Kogi Teachers March On Streets, Demanding Payment Of February, March Salaries

April 15, 2014

Primary and Junior Secondary School teachers in Kogi state, numbering over 200, today, staged protest, demanding the payment of their February and March salaries, as well as the implementation of the new minimum wage.

The protest disrupted activities at the headquarters of the Kogi State Universal Basic Education Board for hours. The teachers were protesting the non-payment of their February and March salaries and the alleged refusal of the government to fully implement the new minimum wage.

The protesting teachers blocked the main gate to board’s office, thereby making human and vehicular movement impossible for hours.

The protesters, led by Mr. Adomu Suleiman, the state chairman of the Basic Education Staff Association of Nigeria, chanted anti-government slogans, accusing the state government of being insensitive to their plight and turning them to beggars.

Some of their demands were the immediate payment of their two-month salaries, areas for promoted teachers since 2009, payment of annual increment since 2010 and payment of their 2011, 2012 and 2013 leave bonus, among others.

“We will not resume work at the beginning of the new term on April 26 unless all our demands are met by the government,’’ Suleiman said.

Addressing the protesting teachers on behalf of the board chairman, a member of the board, Mr. James Momoh, said that the board was not surprised by their action as they were aware of the non-payment of the February and March salaries and other grievances.

Momoh blamed the delay in the payment on the government’s efforts to pay the new minimum wage to the teachers from March in line with an agreement reached with them in August 2013.

He appealed to them to give the government up till next week to pay their salaries.

He urged them to be mindful of the current security situation in the country so that hoodlums do not hijack the protest to unleash terror on the state.

Sierra Leone Charges 14 Soldiers Of Attempt To Kidnap President

Greenbarge Reporters

April 15, 2014

A Sierra Leone military court has charged a captain and 13 soldiers with attempt to kidnap the country’s President, Ernest Bai Koroma and murder the defence minister, which amounted to mutiny.

The charge was coming eight months after they were arrested for planning a protest against the president. The men, who all pleaded not guilty, were arrested last August in the northern town of Makeni for planning a protest during a visit by President Ernest Bai Koroma to his hometown.

The Judge, Otto During, said the soldiers had intended to kidnap the president and murder the defence minister during the visit, which was later cancelled. He said the account has not been independently verified and details of the event leading to the soldiers’ arrests were not addressed in court yesterday.

“Bail was refused the suspects in the interest of public safety and the safety of the accused persons themselves. Also, there is the risk of flight on the part of the suspects.”

If found guilty, the men could face a range of punishments, from demotion in rank to death by firing squad.

A source that witnessed the trial said the group looked healthy and relaxed and several of them waved and smiled to friends and family members that were present.

Boko Haram Abducts 103 Girls From High School In Chibok, Borno State

Greenbarge Reporters

April 15, 2014

Suspected members of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, are believed to have abducted 103 students in a daring raid at the Girls Secondary School in Chibok, a town on the border between Borno and Adamawa States.

It was gathered that the group’s assault on the all-female high school took place between yesterday night and early morning of today.

A security source disclosed that members of the extremist Islamist group killed a soldier guarding the school and inflicted injuries on several villagers before abducting the students.

The police commissioner in Borno State, Lawan Tanko, has since confirmed the kidnapping of the students to reporters in the state.

A source who lives near the school said that there was complete chaos during the attack, and that the students could not put up resistance to the heavily armed attackers.

The mass abduction was said to have lasted between 9.00pm and 3.00am. The sect members were said to have made several trips picking and choosing their victims out of the 250 students enrolled in the school.

Residents of the area hinted that the militants razed 100 homes because some of the residents initially resisted the militants.

Ghana’s Priest Takes T.B Joshua To Pope, Says He’s Not A Man Of God

Greenbarge Reporters

April 15, 2014

A Popular Ghanaian fetish priest, Nana Kwaku Bonsam, is said to have gone to Pope Francis with complaint that a Nigerian Prophet T.B. Joshua is not a man of God as he claims.
The Priest is scheduled to leave the shores of Ghana on Friday 18th April to Italy where he hopes to meet the Pope, the most powerful Christian leader.
Nana’s move, according to him, is to get the Pope to take action against Prophet T.B. Joshua, whom he believes is defaming God.
“T.B. Joshua is not a man of God. When you are a spiritual man, you can see that T.B. Joshua is not a man of God. If someone prophesies and it doesn’t come to pass, you know he’s not a man of God. T.B. Joshua has good editors and they edit stuff and put on youtube and his TV station. I, Nana Kwaku Bonsam…T.B. Joshua is not a man of God, he uses tricks….because of all these things, I want to go to the Pope and ask him why he is not taking action,” he told citifmonline.com in an interview.
Nana Kwaku Bonsam explains that T.B. Joshua’s prophesies are misleading and alleged that T.B. Joshua killed the late president of the Republic of Ghana, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills.
“Let’s look at the Ghana president. When you ask that who killed him I can say T.B. Joshua killed the Ghana president,” he said.
According to him, T.B. Joshua’s misleading prophesies caused the demise of the late Prof. Mills.
Kwaku Bonsam says he wants the Pope to call T.B. Joshua to order. He explains that he wanted to get to T.B. Joshua spiritually but cannot do so because T.B. Joshua is not a spiritual person.
Among the issues he wants the Pope to address is T.B. Joshua’s attitude of acting like Christ.
“In spiritual realms, if he had powers I could have talked to him but because he doesn’t have powers and that is why I am going there physically to tell the Pope.
“He does things like he is Jesus Christ. When he speaks, when you look at his speaking, he does like Jesus Christ. But that is not the way Jesus came to do. So once I go to the Pope, the Pope can even call him to advise him, so that anything that he does he will come down small small so that everything will be successful,” he explained.
Asked whether he has already booked an appointment with the Pope, he revealed he’s not been able to but believes he would get access to the Pope once he gets to the Vatican.
He has advised pastors and prophets to stop prophesying lies to their followers to bring honor to God.

President Jonathan Explodes In Kano: Says Kwankwaso Is Devil, Not Him

Greenbarge Reporters

April 15, 2014

President Goodluck Jonathan virtually went for the throat of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso in Kano today, saying that the governor is more of a devil than him, even as he alleged that the governor embezzled money meant for Kano state delegates to the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of 2011 election.
The obviously angry President told the PDP supporters at the party’s unity rally to formally welcome the former Kano state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau into the party, that governor Kwankwaso had never voted for him and Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo either at party level or at national level.
Apparently reacting to the statement allegedly credited to governor Kwankwaso that any Kano man that wears bowler hat, his personal trade-mark, is a devil and that he regretted voting for him, President Jonathan wondered how can he be devil when his government had done so much for the people of the state.
He stressed that Kwankwaso never liked him to win the Presidency of this country, adding that Kwankwaso ever walked out angrily at the PDP convention when it became clear that he was going to win the party presidential ticket.
President Jonathan said that Kwankwaso also pocketed undisclosed amount of money given to him to bring Kano state delegates to the National convention of the party, saying: “he never gave anyone kobo.”
According to the President who deliberately wore his traditional attire, matched with bowler hat at the rally, away from the white baban riga and ‘Aminu Kano’ cap worn by other party chieftains, while governor Kwankwaso cannot account for about N255.6 Billion which Kano state got from the federation account since 2011, his government had given Kano people so much in terms of socio-economic development.
They included 515,000 farmers that benefit ted from 76,000 metric tonnes of fertilizers, 58,000 improved seeds to farmers and 100,000 farmers that benefited from dry farming facilities all between 2012 and 2013. He added that as at 2013, the population of rice farmers grew from 1,500 to 66,000 even as he said that federal government under him has been supporting cotton, wheat and groundnut farmers in the state.
President Jonathan said that he had assured the Emir of Kano, Dr. Ado Bayero that his government would soon revive groundnut pyramid, asking: how can such person who has done so much for Kano be called devil?
President Jonathan described Shekarau as a true Nigerian political patriot who warmly received him in Kano thrice at the time he was Vice President on the PDP platform while Shekarau was then serving on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
The President who was apparently reacting to governor Kwanlwaso who refused to receive him in the state, made it clear that PDP would recover Kano state in 2015 “whether with red cap or bowler hat.”
On the terrorists’ attacks, especially at Nyanya bus park yesterday, President Jonathan vowed that terrorists will not stop his government from working, even as he reassured Nigerians and the international community that the country would soon get over it.
The President who once more expressed condolences to the families of victims yesterday’s bomb blast in Nyanya, which claimed no fewer than 71 lives and over 124 people injured said the target of terrorists is to halt governance.
He said that the terrorists have failed as his administration would not succumb to terror.
“Let me emphasized that terror will not stop Nigeria from moving. The terrorists and those sponsoring them will not stop this country from moving.
“This country will continue to move from strength to strength. We will continue to do our best to make sure we live peacefully in this country.”

We’ll Take Our Seats Back From Those Who Defected, PDP National Chairman Vows

Greenbarge Reporters

April 15, 2014

National chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Hu’azu has vowed that they would take back the seats belonging to the party from those who recently defected to the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC).
Mu’azu was referring to the governors of Kano, Kwara, Sokoto, Adamawa and Rivers states as well as members of the House of Representatives who won elections under the PDP but dumped it for APC.
The chairman, who spoke today at a unity rally in Kano to receive the former state governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau into the party said that the honourable thing those defetors would have done was to resign from the party and their elective seats to test their popularity in the new party.
He said that through legal processes, PDP would unseat the defectors who have since forfieted the right to hold on to the seats that belonged to PDP.
Mu’azu said that PDP is the only national and broad based party that accommodates all shades of Nigerians, adding that entering PDP is like entering religion.
He said that in PDP there is enough for everybody without discrimination or superiority by one group over others.
The governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who jettisoned PDP for APC refused formally receive President Jonathan to Kano, even as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, who is still a member of the PDP caucus was conspicuously absent at the rally.
The new PDP chieftain, Ibrahim Shekarau, who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the unity rally to welcome him as “an occasion for democracy and an occasion for choice.”
He said that the return of key former members of defunct ANPP and later APC was to show solidarity and loyalty to the President Jonathan’s government, even as he promised to continue to be loyal to the party and his administration.
“Mr. President, I wish to pledge my commitment and that of other members who made the choice to join the PPD with me.”
He also pledged to work with the President in order to realise the objectives of the ruling party.
The former governor used the occasion to thank the President for the various federal projects that have been completed and ongoing in Kano state.
While promising to continue to re-dedicate his life to the service of the people, Shekarau called on the President to do more for the people of Kano state by way of empowerment, especially by boosting agriculture.

The Scene Of Bomb Blast In Nyanya, Abuja

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

I Don’t Have Brain For Education, Says Timaya

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

A Nigerian Pop singer, Timaya has confessed that though education is very important but it is not for him.

The hit artist who spoke at the third leg of Star Music Trek, which held in Uyo said: “I don’t have the brain for education but for those of you who do, please do it, it’s good. I scored 17 in JAMB, That’s when I gave up. Education is important, yes, but not for me for me.”

However, it is thrilling to note that despite this ‘lack,’ he has risen to become one of the most popular artistes in the country today.

Atiku Sympathizes With Victims Of Nyanya, Abuja Bomb Explosion, Queries Government’s sincerity Over Boko Haram

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has expressed his sympathy for the victims of the bombings of the Nyanya Bus Park, in the suburbs of Abuja today, which left scores dead and many injured.
In a statement from his media office in Abuja, Atiku also queried the sincerity in the claim by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, not long ago, that terrorists, represented by Boko Haram, have been driven out of the main centres of Nigerian.
The former Vice President, who called on well-meaning Nigerians in and around the Federal Capital Territory to heed the call of National Blood Transfusion Centre (NBTC) by voluntarily donating blood at the National Hospital Abuja to save the lives of Nyanya blast survivors said that this needless blood-letting should not be allowed to continue unabated.
Atiku recalled that government had in February this year, spoken about its successes in pushing Boko Haram to the “fringes” of the North East, where a state of emergency currently exists in a number of states, and where the Boko Haram terrorist group has carried out many recent and deadly attacks.
He noted that today’s bombing in the Nyanya motor park has cast doubts on the claims of containing the crisis to the fringes of the country.
He said that today’s bombing and latest bombings by insurgents should be a wake-up call to all Nigerians on the imperative of ending the trade-blame game and working together to end this scourge.
“As a country, we are not doing enough of focusing on and implementing solutions. We are all guilty of expending endless energy on hand wringing and the trading of blame, none of which is able to save lives or change the status quo.”
He insisted that the continued attacks by the insurgents requires new strategies, even as he described those behind the bombings as evil and callous and that they have scant regard for the sanctity of human life.
“There is an urgent need for the government of Nigeria to review its methods and strategies for dealing with terrorism.”
He called for a step up in intelligence, listening posts, picking up trends and conversations with a view to pre-empting terrorist attacks.
The former Vice President suggested that Nigeria should accept foreign assistance with fighting terrorism in the country.

President Jonathan Visits Nyanya, Abuja Bomb Blast Site, Says Boko Haram Is Temporary

Greenbarge Reporters

April 14, 2014

Residents of Nyanya, a settlement just ouskirt of Abuja, the nation’s federal capital territory, were brutally woken up this morning by bomb blast that sent many people to their early graves, even as President Goodluck Jonathan described the issue of Boko Haram as temporary, with assurance that “we will get over it.”
He had earlier canclled his visit to Ibadan to visit the scene of the incidence as well as the hospitals where the injured have been taken.
Information had it that no fewer than 200 people died in the early morning explosion, though there has not been any official pronouncement yet.
It was gathered that many vehicles, including about 12 government-owned high capacity buses operated by the Abuja Mass Transit Company Limited, were destroyed in the attack.
Some of the buses which were caught in the middle of the explosion were said to be loaded with passengers.
The bomb exploded in a highly populated motor park in Nyanya and at the peak of time when workers were going to their workplaces in the Abuja city, especially, in what is usually thick vehiculer traffic holdup.
Eye witnesses suspected that the bomb might have been planted by a suicide bomber.
Some of the dead victims and the injured have been taken to hospital by ambulances and vans belonging to security agencies, including police, Vehicle Inspection Office, Federal Road Safety Commission, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the National Emergency Management Agency.
President Jonathan, at the site of the bomb blast in Nyanya and Asokoro General Hospital today, assured that his government will continue to work very hard.
“The issue of Boko Haram is temporary. Government is doing everything to make sure that we move our country forward in spite of all the distractions that want to take us backward.
“We promise that we will get over it.”
While acknowledging the pain in losing so many people through the explotion, the President however, commended security services ‎for their prompt action.
He expressed condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the explotion, even as he appealed to the media and other Nigerians to come up with enlightenment programme for the people.
According to him, countries that face similar terrorism used to take time to develope great awareness, adding: “if there are unusual movement of vehicles and bags, they called security and base on this, a lot of incidences are contained.”
Jonathan believed that if people would become observant and they become security conscious by the movement of people, their would be reduction in some of these incidences.
“We will do our best‎. The security services will continue to work very hard. God willing, we will get over it. The issue of Boko Haram is temporary, surely we will get over it.”
He had earlier ordered heightened security in Abuja following the Nyanya bombing.

The President was accompanied by the Senate President, David Mark, Chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, Chief Of Defence Staff and other service chiefs, Ministers and other very senior government functionaries.

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