Video - Child marriage law challenged in Nigerian senate

Human rights campaigners are calling for the Nigerian government to create a minimum age for marriage for women. In local law, once a girl is married, she is legally considered an adult, regardless of her age.

Firms contracted to build power plants across Nigeria

The federal government announced yesterday that it had shortlisted 386 firms for power plants across the country.

This is just as Vice President Namadi Sambo assured that by 2016, power generation would hit 20,000mw, even as he urged all Nigerians to support the government's transformation agenda.

Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the second joint meeting of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) at the Presidential Villa.

He said a total of 110 submissions were received from those interested in 10 power plants from which the joint evaluation committee endorsed 82 submissions, bringing the number to 386 expressions of interest in the various plants.

"We have about 46 consortia and were shortlisted for Bariam Power Plant, 44 for Benin Power Plant, 42 for Omotosho, 41 for Egbema, 41 for Omoku, 39 for Geregu, 37 for Calabar and 36 for Ogwurode, 30 for Olaojeand 30 for Oloronshogo, amounting to 386," the governor stated.

Suswam explained that there was need for the Ministry of Power to create the awareness that Nigerians were the ones to tackle pipeline vandalisation because "electricity is not Jonathan's electricity; it is meant for Nigerians. So, if you are sabotaging it, you are not sabotaging the federal government - you are sabotaging the entire Nigerians."

According to Suswam, "The reason for people to carry out this act of vandalism is within them, because it is something that is beyond explanation. Some people try to vandalize for all kinds of reasons; why they engage in this act of sabotage. I agree with you that many serious arrests have been made, just like the issue of crude oil theft that is going on in this country. I think the seriousness given to this by the federal government to make sure that they arrest whoever that is involved in this act of sabotage is something that should give comfort to Nigerians.

"Otherwise, the efforts and the huge amount of money being expended by government to ensure Nigerians enjoy constant supply of electricity is being sabotaged by some unknown individuals whose motivation is actually not known to anybody, except to say that this is an act of madness, otherwise any reasonable person should rejoice at the fact that the things that are given to Nigerians should be protected by all Nigerians . That is a challenge to the minister, to ensure Nigerians are sensitized and be more conscious of the fact that this electricity is not Jonathan's electricity; it is electricity meant for Nigerians. So if you are sabotaging it, you are not sabotaging the federal government; you are sabotaging the entire Nigerians".

For his part, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, noted that the vandalisation of gas pipelines was politically motivated and disclosed that 460 megawatts of electricity was lost to the low water level of Kainji, Shiroro and Jeba dams.

The minister said, "I think it is instructive for the entire populace to know what has been happening recently. It is no news now that a couple of months ago, the western axis of the gas pipeline leading to the power plants in the west were cannibalized, resulting in very severe damage that caused a sharp drop in power supply. That is since being addressed and the damages are being repaired."

"Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago the Akoloma plant in the Easton axis was also vandalized, the damages as quiet extensive, but a crack team of experts went to work and restored it bringing out gas supply. And ensured that the shut down axis was open and then the Afam both four and six were onboard again.

"But unfortunately when people were rejoicing in parts of the country where power supply was stabilizing another sabtage was discovered a few day ago and Akoloma was also vandalized bt right now it also been addressed and it is hoped that as they finish the evacuation of the condensed stage that they will start pumping gas and we are hoping that the plant in Afam will be back running in a few days time. These are the reasons in aaddition to the fact that water level in Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba are quiet low right now and the water level needs to be properly managed so that the plants will operate optimally."

Leadership

Video - Half of the Yellow Sun film adaptation to premiere at TIFF

The film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel Half of the Yellow Sun, written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, will be premiering at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Former music producer Aswad Ayinde given 90 years jail sentence for fathering children with daughters

An Award winning Nigerian music director found guilty of fathering children with his daughters will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Aswad Ayinde, 55, of Paterson, NJ, was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday after being found guilty in the second of five expected trials in which he is accused of repeatedly raping his six daughters, resulting in six children being fathered. Mr. Ayinde was found guilty in his latest trial of having intercourse with one of his daughters when she was as young as eight-years-old. The second sentence adds to the 40 year sentence Mr Ayinde received in a 2011 trial for sexually assaulting a separate daughter.

Mr. Ayinde is known for directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 smash hit 'Killing Me Softly.'

In a disturbing disclosure during his first trial, Mr. Ayinde's former wife said he was trying to create a 'pure family bloodline' by impregnating his daughters. He even claimed during a pre-trial hearing before the first trial that 'the world was going to end, and it was just going to be him and his offspring and that he was chosen.'

In this latest trial, it was revealed that Mr. Ayinde began having intercourse with his second daughter from the time she eight-years-old, impregnating her four times.

As repoted by Mail Online the sexual assaults happened for almost 30 years until Mr. Ayinde and his wife separated, officials said. They occurred in numerous homes across northern New Jersey, even while the family was under watch of state child welfare officials, according to NBC New York. Some of the rapes even took place in an abandoned funeral home.

The family moving as far away as Florida to avoid investigation after case workers removed multiple children from the Ayinde household in 2000, resulting in Mr. Ayinde being arrested for kidnapping for trying to take them from state custody in a medical center, NBC New York reported.

He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and received a year's probation - as he continued raping one daughter for at least another two years, according to officials.

The depraved father also beat and starved the girls using wooden boards and steel-toed boots for even 'minor transgressions,' Ayinde's wife testified at the first trial.

Some of the children Ayinde fathered with his daughters were born in the home, with at least two babies who died in the home having been buried without notifying authorities or obtaining birth certificates, NBC New York reported.

Mr. Ayinde also fathered 12 additional children with an additional three women, according to court records

Ayinde's tortured daughters were home schooled and isolated from other children, so as to keep the family secrets hidden, the station added.

With his wife too afraid to confront him, Mr. Ayinde carried out his evil plan without hindrance even while directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 breakout hit 'Killing Me Softly, for which he won 'Best R&B Video' at the 1996 MTV Music Video Awards. The Fugees are also originally from Northern New Jersey.

Mr. Ayinde faces three more trials over the alleged assaults.

Vanguard

Multiple explosions in Christian district of Kano, Nigeria

A series of explosions have torn through a predominantly Christian district in Nigeria's largest northern city, Kano. It was not immediately what had caused the blasts.

At least ten people were killed and at least as many were injured late Monday when a series of bombs were detonated in Kano's Christian district, Sabon Gari, according to eye witnesses and Nigeria authorities.

The city of Kaduna has been closely linked with lethal religious violence. Yet on Sunday a Christian cleric was given a Muslim award. He had bailed Muslims out of jail so they could spend Ramadan at home. (22.07.2013)

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Kano lies in the country's Muslim north, where the Islamist al Qaeda-linked sect Boko Haram is staging an insurgency in an effort to impose Shariah, or Islamic law. About 40 percent of the Nigeria's 170 million citizens are Christian.

DW