Agbakoba: 90% of Nigeria's problems are from Abuja

The former chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (S.A.N) says 90% of Nigeria’s problems are from the nation’s capital, Abuja.

Agbakoba stated this while he was reviewing the book of his colleague and renowned lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), at the Yar’adua centre, Abuja yesterday, February 9.

The book titled Zoning to Unzone: The politics of power and the power of politics in Nigeria, seeks to address several pressing historical and contemporary national issues about Nigeria.


According to Agbakoba: ”90% of our problems are located in Abuja constitutionally, because our politicians have been unable to manage our diversity.”

He continued: ”Our diversity is not a curse. The United Kingdom is as diverse as Nigeria, but as it is, Nigeria is not a nation.”

Agbakoba also berated politicians in the country for not getting it right, even as he called on the legislature to ”repair the federation.”

He said that Nigeria is not a federation which is why zoning to unzone is a major issue in the country. He also called on the Muhammadu Buhari administration to look into the 2014 National Conference organised by the Goodluck Jonathan government.

According to him, every National Conference held till date in Nigeria has addressed the issue of federation adequately.

”We need to unbundle Nigeria to make the federating units stronger. If we can emulate the structure of religion, we will have a better country,” he said.


Among those who graced the event yesterday were the governor of Edo state, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, who was the chief host; the former governor of Imo state, Ikedi Ohakim, who represented the chairman of the occasion, Senator Ken Nnamani, a former Senate president; the minister of science and technology, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu and Abia state deputy governor, Sir Ude Okochukwu, who represented his boss.

Other eminent personalities present were the former minister of justice, Ms Olajumoke Akinjide; Senator Bode Olajumoke, a former minority whip at the House of Representatives, Honourable Samson Osagie; senior lawyers, Chief Wole Olaonipekun and Chief Awa Kalu.

Agbakoba in a recent interview with a national newspaper said Nigeria needs to see a new federal system.

He recommended that President Muhammadu Buhari propose a bill for an act or set up a small technical committee on national order.

Al Ahly and Sunshine Stars finally leave Mali

An Egyptian military plane airlifted Ahly out of Bamako on Thursday afternoon headed for Cairo.

The six players and two officials from Stars left on Friday to return home via Benin.

The two teams were stranded after Monday's attempted counter-coup caused the airport to be closed.

Ahly's flight after their 1-0 loss in the African Champions League to Stade Malien was initially delayed by bad weather.

Arsenal to play pre-season game in Abuja Nigeria

According to the organisers, DanJan Sports, Arsenal's opposition are likely to be a leading African national team.

It will be the first time the Gunners have played in Nigeria.

"We are working on the opposition and once that is finalised we will announce it to the public in conjunction with the London club," David Omigie of DanJan Sports said.

Nigeria: Edo state governor 'Oshiomhole's aide shoot dead'

Mr Olaitan, the personal secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, was assassinated this morning.
Eye witness accounts state that the governor's aide was shot by gunmen who broke into his house early Friday morning.
The state's police command has confirmed the killing, though the state government is yet to react as the time of this report.
More to follow.

Nigeria: Azazi’s bold position and America’s evasive posturing

General Andrew Azazi’s speech at the just concluded South-South Economic summit was spot on. Albeit too many analysts and political masquerades have tried to deconstruct the speech into components that suit their selfish political objectives, the keynote of the NSA was clear – that political discontent engendered by the outcome of the 2011 presidential elections, created conducive nesting environment for the escalation of the Boko Haram Jihad.
The deeper meaning of his speech is the absolute response to United States’ posturing that economic alienation is the principal motor of Boko Haram. The NSA did not completely disagree with Ambassador Johnny Carson, but he delivered a didactic talk.

Nigeria's Potiskum cattle market raid '34 killed in Yobe'

Witnesses say they saw several bodies being removed after the market in Potiskum, Yobe state, was set on fire by gunmen armed with explosives.
A hospital source told the AFP news agency that up to 34 people had died.
Police say the attack may be in revenge for the killing by traders of a man who had earlier tried to steal cattle.
'Threw explosives' "A group of gunmen armed with around 20 explosives and assault rifles attacked the Potiskum cattle market," police spokesman Toyin Gbadegesin told AFP.

Nigeria: One Person Killed In Fresh Gunfight Between Boko Haram And The JTF In Kano

The Joint Task Force and islamist militants of the Boko Haram sect have been engaging is sustained gun battle since 3AM Nigerian time in the town of Sherada and Sabo Wuar-Gwandu in Kumbotso local government area in Kano State according to police sources.
Saharareporters learns that the security forces rsaided the neighborhood in search of militants suspected to have participated in las Sunday's  attacks on christian fellowships at the Bayero university in Kano .
Police said they recovered unexploded IEDs, guns and ammunitions from the militants. Some of the militants and theirs wives were arrested, A few others were injured during that raid by security forces.

Nigeria First lady to launch female drivers training scheme

Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dame Patience Jonathan will on Friday flag of a new job scheme for women known as the Lady Chauffeur Training Scheme (LCTS) designed to train young female Nigerians to become professional drivers.

The scheme, which is collaboration between the office of the First Lady and the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) will have 200 beneficiaries in the first phase in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Prepare For Mass Protest Over Subsidy Scam, Soyinka Tells Nigerians

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, says the Farouk-Lawan report shows that Nigerians have been dehumanized.
Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, on Monday urged Nigerians to get ready for another determined protest over the fuel subsidy scam.
Mr. Soyinka said in a press conference organized by the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) in Lagos that revelations from the subsidy probe dehumanizes Nigerians.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that controversies continue to trail the report of the fuel subsidy probe which was submitted to the House of Representatives by the Farouk Lawan-led Committee last week.

Nigeria Ibom Power Plant Collapse: Small Businesses Groan In Akwa Ibom

The collapse of the Independent Power Plant built by the Akwa Ibom government has led to prolonged power outage from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in Eket and its environs even as a parallel fuel scarcity is inflicting a brutal toll on economic activity.

SaharaReporters learnt from officials of the PHCN in Eket that the power plant, which has never operated optimally, broke down and has not been fixed. 

U.S. Energy Subsidiary Named In Massive Oil Ripoff Rocking Nigeria

So-called fuel importers including a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil billed Nigeria for eye-popping sums of money without importing a single drop of oil.

 

Details of the wholesale scamming were revealed in a scathing 205 page official report that stunned citizens including Nobel Peace Prize winner Wole Soyinka.

 

A parliamentary probe, covering 2009 to 2011, found that dozens of petrol marketers, including the state oil company, helped themselves to payments for fuel that did not exist or was sold abroad - siphoning billions of dollars into the pockets of corrupt officials and businessmen.

 

"Nigerians have been suffering under the deceit of a select few that has milked us all dry in the name of fuel subsidy," said Lawan Farouk, head of the committee that led the probe.

 

The oil imports were designed to subsidize the price that Nigerians paid at the pump. It was considered one of the few benefits from being an oil-rich country.

 

Officials in the Goodluck Jonathan administration were named in the report as were 15 fuel importers who allegedly received over $300 million without importing any fuel. More than 100 oil marketers may have double billed. In one case, invoices of 999 million Nigerian dollars were OK’d for payment 128 times in 24 hours.

 

Mobil Oil contests the figure of $95 million supposedly owed to Nigeria.

 

Nobel winner Soyinka expressed dismay at the size of the ripoff.  He urged Nigerians to return to the streets as they did in January during the Occupy Nigeria protests. ”It is enough. Nigerians must be prepared to march, must be prepared to come out en masse and demand a termination of these years of insolence against the ordinary people.”

 

Of those named in the report, many deny taking part in fraud, with some taking out full-page newspaper ads proclaiming their innocence. w/pix of anti-corruption rally

Nigeria: Suspect of Kaduna suicide bomber transferred to Abuja

The suspected suicide bomber of the SOJ Plaza Kaduna has now been transferred to the force headquarters Abuja, Kaduna State police commissioner, Mohammed J. Abubakar, said in Kaduna yesterday.

Last Thursday, a suspected bomber rode in a bomb-laden Honda Academy car killing three and injuring 25 persons at the plaza.  The SOJ Plaza housed offices of ThisDay, Sun and the Moment newspapers. Speaking to Daily Trust on phone, the police commissioner said the suspected suicide bomber who sustained various degrees of injuries has been transferred to force headquarters Abuja for further investigation.

In Yobe Nigeria: Gunmen kill three traders

Gunmen have shot dead three people in restive Yobe State in the latest deadly attacks to hit the region, police said on Tuesday.

The incident happened late Monday in the Dogon-Zare area of Potiskum, the commercial centre of the state.

The assailants stormed the residence of the three men who were believed to be Christian traders from southern Nigeria. Residents said they had lived in Potiskum for many years.

Killing Of Christians And Terrorism: Nigeria On The Verge of Disintegration, Says Nigerians Northern Christians

Christians of Northern Nigerian extraction, under the aegis of the 19 Northern State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) have warned that there may be no longer a Nigeria if the killings and bombings by Boko Haram sect are allowed to continue.
The Northern Christians issued the statement after an emergency meeting in Kaduna, and they flung the blame at the feet of the federal government, as well as traditional and political leaders of the North, calling on those that are spearheading the terrorist violence to be conscious of the fact that non-terrorists could equally become terrorists by taking their destiny into their hands.

“Dieziani Allison-Madueke Called Me Over 20 Times In Quest to Become Nigeria Minister For Petroleum,” Claims Henry Okah in Affidavit

In an affidavit to be filed in a South African court, detained Mr. Henry Okah claims that in just the first few days of April 2010, after Mr. Goodluck Jonathan became Acting President of Nigeria, one Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke called him over 20 times for help to become Petroleum Minister.

Regional force 'should help Nigeria' fight boko haram militants

Chad's leader has called for the urgent creation of a regional force to tackle Nigerian Boko Haram militants.

The Islamist group operates in northern Nigeria, but President Idriss Deby said it was posing a threat to its neighbours around Lake Chad.
"Our basin is exposed to insecurity because of the permanent threat posed by Boko Haram," he said.
Nigeria has been struggling to contain attacks by the militants who want to impose Islamic law in the country.
On Monday, a suicide attack on a police station in Taraba state, which borders Cameroon, killed at least 11 people. No-one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Boko Haram militants have carried out many similar attacks.

Nigeria: Boko Haram Releases Video On ThisDay Bombing, Threatens To Attack VOA, Guardian, Daily Trust, SaharaReporters

The extremist group, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihadl, popularly called Boko Haram, today named more media houses and staff as targets of their attack.

In an 18minutes video, the group threatened to attack more media houses, naming Voice of America (Hausa), Radio France (Hausa), Daily Trust, Guardian Newspapers, among others. The group also gave reasons why they bombed Thisday office in Abuja and other media houses last Thursday.

“This is a message from jamaatu ahlis sunnah lil daawati wal jihad, and we wish to inform Nigerians our reasons for attacking some media houses,” the group said.

The video also shows that the radical group carried a live coverage of the bombing in Abuja showing and filmed the exact explosion of the Thisday bombing. The group created the new Youtube video under the name Alhaji Mani.

Nigeria: Nasir El-Rufai backs Andrew Azazi statement

Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, yesterday, threw his weight behind the embattled National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi (rtd), saying he only confirmed what some people have been saying that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is the cause of all politically-related violence and terrorism in the country.
Speaking exclusively with Vanguard on his reaction to Azazi’s statement that the menace of insecurity and series of attacks in Nigeria by the Boko Haram sect could be traced to the zoning policy of the PDP, El-Rufai said the extra-judicial murder of the Boko Haram leadership during the late Umaru Yar’Adua’s PDP regime laid the foundations for the nation’s current insecurity problem.

Nigeria has become laughing stock said David Mark

Senate President David Mark said, yesterday, that with the unabating wave of terrorism by an Islamic sect where scores of lives have been lost with property destroyed, Nigeria has now become a laughing stock among the comity of nations.
The Senate President who reiterated that the act is condemnable, uncalled for and clearly avoidable, stressed that no matter the level of anger or grievances in a man’s mind, taking the life of another cannot provide a solution, adding, “this is ungodly. It is inhuman and does not enjoy the support of any right-thinking member of the society.”

Edo State Governor - Oshiomhole said: They were after my life

Governor of Edo state Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday, said weekend’s accident involving his convoy, in which three journalists lost their lives, was an attempt on his life, as the tipper driver rammed into his official vehicle, while the car he  personally drove, escaped by the whiskers.
Oshiomhole, who spoke on the accident at Government House, Benin City, lamented that it took him and other survivors close to 40 minutes to remove the journalists from their mangled bus.
Meanwhile, a crack team of detectives is investigating the ghastly motor accident,  in which three journalist lost their lives on the Warrake-Auchi Road, Etsako West Local Government Area of the state.
Olatunji Jacob and George Okosun, both of Independent Television, ITV, and Fidelis Ohani camera man attached to African Independent Television, AIT and a driver attached to the state Government House, Samson Inobemhe, lost their lives.