Chibok schoolgirl kidnapper jailed in Nigeria

A Nigerian court has jailed a Boko Haram militant involved in the 2014 kidnapping of the Chibok girls.

Haruna Yahaya, 35, is the first member of the group to be sentenced for playing a part in the mass abduction.

The former trader, who confessed to his role in taking the 276 schoolgirls, argued he was made to act under duress.

But judges sitting at a military court in Kanji, who are hearing the cases of more than 1,000 suspected Boko Haram militants, dismissed his excuse.

They were also unmoved by his pleas for leniency on the grounds of his disability, which has left him with a paralysed arm and deformed leg, BBC News' Ishaq Khalid reports.

Justice ministry spokesman Salihu Isah confirmed to news agency AFP that Yahaya was given a 15-year jail sentence.

Yahaya, who came from Potiskum, in Yobe state, north-east Nigeria, was captured by a vigilante group called Civilian JTF in 2015 - a year after the girls were snatched from Government Girls Secondary School in Borno state.

Of the 276 girls taken in April 2014, 112 are still in captivity.

This week, some 700 of the suspected militants are due to appear before the judges in Kanji, according to sources at the court.

On Monday, 20 were found guilty of crimes associated with Boko Haram, while two were discharged for lack of evidence.

BBC

Video - U.N. seeks $1 billion for humanitarian aid in Nigeria in 2018

The United Nations says it requires more than a billion dollars to help Nigerians affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. While launching the world body's 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan, the U.N. country representative - Edward Kallon - says the initiative identifies more than 6.1 million people in need of assistance.

Video - Nigerian army celebrates victory as militants vow revenge

Nigerian government officials have told residents in the north-east of the country it's time to celebrate. They say the military has taken control of the last Boko Haram stronghold in the country -- Sambisa Forest. However, the militant group has released a video, refuting the claims and threatening more attacks.

Air plane door of Nigerian airline Dana Air falls off on runway

A Nigerian airline has blamed a passenger after one of its aircraft doors fell off shortly after landing.

The flight from Lagos to Abuja was taxiing on the runway when the emergency exit door came away.

Dana Air denied that it was caused by a mechanical fault, and said the door could not fall off "without a conscious effort by a passenger to open it".

But one passenger told the BBC that everyone on board had denied tampering with the door.

Dapo Sanwo, from Lagos, said: "The flight was noisy with vibrations from the floor panel. I noticed the emergency door latch was loose and dangling."

"When we landed and the plane was taxiing back to the park point, we heard a poof-like explosion, followed by a surge of breeze and noise. It was terrible."

"The cabin crew tried to say a passenger pulled the hatch which everyone denied. They also tried to get us to stop taking videos or pictures."

Ola Brown, who was also travelling on the flight, said on Twitter: "Did you hear [the door] rattling the whole flight? Was so unsettling. I just thought it was a screw loose, Didn't think it would actually just fall off."

In a statement, Dana Air denied there were issues with the door during the flight.

"The emergency exit door of our aircraft are plug-type backed by pressure, which ordinarily cannot fall off without tampering or a conscious effort to open by a crew member or passenger," the company said.

"When an aircraft is airborne, it is fully pressurised and there was no way the seat or door could have been shaking as insinuated."

The airline went on to say it had been inspected by engineers alongside a Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority team and "no issue was reported".

"The [return] flight was only delayed for eight minutes as we needed to demonstrate to the regulators that the safety and comfort of our guests is at the centre of our operations," the statement added.

In 2012, a Dana Air flight crashed in a busy Lagos suburb killing all 153 people on board.

Nigeria has historically had a poor air safety record. Last year, Abuja's airport airport was closed for six weeks while major repairs were carried out on its runway.

BBC

Activists embark on anti-littering awareness campaign in Abuja, Nigeria

A group of activists in Nigeria has pledged to clean up the country by encouraging people not to throw their rubbish onto the streets. The campaigners say that without proper intervention, a large population such as Nigeria's may soon not be able to cope with the build-up of trash.