NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Foreign diplomats in Nigeria ask for protection

Following increasing wave of terrorism in the country, foreign diplomats, yesterday, cried out to the Federal Government for protection.

The diplomats took their case to the government on a day Senate President, David Mark warned the Boko Haram sect that there is a limit to which the country can tolerate their bomb attacks which have claimed several lives.

The Senate President therefore challenged northern leaders to own up if the problem of Boko Haram is beyond them, saying the sect's terrorist activities will break up Nigeria if they fail to stop them.

The foreign embassies in Abuja, worried by the security challenges in the country, yesterday, took their worries to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Administration for proper assurance on the security of their offices in the territory.

High Commissioners of Trinidad & Tobago, Rwanda and Mali who visited the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed in his office sought improved security around the diplomatic community in Abuja and appealed to the minister to ensure improved protection of lives and property of diplomats in Abuja. The three diplomats are High Commissioner of Trinidad & Tobago to Nigeria, Ambassador Nyahuma Obika; Rwanda High Commissioner, Joseph Habineza and Malian Ambassador, Mahanane Amadou Maiga.

Though, the ambassadors promised to strengthen trade ties between their various countries and Nigeria, they, however, called for enhanced security of the diplomatic community.

The FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed assured the ambassadors of the safety of the members of the diplomatic community saying their safety is of utmost importance to the government and that security agents are on top of the security challenge in Nigeria.

According to him, "we will do all it takes to protect lives and property of all residents of the Federal Capital Territory, including members of the diplomatic community".

Vanguard

Video - Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram?

Monday, June 25, 2012

United Nationes warns secterian violence in Nigeria could amount to crimes against humanity

The United Nations human rights office today condemned the repeated attacks on churches in Nigeria by the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram, and warned that acts against civilians, including on grounds such as religion or ethnicity, could amount to crimes against humanity.

It is estimated that over 100 people have been killed when several churches were attacked by Boko Haram in Kaduna state, in the country's centre, last Sunday and in its aftermath, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Boko Haram is the same group that claimed responsibility for the bombing last year of the UN offices in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Some 30 people were killed in the initial attacks on Sunday and subsequent retaliation by Christian youths who set up checkpoints. The rest were reportedly killed in clashes between the security forces and Muslims protesting at the deadly retaliatory acts by the Christians, and most recently in clashes between the security forces and alleged insurgents in the Damaturu area.

"We condemn the repeated attacks by Boko Haram on places of worship and on religious freedom, as well as its blatant attempts to stir sectarian tensions and violence between two communities that have lived together peacefully for so long," OHCHR's spokesperson in Geneva, Rupert Colville, told reporters.

Mr. Colville added that members of Boko Haram and other groups and entities, if judged to have committed widespread or systematic attacks against a civilian population - including on grounds such as religion or ethnicity - are likely to be found guilty of crimes against humanity.

"Deliberate acts leading to population 'cleansing' on grounds of religion or ethnicity would also amount to a crime against humanity," he noted.

OHCHR urged the authorities to take measures to curb inflammatory or hate speech and to work with all stakeholders including civil society and religious leaders to help deal with this deadly threat.

It also encouraged Muslim and Christian leaders to redouble their efforts to contain such extremely dangerous manifestations of religious intolerance and inter-communal violence.

UN NEWS

Video - Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram?

Video - Curfew brings uneasy calm to Kaduna, Nigeria

Days after fighting between Christian and Muslim youths in northern Nigeria, many of those wounded in the bombing of three churches are still in hospital.

Things have calmed down in many parts of Kaduna, but a strict curfew remains in place throughout the state.

Some feel curfews will not address the dangers posed by the Islamist sect Boko Haram, and the retaliatory violence that sometimes follows the group's attacks.

Al Jazeera

Video - Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram?

Nigeria number 1 in crude oil theft

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday described Nigeria as the only country in the world where crude oil is stolen at an alarming rate, saying the situation has reached the stage of a full-blown cancer.

He also said he has not decided whether to run for the presidency in 2015, as he needed more time to attend to security and economic matters plaguing the country before thinking of 2015 politics.

While responding to questions at a "Presidential Media Chat" televised live last night, Jonathan said while the issue of whether he will seek a second term in 2015 was overheating the country's political environment, "it is not proper for a Nigerian president to make comments on 2015 at this stage".

Hinting that he would make his decision public by the end of 2013, the president urged Nigerians to allow him to use two years-plus to tackle economic and security issues. He cited a country like Ghana where, he said, things are haphazard because, right from day one after their general elections, campaigns begin in top gear for the next one.

"Let us leave 2015 issue. When INEC opens the gate we will know who is to contest and who will not contest," he said, adding that he should not be dragged into making statements that the media could begin to mis-interpret the next day.

Expressing worry over crude oil theft in Nigeria, Jonathan said: "The stealing of crude oil appears to be in Nigeria. It is not happening elsewhere. It is like a cancerous cell. A cancerous cell starts developing somewhere in your body, either in your prostate region or in your breast and they won't notice it still; or probably when they notice it, they think that it is ordinary boil. It gets to a point where, when they know, they cannot control it.

"We have held serious meetings between security services, the private sector like Shell and all the key oil players. We have been holding meetings. They will have to stop it. But it is like allowing a cancerous cell to develop a major tumour that even spreads to the critical organs. So, we need stronger effort. We need to spend more money than to spend more days in the hospital. That is where we are. We will crush it; we are on it. Because there is no county where they are stealing crude oil the way they are stealing in Nigeria."

Noting that classifying the stealing of crude oil as oil bunkering was not proper, the president said, "the word bunkering I knew when I was in the customs in Port Harcourt, happens in a way that when ships come, there are big companies that are legalised to go and sell them in water. But, here, somebody goes there to open a pipe and steal crude oil and they call it bunkering. I don't know whether, technically, it's bunkering. I call it crude oil stealing. It is not bunkering. Those who still crude oil are thieves. They are common criminals."

Leadership

Related stories: Nigeria loses $20bn in oil theft yearly

Shell raises concern on unprecedented oil theft in Nigeria

Sunday, June 24, 2012

40 prison inmates escape as gunmen attack prison in Damaturu, Nigeria

The Police in Damaturu have confirmed the attack by armed gunmen on a satellite prison in Damaturu where 40 inmates were set free.

Yobe state Commissioner of Police Patrick Egbuniwe told reporters in Damaturu on Sunday: "Yes there was a jail break in the early hours of this morning (Sunday 24/06/2012) which was assisted by some armed gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Harama sect.

"The armed gunmen freed 40 prisoners, killed one prisoner and one prison warder was injured in the process.

"Our men arrived at the scene and fought to re arrest some prisoners and arrest the attackers but at the moment, no prisoner is re arrested nor any arrest made.

"Some of the gunmen were killed but their members carted away with their bodies," the Commissioner Police informed.

Commissioner of Police Mr. Egbuniwe disclosed that a combined team of the Police and Army are after the attackers whom he said are being traced to Bundigari and Pawari wards of Damaturu the state capital.

Leadership Newspaper recalls that Sunday's attack on a prison facility is the second with the first at Damagum satellite prison in Fune Local Government where 14 inmates were freed.

Leadership