Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Video - Insecurity in Nigeria likely to Impact General Elections


Millions of voters in Nigeria could miss participating in the country's next General Election, unless security is urgently restored in the restive northeastern part of the country. Government forces recently stepped up offensive against Boko Haram militants. But that offensive is yet to restore peace in larger part of the region. 

Related story: Displaced Nigerians from Boko Haram violence might not be able to vote in Presidential elections in 2015

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Video - Nigeria's revised GDP stands at $510 billion



When Nigeria's Statistician general eventually released the rebased GDP figure, it was $510billion, surpassing expectations. But sparking fears the huge size of the economy could stagnate growth in a country that had consistently averaged a growth rate of 6.5 percent.

Related stories: Video - Nigeria's hidden trillion dollar economy 

Video - Nigeria is now Africa's biggest economy

Former General criticizes Nigerian army for sentencing 54 soldiers to death

A retired army general, Ishola Williams, has condemned the Nigerian Army for imposing the death sentence on 54 soldiers accused of mutiny, saying the soldiers were justified in refusing to join operations without being properly equipped.

Mr. Williams said the soldiers were right in disobeying orders that would lead to certain death as a result of the failure of their commanding officers to provide them the necessary equipment.

On December 17, 2014 after a secret trial in Abuja, 54 soldiers of the 111 Special Forces battalion charged with criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny and mutiny were sentenced to death by firing squad by Nigerian Army’s 7 division General Court Martial.

The military said the soldiers disobeyed the order of their commanding officer to take part in an operation to dislodge Boko Haram terrorists from Delwa, a town close to Maiduguri.

Some of the accused soldiers testified that they refused to take part in the operation following the failure of the army to provide them with the necessary support equipment.

The soldiers were later transferred to Lagos where they await either the confirmation of the sentence, an appeal, a pardon or execution.

Military sources and the lawyer representing the soldiers, Femi Falana, told PREMIUM TIMES last week that they troops were held under deplorable conditions, and were denied food and care.

Contributing to a debate on an online group, AfricanWorldForum, about a statement by Governor Rotimi Ameachi of Rivers State, that the condemned soldiers had the right to protest the government’s failure to equip them, Mr. Williams, who resigned from the army as a major general, said the military hierarchy is prosecuting the soldiers to cover its failure.

“Those playing politics with the lives of these soldiers who were being sent to commit suicide in the name of fatherland and they refused, have to be ashamed,” he said. “The army’s top hierarchy is covering up its weaknesses by court-martialling these soldiers. The staff from the HQ (defence headquarters) and the generals are to blame. Period.

Mr. Williams was the Chief of Defence Operations, Planning and Training, at the Defence Headquarters before resigning in 1993.

“Anywhere in the world a soldier/soldiers is /are allowed to disobey orders which will lead to certain death because of poor officership and inadequate logistics,” he said.

According to him, in the military, “there are no bad soldiers but bad officers.”

Mr. Williams, a former honorary Secretary General of Transparency In Nigeria (TIN) and currently the executive secretary of a security research organisation, Pan African Strategic and Policy Research Group (PANAFSTRAG), said while he was in the military the soldiers he knew were not mutinous and a good court would dismiss the death sentence.

“The South African constitution allows soldiers to protest. The Nigerian soldiers that I know and commanded during my career are not mutinous and will not be mutinous.

“You may wish to speak to CJTF(Commander of the JTF) in Maiduguri to be able to indict these soldiers. In a good court of law the death sentence will be not upheld,” he said. “Stop playing Politricks and Polifun with the lives of young men who were put in harm’s way without the method and tools in an environment in which demons are going crazy.

“It is sad and wicked to be unfair to them. Why were the Court-Martial (CM) held in secret? Even the presidency has not made any statement on this issue because it knows the circumstances in which these soldiers were operating. In other climes, before the CM, the Concerned Service Chief and Commanders would have resigned their commissions.”



Saturday, December 27, 2014

Father gives away 13 year old daughter to be suicide bomber for Boko Haram

A 13-year-old says her father gave her to Boko Haram extremists and that she was arrested after refusing to explode a suicide bomb in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city in the north.

Nigeria has suffered numerous suicide bombings in recent months carried out by girls and young women. That has raised fears that the insurgents are using kidnapped girls.

The girl told a news conference Wednesday night that she saw many people being buried alive at the Boko Haram camp where her father took her in Bauchi state, east of Kano.

She said her captors asked if she wanted to go to paradise and, when she said yes, explained she would have to be a suicide bomber.

“When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it,” she said.

When they threatened to kill her, she allowed them to strap her into a vest primed with explosives, saying “I was afraid to be buried alive.”

Two other girls detonated their bombs at Kano’s textile market on Dec. 10. Police said the attack killed four people and wounded seven, including the girl.

The West African nation’s home-grown Boko Haram group attracted international condemnation when its fighters kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northeast Chibok town in April. Dozens escaped but 219 remain missing.

Thousands of people have been killed and 1.6 million driven from their homes in the 5-year-old uprising to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 160 million people divided between mainly Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

Police Superintendent Adenrele Shinaba said the girl was arrested in the hospital with a leg wound. A taxi driver took her to the hospital, and she said she left her suicide vest on the seat. The driver alerted police.

Shinaba said she will remain in custody while investigations continue. He said they had been unable to find her father, who the girl said belongs to Boko Haram.

New York Daily

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Travel ban from Christmas Eve to Sunday imposed in Borno and Yobe

All vehicle movement in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno state has been banned from Christmas eve to Sunday morning to prevent attacks by militant Islamists, the army has said.

The decision has led to thousands of people rushing to get to their destinations, correspondents say.

Neighbouring Yobe has barred vehicles from entering or leaving the state.

Boko Haram militants have targeted churches during previous festive seasons.

The group bombed the St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla near the capital, Abuja, on Christmas Day 2011, killing at least 43 people.

On Christmas Eve 2010, at least 32 people were killed in bomb blasts targeting churches in central Plateau state, which straddles Nigeria's mainly Muslim north and the Christian south.'Fear of massive attacks'

Boko Haram's insurgency has been most intense in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, the three states where a state of emergency was imposed last year to beat back the militants.

However, the group has stepped up attacks since then, seizing large swathes of territory in Borno and capturing hundreds of people, including women and children, during raids on towns and villages.

Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said security reports indicated that Boko Haram planned to launch "massive attacks" during the Christmas period in Borno, especially on the state capital Maiduguri.

In order to guarantee public safety, people would not be able to travel by road in Borno from 18:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Wednesday to 07:00 on Sunday.

People providing essential services such as medical care would be exempted, Col Usmani said.

BBC Nigeria analyst Ibrahim Shehu Adamu says similar bans were imposed during previous Christian and Muslim festive seasons and most people heeded them by walking to religious services or the homes of relatives.

The move is aimed at preventing Boko Haram from transporting explosives in cars or using motorbikes to carry out hit-and-run raids, he says.

The less restrictive travel ban in Yobe is not surprising, as it has not been as badly affected as Borno by the insurgency, he adds.

Boko Haram launched its insurgency in Nigeria in 2009 to create an Islamic state.

At least 2,000 civilians have been killed by the group this year.

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in April from the town of Chibok in Borno sparked international outrage.

BBC