, which commenced the same day, noting that it was for the court to determine whether the statement was made voluntarily or not.

While delivering his ruling on the trial-within-trial, the judge overruled the objection of the defence and admitted the first defendant’s confessional statement in evidence, consequently revoking the bail of Alanamu for abuse of bail conditions. - Cable Nigeria

Enugu SARS boss shoots self dead

A retired Chief Superintendent of Police, David Agholor has reportedly shot himself dead.

The incident happened at his residence on Sharaton Estate, Olaogun, in the Ijoko area of Ogun State.

Agholor, who was the Officer-in-Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Enugu State Police Command, reportedly shot himself in the head.

One of the family members told Punch that the deceased was behaving strangely a day to the incident.

The source said Agholor insisted that nothing was wrong with him when he was questioned until they heard a gunshot from behind the house.

“He started behaving unusually on Wednesday evening. When they asked him what was wrong with him, he said he was okay. When he woke up on Thursday, he went to his wife’s bedroom to greet her.

“Afterwards, he had a bath and dressed up. He looked corporate. They asked him where he was going to, but he did not talk. He called his first daughter and handed over the keys to his houses to her. He has two houses on a plot of land. He and his family members lived in one of the houses.

“The other is an uncompleted building, but it has been roofed. He went to the back of the uncompleted building and the next thing the family heard was a gunshot. He shot himself in the head.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, ASP Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the suicide.

He said investigations had commenced to determine the circumstances that led to the incident.

He said, “His daughter reported at the station that he shot himself in the head. The scene of the incident was visited and photographed by policemen.

“It is a case of suicide and the command is investigating to know what made him to take that decision. He was a former OC SARS in Enugu.” - Daily Post

For Europe’s criminals and terrorists, buying a gun is getting easier

There was a time in Europe when it was easier for terrorists to buy chemicals and build bombs than to obtain military-style firearms. Then came the November 2015 Paris attacks that served as a devastating wake-up call for how much the threat posed by terrorists, and their weapons, had changed.

Now, an international group of researchers is warning that the firearms trade that enabled militants to obtain those assault rifles is, in fact, still expanding. Militants determined to strike European targets are among the groups and individuals benefiting the most from what the researchers are describing as an “arms race.”

The study, funded by the European Commission and due to be released Wednesday as part of the Studying the Acquisition of illicit Firearms by Terrorists in Europe (SAFTE) project, warns “the increased availability of firearms has contributed to arms races between criminal groups” across the European Union.

The growing competition, the team of European researchers concludes, is posing a new challenge to European authorities who see themselves confronted with a “gradual trickling-down of the possession and use of firearms to lower segments of the criminal hierarchy in several EU member states, especially in Western Europe.” What used to be a relatively closed market has become more accessible in recent years, even though vast regional differences remain.

While illicit handguns cost between $2,300 and $3,000 in Denmark, Croatian dealers are offering similar products for 1/20th of the price. But purchasing an illicit firearm in Croatia would still be nearly impossible for a Danish criminal with no local connections. “Having the right criminal connections and reputation are crucial factors,” the group of researchers writes.

Legal firearms sales are much more tightly regulated in Europe than in the United States, so weapons are often smuggled from the western Balkans into the borderless Schengen area that includes countries such as France, Germany and Italy. Europe’s borderless area that ranges from countries such as Slovenia in the east to Portugal in the far west of the continent may be an advantage for travelers and traders, but its expansion has also eased the work of smugglers who can now access most of the continent without having to fear border checks. The conversion of blank-firing guns and reactivation of discarded weapons is also a source of illegal firearms.

The customers of weapons dealers are increasingly individuals or groups seeking to use them during attacks. While there used to be little overlap between criminal gangs and militants only 10 years ago, multiple studies have found a growing connection between both spheres. With more firearms in circulation among criminals, those with political violence on their minds have also found it easier to acquire more lethal weapons.

“Different types of criminals tend to procure, possess and use different types of firearms, and contemporary terrorist networks usually rely on established criminal connections to acquire firearms from these markets,” the researchers write.

“Prisons have also been identified as places that offer new opportunities for terrorists who do not yet have the necessary criminal connections to acquire firearms,” according to the cross-European team that included researchers from the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy.

The findings match previous studies that also observed a common pattern in Europe’s crime-terror nexus. A 2016 report by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King's College London found criminals were actively encouraged to join organizations such as the Islamic State — a break from militant groups such as al-Qaeda that sought tighter control over their ranks.

While the more recent European Commission-funded firearms study found no cases of dealers exclusively or deliberately selling weapons to terrorists — possibly because the risk of detection is higher if national security is at stake — the blurring of lines between both spheres appears to have made it harder for intelligence services to prevent weapons sales to militant groups. - The Washington Post