Did Nigerian military splits help Boko Haram?

 

 But will the new leaders make any difference?

Nigeria under attack

As dozens of bodies were being buried in north-east Nigeria following yet more attacks on Sunday by suspected Islamist militants, President Goodluck Jonathan was about to make a surprising statement acknowledging serious lapses within his own armed forces.

He suggested the military operation against the group popularly known as Boko Haram had at times been undermined by divisions within the security forces.
Two weeks after dismissing the heads of the Army, Air Force and Navy, President Jonathan has now called on the newly appointed military chiefs to cooperate.

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The new military chiefs should be given full power to take control of the situation. If politics gets involved in it there is no way it can be controlled”

Stephen Mamza Dami Bishop of Yola

"Sometimes we used to hear some kind of mutual competition among the army chiefs and security personnel," he said at the opening of Air Force Secondary School in Yola, Adamawa State - one of three states under a state of emergency due to the Islamist rebellion.

"But this time around we will not tolerate any unnecessary competition that will bring retrogression to this country."

A special advisor to President Jonathan later denied that "unhealthy competition" was the reason the military chiefs had been fired.

"The president has nothing but praise for the manner in which the outgoing service chiefs did their job in very challenging circumstances," read a statement from Reuben Abati.
Nevertheless Mr Jonathan has for the first time admitted that during the fight against Boko Haram serious mistakes have been made that have left him far from impressed.
 
Moment of shame
In early December, Islamist militants attacked the Air Force base in the city of Maiduguri destroying two attack helicopters - a strike right at the heart of the nation's military might.

During his speech in Yola, Mr Jonathan recalled the awkward moment when, following this attack, a journalist had asked him: "Mr president is it not shameful?"

The Nigerian leader said he later turned to his then Chief of Defence Staff and asked: "If you were me, how would you have felt?"
"I believe we will no longer experience that kind of situation. That happened because of some obvious lapses," he told the audience in Yola.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau (C) has appeared in several video recordings in recent months despite claims he had been killed by the military

He said that with a new Chief of Defence Staff working with "properly briefed" colleagues, "the Nigerian Armed Forces will be a different Armed Forces".
The question remains: How many lives could have been saved had it not been for the unhealthy competition and mistakes which the president referred to?

Boko Haram at a glance

• Thousands killed in attacks, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria
• State of emergency declared in three states in 2013 but violence continues
• Declared terrorist group by US in 2013
• Founded in 2002
• Initially focused on opposing Western education
• Nicknamed Boko Haram, a phrase in the local Hausa language meaning "Western education is forbidden"
• Official Arabic name, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad"
• Launched military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state
• Founding leader Mohammed Yusuf killed in same year in police custody
• Succeeded by Abubakar Shekau, who the military wrongly claimed had been killed

There have been signs that the forces fighting Boko Haram needed reorganising.

Initially the military offensive was carried out by the Joint Task Force or JTF - a combined unit made up of all the armed forces and the police.
In August, the JTF was disbanded and the entire operation was handed to a newly created army division.

As if to defend its military effort, the outgoing JTF spokesman told the world that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, had just been killed. He has since appeared very much alive in video recordings gloating over Boko Haram attacks.
Then came the surprise on 16 January when all the military chiefs were fired by the president.
Some analysts believe the shake-up was not carried out purely for security reasons but was in part a political move aimed at securing support ahead of the 2015 elections.
Although President Jonathan has not publicly stated his intention to run, his assumed ambition to seek re-election has created a split in the governing party prompting defections to the opposition.
 
Throats slit
 It is not hard to see that the current strategy against Boko Haram is failing some communities in north-east Nigeria.
Sunday's attack on a market and homes in Borno State's Kawuri Village left more than 50 people dead.

None of the survivors mentioned any resistance or counter attack by the military to save the vulnerable population. They spoke of dead bodies littering the streets and hundreds of homes being torched.

The military has refused to comment on the attack, instead referring journalists to the police but there are many unanswered questions.
How, for example, is it that the insurgents were able to drive into Kawuri in a large convoy of vehicles, carry out an attack for several hours and leave?
On the same day there were scenes of horror at a church in Waga Chakawa village in neighbouring Adamawa State.

Suspected Boko Haram militants locked the doors, shot anyone that tried to escape through the windows and then slit the throats of the congregation. More than 30 people were killed, including children.

Questions remain over how insurgents have been allowed to carry out sustained attacks in north-eastern Nigeria

"We need a greater security presence around that area," said Stephen Mamza Dami, the Bishop of Yola, after the attack.

"The new military chiefs should be given full power to take control of the situation. If politics gets involved in it there is no way it can be controlled," he told the BBC.
Boko Haram has in the past stated it was fighting to create an Islamic State but some Nigerians believe there are politicians who stand to gain from the insurgency. The Bishop of Yola pointed to a forced exodus of Christians following repeated attacks on residents of Gwoza close to the Cameroonian border.

"If the Christians there are wiped out completely, then there is no way a Christian can ever be elected even as a councillor in that area," he added, suggesting the attacks could be a way of getting rid of political rivals.

Security analysts believe that, to contain the insurgency, there needs to be far greater cooperation between Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad as the militants are taking advantage of their porous borders. Setting deadlines for an end to the conflict is widely viewed as harmful.
When Air Marshal Alex Badeh was given the top job of Chief of Defence staff this month, he stated that the insurgency must end by April.

"Such statements are like a red rag to a bull," said international relations analyst Aderemi Oyewumi.

"They lead to more damage being inflicted. No timelines should be given. They should get on with the job, keep their heads down," he said, adding that the importance of the armed forces working together cannot be overemphasized.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that the church attack was in Air Marshall Badeh's home state of Adamawa. Some analysts suggest it was a response to the chest-thumping statement of yet another deadline.

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Former NAICOM Boss Bags 15yrs Imprisonment Over N10.4m Fraud

A former Commissioner of the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, Chief Okechikwu Chukwulozie,  on Thursday, bagged 15 years imprisonment from an Abuja High Court over N10.4m fraud.

Chukwulozie arraigned by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC), on a five-count charge for using private interest to furnish his official residence and demanding for a percentage in a contract he awarded has been moved to Kuje Prison in Abuja.

A statement by the commission’s Head of Media and Events, Mr. Folu Olamiti, said the convict was in 2007, with his wife, Angela, and a former Deputy Commissioner in charge of Finance and Administration, Adedolapo Ogungbe, were charged to court over  N10.4 million fraud.
In his judgment, Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi said the court convicted and sentenced Chukwulozie to three years on each of the five counts, without an option of fine, which will run concurrently.
Oniyangi held that the ICPC had proved all the ingredients of Section 19 of the ICPC Act against him.

He said, “The ICPC has proved beyond reasonable doubt that a commissioner of NICON, Chukwulozie, demanded fifty per cent of fees paid to liquidators of Gateway Insurance Plc. Beyond reasonable doubt is the standard of evidence required to validate a criminal conviction. Generally the prosecution bears the burden of proof and is required to prove their case.

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Nigeria: Igbos Demand N1 Billion From Fashola Over Deportation

Lagos — Seventy six people of Igbo extraction who were recently deported from Lagos by the state government have approached a Federal High Court for redress, asking for N1 billion as damages from the government over the action.

The court has fixed February 19 for further mention of the suit. The plaintiffs are; Joseph Aniebonam, Osondu Mbuto, Osondu Agwu, Nnenna Ogbonna, Emily Okoroariri, Friday Ndukwe and Onyeka Ugwu who sued on behalf of 76 others. Joined as respondents are the Attorney-General of the state and the commissioner of police.

When the case was mentioned yesterday, the counsel representing the plaintiffs, Chief Ugo Ugwunnadi, informed the court that the case was coming up for the first time. According to him, he had only been served with the processes from the first respondent (A-G Lagos) and was yet to receive any process from the second respondent. He applied for a date for hearing.

Counsel representing the Attorney General, Mr Tayo Odupitan, in response, said he had filed a counter-affidavit, a written address and an exhibit, all in response to the plaintiffs' suit. He said the AG, Mr Ade Ipaye, had indicated his intention to defend the suit personally. Counsel to the Commissioner of Police, Mr Sam Adebeshin, said he was yet to regularize the processes on behalf of the second respondent. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia adjourned the case to February 19 for further mention. The applicants in their motion want the court to declare that they, as Nigerian citizens, were entitled to their fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution.

They prayed for a declaration that their arrest and detention in various camps in Lagos and subsequent deportation to Anambra on July 24, 2013 without any offence amounted to a serious breach of their fundamental rights. They are also seeking an order mandating the respondents to tender a written apology to them by publishing same in three national newspapers continuously for 30 days, for unlawful and gross violation of their constitutional rights. But the government in its counter-affidavit, contended that the deportation was not borne out of malice, but out of genuine intention to re-unite the applicants with their families. The government averred that the applicants were assisted by the government to join their families after pleading that they had no homes, relatives or businesses in Lagos State.

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Wande Coal opens up on 5-year-old love child

Hip-hop star, Oluwatobi Wande Ojosipe, better known as Wande Coal, has opened up on what has been his best kept secret saying he has a five year old son whom he affectionately called Coal Jnr.
Speaking with P.M.NEWS recently, the Black Diamond star said rather than being subjected to crude speculations by some mischievous groups, he would want to reveal the private side of him that many didn’t know.

“Nobody is going to surprise me anymore. Let me then announce to the whole world that I already have a five-year old son. I had the boy since 2008 before I released my debut album,‘Mushin 2 Mo’Hits’. I have been keeping it secret ever since then but think it’s high time people should know,” Wande Coal told P.M.NEWS.

In October last year, a blog, famzin.com, owned by Ike Orizu, first broke the well-kept secret that Wande has fathered a 5-year old boy from a lady said to be pop star, D’Banj’s relative.

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C. Ronaldo Support Update

Very good news about my young friend Guillermo. With your help he found a bone marrow donor!! Thank you everyone who made it possible and let's keep helping the other kids.

 

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Sports minister redeems $200,000 pledge to Super Eagles

Abdullahi promised the team $100,000 for wins in each of the games against Morocco and Ghana.<>
Despite losing the semifinal match to Ghana,the minister still agreed to pay them the promised money.

In  a statement issued by Julius Ogunro, the Special Adviser to the
minister on Media and Strategy,Abdullahi has now redeemed the $200,000
he promised the Eagles for both games.

The statement further added that the minister also commended the
technical crew for raising a team that had made Nigerians proud at the
CHAN tournament.

``The team’s sterling performance against Ghana in the semi-final
encounter earned it the 100,000 dollars I pledged to it to win, in spite
 of losing the game,’’ the minister was quoted as saying.

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Keshi hails keeper Adams

Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Keshi has showered praises on Ghana goalkeeper Stephen Adams after his heroic performance denied Nigeria a place in the CHAN finals.

Adams made an astonishing save in the last minute of extra time to deny the eagles what would've been the match winner and he also saved in the shoot outs.

Keshi was left startled and he told the media after the match that with Adams in post, "you are rest assured."

"I think the goalkeeper did a wonderful job and he is there to do that. He is there to save goals, he is paid to save goals. His career is to save goals so he did a wonderful job," said Keshi.

"I would love it to be at the back of the net but when you see outstanding goalkeeper like that, I think he has been doing a wonderful job throughout this tournament,"

"When you have a goalkeeper like that, you are rest assured that it can go in but it will take time before it goes in and that's what he has proved in this game. I wish him well", the reigning CAF coach of the year added.

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Police Unmask Suspected Killers of NNPC Staff

Sixteen months after he was declared missing and is believed to have been killed, detectives from the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have unmasked the suspected killers of Mr. Sylvester Emefiele, a member of staff of the Transformation Office of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Emefiele was reported to have left Lagos on September 23, 2012, following a call from his office asking him to report to Abuja on September 24, in order to process his visa to Hungary for a training programme. That became the last his family saw or knew of him. 

The family having reported his disappearance to the police and after a fruitless frantic search, the police declared him missing. The police authorities soon commenced a discreet and comprehensive investigation into the case.

Subsequently, detectives from the FSARS led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, swung into action, and after painstakingly following some leads, the detectives tracked down one Olaniyi Banjo, a 20-year-old resident of Ilesa, Osun State, who bought the Blackberry phone of the deceased from one of the principal suspects, Akindele Taiwo.

Nine months after, the masterminds of the crime were nabbed on June 8, 2013. They include Timothy Abidemi Lekan alias Leksit (30), who hails from Osun State and 41-year old Akinlade Taiwo, a native of Modakeke in Ife East Local Government Area of Osun State.

The duo, in a release signed by the Force spokesperson, Frank Mba, were said to have made useful statements to the police in connection with the disappearance, robbery and killing of Emefiele.

To further confirm their complicity, the suspects equally led detectives to the scene of the crime – a bush close to the Iddo campus of the University of Abuja – where the abandoned and totally decomposed remains of the deceased were recovered.

A detailed forensic examination including DNA analysis has confirmed that the recovered remains were actually those of Emefiele, said the police. Other personal effects of the deceased, including cash, ATM cards, a laptop, Blackberry phones, cheque books, personal apparels, etc were also recovered.

Also arrested in connection with the case was a voodoo priest, Saidi Babatunde from Osun State, who was implicated by the suspects for preparing a talisman for them.

The police added that investigation showed that the late Emefiele, while en route from Lagos to Abuja, dropped at Giri in Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT at about 8 pm on September 23, where he unsuspectingly boarded a Nissan Sunny saloon car with registration number AG-956-KEF driven by Akinlade Taiwo, who picked his accomplice, Timothy Abidemi Lekan, on the way during which they jointly subdued their victim and led him to the bush where he was robbed.

According to the police, the suspects confirmed that they had earlier forced the deceased to disclose the Personal Identification Number (PIN) of all his ATM cards which enabled them to make an initial withdrawal of N186,000 from his Zenith Bank, First Bank and GTBank accounts at Gwagwalada.

On seeing that their victim still had an outstanding balance of over N800,000 in his accounts, the robbers decided to kill Emefiele altogether by binding his wrists with twine and hitting his chest with their talisman and other dangerous weapons until they were sure that their victim’s life had fizzled out, said the police.
 

Thereafter, they continued making illicit withdrawals from the victim’s accounts until they were apprehended by the police.

Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mohammed Abubakar, has commended the officers who investigated the case for their diligence, dedication and professionalism, assuring Nigerians that justice will take its course as the suspects had already been arraigned before a competent court of law.

The police boss has further called on the general public to be wary of the kind of vehicles they board to avoid falling victim to hoodlums.

The IG promised increased visibility by the police on the highways through intensive vehicular patrols especially at nights for the safety and security of road users.

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Africa warns Hague court over ties with NGOs

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 31 – The African Union (AU) has given the International Criminal Court (ICC) until April 30 to come up with a plan on how to get The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) in order, or risk a mass pull out by all its 34 member states.
In a letter to the ICC President Sang Hyung Song, the AU identified four areas they want addressed and which relate to the investigative standards of the OTP and its independence.
“The attached report shows astonishing breaches of basic principles of criminal courts in general and…while the report identifies many flaws in the processes and procedures of the ICC, we believe the four present the greatest danger of undermining the rights of the accused,” the letter reads.
The first of the four areas the AU identified as a problem was what it said to be the low evidentiary standard of the OTP, which it blamed on a reliance of third parties to carry out its investigations.
“The court fails to protect the rights of the accused by outsourcing critical functions of the OTP to unregulated and often privately funded and managed intermediaries such as Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and individuals,” their letter continues to say.

The AU said the investigators could have vested interests in the crimes the OTP gave them the green light to look into and on whose findings they relied.
“An individual accused of a crime by the OTP may have no awareness of who is conducting the investigations into his or her activities or advocating for his or her prosecution,” the AU argued.
The funding the court receives from NGOs was the basis of their second complaint and the AU contended that it reflected poorly on the impartiality of the court.

“Initiatives by the court to impose guidelines on the NGOs active in the court’s operations have been discouraged by the court’s own Budget Committee for fear of consequent withdrawal of financial support by these NGOs,” the AU submitted.
The AU’s third charge was that by accepting funding from parties who may not be entirely motivated by justice, the court sacrificed the rights of the accused and thereby contravened the very tenets of natural justice they are expected to uphold.

“The court with the outsourcing by its OTP to unaccountable intermediaries ‘NGOs’ , with additionally demonstrated sway over the court, is not capable of providing such protection of the rights of the accused at a level commensurate to that existing in the Juridicial process in the countries of the international community,” the AU charged.
Finally, the AU took issue with the OTP’s power to initiate a case without the referral of a member state or United Nations (UN) Security Council.

A power the AU accused the OTP, of abusing, “The OTP discretion is unchecked and lacks the necessary international political support which arises through debate and decision making in the UN Security Council.”

The AU’s demands coincide with an admission by ICC Prosecution lawyer Anton Steynberg, in the case against Deputy President William Ruto that it did not verify the statement given by its tenth witness before relying on it for their case.
This followed an admission by their ninth witness that he received Sh500,000 from an American based NGO for testifying against Ruto.

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Dennis Rodman speaks out from rehab

Dennis Rodman speaks out from rehab, saying he was not in North Korea to be an ambassador, but to try to bring two countries together through sport. Read more here

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Amanda Knox: 'I will never willingly go back'

 

An emotional Amanda Knox said Friday that that she would "never willingly go back" to Italy, where an appeals court has declared her guilty of the 2007 murder of her roommate.
Knox, who lives in Seattle, told Good Morning America's Robin Roberts that the ruling Thursday "really hit me like a train."
"I did not expect this to happen," she told ABC. "I really expected so much more from the Italian justice system. They found me innocent once before."
Knox, now 26, spent four years in an Italian prison after being convicted of the murder of her English roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, where they were both studying in 2007.

"I will never go willingly back to the place where … I'm going to fight this to the very end. It's not right and it's not fair," Knox said.
Italy's highest court will now review the case that has made headlines around the world for over half a decade and produce a final verdict.
If the conviction is upheld, Italian authorities may seek Knox's extradition, legal experts say, although it is not clear whether the State Department will cooperate with that process.
Knox also said she had sent a letter to her lawyer that is addressed to the Kercher's family.

"Mainly I just want them to know that I really understand that this is incredibly difficult, that they've also been on this never ending thing and when the case has been messed up so much, like a verdict is no longer consolation for them," she said.

Kercher's siblings spoke to the media on Friday, conceding that they may never know what happened to their sister after an Italian appeals court ruled that Knox and Raffaele Sollecito -- her former boyfriend -- were guilty of her 2007 murder.
Asked Friday whether Knox should be extradited to Italy following the guilty verdict, Lyle Kercher said: "Yes."

"If someone has been found guilty and convicted of a murder, and if an extradition law exists between those two countries," that would be appropriate, he said.
As Kercher's family addressed the news conference in Florence, an Italian media report by Rai News, later backed up by police who spoke to the Associated Press, alleged that Sollecito was "stopped near the border" with Slovenia and Austria.

It was not clear whether he was seeking to flee the country, but following the guilty verdict by the Italian court Thursday — for which the 29-year-old was handed a 25-year jail sentence — Sollecito was ordered to relinquish his passport and identity card. Knox's reinstated sentence was increased to 28.5 years, but she is currently in Seattle, where she lives.
"The guilty verdict is just the next step or us," said Stephanie Kercher, Meredith's sister, addressing the news conference. "We're still on a journey to the truth." Later she added: "We might never know" the true circumstances of Meredith's murder.

"We hope that we are nearer the end so that we can just start to remember Meredith for who she was," she added.
Meredith's brother, Lyle, said that nothing would ever take away from the horror of what happened.
Knox, who released a statement Thursday from her hometown, said she was "frightened and saddened by the unjust verdict" and blamed "overzealous and intransigent prosecution," ''narrow-minded investigation" and coercive interrogation techniques.

"This has gotten out of hand," Knox said in the statement. "Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system."
The AP reported that police found Sollecito at about 1 a.m. Friday at a hotel in Venzone, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border, where he and his current girlfriend were staying. They took him to the Udine police station, took his passport and put a stamp in his Italian identity papers showing that he cannot leave the country.

 

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Ukraine's president signs amnesty bill

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Police on Friday opened an investigation into the kidnapping of an opposition activist, who said he was held captive for more than a week and tortured in the latest in a string of mysterious attacks on anti-government protesters in the two-month-long political crisis.  Dmytro Bulatov, 35, a member of Automaidan, a group of car owners that has taken part in the protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, went missing Jan. 22.  Bulatov was discovered outside Kiev on Thursday. He said his kidnappers beat him severely, drove nails into his hands, sliced off a piece of ear and cut his face. He said he was kept in the dark all the time and could not identify the kidnappers. After more than a week of beatings, they eventually dumped him in a forest.  "They crucified me, they nailed down my hands. They cut off my ear, they cut my face. There isn't a spot on my body that hasn't been beaten," Bulatov said on Channel 5 television. "Thank God, I am alive."  Bulatov's face and clothes were covered in clotted blood, his hands were swollen and bore the marks of nails.

Opposition leader Petro Poroshenko rushed to the hospital where Bulatov was taken Thursday night.
"Dmytro asked to pass his greetings to everyone and to say that he has not been broken and will not be broken," a grim-looking Poroshenko told Channel 5. "That he is full of energy and despite the fact that his body has been beaten, Dmytro's spirit is strong."
Police said the car he was driving when he disappeared had been found.
Bulatov had been missing for eight days, and the protesters organized a campaign for his release.

They pleaded with top government officials for assistance, offered a $25,000 bounty to anyone who could help locate him and even consulted psychics, said Oleksiy Hrytsenko, Bulatov's friend and fellow activist.

Hrytsenko said Automaidan members had come under tremendous pressure during the protests, with their cars burnt and activists detained, harassed and threatened. He showed an Associated Press reporter a text message he had received from an unknown number that read: "Go ahead, go ahead, your mother will be happy to see her son dead."

The AP was not immediately able to interview Bulatov.
He is among three activists whose disappearances have shocked the country, especially after one of them was found dead.

Bulatov went missing one day after Igor Lutsenko, another prominent opposition activist who had also gone missing, was discovered after being taken to the woods and beaten severely by unknown attackers.

Lutsenko was kidnapped from a hospital, where he had brought a fellow protester, Yuri Verbitsky, to be treated for an eye injury. Verbitsky was also beaten severely and was later discovered dead.
The disappearances prompted an outcry from protesters, who accused the government of intimidating the opposition.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a statement saying she was "appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture and cruel treatment" of Bulatov. She also condemned the death of Verbitsky.

"These are but two cases of the continuous deliberate targeting of organizers and participants of peaceful protests," Ashton said. "All such acts are unacceptable and must immediately be stopped. It is the authorities' responsibility to take all necessary measures to address the current atmosphere of intimidation and impunity which allows for such acts to take place. All unlawfully detained people have to be released and perpetrators brought to justice."

The protests started after Yanukovych backed out of an agreement to deepen ties with the European Union in November, but quickly came to encompass an array of discontent over corruption, heavy-handed police and dubious courts.

Negotiations between the authorities and the opposition on finding a way out of the crisis appeared to have stalled on Thursday, after Yanukovych took an unexpected sick leave and told opposition leaders that it was now up to them to make concessions.
This week Yanukovych accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and the parliament, which he controls, and rescinded harsh anti-protest legislation that sparked last week's violence.

Yanukovych's allies in parliament also passed a bill offering to grant amnesty to protesters, but only after they vacate scores of government buildings they have seized across the country. Yanukovych signed the bill into law on Friday, but the opposition has rejected the offe, saying it amounts to Yanukovych taking demonstrators as hostages. It has insisted that protesters must be freed without any conditions.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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