18 Suspected Boko Haram Members Arraigned in Court

WULARI Magistrate Court 5 yesterday ordered 18 suspected members of the Boko Haram sect who allegedly took part in the July 2009 sectarian crisis in Maiduguri to be remanded in prison custody.

The presiding, Chief Magistrate Waziri Mohammed, while in ruling that his court lacked the jurisdiction to listen to the case transferred the case to the Federal High Court was Maiduguri. He ordered that the suspects be kept in prison custody, while the case adjourned to Febuary 21.

The Borno state Police command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Isa Azare told newsmen that the suspects were arrested last week at various locations in Maiduguri but declined to comment whether they were carrying weapons.

Earlier, when the case came up for mention, prosecuting counsel from the Borno state Ministry of Justice, Bukar Bundi told the court that the suspects were being arraigned on 10-count charge of criminal conspiracy, inciting disturbance, membership of unlawful assembly and joint assembly armed with deadly weapons.

Other charges, according to the prosecutor, were voluntary causing grievous hurt to deter public servants from their duties, mischief by fire, culpable homicide and treason all contrary to sections 96, 79, 80, 102 and 103, 252 and 221 of the Penal Code and Sections 24, 410 and 415 of Federal Province Act of Northern Nigeria of 1964.

Although the accused persons pleaded not guilty to all the charges, Bundi, however, prayed the court to remand them in prison custody to enable him gather more facts on the case. Counsel to the defendants, Ali Modu did not object to the prayer.

Daily Champion

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70 year old and four others arrested with human head

A seventy -year-old suspected ritualist, Hassan Ajala and four others were paraded, yesterday, at the state headquarters of the Kwara State Police Command in Ilorin following the discovery of a fresh human head in their custody.

The other suspects are Ibrahim Adamu, Afisat Raji, Umaru Kure and Samuel Kure.

At the police headquarters yesterday, the entire parade area was polluted with offensive odour from the human skull, prompting journalists and officers around to cover their noses when the suspects were paraded.

Parading the suspects at the police headquarters, ASP Ezekiel Dabo told journalists that the suspects were arrested by men of the state police detectives at Igbona town in Oyun Local Government Council of the state last Sunday following a tip off.

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Gunmen seize Britons in Nigeria oil city Port Harcourt

Three British people and a Colombian working for oil giant Shell have been seized in Nigeria's Delta region.

Kidnappers snatched the four near the city of Port Harcourt, killing a Nigerian guard.

The oil-producing region is notorious for kidnappings by militants, who demand a greater share of its wealth.

But the Delta has been relatively calm since most major militant groups agreed to lay down their arms last year after the government offered an amnesty.

This is the first violent attack on foreigners in the region for many months.

The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Lagos says the amnesty is now drifting in the absence of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who is undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

Gunmen snatched the four on Tuesday morning as they made their way to work at a power plant, police say.

Their police escort was shot dead and the driver is also believed to have been shot.

A Shell spokesman in Nigeria confirmed the attack.

"We are concerned for the safety of the contractor staff and our thoughts are with them and their families at this difficult time," he said.

The British Foreign Office said it was looking into the report "as a matter of great urgency".

No group has yet claimed to have kidnapped the group, which took place in Abia state.

Rivers State Police spokeswoman Rita Abbey told the AFP news agency that police had launched a search in and around the town of Aba, some 50km (30 miles) north-east of Port Harcourt.

Militants in the Niger Delta have cost Nigeria's oil industry millions of dollars over the years.

A variety of groups claimed to be fighting for the rights of local people to gain a greater share of the region's wealth.

But in reality, many of the groups stole oil from pipelines and extracted ransoms from kidnaps and used the money to arm themselves and finance more attacks.

BBC

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Failed 6000 MW Target

Nigerians who looked forward to seeing the President Umaru Yar'Adua government raise power generation to 6000 mega watts (MW) by December 31, 2009 as promised must be disappointed. The promise has clearly failed, as according to the minister of power, Mr. Lanre Babalola only 3,500mw was realized.

There is, however, no need to feel disappointed because it now seems in the character of this government not to keep any promise.

For example, the earlier promise of declaring a state of emergency in the power sector was not kept. The same government has not been able to fix the refineries as promised, a development that has led to the excruciating pains Nigerians have been going through to obtain petroleum products especially in the last three months.

Having failed to declare a state of emergency in the power sector, President Yar'Adua promised that his government would raise power generation to 6000mw by December 31, 2009. The promise included developing the capacity of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to evacuate and distribute same to the consumers.

To match words with action, the government followed its promise by releasing a princely $1.6 billion to International Oil Companies (IOCs) to ensure that they provided the needed gas delivery infrastructure to enable the power stations to stream their plants. Some other funds were also released to the Nigeria Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) and the PHCN to ensure that they fulfilled contractual obligations regarding delivery, transmission and distribution facilities and accessories.

The 6000mw generation target was actually a short-term policy measure to quickly bailout the country from years of lingering darkness. The medium-term is to generate 10, 000 mw by the end of 2010 and to steadily increase the pool by a sustainable percentage each year, thereafter.

This was in line with the recommendations of Alhaji Lukman Rilwan, petroleum minister, who as Presidential Adviser on Energy, had headed a committee which submitted the blueprint on how to address the country's energy crises.

Unfortunately, 2009 has ended with the country not being capable of generating the targeted 6000mw. Only 3,500mw of power was attained with the PHCN being able to only evacuate and distribute less than that amount due to inadequate infrastructure.

The implications of this failure, apart from the dent it has given to the image of this administration as one not given to keeping faith with its citizenry, are grave. No doubt, the development poses serious danger to the economy as more businesses would have to collapse or shut down with loss of jobs, high cost of production, rising inflation and growing mass poverty.

The picture of a Nigeria without adequate and sustainable power supply does not augur well for a country which wishes to join the league of 20 leading world economies by 2020. Moreso, for an economy which is in pursuit of the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Yet, we do not believe that the provision of stable power supply, taken for granted in other climes, cannot be achieved here in Nigeria. We, therefore, insist that the government should go ahead and deliver the 6000mw target, before the end of the first quarter of this year and deliver the 10, 000mw by the end of the year as earlier proposed.

We insist on these demands based on the fact that the foundations for their attainment have been laid. Besides, much money has been committed to the sector in recent years. Apart from the several billions of dollars currently being sunk into the sector by the Yar'Adua government, its predecessor, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's regime also devoted over $12 billion to the same sector.

The Federal Government should, additionally, investigate the cause of its inability to deliver on promise. This is imperative given that the militancy in the Niger Delta, which had earlier been cited by the IOCs for their inability to ensure steady gas supply has been curtailed, thereby making it possible for them to operate. It is not impossible that some saboteurs are behind the failure, so that the merchants of generators, fuel and allied products can continue to thrive at the expense of Nigerians. This must be checked and those responsible punished.

Daily Champion

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Poverty rate drops in Nigeria

The man saddled with the responsibility of fighting poverty in Nigeria has told Daily Trust that poverty rate has dropped and that Nigerians are better off. Senior Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator of the National Poverty Eradication Programme Dr. Magnus Kpakol also said the illness of President Umaru Musa Yar'adua does not affect his performance.

He also disagreed that constant power outage and low performance of the economy generally have affected his war against poverty. He said the 6.90 per cent growth rate recorded in the preceding year further confirms that poverty rate is falling.

He said some of the programmes put in place by his office in 2009 including the Cash Transfer Programme (COPE) and the involvement of state governments have helped in the fight against poverty in Nigeria.

Daily Trust had reported that in 1980, 28% of Nigerians were poor; in 1985 the poverty ratio grew to 46% and dropped to 42% in 19992. In 1996, the ratio was 65.6%, in 1990 it was 70% and in 2004 it fell to 54.4%. He said the current poverty rate is less than 50 per cent and that Nigerians are richer.

He said though the actual data is collated by the National Bureau of Statistics which is expected to come up this year.

He said: "The poverty rate has drop because for example if you look at the economy, and look at what happens in say agriculture, you will realise that there is growth in the sector last year and that growth in output means something happened there. If you look across board, you will see that the overall GDP growth rate in the economy grew by about 6%.All of that growth took place in the non-oil sector where you have people getting jobs."

"If we manage to grow and the oil sector accounts for 30% of the economy and if close to 30% of the economy has decline and yet we were able to get 6% growth rate, it means that the other sectors had significant growth rate. So if you take that now and add to the consistency in the economic growth rate that we had since 2000, which help to bring the poverty rate from 70 % in 1999 to 54.4% in 2004,and the momentum continues, then it is not unreasonable to believe that the poverty rate must have dropped more than 4 points between 2004 and 2009."

"If between 1999 and 2004, that is 5 years the poverty rate dropped 16 points, it is not unreasonable to think that in another 5 years, the poverty rate couldn't have dropped more than 4 points. As an economist, doing the back of envelop calculations, I know at the back of my mind that unless we change the yardstick that we use in measurement, the poverty rate will be under 50%."

Daily Trust

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