Sunday, 31 May 2015
Saturday, 30 May 2015
The heavy explosions from Rocket Propelled Launchers and grenade with sporadic gunfire that rocked the city of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, left four residents dead, several others injured and houses destroyed.
The attack, coming barely 12 hours after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari when he ordered the Army Command Centre to relocate to Maiduguri, was carried out by suspected terrorists at about 12:30am, Saturday in an attempt to invade the town,leading to exchange of fire between them and troops of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.
Sources said, “the terrorists after realising the heavy fire power from troops, started firing their rocket Launchers into the city, which led to the killing of a taxi driver, Mallam Bukar around Borehole area of Gomari airport of Maiduguri metropolis, while the three other residents died at different locations”.
Friday, 29 May 2015
President Buhari's Inaugural Speech: Promises To Move Command Centre Against Boko Haram To Maiduguri, Rescue Chibok Girls
|President Muhammadu Buhari|
|Pres Castro & Obama|
Thursday, 28 May 2015
The Nigerian defence headquarters has said a cordon and search operation conducted by Nigerian troops in Gombe state has led to the arrest of three bomb making experts. Chris Olukolade, director, defence information, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday. Olukolade said the arrested persons were suspected to be members of Boko Haram, in search of soft targets for attack after being dislodged from the stronghold in Sambisa forest and other enclaves.
He listed the Items recovered from them to include a tricycle and materials for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He said the suspects were currently undergoing interrogation. “Cordon and search is continuing in certain localities and will be intensified along with mopping up operations in locations where offensive operations are being conducted,” he said. “The essence is to apprehend the terrorists who have been dislodged from their sanctuaries and are in search of escape routes or resorting to attacking soft targets.”
Olukolade said in line with the development, the public should be extra vigilant and report suspicious movements or activities within their environs. He said the military was poised to ensure the ongoing operations were duly aligned with security arrangements aimed at forestalling attempts by any group to breach security or disrupt the inauguration of a new government in the country.
Niamey - Niger has detained and charged 643 people since February for their links to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, Security Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou told parliament.
Niger has deployed 3 000 soldiers to a joint regional force formed with Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria in order to quash the Boko Haram insurgency, in which thousands have been killed.
Several Boko Haram networks and sleeper cells have been dismantled in Niger's southern Diffa region, which is on the border with Nigeria, since a state of emergency was declared there in February and troops deployed, Massaoudou said.
"If this measure had not been taken, we could have had an uprising in the very interior of Diffa," the minister told parliament late on Tuesday.
Those arrested and detained have been charged with acts of terrorism and criminal conspiracy, he said.
Diffa came under heavy attack in February when Boko Haram, which wants to establish an emirate in northern Nigeria carried out attacks in neighbouring countries.
Boko Haram, which loosely translates as "Western education is sinful" in the northern Hausa language, began an insurgency in 2009 to establish a state adhering to strict sharia law.
The Nigerian Army has sacked at least 200 soldiers for cowardice and failure to fight against Boko Haram militants, several soldiers have told the BBC.
Up to 4,500 other rank and file soldiers could be dismissed, they say.
A Nigerian military source confirmed the dismissals to the BBC, but would not give an exact figure.
The army was widely criticised when the Islamist group Boko Haram captured vast areas in the country's North-east last year, despite a military emergency.
Nigerian troops, with military backing from Chad, Cameroun and Niger, has now recaptured most of the areas in the North-east which the group had seized, but sporadic attacks and violence have continued.
Many of the dismissals are thought to be connected to the fall of Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa State, one of three states worst hit by the insurgency.
Boko Haram insurgents captured the town in October after clashes with government forces.
One of the soldiers who has been dismissed, and was present at the fall of Mubi, told the BBC Hausa service that soldiers were simply following orders from their commanders, who had told them to retreat from the town because they lacked adequate weapons to take on the militants.
“We weren't given an opportunity to defend ourselves. I've spent 20 years in the service of the Nigerian Army, I've never been accused of any offence,” said the soldier, who did not want to be named.
It is expected that the soldiers who have been dismissed will not receive any extra payment or pensions because of their low rank and are not entitled to defend themselves in a military court, reported the BBC.
A military official, who did not want to be named, said that video footage taken during the fall of Mubi showed soldiers fleeing Boko Haram, providing proof of their cowardice.
Nigeria's incoming President, Muhammadu Buhari, may review the death sentences of the 66 soldiers separately convicted for refusing to fight Boko Haram, according to their lawyer.
About 1.5 million people have been displaced and hundreds more abducted since the group launched their violent uprising in 2009. More than 15,500 people have been killed in the fighting.
The group is still holding many women, girls and children captives including 219 schools girls it kidnapped from a school in Chibok in April last year.
Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Nigerian troops have found thousands of Euros on the body of a slain Boko Haram kingpin in Borno state near the border with Cameroon. The terrorist commander was one of several Boko Haram fighters killed Saturday during a foiled attack on Nigerian Special Forces in Mafa district, according to local media reports.
“Thousands of Euro currency were found on the body of a terrorist commander after troops successfully repelled a terrorist attack on Mafa towards the border,” Nigeria Defense spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade said in a statement Monday, obtained by THISDAY. “The terrorist, who is also an Amir by status, and believed to be of foreign descent, is among about 30 terrorist fighters who died in the encounter while many others fled with wounds.”
The Nigerian army also recovered a number of equipment from the Islamist insurgents including rifles, a machine gun, rocket propelled grenades and a Toyota Buffalo vehicle. Two armored vehicles belonging to the fighters were also destroyed in the repelled attack.
Boko Haram fighters armed with machetes stormed a village in Madagali district on Friday and hacked 10 residents to death. The attackers descended on the village of Pambula-Kwamda while residents were sleeping. The Nigerian army had declared the district surrounding the village free of the militant group in March, but attacks have continued. Last week, three people were killed and seven women abducted from the nearby village of Sabon Garin Hyembula in Madagali, CNN reported.
The Nigerian military has recaptured land from Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria but has not held onto all of the territory gains in recent months. Earlier this month, Boko Haram fighters retook Marte after Nigerian troops had recaptured the town in February.
More than 15,000 people have died in Nigeria since Boko Haram's insurgency began in 2009 and nearly 1.5 million have been displaced, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
International Business Times
Sunday, 24 May 2015
A middle-aged woman, Mrs. Opeyemi Adeniran and her daughter, Oyinkansola have been kidnapped in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State.
They were kidnapped on Friday around 8:00pm at their residence on Plot 4, Lodi 2, Apooyin Street, Lodi 2, Academy, Odo-ona in Elewe.
It was gathered that the abductors made away with Mrs. Adeniran, fondly called Mummy Mathew and Oyin baby, in an Ash colour Volkwagen Golf 3 car with registration number FKJ 238 BD.
Confirming the incident, her brother who simply identified himself as Mr. Banjo said: “The family had been battling with the situation since yesterday (Friday night).”
He also informed that a formal report had been lodged at Orita-Challenge police station.
As at yesterday, her friends were sharing useful information that might help in locating her on their social media account, especially on Facebook.
The Public Relations Officers, Oyo State Police Commandz, DSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, could not be reached on his mobile telephone.
A short message service (SMS) also sent to his line was not replied as at the time of going to press.
The Nation Newspaper
Saturday, 23 May 2015
Friday, 22 May 2015
FBI agents can’t point to any major terrorism cases they’ve cracked thanks to the key snooping powers in the Patriot Act, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report Thursday that could complicate efforts to keep key parts of the law operating.
Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said that between 2004 and 2009, the FBI tripled its use of bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows government agents to compel businesses to turn over records and documents, and increasingly scooped up records of Americans who had no ties to official terrorism investigations.
The FBI did finally come up with procedures to try to minimize the information it was gathering on nontargets, but it took far too long, Mr. Horowitz said in the 77-page report, which comes just as Congress is trying to decide whether to extend, rewrite or entirely nix Section 215.
Backers say the Patriot Act powers are critical and must be kept intact, particularly with the spread of the threat from terrorists. But opponents have doubted the efficacy of Section 215, particularly when it’s used to justify bulk data collection such as in the case of the National Security Agency’s phone metadata program, revealed in leaks from former government contractor Edward Snowden.
The new report adds ammunition to those opponents, with the inspector general concluding that no major cases have been broken by use of the Patriot Act’s records-snooping provisions.
“The agents we interviewed did not identify any major case developments that resulted from use of the records obtained in response to Section 215 orders,” the inspector general concluded — though he said agents did view the material they gathered as “valuable” in developing other leads or corroborating information.
The report said agents bumped their number of bulk-data requests under Section 215 from seven in 2004 to 21 in 2009 as a result of technological advances and legislative changes that the intelligence community believed expanded the reach of the law.
Increasingly, that meant scooping up information on those who weren’t targets of a terrorism investigation, Mr. Horowitz said. He said that while Section 215 authority allows the government to do that, the FBI needed more checks to make sure it was using the power properly.
“While the expanded scope of these requests can be important uses of Section 215 authority, we believe these expanded uses require continued significant oversight,” he concluded.
The report was an update to a previous study done in 2008 that urged the department to figure out ways to minimize the amount of data it was gathering on ordinary Americans even as it was targeting terrorists.
In Thursday’s report Mr. Horowitz said the administration finally came up with procedures — five years later. He said it never should have taken that long but that he considers that issue solved.
The report was heavily redacted, and key details were deleted. The entire chart showing the number of Section 215 requests made from 2007 through 2009 was blacked out, as was the breakdown of what types of investigations they stemmed from: counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cyber or foreign intelligence investigations.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act is slated to expire at the end of this month. The House, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, passed a bill to renew it but also to limit it so the government could no longer do bulk collection such as the NSA phone data program. That legislation is known as the USA Freedom Act.
But Senate Republican leaders have balked, insisting the NSA program and Section 215 should be kept intact as is.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is leading the fight to protect the NSA program, is counting on his opponents not being able to muster the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, leaving them with the choice of either extending Section 215 or seeing all of the powers expire — including those that would go after specific terrorist suspects. Mr. McConnell believes that, faced with that choice, enough of his colleagues will vote to extend all of the powers.
FBI Director James B. Comey asked Congress this week to make sure Section 215 and two other parts of the Patriot Act, also slated to expire at the end of the month, are preserved. Those other powers include the ability to target lone wolf actors and to switch wiretaps if suspects switch their phones.
As for Section 215, Mr. Comey said Congress should at least preserve the power to go after individuals’ records.
“If we lose that authority, which I don’t think is controversial with folks, that is a big problem,” he said Wednesday at a forum at the Georgetown University Law Center.
But most of the Section 215 debate has revolved around bulk collection. Earlier this month a federal appeals court ruled that the Patriot Act does not envision the kind of phone program the NSA has been running, which gathers and stores five years’ worth of records of the numbers, dates and durations of calls made in the U.S.
For anti-bulk surveillance advocates, Thursday’s report further undermines Section 215.
“This report adds to the mounting evidence that Section 215 has done little to protect Americans and should be put to rest,” said American Civil Liberties Union Staff Attorney Alex Abdo.
Bulk data collection creates false leads, ties up investigative resources and, essentially, undermines national security, said Stephen Kohn, an attorney at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP and advocate for government whistleblowers. Also, increased FBI dependency on that bulk data collection indicates that the agency is lacking the appropriate resources for conducting successful counterterrorism operations, Mr. Kohn said.
“They have a large amount of agents who are working counterterrorism that have no human resources, no leads, no infiltrations, so they have nothing else to do,” he said. “In other words, when they staffed up and made [counterterrorism] a major priority, these agents need to do something. And they’re doing what they know to do, and that’s electronic surveillance.”
But former FBI agents said opponents wanted to callously cripple one of the government’s investigative agencies by depriving it of a critical data collection tool at a time of new terror threats.
“ISIS is singing a siren song, calling people to their death to crash on the rocks — and it’s the rocks that ISIS will take credit for,” said Ron Hosko, president of Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and former assistant director of the FBI. “They’re looking for those who are disaffected, disconnected and willing to commit murder. So if we’re willing to take away tools, OK, congressman, stand behind it [and] take the credit for putting the FBI in the dark.”
Accident Investigation Bureau Releases Report Identifying Causes of 4 Accidents on Nigerian Airspace
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Tuesday, 19 May 2015
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Pushing for Abortions on Babies of Girls Raped, Impregnated by Boko Haram
Monday, 18 May 2015
Saturday, 16 May 2015
Adding to the orgy of kidnap that had hit Ekiti State in recent past, three women, whose identities were yet to be unveiled by security agencies were on Friday afternoon abducted by unknown gunmen.
They were said to have been kidnapped with their husbands and unspecified number of children along Igbole-osi road while travelling in a Toyota RAV 4 Sports Utility Vehicle to Ibadan, Oyo State, for a wedding.
The spate of kidnaps has prompted Governor Ayo Fayose to cry out to the Inspector general of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase to quickly come to the aid of the state to stem the evil act and ensure that people in the state had confidence to go about their normal business.
Sources revealed that their captors later dropped the men and the children while the women were driven away in the car after collecting the phones and other valuables of the victims.
The wailings of the husbands and children allegedly attracted sympathisers who came to their aid.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Alberto Adeyemi, confirmed the report to our correspondent.
"The Divisional Police Officer in Ido called in today to give the report about the kidnapped women. We have already launched investigation into the case but I can't speak about it," he said.
The whereabouts of the women remained unknown while contact had not been established with the families as at press time.
It will be recalled that no fewer than five people, including a former Chief Medical Director of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Dr Patrick Adegun, a senior nurse at the Federal Teaching Hospital Ido Ekiti, Mrs Margaret Aladenika and a lecturer of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, had been kidnapped in the last two weeks in the state..
Fayose’s letter calling for Arase’s special intervention to stem the spate of kidnappings that has hit the state in the last few weeks was dated May 15, and personally signed by the Governor.
According to a statement in Ado-Ekiti on Friday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, the governor promised the people that the situation would soon be put under control.
The letter read in part, "It is with great concern that I am appealing to you to help in our quest for a lasting solution to the spate of kidnappings and abductions in our dear state. The development has created fear in the minds of our people and no meaningful development can take place under such atmosphere.
"As a responsible government, we are taking all necessary steps to curtail and put an end to these dastardly acts, and we believe a special attention from your office on the matter to our state would no doubt, lead to finding a quick solution to the problem"
The Boko Haram terrorist group on Friday recaptured Marte, a border town in the northern part of Borno State.
Security sources said members of the terrorist group, who fled Sambisa forest, had now regrouped in Marte.
Borno State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Zannah Mustapha, also confirmed the recapture of the town by Boko Haram terrorists during a press conference in Maiduguri.
“It is sad as we have been made to understand that Marte is today (Friday) completely fallen under the control of the insurgents, which to us is a very huge setback,” he said.
Mustapha raised the alarm that 600 women and girls had been dispatched by the terrorists as suicide bombers with the aim of causing multiple explosions in Maiduguri.
The deputy governor urged residents to be patient with the security agencies in spite of the attendant hardships caused by the dusk to dawn curfew imposed on Maiduguri.
He said, “It is unfortunate that we are experiencing yet another attack in Maiduguri at this time that we are thinking that the insurgency should have subsided following the taking over of Sambisa forest by the military.
“Our thinking was that every other place should have been blocked so that the insurgency would be curtailed to a restricted area, but that has not been the case because the insurgents have been fleeing to other communities.
“Initially, we were opposed to the suggestion by the military, but when we received a security report that about 600 women have been kitted as suicide bombers and are to be sneaked into Maiduguri during the attack, couple with the gory pictures of some of the women who detonated themselves during the attacks, we had no option than to okay the curfew.
“But the curfew has been relaxed from noon to about 5pm to ease the hardship and afterwards it may be reviewed. Our government is going to do everything possible by supporting the military to ensure that Maiduguri and other parts of Borno State are not attacked or taken over by the insurgents.”
The capture of Marte happened as soldiers sustained the 24-hour curfew imposed on Maiduguri, the Borno state capital on Thursday after Boko Haram terrorists attempted an invasion of the city on Wednesday night.
Friday, 15 May 2015
Thursday, 14 May 2015
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Military Coup in Burundi: Army General Topples President Pierre Nkurunziza After He Traveled ToTanzania for Summit
International Business Times
|IGP Solomon Arase|