Nigerians seek refuge in Cameroon due to Boko Haram violence

Nigerians have fled in droves to neighbouring Cameroon to escape violence claimed by the Islamist Boko Haram group and revenge attacks by Christians.

“Everybody is insecure in Nigeria. The fear is all-pervading,” said a Christian priest, speaking on condition of anonymity, in Fotokol, a Cameroonian border town where dozens have taken shelter in the last few weeks.

It is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the bastion of the shadowy Boko Haram sect which has been blamed for a slew of terror attacks that have sowed panic in Africa’s most populous nation.

Boko Haram has claimed to be fighting for an Islamic state in the north, but its demands have varied.

“Many Nigerians like myself have fled their villages in the south. We feel secure in Cameroon,” the priest said in Fotokol.

“That is why I am sheltered here,” he added.

He has rented a house which is about 10 minutes by motorcycle to the nearest town in Nigeria, Gamboru Ngala, where he heads the local Catholic church.

It is difficult to gauge the exact number of Nigerians who have fled to Cameroon as they cross the border illegally, but there are easily dozens sheltered here since the attacks and tit-for-tat ripostes by Christians.

Mahamat Tujani, a Muslim trader from Maiduguri, fled to Kousseri near Fotokol.

“I abandoned my business and my family to seek refuge at the home of my cousin,” a Cameroonian, he said. “I escaped out of fear.”

He hoped to return home soon, he said, “but if the killings continue, I will bring over my family members here.”

Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bomb attacks in Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated north. It claimed responsibility for January 20 coordinated bombings and shootings in Nigeria’s second-largest city of Kano that left at least 185 people dead — Boko Haram’s deadliest attack yet.

The August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed at least 25 people was also attributed to the group.

“When you scent danger, you must escape,” the priest said.

“Even in the Gospel, the Lord says the moment you sense danger, you must escape. If you don’t it’s suicide,” he said.

The priest said two Christians from the mainly Christian Igbo ethnic group were killed in Mobi in Adamawa state about three weeks ago.

“When the other Igbos went to reclaim their bodies the Boko Haram struck and killed 29 others,” he said.

Sectarian violence has been rising since elections in July last year. He urged both Christians and Muslims to “return to God.”

The priest said Muslims were also targeted by Boko Haram. Between January 28 and 30, three people — including a Muslim — were killed in Gamboru Ngala, Nigerian and Cameroonian police and medical sources said.

The priest was following an Africa Cup of Nations match on television at a bar, along with six other compatriots. In another room, eight other Nigerians sat, drinking.

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Four Nigerian banks make it in top 500 banks of the world ranking

Four Nigerian banks - First Bank of Nigeria Plc, GTBank Plc, Zenith Bank and the United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), had been ranked among the top 500 'World Bank Brands' in the February edition of The Banker magazine of the Financial Times Group, London, United Kingdom.

A statement made available to THISDAY, said First Bank was ranked as the number one bank brand in Nigeria and followed by other commercial banks mentioned earlier in that order.

According to the statement, apart from the four, no other Nigerian bank made the ranking.

The ranking was done by Brand Finance Plc - a brand valuation consultancy with support for business needs in different areas including technical valuations for accounting, tax and legal purposes.

According to the report, First Bank had the highest brand value in the country, at $170 million and was closely followed by GTBank with $169 million.

It also said that Zenith Bank had a brand value of $147 million while the UBA had brand value of $121 million.

It explained: "The banks' brands also do Nigeria proud as the country is among the World's Top 50 by Total Brand Value by Country. Nigeria leads the continent outside of Southern Africa. South Africa has a total brand value of $8,207 million followed by Nigeria's $607 million with Morocco completing the Africa representation with $463 million. In the top 500 World Bank Brands 2012, South Africa has ten banks, Nigeria has four banks and Morocco has two banks.

"Total global bank brand value is $746,752 million dollars with Africa contributing $16,283 million representing 2.18 per cent of the world's total brand value."

Chief Executive Officer, Brand Finance, Mr. David Haigh, said the financial crisis "has thrown up the issue of the brands' origin" and that "the ones that have maintained their reputation can be characterized by country."

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Nuhu Ribadu appointed Head of Petroleum Task Force

Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has been nominated to chair the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Other members of the task force are: Mr. Steve Oronsaye (Dep. Chairman), Mallam Abba Kyari, Ms. Benedicta Molokwu, Mr. Supo Sasore (SAN), Mr. Tony Idigbe (SAN), Mr. Anthony George-Ikoli (SAN), Dr. (Mrs.) Omolara Akanji, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) Mr. Ituah Ighodalo, and Mr. Bon Otti.

The rest are: Prof. Olusegun Okunnu, Mallam Samaila Zubairu, Mr. Ignatius Adegunle, Mr. Gerald Ilukwe, and representatives of the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Federal Ministry of Finance.

The committee, according to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum, is "To work with consultants and experts to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes, royalties, etc.) due and payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria;

"To take all necessary steps to collect all debts due and owing; to obtain agreements and enforce payment terms by all oil industry operators;

"To design a cross debt matrix between all Agencies and Parastatals of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources;

"To develop an automated platform to enable effective tracking, monitoring, and online validation of income and debt drivers of all Parastatals and Agencies in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources;

"To work with world-class consultants to integrate systems and technology across the production chain to determine and monitor crude oil production and exports, ensuring at all times, the integrity of payments to the Federal Government of Nigeria; and,

"To submit monthly reports for ministerial review and further action."

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Video - Chevron oil drilling disaster in Nigeria enters fourth week

It used to be a Chevron natural gas rig in Nigeria. Now it is an inferno, entering its fourth week ablaze off Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, polluting nearby waters and making local people sick.

The fire began on Jan. 16, killing two workers and forcing Chevron Nigeria Limited to evacuate 152 others. In a statement on its website, the company says it does not know exactly what caused the fire, or how long it will take to extinguish it.

The Associated Press reports dead fish surfacing in surrounding waters and increasing skin and gastrointestinal problems reported among the Nigerians living in the villages on shore. At its hottest point, the fire is 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 730 degrees Celsius), which is “hot enough to soften steel.”

The increasing illnesses are a result of warmer water temperatures causing bacteria to grow rapidly, according to Dr. Oladipo Folorunso, the only doctor treating patients in Ikebiri, a town affected by the fire.

“The community here has no other source of water apart from the river water, which on its own isn’t even safe enough to drink, but the pollution has made the water even worse,” he told the AP.

International Business Times reports that on Jan. 26, company officials said the fire could take another month to extinguish. The company says plans to build a well to put out the fire have been finalized, and it is monitoring the environmental impact.

In a statement posted on Feb. 2, Chevron said it had hired people to search the beaches to for crude oil, and found none.

“The fire is still burning at the well, but continues to diminish,” reads the statement.

The company also said it was moving food and supplies into the area — home to tens of thousands of people — but Environmental Rights Action, a Nigerian activist group says the actions are not enough. The group called for increased government intervention, saying the fire is also having a political impact in Nigeria, a country already in turmoil.

“The failure of government to compel prompt actions has started generating bad blood among the youth,” reads a report posted on the Environmental Rights Action website.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with 160 million people and the continent's largest oil exporter, is already facing several security crises, including near daily attacks from Islamist militants that have killed hundreds this year alone.

In a separate incident, President Goodluck Jonathan's government today identified seven suspects in an oil pipeline bombing over the weekend, and denied that a former rebel militia was responsible for the attack, according to Reuters.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) originally took credit for the attack on the Italian-owned pipeline, which stopped the flow of 4,000 barrels of oil daily. The group warned it was planning more attacks on foreign-owned entities in the Niger Delta. The government said criminal gangs posing as rebels were behind the attack, Reuters reports.

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Boko Haram threatens to kill Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka

Following a threat by the Boko Haram sect that Professor Wole Soyinka would be their next target for attack, the Nobel laureate has raised the alarm, urging security agencies to take action immediately or risk possible disintegration of the country should the sect carry out its threats.

Soyinka, who disclosed this to journalists during a heart-rendering interview in Lagos, said he had reported the series of threats to the security operatives in the country, noting that the operatives had confirmed the information but have not taken action on the threat.

He said: "The reason for this programme (elimination), which I know is very much in the third phase, is that those pushing this agenda know very well that this could be the last straw that will break the camel's back.

"And they would rather this country broke up and possibly in an inferno than continue to accept the loss, even though temporary loss, of power in this country. For these people, government is the only business around."

Obviously unruffled by the threat, he noted that he was not averse to any form of dialogue and negation with the highly dreaded sect, pointing out that the sect ought to have sat at a roundtable with government and make their demands public.

The frontline freedom fighter fondly called "Kongi" by his teeming admirers said he is above any form of human destruction, adding that no violent group including the so called Boko Haram can frighten him to submission.

"I believe that one should not beg for existence. If the price of not coming to table is that you want to eliminate me, and you can do so, please do so. I am 77," he stated. "Please, come to the debating table, but you will not persuade me simply because you have the capacity to blow me and my family up. You can simply go ahead, blow us up if you think that is the way you can do your conversation. But you will not bomb me to sit with you at table."

He lamented that President Gookluck Jonathan is treating the desperation of the forces behind the masquerading Boko Haram sect with kid gloves by not considering the enormity of Islamic struggles in countries like Iraq where fundamentalist Islamic groups had unleashed mayhem on the people.

While noting that dialogue with the sect could be done without resorting to violence, he reminisced that PRONACO, which he joined during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, successfully organised its conference, amended the constitution of the country and presented the document to the government without violence.

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