Monday, December 28, 2015

Nigeria’s Budget Without Oil Realisable – Fayemi

The Minister of Solid Minerals and a former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said the N6.08tn 2016 budget proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari is realisable.
The minister also said the budget was not bogus despite the dwindling revenues from crude oil.
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, while criticising the budget, had said that, “It is only in a confused and clueless economy that government will plan to spend more when revenue has reduced by more than 50 per cent.”

Boko Haram Attacks Maiduguri, Killing 50



Boko Haram Islamic extremists struck the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri for the first time in months Monday with rocket-propelled grenades and multiple suicide bombers, witnesses said. At least 50 people were killed and the death toll could go higher.
At least 30 were killed and more than 90 wounded in overnight blasts and another 20 were killed at Monday’s mosque bombing, said Muhammed Kanar, coordinator for the area’s emergency agency.
The military said there were multiple attacks at four southwestern entry points to the city, including a woman suicide bomber who killed one other person and injured 13 gathered outside a mosque after dawn prayers Monday.

In another blast, two girls blew themselves up in Buraburin neighbourhood, killing several people, according to civil servant Yunusa Abdullahi.
“We are under siege,” Adullahi said. “We don’t know how many of these bombs or these female suicide bombers were sneaked into Maiduguri last night.” He said some residents have found undetonated bombs.
The attack appears to be a challenge to President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration last week that Boko Haram has been “technically” defeated, capable of no more than suicide bombings on soft targets.
Acting on information provided by a captured insurgent, Nigerian troops “intercepted and destroyed” 13 suicide bombers and arrested one female suicide bomber in repelling the attackers, Maj. Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, the commander prosecuting Nigeria’s war against Boko Haram, told reporters.
Maiduguri, the city under attack, is the birthplace of Boko Haram, which emerged as a much more radical entity after Nigerian security forces launched an all-out assault on their compound in the city, killing 700 people in 2009.
Militants firing indiscriminately from the back of three trucks attacked the outlying village of Dawari, soldiers engaged them, and as people were fleeing, a woman ran into the area yelling “Boko Haram, Boko Haram.” When people gathered, she detonated herself, according to village head Bulama Isa.
A rocket-propelled grenade then exploded, setting alight grass-thatched huts, and a second woman blew herself up, according to Isa. Among those killed was the village chief and 10 of his children, according to residents Ahmed Bala and Umar Ibrahim.

A soldier said the insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades into four residential areas on the outskirts of the city. Soldiers fired back, and many civilians were caught in the crossfire, according to the soldier, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to journalists.
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up at a home near Bakassi Estate, killing 18 people Sunday evening, another soldier told The Associated Press.

A nurse at Maiduguri Specialist Hospital said dozens of critically wounded, mainly children and women, may not survive. The nurse, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not authorised to speak to reporters, said the hospital was so overflowing with patients that some had to be cared for in the maternity ward. About 60 people had wounds from bullets and shrapnel from explosive devices, she said. Other wounded people had to be sent to other hospitals in the city.
Among them was a baby found dead, still tied to the back of her mother, who survived after being hit by shrapnel, the nurse said.

It was hard to do a body count because so many had been blown into pieces, she said, describing torsos and dismembered arms and legs.
Maiduguri, a city of about one million people, now hosts almost as many refugees, among 2.5 million people driven from their homes in the 6-year-old uprising. About 20,000 people have been killed in Nigeria and hundreds others elsewhere as the insurgents have carried their conflict across its borders into Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Source: AP

Ribadu In Surprise Visit To Bisi Akande, Says Politics Not Reason To Cut Off Ties


A former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu yesterday showed up at the Ila-Orangun country home of a national leader of the All Progressives Congress for what he called a “catch up visit to a father and elder statesman”.
Mr. Akande was the interim chairman of the ruling APC and was the national chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, under which Mr. Ribadu vied for Nigeria’s presidency in 2011.
Mr. Ribadu, who arrived at Mr. Akande’s compound at around 1:30pm along with a friend, Kashim Imam, went straight into a closed-door session with the APC chieftain.
However, not long after they went in, the trio emerged into a meeting of some local APC officials who had gathered for a Christmas visit to Mr. Akande.

INTERVIEW: Oil Workers Will Resist Fuel Subsidy Removal – PENGASSAN President


The national president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Francis Johnson, tells PREMIUM TIMES how workers view the proposed deregulation of the petroleum sector by the federal government.
PT: Deregulation of the petroleum industry means different things to different people – government, investors, marketers, etc. What does it mean to oil workers?
Johnson: Deregulation is a universal economic concept that promotes free market enterprise. When the regulator relaxes regulation and permits market forces to determine the means of production and distribution of an economic product, deregulation is achieved.

President Muhammadu Buhari To Block all leakages in revenue

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that by blocking all leakages in revenue generation and eliminating waste, the country will generate enough revenue from internal sources to finance the N6 trillion budget he submitted to the National Assembly last week.
President Muhammadu Buhari.

S’South Not Part Of Biafra, Kokori Tells MASSOB

Human rights activist and former labour union leader, Chief Frank Kokori, has berated the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra for saying that the South-South is part of the struggle for the creation of a Biafra Republic.

MASSOB had said in a statement on Sunday that “anybody who says that Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River states are not part of Biafra is deceiving himself.”
It said the listed states were Biafran territories and that Biafra comprises all the states of the former eastern region, including the Anioma community in Delta State.
“It has been part of the Federal Government’s policy of divide and rule to tell the world that only the Ndigbo want Biafra; but this is false,” MASSOB said in the statement.

Boko Haram Attacks Maiduguri With Female Suicide Bombers

The terrorist sect, Boko Haram has left people in troubled Maiduguri anxious and frightened after unleashing female suicide bombers on the Borno State capital. Over 60 persons have been killed in attacks by the insurgents in the last 24 hours on the town. Many of the attacks were from female suicide bombers smuggled by the insurgents into the town after confrontations with the military believed to be a decoy.

I Didn’t Plan To Lose Boko Haram War –Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said he did not plan to lose the Boko Haram war as is being suggested by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonathan spoke on Sunday in reaction to an interview Buhari granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.  In the interview, Buhari accused the Jonathan administration of deliberately provoking Nigerian soldiers into mutiny by its actions and turning round to arrest and prosecute the soldiers.

He said the past administration, while fighting terrorists, sent soldiers to the battlefield without arms and ammunition.

Obasanjo Advises Rich Nigerians On Job Creation


A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has called on well-meaning Nigerians to give back to the communities where they hail from, in order to stem the tide of rural-urban migration and unemployment among youths.
He also said this would engender rural development in the country.
Obasanjo made the call while delivering his goodwill message at the 2015 edition of the Ibogun-Olaogun Day held on Saturday at Ibogun- Olaogun Village, in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Top 10 Most Vibrant Senators of 2015

The year 2015 has come and almost gone, yet the 8th Senate has recorded significant progress, as well as faced a number of challenges.

The distinguished Senators of the 8th National Assembly, under the leadership of Senate President Bukola Saraki have all in one way or the other contributed immensely to the successes and achievements of the 8th Senate thus far and most importantly to the growth and development of Nigeria as a whole.


US Plot to Evacuate its Top tier 2 ISIS Jihadis From Ramadi Uncovered


A US plot to evacuate Daesh leaders from the strategic city of Ramadi in central Iraq has reportedly been disclosed by a volunteer forces commander.


An Iraqi volunteer forces commander has revealed US plans to evacuate Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) leaders from the central Iraqi city of Ramadi, according to the Iranian news agency FARS.
The disclosure comes as the Iraqi army and popular troops are attempting to secure victory over the jihadist group in Ramadi.