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| Emir Sanusi Lamido Sanusi |
A sharp disagreement and confusion emerged on Saturday over the offer of amnesty by the Federal Government to members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
The Minister of Youth Development, Boni Haruna had on Thursday during a programme to mark the nation’s Democracy Day titled ‘A day with young leaders of Nigeria.’ announced that the President had offered amnesty to the insurgents in his determination to bring the ongoing violent attacks to an end.
President Jonathan, who spoke at the occasion after Boni Haruna made the comment, did not make any reference to the Minister’s remarks.
Haruna, at the function said: “President Goodluck Jonathan has also declared amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect. Series of integration programmes have been lined up for the members of the sect who would surrender their arms and embrace peace.”
“Let me use this opportunity on behalf of the Federal Government, to call on the members of the Boko Haram sect to embrace the government’s gesture and key into the amnesty programme,” he stated
But speaking with State House correspondents on Saturday, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati maintained that the President did not offer amnesty to members of the sect.
Stressing that he would not say anything about the ‘amnesty’ announcement, he said that he would rather refer Nigerians to the Democracy Day nationwide broadcast by the President where he never used the term “amnesty.”
He said: “Let me refer you to the speech by the President. If you read the speech line by line, you will see that it contains the very message that the President wanted to put across and in that speech if you look at it I don’t think the President used amnesty, instead he spoke about those who are willing to renounce terrorism, those who are willing to embrace, opportunities have been created for them through the fact-finding committee, through the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolutions of Conflict in the North Eastern part of Nigeria.”
“So I will refer you basically to the speech by the President,” Abati stated.
On the murder of the Emir of Gwoza on Friday, he said: “The President got the news and he was sad about it because what it means is that these terrorists who are threatening peace and stability in Nigeria, are desperate and they continue to show that desperation.”
“But as the President made it clear in his democracy day broadcast, that was his main message to Nigerians, that at the end of the day it is the people of Nigeria that will prevail, no matter how desperate terrorists may be and that his government is determined to rid the country of terrorism.
“And the support solidarity the cooperation, the expression of partnership that we are receiving from our neighboring countries, the whole of the West African sub-region, Africa and the entire world shows that this is the battle that the whole world is prepared to fight. So the days of peace as the President said in his speech is assured because this battle will not end until it is won and sustainable development is fully guaranteed,” he said.
Source:
The Nation Newspaper
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to wage a "total war" against militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
Speaking on the the 15th anniversary of the end of military rule, he said "international terrorism" threatened Nigeria's democratic gains.
'Hard-earned lessons'
"With the support of Nigerians, our neighbours and the international community, we will reinforce our defence, free our girls and rid Nigeria of terrorists," Mr Jonathan said, in a televised speech to mark Democracy Day.
He added that he was determined to protect Nigeria's democracy.
"I have instructed our security forces to launch a full-scale operation to put an end to the impunity of terrorists on our soil," he said.
Source:
BBC
The Igbo said they lost 36 people in the explosions at the Jos Terminus market. No fewer than 42 were injured.
The Eze Igbo in Jos, Prof. Jerome Obilom, unveiled the chilling details at a news conference in Jos.
Many Igbo traders are still missing, he added.
Obilom said: “The May 20 bomb blast in Jos killed 36 of our members and 42 others injured.
“In addition, many others are still unaccounted for while Igbo traders lost goods worth millions of naira.
“But our major problem now is the move by the state government to give mass burial to the victims without informing members of the community, especially we the Igbo. It is our tradition not to bury our own outside our homestead.
“Some hospital authorities were very hostile when the community, led by the Chairman of the Igbo Community Association, Chief Jonah Ezekwueme, visited them to identify victims of the blast who were Igbo.
Obilom said: “There is the need to compensate victims of the bomb blast. In past incidents, Ndigbo were neglected and made to bear the cost of burying and rehabilitating their members alone.
“While recognising the fact that some of the victims were shattered into shreds, which necessitated that some body parts were packed into bags that necessitated the mass burial, we still insist that Ndigbo in Jos should have been consulted to identify their own because it is not our custom to bury our dead outside our traditional homes.
“We, therefore, condemn such act and implore the authorities to allow Ndigbo access to the bodies so that those missing could be accounted for because if we had been allowed inside the mortuary, we would have been able to identify many of our members who were unfortunately caught up in the bomb blast.”
The Igbo community was able to identify the dead through town and community who took roll calls of their members after the explosions.
The Ezeigbo deplored a situation where Ndigbo were neglected in the distribution of relief materials and urged the authorities to send such materials to aid the victims and their families.
He also asked the Plateau State government to hasten efforts in the relocation of street traders to the Satellite market in Rukuba road area of Jos, adding that the traffic caused by the traders along the busy road was responsible for the heavy losses caused by the bomb blast.
Source:
The Nation Newspaper
Over the past two weeks school officials based at the Adamawa State University have been the recipients of written threats directed at them, but the source of the unspecified threats remain a mystery. The origins are unknown. Yet the threats, rather than being cast off as a malicious prank, are being taken seriously, as word of the letters has shaken both the student body and officials at the school. The atmosphere on campus, and in the surrounding area, can be best described as tense.
A source has said that the letters are believed to be real, with school officials and the student body suspecting it is coming directly from the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
As word of the letters making undetermined threats have surfaced, rumours, too, have circulated. Compounding matters is that school officials have largely remained silent. Most of the students at Adamawa State University are fearful of an impending Boko Haram attack. Rumors are being taken seriously.
For example, most of the Adamawa State University students who use the only hostel available to men have not slept there over the past weekend. The hostel, also known as ‘Barde Hall,’ was nearly empty of students beginning on Saturday evening. Barde Hall, is also popularly known as "256" by many in the student body. It is a popular ‘hang out’ spot for many of the students attending. It is also seen as a safe space, and resting place, that normally has scores of students milling around outside during the academic year. Many of the students did not sleep, or ‘hang out’ at the hostel on Saturday night. It was ghostly quiet.
A student confirmed that the atmosphere at the hostel worsened on Sunday night. In room A5, a student confided that, he was the only person that slept the night in his room.
Another student said that many of the occupants had fled to the nearby town to seek shelter instead, where they believe it to be a much safer place. Yet, the tension Monday morning picked-up, when students in Barde Hall awoke and found a letter placed on a wall that was written in the Hausa language.
The letter, when translated into English, reads, "Last warning."
But this time around, it had a pound of flesh clipped to the letter. It dripped with blood, and was described as somewhat black in colour, though looking as if it was not long since this section of human flesh it was cut off.
They then openly questioned the efforts of the university security men, and called them to the hall to remove the grisly letter. The students denied the letter was written and posted by a fellow student among them to the arriving security men. They then demanded to see the schools’ vice chancellor.
The Adamawa State University Vice Chancellor is Dr. Alkassum Abba, who arrived shortly afterwards, and addressed the students in a tense exchange over the letters and this latest note placed on a wall dripping with blood. Abba was peppered with many questions from the assembled students about school security. But to many in attendance Abba’s explanation was neither reassuring, or satisfying.
As it stands now, many of the Adamawa State University students have packed their bags, and also, reportedly, packing out of the hostel.
The "256" is in a place many of the departing students feel is especially vulnerable, in large part because, physically, it is isolated, and neighbored by bush, with just a few farms located behind the building.
Source:
SR
More than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls held hostage in Nigeria came agonisingly close to freedom before government officials called off a deal to swap them for jailed Islamist terror suspects, The Mail on Sunday has been told.
A Nigerian journalist trusted by both the government and extremists from Boko Haram acted as go-between, risking his life on a one-man mission to enter the gunmen’s lair and broker an agreement, according to security sources.
But last Saturday, at the 11th hour, officials scrapped the exchange in a telephone call from a crisis summit in Paris where Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan met foreign ministers including those from Britain, the United States, France and Israel.
Abubakar Shekau is said to be enraged by the broken deal
President Goodluck Jonathan
It was agreed there that no deals should be struck with terrorists and that force should instead be used against them.
Insiders believe that the cancellation of last Saturday’s plan and the ensuing stand-off now puts the girls’ lives in even greater danger.
An intelligence source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The next video we see from the terrorists could show the girls being killed one by one.’
Sources in the Nigerian capital Abuja described how Shekau had agreed to bring the girls out of their forest camps in the remote north-east of the country in the early morning and take them to a safe location for the prisoner swap.
‘They would have been dropped off in a village, one group at a time, and left there while their kidnappers disappeared. There was to be a signal to a mediator at another location to bring in the prisoners,’ sources said.
About 2,000 Boko Haram members are currently detained.
One hundred non-combatant, low-level sympathisers were to be freed and the two groups brought together in a convoy of buses accompanied by a hand-picked go-between, respected Nigerian journalist Ahmad Salkida.
The plan had been agreed in tortuous negotiations in response to worldwide outrage over a night-time raid on a school in the town of Chibok on April 14 when the girls were abducted from their dormitories.
Mr Salkida was born in the north-eastern state of Borno, where Boko Haram originated. He has known its leaders all his life and has unprecedented access.
Source:
Mail online
The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Abubakar Sa’ad, on Friday, urged Nigerians to be united in their condemnation of terrorism in all ramifications rather than placing religious tag on the terrorists’ insurgency as either Islamic or Christian.
The religious leader, who insisted that members of the Boko Haram sect are not Muslims, spoke at the commissioning of Mosque and Islamic Centre built by Bodija Estates and Environs Muslim Community in Ibadan.
The Sultan said their deeds and actions were contrary to Islamic tenets, while lamenting the dastardly act of the Boko Haram insurgents.
The Islamic and traditional leader said: “There is nothing Islamic in the activities of the group and I feel bad when people ascribe them to Islamic religion which is why I’m charging all of us, irrespective of our religious belief, to rise in total condemnation of the sect.”
He charged Muslims to see themselves as one, stressing; “There is no tribe, language or colour in Islam. We are one, brothers and sisters and that’s how we should see ourselves and relate.
“There is no compulsion in Islam; everybody is free to practise his or her religion. What is expected of us as Islamic faithful is to, through our relationship with others, bring people to light and peace, which Islam is all about. That should be our concern to make Islam progress”, Sultan added.
The community’s chairman, Tiamiyu Giwa, condemned the bombing, abductions and killings in some northern states in the last couple of years.
While condoling with the victims of the insurgency and sharing the grief of the affected families, he said: “Islam is a religion of peace which abhors violence in any form.”
“We urge all to be more security conscious so as to protect public institutions from terrorist attacks,” he said.
Source:
Daily Independent Newspaper
Security agencies are getting worried about the possible role of Sudanese universities in the radicalisation of Nigerians linked to Boko Haram.
The most recent example is that of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, who allegedly masterminded the April 14 Nyanya bombing which claimed 75 lives.
Ogwuche studied Arabic at Sudan’s International University of Africa, which has also trained over 1,000 Nigerians in the last 10 years.
“Increasingly, many Nigerians are travelling to Sudan for education ─ some of them sponsored by northern state governments. There is a serious cause for worry,” a top security chief told TheCable.
The official said there is yet no “concrete evidence” linking radicalism with the universities “but there are high possibilities that they are serving as recruitment points for al-Qaeda agents”.
A case in point is that of “Mujahid Abu Nasir”, believed to be the pseudonym of a top commander of al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru ─ a Nigerian militant group that broke away from Boko Haram but still works closely with the Abubakar Shekau-led insurgents.
Nasir told an American newspaper last year that he also attended the university in Khartoum where he ─ like Ogwuche ─ studied Arabic.
In a very revealing interview, Nasir said he first attended an Islamic college in Kano, and then “for the zeal of seeking knowledge”, he went to Khartoum, Sudan, where “al-Qaeda propagators initiated me into the clique”.
He said the recruiters took him to the southern deserts of Algeria and then to Mauritania for a “rigorous training course” by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
AQIM has been linked to terror activities in Nigeria and Somalia.
Nasir said he trained directly under Abu Zeid, a key commander of AQIM who was eventually killed by French forces in northern Mali last year.
He said although five of them left Sudan for the AQIM training, two died in the process because of the rigour involved.
Nasir returned to Nigeria in 2008, spent some time “underground” in Lagos before launching out with the militants who say they want to impose Islamic law on Nigeria.
He also said there are thousands like him in Nigeria, some of whom he said were working in government, “some businessmen, some teachers”.
The International University of Africa was founded as the Islamic African Centre in 1977 but was upgraded to a university in 1992.
It has six faculties: Sharia, engineering, medicine, education, economics and political science, and arts.
It is owned by the government of Sudan, a country once classified by the US as a sponsor of international terrorism.
Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, was resident in the country for five years in the 1990s. He set up construction and trading companies there, and built bridges and roads all over the country.
But the attraction of Sudan is not mainly religious ─ according to a father whose son is also studying in that country.
“They have a stable education system. There are no strikes, the campuses are conducive to learning, and the fees are far cheaper than what Nigerian, European or American universities are charging,” he told TheCable. “And their standards are quite high.”
The annual tuition fee is $400 for economics and political science, and sharia; $500 for education and arts; $2500 for engineering; and $5000 for medicine.
Source:
The Cable
TERRORISTS have raided three villages and killed those they accused of being anti-Boko Haram vigilantes in Borno State, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
While the BBC reported that more than 30 people were killed in the early hours of Friday, other sources put the casualty figure at 34.
Residents from two of the villages that came under attack said militants had arrived in a convoy and gathered the men of the community together.
They accused them of being members of vigilante groups and killed them all, one villager from Moforo in Marte district who escaped across the border to Cameroon told the BBC Hausa Service.
They then burnt down all the shops in the market, leaving the villagers destitute, he said.
Correspondents say that most villages have formed vigilante groups to try to protect their communities from militant attacks.
A resident of Kimba village in Biu district said the villagers contacted the security forces to alert them to their attack, but were told it was not an area under military control so they could not be helped.
The military has not commented on the allegation.
A local Mallam Umar Kimba told Saturday Tribune in Maiduguri, on Friday, that everybody in the village had fled to seek refuge in Sabon Gari while others fled to Mandara, Girau and Biu. According to him, the attackers,who came on motorcycles on Thursday night started firing sporadically before setting the town ablaze.
He added that, as they were firing, they were calling on youths in the village to come out and join in the jihad against the government of infidel and corrupt politicians. “When nobody went out to meet them they started burning the houses and those who hide in their houses started coming out and running to safe heaven, but the attackers fired at the people. I left Sabon Gari this morning but we have taken the wounded to hospital in Biu before I left.”
He also said what baffled them was that, there were military formation around that area but wondered how the insurgents managed to bypass all the military and attacked the village.
“They did not touch the house of the village head and security operatives came only when they had burnt everything and chased everybody out of the village.” he said.
About 25 men were killed in Moforo, another eight men in Kimbi. It is not known if there were casualties from a raid early on Friday on Kabrihu village near the Sambisa forest.
Source:
Nigerian Tribune
The United States Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, Sarah Sewall, has said that corruption is hindering Nigeria’s efforts at ending insurgency in the North-East.
Sewall, who appeared before a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, alongside a Pentagon top Africa official, Amanda Dory, added that the military must overcome entrenched corruption and incompetence for it to rescue the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14.
She said that despite Nigeria’s $5.8bn security budget for 2014, “corruption prevents supplies as basic as bullets and transport vehicles from reaching the front lines of the struggle against Boko Haram.”
Sewall, according to the New York Times, also told the committee that morale was low and that desertions were common among soldiers in the 7th Army Division fighting the insurgents.
She sidestepped a question from one lawmaker asking for an update on the abducted girls’ location and welfare, saying, “Given time, I am hopeful that we will make progress.”
Sewall had on May 13 clarified the level of involvement of US personnel in the rescue of the abducted girls, saying it would not be combative.
She told select journalists in Abuja that it was up to Nigeria to accept or reject the prisoners exchange offer made by Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau.
In her testimony, Dory said that Pentagon believed that the girls might have been dispersed into multiple smaller groups.
“They may or may not all be in Nigeria,” she added, stressing that Nigerian military’s heavy-handed tactics with Boko Haram risked “further harming and alienating local populations.”
The Chairman of the Committee, Ed Royce, said being trained by the global terrorist sect meant greater terror for Nigerians, and greater challenges for the security forces.
The committee’s hearing on the menace of insurgents was tagged: “Boko Haram – The Growing Threat To Schoolgirls, Nigeria And Beyond.”
Washington had on Wednesday said that 80 US troops were currently in Chad to support the growing international effort to rescue the abducted schoolgirls.
The military personnel are not ground troops. They are mostly Air Force crew members, maintenance specialists and security officers for unarmed Predator surveillance drones .
“These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area,” the White House said in a statement formally notifying the US Congress about the deployment.
Culled From:
Punch Newspaper
The U.N. Security Council has officially declared Boko Haram a terrorist group linked to al-Qaida on Thursday and imposed sanctions against the Islamist extremists who have carried out a wave of deadly attacks and the recent abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power welcomed the council's action, calling it "an important step in support of the government of Nigeria's efforts to defeat Boko Haram and hold its murderous leadership accountable for atrocities."
Nigeria, which is serving a two-year term on the council, asked the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida to add Boko Haram to the list of al-Qaida-linked organizations subject to an arms embargo and asset freeze.
The 14 other council members had until 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Thursday to object and none did. The group was then added to the U.N. sanctions list under the name Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, with Boko Haram as an alias.
Quinlan said there's "very clear evidence" that Boko Haram members have trained with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, particularly in developing improvised explosive devices "one of the main weapons of modern-day terrorism and particularly al-Qaida." There is also evidence that a significant number of Boko Haram members have fought alongside al-Qaida affiliates in Mali, he said.
Quinlan said Boko Haram's current leader, Abubakar Shekau, also made "very, very strong statements of ... terrorist solidarity with al-Qaida in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia" and other places in November 2012.
Before Boko Haram's addition, the al-Qaida sanctions list included 62 entities and groups, and 213 individuals who are also subject to travel bans.
Quinlan said it's hard to say what the practical impact of sanctions against Boko Haram will be. One possible problem in tracking their finances, he said, is that large parts of the group work in the jungle and probably use cash rather than "substantial or sophisticated financial arrangements for banking but you never know."
He urged all 193 U.N. member states to focus on Boko Haram as a violent al-Qaida related group, ensure that it is included in any national terrorist lists, and check their own country's financial and arms dealings to ensure that the organization isn't getting money or weapons.
Nigeria's U.N. Ambassador, Joy Ogwu said Wednesday "the important thing is to attack the problem, and that is terrorism."
According to the sanctions committee, Boko Haram is responsible for attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria and Cameroon and has also been active in Chad and Niger.
At a summit in Paris on Saturday aimed at hammering out a plan to rescue the 276 girls, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Boko Haram was acting "clearly as an al-Qaida operation." He only reluctantly accepted outside help after years of insisting that Boko Haram was a local problem.
French President Francois Hollande told the summit that Boko Haram is armed with weapons that came from Libya following the ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, and the training took place in Mali before the ouster of its al-Qaida linked Islamist leaders. As for the money, Hollande said its origins were murky.
Source:
The Buffalo News
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has cancelled his first visit to the village from which more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted by Islamist rebel group Boko Haram a month ago due to security fears, senior government sources said on Friday.
Jonathan will instead fly directly from the capital Abuja to Paris on Friday for a regional summit to discuss the Boko Haram insurgency and wider insecurity and will not now make a stop in the northeastern village of Chibok, said one of the sources.
"The president was planning to go but security advised otherwise on the visit," said the source of the last-minute decision to cancel the Chibok part of the trip.
Some Nigerians have criticized the government's initial response to the plight of the girls, who were abducted on April 14, and U.S. officials this week said the government had done too little to adapt to the threat posed by Boko Haram.
Jonathan asked France last week to arrange a security summit with neighbors Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, and officials from the United States, Britain and the European Union to discuss a coordinated response. The summit will take place on Saturday.
Source:
Reuters
Barely one month after more than 200 Chibok school girls were abducted by the Boko Haram, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan will this Friday, 16/05/2014, visit the north-eastern town of Chibok in Bornu State.
Nothing was seen of the girls for almost a month after they were taken from Chibok by Boko Haram militants. But on Monday the group released a video showing more than 100 of them and offering an exchange for prisoners.
The president has come under pressure over his government's failure to rescue the girls, but has ruled out a swap.
On Thursday, relatives of the girls called for their unconditional release.
But the UK's Africa Minister Mark Simmonds said Mr Jonathan had "made it very clear that there will be no negotiation" at a meeting on Wednesday.
A video emerged on Monday showing about 130 of the girls wearing hijabs and reciting Koranic verses.
After visiting Chibok, President Jonathan will continue to Paris to take part in a summit convened by French President Francois Hollande to discuss Boko Haram.
The presidents of Nigeria's neighbours - Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad - are scheduled to attend the summit on Saturday, which will also include representatives from the UK, US and EU.
A statement said delegates at the meeting will "discuss fresh strategies for dealing with the security threat posed by Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in west and Central Africa".
'Troubling atrocities'
Meanwhile, US officials on Thursday criticised the speed of Nigeria's response to the threat from Boko Haram.
Alice Friend, director for African affairs at the US defence department, said its security forces had been "slow to adapt with new strategies and new tactics".
She also said the US was unable to offer aid to Nigeria's military because of "troubling" atrocities perpetrated by some units during operations against Boko Haram.
"We cannot ignore that Nigeria can be an extremely challenging partner to work with," Ms Friend said.
BBC
The kidnapped Chibok girls have been moved from the Sambisa forest towards the forest around Ashaka in Gombe State, a top security official has told PREMIUM TIMES.
The security official, who sought anonymity as he was not authorised to speak, also denied the rumor that some of the girls were rescued on Saturday.
He, however, said there were high hopes for the quick rescue of the girls based on the ongoing cooperation between Nigerian officials and their counterparts from the U.S. and U.K. on the rescue efforts.
“It is not true that they have been rescued yet, but we noticed and observed movement of some of the girls from the Sambisa region towards Ashaka forest in Gombe state”, said the security personnel.
The officer added that efforts are being put in place to “carefully track” the abductors and get the girls freed.
“We have not, even for once, lost hope that these girls would be freed. This is a delicate matter which must be handled with all professionalism and absolute care”, the source added.
For almost a month that the over 250 girls were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, the Nigerian military has decided not to provide information on details of its rescue efforts. The military has, however, said it is doing its best to free the girls.
Efforts to speak to the military spokesperson, Chris Olukolade, on the latest report of the girls’ sighting were unsuccessful as he did not pick or return calls nor respond to a text message sent to his phone.
Source:
Premium Times
US First Lady Michelle Obama has said the mass kidnap of Nigerian schoolgirls is part of a wider pattern of threats and intimidation facing girls around the world who pursue an education. She said she and her husband Barack Obama were "outraged and heartbroken" over the abduction on 14 April of more than 200 girls from their school.
She was speaking instead of her husband in the weekly presidential address.
Recall that Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the abductions.
'Call to action'
Mrs Obama, who was speaking ahead of Mother's Day in the US on Sunday, said the girls reminded her and her husband of their own daughters.
"What happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident. It's a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions," she said.
She cited the Pakistani schoolgirl and campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and wounded by the Taliban for speaking out for girls' education.
It is unusual for a US first lady to make outspoken foreign policy remarks, but Mrs Obama has campaigned for the girls' release.
Michelle Obama has often appeared alongside her husband during the weekly address, but this is the first time she has delivered the speech alone. Earlier this week, she tweeted a picture of herself in the White House holding a sign with the message "#BringBackOurGirls".
The UN Security Council expressed outrage over the abductions, saying it would consider "appropriate measures" against Boko Haram. The US is seeking to have UN sanctions imposed on the group.
Western help.
US and British experts are in Nigeria to assist with rescue efforts. A senior US official said Washington was also considering a Nigerian request for surveillance aircraft.
British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock said drones could help gather intelligence but urged caution.
Source:
BBC
Nigeria's Minister Of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku said on Friday that Federal Government will investigate the Amnesty International report which indicated that the Nigeria’s military had advance warning of an attack on the town of Chibok where some 270 girls were kidnapped but failed to act.
Nigeria’s military had advanced warning of the April 14 attack by Boko Haram that led to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls but failed to take immediate action, Amnesty International said Friday.
“Damning testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal that Nigerian security forces failed to act on advance warnings about Boko Haram’s armed raid on the state-run boarding school in Chibok which led to the abduction,” the rights group said.
Amnesty said it had verified the information about the abduction with “credible sources”.
“Amnesty International has confirmed… that Nigeria’s military headquarters in Maiduguri was aware of the impending attack soon after 7:00 PM (1800 GMT) on 14 April, close to four hours before Boko Haram began their assault on the town,” the group said.
The military however could not assemble the troops needed to suppress the attack, “due to poor resources and a reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped” Islamists, according to Amnesty.
The 17 army personnel based in Chibok were overpowered by the attackers and had to retreat, the London-based group further said.
“The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram’s impending raid, but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Africa Director for research and advocacy.
A coalition of civil society organisations in Katsina State, Northern Nigeria staged a peaceful protest yesterday rejecting foreign intervention sought by Nigeria in addressing its security challenges.
During the protest which held in the state capital, spokesman for the coalition, Bashir Dauda, described the intervention as counterproductive.
“What is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia are indications that foreign countries could not offer any remedy,” he said.
The protesters also registered their grievances over the state of insecurity in the country and urged President Goodluck Jonathan to improve his relationship with state governors from the Boko Haram-prone areas and also asked for tight security across the country’s borders. “It is a disgrace if the almighty federal government fails to rescue the abducted students and others who are in the captivity of Boko Haram as sex slaves,” Dauda said.
The bombing and destruction of a small bridge linking Nigeria to Cameroon in Borno State has caused mass destruction and confusion. The bombing occurred on the outskirts of Gamboru Ngala, site of a Monday Boko Haram attack that claimed the lives of over 300 village residents.
At least 30 people were said to have been killed during the late Thursday afternoon bombing incident. The bridge links the immigration check points of both Cameroon and Nigeria.
The bombing event took place on the same day of a mass burial in the town of Gamboru Ngala. A Boko Haram-led raid on Monday on the small village claimed the lives of over 300 residents, nearly ten per cent of the population.
It was reported that 315 people of the 336 who died in the Monday attack were buried in a solemn ceremony led by civic and religious leaders.
Boko Haram is yet to claim responsibility for this latest bombing attack, but residents of Gamboru Ngala said there is deep suspicion that the Islamist group is behind this latest attack in this vulnerable area.
Since the Monday attacks many of the local Gamboru Ngala youth have joined an anti-Islamist vigilante force in the smoldering village. It was created and scores of young people are helping Nigerian military forces in the area.
Source:
SR
Nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants could be released in exchange for jailed comrades, a former Boko Haram negotiator has reportedly said.
A former mediator of the group has told the Telegraph he believes the video, where Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatens to sell the girls as slaves, shows he plans to use them as ‘bargaining chips’ rather than kill them.
Shekau claimed responsibility on Monday for the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls during a raid in the village of Chibok in northeast Nigeria last month.
Shehu Sani says he believes that the footage, released on Monday, was an attempt to persuade the Nigerian government into a prisoner trade.
He told the newspaper: ‘From my knowledge of the group, to have him saying that he will sell them is proof that this issue can be resolved.
‘The group is most likely to want to attach some kind of conditions to the girls being released, such as the freeing of some of their own prisoners.’
Source:
Mail Online
By Senator Iroegbu with Agency Report
The deadly militant sect, Boko Haram, has received over $70 million from overseas between 2006 and 2011 to organise its campaign of violence, a media report has said.
The report, which quoted retired Major Chris Moghalu of the US military, also claimed that the sponsors of the insurgency in Nigeria were closely linked to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
It noted that in the collaboration with AQAP and AQIM, members of the militant sect had been receiving regular support in cash and kind to maintain the momentum of their sporadic attacks across Nigeria from the two foreign terror groups.
Quoting Major Moghalu, it said trans-national criminal activities including kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and armed robbery were being used by Boko Haram militants to raise funds to plan and execute attacks in the North-east, an area which has been under constant campaign of violence of the deadly sect.
Though the activities of the violent sect had substantially been restricted to the Northeast, two recent bomb blasts in Nyanya in the outskirts of Abuja, have shown how daring the group had become.
The first bomb blast at the Nyanya motor park claimed 75 lives, while the second bomb attack around the vicinity last week claimed 20 lives.
