Nigeria shuts down Action Against Hunger aid group for feeding Boko Haram

Nigeria's army has stopped the work of international NGO Action Against Hunger accusing it of supplying a militant Islamist group with food and drugs.

The army said it had warned the NGO against "aiding and abetting" Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria.

Action Against Hunger, which denies the accusations, says its "life-saving assistance" to vulnerable people has now been put "into jeopardy".

Boko Haram's 10-year campaign of terror has left more than 30,000 people dead.

More than two million people have also been displaced.

A network of NGOs is assisting the government in helping those who have been forced from their homes.

In 2018, the military accused the UN's children's agency, Unicef, of spying for the militants. It banned the organisation, which denied the allegations, but hours later lifted the ban.

In a statement, Action Against Hunger said it "delivers neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian aid to millions of people in Borno state by providing basic services to the most vulnerable people, especially women and children".

It said it had been told by soldiers without any notice to close its office in the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri.

In July, the Paris-based charity said six of its aid workers had been kidnapped in Nigeria.

The six abductees appeared on a video, with one of them calling on the Nigerian government and international community to intervene. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

No group has said it was behind the kidnapping.

In 2015, Boko Haram seized control of much of Borno state, and spread its activities to neighbouring countries.

A counter-insurgency by the army led to much of that territory being recaptured. But the militants have come to rely more on suicide bombings and kidnappings in recent years.

One of its most notorious attacks was on a school in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, when 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped. Many of them have been freed, but the whereabouts of more than 100 are still unknown.

Since 2013, Boko Haram are thought to have kidnapped more than 1,000 people.

BBC

Nigeria orders firm that won $9bn to forfeit assets

A company that was awarded more than nine billion dollars in an arbitration case against Nigeria has been ordered by a court in the capital city of Abuja to forfeit its local assets to the government.

The order comes after two men linked to the company, Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on its behalf, the court said on Thursday.

The impact on the British Virgin Islands-based firm and its international arbitration award, now worth some 20 percent of Nigeria's foreign reserves, was not immediately clear.

Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) brought 11 individual charges against P&ID and its local subsidiary. The two men, Muhammad Kuchazi and Adamu Usman, plead guilty to all the charges on behalf of the company.

The men, both Nigerians, were not personally charged and freely left the court.

In a statement, P&ID said the EFCC investigation had not afforded basic human rights to those involved and called on the government to "accept its responsibilities under the law."

"None of the individuals involved are current employees or representatives of P&ID," the spokesman said. "P&ID itself has received no communication from any Nigerian authority about the investigation or today's hearing. There has been no evidence produced, no defence allowed, no charges laid, no due process followed," it said.

The EFCC described Kuchazi as commercial director and Usman as director of the company's local subsidiary.

The men could not immediately be reached for comment.

P&ID was set up to execute a 2010 deal with the Nigerian government to build and operate a gas-processing plant in the southeastern port city of Calabar. When the deal collapsed, P&ID took the government to arbitration, eventually winning a $6.6bn award that has been accruing interest since 2013.


Last month, a judge in London said he would grant P&ID the right to convert the award to a judgment, which would allow it to seek to seize assets from the Nigerian government to collect the award.

The government has said the deal was designed to fail and called the award "an assault on every Nigerian and unfair."

The ruling in Abuja would not necessarily affect P&ID's efforts to seize assets. A Lagos court ordered in 2016 that the entire arbitration be set aside, but the arbitration tribunal rejected the court's jurisdiction to rule on the matter - a decision affirmed by last month's London ruling.

With interest payments, the arbitration award now tops nine billion dollars.

Al Jazeera

Video - The effect of Saudi oil refinery crisis on Nigeria

As unfortunate as the attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities might be, for some oil producing countries, it's an opportunity to ramp up production and take advantage of the current global spike in price of oil. It's especially so for oil producers in Africa, whose national budgets have been threatened by low oil prices.

Video - Nigeria-South Africa ties date way back to the 60's

Nigeria and South Africa's relations date way back to the 1960's during the Apartheid era. Nigeria reportedly contributed Millions of Dollars as relief funds for victims and to help fight against Apartheid in South Africa until its liberation in 1994. Perhaps it is this historical reason that makes the Nigerian anger especially strong.

Video of Nigerian solidiers roasting suspect goes viral

Some Nigerians have expressed anger at a clip showing three soldiers torturing a man suspected to have committed an offence. While the date of the video could not be ascertained as of the time of this report, the military men could be heard speaking a mix of Hausa and pidgin English.

What the suspect did was not stated in the 30-second clip. The video, posted on Twitter, shows the soldiers hitting the suspect, as one of them strike him with the butt of his gun. The men tie the suspect up and hang him on an iron bar, as he dangles under a burning fire.

He has heavy logs of wood on his head, back and leg to steady him on the flame. “You must feel it now now now,” one of the soldiers said. “Leave am like this…” “Don’t hit him o…” another said, as his colleague hit him with the butt of the gun. “Make I kill am?”

The poster of the video said she could not tell the suspect’s offence. However, Nigerians, who watched the video, called the attention of the Nigerian military to it, demanding immediate investigation. One Daniel, @ayoadaniel, said, “Has the Nigerian military seen this video and please, there should be no denial that these aren’t our soldiers.

Even in war times, rules of engagement aren’t just thrown out of the window like that; this is wrong on so many levels.” Another Twitter user, Dat Fulani Boi, said the soldiers were on their own. “For your information, the Nigerian army does not in any way teach this kind of inhuman punishment to the soldiers. They just do it on their own free will.

And I urge the Nigerian army to look into this. He may be a criminal, but he can be punished secretly and privately,” he wrote.

Some of the people who commented said the suspect might be a Boko Haram terrorist, adding that the torture was justified going by the pains they had caused many families.

A Twitter user, @BonnylifeUche, however, described the act as inhumane, saying there could be no justification for it.

“We’re all against terrorists and terrorism, but this inhumane torture of a captured terrorist by Nigerian military is unacceptable and stand condemned,” he wrote.

The acting Director, Army Public Relations, Sagir Musa, said he was not aware of the video.

Punch