Friday, April 28, 2017

Video - 30,000 people forced out from slum housing in Nigeria



At least 30,000 people have been forcefully evicted from their slum housing in Nigeria.
Lawyers say they're the victims of a land grab as real estate developers move in to the commercial capital.

Nigeria Football Federation gets $8.2million boos

The cash-strapped Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has received a financial boost from an energy company worth around US$8.2 million over the next five years.

The deal with the Aiteo Group will commence on 1 May.

"This will make it easier for us to plan adequately for our national teams," NFF boss Amaju Pinnick said.

"It is important to note that this will also take care of the national team coaches' salaries."

Pinnick hopes that this means no repeats of problems paying national team coaches that has troubled the NFF in the past.

"There will be no owing of coaches for the next five years," he added.

"This lucrative deal with Aiteo will cover all the national teams and has an option of a one-year extension."

"We are happy to have a sponsor come in at this crucial time and this is a big boost for our football."

Former Nigeria coaches Christian Chukwu, Shaibu Amodu, Samson Siasia,Austin Eguavoen, Sunday Oliseh and the late Stephen Keshi have all previously complained about outstanding salaries in recent years.

The chairman of the Aiteo Group, Benedict Peters, feels it is important for Nigerian companies to share their success.

"As Nigerian companies grow, I believe the benefits of that growth should be spread as widely as possible," he explained.

"Aiteo Group is as passionate about leadership as Nigerians are about football, so we are proud to be working together with the NFF and its coaching staff to reach a shared goal of a more prosperous Nigeria."

"It is an exciting time for the Nigerian Football Federation and for Aiteo - two organisations which are increasingly seeing global success, competing with global players.

"Aiteo Group is proud to sign this multi-million dollar partnership, which will help to support the Super Eagles to success in the 2018 World Cup, the 2019 AFCON and beyond."

5 soldiers killed by suicide bomber in Nigeria

A suicide car bomber has attacked a military convoy in northeast Nigeria, killing five soldiers and injuring another 40, security forces have said.

Two military officers told the AFP news agency on Friday that the attacker, believed to be loyal to factional Boko Haram leader Abu Mus'ab Al-Barnawi, targeted the convoy, which was conducting "clearance operations" between Yobe and Borno states.

"At about 10:00 GMT on Thursday, a suicide bomber believed to be a Boko Haram terrorist riding in a van loaded with explosives rammed into a military convoy at Manguzum village," one said.

"We lost five soldiers in the incident and more than 40 sustained various degrees of injuries," added the officer, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak about the incident.

In a separate development, at least 15 gunmen believed to be Boko Haram fighters were shot dead during a battle with soldiers.

Kinsley Samuel, Nigeria's military spokesman, said that the fighting occurred in the Sambisa forest in the country's north.

There has been a spate of deadly attacks on military targets in recent months, as troops fight to end the eight-year insurgency, which has killed thousands of civilians.

A multinational force of troops from Nigeria and its neighbours last year drove Boko Haram out of towns and villages in northeast Nigeria, but isolated attacks and suicide bombings continue.

In December, President Muhammadu Buhari said the capture of a key camp marked the "final crushing" of Boko Haram in its last enclave in Sambisa Forest, once the group's stronghold.

But since then, the group, which split into two factions last year, has stepped up its attacks.

One Boko Haram faction is led by Abubakar Shekau from the Sambisa Forest. Abu Mus'ab Al-Barnawi leads the other faction, based in the Lake Chad region, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in the Boko Haram conflict since it began in 2009 and more than 2.6 million others made homeless.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Video - Nigeria gets loan to modernize rail network and link Lagos to Kano



Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking parliament's approval for a proposal to borrow $5.85 billion from China to modernize its rail network. Buhari urged parliament in a letter to approve the railway borrowing because China has a limit on funds available from its China Africa Fund. The president wants to sign loan agreements as soon as China approves the project. Buhari also asked lawmakers to also approve a $1.075 billion loan to help rebuild the northeast, which has been ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency, and to expand support to the poor in Nigeria.

Death toll in meningitis outbreak in Nigeria reaches 813

A meningitis outbreak in Nigeria has killed 813 people so far this year, the country’s health minister said, as Africa’s most populous country and aid organisations attempt to tackle the surge in infections.

The government on Wednesday approved a house-to-house search in northern Nigeria to identify those afflicted with meningitis for vaccination and treatment, Isaac Adewole told reporters after a cabinet meeting under vice president Yemi Osinbajo.

The West African nation in April launched a mass vaccination campaign as part of its emergency response to the outbreak in its northwestern states, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said.

The NCDC said the infection killed 33 people in 2016.

More than 2,000 people died from an outbreak of the disease in Nigeria in 2009, with basic healthcare limited in rural parts of the country, where most people live on less than $2 a day, despite the country’s huge oil resources.

Meningitis is the inflammation of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord which can be caused by viral or bacterial infections. It spreads mainly through kisses, sneezes, coughs and in close living quarters.

The NCDC is working with the World Health Organisation, the UN’s Children’s Fund and Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, to try to control the outbreak.