Some of the Nigerian Soldiers on trial before the court marshal which sentenced 12 of them, in the early hours of today, to death by firing squad while one was sentenced to 28 days imprisonment with hard labour.[myad]
Court Marshal JudgeTwelve Nigerian soldiers have been found guilty of attempt to kill their superior officer, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) in the ongoing battle with Boko Haram in the North Eastern part of the country and have been sentenced to death by firing squad.
The 12 are parts of the 18 soldiers that have been standing trial for mutiny and other offences before a military court sitting in Abuja.
The court, in the early hours of today, Monday, found 13 out of the 18 guilty.
one of them was however jailed for 28 days with hard labour, while five were discharged and acquitted.
Those discharged are Naaman Samuel, Iseh Ubong, David Robert, Mohammed Sani and Sebastine Gwaba, while Jeremiah Echocho was sentenced to 28 days with hard labour.
Others who were sentenced to death are Jasper Braidolor, David Musa, Friday Onuh, Yusuf Shuaibu, Igonmu Emmanuel, Andrew Ugbede, Nurudeen Ahmed, Ifeanyi Alukagba, Alao Samuel, Amadi Chukwuma, Alan Linus, and Stephen Clement.
The soldiers were charged with six count of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, disobeying lawful orders and various acts inimical to the military service.
The nine-member all military Court Martial headed by the President of the Court Martial, Maj. Gen. C.C. Okonkwo, found the soldiers guilty of insubordinate behaviour, use of abusive language, leveling false accusation against their superior officers, among others.
The 12 soldiers sentenced to death were found guilty of three of the most heinous charges bars.
Before their sentence, the legal team of the convicts had pleaded with the court martial to “temper justice with mercy,” after narrating the pathetic stories of the family backgrounds of the convicted servicemen to the Court Martial team.
One of the convicted was said to be the only son of his 80-year-old widowed mother, another, father of a five-month-old baby.
The defence team in their argument prayed that giving them maximum sentence would do more harm than good, pleading that it would increase the agony of their dependants.
However, they were found guilty of attempting to kill their erstwhile General Officer Commanding, 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed by shooting at his official car between May 13 and 14, 2014.
They were found guilty of three out of the six count charges against them, which are conspiracy, mutiny and attempted murder of Maj. Gen. Mohammed.
The incident took place at the Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri in the course of the ongoing counter insurgency campaign. .
The Maimalari Cantonment is the headquarters of 7 Division, the newest Division of the Nigerian Army.
The court also found them guilty of preventing the movement of some of their injured colleagues to hospital and obstructing evacuation of their dead colleagues who were killed in ambush on their way from a operation in Chibok, Borno State. [myad]
Internet hacker has thrown Nigeria Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal AS Badeh into confusion as he struggled to disown it.
A statement from Defence Headquarters in Abuja alerted the general public on what it called ‘the existence of fake facebook accounts on the Chief of Defence Staff.’
The statement, signed by the Defence spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade said that the facebook accounts were created by some cyber fraudsters with different fake identities and official photographs of the Chief of Defence Staff.
“The Defence Headquarters wishes to state clearly that the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Sabundu Badeh does not operate either official or private facebook account.
“The Defence Headquarters therefore dissociates the office of the Chief of Defence Staff from these fraudulent facebook accounts.”
General Olukolade warned that correspondence or exchange of messages on the said fraudulent platform has nothing to do with the office or person of the Chief of Defence Staff.
He added that this is for the awareness of the general public, please. [myad]
African Identities Group, a pan-African None Governmental Organization dedicated to promoting African Identities and Scholarship, has scheduled a three-day international conference, beginning from tomorrow, September 17, in honour of Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu of the Department of Communications, Bayero University, Kano.
Professor Abdallah is said to be among the few intellectuals of international repute to have attained the position of double professor, first in science education and curriculum development in the faculty of education in 1997, and second, on media and cultural communication in the field of media and film studies in 2012.
The conference, which would be held in collaboration with Bayero University Kano and Freedom Radio Group is expected to attract more than sixty distinguished scholars from across the globe.
A statement issued on behalf of the organizers, Alhaji Umar Saidu Tudunwada said that the conference, scheduled to hold at the Musa Abdullahi Auditorium, Bayero University, Kano, would concentrate on “Transglobal Media, Knowledge Transfer and African Identities.”
He said that Professor Onookome Okome of the Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton Canada will be the keynote speaker at the occasion, while the Magajin Malam of Ringim and former Director General of the then Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria as well as former Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim will be the Chairman of the opening session.
Umar Tudunwada said that the Kano State Governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso has been scheduled as special guest even as education minister, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau will serve as Guest of Honor.
The organizers have tipped the Emir of Kano, Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II to serve as royal father of the day. [myad]
Yusuf Ozi-UsmanExcept God, Almighty turns His kind Eyes on Nigeria once again, very soon, sooner than expected, most Nigerians, particularly, the full-grown, well-educated, well-connected and highly-placed ones would transform into something else and behave strangely. Take for example, if a man of God would blow open lie to his flocks, not minding that fairly sane people outside the fold would analyse such lie in its proper perspective: if a man of God would be enmeshed in matrimonial brouhaha with his age-long wife, not knowing that saner part of the world is watching; if some sections of Nigeria would chose to believe only things that make sense to them, aside from the realities, then one wonders if majority of the citizens are not already reeling in lunatism and arrant madness. Or an alleged sponsor of terrorism who denied that he sponsored the group in one breathe and in another quick one, educated his audience (Nigerians) that the group has 10,000 members fighting the government! Heeey!
This is backgrounded in the saying in some African societies that a lunatic is not only he or she that goes naked, dances and throws stones in the market place, but also he or she that does and says irrational things that are abnormal.
Things have happened so fast and in great row recently that one begins to fear that the system, whatever it is, would soon burst.
Just as both Christians and some concerned Muslims were sympathizing with victims of the collapsed part of the 5-storey building of the T.B Joshua’s Synagogue Church of nations in Lagos, the General Overseer himself came up with a very strange and lunatic view of what really happened: that the building collapsed (not bombed) as a result of Boko Haram’s activity or that it was a strange moving plane that caused the building to collapse.
This was despite attempts, when it occured on Friday last week, by the church’s security personnel to cover up the incidence, as they tried to keep newsmen, including some television cameramen away from the scene.
Prophet Joshua told members of his church on Sunday that the attack was targeted at him and not at them (members of the congregation), stressing that the collapse of the building was a Boko Haram attack.
Joshua buttressed his claim by showing to his congregation on the Emmanuel TV, the chronology of events shortly before and after the accident as captured by the church’s security camera, CCTV.
“I received a phone call immediately I got here, just 10 minutes later when I was in the church, that there was a jet hovering over the mountain where I had just left. They said it was hovering at a close range. Before I knew it, I received another phone call that the same jet was now at the church hovering over the building, passing it four times at a very close range before the building collapsed.”
Joshua read to the church, a letter which he said was addressed to him by unnamed Boko Haram member, confessing how he had attempted to plant a bomb inside the church.
Joshua said his church was being attacked to scare away members.
“This environment at Ikotun Egbe, we have never witnessed an accident of a building collapse. This is a very stable terrain. I have been here for the past 30 years. I am pregnant with words, but we have left the security agencies to do their job. Let us believe and educate our people and be alive.”
He assured the congregation that God would bring the perpetrators of the attack to book, adding that the decision of the insurgents to focus on his church might be the end of the Boko Haram’s activities in the country.
“I know you will ask why the church? It is because of the spiritual blessings that God has bestowed upon us. A big head wears a large hat.
“Don’t forget about the Ebola issue too, it was God that rescued the church. Probably they would have dropped an Ebola patient inside the church, so that they would say, ‘there is an Ebola patient in the church, don’t go there.’
“They are trying to scare you from coming to church. Don’t be scared, you are not the target, I’m the target. I know my time has not yet come. I have not yet finished my job.
“I want to assure you that our God will get back at them and you will know when he gets back to them. May be this would be the end of the whole thing.”
Of course, it appeared that Joshua was not listening to himself properly at the time he was addressing the church members or members of the congregation listening to him had no choice but to believe him. But, he was completely oblivious to intelligent members of the Nigeria or even the world community who would be eager to ask such questions as : “Why didn’t he (T.B Joshua) know about the attack ahead of time in view of his claims that he has prophetic powers and capacity, to know everything that was going to happen before it happens? Why didn’t he invoke the “blood of Jesus” to protect his Church?
In deed, his failure to spiritually and prophetically ward off the “attack” as he called it, has exposed him as more or less an arrangee miracle performer. Just when it mattered most, even to himself, he failed himself.
And bamboozled his flocks, just like General Ihejirika, Ali Modu Sheriff, Chris Oyakhilome and their likes have been bamboozling most Nigerians about what they are up to, promoting the lunatism that is now dominating Nigeria.
[su_heading size=”14″] Read More Articles From This Author: Yusuf Ozi-Usman [/su_heading]
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No fewer that 200 African migrants trying to reach Europe were said to have died last night after their boat sank off the Libyan coast.
Only 36 of approximately 250 passengers had been rescued, a Libyan navy spokesman said.
Ayub Qassem said that the boat had sunk near Tajoura, east of the capital, Tripoli, adding: “There are so many dead bodies floating in the sea.”
Libya is a major departure point for migrants leaving Africa, often for Italy, but the use of rickety wooden boats has resulted in hundreds of deaths.
Human traffickers are exploiting the political chaos and lack of security that has blighted Libya since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown as leader in an uprising in 2011.
The latest incident comes just weeks after another wooden boat heading for Italy sank half a mile off the Libyan coast, killing 100 people.
Qassem said the Libyan coastguard was under-equipped to deal with the scale of the problem and had few resources to search for survivors.
There has been a surge in the number of migrants attempting to make the hazardous journey from north Africa and the Middle East to Europe. More than 100,000 have reached Italy since the start of the year and nearly 2,000 have perished in the attempt, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, has called on the EU to take responsibility for rescuing migrants attempting the sea crossing, and on the UN to help curb the flow of refugees from Libya.
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Air Marshal AmosunThe Nigeria Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Adeshola Amosun has said that there was no sign of sabotage in the missing, on Friday, of an Alpha airforce jet that was taking part in the battle with members of Boko Haram in Adamawa state, even as he said that the search for the jet is continuing.
Answering reporters’ questions shortly after a closed door meeting with Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today, Air Marshal Amosun gave a hope that the two pilots aboard the jet may be alive.
“We don’t suspect any abotage. This is because it is a distant of just from Maiduguri to Yola. We are in full control of the air space. “But don’t forget that when you loose radio signal it becomes very challenging. There are so many possibilities but we are working on it.”
The Chief of Air Staff said that he was hopeful that before the end of the day or this week “we should be able to provide credible information as to the location of the aircraft and then the pilots.
“But one thing is clear: whatever problem they had, an ejection was contemplated. It is therefore my hope that the pilots are still alive.
Amosun said that the authorities have an idea of where the aircraft could be even as he explained that the missing Alpha Jet was on routine operation in the North East.
He said that in the process, the pilots lost contact with the control towers, leading the authorities to immediately initiate search.
“The weather has not been helpful as we have deployed all our surveillance capability. The citizens have been very, very helpful and we have gotten good information from them.”
According to Air Marshal Amosun, in aviation sector, “we have some specific information that we ought to have to make the search easy.
“But the information we are getting from the citizens are good but not sufficient enough for us to define the area of search.”
On the terrain where the jet got missing, the airforce chief described it as an open Sahel that is sometimes very challenging.
“Human beings standing may look like trees and again the area we are talking about we have operations going on there and we have limitations as to how low we can come to conduct the search.”
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Lagos state Governor, Babatunde Fashiola has ordered all the staff of collapsed building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ikotun Egbe in Lagos to vacate the site for experts to take control.
The Governor who visited the site today, told the General Overseer of the Church, Prophet Temitope B. Joshua:“What you need to understand now is that this place is now an accident scene and so all your staff must leave this place. We need to take control of this place and let people who are trained to do this job to do so.”
“We understand that this is an unfortunate incident, we understand their sense of sympathy and compassion. But let them allow those who are trained to do the job take over and do the job; that is their training and it won’t make sense if they are getting in each other’s way”, he said.
The governor was received at the site by the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Town Planner Olutoyin Ayinde.
Governor Fashola directed that the staff of the Church should give way for the rescue workers to be able to carry out the job of evacuating the debris and rescuing possible victims still trapped under the collapsed building.
He said that after the emergency workers have finished their work, it would be easier for any staff of the Church, whether an engineer or a medical personnel, whom the General Overseer wishes to be on the site with the emergency workers for the purpose of taking records, to join them.
“When we finish, if you have any person, whether an engineer or a medical person you want to be on the site with them, working with them to know what they are taking there, then it is easier; they can report to you and then report to me. But we can’t continue rescue operations with your men hanging around here”.
Also at the site to receive the Governor were the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed and the General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, (LABSCA), Mrs. Kafayat Animashaun-Odunayo among other top government officials. [myad]
Madam Ifakowa Janet Ojisua, mother of Phillip Ojisua who is operating from the Presidential Aso Villa, Abuja as Photo Journalist for The Guardian Newspapers, is dead. Her remains would be committed to mother-earth on Thursday, September 18 in her Ososo country home, Edo state.
Madam Ifakowa Janet Ojisua died on August 18, 2014 after a brief Illness in her home, Udurebo Ososo.
Until her death, Madam Ifakowa, popularly called Mama Kokumo was a dedicated Christian and a member of the All Saint Anglican Church Ikpena Ososo.
She was very dedicated to the service of the Lord and served Him with all her heart and life. She virtually held on to the Lord even in times of trials, especially when she lost her beloved son, late Samson Ojisua.
A statement from the family of Mama Ifakowa said that she was very dear to her neighbours and all those whom she came across in her life, and that she would be missed by such people.
The deceased is survived by many children, grand children, great grandchildren, brothers and sisters. [myad]
Nigerian Air-Force jetAn Alpha Jet, with registration number NAF 466, belonging to the Nigerian Air Force, has been declared missing around Adamawa State.
Information from the Defence Headquarters in Abuja today said that the aircraft, with two pilots onboard, left Yola at about 10:45am on 12 September 2014 on a routine operational mission and was expected back by 12:00 noon the same day.
The military authorities said that all efforts to establish contact with the aircraft since it took off from the base have not yielded any positive result.
Search and rescue effort is said to be presently ongoing to establish contact with the crew.
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