Exchange Of Abducted Female Students For Boko Haram Detainees Won’t Work, Says Abba Moro

May 12, 2014

Nigeria minister of Interior, Abba Moro has rejected Boko Haram’s request on the federal government to release its members in various detention centres in the country as a condition for allowing the over 200 female students of the Government Girls Secondary Schools, Chibok in Borno state whom they abducted about a month ago to go.

The Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau had, in a new video released earlier today, gave as a condition for the release of more than 200 abducted female students, the government acceptance to release all the Boko Haram members in various detention centres in the country.

Asked if the government would reject the suggestion by Shekau in the video, the Interior Minister said: “Of course.”

He made it clear that the issue in question is not about Boko Haram giving conditions, but did not elaborate.

Shekau made the claim in a video obtained by AFP on Monday claiming to show about 130 of the 276 girls abducted from their school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, on April 14.

“We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren,” he said.

The militant leader, who has made prisoner exchange demands before, said that some of the teenagers had converted from Christianity to Islam.

The International Crisis Group said in a report published last month that Boko Haram had written an open letter in 2011 to the governor of northern Kano state, demanding the release of detainees.

Shekau repeated the demand in a video released last week claiming responsibility for the mass kidnapping that has sparked global condemnation and calls for action.

Nigeria’s military has been accused of rounding up thousands of Boko Haram suspects, including women and children, and holding them in atrocious conditions that have been criticised by rights groups.

On March 14, Boko Haram fighters stormed the notorious Giwa military barracks in the state capital of Borno, Maiduguri, freeing hundreds of militants.

Amnesty International, however, said on March 31 that there was “credible evidence” that more than 600 people, most of them unarmed recaptured detainees, were summarily killed in the military response.

If China Can Industrialize, I Believe Nigeria Too Can-President Jonathan

Greenbarge Reporters

May 12, 2014

President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed his strong belief in the ability of Nigeria to attain industrialization the same way China did years ago.

“I believe in this country. I believe in our entrepreneurial spirit. If China can do it, I believe we can also do it.”

President Jonathan spoke today at the inauguration of the Advisory Committee for the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Jonathan was optimistic that if China could effectively, through its industrial and manufacutring sector, become the largest economy in the world, Nigeria can also achieve the same feat in Africa.

He said that it China had shown its ability to achieve what it has achieved, in terms of industrialisation in recent times, adding that from a purely agrarian economy in 1978 with high unemployment, little wealth, and little technology, the country rose to the admirable height among the comity of nations.

“Today, we (Nigerians) have a half trillion dollar economy by far the largest in Africa and we have the ninth largest workforce in the world. To accomplish this however, we must do things differently. We must begin to add value to our resources through research development. We must industrialise and the Nigerian Industrialisation Revolution Plan is our agenda to achieve this.”

Jonathan stressed that no country had become prosperous only by extracting and exporting its raw materials, adding that nations can only generate wealth for their people primarily by adding value to resources.

This, he explained, informed his decision to inaugurate the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan early in the year.

The 25-member committee has the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Segun Aganga, as the chairman and business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as the Alternate Chair.

Chibok Abduction: Women Begin Protest, Threaten To Go Naked In Chibok In 2 Weeks Time

Greenbarge Reporters

May 12, 2014

Members of Women Arise, a civil society group, have threatened to go half-naked in Chibok, Borno State, if the abducted schoolgirls are not rescued within the next two weeks, even as they begin protest march in Lagos today.

The President of the group, Dr. Joe Odumakin, who led the protest in Lagos State today said that the protest would be carried out in different states and end in Chibok and Sambisa forest if the girls are not rescued in two weeks.

According to Odumakin, the protest would continue in Enugu State tomorrow and move on to other places such as Kaduna, Lokoja, and Jigawa states.

She said that it is unfortunate that there is no information of the whereabouts of the girls almost a month after the girls were abducted, adding: “It’s a nationwide protest. We are dressed in white, because white signifies purity; most of those girls were virgins. There is a lot government need to do. Look at our borders that are porous. What are we doing about it?

“We are going round all the states. We will be in Enugu tomorrow. We will be in Lokoja, Kaduna, Onitsha, and Akure, and at the end of 14 days, God forbid if they don’t get these girls back, we will go to Chibok half-naked and we will enter the bush to look for them.”

The protesters marched from the premises of the Lagos Television in Agidingbi to the governor’s office in Alausa carrying placards with various inscriptions including ‘Shekau: Find goods to sell, not our girls’, ‘Have we lost our humanity?’ and ‘Hunt down the defilers of innocent girls’.

In a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan submitted to Governor Babatunde Fashola, the group demanded that the girls should be rehabilitated when they return and compensation should paid to their parents for the trauma they have suffered. The group said government should recognise the girls as heroes of the war against terrorism.

It also demanded that government should ensure that the girls take the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, which were said to be ongoing when they were abducted, and that scholarship should be offered them up to university level.

Fashola, who received the protesters, said he would transmit the letter to the President immediately and asked them to be cautious on their demand for the information on the rescue operation.

“I understand your demand for information. This is usually the case when crimes like this are committed. Regrettably, I do not have any information to share with you. But I would also like you to know that when search and rescue operations are being undertaken, especially with people who have shown mindless capacity and disregard human life, there is safety in managing information closely.

“Chibok is a very dark experience for our nation. It is a difficult time for our nation. It may yet be our most defining moment. It would be defining if we can find the children. It would be defining if after that happens we can keep this brotherhood and sisterhood alive.

“Many nations have turn to greatness when they faced situations like this and developed a sense of unity where religion and ethnicity do not matter anymore. Chibok may be a defining moment that finally unites us and eliminates all our fault lines as a people.”

Nigeria: Between The Devil And Deep Blue Sea By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Yusuf Ozi-Usman

May 12, 2014

For Nigeria, this certainly is not the best of time. Whatever anybody would say, the security situation has come to a point that whether we like it or not, external security assistance, if you like, “invation” is needed. Inviting external and more superior security systems from the advanced countries, as we are currently doing, may look dangerous to our internal security system, but there is no running away from the fact that so far, that is the only next option available.
As a matter of fact, if the reign of terror by members of the daring Boko Haram has remained a kind of hush hush affair across the country in the last three years, the abduction of female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state by them, cannot be in quietude. While the abduction has brought Boko Haram in clear head-on with the leaders of the world, it has also exposed Nigeria’s arrant inadequacy in terms of security preparedness.
The fact that Nigeria’s leader would now have to go cap-in-hand, like an unfortunate orphan, begging America, Britain, France, Israel and other advanced nations to deploy their advance security personnel and gadgets to rescue the girls, speaks volume about how lowly Nigeria has been in the world reckoning and how vulnerable too it has been.
Of course, President Goodluck Jonathan did acknowledge this lack of preparedness and vulnerability of Nigeria to serious security challenges in his last media chat, blaming it on the past governments. And to a lot of analysts, the position of the President was begging the issue; it was the usual buck-passing by leaders to cover their inadequacies.
Whatever it amounts to, the main fact that cannot be swept under the carpet is that the super powers we are now asking to come to rescue our daughters from the hand of Boko Haram are being made to get a clear message that Nigeria is empty.
There is the danger in one or two of the super powers now being positioned to do what we, by our size, intelligence and leadership in Africa should have done, to tinker with an idea of invading Nigeria sooner or later.
Optimists may brush this postulation as the reasoning of an idle thinker, but we must not forget so soon, about what happened in Iraq, Libya and what is happening between Israel and Palestine: these are even the countries that have some kind of security muscles to flex.
There is a simple fact in the air that Nigeria, unable to provide simple or even sophisticated security protection for its citizens cannot attempt to rise above the line or level of development which the super powers would want it to attain. In other words, since the world has understood Nigeria to be highly inadequate in feeding its citizenry; since it is fully aware that corruption is reaching an all-time high and now, since it knows that Nigeria cannot adequately secure its citizens without a recourse to them, tendency is for them (the advanced nations) to treat us at the level of master-servant.
There is no gainsaying the fact that a country that cannot feed itself, provide security for itself and is budged down by corruption has no platform on which it would rub shoulders with the countries that have come to assist it in putting out the raging fire.
And, between rescuing our daughters from the strangle hold of Boko Haram through the help of those countries that have the technologies to do so and keeping our pride by bragging about being an independent nation, we have no choice, as a nation, to choose the latter: accept that we are down-and-out, in humility!
As the late Chief MKO Abiola would say, the hand that gives is always on top of the one that receives. That, in simple word means subservience.

Read More Articles From This Author: Yusuf Ozi-Usman

Ashton Villa Soccer Team Is Up For Sale At $300

Greenbarge Reporters

May 12, 2014

Owner of the Premier League team, an elite soccer club, which finished 15th this season, Ashton Villa, Mr. Randy Lerner has placed the team in market for the sum of $300 million.

Lerner, an American businessman who is worth about $2 billion, decided to sell the team after eight years of ownership and it after what he calls “seemingly constant rumors” circulated about his future with the Midlands club.

In a statement today: “I have come to know well that fates are fickle in the business of English football. And I feel that I have pushed mine well past the limit. The last several seasons have been week in, week out battles and having now come through this last season unfortunately limping amidst very meaningful injuries and constant sale rumors, I feel further that now is the time for me to look for new ownership and thus new leadership.”

Lerner has engaged Bank of America Merrill Lynch to advise on the sale of the team, according to his statement.

As to possible buyers of Aston Villa, right now it could be just about anyone with deep pockets. The English team could even stay in American hands. Billionaires in the United States are increasingly scooping up Premier League teams. Business mogul Malcom Glazer and his family, worth $4.5 billion, owns Manchester United; entrepreneur Stan Kroenke, worth $4.7 billion, is the largest shareholder of Arsenal; investor John Henry, worth $1.7 billion, owns Liverpool; and businessman Ellis Short, worth $1.4 billion, owns Sunderland.

Drinking Water In Britain Contains Cocaine-Tests

Greenbarge Reporters

May 12, 2014

It has been confirmed through series of tests that drinking water in Britain contains some amount of cocaine.

Reports say that inspections of tap water at four different sites found a metabolised form of the illegal drug, which showed it had already passed through the human body.

The report say that levels of cocaine were so low that they posed no danger to health, but come as a startling indication of how widespread drug use has become.

Benzoylecgonine, which is the form of cocaine that is generated once the drug has been processed by the body, was found in tap water at four test sites

Steve Rolles, from the drug policy think tank Transform, said that the findings were an indication of the scale of the use of the drug in Britain today, adding: “We have the near highest level of cocaine use in western Europe.

“It has also been getting cheaper and cheaper at the same time as its use has been going up.”

Cocaine is the only major drug for which use has increased overall since 1996, with its falling price thought to be a major reason for its prevalence.

Now, the drug is said to cost around £40 per gram in Britain, compared to as much as £115 in the U.S.

Reports say that in the 1980s and 1990s it was seen as a drug of the wealthy and fashionable, but that now it is widely taken.

They say that some well-publicised tests in the past have found traces of cocaine on nearly every banknote in circulation, in toilets in the House of Commons and at two thirds of Cambridge colleges.

Sue Pennison, principal inspector at the Drinking Water Inspectorate, said: “The study which looked at “worst case” scenarios is reassuring in that it demonstrated that water treatment was generally very effective in the removal of a number of pharmaceuticals which were detected in untreated river water in trace amounts.

“Only six compounds were detected in treated river water and advice on the results received from Public Health England concluded that exposures for the detected compounds was of the order of thousands of times below the level associated with adverse effects in animals and hundreds of thousands of times below human therapeutic doses.

“The study contributes to the update of national risk assessments of water supplies which is an ongoing activity.”

Jonathan May Attend Lecture In France On How To Rescue Chibok Girls From Boko Haram

Greenbarge Reporters

May 12, 2014

In desperate search for solution to the insurgency by mainly Boko Haram and attempt to locate and free the abducted female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state, Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is said to have accepted to attend a Summit in France on Saturday, with focus on how to rescue the abducted girls.

French President, Francois Hollande who announced this in Paris said that his country put up the plan to host a summit with Nigeria and its neighboring countries in Paris on May 17, saying that the meeting will discuss security and the threat of Boko Haram.

A French official says Nigerian President has agreed to attend a security summit on Saturday in Paris to focus on the Boko Haram terrorist network, which abducted more than 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria last month.

It has been gathered that France is still awaiting confirmation from leaders of the four countries bordering Nigeria: Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Representatives of Britain, the EU and the United States will also be invited.

The official spoke today on condition of anonymity because details on the summit have not been finalized.

The failure to rescue more than 200 girls who remain captive has attracted international outrage. Experts from the United States, France, Britain, China, Israel and Spain are expected in Nigeria to help the authorities

Boko Haram Converts Abducted Female Students To Islam?

Greenbarge Reporters

May 12, 2014

There are indications that members of the dreaded Boko Haram have converted the abducted female students of the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in Borno state, most of who are Christians to Islam against their will.

A new video released today by Boko Haram showed the girls, about 130 0f them, dressed in Hijab and in the Islamic praying mode.

Leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau was heard saying in the video: “these girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with..we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims.”

The video shows the girls praying even as the group’s leader said that the abducted girls will be held until all imprisoned militants had been freed.

This is showing that after increased call from the international community, including the special initiative taken by American First lady, Michelle Obama to have the girls released, the situation still remains dicey.

In the new 17-minite video obtained by French news agency AFP and cited by various news sources, three of the girls – wearing the full-length Hijab—are shown speaking.

Two girls are heard saying that they were previously Christians and have now converted to Islam, while the other says she is Muslim.

Majority of the abducted girls belonged to Christian communities, while some of them were Muslim.

There is still no indication as to where the girls are being held and where or when the video was taken, although the location appears to be a remote one.

Reports in Nigeria have said that the girls appeared calm in the video and one of the girls said that they had not been harmed.

The video shows only about 130 of the 276 pupils abducted from the school in the northern state of Borno, an indication that the girls could have been divided into smaller groups to avoid being detected.

The latest video was released after Governor Kashim Shettima of Nigeria’s Borno state had earlier stated that he had information on the whereabouts of the schoolgirls and that he had passed the reports of the sightings to the military for verification.

Boko Haram abducted the girls on 14 April and threatened to sell them soon after, in another video.

Photo: The 6th Commencement Ceremony Of AUN In Yola, Adamawa State

Greenbarge Reporters

May 11, 2014

aun 1 — L-R Former Vice President and Founder of American University of Nigeria, Yola (AUN) Atiku Abubakar and President of AUN Prof Margee Ensign at the 6th Commencement Ceremony of AUN in Yola, Adamawa State over the weekend.

Former Vice President and Founder of American University of Nigeria, Yola (AUN) Atiku Abubakar congratulating Ahmad A Abubakar a graduate of AUN 2014 Class at the 6th Commencement Ceremony of AUN in Yola

Chibok Abdcution: Amnesty International Lied, Says Olukolade; We’ll Investigate, Says Maku

Greenbarge Reporters

May 9, 2014

Spokesman of the Nigerian military authorities, Major General Chris Olukolade has written off the report of Amnesty International just released today, indicting the Nigerian security forces over the abduction of female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state, even as the information minister, Labaran Maku said that the government is going to investigate the amnesty report.
In reaction to the Amnesty International damning report, Major General Olukolade lamented: “that body is simply at it again. They just want to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.”
He described the report of the Amnesty International as unfounded “as usual. “The report is just a collation of the rumours, views and allegations of their fellow detractors and local operatives. The issues listed are even stale and have been severally addressed and clarified.
“The whole package by Amnesty International is nothing but a pre-designed blackmail material.
However, information minister, Mr. Maku wondered how soldiers that were sent there to defend the citizens will hear the warnings and not doing anything.
“We are going to investigate the Amnesty International report.”

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