Help fix Nigeria, Jonathan urges Obama

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday urged United States President Barack Obama to help to “fix Nigeria.”
“For you to fix the world, you must fix Africa. For you to fix Africa, you must fix Nigeria,” Dr. Jonathan told his American counterpart.
Both leaders met at the Lyndon B. Johnson suite in the Waldorf-Astoria. It was Obama’s first stop in his swing through town for the United Nations General Assembly.
Noting his trip to Africa at the beginning of the summer, Obama said he saw common interests in helping Nigeria improve its rural electrification, empowering young people through the Young African Leaders programme, improving internal security in a way consistent with human rights and “making sure” Nigeria’s elections in 2015 continue to improve the country’s democratic process.
And he said the attack at a Nairobi mall over the weekend “underscores” the level to which all countries are connected and their need to work together.
“We stand with them against this terrible outrage that’s occurred, we will provide them with whatever law enforcement help that is necessary,” Obama said. “The United States will continue to work with the entire continent of Africa and around the world to make sure that we are dismantling these networks of destruction.”
“President Goodluck Jonathan Monday in New York called for a stronger global consensus and determination to end the scourge of terrorism as quickly as possible.
“Speaking at talks with President Barrack Obama of the United States ahead of the opening of the 68th session of the United Nations tomorrow, President Jonathan said that unless the international community unites and deploys its enormous resources to eradicate terrorism, it will continue to be embarrassed by terrorist outrages such as the heinous attack on defenceless shoppers in Nairobi at the weekend which both leaders strongly condemned.
“President Jonathan expressed his appreciation of the support and assistance Nigeria has been receiving from the United States for its fight against domestic terrorism. He added, however, that Nigeria will welcome even more bilateral collaboration in this regard.
“The President said his administration also looked forward to the further strengthening of Nigeria’s relations with the United States in the areas of trade and economic development.

Abuja shooting victim dies

ALL was gloomy yesterday as the remains of a tricycle operator, Nasir Adamu, was moved to the Gudu Cemetery in Abuja for burial.
Adamu, 33, who was a Keke Napep rider at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was shot in the stomach. He died at about 1 am.
He was part of the victims who died following last Thursday’s Apo killings that drew a big outrage against security agents, who claimed that they were terrorists.
He is survived by his wife, Mayya and a daughter.
According to the late Adamu’s brother, Suleiman Adamu, he hailed from Moriki village in Zurumi Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
Speaking at the Asokoro General Hospital morgue yesterday, Suleiman said his brother bought Keke Napep two weeks before the incident after he had sold okro for a long time at the Garki modern market.
Hon. Amiru Tukur Idris, representing Timbakwu Federal Constituency, Katsina State, described the situation as “undemocratic and illegal”.
He said the House had petitioned Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, Chief of Defence Staff, Rear Admiral Sa’ad Ola Ibrahim and human rights organisations.
The lawmaker said he lost about four people in the attack, adding that the Army general, who claims to own the building where the incident occurred, visited the Asokoro General Hospital last Friday and was willing to foot the survivors’ hospital bills.
“In fact, we are having a meeting today with four other House members and a Senator from Zamfara State to know the next line of action.
“The chairman of Tricycle Association identified them as his own people. He said they are not hooligans. They have their own jobs too. They are hustlers,” Idris added.
Hon. Biliaminu Shinkafi, representing Zurma Shinkafi Federal Constituency, spoke also of plans to present the case before the National Assembly.
Human rights activist Shehu Sani described the killings as “arbitrary and extra-judicial”. He said there was need to call the consciousness of the public to the incident to forestall a reccurrence.
“I am here to condole with the family and help to take the deceased home in solidarity with the victims of the dastardly act of the security agencies. What has happened is nothing but extra-judicial killings. It is one of the arbitrariness and brigandage by security agents. For the past three years, fighting insurgency has become an excuse for killings of innocent citizens,” Sani said.
A survivor, Yusuf Abubakar, stated that there were over 200 persons sleeping in the uncompleted building. He said about 18 of them were killed when the security agents came in the night, surrounded the building and started shooting them.
He said he narrowly escaped when a friend was shot and fell where he was lying down .
According to him, there are about 13 people admitted into the Asokoro General Hospital. But Adamu died around 1am.
He lamented that he suffered a fracture and the bullet in his hand was yet to be removed. He said the doctor had been taking good care of them.
Abubakar recalled that the owner of the building threatened the squatters.
“He spoke on Wednesday; on Thursday in the mid-night, soldiers surrounded the house and began to shoot. There were more than 200 people sleeping in the house. So, as they began to shoot, people started running. Those who ran were shot and killed. They killed about 18 people. One died around 1am (last night). There is another person admitted to Wuse General Hospital.”
Speaking on how he escaped, Abubakar said: “Anyone who stood during the shooting fell and died, so as I was trying to escape, I fell and the bullet hit my hand. I was wearing a white shirt when it happened. So, I jumped into a water basin. The person who was running after me was shot and he fell on me; so the soldier did not see me.”
Asked if he knew the number of soldiers, he said he could not but they were many.

Pakistani Christians protest church attack

Pakistani Christians have protested across the country to demand better protection for their community after a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a historic church in Peshawar, killing more than 80 people and wounding at least 140 others.
Monday's protests in towns and cities throughout Pakistan included major cities Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Faisalabad.
Angry Christians blocked roads and burned tires as they demanded government to take stronger steps to protect them.
Churches and other sites important to the Christian community in Peshawar have been given little extra security, said police official Noor Khan.
"Our state and our intelligence agencies are so weak that anybody can kill anyone anytime. It is a shame,'' said Paul Bhatti, whose brother, a federal minister, was gunned downed in 2011.
While government officials have denounced the attack, this has been of little consolation to the Christian minority.
The small and largely impoverished Christian community suffers discrimination in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority nation but bombings against them are extremely rare. There is growing concern against the possibility of future attacks.
"We had very good relations with the Muslims -- there was no tension before that blast, but we fear that this is the beginning of a wave of violence against the Christians," said Danish Yunas, a Christian driver wounded in the blast. "We fear there will be more of this in the future."
The suicide bomb attack on All Saints church in the northwestern city of Peshawar came after a service on Sunday is believed to be the deadliest ever to target Pakistan's small Christian minority.
Only around two percent of the Pakistan's 180 million population are Christian.

Egypt court bans all Brotherhood activities

An Egyptian court has banned all activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, and ordered authorities to seize all of the group's assets, state television has reported.
The court also banned "any institution branching out from or belonging to the Brotherhood," the official MENA news agency reported, possibly restricting the Islamist movement's political arm the Freedom and Justice Party.
The ruling comes amid a crackdown on the Brotherhood and more than a month after hundreds of Islamist protesters died in a police operation to disperse their Cairo sit-ins, sparking a wave of nationwide violence.
The Cairo court "ruled to ban all activities by the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, the group emanating from it and its non-governmental organisation", official Egyptian news agency MENA reported. According to the verdict, any institution that co-operates with the Muslim Brotherhood, or is funded by it, would be banned as well.
That includes any organisations with Brotherhood members in senior leadership positions.
The ruling opens the door for a wider crackdown on the vast network of the Brotherhood, which includes social organisations that have been key for building the group's grassroots support and helping its election victories.
The verdict banned the group itself - including the official association it registered under earlier this year - as well as "any institution branching out of it or ... receiving financial support from it", according to the court ruling.
The judge at the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters also ordered the "confiscation of all the group's money, assets, and buildings" and said that an independent committee should be formed by the Cabinet to manage the money until final court orders are issued. The verdict can be appealed.
The Brotherhood was outlawed for most of its 85 years in existence. But after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, it was allowed to work openly, formed a political party and rose to power in a string of post-Mubarak elections.
The Egyptian interior ministry said that it would not be seeking to use the ruling as grounds for cracking down further on anti-coup protests.
"The interior ministry is saying that there is no law to stop these protests from continuing, that the protests are under the umbrella of the anti-coup alliance.

Nigeria Security Agents Slaughtered Innocent Poor Squatters In Abuja Tag Them "Boko Haram"

The eight persons shot and killed by Nigerian security agents in Abuja today were in no way linked to the dreaded Boko Haram sect as claimed by the spokesperson of the Nigerian secret police, Marilyn Ogar.
The scene of the massacre was an uncompleted building at Bamanga Tukur Street in the Apo Legislative Quarters.
Seventeen of those who survived the pre-dawn onslaught by uniformed men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) speaking on their hospital beds in Abuja, all of them vehemently denying being members of Boko Haram.
One of the survivors said they are day labourers who work in the city to make ends meet, and later squat in uncompleted buildings by paying the guards attached to those buildings.  This morning, he said, they were woken up by a surprising hail of bullets from the uniformed soldiers around 12:30Am on Friday morning..
Providing some background, he disclosed that an emissary of an army general had given them a five-day quit notice but that today’s slaughter was carried out before they could move from the building.
 Sleeping mats and cooking utensils belonging to the squatters as well as blood splattered on the walls of the building from the unusual attack on innocent civilians by the Nigerian military claiming to be fighting Boko Haram.
Nigerian security agents insist that they killed the civilians after they first came under attack while trying to dig out weapons hidden underground by the insurgents, but one of the injured squatters said categorically that the soldiers fled the scene after finding out they had killed innocent civilians.
“It was after the attack that some policemen and the SSS came to the scene and even tried to help those of us that survived to get to hospital,” he said.

BREAKING NEWS UNKNOWN GUNMEN KILL MORE THAN 8 PERSONS IN APO, ABUJA (PICTURES)

Unknown gun men have killed more than eight persons behind the legislator’s quarters in an uncompleted building in Apo, Abuja.

Report reaching ROSACOMMS right now says remains of some of the deceased are still lying around the uncompleted building.

The incident which happens in the early hours of today came as a huge shock to residents who are still yet to know the cause of the killing.

As at the time of writing this report now, security offices are seen at the place where the incident took place.

BREAKING NEWS UNKNOWN GUNMEN KILL MORE THAN 8 PERSONS IN APO, ABUJA

Unknown gun men have killed more than eight persons behind the legislator’s quarters in an uncompleted building in Apo, Abuja.

Report reaching ROSACOMMS right now says remains of some of the deceased are still lying around the uncompleted building.

The incident which happens in the early hours of today came as a huge shock to residents who are still yet to know the cause of the killing.

Ombatse: Fed Govt deploys troops in Nasarawa

The Federal Government has ordered the deployment of troops in Nasarawa State to forestall further breach of the peace by members of the Ombatse ethnic militia.
The Director of Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, spoke yesterday in Abuja on the deployment of the troops from a battalion of the Nigerian Army.
The militia group had allegedly ambushed and killed 49 policemen and 10 operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) at Lakyo village during a joint reconnaissance exercise.
Members of the militia also killed several civilians, particularly people who did not belong to their ethnic group or those perceived to be against their traditional beliefs.
Attahiru said: “Due to the heightened security situation in Nasarawa State, the Federal Government has ordered the deployment of Nigerian Army troops in aid of civil authority to prevent further escalation of the violence and its spread to other parts of the state.
“It is gratifying to note that the deployment of Nigerian Army troops to the violence-prone area has helped in curbing the spread of violence by the Ombatse and other ethnic militia groups in Nasarawa State. The Federal Government and the Nasarawa State government are exploring other ways of ensuring quick a return to normalcy.
The Army spokesman also said nine officers and men were being tried in a general court martial for offences ranging from murder, manslaughter, issuing threats and use of abusive or provocative language.

Pensioner, 71, Sues ASUU Over Strike

Kano Nigeria — A 71-year-old pensioner in Kano State, Mallam Dankano Garba Ahmed, has dragged the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) and eight others to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria over the ongoing strike embarked upon by the union.
The pensioner in suit number NICN/KN/161/2013 said the strike is affecting the education of his daughter who is a 400 level Civil Engineering student at the Bayero University Kano.
In the affidavit in support of the originating summon, the pensioner accused the union of frustrating his efforts to get his daughter, Zainab Garba Ahmed, out of school within the stipulated time.
"The strike by the union is making my daughter who is the second plaintiff, idle, disorganised and psychologically disturbed. Being a 71- year-old man who earns less than N30,000 as pension, the strike of the union irritates me," he said.
He added, "I have other children who I wish to sponsor, but that is subject to the successful graduation of this my daughter. Her future and that of thousand others across the country are being stagnated strategically by the ongoing strike".
The pensioner is asking the court to determine whether the agreement dated 21 October 2009, entered between ASUU and the Federal Government is valid, binding, and not illegal having regards to the provision of Section 3(1) (d) of the BUK Act as well as other statutes establishing the universities owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
"If the answer to the issue is in the negative, the court should also determine whether ASUU has a right to embark on strike for failure/ or refusal of the Federal Government to implement the said agreement," part of the affidavit read.
The pensioner is seeking perpetual injunction restraining ASUU from continuing with the strike or taking any action whatsoever and by whatever means to enforce the said agreement or compel the Federal Government to implement it.

Naeto C back in school again

Rapper, Naeto C has returned to school for further studies.
This was disclosed by the rapper’s politician mother, Kema Chikwe in a recent interview
where she talked about how she was initially not in support of his music dreams amongst other things.
Chikwe, a former Minister of Aviation, Ambassador to Ireland and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Women Leader said of her son, ‘Right now, he is in London at the Oxford University taking a course in Energy Economics.  He is there with his wife and baby. He is a son any mother would want’.
Hmmm, that’s degree after degrees, not forgetting hits after hits, dude is really setting himself up nicely for the future.
In November 2010, the self-acclaimed ‘only MC with an MSc’, a few years ago took time off music to pursue a Masters’ degree in Energy Economics from the University of Dundee, Scotland.
After that came the highly successful and award winning sophomore album, ‘Super C Season’.