Fighter jets have been deployed in
Yobe State as part of the crackdown on Boko Haram insurgents who killed
41 students at the College of Agriculture in Gujba.
The Federal Government has also ordered
the military, the police and other security agencies to protect all
schools in the state.
There are indications that the state government may not close schools following the killings.
The Defence Headquarters has directed
the Air Force and the Artillery Unit of the Army to join forces with the
infantry troops, The Nation learnt.
For the third day running, the troops
have engaged Boko Haram members in a battle in the forests between Yobe
and Borno states, a source said.
The source, who pleaded not to be named,
said: Air raid is a vital component of our manhunt for insurgents still
lurking in some forests in this axis.
“And with the backing of the Artillery Unit, heavy bombardment has been going on in these forests in the last three days.
“So far, we have been able to dislodge
the camps of the insurgents, most of which were just being established
along the Borno-Yobe axis.”
The directive to protect schools covers day and boarding schools.
It was gathered that both the Federal
and Yobe State governments believe that closing schools will amount to
bowing to the wish of the insurgents to stop any form of Western
education in the Northeast.
A government source said: “There are
some suggestions that the schools should be closed in the state again,
but we are not thinking along this line because this might be a
defeatist approach. We know that parents and children may be
disillusioned but we cannot give up to insurgency.
“We are, however, waiting for a
comprehensive security plan from the military and other security
agencies on how to provide adequate security in all schools.
“What we have done is to put all
communities on the alert to notify the military and security agencies of
any suspicious movement.
“The encouragement the state government
is getting from all citizens of the state borders on the need to
cooperate and resist the insurgents.”
Defence spokesman Brig.-Gen. Chris
Olukolade, said: “We have a mandate from the Federal Government to
protect all schools in Yobe State.
“We have mapped out plans to secure the schools and prevent a repeat of this dastardly act.”
On the combing of forests for
insurgents, Gen. Olukolade said: “The operation is still on; we will let
the public know accordingly.”
PDP crisis: Jonathan tells elders to shun Obasanjo
PDP crisis: Jonathan tells elders to shun Obasanjo
Even before it got off the drawing board, former President
Olusegun Obasanjo’s plan to lead the peace moves in Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) has collapsed.
The meeting of elders to resolve the party’s crises was slated for today in Abuja.
It was “technically” called off last night at the Presidency’s prompting, The Nation learnt.
President Goodluck Jonathan, it was said, advised the elders to shun
the meeting, following intelligence reports that Obasanjo was behind the
crises.
The former President could not be reached last night.
Among the elders expected at the meeting are former chairmen and notable leaders.
A pre-meeting session of some governors at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge went on for hours last night.
It was not clear what was discussed, but the news about the Obasanjo mission may have been broken.
“All was well, until this evening when we learnt the President was
opposed to Obasanjo presiding at the meeting,” a source said, adding:
“He believes that Obasanjo is the architect of the crises; he shouldn’t
be called to settle it and be seen as a peacemaker.”
The meeting slated for next Tuesday will hold. President Jonathan will preside.
Brickbats continued to fly yesterday amid shaky efforts to rescue the PDP.
A group loyal to President Jonathan also accused Obasanjo of being
the architect of the crises. He should call his associates in the Kawu
Baraje faction of the party to order, the Media Network for
Transformation (MNT) said.
The group said Obasanjo could not continue to be the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob at the same time.
In a statement in Abuja, signed by its Coordinator, Mr. Goodluck
Ebelo, the MNT urged Obasanjo to either renounce his associates in the
New PDP or be treated like those rated as rebels by the party.
The group said “no arbiter, who is the guiding light of the rebels can make peace”.
To the President’s camp, Obasanjo is the unseen hand pulling the
string of crises in the ruling party. There is suspicion in the
Presidency over his peace mission.
Some governors were meeting last night at the Rivers Governor’s Lodge in Abuja ahead of today’s meeting.
National Chairman Bamanga Tukur yesterday described members of the
Kawu Baraje faction as “prodigal sons” who would be accepted back into
the fold, if they retraced their steps.
But the Baraje faction told Tukur that his “time is up”.
The statement said: “We call on former President Olusegun Obasanjo to
call his associates to order. Apart from being their sponsor, the rebel
governors draw their inspiration from him.
“Apart from numerous clandestine meetings, former President Obasanjo
started his public romance with the rebel flank when he became
unavoidably absent at this year’s Democracy Day celebration in Abuja,
but vigorously participated in the day’s activities in Dutse, Jigawa
State. That was followed by the rebel governors’ visit to his Abeokuta
home.
“Then came last Saturday, and Chief Obasanjo’s mischief literarily
flew over the Eagle Square venue of the Special Convention. Unavoidably
absent, again, he was to turn up the next day in church, at the
Presidential Villa, made a few platitudinous remarks on the need for a
peaceful resolution of the crisis and thereafter called a meeting . His
meeting failed and will continue to fail.
“Obasanjo cannot continue to be hands of Esau and the voice of Jacob
at the same time. No arbiter, who is the guiding light of the rebels,
can make peace. Peace, in this matter, will continue to elude President
Obasanjo because his activities are the very antithesis of the
conditions precedent to peace.”
The group said it suspected that Obasanjo cannot resolve the crisis in the party with alleged partisan interest.
The statement added: “Unfortunately, his eight years in office
provides no road map to resolving a political dispute. All that can be
gleaned from the debris of his time in power are abuse of institutions
of State in shutting down dissent, hounding political opponents into
prison and forcing a party chairman to resign …. Little wonder that such
baleful legacy dogs his attempt at making peace.
“President Obasanjo has to come out publicly to renounce his ties
with the seven governors who are trying to impose their will on the
remaining 29 states and the Federal Capital Territory or acknowledge
them and be treated like them.”
President Jonathan is yet to speak on his political future, but MNT
said he is free to run again. It said: “The governors are welcome to
contest the PDP primaries, individually or present a candidate. That’s
democracy. But for persons, who themselves, stood for elections for
their second terms to demand that Mr. President cannot avail himself
such amenity is not only rude but feudal.”
Obasanjo’s media aide Vitalis Ortese declined to comment on the statement credited to the group last night.
“I cannot speak on what a faceless group is saying”, he told our reporter on the telephone.
Rivers political crisis: Amaechi, CP Mbu’s face-off deepens
Amaechi
Rivers political crisis: Amaechi, CP Mbu’s face-off deepens
The face-off between Governor
Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, and the Commissioner of Police, Mbu
Joseph Mbu, deepened yesterday after the governor accused Mbu of putting
up lame and unsatisfactory argument about Thursday’s sudden
redeployment of his (governor’s) Escort Commander.
The governor, who spoke through his
Commissioner for Information and Communications, Ibim Semenitari,
described Mbu’s excuse as an after-thought.
However, the police commissioner,
responding through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Angela
Agabe, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), insisted that the escort
commander’s redeployment was ordered by the Inspector-General of Police
(IGP), Mohammed Abubakar.
The CP said he is simply a professional police officer and not a politician.
Amaechi and Mbu have been at loggerheads
since February this year when the governor asked for the CP’s immediate
redeployment, which he described as the only condition for peace in the
Niger Delta state.
He accused Mbu of taking sides in the state’s political crisis.
On Thursday, Amaechi said that Mbu
redeployed the escort commander because he refused his (Mbu’s) directive
to furnish him with prior information on the governor’s movement.
The NGF chairman noted that the escort
commander was not in charge of his protocol and would not have prior
knowledge of his movement, especially in the prevailing circumstances
regarding security in the state.
The governor pointed out that after
redeploying the escort commander, Mbu also requested the Camp Commandant
of Government House, Port Harcourt, to give him prior briefing of his
daily movement, which he said in practice, would be difficult to comply
with, unless the camp commandant gets prior knowledge of his movement.
This the CP denied.
Irked by Mbu’s defence, Amaechi, through
his information commissioner, said in Port Harcourt yesterday that the
excuse now given by Mr. Mbu was not “the reason given, when both the
Escort Commander and the Camp Commandant were invited to the Police
Headquarters (in Port Harcourt).
“This excuse was also not offered when
the governor personally called Mr. Mbu to complain about the removal of
his escort commander.
“Matters of personal security of
government functionaries and especially top officials like the governor
of the state are discussed and agreed with these officials.
“Even if for the purpose of argument, it
is indeed factual that the IGP ordered the redeployment of Governor
Amaechi’s Escort Commander, wouldn’t the courteous thing be for the
Commissioner of Police and the police high command to inform and explain
this to Governor Amaechi?
“On matters of his personal security, a
governor reserves the right to reject or accept security details, as he
may be comfortable with. The Rivers State Government, therefore, is
reluctant to accept what it considers a lame and unsatisfactory argument
by the Rivers State Police Command.”
On September 2, the Aide-de-Camp (ADC)
to the Rivers State Governor, Debeware Semeikumo, an Assistant
Superintendent of Police (ASP), was declared a deserter by Mbu, over the
July 9 fracas in the state’s House of Assembly and also removed him
(Semeikumo) as the ADC to Amaechi.
Semenitari described the CP’s action as
another mischief, stating that the Rivers police command was aware that
Semeikumo sustained injuries and had been away for better medical
treatment.
The Rivers police commissioner
maintained that the ADC to Rivers governor was declared a deserter,
following his alleged failure to honour all lawful directives to see him
and the IGP since July 10, 2013.
Mbu said: “The decision to declare
Semeikumo a deserter followed Section 398 (1) of the Police Act and the
Regulation Cap 359 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.
“The whereabouts of Semeikumo remain unknown to the police. IGP Abubakar has approved his declaration as a deserter.”
Taraba State Governor Danbaba Sunatai | credits: File copy
Governor
Danbaba Sunatai of Taraba State will on Sunday (today) arrive Jalingo,
approximately 10 months after he was flown abroad for treatment
following an air crash involving his private jet in Yola.
Sources close to the governor told our
correspondent that Suntai arrived London from New York on Saturday. He
was scheduled to leave London for Jalingo on Saturday night or early
hours of Sunday.
Suntai reportedly left New York for London on a chartered flight on Saturday due to the lack of seats on commercial flights.
Our source, however, declined to name
the flight, airport and time of departure from London as well as the
time of arrival in Jalingo, but said the governor’s wife, Hauwa, had
left for home to prepare ahead for the arrival of her husband.
The governor’s wife had in a telephone
interview on August 20, said that her husband was expected to depart the
Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Centre and Home, New York, on August
25.
Suntai spent four months at the rehabilitation centre after spending about six months in a German hospital.
Barely 48 hours after he was transferred
to the National Hospital, Abuja, following injuries sustained in the
plane crash, the Taraba governor was flown to Germany for medical
treatment.
Suntai was the pilot of his jet Cessna 208, 5N-BMJ Jet that crashed in Yola, Adamawa State on October 25, 2012.
He was taken to an Abuja hospital around
10:57am on October 26, 2012, in a state ambulance. He was reported to
have been in coma when he was flown out of the country. The governor,
his aide-de-camp and chief security officer were all onboard the crashed
plane.
Suntai, who graduated as a pilot from
the Aviation College in Zaria last year, flew the crashed plane. That
was the second time he survived a plane crash.
Suspected Boko Haram members at the weekend shot dead more than
20 civilians in northern Borno State, a military spokesman said
yesterday.
“The suspected sect members came armed and fired sporadic shots that
killed over 20 innocent civilians,” Lt. Haruna Mohammed Sani, spokesman
for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) said.
The violence took place on Saturday in Dawashe village, the army lieutenant said in a statement.
He said men from the Civilian Joint Task Force, a vigilance group
formed in Boko Haram’s bastion Maiduguri, to combat the Islamist gunmen
who have been terrorising the region for many years, entered Dawashe to
search for suspects.
The suspected Boko Haram members subsequently opened fire in the
village, the spokesman said, adding that the 20 victims were mostly
fishermen and traders.
Sani said a dozen other civilians sustained gunshot wounds during the
incident but provided no information on casualties among the
belligerents.
The toll and circumstances of the incident could not be immediately verified independently.
Among those killed were five members of the “Civilian JTF” who were
on a manhunt for Boko Haram in Mainok town, 58km west of Maiduguri.
The attack on the “Civilian JTF” was the first since the group took
courage to hunt down Boko Haram in the state in the last two months.
It was also confirmed that a heavily armed Quick Reaction Squad from
MNJTF had been deployed to ensure the safety of lives and property in
the area.
Dawashi, Daban-Masara and Malan karanti villages are believed to be the stronghold of the insurgent.
The MNJTF said: “As part of the excellent Civil-Military Relations
and humanitarian gesture demonstrated by Multinational Joint Task Force
(MNJTF), a dozen of Boko Haram victims affected by the attack in Dawashe
District of Kukawa Local Government, got medical treatment in the
Headquarters Field Ambulance in Baga town”.
Some members of the “Civilian JTF” also confirmed to reporters in
Maiduguri that five of their members who were killed are from Ajilari,
Ngomari Airport and Bulumkutu Ward of Maiduguri Metropolitan.
A member, Aliko Musa said: “it was a huge loss to us, some of our
brave colleagues were killed yesterday by the outlawed Boko Haram; they
paid the supreme price when we visited Mainok village in search of the
terrorists but we shall not relent”, he added.
Spokesman for the JTF, Lt Col Sagir Musa however denied the figure
even as he confirmed the Mainok attack. According to him, only one of
the Youth Volunteers died while another sustained injuries.
The MNJTF, a joint military force set up in 1998 to combat border crimes, consists of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger.
Despite British Prime Minister David Cameron’s assurance that he
will not sanction the controversial 3000 pounds visa bond, his
government last weekend insisted it would begin the trial this November.
The visa is to restrict some visitors from India, Nigeria, Kenya, Sri
Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
They will have to pay the cash bond in return for visitor visas that allow them to stay in the UK for up to six months.
At the height of the controversy, David Cameron’s administration
assured that he would not sanction the policy. But last weekend, FT
said: “Britain is pressing ahead with its trial of a scheme to make
visitors from six countries pay a £3,000 bond, despite an international
backlash and complaints from businesses. The government said it would
begin a pilot in November to impose visa restrictions on six
Commonwealth nations, including India and Nigeria, even though David
Cameron poured cold water on the scheme in June after it provoked uproar
in Delhi.”
“The Prime Minister has not cleared this policy. He doesn’t want to
do anything that cuts across the message he took to India,” an ally of
Mr. Cameron had told The Financial Times at the time.
The British government has reportedly decided to go ahead with it
though the Home Office insisted that it was meant to target only
“high-risk” applicants.
An official told media that the scheme would be “highly selective”, targeting only “suspicious” applicants.
Under a “pilot” scheme, to be introduced in November, first-time
visitors from six non-white Commonwealth countries, including India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh, will be required to deposit a cash bond of
£3,000 for a British visa. It will apply only to those seeking a
six-month visitors’ visa.
According to the government, these six countries pose the “most significant risk of abuse’’ of visas by their citizens.
“In the long run, we are interested in a system of bonds that deters
overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public
services,” the Home Office said.
The move comes barely weeks after Mr. Cameron and Deputy Prime
Minister Nick Clegg were reported to have refused to clear the scheme in
its present form, fearing that the backlash in India and Nigeria
threatened to damage bilateral relations at a time when Britain is
desperately trying to woo Indian investors and tourists.
Cameron was reported as saying that he would “not sanction’’ any policy that was likely to undermine his push for investment.
The Financial Times said that the u-turn had provoked anger in
Britain’s business circles, who described the plan as an “insulting
deterrent” to wealthy tourists from countries like India and Nigeria.
“They are urging the government to drop the pilot, saying the
restrictions will damage their business if Commonwealth tourists,
particularly Nigerians, now the sixth biggest spenders on luxury goods
in Britain, are put off,” it said.