NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Nigerian government dismisses U.S. bomb warning

The Federal Government yesterday dismissed an alert issued by the United States embassy in Abuja that three top hotels in the city may be bombed by the Boko Haram sect that has been carrying out string of attacks against security forces and government buildings for over a year now.

The embassy Sunday in a statement warned its citizens not to visit Transcorp Hilton, Sheraton and NICON Luxury hotels, three resorts of choice for diplomats, foreigners and Nigeria's elite, saying it had intelligence report the sect would strike in those places.

But the National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi (rtd) in a statement yesterday in Abuja said the claim by the Americans is far fetched.

"The current threat of attack on the three hotels (Transcorp Hilton, Sheraton and NICON Luxury) in Abuja is not news and for over three months the security services have taken proactive measures to protect the designated critical facilities and others," he said.

He called on Nigerians "to go about their normal business without fear or hindrance," assuring that the government has taken adequate counter security measures to secure lives and property in the country despite multiple attacks by Boko Haram that left about 100 people dead in Yobe and Borno States and threats of bomb attack in Abuja.

Also speaking to the press, the spokesperson of the State Security Service (SSS) Marilyn Ogar, said that Nigeria is having security challenges just like other nations but its security system is not overwhelmed.

Responding to questions after a briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja Ogar said there is nothing that cannot be handled by Nigeria's security.

She said, "We all know we have internal security challenges, and we are sure the threat is from the internet, it was a tweet but somebody who was mischievous sent it as a an email. We know that every nation wants to show that it takes care of it citizens and if America sent a message to their citizens it is nothing strange and does not mean our country is disintegrating."

She urged the media to report issues accurately so as not to cause panic amongst the people.

"If there is a problem anywhere in the country it is not for us to pass judgment and not enough for us to cry that we are overwhelmed, we are only asking the media to report issues that will not cause further panics. We must reduce areas of discontent, journalists must begin to follow State and Local governments to know how and what they are doing for their people and I am sure that would help in ensuring peace, let us report news that will keep us together and not what will tear us apart" she said.

She said the situation in Yobe, Maiduguri and Bauchi is now under control but urged people who have information that will be useful to the agency to come forth with it.

Ogar said that the nation had "a wonderful Sallah celebration with pockets of issues here and there" but it is nothing the nation's security system cannot contain.

She called on the media to hold the state and local governments accountable for what goes on within their sphere of administration because "the federal government cannot be everywhere. We all know that if we begin to engage these youth and take them off the streets and give them gainful employment of course there will be peace."

The nation's security system has come under heavy criticism for failing to stop the numerous attacks on private and public individuals across the country especially in the north.

In the wake of the August 26 suicide bombing of the United Nations House where 27 people died, Azazi had said that the nation's security system is not able to contain the new security challenges posed by Boko Haram.

Azazi had warned that unless adequate arrangements were put in place in terms of training and retraining of security operatives on modern security management that is technology based, and provision of modern equipment, there might not be an end to the growing insecurity across the country, saying that "terrorism has come to stay".

Daily Trust

Video - Suicide blast kills 18 at UN in Nigeria

Monday, November 7, 2011

University girl bathed in acid for turning down dating request

This are the shocking photos of an innocent girl who was bathed with acid by a male student for refusing to have sex with him.

"What did I do to deserve this? When has turning down a request for a relationship become a sin?”

These are the questions that have been pouring forth from the devastated mouth of Francisca Ogbu, a first-year undergraduate of the Federal University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State (FUTY), who was recently bathed with acid, allegedly by a man seeking an affair with her.

Looking devastated on her hospital bed at the female surgical ward of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Francisca painted the picture of a gloomy future and a jinxed academic career.
“My education has already suffered and I don’t think there is hope again,” she declared as tears rolled down her disfigured cheek.

Francisca’s ordeal started last year after gaining admission into the department of economics at FUTY. “One boy, called Bright, has been requesting to go out with me. He is not in my department. He was in 500 Level. He even bought gifts sometime ago but I rejected them. I told him I was not interested because I was very new in the school and I saw his request as a distraction,” she told our reporter.

She said she thought the matter was over. “I was reading in a classroom one day with a candle, because there was no light on campus that night. There were other people in the classroom. At about 11.30 pm, somebody called me to come out of the class but I refused, insisting that it was late and that I was reading. Then, I heard somebody calling my name again from outside. It was a familiar voice and I was encouraged to stand up from my seat and look out from the door. That was all.”

The decision to look out for the caller through the classroom door was Francisca’s greatest undoing. All she could remember moments later was the unbearable pain from the acid poured on her. With a badly damaged right ear which has since been cut off, the destiny of the young lady, the second in the family of seven, changed. She was rushed to the hospital in Yola and subsequently referred to the UMTH.
Unable to hold back her tears, Francisca lamented that her education has suffered. “I want to go back to school,” she kept saying. She said the incident, which happened barely a month after her matriculation, had shattered her dreams.

To return to school, she would need to undergo more treatment and facial surgery in India and it would cost over N5 million, excluding travel expenses and feeding but then, her parents, who have been supportive since the incident occurred, cannot afford the amount. In fact, her father, Mr. Ogbu, a civil servant, was said to have expended his entire savings on the treatment, which was initially borne by FUTY.

“The man was here last week and I really pity him. He is totally broke. He has expended his savings on the treatment of his daughter. He said he had sworn that the only legacy he could give his children was education but the man is now sad because he seems to believe his vision has been truncated,” an official at the UMTH told Daily Sun.

It was gathered that the suspect names Bright, has been expelled by FUTY. He was also said to have been picked up by the police and released later. Francisca is appealing to the government, corporate organisations and well-meaning Nigerians to assist her financially so that she could go for surgery in India as well as realise her dream of going back to school.

Nigeria News

Father bathes daughter in acid

Video - Return to Nigeria's witch children

Video - Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram

A Nigerian armed Islamist group has carried out a series of attacks in the Yobe state capital of Damaturu, leaving more than 100 people dead.

The blasts occurred just before Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world.

Boko Haram has been active since 2002, with its fighters killing hundreds of people.

Most Nigerian Muslims are opposed to the group's tactics, but with a high level of unemployment, the group seems to have little trouble finding new recruits.

Many people blame the government for its failed strategy in fighting Boko Haram.

Aljazeera

Video - Suicide blast kills 18 at UN in Nigeria

30 year old man rapes 96 year old woman

A 30 year-old-man, Lanre Aremu, has been arrested by the Police in Kogi for allegedly raping a 96-year-old grandmother, Ige Samuel in Iyara, Ijumu Local Government Area of the state.

Parading the suspect before newsmen at the state Police Command Headquarters on Friday in Lokoja, Mr Samuel Ojo, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of Criminal Investigation, said the act was an abomination, ungodly and inhuman.

The daughter of the victim told newsmen that the incident happened on Oct. 31, when most of the residents were in Church.

She said the suspect forcefully pushed her mother into the room and raped her, adding that she was alarmed when her mother suddenly started behaving funny and speaking incoherently after the incident.

One of the sons of the old woman, who is in his 60s, said the incident happened because it was on a Sunday morning and the woman's guide had travelled to Ekiti.

He added that the suspect jumped out through the window, leaving behind his pair of slippers with the helpless old woman panting and writhing in pains when he noticed that people were returning from Church.

He said their father died a long time ago, adding that the suspect must have committed the crime for some ritual purposes.

He urged the police to compel the accused to reverse whatever he did to the woman and do everything possible to restore his mother's sanity.

The suspect, who spoke in Yoruba, denied the allegation, saying that the old woman beckoned on him through the window for assistance only for him to be accused of rape.

In a similar matter, one Promise Uche, a businessman of Olobayo Housing Estate, 200-unit, Lokoja was also paraded for allegedly raping his neighbour's 19-year-old daughter on Oct. 31.

The Police said Uche allegedly abducted the girl into his room and raped her, adding that doctors' report confirmed the act.

He said that the suspects would be arraigned after police investigation.

Vanguard

Televangelist rapes 13 year old girl in church

Migrants to the UK must earn £35,000 annually to Stay

Any skilled migrant who wants to stay in Britain must earn a minimum salary of 35,000 Pounds annually, a new British government report said on Friday in London.

The number of skilled migrants allowed to settle permanently in Britain will be cut by two thirds.

According to the report, only 20,000 foreign workers in skilled jobs such as computing, university teaching and nursing would be allowed to stay on in the country along with family members after their current working visas must have expired.

The report quotes Prof. David Metcalf, Chairman of the UK government's Migration Advisory Committee as saying that there were "sound economic" reasons for the introduction of such restriction.

The proposals also applied to workers covered by "Tier2" of government's points-based immigration system.

Those included under this group are scientific researchers, financial analysts, chefs and management consultants.

More than 200,000 people are currently granted the right to settle in the UK each year.

The Government is seeking to cut net migration to under 100,000 by the end of 2015 and has also targeted foreign student visas for severe cuts.

Government has banned over 450 Colleges, 170 of them in London and the south east of England from bringing foreign students into Britain.

The new crack down on migrants nd related measures are likely to affect many Nigerian including students already in the UK and those who desire to come to the country for studies in the future.

Vanguard

UK deports 61 Nigerians