Police Boss Cries Blue Murder Over Attacks On His Officers In Rivers

April 23, 2019

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammes A Adamu has cried blue murder with anger over what he called “unprovoked and gruesome attack on Police officers who were on a legitimate mission to arrest some suspected armed robbers and receivers of a stolen vehicle in a community in Cross River State.

The Police boss has ordered the immediate arrest and prosecution of the culprits, headed by the person identified Ikenga, a notorious receiver of stolen property, and his gang members.

A statement by the Force spokesman, Frank Mba, said that the attacks occurred on the 17th April, at Ogoja Community, and that four Police officers attached to IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT) unit were seriously and grievously wounded, with deep matchet cuts on their heads and other parts of their bodies.

“The detectives (the victims of the savage attack) are investigating a case of a stolen Toyota Sienna Bus earlier reported by the Master Chapel Church, a Pentecostal church based in Lagos. The detectives had, after a painstaking investigation, arrested four (4) male suspects – Peter, Ben, Ebuka and Johnson.

“The suspects who were positively implicated in the crime by Police investigation, confessed to indeed stealing the vehicle. They stated further that they had sold the vehicle to another criminal in Benue State. Hence, detectives moved to Benue State with one of the suspects. On arrest of the suspect in Benue State, he stated that he had sold the vehicle to another notorious receiver of stolen goods based in Ogoja for a sum of #250, 000 Naira. With this discovery, the detectives proceeded straight to Cross River State, where the notorious receiver IKENGA was apprehended and the stolen vehicle recovered.

“However, in a bizarre twist, shortly after his arrest, the suspect raised an alarm in his native language which attracted his gang members. Subsequently, the policemen came under serious physical attack from weapon- wielding hoodlums. The officers were savagely butchered by these armed gangs. Consequently, Ikenga, the notorious crook escaped with the stolen vehicle.”

The statement said that the Inspector General condemned the attack in very strong terms and warned that the Police under his watch will not tolerate criminal attacks and assault on its personnel or facilities.

He enjoined traditional rulers and community leaders not to allow such attacks to take place in their domain as they may be called to account.

The IGP ordered for the immediate manhunt and arrest of IKenga and other members of his gang.

He also urged members of the public to avail the Police with credible and useful information that will lead to the apprehension of all persons involved in these unwholesome and illegal acts.

Buhari Begs Emir Of Qatar To Move Investments To Nigeria

Editorial staff

April 23, 2019

Investments in sectors like petroleum, power, aviation, agriculture, railways, and many others, featured prominently as President Muhammadu Buhari hosted the Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-thani, at State House, Abuja, on Tuesday.

Also on the front burners was the recharge of Lake Chad with water from the Congo Basin, so as to grant succour to the more than 30 million people adversely affected by the shrinkage of the lake over the years.

“We invite you to invest in our refineries, pipelines, power sector, aviation, agriculture, education, and many others, so that you can have your management here to oversee the investment. We need your expertise,” President Buhari said.

On the receding Lake Chad, he said of the over 30 million people affected, more than half were in Nigeria, and it has contributed greatly to illegal migration, as innumerable youths dare the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, in order to find safer shores in Europe. A large number die in the process.

“We need help with the recharge of Lake Chad, as it is not a project that the concerned countries can handle alone,” President Buhari said, adding: “Recharging the lake will bring back fishing, farming, animal husbandry, and the youths won’t be attracted by insurgency or illegal migration. We want Qatar to be involved because of the humanitarian nature of the endeavour.”

Sheikh Hamad Al-thani said he was honoured and happy to be in Nigeria for the first time, stressing it was a reciprocal visit to the one paid to Qatar in 2016 by President Buhari.

“The relationship between our countries is very good. We just have to build on it,” the emir said. “We share a lot of similarities in different areas. We need to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation. We are willing to do a lot more with Nigeria, and will continue to work on investment opportunities of mutual benefit,” he added.

What’s Wrong With These End-Time Governors?, By Reuben Abati

Editorial staff

April 23, 2019

I believe we all have that one family member who thinks that he or she has the right to intrude into your schedule and order you around. When they call you, they won’t give up until you pick their calls. And these people, they can call you liked a hundred times. Send text messages. Whatsapp. Report you to the entire neighbourhood. They can be so ferocious, your phone will keep ringing non-stop, you would think the fire service is at your door. This is exactly that happened to me, for at least two hours, as I sat down to write this piece. I stubbornly refused to take the calls. Wetin? Some people can use the phone to harass and intimidate. Ki lo de? I could neither think nor write.

I had other things in mind: the defiance of the Sudanese Professionals Association, for example. The people of Sudan want a new post-Omar al-Bashir order, a complete break from the past, by all means. They have refused to accept whatever has been offered by the military council that took over after Omar al-Bashir’s ouster. They want an immediate transition to civilian rule that is led by the people themselves not by soldiers. I am fully in support of the people of Sudan. Omar al Bashir is a shameless dictator. He deserves the place that he has now been given in the Kober Maximum Prison, the same place where he used to keep his critics and victims.

He also deserves a day before the court of justice: to answer for his crimes against humanity and the hardship he imposed on his own people. African dictators, like Percy Shelley’s Ozymandias, believe that they are invincible but we have seen them falling one after the other and there are more that should fall: Paul Biya in Cameroon, Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo in Equitorial Guinea and Idris Deby Itno in Chad. Between 1993 and 1999, our own professionals used to be like present-day Sudanese Professionals. We had the Concerned Professionals, who stood up and insisted on an immediate end to military rule in Nigeria. But that was then. Our professionals have all since taken to pepper soup and goat head, and to inanities garbed in the cloak of acquiescence and indifference. Many of them have developed pot-bellies. They have eaten their own part of the forbidden Nigerian fruit, their mouths smeared with oyel, I mean oil. And hence: Professor Pat Utomi who was one of the original minds behind the revolt of the Nigerian middle class in the mid to late 90s Nigeria is now writing a trilogy on the complicity of the Middle Class and how that Middle Class has failed Nigeria. There are lessons for the Nigerian Middle Class in what is happening in Sudan.

I also had in mind the Easter Day killings in Sri Lanka, over 290 dead and over 500 injured in what looked like a pre-meditated, organized attack on churches, guest houses, hotels and other buildings. Coming shortly after the tragedy of Notre Dame de Paris, those who argue that Christianity seems to be under assault and that our humanity is under siege may not be too far from the truth. Sri Lanka is a country with serious ethnic and religious fractures, a little trigger could throw that country back into civil war and protracted humanitarian crisis. The response of the enlightened world is in order; the blatant act of terror has been condemned from the Vatican to Nigeria’s Aso Rock.

I wondered though, how our own Aso Rock picked up the tragedy in Colombo with such emotional clarity and promptly issued a statement. On Good Friday, there were reports of Christians being killed in Katsina-Ala Local Government of Benue State as they returned from church. The Nigerian Presidency apparently missed that, but of course Sri Lanka was in the international news networks, and our leaders in Nigeria hardly watch Nigerian news channels. But let someone fire a shot in the West Bank, or release a report in Washington DC, or a bullet in Yemen, there will be a buzz around Nigeria. It is amazing how the yet unaddressed imbalance in the global information order leaves Nigeria constantly showing up at the lower end of the moral, governance and policy spectrum.

I was also thinking of the Sharia Council telling President Muhammadu Buhari to take national security seriously and protect Nigerian Muslims, and I thought the best message would be to insist that all Nigerian lives matter- Muslim, Christian or animist. I also read a story about the Minister of Finance saying Nigeria is mindful of its borrowings from the Chinese, Eurobond loans, the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank and how we have not even borrowed enough because we have not yet reached the threshold of borrowings within our peer group, and I felt like lamenting how poorly digested textbook knowledge sabotages Nigeria. By now, Nigeria should be tired of all these half-baked ideas about debt-to-GDP ratio, and all these power point intellectuals who get to high office after a weekend course in Harvardwhere they learn nothing other than the ability to do power-point magic. Their village-type, poorly exposed bosses look at the power point and they think it is magic. Pat Utomi may need to investigate the abuse of technology as an instrument of deception and theft in policy corridors, facilitated by the complicit middle class that he is disturbed about.

My head was trying to sort out these issues, even as my phones kept ringing, buzzing and tingling. The calls would not stop. The urgency was intimidating. The persistence was offensive. I picked.

“Yes?”

“I have been calling you since. If somebody is calling you, you should pick your calls.” You know that kind of tone, sounds like the guy at the other end is holding a horse-whip and would apply it on your back, to beat the devil out of you, if you were available.

I smiled, knowing that the call will soon go off and you will be told later that the caller’s credit is finished. In Nigeria, callers don’t ever have credit on their phones, particularly if they are calling from hometowns. You ‘d have to call them back and send them phone credit later.

“Yes? Ki lo sele. I hope there is no problem. A ku odun oh. Compliments of the season. How are my children?” It always helps to be polite.

“Amosun ti tun bere oh. Amosun has started again. Jemila ori e ti jeun yo o. He is on rampage”.

“What’s the problem?” Ibikunle Amosun, also known as Senator Ibikunle Amosun (SIA) is the Governor of Ogun State, Nigeria, (2011-2019). Amosun ran for the Senate from Ogun Central, his Senatorial district in the 2019 general elections, and the people of that constituency decided to send him to the National Assembly which sadly has become a retirement home for former Governors who need a resting place and for all kinds of malcontents without measurable ability- the reason Nigeria’s National Assembly is progressively incompetent. Amosun also wanted to impose one of his boys as Governor of Ogun State; he even chose candidates for all the seats in the election, but the people rebuffed him. They rejected his Gubernatorial candidate and voted majorly for the All Progressives Congress, the party that brought him, Amosun to power, and which he rejected to go and form a rival party, a platform he deployed to treacherous use in one of the most classical cases of anti-party politics. But Amosun is not giving up. He lost the election. He was humiliated, but since the elections, he appears set on a revenge mission.

“Amosun has sent caterpillars to Kuto market. He wants to demolish all the shops including Mama’s shop. Call your sister quickly, so that they don’t destroy the shop.”

Mama means my mother. She died in 2013. In her lifetime, she rose to be an Iyalode of one of the key groups in that market and the state. The caller was so hysterical that her shop will be demolished. But wait a moment, if Amosun wants to demolish the entire market, it would be wrong to worry about personal spaces.

“Caterpillars are already in Kuto. They say Amosun has asked them to demolish anything in sight”, I was told.

It is barely four weeks to Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s end of tenure, but he seems to find it difficult to withdraw as Governor of the state. His minion having lost the Gubernatorial election, he has since embarked on a desperate mission to tie the hands of the Governor-elect, Prince Dapo Abiodun. He is creating booby traps for him. He is laying land mines. If what we know is so bad, how about other acts of mischief that are not yet in the public domain? Since the Gubernatorial election of March 9 in Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has refused to conduct himself after the fashion of a gentleman. He and his chosen candidate have refused to congratulate Dapo Abiodun, the declared winner of the election. Instead, Amosun, using the power of incumbency has been busy appointing permanent secretaries, general managers, and board members. These new appointees are not going to work with him. They will work with a new Governor that will be sworn in next month. Is it morally right, intelligent or correct to act so mischievously? Amosun has also embarked on the demolition of houses and structures while announcing new projects by the state government. In Abeokuta his hometown where the people voted for him to go to the Senate because they believe he used the office of Governor to help his own Egba people, Amosun has been busy demolishing houses and shops in Adatan towards Moore junction, Adigbe, Lafenwa market and now Kuto. The people’s interpretation is that Amosun is targeting political opponents and their areas of influence.

But his main target is Dapo Abiodun, the Governor-elect. There are uncompleted projects across the state. Amosun is not focusing on those uncompleted projects in the twilight of his administration. He is busy destroying things and creating new problems. It may take Dapo Abiodun a whole four years to correct the damage that Amosun has created since the election of March 9. Whose interest is being served? Even President Muhammadu Buhari who may not need handover notes is asking for handover notes. In Ogun State, Amosun has refused to set up a transition committee. The Governor-elect has a Transition Committee and 10 working groups. But there is nobody to talk to on the other side because the Governor has refused to recognize the people’s will. Amosun can beat his chest in his wife’s presence in “the other room” and remind her that he is still the man in Ogun State – good for him- but each time he does that he should keep an eye on the clock and the timelines of history.

It is sad that our democracy in Nigeria continues to create little tyrants. Amosun is definitely not alone and this is not in any way, a partisan comment. In Oyo state, there was once upon a time a man who called himself “the constituted authority”. He too demolished buildings and punished anyone whose face he didn’t like. His name is Abiola Ajimobi. He was also once a Senator, and he became Governor. As Governor of Oyo state, he was a male version of the legendary Efunsetan Aniwura, the bad woman of Ibadan politics. Not even the Olubadan could talk to Ajimobi. He trampled on the traditional institution and surprised even his own most ardent admirers. Why and how do good men end up as villains in Nigerian politics? I have no clue yet. It is sad that in Oyo state as in Ogun state, we have been hearing stories about the outgoing Governor behaving badly. Ajimobi also wanted to go to the retirement house in the National Assembly. The people have rejected him and also rejected the candidate he wanted as his successor. Ajimobi has not been smiling since then. He too has been behaving like a bull in the China shop.

Ajimobi is just probably slightly better than the out-going Governor in Imo State, Rochas Okorocha who also wants to go to the National Assembly. INEC won’t give him a Return Certificate because INEC insists he forced the state Resident Electoral Commissioner to declare him winner under duress. Okorocha wanted his son-in-law as his successor, but the people of Imo state refused. They voted instead for Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In Imo state, the people have rejected Okorocha’s “Iberiberism”, whatever that means. Ihedioha should humour Okorocha after May 29, by erecting his statue at the market place so the people of Imo State will for long remember the “Iberiberism” known as Rochas Okorocha.

These are only three examples of the end-time Governors in Nigeria. Their two-term tenures have ended but they want to retain control and remain in charge. This is not the first time we would see this withdrawal syndrome on display. Power is like opium. It is addictive. Once you take it, you get hooked. End-time Governors probably deserve some kind of rehab treatment. They must learn to let go. There must be legislation banning all departing Governors from making last minute bank withdrawals, contract approvals, demolition of houses and shops, and new appointments. The rule that a serving Governor is in power till the last minute is made for decent people, not for the types we have seen in Nigeria. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be more concerned about these rogue, end-time Governorsthan the politics of the 9^th National Assembly.

Economy: Africa Development Bank President Vows To Make Nigeria Powerhouse

Editorial staff

April 23, 2019

President of African Development Bank (AfBD), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has vowed to use the bank to make Nigeria a powerhouse in African economy.

Speaking to news men today, Tuesday, shortly after an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Adesina said: “Nigeria is a big country. Nigeria has to be a power house and I am sure it will be.”

AfBD) President is satisfied and happy with the role the bank has played in reforming Nigeria’s economy, saying that even President Buhari is “very appreciative in the role we played in terms of the general budget support of the government.

“I believe the economic growth and reform programme that’s being done. I think Nigeria has come out of recession and I think we have to continue to push to have greater growth.”

Adesina stressed the need to ensure adequate power supply to engineer proper industrial development, saying: “without power you can’t do anything. Industries can’t develop without power. So I commend the efforts that are being made.

“There are three components. One I think we need to get the tariff structure because if you don’t have good cost reflective tariff structure, investments from private sector becomes very difficult in the energy sector.

“The second is liquidity constraints in the power sector should be addressed. We in the bank have invested over $400 million in the transmission company of Nigeria to support it. We have also provided risks guarantee to guarantee the risk of non-repayment to free up the liquidity constraints.

“But at the end of the day, it is to diversify the energy subsets that we have. We have gas here; we should use a lot of those gas. We also have hydro and solar.

“The African Development Bank is investing heavily right now in the North: in the Jigawa area in solar projects. God is good to Africa and He gave us tremendous amount of sunshine, water, everything is good for Africa. All we need to do is take a cable and connect to the sun and we will be fine. So we just have to optimize the renewable energy potential that we have.”

The AfDB boss said that as the bank entered the period of general capital increase, a different Africa is in the making through the support of the bank, under the new general capital increase of the bank.

“One of the things that we said was that Nigeria’s contribution under the last general capital increase of the bank was $360 million but we lend to Nigeria $4.5 billion, almost 15.5 percent. “Every dollar that Nigeria gives to the bank, we lend $15 in return, so it’s a great investment. I assured Mr. President that under the new general capital increase of the bank, we are talking to our investors about this, so if we get enough money, hundreds of people will be connected to electricity.

Police Boss Investigates Easter Day Accident That Claimed 11 In Gombe

Editorial staff

April 22, 2019

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed A Adamu has ordered a speedy and comprehensive investigation into a fatal motor accident on Gombe-Biu road, which occurred yesterday, 21st April, causing the death of 11 persons and serious injury to thirty.

According to eye-witness accounts, the accident occurred as a result of loss of control of the vehicle by the driver while driving along Gadan Malale and heading towards central round about, and on reaching a point at Unguwan waja, rammed into a procession of crowd evidently celebrating Easter.

With assistance of the policemen from Gombe Division, the victims were immediately rushed to Gombe Specialist Hospital where the driver one Corp Assistant Adamu Abdullahi, a staff of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attached to Government House Gombe and 10 others were confirmed dead and their bodies deposited at the morgue while thirty other persons injured are currently receiving treatment.

Meanwhile the Commissioner of Police, Gombe State Command has visited the scene of the accident and had an on -the-spot assessment as well as the hospital to monitor the treatment of the victims.

Security Operatives Rake-In 100 Exam Crooks In Recent UTM Exam

Editorial staff

April 22, 2019

No fewer than 100 examination cheats have so far been arrested by security operatives across the country during the just-concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said.

Among the persons arrested was a notorious cheat who had registered about 64 times in a bid to “ghost-write” for 64 candidates.
In its Weekly Bulletin released in Abuja today, Monday by its spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said the fraudsters were found to have engaged in multiple registration to facilitate impersonation during the examination.
The board noted that the act was inflating annual registration of the UTME exercise by up to 30 per cent.
JAMB also said that data available to it showed that the unwholesome practice was prevalent in virtually all the states of the federation, including Abuja.
The examination body said the arrest of the culprits was made possible by the comprehensive and mandatory identity checks conducted on those taking the examination with a view to fishing out professional ghost writers before the release of the results. JAMB also said that it had cancelled the results of two Computer Based (CBT) centres in Abia over what it described as “widespread irregularities” during the UTME. The board gave the names of the CBT centres as Heritage and Infinity CBT centre and Okwyzil Computer Institute Comprehensive School Ugwunabo, Aba, Abia.
It said the drastic action was necessitated by the visual evidence obtained from a careful review of the CCTV recordings by a panel of experts engaged by the board.
“However, in order not to unduly punish honest and hardworking candidates who found themselves attached to these two centres, the board magnanimously relocated all the candidates who had taken or were scheduled to take their examination in the two centres to other centres where they had subsequently taken their examinations,” it said.
JAMB, however, apologised to innocent candidates involved in the relocation for the inconveniences they may have suffered, reaffirming its commitment to providing equal opportunity to all candidates to articulate their hopes and aspirations.
The body said that all the results of the examination sessions conducted by the board in the two centres from April 11 to 18 were null and void.

Presidency Faults Bishop Mamza Over Ways Buhari Handles Security Issues

Editorial staff

April 22, 2019

The Presidency has reminded the Catholic Bishop of Yola Diocese, Rt. Rev. Fr. Stephen Mamza, who said recently that the President is sleeping on duty as the nation is suffering from insecurity, that rather than sleeping, the President has been at alert since 2015 to resolve a lot of security challenges he inherited.

The Presidency reminded the Bishop that before the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015, he (the Bishop) had harboured over 1,500 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), mostly women and children at his St. Theresa’s Cathedral Church which administered food rations and issued bags of maize, cooking oil and seasoning, but that all such IDPs have gone back to their homes.

In a statement today, Monday, by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidency stressed that there is so much that has changed in the past three to four years in and around Yola, and the Catholic Church in particular.

It said that a true assessment would show that but for the Change Administration of President Buhari, things would have continued the way they were, or even get worse, saying: “these could not have happened if a Commander-in- Chief was asleep.”

The Presidency said that Bishop Mamza was, and is still a strong member of the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API), which is made up of religious and community leaders and that the Peace Initiative once housed and fed 400,000 displaced people from Northern Adamawa and Borno States in 2015.

“As widely reported by the local and international press, in the premises of St. Theresa’s Cathedral where Rev. Mamza ministered, there were more than 1,500 IDPs, mostly women and children on whom the church administered food rations and issued bags of maize, cooking oil and seasoning.

“Now that Boko Haram has been degraded, the more than 400,000 displaced people absorbed by the Adamawa community have all gone back to Borno State and to those council areas in northern Adamawa.

“In addition to the capital, Yola, the towns of Michika, Madagali and Mubi which had been occupied by Boko Haram during their military advances have since been retaken by the Nigerian military, whose personnel are also clearing litters of Boko Haram’s carnage and are, through the support of the administration as well as local and international partners, rebuilding roads and bridges, power lines, burnt schools, markets, destroyed churches and mosques.

“Without an iota of doubt, the Northeast is better off with President Buhari than it was under the previous administration. That should explain the massive turnout of voters in the region, in spite of threats to life and property, to vote for the return of the President for a Second Term of four years.

“Sadly, one of the realities of today’s Nigeria is that it easy to blame President Buhari for the violence all around us. Community leaders are too scared to blame the warlords and the sponsors of killings we live with because they fear for their own lives.

“What is happening in several communities racked by inter-ethnic and religious violence is arising from the refusal of community leaders to point at known criminals in their midst for the law enforcement agencies to act against them. They rather blame President Buhari for their woes.

“It is indeed an irony that in the week that Bishop Mamza was speaking, another Bishop with a known commitment to peace, and results to show for his work in neighbouring Plateau State, is being dispatched to go to Taraba, Adamawa and Benue States to work in collaboration with security agencies in mending broken inter-communal relationships.

“This senseless violence can never be condoned by the administration and we sympathize with the families of those who lost loved ones as well as those injured. The administration’s intense security efforts and peace building will not only continue, but will expand in response to such explosions of violence in the country.”

Dr. Tom Adaba… Humility And Submission To God – Book Review By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Greenbarge Reporters

April 22, 2019

Two things captured my attention immediately a copy of the book titled: BUT FOR GOD was graciously handed to me by no other person than the author himself, Dr. Aaze Thomas Adaba. One of the two things is the photo of him and his wife in, wait for it, romantic posture, featured at the back page of the 637 page book with caption to it thus: “At our 50th wedding anniversary, the Lord has blessed us with 6 biological children, 2 adopted ones and 16 grandchildren.”

The second one are the words of dedication in the book on page one, which read: “To God Almighty, The Height of Might, The Tower of Power, The Sole Authority of our Lives, The Infinity in Glory, The Sole Creator of Time, Space and the Universe, I dedicate this work in Thanksgiving for His infinite love and care for me and all about me. By His grace I am. To Him I owe all.”

The words of dedication are not just an acknowledgement of the indisputable hand of God in all his life and living on this earth, but also a sign of absolute submission, in prostrating posture, without intervening factor, to the same God. The words appear to have set the tone of the entire book, and can be said to represent the summary of the thought of the author. The back page photo and its caption show the creativity and thought of the author, i.e. as in saying: after all said and done, here we are, my wife and I, awaiting God’s next step in our lives.

If the author had commissioned me to write the book on him, I would have titled it, going by the content therein as: “Tom Adaba Gives Everything To God” and may add: “In Absolute Submission.” But I might not have been as detailed, in-depth, creative as the master himself. For, Dr. Tom Adaba as he’s fondly called by his admirers, including yours truly, is a renowned erudite scholar, flawless orator not only in Queen’s English but also in his native language, Ebira from Kogi State of Nigeria; a respected teacher, a technologically based broadcaster and politico-business guru.

He has every reason, every cause to give everything he has become to God, from the account of the event leading to, and the circumstances of his birth, as he narrates in the first three chapters.

He’s modest enough to acknowledge that the circumstances of his birth were narrated to him by Pa Joseph Abara Adaba.

In Ebira culture, such circumstances preceding his birth made him “a child of name” directly translated. His mother, Mrs. Mary Oniya Adaba had given birth to three children before him but they all died at infancy. It was one Parish Priest, Rev Fr Thomas Duffy who prophesized that the next child of Mrs. Mary would be male who would survive series of child deaths in her life. The Priest prophesy came to pass, resulting in the parents naming the child after him, i.e. Thomas.

Therefore, his first name, Aaze is a quick reminder of where he is coming from, for Aaze means “if it’s or he’s allowed” to manifest or to live.

The circumstances of his birth also included the fact that his father was conscripted into the British West Africa Frontier Force for operations in India and Burma in the Second World War (1939-44) at the time his wife took in for Thomas. The father didn’t return from the war front until the end of the war in 1944 when Tom, who was growing up in his forester father’s house, was already over eight years old.

Such circumstances of his birth and early years in his life were later to run through the major part of his life: jumping from one unforeseen fortune and blessing of God to the other amidst lurking uncertainties. It was like swimming comfortably in an ocean full of sharks and dangerous reptiles.

However, like any other creation of God, Tom narrates, from page 226, a sordid experience he encountered in an unlikely place when he was in NTA (Nigerian Television Authority), where he stagnated for a long time on Grade Level 15. When he complained to his superior officer who happened to be his friend, about the bad treatment regarding a quit notice for him in his accommodation in Lagos and lack of promotion for a long time, the boss cum friend told Tom: “Yes, I ordered the quit notice…” and “l honestly tell you I don’t know what you are doing here. As far as I am concerned, I do not recognize your assignment. You have no assignment here that I know of.”

That was perhaps, the first time, on page 229, he would ever shed tears as an adult, as he says: “shock, perplexity and utter disappointment were words too weak to describe my state of mind at the time he uttered the statements…l barged out of the office with tears welling in my eyes.”

As human being created by God living in our own kind of clime, the author also tasted incidence of robbery attacks and other forms of societal foibles, but as he concludes: that he survived all such foibles, tumbles, tribulations and hiccups, by men and nature’s arrangements, proved the high level of God’s attention to him and his family.

Indeed, it is impossible for one to adequately capture most of the essential parts of the book in a review such as this. This is backgrounded in the foreword to the book written by no other personality than the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan who wrote: “he has achieved significant success in his chosen profession in the communication field. In his family life, he is clearly a role model for many, especially for the younger couples facing chaos and disorder in an important area of human life. If we can talk of any “secret” from his successful life, he will be the first to submit that it is all by the grace of God, to whom he has shown great devotion at every moment of his life. This publication will highlight some major elements in this exciting romance with God…Dr. Tom Adaba has done well to screw up his courage to get this publication out now, before it gets too late…his journey is not yet over…”

What is possible from this review is for one to touch on one or two points as a way of creating a leeway for readers to understand, appreciate the import of the work and go out there to possess copies to read. You won’t regret doing so.

One last word: the book is rendered in simple, flawless, straight forward and conversational English. It is very educative, very revealing, very enlightening, very bold and faultlessly factual.

10 Days After Security Alert, Series Of Bomb Blasts Kill 160 People In Sri Lanka

Greenbarge Reporters

April 21, 2019

A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka today, Sunday, killing nearly 160 people, including dozens of foreigners.

The attacks came ten days after Sri Lanka’s police, Chief Pujuth Jayasundara issued an intelligence alert to top officers, warning that suicide bombers planned to hit “prominent churches.”

In the documents seen by AFP, the security agencies said: “a foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo.”

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that was linked last year to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

Sri Lanka Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe condemned the attacks, describing them as the worst act of violence since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war a decade ago and as “cowardly.” The powerful blasts, six in quick succession and then two more hours later, wrought devastation, including at the capital’s well-known St Anthony’s Shrine, a historic Catholic Church.

Hospital sources said British, Dutch and American citizens were among the 158 dead overall, with Britons and Japanese also injured. A Portuguese man also died, the country’s LUSA news agency reported.

An AFP photographer at the scene at St Anthony’s saw bodies lying on the floor, some draped with scarves and clothes.

Much of the church roof was blown out in the explosion, with roof tiles, glass and splintered wood littering the floor along with pools of blood.

The injured flooded into local hospitals, where officials reported hundreds of wounded were being admitted.

The country’s defence ministry ordered a night-time curfew, beginning on Sunday 6:00pm local time (1230 GMT), and a “temporary” social media ban was imposed by the government.

The first blast was reported at St Anthony’s, followed by a second deadly explosion at St Sebastian’s, a church in the town of Negombo, north of the capital.

“A bomb attack to our church, please come and help if your family members are there,” read a post in English on the church’s Facebook page.

Soon after, police confirmed that a third church in the east-coast town of Batticaloa had been hit, along with three high-end hotels in the capital.

Later in the afternoon, a hotel in the south of Colombo was struck — killing at least two people and bringing the toll to 158 — while another hit the suburb of Orugodawatta in the north of the capital.

President Maithripala Sirisena said in an address that he was shocked by the explosions and appealed for calm, and the prime minister was expected to speak to the media shortly.

On Twitter, Wickremesinghe wrote: “I strongly condemn the cowardly attacks on our people today.

“I call upon all Sri Lankans during this tragic time to remain united and strong. Please avoid propagating unverified reports and speculation. The government is taking immediate steps to contain this situation.”

The hotels targeted in the attack are all popular destinations for tourists, among them the Cinnamon Grand, which is near the prime minister’s official residence in Colombo.

An official at the hotel told AFP the blast there had hit the restaurant, and reported at least one person had been killed.

At the Shangri-La hotel, an AFP photographer saw extensive damage on the second floor restaurant, with windows blown out and electrical wires hanging from the ceiling.

– ‘Horrible scenes’ –

“Emergency meeting called in a few minutes. Rescue operations underway,” Sri Lanka’s Minister of Economic Reforms and Public Distribution, Harsha de Silva, said in a tweet on his verified account.

He said he had been to two of the attacked hotels and was at the scene at St Anthony’s Shrine, where he described “horrible scenes”.

“I saw many body parts strewn all over,” he tweeted, adding that there were “many casualties including foreigners”.

“Please stay calm and indoors,” he added.

Embassies in Colombo warned their citizens to shelter in place, and Sri Lankan Airlines told customers to arrive at the airport four hours ahead of flights because of ramped-up security in the wake of the attacks.

Only around six percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka is Catholic, but the religion is seen as a unifying force because it includes people from both the Tamil and majority Sinhalese ethnic groups.

There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka linked to foreign Islamist groups, despite local media reports that a 37-year-old Sri Lankan was killed in Syria in 2016 while fighting for the Islamic State group.

In January, Sri Lankan police seized a haul of explosives and detonators stashed near a wildlife sanctuary following the arrest of four men from a newly formed radical Muslim group

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has expressed shock and sadness over what he called terrible attacks.

The President, who in a statement, condoled with the families of those killed in the attacks and wished speedy recovery to the injured, said: “we stand with victims of terrorism all over the world because we know and understand this harrowing inhuman activity.”

The Nigerian leader, called on the Sri Lanka’s authorities not to spare the wicked elements behind the mischievous attacks.

Source: AFP.

I’m Not Cameroonian: My Father’s From Sokoto, Mother’s From Jigawa – Atiku

Editorial staff

April 21, 2019

Defeated Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, has said that he is not a Cameroonian by birth but that his father is from Wurmo in present day Sokoto State, while his mother hailed from Dutse in present day Jigawa State.

In his response to the All Progressives Congress (APC) filing before the Presidential election tribunal, Atiku said his father’s name is Garba Atiku Abdulkadir while the name of his mother is Aisha Kande.

Atiku, who was born in Jada in 1946, in present day Adamawa state, but then part of Northern Cameroon, insisted that he is a bonifide citizen of Nigeria by birth.

APC had described Atiku as an alien that was not qualified to be President of Nigeria.

But Atiku’s lawyers told the Tribunal that the parents of the 1st Petitioner (Atiku) are both Fulani, a community/tribe indigenous to Nigeria.

“The birth of the 1st Petitioner in Jada, in present day Adamawa State of Nigeria was occasioned by the movement of his paternal grandfather called Atiku who was an itinerant trader, from Wurmo in present day Sokoto State to Jada in the company of his friend, Ardo Usman.

“That in Jada, Atiku, the grandfather of the 1st Petitioner gave birth to Garba who in tum gave birth to the 1st Petitioner and named him after his own father Atiku.

“The 1st Petitioner’s mother, Aisha Kande was the grand-daughter of Inuwa Dutse who came to Jada as an itinerant trader too from Dutse in present day Jigawa State.

“That all averments concerning Germany, British Cameroons, League of Nations and Plebiscite are false and misleading in relation to the 1st Petitioner and therefore completely irrelevant more so that the 1st Petitioner is a Nigerian by birth within the contemplation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic ofNigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“The averments in the aforesaid paragraphs are indeed fabricated, contrived, made in bad faith and designed to embarrass the 1st Petitioner.”

Atiku said that the votes he secured in the presidential election were not wasted votes, and still claimed that he got more votes than President Buhari.

To buttress his Nigerian citizenship, Atiku listed his career path and political activities and the awards and honours that he had received.

These included his being a civil servant in the Nigerian Customs Service for over 20 years, retiring as a Deputy Director; a politician for about 30 years, who in 1992 contested the Presidential Primaries under the platform of then Social Democratic Party (SDP) alongside the late Chief M.K.O Abiola and Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe.

He also mentioned his participation in the 1999 governorship election in Adamawa State in 1999, which he won and the presidential elections of 1999 and 2003, which he won as running mate to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Mentioned also was his being a recipient of the National Honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) and holder of the traditional title holder of Turakin Adamawa from 1982 to 2017 when he was elevated to Wazirin Adamawa.

“In 2007, the 1st Petitioner contested Presidential election under the platform of Action Congress (AC) and the 2nd Respondent contested under the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP). “In 2014, the 1st Petitioner and the 2nd Respondent contested the Presidential Primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the 3rd Respondent for the 2015 Presidential Elections.”

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