Members of the notorious Boko Haram, today, struck again in Gumsuri village, near the fearful Sambisa forest in Borno state, kidnapping at least 185 people, including women and children. They loaded the hostages away in trucks and drove towards Sambisa Forest, which is their stronghold.
Two local officials and a vigilante leader said today that during the mass abduction, 32 people were killed. They said that the local government has been able to establish the number of those abducted through contacting families, ward heads and emirs.
A vigilante leader based in the Borno State capital of Maiduguri, Usman Kakani, told AFP that fighters who were in Gumsuri during the attack provided a figure of 191 abducted, including women, girls and boys.
Gumsuri is about 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Maiduguri and falls on the road that leads to Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in April.
Details of the Gumsuri attack took four days to emerge because the mobile phone network in the region has completely collapsed and many roads are impassable.
Those who fled the village said it was too dangerous to head directly to Maiduguri.
Instead, they travelled several hundred kilometres in the opposite direction to connect with the main road that leads to the state capital.
Mukhtar Buba, a Gumsuri resident who fled to Maiduguri, also confirmed that women and children were taken.
“After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters,” he said.
Boko Haram has increasingly used kidnappings to boost its supply of child fighters, porters and young women who have reportedly been used as sex slaves.
President Goodluck Jonathan has advised Nigerians to insist that there are no northern or southern citizens in the country, but a people and a race bounded by the same history and constitution.
The President spoke today in Abuja, at the maiden edition of the Annual National Migration Dialogue, organized by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Person (NCRMIDP) with the theme: Better Migration Management as a Tool for National Development.”
President Jonathan, who was represented by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, said that the Nigerian Constitution and even the recommendations of the recently concluded National Conference guaranteed the right of every Nigerian to reside anywhere in the country without discrimination.
“Our ethnic diversity, ideally, should be a source of strength, not weakness; a country where people freely profess and practice their respective religious belief anywhere within our national boundaries; without any fear of discrimination. The future I see, is of a nation where people are no longer identified by their ethnic or religious affiliation but by the very virtue of their Citizenship as Nigerians. This issue of indigene or non-indigene must stop.”
The President acknowledging the role migration plays in national development said evidence had shown that Nigeria has the highest volume of international migrants, and the largest remittances in sub-Saharan Africa with 65 per cent of recorded remittances, worth 20.76 billion dollars in 2013, according to CBN statistics.
He said that Nigeria would continually deploy strategies to encourage Nigerians in the Diaspora to invest remittances in social infrastructure, human capital development and other activities, adding that his administration had made it a cardinal principle that Nigerians must be treated humanely and with dignity in any country of their residence.
Speaking on internally displaced persons, the President said that people do not get displaced by choice, stressing that the government was fully aware and sensitive that the current cause of internal displacement in Nigeria is the insurgency in the North-east, he therefore emphasised that government was making efforts to ensure it addressed the insurgency squarely, adding that he had directed that victims must be given due care and maintenance without any form of social exclusion.
On the national migration dialogue, he said that the dialogue would help shape Nigeria’s national migratory orientation, even as he stressed the need for “the debate to give priority attention to the protection of the rights of Nigerian migrants; both internal and international and also protect the rights of foreigners in our country.”
In her remarks, the Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Hajiya Hadiza Sani Kangiwa, said that Nigeria was the first country in the ECOWAS sub-region to institute the dialogue, said it was conceived as a strategy for mainstreaming migration into the post development agenda, and also a derivation of the draft National Migration Policy document.
She said that the objective of the dialogue was to provide a platform for debating the impact and linkages between migration and development thereby shaping Nigeria’s national migratory linkages and also to provide an opportunity for reviewing the various operational challenges at the implementation level.
Hajiya Kangiwa said participants at the dialogue were drawn from the 36 States of the federation and also has the participation of international development partners like the International Organisation for Migration.
The event comes as the world celebrates the International Migrants Day 2014.
Osun High Court in Okuku has sentenced two men, Olowookere Seguana & Morakinyo Sunday to death for stealing fowls. They were found guilty of breaking into the home of one Balogun Tope and stealing his fowls.
The convicts had also been sighted around the complainant’s house with a cutlass and dane gun. They also confessed to have earlier robbed one Alhaja Umani Oyewo in her house and stole broilers, eggs and kegs of vegetable oil from the house.
They were charged with conspiracy, robbery and stealing.
Nigeria’s Assistant Head Coach Daniel Amokachi has drawn up 24 players from the nation’s domestic league for the upcoming friendly games between Nigeria and two of its West African neighbours, Ivory Coast and Mali. The two countries will be competing in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations which the Super Eagles missed out.
A statement from the Nigeria Football Federation,N(FF) Media officer, Ademola Olajire confirmed that the list of players was drawn up by Assistant Coach Daniel Amokachi.
On the list is Gombe United goalkeeper, Chigozie Agbim who leads the list, with Azubuike Egwuekwe, Kwambe Solomon, Umar Zango, Rabiu Ali, Emem Eduok, Kingsley Sokari, Mfon Udoh, Gbolahan Salami and Gambo Muhammad on the list.
NFF General Secretary, Musa Amadu, also confirmed that the Eagles will confront the two teams in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in January 2015.
The Super Eagles will confront 1992 African champions Cote d’Ivoire, whom they edged 2-1 in the quarter finals in South Africa, on January 9, and take on fellow Eagles of Mali, who were overhauled 4-1 by the Nigerians in the semi-finals in South Africa, four days later.
“We are working round the clock to make sure that the Super Eagles will have opponents for all the FIFA windows available in year 2015, and we are happy that the two games with the Ivoirians and the Malians are sealed,” he said.
“The Elephants and the Les Aiglons are on their way to the 30th Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea, so they are sure to give our team good games.”
Players are expected to report at the Bolton White Apartments, Abuja on Sunday, 28th December with their international passports and four passport photographs.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who today, emerged the running mate to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari is son in-law to the late political sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He is married to Dolapo, who is a grandchild of Awolowo and they are blessed with three children.
He is former Lagos State Attorney General and a Senior Pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).
Yemi Osinbajo, 55, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Senior Partner in the Law firm of Simmons Cooper Partners.
His tertiary education was at the University of Lagos and the London School of Economics where he obtained the LLB and LLM degrees respectively.
He was appointed the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in 1999 and reappointed for a second term in 2003. During the period of his public service, he commenced the Lagos State justice reform project. A prominent feature of that project was the establishment of the Directorate for Citizens’ Rights (DCR) which provides free legal services and legal representation to indigent citizens of the state. This initiative gave a voice to many who would otherwise not have a way to access their rights.
Prior to that appointment, Osinbajo, a Professor of Law, was the Head of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos.
Between 1988 and 1992, he was the Special Adviser to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He also served as a staff member of the United Nations and Member of the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Committee of Experts on Conduct and Discipline of UN Peacekeeping personnel around the globe.
He is currently an Ethics Advisor to the Ethics Committee of the African Development Bank and is a non-executive Director of Citibank.
Prof. Osinbajo is Co-founder & Board Member Convention on Business Integrity and the Justice Research Institute Ltd. He has also authored several law books.
In 2007, Prof. and his wife Oludolapo founded “The Orderly Society Trust”, a non- governmental organization that is dedicated to the promotion of Christian ethics and orderliness.
He is a resident pastor at the Olive Tree House of Prayer for All Nations, Banana Island, a parish of the RCCG.
File photo: US President, Barack Obama shaking hand with Cuba President, Raul Castro during memorial service of late South African leader, Nelson Mandela
President Barack Obama has announced an historic shift in U.S. relations with Cuba, asking the Congress to end the embargo imposed on the island in 1961.
Obama said today that the current policy “has failed to advance our interests” for decades.
In an historic 15-minute speech from the White House broadcast live on television, Obama announced the beginning of a process to normalize diplomatic relations between the two nations, which were broken in 1961, and which includes opening embassies in Washington and Havana in the coming months.
Yesterday, Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro spoke by telephone to seal the agreement after a negotiation process in which Pope Francis played an important role and which included secret meetings over several months involving delegations of both countries, held mainly in Canada.
“Isolation does not work,” Obama said, adding: “it’s time for a new approach” toward Cuba.
The president also said that “a major obstacle” stood in the way of normalizing relations: the imprisonment in Cuba of USAID sub-contractor Alan Gross, a U.S. citizen, for five years.
Gross was released today by the Cuban government “on humanitarian grounds” and has already returned to the United States, while the three Cuban spies from the so-called “Group of Five” that had been imprisoned in the United States since 1998 also returned to Havana.
The three spies – Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Antonio Guerrero – were released in exchange for a U.S. intelligence official who had been in prison in Cuba for almost 20 years, the White House said.
Obama said that he did not expect the changes he was announcing to cause an overnight transformation in Cuban society.
But he defended his position that a “policy of compromise” with the communist-ruled island can be much more effective in producing real changes than “isolation,” and that trying to bring about the collapse of Cuba does not serve U.S. interests.
Along those lines, he asked Congress starting in January, when it will be fully controlled by the Republicans, to begin a “serious and honest” debate about the unilateral economic embargo Washington imposed on Cuba during John F. Kennedy’s presidency.
The measures announced today by Obama include easing restrictions on travel and trade between the United States and Cuba, as well as making it easier for Cubans to receive remittances from U.S. territory.
Obama also said he had asked Secretary of State John Kerry to review Cuba’s position on the list of countries Washington considers to be sponsors of terrorism.
The U.S. president also confirmed his participation at the Summit of the Americas to be held in Panama in April 2015 and to which Cuba has been invited.
APC Presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari and his running mate, Yemi Osinbajo,
“There can be no other president, leader and commander that can lead that common sense revolution which Nigeria urgently needs than Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. I will proudly serve this country with him.’’
These were the words of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, shortly after General Buhari picked him as his running mate, with a pledge to rescue Nigeria.
Osinbajo lauded the retired general’s ‘’uprightness and fierce commitment’’ to good governance, adding that it will be a privilege to work with him for a better Nigeria.
“I am deeply honoured and grateful to have been nominated as the vice-presidential candidate of our party.
“I also thank the leaders and elders of our great party, APC, for the trust reposed in me. The task of rebuilding this nation is one to which I am fully committed.”
General Buhari had announced the choice of Osinbajo at a news conference in Abuja, saying that the process of selecting the vice presidential candidate was rigorous, meticulous, and objective and involved broad consultations with the party leaders and others outside the party.
“The challenging process of rescuing our country and changing Nigeria for good has commenced. “One of the first decisions that I have to make is the choice of the vice-presidential candidate and my running mate.
“To assist me in this great task of securing Nigeria’s future, I have chosen a man of unimpeachable integrity.
“He is an excellent professional, a man of faith, a devoted family man and a role model to our fellow countrymen and women.
“An alumnus of the University of Lagos and the London School of Economics, a prodigious author who has to his credit several books on civil procedure in Nigerian superior courts.
“The vice-presidential candidate is a friend of the less-privileged, compassionate and zealous in service, a man of uncommon humility, a loyal, dependable and selfless patriot.”
General Buhari pledged to uphold every promise he made after emerging as APC flag-bearer and thanked everyone who had identified with him after he clinched the ticket.
“The huge outpouring of support and acceptance has been a great encouragement to me and hardened my resolve to lead the process of rebuilding a new Nigeria and securing our future.”
File photo: Financial Minister, Okonjo Iweala presenting Budget to the national Assembly
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala has said that the Federal Government is targeting about N3.60 trillion revenue in 2015. Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this at the public presentation of 2015 budget today in Abuja. She said that the government expects to earn N1.92 trillion from oil transactions and N1.68 trillion from non-oil. According to her, this implies a ratio of 53 per cent oil revenue to 47 per cent non-oil revenue to fund an aggregate budget expenditure of N4.36 trillion proposed for 2015 Budget. The minister explained that the expenditure figure comprised N412 billion for statutory transfers, N943 billion for debt service and N2, 616 billion for recurrent (non-debt). She said that N634 billion was for capital expenditure, including provision for Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). She disclosed that the government was contemplating short and medium-term measures in expenditure, adding that the focus was on cutting ‘’non-essential and non-developmental’’ expenditures from the budget. ‘’In the short term, the strategy to curb recurrent expenditure will increasingly rely on implementing the right technologies such as biometrics and digitising government payments,’’ she said. Okonjo-Iweala also said that through the implementation of IPPIS, the Federal Government saved about N185.4 billion and weeded out 60,450 ghost workers from 359 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), adding that more funds would be saved. “ We intend to ramp up the work on the platforms in 2015 to improve on our transparency, efficiency and efficiency objectives while saving the much needed resources for reinvestment to benefit all Nigerians,’’ she said. She stated that in the short-term, the government would institute measures to reduce spending which would save a total of N82.5 billion. “On overhead expenditures, we propose cuts to International Travels and Training by 50 per cent for all MDAs, saving about N14 billion, while other provisions for Overhead expenditure have been dropped completely, saving about N4 billion. “Administrative expenditures for Buildings, Equipment, Supplies, etc, MDAs’ provisions for the procurement of administrative supplies and equipment will be cut, saving about N5 billion. “Procurement and upgrade of buildings were similarly curtailed, saving about N44 billion, while another N76 billion is proposed for reallocation to more impactful programmes of government in the security, health, and education sectors,’’ she said. The minister said that the government had also commenced partial implementation of its Whitepaper on the rationalisation of agencies based on the ‘’Steve Oronsaye Report’’. This, she said, would target savings of about N6.5 billion in the 2015 Budget from the rationalisation of some agencies, committees and commissions. “Nevertheless, medium term measures require greater efforts to cut the cost of governance across all tiers and branches of government and this requires support from the legislature to amend laws underpinning certain agencies. “ A list of such laws will be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration by the second quarter of 2015.” She said that a fundamental restructuring of budgets was required at the federal and state levels ‘’if fiscal sustainability would be achieved in the nation’s economy, going forward’’.
Nigeria’s stock exchange has fallen to a two-year low by about 30 percent against the background of the falling oil price.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange was down today, following a similar depreciation yesterday, meaning the gauge has fallen by almost 30 percent this quarter.
Nigeria’s government, which relies on oil exports for around 70 percent of its revenues, has already proposed spending cuts.
Brent crude has plunged by almost half of its value in 2014 and has fallen below $60 a barrel in recent days. It was trading at £59.50 a barrel on Wednesday morning in London.
As a result of the oil slump, Africa’s biggest economy is likely to grow at a slower rate in 2015 than previously anticipated. Ratings agency Fitch reduced its growth estimate for next year to 5.2 percent, down from 6.4 percent.
“Dramatic falls in oil prices have already taken a heavy toll on Nigeria, where the central bank was forced to devalue the naira and raise interest rates to slow the currency’s decline,” said Capital Economics in a note last week.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s oil unions are set to meet with government officials on Thursday over a strike that began on Monday.
The strikers are protesting government failure to repair refineries and the refusal to cut gasoline prices in line with the slump in oil prices. The strike has so far only affected domestic supply.
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Members of the notorious Boko Haram, today, struck again in Gumsuri village, near the fearful Sambisa forest in Borno state, kidnapping at least 185 people, including women and children. They loaded the hostages away in trucks and drove towards Sambisa Forest, which is their stronghold.
