Mali-trained terrorists are trooping into the country – Army chief

by Akan Ido

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Azubike Ihejirika, has confirmed the influx of Mali-trained terrorists in Nigeria.

Ihejirika who confirmed this on Thursday while speaking at the Nigerian Army Peacekeeping Centre (NAPKC), Jaji, Kaduna State, said the Nigerian security apparatus is doing everything to track them down.

“We are aware that most of the terrorists in this country today were trained in Mali.

“We are also aware that as of yesterday, there was still an influx of some chaps trained in Mali into the country,” he said.

He reportedly spoke about the participation of Nigerian troops in the peacekeeping efforts currently going on in Mali saying, “Nigeria will  not only be supporting the resolution of the international community, but also enhancing its own security and that of its immediate neighbours by undertaking  this operation.

“What we are going into could be described as peace enforcement; that is to bring peace with the use of force. And as to whether the operation will be conventional or insurgent,  the troops should have a mixture of both because of the characters of the rebels.”

When asked about the preparations made for the welfare of the soldiers taking part in the peace enforcement mission, the COAS assured the public that that has been taken care of.

“We have solved this problem (of welfare) some years back by ensuring that every soldier is paid through the bank.  So, before soldiers move for a mission, they open accounts in which a certain percentage of their allowances   are  paid into while they are given some stipends. With this, the issue of welfare will  never  arise,” he assured.

Ihejirika said that the country was embarking on the mission to complement ongoing efforts to ensure  peace and stability in the crisis-ravaged Mali and asked the 900 soldiers who underwent a  four- week  pre-deployment training at the NAPKC to be resolute, dedicated and disciplined.

PHOTOS: Mike Adenuga’s N1 billion Banana Island Estate

Mike Adenuga, who is the chairman of Globacom and the second richest man in Nigeria, owns the biggest land owner in Nigeri’a most expensive area, Banana Island.

The huge estate, which is worth up to a billion naira, has 8 duplexes and an additional one for his personal residence with home office (the gold one), two watch towers, a mosque, a church and a multipurpose hall that sits 200 people.

The massive estate, which was handled by Julius Berger and Cappa & D’Alberto, also has an indoor swimming pool, car park, helipad, yacht deck and it sits on roughly 3 hectares.

Is Governor Fashola Becoming A Bad Governor? - By Uzoma Ahamefule

By Uzoma Ahamefule

How can Nigerians be governed with this high level of cruelty by means of obnoxious laws here and there? Why is it that laws are executed with the speed like that of an angry hunting lion when it has to do with the poor in this country but when it concerns the bigger criminals in the name of political leaders and elites every government begins to form committees that never find them guilty? Why this impunity of recklessness?

Why is it that Nigerian leaders at various levels are very insensitive to the cry of the people, but yet expect to win the war against crime and social vices? Objectively speaking, how can Nigeria’s “vision 2020” policy of being one of the world’s leading political and economical powers in 2020 be realized when average Nigerian citizens still live under $1 per day and their leaders do not see them as partners but rather treat issues concerning them like masters and slaves?

What have we Nigerians done wrong to our leaders?

Who is advising Governor Fashola with this heinous law to ban commercial motorcyclists popularly known as ’okadas’ in Lagos State without first of all honestly providing an alternative? This law is nasty and has got no human face. I was shocked and felt sick when I saw thousands destroyed motorcycles proudly displayed to news men/women as an achievement by the agents of Governor Fashola as ’okadas’ of those that failed the traffic laws. Oh, my heart bleeds! I do not know if Governor Fashola is aware that as his agents destroyed those thousands of ‘okadas’ that they also destroyed many homes, shattered many dreams, jeopardized the future of many children and created more hooligans and criminals.

By Nigerian standards of governance and development, Governor Fashola is one of the very few governors in Nigeria that I still respect and that is why I am making my stand known. Can somebody please tell Governor Fashola that he has at this juncture woefully failed the people because the reason of banning ‘okadas’ is shallow and laughable? If part of the reasons of banning commercial ‘okada’ operators was because many of the riders were engaged in nefarious activities with their ‘okadas’, can we now say because of some people that may be thieving politicians in Lagos State that we should stop having a government in the state?

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo said that there are rogues and thieves at the National Assemblies. Can we now ban law making in Nigeria because of many of these merciless Nigerian law makers in the National Assemblies whose primary interests as evidence has shown have always been to increase their salaries without recourse to its effect on the nation and without plans to make laws that could rehabilitate the shameful health system in Nigeria or to build railways or undergrounds in order to make the everyday agony of life for poor Nigerians easier that ignited the ‘okada’ business? Can we say because there are too many air crashes in Nigeria due to the fact that a few individuals assigned with the responsibility to certify that planes are in very good conditions before they are put in use have collected bribes in order to allow coffins to airlift Nigerians ban the use of aircrafts? Or can we because of numerous motor accidents in Nigeria as a result of the failures of government at various levels ban the use of motors?

Governor Fashola said that it was because of many ‘okada’ accidents that made him ban commercial motorcyclists. What did he do to reduce the number of accidents before this unfounded action? Is it not the responsibility of every government to find out the causes of problems? Did Governor Fashola’s government try to find out why there were many ‘okada’ accident cases? Do the agents of the governor, ‘LASMA’ who is the body of the executioners of this unfriendly law have the ordinary alcohol testing instruments in order to examine and know who is driving under the influence of alcohol on Lagos roads especially when an accident occurs? Did the government of Governor Fashola provide standard traffic signs and speed limits on all the roads where he has banned ‘okadas’? Can Governor Fashola scientifically prove how many of these ’okada’ riders are qualified riders or that are mentally stable to use motorcycles?

Take sentiments and emotions away from the fact that there have been ‘okada’ accidents and ’okada’ related robberies and look at the issue critically. If Governor Fashola did not carry out all these vital elementary assignments, how sound would it be for him to stand up one morning and ban ‘okada’ operators? If Governor Fashola cannot comfortably provide answers to the aforementioned questions; can he now see that the people did not fail but rather the inability of the Lagos State government not to have thoroughly viewed the issue and come up with an impeccable solution that failed the masses? The social implication of this decision is devastating on the people and can never address the issue of accidents he raised until his government takes a very reasonable measure to control and discipline many Lagosians whom out of ignorance or stupidity have formed the habits of navigating bicycles, tricycles, motorcycles or motors under the heavy influence of alcohol, hard drugs or without licences.

What Lagos State government or other states where they have banned ’okadas’ should have done in this situation should have been to research first and then look for a fair and logical method of arriving at a resolution that should not be more harmful to the society than the problem/s they were trying to avoid after also due consideration that it was unemployment that led to the ’okada’ business in the first place. Because even up to the late 80s we did not have commercial ’okadas’, therefore, government agents should have figured out carefully on how a few miscreants in their midst should have been identified and dealt with accordingly without raising tension instead of this indiscriminate ban.

If Governor Fashola continues to refuse to reverse this anti-masses law, the governor may have indirectly advocated that Nigerian banks should be closed because there are some bank managers who cooperate with fraudsters to steal millions or some workers of some banks who work with criminals by informing them when, where and how to break their banks and steal monies. If this obnoxious law is allowed to stand, Governor Fashola has equally advocated that the Nigeria police should be closed because there are many criminals and bribe takers in their midst whose work also has been to gather false evidences against helpless poor Nigerians. Some Nigerian military men/women have been dismissed from service, charged to court and found guilty as criminals. Consequently, the military should also be scraped in Nigeria because they are equally a failure since some of them supply sophisticated arms to armed robbers to kill and wreak havoc on Nigerians in the night in return for money while some of them have been accused to be sponsors, informants and trainers of Boko Haram.

I feel pained to see that Governor Fashola has quickly started to play over our collective intelligence with a massive campaign that since the ban of commercial ‘okadas’ that the number of accidents has reduced in Lagos State, but decided to remain silent whether crime reduced or increased.

Governor Fashola, do not forget that directly or indirectly you used the same ’okada’ people during your election campaign for votes. Why did you not ban ‘okadas’ before the 2011 election? Contrarily you made a law for all ‘okada’ riders and their passengers to be within certain safety standards before they could operate in Lagos State? Could that law have been a mistake on the side of your government or a calculated attempt to deceptively win the confidence and the vote of the ‘okada’ riders? Most of the ‘okada’ riders who bought their motorcycles under credit or ‘higher purchase’ borrowed money to comply to your order and now that you are comfortably sitting as the executive governor of Lagos State not only that you have stopped their source of daily bread but have also destroyed their production companies (‘okadas’) leaving them to gnash their teeth in pains and agony without anybody to turn to.

Because in Nigeria everything is possible, therefore, dear Governor Fashola, could it be that the idea of safety gadgets was not well thought of when you came up with the policy or that some people in your cabinet could have imported helmets without your knowledge and had mounted pressure for the implementation of the helmet law through advice so that their business could flourish? And now, perhaps the business of helmets seems no longer lucrative they have again channeled their deceptive policy somewhere and ‘okada’ operators and their families can go to hell.

Dear Governor Fashola, this is a message from your fellow governor who also happens to be in the same party “ACN” like you, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State , “I think it’s, for me, a class issue and I belong to the working class, so I cannot ban ‘okada’. First, I believe that ‘okada’ is a response to certain deficit in our intra-urban transportation system. From the 60s to the 70s to the 80s, we never had ‘okada’. If you ask a lady to take a ride on a motorbike it was like a taboo. Now it has became fashionable to have a woman and two children on top of a bike. It is not a culture choice. It is as a result of deficit in our intra-city transportation system.”

Dear Governor Fashola, I appeal to you like many others to please reverse this policy because a good leader must have good listening ears. Do not allow us to begin to compare you with the worst governor in Nigeria , Dr. T. A. Orji of Abia State who has unnecessarily channeled all his energy in social attacks against Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu instead of working for Abians.

A governor that one of his best achievements so far was the sacking of all non indigene workers from other eastern states because of bad advisers should not be the kind of governor we should compare Governor Fashola with. One hopes that Governor Fashola is not taking this direction and is listening to the voice of reason.

The ban of ‘okadas’ from Delta State to Lagos State or anywhere in Nigeria under any guise is an economic murder on the part of the poor masses. However, if Governor Fashola insists not to heed to the plea of the people, well, we will grudgingly and helplessly succumb to his wish, but he should understand that he has only used his position and might against us but has not won our respect and that a day shall come when Lagosians will remind him this issue like the way Nigerians have kept on reminding IBB the annulment of June 12 that has irredeemably murdered his political return to ‘Aso Rock’.

May God bless Governor Fashola, bless Lagos State and bless Nigeria!

Uzoma Ahamefule
A patriotic concerned citizen writes from Vienna, Austria
uzomaah@yahoo.com

Gunmen ‘burn churches, border posts’ in Borno

Suspected members of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram set fire to churches and border posts in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, residents said, but it was not immediately known if there were casualties.

Around 50 gunmen in cars and on motorcycles carried out the attacks on three churches and border posts with neighbouring Cameroon, opening fire on police and chanting Allahu Akbar, (God is Greatest), residents said.

Among the security posts burned were offices for immigration, customs and the secret police and a quarantine building in the city of Gamboru Ngala, about 140 kilometres (80 miles) from the Boko Haram stronghold in Maiduguri.

“The gunmen believed to be Boko Haram were around 50 in number and came in cars and on motorcyles around 8:30 am and attacked the security offices at the border posts, burning them,” resident Modugana Ibrahim told AFP.

“They opened fire on the security personnel but it is hard to say if anybody was hurt or killed,” Ibrahim said.

Another resident, Hamidu Ahmad, said the gunmen went into town “chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and burnt down the divisional police station and three churches”.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency in northern and central Nigeria is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces.

The Future Awards 2012 Winners

Full list of winners at The Future Awards 2012 ;
Best Use of Advocacy- Babafemi Oyediran
Best Use of New Media- Gidi Traffic
Creative Artiste of the Year- Bayo Omoboriowo
Designer of the Year- Toju Foyeh
Excellence in Service (Government)- Hadiza Abdullahi
Excellence in Service (Journalism)- Alkasim Abdulkadir
Excellence in Service (Corporate) Ngozi Nkwoji
Innovator of the Year (Science and Technology)- Seun Onigbinde
Innovator of the Year (Education) Otto Orondaam
Entrepreneur of the Year (General)- Ola Orekunrin
Entrepreneur of the Year (Agriculture)- Tochukwu Ikpegbu
Entrepreneur of the Year (Communication and Media)- Uyi Omokaro
Entrepreneur of the Year (Entertainment)-Michael Collins
Entrepreneur of the Year (Technology) Jason Njoku
On-Air-Personality (Radio)- Tolu ‘Toolz’ Oniru
On-Air-Personality (TV)- Denrele Edun
Musician of the Year- Wizkid
Actor of the Year- Tonto Dikeh
Producer of the Year (Music)-Jeremiah ‘J. Sleek’ Shelika
Producer of the Year (Screen) Clarence Peters
Young Person of the Year- Idris Akinbanjo

Breaking News: Nigeria: Suicide Bomber Kills Six Soldiers in Yobe - We Did It, Boko Haram Says

Damaturu and Maiduguri — A lone suicide bomber in a vehicle loaded with explosives yesterday rammed into a military veicle in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, killing six soldiers and three civilians. The bomber also died in the attack, witnesses said.

The Jama'atu Ahlis Sunnah Lidda'awati Wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility.

Witnesses said the incident took place around 12 noon at Shagari Low-Cost junction in Damaturu. Following the blast, most residents hurriedly rushed back to their homes as angry JTF operatives fired gunshots continuously into the air.

Daily Trust gathered that the suicide bomber parked his vehicle by the road side waiting for the JTF patrol team which he suspected was trailing him, and suddenly detornated the explosives as the patrol team they approached him.
One witness who has a shop close to the scene said: "I saw him (suicide bomber) when he parked a CR-V jeep by the roadside. When the army vehicles vehicle approached, he suddenly crashed into one of them. Many people were affected by the heavy explosion, including one of our shop attendants who was killed instantly by the effect of the blast. The other attendant sustained serious injuries."

Yobe state police commissioner Mr. Patrick Egbuniwe confirmed the incident, saying two military patrol vehicles suspected a CRV jeep and trailed the speeding driver, not knowing that the vehicle was loaded with explosives.

The Moral Question: Prostitution & Lesbianism-Which One Would You Prefer At Gun Point?

The purpose of this is to establish which of the above is seen by many as less of a pain, sin or an immoral act.
It is not time to preach to you about moral uprightness but the Holy Bible which serves as a guide for many frowns on immoral activities. The same bible teaches that, all sins are somehow carry equal weight, there is no big sin and there is no small sin.
We will dwell much on prostitution and lesbianism which is the reason for this post. From ‘Ghanaian Christian’ standings, both prostitution and lesbianism are sinful and against the doctrines of Christianity.


Why, this is the dawn of the "Power Lesbians" They've taken feminism to a whole new extreme. Sistahs are only riding on what they perceive to be the 'popular trend'
I know first hand of the Naija one though, like you mentioned. Chicks who've been hurt by men run off with women in the hopes of never getting hurt. Aside from the going-to-hell ramifications of their acts, they're simply women seeking an escape from the reality they've refused to confront; the possibility that they could spend thier lives spouseless. Though I may be wrong about that diagnosis. What is it about lonelines that scares people so much?

Do I need to explain who a prostitute or a lesbian is? Here we go – when two rational females decide to have sexual intercourse with each other, they are ‘Lesbians’. ‘Prostitution’ is the practice where sex is exchanged for payment. It is also referred to as the oldest profession.

The new trend in Nigerian and in London for single women, especially those who are either divorced or have had kids outside of wedlock and even some singles is lesbianisim
Men are dogs they cheat all the time
Men do not understand us
Women know exactly what they need (physically)
women get on more with women so more lasting relationship

In my perspective i believe women cheat as well so going off with a woman is not going to guarantee no heartbreak. I am also not sure on the take that they are better lovers than men, which is possible as some men are into hit and run
I can however say that i believe that you are just as likely to get hurt with a woman as with a man. Its all about the individual rather than the gender
Money is used to lure women to either become prostitutes or lesbians. Most Ghanaian ladies become lesbians because of the financial gains. Others have also come out to say their unfortunate encounters with men are also a contributory fact.

But it still doesn’t make it right to bonk your fellow woman because you couldn’t grab a man on your own or because you have had multiple break-ups or heart breaks right?. Some reasons why some ladies continue to practice the oldest profession is closely related to the above.
I think most people want to try it out, then some stay in the life for reasons unknown to us until we ask one or two of them. From what I gathered from 2 of my friends one who was a lesbian for 15 years all of the sudden decided she was getting older and wanted to have children. she now started dating men and is getting marriend to a Naija man after only knowing him for 3 months. They just moved in together.

I was confused as to how she could be a lebian for over 15 years and then wake up one day and date men.
I have another friend who is lesbian, has a daughter from when she was 20, she is 28 now and has been living as a lesbian on and off for like 8 years. But, she lovesssss the attention she gets from men. She is now a Muslim and only covers herself when she feels like and still lives with her partner/wife and raises her daughter. So, I am confused as to weather these women are "true lesbians".

The moral maze is not about judgement or religion but about our moral standings on issues and how we view things, especially when we are desperate.

Now the moral maze is; which would you go for at a gun point, when you have no choice than to make a choice? Let’s hear you.

Panic in Lagos over Bomb in Ikeja

Commissioner of Police Lagos State Police Command Yakubu Alkali

There was panic in Lagos Friday evening over suspicion that an explosive had been planted in a building in the Ikeja area of the state.

The bomb was allegedly planted in Awolowo House on Obafemi Awolowo Road, Ikeja.

It is located close to the bridge in Ikeja.

The building was immediately evacuated, with the vicinity cordoned off. Pedestrians and motorists were told to make use of alternative routes.

But the spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command, Jaiyeola Joseph, said there was nothing to worry about.

Joseph said that the rumour started after a man dropped a carton around the building and left.

He said some people raised the alarm that it must be a bomb, hence the panic.

The Police Bomb Disposal Squad was immediately despatched to the scene.

Nothing deadly was found, Joseph told Eagle Online.