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

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.”

Borno Governor Has Been Offering N1 Million To Family Of Soldier Killed In Boko Haram Operation

Greenbarge Reporters

May 9, 2014

Facts have emerged to show that Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima has been providing the sum of one million naira to the family of any soldier killed in the battle with Boko Haram.
According to the governor’s spokesman, Isa Gusau said in a statement today said that through a strong network of communities involvement Governor Shettima has been working hard in generating and providing information the security forces process for their intelligence.
“The State provides N1m to families of every soldier killed in combat as palliative to familes and to motivate others on battle field. Security chiefs have unfettered access to the Governor as they see him at the shortest time with or without prior appointment, day or night.
“The Governor acts on his daily reports appropriately even as he inspires youth volunteers, trained and equipped them with patrol vehicles and pays them salaries to do community policing to complement troops.”
Gusau, was obviously reacting, on behalf of the governor, to the damning report of Amnesty International today that indicted security forces over the abducted female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state
He said that Amnesty International clearly directed its report at the Federal Government, saying that Governor Shettima will not comment on the report. “But the Governor deeply appreciates the efforts and sacrifices of security agencies in Borno State who have been engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the last three years with some of them laying their lives for the State. The Governor also respects the Amnesty International as a credible institution and will not doubt it’s findings. The Governor is very much committed to supporting ongoing search and rescue efforts to free Borno’s precious daughters. “More than any other person in position of authority, Governor Shettima is deeply pained by that unfortunate abduction and is committed to providing all necessary support security agencies and community volunteers towards freeing his daughters. Just for the record, Governor Kashim Shettima has since assuming power, accorded nothing short of outstanding support for all security agencies in the State and this has been well acknowledged by different heads of security agencies at various times.
“Borno State under his tenure, has provided over 300 brand new hilux patrol vehicles to them. The state fuels these vehicles daily and provides maintenance. “The State provides other material logistics to security agencies.”

Chibok Abduction: Amnesty International Indicts Nigeria Security Forces

Greenbarge Reporters

May 9, 2014

Amnesty International has indicted Nigerian security forces which it said failed to act on advance warnings about Boko Haram’s armed raid on the state-run boarding school in Chibok which led to the abduction of more than 240 schoolgirls on April 14.
After independently verifying information based on multiple interviews with credible sources, the organization today exclusively revealed that the Nigerian security forces had more than four hours of advance warning about the attack but did not do enough to stop it.
The Amnesty’s Africa Director, Netsanet Belay who spoke in Abuja today, said:
“The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram’s impending raid, but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime.
“It amounts to a gross dereliction of Nigeria’s duty to protect civilians, who remain sitting ducks for such attacks. The Nigerian leadership must now use all lawful means at their disposal to secure the girls’ safe release and ensure nothing like this can happen again.
“The abduction and continued detention of these school girls are war crimes, and those responsible must be brought to justice. Attacks on schools also violate the right to education and must be halted immediately.”
Amnesty confirmed through various sources that Nigeria’s military headquarters in Maiduguri was aware of the impending attack soon after 7pm on 14 April, close to four hours before Boko Haram began their assault on the town.
But an inability to muster troops – due to poor resources and a reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped armed groups – meant that reinforcements were not deployed to Chibok that night.
It went on: “the small contingent of security forces based in the town–17 army personnel as well as local police–attempted to repel the Boko Haram assault but were overpowered and forced to retreat. One soldier reportedly died.
“More than three weeks later, the majority of the girls remain in captivity in an unknown location. A climate of confusion and suspicion has so far scuppered efforts to secure their release.”
The Amnesty reiterated its call on Boko Haram to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages into safety and stop all attacks on civilians.
“Warnings ignored
Between 7pm on 14 April and 2am on 15 April, the military commands in Damboa, 36.5 km away from Chibok, and Maiduguri, 130 km away from Chibok, were repeatedly alerted to the threat by both security and local officials.”
According to sources interviewed by Amnesty, local civilian patrols (known as “vigilantes”, set up by the military and local authorities) in Gagilam, a neighbouring village, were among the first to raise the alarm on the evening of 14 April after a large group of unidentified armed men entered their village on motorbikes and said they were headed to Chibok. This set off a rapid chain of phone calls to alert officials, including the Borno State Governor and senior military commanders based in Maiduguri.
One local official who was contacted by Gagilam residents told Amnesty:
“At around 10:00 PM on 14 April, I called [several] security officers to inform them about earlier information I had received from the vigilantes in Gagilam village. They had told us that strange people had arrived in their village that evening on motorbikes and they said they were heading to Chibok. I made several other calls, including to Maiduguri. I was promised by the security people that reinforcement were on their way.”
Another local official was contacted by herdsmen who said that armed men had asked where the Government Girls Secondary School was located in Chibok.
At around 11:45 PM, a convoy reportedly numbering up to 200 armed Boko Haram fighters – on motorbikes and in trucks – arrived in Chibok town and engaged in a gunfight with a small number of police and soldiers based there. Outnumbered and outgunned, the security forces eventually fled in the small hours of 15 April. Some of the Boko Haram fighters proceeded to the Government Girls Secondary School and abducted more than 240 schoolgirls.
Two senior officers in Nigeria’s armed forces confirmed that the military was aware of the planned attack even prior to the calls received from local officials. One officer said the commander was unable to mobilize reinforcements. He described to Amnesty the difficulties faced by frontline soldiers in north-eastern Nigeria:
“There’s a lot of frustration, exhaustion and fatigue among officers and [troops] based in the hotspots…many soldiers are afraid to go to the battle fronts.”
Amnesty’s requests for a reaction from the military headquarters in Abuja have gone unanswered.
Since the 14 April raid, a climate of confusion and suspicion appears to have slowed down the Nigerian authorities’ efforts to locate and free the abducted schoolgirls. On 16 April, a senior Defence Ministry spokesperson said that almost all of the abducted girls had been rescued and only eight were still missing. The next day he had to retract that statement.
Netsanet Belay added:
“The climate of suspicion and lack of transparency about the rescue effort has been unhelpful – all authorities must work together to ensure the girls are brought home safely and more must be done to protect civilians in future.”
Amnesty is calling on the Nigerian government to provide adequate information to families of abducted girls on the authorities’ current efforts to ensure their safe release. The families – and the abducted girls, once they are freed – must be provided with adequate medical and psychological support.
Background
The information on the advance warnings of the impending Boko Haram attack in Chibok came from multiple sources, including local officials and two senior military officers, interviewed by Amnesty. The sources independently verified a list of Nigerian officials who were alerted on 14-15 April, before and during the raid on the Government Girls Secondary School. They have been kept anonymous for their safety.
The abduction of the schoolgirls in Chibok comes amid months of worsening violence and serious human rights violations and abuses being committed by armed Islamist groups and Nigerian government forces alike in the conflict in north-eastern Nigeria.
Amnesty’s research indicates that at least 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Nigeria this year alone.
In a separate incident on 5 May, at least eight girls were abducted by gunmen in the Warabe and Wala communities in north-eastern Nigeria. There have been similar abductions on a smaller scale, mainly of women and girls, in the last two years.
Also on 5 May, more than 200 people were killed in Gamboru, Ngala, Borno state, when an armed group traveling in two armoured cars opened fire on a market in broad daylight. The attack began around 1:30pm and lasted several hours, and the armed group torched market stalls, vehicles and nearby homes and shops.
Despite such ongoing attacks, the Nigerian authorities have failed to adequately investigate the killings and abductions, bring suspected perpetrators to justice, or prevent further attacks.
At the same time, the government continues to unlawfully detain hundreds of people suspected of links with Boko Haram in military detention and is denying them access to lawyers. The majority of those detained around the country are held without criminal charges, and many have been extrajudicially executed by security forces before facing trial

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