ENUGU HERDSMEN’S ATTACK: SENATOR, OTHERS CALL FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY

Angry voices have continued to rise over last Thursday’s attack, by suspected Fulani herdsmen, on Ndiagu Attakwu community in Nkanu-West Local Government Area of Enugu State that left a seminarian and a woman dead, and three others critically wounded.
With the reported death of the second victim of the attack, the Councillors’ Forum, an association of former and current Councillor’s in the state has called for an immediate ban on grazing in the state.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after their visit of the community, leader of the Councillors Forum Hon. Chidiebere Oko, noted that the situation has become so serious that it should no longer be treated with kid gloves.
“Just as we condemn the act, we cannot continue to fold our arms not knowing what tomorrow has in stock. This is getting out of hand and it is time to act. We have, thus, decided as a body, to call for an immediate ban on any form of grazing across the length and breadth of Enugu State.” Oko said.
He called on the state House of Assembly to urgently make a legislation outlawing grazing in Enugu State “be it by Fulani people or any other person for that matter.”
Reacting to the attack, the Senate Committee Chairman on Communications, Gilbert Nnaji, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on activities of herders in the country, while others, including the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), and Igbo Ohanaeze Media Forum have called for various measures ranging from introduction of bills criminalising indiscriminate grazing to outright ban of buying and selling of cow meat by the Igbos.
The Senator, while condoling with families of the victims, warned that until governments at all levels recognise the menace as a national concern, all the public outcries would amount to nothing.
He added that apart from ensuring that the perpetrators of this dastardly act are brought to book as a deterrent to further attacks, the Federal Government should come up with stringent measures to tackle the issue once and for all, in the interest of the country.
The senator had made a similar call while contributing to the motion, at the senate in April this year, on the massacre of the people of Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu.
Describing the killings as callous and provocative, the Civil Liberties Organisation, (CLO), South-East Zone, urged the governors of the states that make up the zone to sponsor bills in the state Houses of Assembly that would make it a criminal offence for herdsmen to engage in indiscriminate grazing within the zone.
A statement signed by the South-East zonal Chairman of the body, Comrade Aloysius Attah, described the incessant killings by herdsmen as an act of barbarism and terrorism against Igbo people.
In its own reaction, Ohanaeze Media Forum (OMF), the umbrella body said to be made of Igbo journalists called on Ndigbo in every part of the country to shun cow meat as a way of registering their displeasure over the incessant killing of their kits and kins by Fulani herdsmen.
In a communiqué issued at the end of their emergency meeting in Lagos and signed by Chidiadi Elendu and Ngozi Emedoluibe chairman and secretary respectively, the body called on traditional rulers in the South East to ban the use of cow meat in any festival activity in Igbo land.
“When everybody begins to shun cow meat the herdsmen would realize that they no longer have business in Igbo land and would leave,” it noted.
Joining in the call for self-protection, another Igbo body, Igbo Awareness for Development Initiatives (IADI), urged the South East communities to defend and protect themselves from future attacks.
A public statement issued by the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the group, Chief Larry Ilo, also called for a setting up of vigilantes in different localities of Igbo land.
In a related development, the Federal Government has commenced the process of reviving about 22 grazing reserves across the country. To this end, nine states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been earmarked for the pilot programme beginning with advocacy, sensitisation and mobilisation on development of grazing reserves and stock routes.
The programme, which took off in Adamawa State recently, was to engender buy in by the respective communities to mitigate the frequent cases of herders and farmers’ clashes which had led to loss of several lives; including property and cattle.
A new UK-Department for International Development (DFID) funded research by the global humanitarian organisation; Mercy Corps, said that Nigeria loses about $14m (N4b) to disputes between farmers and pastoralists in the middle belt states of Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Plateau.
read more:http://sunnewsonline.com/enugu-herdsmens-attack-senator-others-call-for-state-of-emergency/

Hunted and killed for journalism’s sake

Over the years, the number of journalists killed in the line of duty in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world has continued to swell.
Yet there are no corresponding investigations detailing the causes of their deaths. Continued violations of journalists’ rights through attacks, arrests and abductions, according to human rights reports, have also continued unabated. And practitioners are getting worried.
On Thursday, June 20, 2016, Yomi Olomofe, 47, Publisher of Prime Magazine, was attacked at the office of the Nigeria Customs and Excise, at the Nigeria-Benin border in Seme while trying to investigate a matter. The journalist was thoroughly battered during the encounter.
Tife Owolabi of the Reuters International News Agency, on February 14, 2015, had his home in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, ransacked by armed agents of the Department of State Services. After the invasion that lasted for about four hours, his computers, cell phones and working tools, including external hard drives and memory cards, were allegedly removed. He was accused of espionage.
Nigerians would not forget in a hurry the 1986 murder of the Editor-In-Chief of the Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa.  He was brutally killed through a letter bomb. Perpetrators of the dastardly act still remain unknown.
In 1990, two Nigerian journalists, Tayo Awotunsin of Champion Newspaper, and Krees Imodibie of The Guardian, disappeared in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital while on official assignment. It was during the Liberian civil war.
In 2009, 45-year-old Bayo Ohu, an assistant editor with The Guardian was shot dead in his home. Members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) believed Ohu was killed for his political and investigative reporting.
Also, journalists such as Enenche Akogwu, Abayomi Ogundeji and Godwin Agbroko were all gruesomely killed. Also killed were Bagauda Kaltho of The News, Tunde Oladepo of The Guardian and a female journalist, Bolade Fasasi.
On the global scene, in 1984, the editor of the Hind Samachar group in India, Ramesh Chandra, was killed. He was shot dead and doctors were later to count 64 bullet holes in his body. Another journalist, 40-year-old Sandeep Kothari in Madhya Pradesh was abducted and burnt alive. 
read more http://sunnewsonline.com/hunted-and-killed-for-journalisms-sake/

PHOTOS: ARMY KILLS 5 INSURGENTS AS CROCODILE SMILE STARTS

Abuja - The Nigerian Army has killed five suspected militants at the resumption of operations to rid the Niger Delta of radicals destroying oil infrastructure in the region.

More than 20 suspects were injured during operations in the region most-endowed with oil in the West African country.

Codenamed Operation Crocodile Smile, it was launched this past weekend at Sapele in Delta State, situated south of Nigeria.

“The operation is aimed at training our troops on amphibious operations and also deal with security challenges and criminality in the area,” said Army spokesman, Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.

Items recovered from the alleged militants’ camps include AK-47 rifles, pump action guns, a locally made revolver pistol, cartridges of live ammunition, electricity generating sets and gas cooker.

Also read: 

The troops also recovered an abandoned engine boat left by the alleged fleeing criminals, Usman said.

The breakthrough by the Army follows weeks of attacks on oil facilities by militants demanding compensation for the degradation of the region emanating from years of oil extraction in the Niger Delta.

International oil firms in the continent’s biggest producer of the commodity have mostly been targeted.

Among the most prominent militants, the Niger Delta Avengers, has threatened to declare the independence of the Niger Delta from Nigeria if their grievances are not addressed by October 1. 

See pictures from the operation below.

sources

PHOTOS: 17-HOUR RAIN CAUSES FLOOD, GRIDLOCK IN LAGOS

Lagos - Motorists in some parts of the Lagos state were trapped in flash flood for several hours as a result of the heavy down pour in the state.

The rain which started late Saturday evening fell throughout Sunday and early Monday morning.

Churches around the metropolis visited by News24 were scanty as most members stayed indoors to avoid being drenched by the downpour.

Some church members said they had to defy the rain to come to church as most of the roads were flooded while vehicles were trapped in the flood.

The Lagos State Government has, however assured residents on the need to remain calm following the torrential rainfall in the state, saying that necessary measures had been taken to avert any incidence of flood disaster in the state.

Commissioner for the Environment in the state, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, in a statement, on Sunday, said that the state government had in recent times carried out an intensive tour of some flood prone communities so as clear up blocked drainages and canals of all encumbrances.

The commissioner lamented the dumping of refuse on water courses and drainages saying the numerous campaigns against such practice was for the interest of the residents.

Adejare said: “Canal is a storm water channel for the conveyance of storm run-offs, they are God’s natural protection for holding water during massive flood and it is not a place for anybody to build a house or dump refuse. Those in the habit of doing such must stop henceforth.”

He therefore warned that government would no longer tolerate the construction of illegal structures along channel Right of Ways, RoWs, in the state.

source:

I WILL DEAL WITH NIGER DELTA MILITANTS LIKE BOKO HARAM, BUHARI WARNS

Abuja - President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to deal with Niger Delta militants like it has done to Boko Haram insurgents, unless they agree to dialogue, Tribune reports.

He made the remark at a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, on the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), in Nairobi, Kenya, at the weekend.

He had previously given the same warning at a meeting with members of the Nigerian community resident in China, during his tour of the country in April.

The president assured existing and prospective foreign investors that their investments in Nigeria would be fully secured and protected.

Meanwhile the Delta Avengers has denied reports that it has nominated nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka to head its dialogue team with the federal government describing it as a lie of the century according to News24.

NDA in a statement Sunday by its spokesperson, “Brig Gen” Mudoch Agbinibo while reiterating its support for the Edwin Clark-led Niger Delta Elders and Stakeholders conference committee to lead the pan Niger Delta negotiations/dialogue team, stated that it is ready for talks whenever the federal government is ready.

sources

Federal Inland Revenue Service Recruitment Start Tomorrow 29th of August 2016.
FIRS Vacancy/employment adverts has come out today Monday 22-08-2016. Please inform others who might need the information. Application portal will open on Monday 29th August 2016. Applicants are to apply online. Visit www.firs.gov.ng/careers from the said date.
Papers:
1. Punch
2. Guardian
3.Leadership
4. Daily Trust
5. Businessday
6. Vanguard
7. The Nation
8. Sun
9. Tribune
10 Thisday
Also NOTE that the advertised positions are:
1. Officer II Tax - GL08/SL10
2. Officer I Tax - GL09/SL09
3. Asst. Mgr Tax - GL10/SL08.
Academic qualifications are TAXATION, ACCOUNTING/ACCOUNTANCY, ECONOMICS, BIZ. MGT/ADMIN and other related disciplines...

Abia police uncover baby factory, rescue pregnant girls

Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad attached to the Abia State Police Command have uncovered a suspected baby factory at Ogbor Hill, in the Aba  area of the state.

During the operation, the detectives rescued five pregnant women and arrested a 54-year-old man, identified as Nkem Nwokocha. Nwokocha, who hails from Obegu village in the Ugwunagbo Local Government Area of the state, allegedly ran the factory with his wife, identified only as Nurse.

read more:http://www.punchng.com/