State Security Service arrest Boko Haram bomb maker

The State Security Service (SSS) has arrested a man who allegedly supplies explosives to Boko Haram, which has stepped up its attacks in the last one week.

Ayuba Usman was arrested on Tuesday at his shop in a market in Kano following information from suspected Boko Haram members arrested in raids, the SSS Director in the state, Mr. Nelson Eteng, told reporters Wednesday.

"Based on statements by high profile suspects... Ayuba Usman has been providing combustible chemicals used in the manufacture of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) for attacks on innocent people in the city," Eteng said. "The suspect is found to be linked with extremist elements."

The SSS displayed 35 drums of chemicals of 240 litres each and a dozen bags of combustible items said to have been recovered during the raid on the suspect's shop.

According to Eteng, the suspect was apprehended at one of the markets in Dala Local Government Area of the state.

"The chemicals are controlled. But when we find individuals selling such materials to individuals who turn to harm innocent people, the security will be concerned and that is why we are concerned," he said.

He said the SSS operatives in the state would go deeper into the case in order to know their network with a view to tracking down their accomplices, adding that investigation would continue until the perpetrators were arrested and punished.

Eteng said: "We are closing on very many suspects who are on the run, and the intelligence networking is working closely to get them very soon."

He said the people of Kano are so tired of what is happening and are helping with information.

Last Sunday, gunmen attacked two church services at Bayero University Kano (BUK), throwing bombs and opening fire on worshippers as they sought to flee, leaving dozens dead.

A high-calibre time bomb was also discovered at another of the university's campuses in Kano and defused by a bomb squad the following day.

Dozens of IEDs were recovered on Tuesday in a military raid on an alleged Boko Haram hideout in the city which left one suspected militant dead.

Meanwhile, police authorities yesterday reacted to the threat by Boko Haram to attack more media houses by beefing up security around them.

Acting Inspector General of Police (IG) Mohammed Abubakar said the force was aware of the threat and that he had directed commissioners of police across the country to tighten security.

He advised media houses to contact commissioners of police in their states if their outfit is vulnerable.

The IG however reiterated that the police and other security agencies were working hard to overcome the security challenges and blamed their underperformance on underfunding, lack of training and ill equipment.

But the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Wednesday in Abuja issued a "final warning" to the Federal Government that any failure on the part of government to halt the incessant attacks by the Boko Haram would leave the body with no choice than to defend its members.

Addressing a press conference at the Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, said the body's position was based on the inability of Boko Haram sponsors to be reasonable.

"You will recall in our last press conference, we told the nation that the bombings and killings of innocent Nigerians may be termed senseless but that is not without sense for those sponsoring the acts. Their plan is to instil fear with the subsequent aim of eradicating religious freedom, democratic liberties with the church and Christianity as is primary target," he said.

Oritsejafor explained that "the Nigerian nation and the global community have been witnesses to the step-by-step escalation of violence against innocent citizens with the Christians and the church suffering the greatest loss."

The association stated that given the continuous launch of attacks by Boko Haram, it is immaterial to discuss the source.

"At this point in the unfolding insecurity challenges, it has become irrelevant whether the root cause is political, religious, ethnic or ideological. The fundamental issues are that the intimidation, killings, bombings and wanton destruction of lives and property must stop immediately," CAN maintained.

Speaking on the next line of action, CAN president said though, "I am aware that the greater part of the overall design is to instil fear in the populace, I will now make a final call to the Nigerian government to use all resources available to it to clearly define and neutralise the problem as other nations have done."

The Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWCAN) has called for an immediate overhaul of all security agencies.

YOWCAN said since the spate of bombings in the country is difficult for them to stop, there was need for immediate shake-up in the nations' security system.

This Day

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U.S. concerned about Boko Haram attacks on media and churches

Expressing its concerns in a statement issued by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, US also described as "disgraceful assault", the attack on church services at the Bayero University Kano (BUK) where two professors and several students were gruesomely killed.

Condemning attempts to inflame Christian-Muslim tensions, US expressed support for "those who recognise Nigeria's ethnic and religious diversity as one of the country's greatest strengths."

While "strongly" condemning attacks on innocent civilians in Nigeria, US said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who were killed and injured."

Also speaking with THISDAY in New York, former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, agreed that the Boko Haram challenges had assumed a dangerous trend with the attacks on media offices and places of religious congregation.

Campbell, reacting to the attack on THISDAY offices in Abuja and Kaduna, and the attack at church service in BUK said: "One is an attack on the freedom of the press, the other is an attack on the freedom of religion. Both must be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

Noting the dangerous twist in the upsurge of Boko Haram attacks, the former US envoy said, "Why THISDAY was attacked, I don't know. THISDAY, of course, is a major Nigerian newspaper with circulation all over the country."

Campbell, who had consistently maintained his opposition to calls to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organisation, said the increasing wave of attacks by the sect hadn't changed his position.

He said Boko Haram appeared to him as a highly defused organisation, and "does not appear to be a tightly organised entity."

He suggested that the Boko Haram challenge should be tackled politically, arguing that Nigeria should adopt, "a political approach to northern isolation, northern alienation which are the oxygen that Boko Haram is breathing."

On recent reports showing a nexus between Boko Haram and Al Qaeda, and whether Nigeria should tackle the Boko Haram challenge the way US had been confronting Al Qaeda, Campbell said: "No, I don't think so. I think that any kind of connection that Boko Haram has with groups outside of Nigeria is not transformative."

He said he did not believe that such connections, where they exist, "shape what Boko Haram is doing."

Campbell said, "Boko Haram seems to me to be essentially focused on domestic and internal developments in Nigeria."

This Day

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Boko Haram release video celebrating bombing of media houses and warning of more attacks

Islamist group Boko Haram released a video late on Tuesday celebrating its bombing of a Nigerian newspaper and warning of more attacks on local and foreign media if they published reports that were biased to the sect or insulting to Islam.

 

Suicide car bombers targeted the offices of This Day in the capital, Abuja, and northern city of Kaduna last Thursday, killing at least five people in apparently coordinated strikes.

Boko Haram has been fighting a low-level insurgency for more than two years and has become the main security threat facing Africa's top oil producer, although most attacks have been in the largely Muslim north, far from southern oil fields.

The sect, which wants to impose an Islamic state on Nigeria's more or less evenly mixed population of Muslim and Christians, has been blamed for hundreds of killings since its uprising against the government in 2009.

It had not previously targeted the press in its bombing campaign, although last October it killed a reporter for state TV who the sect said was an informant to President Goodluck Jonathan's administration.

The video posted on the Internet opens with a Koranic song and a drawing of the Koran sitting on two crossed AK-47s. A banner in the northern Hausa language says:

"Message from Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihadl (Boko Haram's full name): on why we attacked ThisDay".

It then plays a video tape shot from a distance of the ThisDay Abuja office, which promptly explodes into a ball of flames and grey smoke - that suggests the sect had a cameraman set up in anticipation of the strike.

"We attacked Thisday because we will never forget or forgive anyone who abused our Prophet," a voice booms in Hausa.

ThisDay angered Muslims a decade ago when one of its columnists suggested the Prophet Mohammad might have wanted to marry a beauty queen, an event to which the tape alludes.

JIHAD VIDEO

The statement rages against local and international media for carrying reports by Nigeria's government that a faction of the sect was behind the kidnapping of two hostages - one British, the other Italian - who were killed by their captors during a botched March rescue attempt.

"We said we have nothing to do with it, yet these media houses reported that we were responsible for the incident," it said, also complaining about reports, which it denied, that its spokesman Abu Qaqa had been captured.

It warned it would attack other media houses soon, listing several local papers as next on the list and several international media as "on the verge of jointing them".

It was at least the fifth video that Boko Haram had posted this year, mostly from self-proclaimed leader Abubakar Shekau. Shekau appears in this one, too, waving an AK-47 around.

From being a secretive sect in the shadows, the group has gradually raised its media profile, which may explain both the proliferation of home videos and growing attacks on media.

A spate of attacks in the past few days, including one against Christians in the north that killed 19 people on Sunday, dampened hopes that tighter security in the north had drastically reduced the sect's capability.

Nigerian forces raided the hideout of Islamist militants in Kano on Tuesday, killing the suspected mastermind of an attack on Christian worshippers in a gun battle that lasted several hours in the main northern city.

Here is a transcription of the Boko Haram video above:

"This is a message from the public awareness department of the Jamatu Ahlis sunnah lil daawati wal jihad, a group engaged in jihad in Nigeria.

"We wish to explain about the attack we carried out on Thisday Newspapers. Some of the reasons why we decided to attack some Media Houses, especially Thisday, is because the paper was used in dishonouring our prophet, Mohammad (SAW) during a beauty pageant in Kaduna in November 2002.

"At that time, some people who called themselves leaders of Muslims came out to say they have forgiven those who committed the offence.

"But based on our knowledge, we know that no one has the power to forgive anyone for an offence that God himself has given judgement, especially on an offence that has to do with dishonouring Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

"No one has the power to forgive this type of offence, and the judgement is for such persons to be killed.

"This lady that committed this crime, the judgement on her is to be killed at any opportunity; and the media house is also supposed to be driven out of existence whenever there is a chance to do so.

"We are just getting the opportunity to attack the media house, and we are hoping to continue these attacks until we drive them out of existence.

"It is our hope that Allah (SWT) will help his religion.

"We know that any genuine Muslim must have been deeply touched by the Thisday incident.

"Thisday newspaper is also leading in helping the government in fighting us, alongside other media houses that we will mention soon.

"Some of the offences of Thisday and other media outlets include: firstly, during the botched attempt to rescue some kidnapped foreign nationals in Sokoto; these media houses asked us if we have anything to do with the kidnap and we said we have nothing to do with it, yet these media houses reported that we were responsible for the incident, that was a lie against us.

"Secondly, when we sent a video of our leader, Abubakar Shekau, the media houses reported things that our leader did not say, such as that in response to the president’s threat to finish us in three months, we have also threatened to finish the government in three months. But the truth is, nowhere in the video did our leader said what they attributed to him.

"Thirdly, on the purported arrest of Abu Qaqa by the SSS, we have come out to tell them that the person arrested was not Abu Qaqa,yet the media continue to potray us as liars, and even said that our leader had ordered for Abu Qaqa II to be executed, and we are now searching for Abu Qaqa III.

"Recently too, they came out with another lie that one Mohammed Awwal Kontagora was the Abu Qaqa II that was executed, and that even his parents confirmed it, that was just a big lie to convince the world.

"The media also said that we have killed the father of Abu Darda, so as to pass a message to him, because he had leaked our secrets after his arrest by security agencies, and they  wanted him to know that he is one of our targets.

"These are all lies, and they are many.

"These media houses have committed a lot of offences that is detrimental to Islam, and we don’t have the power to forgive them. We will take revenge on them by God’s grace, some of these media houses have been categorized into three groups.

"The first group is the likes of Thisday whose offences are big.

"The second group we will also attack soon are Punch, Daily Sun, Vanguard, Guardian, Nation, Tribune, and National Accord, which are all newspaper houses.

"There is also VOA Hausa radio. All these media houses we will attack them including their staff and offices, by God’s grace.

"VOA Hausa for instance have recently started campaigning for people to support the government against us by exposing us,

"The next group that are on the verge of joining this list who if they are not careful we will attack very soon include, Leadership, Daily Trust, Peoples Daily and RFI(Radio France international)

"There is an online medium known as Saharareporters who have their office in New York, and who have made their site as a platform for attack against Islam. So we are warning them to stop making their site an avenue for attacking Islam, otherwise we will find a way of attacking them too.

"We resorted to using this medium to send our message instead of the normal tele-conference because of the fear by journalists; which made them refuse to conduct the conference.

"We are grateful to God for the success recorded on the attack on Thisday, and we hope to continue such attacks.

"Finally, the government has now resorted to arresting our wives and children and also demolishing our houses, like they did in Biu recently, that is why we have also resolved to start attacking government schools, especially, tertiary ones.

"We promise to demolish 500 buildings for any one of our houses that the government destroys.

"We have already started with Gombe and Kano."

Reuters

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Wole Soyinka beckons for mass protest over fuel subsidy scam

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Monday  asked Nigerians to warm up for another round of massive demonstration over revelations of endemic corruption on fuel subsidy debacle, remarking that the trend has brought huge embarrassment to both Nigerians and the country across the world.

Soyinka, who made this remark at a joint press conference he addressed along with Save Nigeria Group (SNG) in Lagos, also tasked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and Other Related Offences (ICPC) to quickly commence without any delay the prosecution of culprits of the scam with a view to bringing them to book.

In the same vein, Convener of SNG, Tunde Bakare, said if concrete steps were  not taken towards prosecuting culprits of subsidy scam within two weeks, SNG would have no option than to call people out for a massive protest of the menace. He also demanded for the appointment of a private prosecutor to handle the case.

Soyinka who said he wondered if he was living in the world of reality or world of fantasy when he read through the figures rolled out by adhoc committee of the House of Representatives which probed the scam, regretted that Nigerians were being dehumanised and treated as third class citizens in their own country.

He said: “We are being overwhelmed into insensitivity by sheer excess. Those numbers, I have studied very carefully some of these figures and I had had to take a couple of hours to read after every paragraph, after every
figure to ask myself and pinch myself whether I’m really living in the real world or whether  there is some fantasy world that is  projected on the pages of  newspapers.”

The sources of these figures can be cited, reaction of House of Representatives has been noted and we haven’t had any of these figures disputed by relevant instruments of the government.

“There is a point that one can no longer use words like contempt and disdain. We ‘ve moved beyond this, we are being treated not even as second class or third class citizens, but when you are wronged this way, you are dehumanised because it is not just insult from arrogance,… it is material assault on the resources of ordinary people. The populace should be ready for another determined march against corruption.... And even before that takes place, I believe there is enough prima facie case for EFCC and ICPC and other investigative and prosecuting bodies to move in.

“From the situation now, we have become objects of ridicule to the whole wide world. The comments of international monitoring community and what those of us who travelled around have to undergo from commentaries against our nation, the humiliation is just too excessive and I think it is enough. Nigerians must be prepared to march, must be prepared to come out en masse and demand a termination of these years of insolence against the ordinary people.”

Bakare, who was accompanied by President of Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin and SNG spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, reviewed the output of House of Representatives’ probe of the subsidy scam and regretted that government officials rolled out controversial figures with the intention to fool Nigerians. He insisted that N3 trillion allegedly spent on subsidy last year was questionable, saying the huge sum was deliberately stolen from the treasury under the guise of subsidy.

The SNG leader also queried the difference between the figures tendered by the Accountant -General of the Federation (AGF) and the committee, alleging that a third of the entire appropriation for the 2012 was stolen by government officials last year.

Bakare regretted that "the clearance of Gombe Governor Ibrahim Dankwanbo, who was the Accountant-General of the Federation in 2009 and who was alleged to have issued cheques of N999 million in 128 places in 24 hours totalling N127 billion, raises another serious matter.”

He added that "passing the buck to the (Petroleum Products’ Pricing and Regulatory Agencies) PPPRA does not answer the issue as the impression this gives is that the governor may have been exonerated in a deal to ensure that he does not spill the beans, if push comes to shove. These double payments must be traced and the nation must know where the money ended."

He praised the House of Representatives for the probe, pointing out that the probe revealed that the management of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) denied the receipt of the money said to be paid to it by the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) adding that ministers of finance and petroleum who served during the period of the scam, should also be prosecuted.

Bakare also remarked that the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan claimed ignorance of how N3 trillion was spent for subsidy by the administration under his watch shows that he is unfit to rule the country. "The country has been stolen broke by mindless looting. The states are yet to receive their allocations for March. It portends great problem for the economy,” Bakare added.

He demanded for the appointment of a private prosecutor to handle the case. "Given the low confidence the people have in the anti-corruption agencies in dealing with political corruption in Nigeria, we are demanding the appointment of a private prosecutor to deal with these prosecutions.

"The counsel to be so appointed must be a man or woman of proven integrity with a team of lawyers recommended by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) working with such private prosecutor. Civil society organisations should be allowed to appoint their own counsel,” he said.

Also speaking, CD leader, Okei-Odumakin, lamented that the country was swimming in corruption, which he said resulted in collapsed infrastructure, failing health sector and high mortality rate.

This Day

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Minister of Powers says erratic electricity supply will be over in December

The erratic power supply being experienced across the country will be addressed by December this year, the minister of power has said.

The minister, Professor Barth Nnaji also said that there will be moderately improved power supply by July this year and a renewed distribution model which will allow the distribution companies to promote planned distribution and have citizens informed beforehand.

He also said the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has agreed to deliver gas to power generating plants.

He also said in the next seven months, there will have been completion of some new generating plants, transmission lines and a more developed distribution pattern.

According to him, the reconstituted Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission will provide the implementation of a tariff review on June 1st which will be accompanied with a metering system.

"It will interest Nigerians to know that whereas there is a tariff of N7 per kilowatt is what is being paid now by the urban poor and rural dwellers; the new tariff rate will allow this class(R1) to pay at N4 per kilowatt"

Reeling out government medium term for power sector, the Minister said between 2013 and 2015, there would be increased power generation and transmission lines.

He also said during the period, labour force impact will be more positive and sustainable.

According to him, between 2015 and 2020, there will be increased diversification into renewable energy sources.

"This will include small and medium hydropower, solar,bio-waste to energy,coal,etc. Equally, the bulk trader becomes very prominent in this operations at this stage".

Appealing to Nigerians to be patient, the Minister said that the stage is set for monumental change in the sector.

He said given the political will the President has demonstrated on the sector, it was evident that the country would overcome the power challenges in no time.

Daily Trust

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