CNN's Becky Anderson talks to Gov. Godswill Akpabio about stories of children accused of witchcraft in his Nigerian state.
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The Nigeria Police, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the State Security Service (SSS) are also involved in the two-week training taking place at the EFCC Training and Research Institute, Karu near Abuja. While declaring the training programme opened, EFCC chairman Farida Waziri said it is part of the continuing partnership between Nigeria and the United States in the fight against the twin evils of money laundering and terrorist financing.
"Since the tragic events of 9/11, it has become clear that no country is immune to the evil consequences of money laundering," Farida said adding that "the terror networks that use the dirty money to promote misery and death around the world must be recognized and treated as enemies of humanity.
"To weed out the culture of corruption on which money laundering and terrorism subsist, money launderers and the promoters of terror must be denied any iota of legitimacy; they must not be allowed to exploit the poverty and ignorance of our people," she said.
She assured the U.S. that Nigeria remains open and amenable to all the platforms of partnership needed to win the war against economic and financial crimes.
FBI representative, Victor Mc Collum, said the cooperation between the Nigerian law enforcement agencies and the FBI has been quite outstanding. "Everything we have tried to accomplish here so far, we have been able to do. We have had great cooperation from the institutions we have worked with and we have been able to provide the institutions with some assistance and a lot of collaboration," Mc Collum said.
The 40 participants will be trained on interrogation; hostage crisis negotiation, basic forensics and major case management.
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Inspector Shettima Mustapha and newly-decorated Corporal Ahmed Mohammed, both of the Bulunkutu-Gomari Divisional Police Station in Jere Local Government Area in the outskirts of Maiduguri city, were attacked near the Gomari central mosque by four men dressed in black overalls.
The gunmen drove towards the policemen, who were also riding a bike, thereby felling them, before firing at them at close range, according to accounts of security sources. The sources said 16 shells of used ammunition were found at the scene of the killing.
Borno State Police Commissioner Ibrahim Abdu, who confirmed the shootings, told newsmen yesterday the cops were on their way to their beat at the Gomari bus stop for the routine stop-and-search operation and also the enforcement of the ban on the movement of motorcycles, which was recently extended to 10pm.
"They were on a motorcycle. The inspector was riding and the corporal was backed on the motorbike. As they were moving, unknown to them, two motorcyclists were trailing them from behind. They came very close to them, opened fire and killed them. They shot them from behind at the back of their neck," Abdu told newsmen.
He said police investigations are pointing to a particular direction, which he did not mention, following recent series of killings of policemen in similar pattern. "But we do not want to disclose and pre-empt investigations. The SSS and military intelligence are assisting us. The security outfits are all working together to see that the perpetrators are brought to book," he added.
A witness told our reporter that the gunmen might have trailed the policemen "because immediately they swerved across their path with one of their motorcycles, two of them took up positions in separate directions of the fleeing officers and shot at them until they were sure they had died."
Six policemen have so far been killed in Maiduguri in attacks following similar patterns. One civilian was also killed while another sustained injuries. In all attacks, the gunmen rode on motorcycles.
Residents fear that this could be a comeback or revenge attempt by the Boko Haram sect, which recorded heavy losses in days of fighting with security forces last year.
In Damaturu, the gunmen attacked Gaidam's residence at the Gwange area around 8pm on Wednesday, killing Constable Barde Emos, State Police Commissioner Mamman Sule told journalists. The governor is away in Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj.
"The attackers were two in number and they went to the house on a motorcycle," he said. "Immediately they arrived, they used gun and killed the police constable who was guarding the house before they fled away. He died shortly after taking him to hospital. We did not arrest anybody but we have recovered some pellets (used bullets) at the scene of the attack," he added.
Emos said incident was exactly like the one that happened few months ago at the residence of former Governor Bukar Abba Ibrahim, where the attackers killed a policeman and fled away.
"As at now, we are yet to ascertain the actual mission of the attackers even though some people have started giving it political coloration. Personally, I feel it is a reprisal attack by the remnants of the Boko Haram sect," he said.
The commissioner said two members of the Boko Haram sect were arrested at the weekend in Damaturu while downloading some speeches of the late leader of the sect Mohammed Yusuf.
"Some of the sect members are resurfacing in town because they have been discharged and acquitted by courts," the commissioner said.
He said security would be beefed up in Damaturu to forestall further attacks. "We would intensify stop-and-search surveillance from 6pm to 6am everyday," he said.
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According to the spokesperson of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mitchelle Ofoyeju, the deceased, a 45-year-old trader was said to have ingested the drugs preparatory to his trip to Europe when one of the wraps ruptured. He eventually died at the hospital after admitting to drug ingestion on his death bed.
To ascertain his claim, a post-mortem was carried out which was witnessed by operatives of the NDLEA in a hospital in Lagos. The operation eventually led to the discovery of the suspected ruptured wrap of narcotics buried deep down his intestinal tract. When tested at the theatre, the substance proved positive for cocaine.
Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade described the incident as sad. "It is very sad. I sympathise with the family of the deceased."
Giade also urged youths to have the fear of God and consider the consequences of their actions. "If they have no respect for themselves, they should at least consider their loved ones and their Creator", the NDLEA boss charged. The late suspect is survived by two wives and eight children.
A member of the family who preferred anonymity said that the deceased kept everybody in the dark about his activities of late. "Hakeem left home without telling either of his two wives where he was going. Three days later, he returned looking very sick. He did not even say what the problem was until he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. We did not know he had taken drugs".
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Just after midnight, the pastor seized a woman's forehead with his large hand and she fell screaming and writhing on the ground. "Fire! Fire! Fire!" shouted the worshippers, raising their hands in the air.
Pastor Celestine Effiong's congregants are being delivered from what they firmly believe to be witchcraft. And in the darkness of the city and the villages beyond, similar shouts and screams echo from makeshift church to makeshift church.
"I have been delivered from witches and wizards today!" exclaimed one exhausted-looking woman.
Pastors in southeast Nigeria claim illness and poverty are caused by witches who bring terrible misfortune to those around them. And those denounced as witches must be cleansed through deliverance or cast out.
As daylight breaks, and we travel out to the rural villages it becomes apparent the most vulnerable to this stigmatization of witchcraft are children.
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Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday it had been forced to shut down an oil flow-station in the Niger Delta due to a protest by a group of local women over a lack of development in their community, according to a Reuter's report. The Anglo-Dutch giant said it had shut down the Otumara-Escravos flow-station in Delta State because of the demonstration but was in talks with the local community and the state government to try to end the stand-off. It did not say whether production was affected.
"Dialogue with the women, their community and representatives of the Delta State government continues with a view to resolving the issue," Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo said.
Many remote communities in the Niger Delta, a vast network of mangrove creeks, remain impoverished despite five decades of oil extraction, which have left their land and water polluted.
Such protests are not uncommon.
Royalty payments from oil firms and the sharing of federal oil revenues mean state governments in the Niger Delta have larger budgets than many West African nations, but endemic corruption has meant that little development has been achieved.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and LNG Japan Corporation have commenced preliminary discussion on strategic collaboration on the Brass Liquefied Natural Gas to provide the world's most competitive Finance and LNG marketing opportunity in Asia.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC Austen Oniwon said NNPC would collaborate with LNG Japan Corporation in the value chain and urged them to expedite action as the federal government had given the NNPC a timeline for the Final Investment Decision on the LNG projects.
He said this while receiving the LNG Japan Corporation team led by the President and CEO Mr. Yasunori Takagi in his office yesterday in Abuja.
The interest by LNG Japan Corporation was traced during the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development on Foreign Direct Investment to Nigeria.
"Japan LNG Corporation is welcome into Nigeria and NNPC as a major stakeholder in all the LNG projects in the country is willing to partner with you and do business that will be of mutual interest to both parties", Oniwon said. He expressed hope that when the Petroleum Industry Bill currently before the National Assembly is passed into law, the corporation would transmute into a ring fenced organization that will play in the international hydrocarbon market like other National Oil Companies. He urged Japan LNG Corporation to serve as a vehicle that will help in linking the NNPC to other gas markets in Asia.
President and CEO of LNG Japan Corporation Yasunori Takagi lauded NNPC for selecting LNG Japan Corporation as a strategic investor and expressed their willingness to participate in the realization of Brass LNG which will have a pump-priming effect on the increase of other Japan-led investments in Nigeria.
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A mix of two different desert tribes, Nigerien band Etran Finatawa melds the sounds of the Sahara.
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Days before (7-31-2010) officialy annoucning his presidential bid, Wyclef Jean talks about becoming the President of Haiti during his visit to Nigeria.
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Sergeant Ibrahim Abdullahi who was said to have stolen the N50, 000 from a shop keeper in Bebeji town, Bebeji local government area of Kano State was making away, when the shopkeeper discovered that some money was mising.
An eyewitness account in Bebeji town told our reporter that, trouble started when Sergeant Abdullahi visited a shop in the town and was alleged to have stolen the sum of N50,000.
"He came into the shop, met the shopkeeper Dauda Buhari and asked after his wife Hajiya Hadiza Yahuza. The shopkeeper told him that his wife was not around. As they were discussing inside the shop, somebody came to buy some goods and Dauda left the Sergeant so as to attend to his customer.
"By the time he came back, Sergeant Abdullahi excused himself and left. But when Dauda searched the money box, he realised that the sum of N50, 000 was missing."
The eyewitness further disclosed that Dauda subsequently pursued the Sergeant and inquired from him whether he knew anything about the missing money and an argument ensued.
According to the source, the Sergeant did not take Dauda's confrontation lightly, as he tried to intimidate him.
Police sources however revealed that as the two engaged in the argument, the DPO who was sitting under a tree near the police station, noticed the Sergeant and the shop attendant arguing and summoned them.
"He invited both of them. After listening to their stories, the DPO ordered the station officer, Inspector Abdullahi Mohammed to disarm Sergeant Abdullahi and investigate the case."
The accused sergeant was subsequently disarmed and the Inspector ordered him to lead him where he said he had urinated, "because that was his excuse when he was going out from the station."
It was gathered that the late Abdullahi flared up when the DPO ordered that he be disarmed and searched over the allegation.
The police source added that the Sergeant later played a fast one when he came back to the station and told the person in charge of firearms that the Inspector had instructed that his gun be returned to him as the case had been resolved amicably.
Sergeant Abdullahi in apparent emotion of guilt, actually aimed at the DPO's chest; he dodged but was hit in the shoulder instead.
Apparently thinking that he had succeeded in snuffing life out of his boss, he then aimed the gun at his head and shot himself dead.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that the police later discovered the stolen N50, 000 where the Sergeant had hidden it.
The genesis of the estrangement between the DPO and the sergeant was traced to the redeployment of the latter by the former to the station, from the resident of the local government chairman, Alhaji Dankaka Usaini Bebeji.
The Bebeji council boss who spoke on phone confirmed that the late sergeant appeared hostile to him when he was posted to his residence on duty, saying he complained to the DPO that late Abdullahi should be swapped with a friendly policeman and the DPO obliged his request.
Reacting to the incident, the police public relations officer, Kano State Command, Baba Mohammed Azare confirmed the incident.
According to him, the Command has commenced full scale investigation into the matter. He also explainedthat the bullet wound on the DPO is not severe as doctors at AKTH has certified that it did not pierce the vital organs of his body.
"He has all chances of survival," SP Azare assured.
He revealed that a posthumous investigation would be carried out and if the Sergeant is found guilty, he risks a sentence that would lead to his summary dismissal.
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Dairo was apprehended while attempting to board a British Airways flight to London. His final destination was New York where he usually trains in preparation for a tournament. The other suspect, Chukwudi was nabbed in his house at Festac area of Lagos. According to the NDLEA Airport commander, Alhaji Hamza Umar, both suspects have been hiding under the cover of their professions in dealing in narcotics.
"While Dairo Toyin hides under the cover of a sports man, Okoliachu Chukwudi presents himself as an importer of marbles and other building materials. Until their arrests by the NDLEA, no one would ever imagine they are into drugs", Hamza stated. Dairo, who began his professional tennis career in 1996, has represented Nigeria in several Davis cup competitions.
Notable among his international appearances are Italy in 2002, Senegal in 2004, Germany and Nigeria both in 2006. The tennis player, who hails from Ekiti State, has however, blamed his woes on frustration arising from inability to sponsor his trip to international tournaments.
Dairo lamented, "I am ashamed of myself. It was not intentional. My problem began in 2005 when my sponsor died. There was no one to help, things became difficult. In the process, I was introduced into drug trafficking. I have been smuggling drugs to take care of my bills each time I attended international tournaments. This time around, I was caught. I swallowed 100 wraps and when they weighed it, the weight was 1.445kg. It also tested positive for heroin".
Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade said any drug trafficker that rejects the Agency's call for a drug-free society will end up in prison custody. "The dragnet of the Agency is large enough to accommodate all drug barons. Innocent members of the public should also beware of the devices of these enemies of the society to derail them from their destinies.
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