Nigerian Students Kidnapped in Ukraine

Ukrainian official says negotiations are underway to free nine Nigerian students taken captive by separatists in the eastern city of Luhansk.

Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a news conference Wednesday that people with experience conducting negotiations were making contact with what he called “the terrorists.”

He said Ukrainian officials hoped the talks would end “successfully in the near future.”

Ukrainian news agencies say militants abducted the Nigerian students in Luhansk on Monday and have been holding them as prisoners at an occupied government security building.

The city is deep inside rebel-held territory, close to the Russian border.

Separatists seeking greater autonomy have been waging a bloody battle in eastern Ukraine against the government.

Courtesy:
Daily Independent

Nigeria, Cameroon, Others Deploy 2,800 Troops Against Boko Haram

Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger have agreed to quickly form a new force that would comprise 2,800 soldiers to fight against Boko Haram insurgents.
The defence ministers of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger said they would contribute 700 troops each to
the force.
According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Niger’s Defence Minister, Karidio Mahamadou,
said they were determined to “eradicate this curse”.
Boko Haram’s insurgency is focused on Nigeria, but has carried out some cross-border raids.
The bridge which serves as a key transport link between north-eastern Nigeria and Cameroon in Gamboru Gala was blown off by men of the deadly sect.

According to residents, cars and lorries loaded with goods were stranded on the highway.
The regional defence ministers met in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Wednesday, to hold further discussions on the growing threat posed by Boko Haram.
While the meeting was ongoing, the Islamist group unleashed terror on Kaduna, killing 70 people.

A former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) who was caught in the violent attacks narrowly
escaped death.
Efforts to step up regional co-operation gained momentum after Boko Haram caused an international outcry by abducting more than 200 girls from a boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria.

The girls are said to be held in the vast Sambisa forest, along Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.

Channels TV

Algerian Airliner Carrying 116 Passengers Feared Crashed on flight From Burkina Faso

A passenger plane carrying 116 people is feared to have crashed on a flight from Burkina Faso to the Algerian capital Algiers.
Contact with the Air Algerie flight was lost over the Sahara as it crossed Mali in bad weather, officials said.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the plane, which has 50 French citizens aboard, "probably crashed".
French media reported that soldiers had found wreckage in Tilemsi, central Mali, but this was not confirmed.

Contact with Flight AH 5017, chartered from Spanish airline Swiftair, was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, Air Algerie said.
The pilot had contacted Niger's control tower in Niamey to change course because of a sandstorm, officials say.
BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says the route is well used by French travellers .

Speaking in Paris, Mr Fabius said: "Despite intensive search efforts no trace of the aircraft has yet been
found. The plane probably crashed."
He said two French Mirage fighter planes were scouring the area.
Earlier, an Algerian official told Reuters that the plane had crashed, but gave no further details.

France's civil aviation body said crisis centres had been set up at airports in Paris and Marseille.
An Air Algerie spokesman quoted by Reuters said the provisional passenger list included 50 French citizens,
24 people from Burkina Faso, eight Lebanese, four Algerians, two from Luxembourg, one Belgian, one Swiss, one Nigerian, one Cameroonian, one Ukrainian and one Romanian.
A crisis centre has been set up in Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris

The passenger plane had taken off from Ouagadougou airport in Burkina Faso
Officials in Lebanon, however, said there were at least 10 Lebanese citizens on the flight.
The six crew members are Spanish, according to the Spanish pilots' union.
UN troops in Mali say they understand the plane came down between Gao and Tessalit, the BBC's Alex Duval Smith in the Malian capital Bamako reports.
She says the search area is vast, with few roads, and there is rebel activity. Added to that, sandstorms make
visibility in the Sahara poor for at least a day, she adds.
"In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," Air Algerie officials, quoted by APS news agency (in French), said.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal reportedly told Algerian radio: "The plane disappeared at Gao (in Mali),
500km (300 miles) from the Algerian border."

Burkina Faso Transport Minister Jean Bertin Ouedraogo said the plane sent its last message at around 01:30 GMT, asking air traffic controllers in Niger to change its route because of bad weather.
In a statement (in Spanish) , Swiftair said that the aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 and that they were unable to establish contact with it.
An Algerian official had previously told Reuters that the plane was an Airbus A320.

An unnamed Air Algerie company source, speaking to AFP news agency, said: "The plane was not far from the
Algerian frontier when the crew was asked to make a detour because of poor visibility and to prevent the risk
of collision with another aircraft on the Algiers-Bamako route."
"Contact was lost after the change of course."
Flight AH 5017 flies the Ouagadougou-Algiers route four times a week, AFP reported.

BBC

Bomb Blast Rocks New Road Bus Station, Sabon Gari, Kano

Residents of Sabon-Gari in Kano, Kano State, have confirmed to SaharaReporters that a high
capacity improvised explosive device (IED) detonated at the New Road Motor Park in Sabon Gari, Kano, at around 3:00pm (1500 GMT) today.

One of them, who spoke with SaharaReporters on phone, said the explosive devices were hidden in a
worktop fridge, concealed in a bag and dropped off by two men masquerading as travelers.

The number of dead and injured victims was unclear at the time of reporting, but unlike last year’s blast the same area, there were fewer number of people around the scene of the blast. In March at least 60 were reported killed, and several vehicles destroyed by a bombing at the same motor park.

Police in the state also confirmed the blast, saying: “Explosion has occurred at New Road Motor Park, Sabon-Gari, Kano, at 3pm. Explosives [were] hidden in table-top fridge disguised as luggage.”
Today's incident joins the near-daily string of attacks that has plagued the region.

SR

Apapa (Lagos) Traffic Gridlock, Threat To Security

In the wake of nationwide insecurity , the Commandant of the Nigerian Navy Security, NNS Beecroft , Ovenseri Uwadiae , says the Apapa traffic gridlock is a threat to security around Apapa area of Lagos , southwest Nigeria.

At a stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday to find a lasting solution to the persistent traffic gridlock around Apapa and its environs, Uwadiae , who read the resolution of the stakeholders to newsmen, did not mince words when he said the gridlock was a threat to the growing insecurity nationwide .
Uwadiae added that the traffic jam in the area is causing a colossal economic loss to the nation through man - hour loss , closure of businesses , assuring that with commitment and support of the stakeholders to confront the traffic problem, the entire gridlock in the area could become a thing of the past.

According to him, some of the stakeholders’ proffered solutions to the traffic problems at Apapa could be categorised into long and short term solutions , noting that for now , members of the stakeholders had resolved to focus on immediate solutions capable of bringing relief to motorists using Apapa- Mile 2
Expressway.

He said the stakeholders agreed to set up a committee that would implement all the decisions taken at the meeting , adding that the NPA would lead other members of the committee to inspect and ensure that shipping companies owned loading bays in order to reduce the number of trucks around the area and that only trucks that had been approved for loading were within Apapa vicinity .

Furthermore , he said LASTMA, police , NPA and other stakeholders would fashion out routes for trailers and
tankers coming to Apapa-Mile 2 area for business in a way that they would only occupy a dedicated section of the service lane , as this was aimed at bringing about orderliness on the road, while reiterating his conviction that with support of everybody , motorists would soon begin to experience stress- free driving in the area.
“The management of NPA must see to it that concessionaires operating at the port improve on human and facilities in order to reduce time beingspent by trucks at the port entrance , as spill over from the entrance often leads to traffic gridlock.
“Truck owners are to cooperate with the management of the NPA in the area of registration to reduce cases of truck drivers parking within the area to solicit for business in the port as such action is partially responsible for road blockade in Apapa,” he said.

Speaking at the end of the meeting , the General Manager of LASTMA, Engr. Babatunde Edu, reaffirmed the commitment of the agency to move the traffic along the axis and solicited the support and cooperation of other stakeholders for roads to be free of any gridlock.
He said that the agency had a duty and responsibility under the law to solve traffic problem, and that if and when necessary , the agency would resort to enforcement in order to restore road orderliness and sanity.

Stakeholders at the meeting held at the NNS Beecroft , Navy Yard , Apapa, are the Navy , Lagos State Traffic
Management Authority, LASTMA, representative of NARTO (Road Transport Employers Association of
Nigeria ) , AMATO , Police , Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) , UTQEN and the Federal Ministry of Works .

Courtesy:
PM News

Norway Police Warn of Possible Terror Attack Within Days

Norway has uncovered information pointing to a potential terror attack against the country within days from
individuals linked to the conflict in Syria.
“There is a concrete threat against Norway,” Justice and Public Security Minister Anders Anundsen told reporters in Oslo today. Security services have strengthened their presence at Norway’s borders, airports and train stations, acting police director Vidar Refvik said.
The news comes just two days after Norway marked the third anniversary of the massacre of 77 people, most of
them linked to the Labor Party that was in government at the time, by Anders Behring Breivik. The 35-year-old, who is serving a 21-year prison sentence, has said his acts were meant to prevent the spread of what he called “cultural Marxism” and the “Islamization” of Europe.
Police have “received information that people with links to an extreme Islamist group in Syria may intend to carry out a terrorist act in Norway,” security service chief Benedicte Bjoernland told reporters. “Preliminary
verifications in this instance strengthened the credibility
of this information.”
The intelligence gathered suggests that a “potential terrorist attack” against Norway is planned “within a short period, probably a few days,” Bjoernland said. The security service is working to clarify details about the
threat and where and when an attack could occur, she said.

Syrian Crisis
More than 170,000 people have died and over 10 million have fled their homes since civil war broke out in Syria in March 2011. The United Nations and aid agencies say the conflict is the worst humanitarian disaster since the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with 6.5 million people displaced inside Syria and 3 million more seeking refuge outside the country.

Norwegian police are concerned about individuals coming back to the country from Syria with increased knowledge of weapons, combat training and a lower threshold for violence, Bjoernland said. The greatest threat to Norway
is posed by extreme Islamists, she said. The suspect in the May 24 attack on the Brussels Jewish Museum is believed to be a former fighter in the Syrian conflict, Bjoernland said.

The threat to Norway, which is thought to be directed at the country rather than its interests abroad, is posed by a “limited, relatively small group,” she said in an interview.

50 People
Police estimate that about 50 people seen as posing a threat have left Norway to fight in Syria, spokesman Trond Hugubakken said in Oslo today. About half of those have since returned to Norway, he said.
In May, police arrested three Norwegian citizens on terror charges. The men, one of whom was born in Somalia and the other two in the former Yugoslavia, represented a threat to the country and its allies, police said at the time.
“Whether we’re talking about five days or seven days isn’t clear to us,” Bjoernland said today. “It’s a threat
limited in time, and this isn’t going to last until Christmas, to put it like that.”

Courtesy:
BusinessWeek

Amen Estate: Sales and Lettings of Exquisite Homes, Apartments in a Serene, Secured Environment

Amen Estate has raised the bar and will continue to remain a yardstick for benchmarking exquisite real estates in Nigeria in the foreseeable future. This explains why ''Amen'' as it popularly called, is a place of choice for the crème de la crème of the Nigerian society and expatriate community.

Central Bank of Nigeria Orders Banks, Others To Donate to Terror Support Fund

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has directed banks and discount houses to donate to the Victims Support Fund Committee, set up by President Goodluck Jonathan to raise funds to assist victims of Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed at least 2,053 civilians in the first half of this year in 95 attacks.

The 26-member committee, chaired by former Minister of Defence, Lt.- Gen. T. Y. Danjuma, was inaugurated last week by Jonathan in Abuja.
The directive, which was “more or less like an appeal,” was given in Lagos yesterday by CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at a breakfast meeting with banks’ managing directors and those of other financial institutions.

New Telegraph had exclusively reported yesterday that the CBN governor summoned the bank chiefs to a meeting without disclosing any agenda.
At the meeting, which held at the CBN new head office complex, Emefiele was said to have told the bank chiefs that President Goodluck Jonathan had appealed to him to seek the support of the financial institutions to contribute to the terror support fund.
One of the participants at the meeting confided in New Telegraph that the bank chiefs told Emefiele that for such funds to be donated, they would have to seek approvals from their respective boards.

The bank chiefs who were said to have been looking forward to the meeting, being Emefiele’s first breakfast forum with them, were said to be disappointed, as they had thought it was issues in the industry that would be discussed. “The meeting was a bloody waste of time.
We thought the meeting was called to discuss the issues and challenges facing the industry but to our surprise, it was basically to discuss Chibok and terrorist issues,” the source said.

Emefiele’s predecessor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had also coaxed banks to donate to the Disaster Relief Fund. Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan had written a letter to the National Assembly seeking the approval to borrow $1 billion to fight Boko Haram, which has killed about 15,000 people in the five years of its campaign of terror.

At the inauguration of the Victims Support Fund Committee, which happened on the day his letter to the National Assembly seeking approval to borrow $1 billion was read to lawmakers, Jonathan had told the members to mobilise collective efforts and resources in support of terror victims.

He urged Nigerians and non-Nigerians, individuals and cooperate bodies, to give generously to the fund.
Besides Danjuma and former Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc. Managing Director, Mr. Fola Adeola, who is the deputy chairman, other members of the committee include Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, Alhaji Abdulsamad I. Rabiu, Alhaji Sani Dauda, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija and Mr. Cosmas Maduka.

Also on the committee are former Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc., Mr. Jim Ovia, Group Chief Executive, Oando Plc., Mr. Wale Tinubu and Director General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Sani Sidi.

New Telegraph

Update On Nigerian Air Force Helicopter Crash: Missing Crew Member Found Alive

The crew member, who was declared missing when his body could not be located in the vicinity of the crash, resurfaced at the military headquarters in Maiduguri today, having trekked through the bushes after the crash.

It is thus confirmed that Flight Lieutenant NM Halilu, Co-Pilot, and Warrant Officer Augustine Nwanonenyi, the aircraft technician, survived the crash while Flight Lieutenant Onyeka Nwakile was the only one lost in the crash. The family of the officer has been duly informed while the two survivors are in stable condition but receiving medical attention. 

Meanwhile, search and rescue operation on the incident has been concluded, while investigation into the crash continues.

CHRIS OLUKOLADE
Major General
Director Defence Information

SR

Multiple Bombs in North Nigeria's Kaduna Kill at Least 82

KADUNA Nigeria (Reuters) - Two bomb blasts in the north Nigerian city of Kaduna killed at least 82 people on Wednesday, officials said, in attacks that bore the hallmarks of violent Islamist group Boko Haram.

A suicide bomber targeting a moderate Muslim cleric killed at least 32 of the cleric's congregation on a busy commercial road. Shortly after, a second bomb blast killed 50 people in the crowded Kawo market on Wednesday, a local Red Cross worker on the scene, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Thousands were gathered for prayers with Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi in Murtala Muhammed square, and when his convoy pulled up, the bomber lunged at him before being stopped by his private security, witnesses and police said.

"The attack was targeted at the sheikh. No arrest has been made yet," said police commissioner Shehu Umar.
The bomb did not injure Bauchi, several witnesses told Reuters. Mustafa Sani, a volunteer for Bauchi's mosque evacuating bodies, said there were 32 confirmed dead so far.

"Somebody with a bomb vest ... was blocked. He detonated the bomb along with the person that tried to block him," Umar said, adding that police had only been able to confirm 25 dead, with 14 wounded.
Police sometimes give lower casualty tolls than workers on the scene.
A Reuters reporter saw blood and body parts scattered on the Alkali Road in the city centre. The military used pick-up trucks to cordon off the area.
Sirens wailed as fire engines raced to the scene. An angry crowd started throwing stones at police, who responded by dispersing them with tear gas.
Some followers had come from Senegal, Chad and Niger to see the popular sheikh.

BOKO HARAM SUSPECTED
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either blast, but Islamist militant group Boko Haram
has been staging attacks, especially with explosives, outside its northeastern heartlands in the past three months.
Since launching an insurgency in 2009, the militants have often attacked clerics, like Bauchi, who take issue with their Salafist ideology. If Boko Haram is responsible for Wednesday's attack, it underscores the risks moderate clerics take speaking out against it.

The insurgents, who are fighting to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria, have repeatedly targeted civilians this year, mostly in remote northeastern
Borno state. They killed more than 2,000 civilians during the first half of this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated a week ago.

Courtesy:
Reuters:

Nigeria Ranks High in Global "Terrorism" Casualty Rate - Maplecroft Report

Nigeria has the world’s highest casualty rate from "terrorism'' with an average of 24 deaths per attack out of 146 recorded in the year through June, according to
risk consultancy Maplecroft.

The global average is two deaths per attack, the Bath, U.K.-based group said in a report released today titled
the Maplecroft Terrorism and Security Dashboard.

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, recorded 3,477 deaths in those attacks as violence by the Boko Haram
Haram Islamist militants grew in scale and sophistication, it said.
“The increased capacity of Boko Haram is likely to lead to a further loss of investor confidence,” Maplecroft
said in the report. The latest figures represent a doubling of the 1,735 deaths recorded in the previous year through June 2013, it said.

Boko Haram, whose name means “western education is
a sin,” is waging a five-year-old violent campaign that has killed thousands, to impose Shariah, or Islamic law,
in Africa ’s most populous country of about 170 million people. Nigeria, the continent’s biggest oil producer, is
roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.

The group drew global outrage with its April 14 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitories in the northeastern town of Chibok. Though the U.S.,
France and the U.K. joined the search for the girls, most of them are yet to be rescued.
The militant group claimed three bomb attacks this year in Abuja, the capital, that killed at least 120 people.

Maplecroft ranks Nigeria fifth in its list of “extreme risk”.countries topped by Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Somalia. While more people have died in those countries due to more frequent attacks, the average death toll per attack has been lower than Nigeria’s,
according to Maplecroft.

Bloomberg

Cameroon Villages Bordering Nigeria Live in Terror of Boko Haram

Yaounde (Cameroon) (AFP) - In the villages that line the border with Nigeria, even those charged with protecting Cameroonians from Boko Haram fighters fear the fall of
darkness.
"When night falls, we tremble. We don't sleep," said a Cameroonian policeman from a far-northern border
town, on condition of anonymity.
The Nigeria-born Islamist group has stepped up raids into northern Cameroon in recent days, murdering and stealing with impunity despite military efforts to clamp down on their bloody insurgency.

On Sunday local police said one of their officers was killed during an attack on the village of Nariki, 500 metres from Boko Haram's Nigerian stronghold of Tarmoa, adding to scores of deaths from raids on local towns this month.
The militants have long used Cameroon to launch attacks on Nigeria as the border between them is extremely porous, with no buffer-zone clearly separating the two countries.
Earlier this month they stole a pick-up truck and weapons in a raid on a police post in Bomberi, Cameroon, only to abandon it on Nigerian territory where it was found by troops days later, said another Cameroon police officer.

Weapons and goods cross the border freely too: the remote northern Cameroon town of Amchide has
become a hotbed for Boko Haram fighters and a hub for trafficking to finance their recruitment.
Cameroon, like other west African countries, has beefed up its operations against Boko Haram since the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls three months ago sparked an international outcry.
The army claims to have killed many militants in recent weeks and suspected members and collaborators have
been arrested and sent to the capital, Yaounde.

Cameroon's elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) recently destroyed one Boko Haram camp during a foray
across the border into Tarmoa, said the second officer.
Supported by international governments, they have also targeted the Sambisa forest near the shared border where Nigerian authorities believe the kidnapped schoolgirls may still be hidden in the militants' camps.
But Cameroon's efforts have done little to stem Boko Haram's bloody five-year insurgency or stop almost daily attacks that have left local communities living in constant fear.

"Boko Haram is disorganised because of joint operations by the Cameroonian and Nigerian armed forces, but its activists carry out attacks here and there in Cameroon," the second officer said.
The first policeman said the insurgents can easily escape as "they know very well" where the Cameroonian troops are located.

The Islamist group, blamed for slaughtering more than 2,000 civilians already this year, has increasingly targeted remote border communities, razing entire villages.
Two Cameroonian shepherds were killed and 200 cattle stolen by militants on July 10 during a raid in the village of Bame, less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Nigerian border, said the first police officer.

Foiled attack -
And suspected Boko Haram fighters kidnapped a 20-year-old Cameroonian earlier this month from the village
of Balgaram after an attack was foiled by the army.
Senior local figures are also being intimidated to stop them from helping the government against Boko Haram.
In Limani, which lies in the flashpoint zone between Nigeria's Tarmoa and Amchide in Cameroon, militants
kidnapped the sons of a traditional chief who has been a go-between for the group.
"They were intimidating the father," said the second police officer. "He's a go-between for Boko Haram, which suspects him of collaborating with Cameroonian forces."

A lack of coordination by military forces -- particularly between Nigeria and Cameroon -- has hampered the efforts to stop the insurgents.
That was made clear during a botched attempt to rescue 10 Chinese road workers who were kidnapped in May.
A negotiator was hurt when a team of Cameroonians sent to bring back the workers in early July was fired on
by the Nigerian army, which was unaware of their operation, said the second officer.

"There is currently a tacit agreement between Nigeria and Cameroon to let soldiers from both countries cross
the border either way during actions against Boko Haram," he added.
But officially, the Yaounde government does not allow any right of pursuit by Nigerian forces on its territory.

Courtesy:
Yahoo News

Fire at Kano Airport; Aircraft Damaged, Fuel Tanker Burnt To Ashes

Fire service officials averted what could have been a tragedy at the Aminu Kano International Airport last night as they scrambled a response to a sudden fire that caught a fuel tanker feeding a Turkish airlines aircraft, a witness has said.
The tanker was however burnt to ashes while the aircraft, an Airbus 340, which was to airlift passengers from Kano to Istanbul, was partly damaged.
The flight was subsequently cancelled with the passengers, most of whom had arrived the airport, disappointed.
Garba Shehu, the Media Consultant to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who was travelling with his family, told PREMIUM TIMES the aircraft was saved from being completely burnt following a quick decision by officials to hurriedly tow it away from the burning truck.

Mr. Shehu said, “The Airbus 340 aircraft which had the burning truck under its wings made a miraculous escape following a decision to tow it away from the fire just in time before the fuel-laden tanker burst into a towering flame.

“The flight taking my family and I, among many other passengers to Istanbul from Kano was cancelled a short while ago following indications that the aircraft, even though not destroyed, was partly damaged on its wing.
“Fire engines at the airport emptied their contents without any serious impact on the raging fire, which burnt without let until it had consumed the oil tanker.”

The cause of the fire remained unknown as officials of the airport and other aviation authorities could not be reached this morning. Officials of Turkish Airlines could also not be reached as at the time of this report.
PREMIUM TIMES recalls that Kaduna airport was temporarily closed on April 20 after fire ravaged the airport’s control tower, completely destroying the facility.

Flights only resumed a day later at the airport after a mobile control tower was brought in from Abuja.
Authorities said at the time that investigations had been commissioned to determine the cause of the fire.
The result of the investigation is yet to be made public.

Courtesy:
Premium Times

President Jonathan Meets Parents of Abducted Chibok Girls' for First Time

President Goodluck Jonathan has met for the first time with many parents of 219 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls and dozens of classmates who managed
to escape from their Islamic extremist captors.

Tuesday's meeting came after some parents had refused to meet Nigeria's leader last week. For months, they have been asking to see the president
and he finally acceded to a request from Pakistani girls' education activist Malala Yousafzai, who had met the parents.
Jonathan blamed activists of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign for politicising the abductions and influencing the parents. The parents said they needed time to decide who would attend.

Chibok community spokesman Lawan Abana said there were 177 people in the delegation meeting Jonathan and an AP reporter counted 51 of the 57 girls who escaped in the early days after the abduction on 15 April.
At least 11 of the parents have died since then –seven in a village attack this month and four of heart attacks and other illnesses that the Chibok
community blames on the trauma.

Jonathan was accompanied by the education and finance ministers, and his national security adviser.
Jonathan and his team walked to a stage above the waiting parents and girls, and journalists were asked to leave. Also present was governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state, from where the girls were abducted. Shettima has accused Jonathan of not doing enough to save the girls and has angered the government with his charges that Boko Haram fighters are better armed and more motivated than Nigeria's military.
Some of the parents and community leaders of the Chibok town from which the girls were kidnapped have made public statements urging Jonathan to negotiate with the girls' captors. Boko Haram is demanding a swap for detained fighters in exchange for the girls. So far, Jonathan has refused.

Courtesy:
The Guardian

Boko Haram Abducts Politician’s Wife and Two Children in Borno State

Suspected members of Boko Haram have kidnapped the wife and two children of Alhaji Zaraye Mala Sheriff, a Councillor in Borno state who is reported to be a cousin of former Borno state, governor, Ali Modu Sheriff.

A source told Daily Trust that the men stormed the Ngala town residence of the politician in the early hours of Friday July 18th.
“The insurgents stormed the house of the councillor around 12:30am on Friday and asked the wife about her husband. They also asked her for the money he kept at home but she kept quiet.
Luckily enough, Zaraye was at the other side of the house and when he heard the conversation, he fled,” a source from Ngala said.
He said angered by her silence and the absence of their target, the sect members took her and her two children away.
“Up till now, nothing has been heard of the woman and her kids. We have not heard anything about the two businessmen either,” he said.

Two other politicians, Alhaji Annur Mohammed and Liman Alhaji Hussaini were also reportedly kidnapped by the sect men.
Meanwhile there are reports that Maiduguri metropolis and its environs have been without power in the last
three weeks following the destruction of electricity installations around Damboa town, 85 kilometers away from the state capital.

A senior official of the utility firm supplying the state with power, the Yola Electricity Distribution Company
(YEDC) said the attack by Boko Haram members in the last three weeks around Damboa caused “huge damage” to their 33KVA installations.
“The problem is aggravated by the security situation around Damboa which makes it difficult for our men to
effect repairs. The truth is that it will take time before electricity would be restored in Maiduguri and environs,”
he said.

Courtesy:
Nollywood Magazine