Police And Army Disagree Over 56 Arrested Herdsmen’s Whereabouts

The police and the Nigerian Army have contradicted their claims on the whereabouts of 56 Fulani herdsmen, who were arrested with arms at a military checkpoint, along the Airport Road, Abuja, last week.

Troops arrested 36 armed Fulani herdsmen at a checkpoint in Keffi, Nasarawa State, while another 56 herdsmen were also caught with arms along the Airport Road, Abuja, by the military.

The Assistant Director, Army Public Relations of the Guards Brigade, Capt. Bashir Jajira, had, in a statement on April 18, said the 36 suspects arrested in Keffi had been handed over to the Nasarawa State Police Command.

Jajira added that the other 56 suspects were handed over to the Kuje Divisional Police Station.

He stated that the troops recovered “one pump action gun, 19 cartridge, dane guns, 118 cartridge ammo, 28 cutlasses, three jack knives, 14 sticks, seven torches, Certificate of Occupancy, assorted charms and hard drugs.”

On Sunday, Jajira insisted in an interview with The PUNCH that the herdsmen were handed over to the Police Division in Kuje, Abuja, and the Police Area Command, Keffi, on April 18, 2016.

The Nasarawa State Police Public Relations Officer, Ismaila Numan, confirmed on Monday that 36 suspects were handed over to the command, pointing out that they had been charged to court for illegal possession of firearms and criminal conspiracy.

But the Federal Capital Territory Police Command said it had not received the second set of 56 suspects which the Army claimed to have handed over to the Kuje Divisional Police Station.

A source at the FCT Police Command said the information from the DPO, Kuje, indicated that “no herdsmen were handed over to the police, as claimed by the Army.”

The Force Public Relations Officer, Bisi Kolawole, also claimed that the command had not received the suspects.

“I have made inquiries at the FCT Police Command and what I learnt was that they had yet to receive the suspects,” she explained.

A security analyst, Ben Okezie, wondered why the Army had yet to hand over the suspects for investigation and prosecution one week after the armed men were apprehended, noting that the police would not deny if the suspects were in their custody.

Fulani Herdsmen Crises: Falana To Take Case To ICC, ECOWAS Court Monday

Human rights lawyer, Chief Femi Falana (SAN), will next Monday file a case of genocide and ethnic cleansing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague, Netherland and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court against Fulani herdsmen for their alleged massacre of the innocent people and farmers in Jukunland of Southern and Central Taraba State.
Falana also called on the federal government to take urgent and drastic actions against the massacre being perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen against innocent farmers before they throw the country into another avoidable war.
The Lagos-based lawyer expressed shock at the scale of “unprecedented massacre of unarmed farmers” allegedly being killed by herdsmen in Jukunland in the state and other parts of Nigeria everyday, describing it as “a mindless pogrom.”
He lamented the crises yesterday when he received in his office the leaders of the Jukun Development Association of Nigeria (JDAN) who had come to submit to him a 1,000 page document detailing the targeted cleansing of their people by the rampaging herdsmen.
“It is very clear by the pictorial and other evidence contained in this evidence that the people of the North-central Nigeria are going through terrible things daily in the hands of these herdsmen. Lives and property are no longer safe from these people who killed, maim and rape women at will just because they wanted their cattle to graze on other people’s farmlands,” he said.
Falana therefore charged the federal government to move security agencies to the North-central region of Taraba State in order to protect the lives of innocent Nigerians “who are being killed in their farmlands everyday by these blood sucking herdsmen before the people resort to self-help.”
The National President of the Jukun association, Mr. Benjamin Bako, said the group had approached the Senior Advocate of Nigeria to help defend their cause and draw the world attention to the plight of their people who are being killed everyday by ravaging herdsmen.
Bako disclosed that JDAN had compiled 1,000 page document to back their claim, detailing the atrocities of the herdsmen in their land in the last four years.
He said it was baffling that most of the violence had gone unreported in the media, despite the large and worrisome scale of the pogrom.
“Jukun development association has officially compiled a 1000 paged document containing details of Fulani herdsmen atrocities, including names of all the people killed and property destroyed by the herdsmen in the last four years in Jukunland to Falana who had been briefed to formally file a case of genocide on behalf of the association,” he stated.
The association president, while submitting the document, urged the human rights lawyer to fight for the right of the Jukun people and other tribes to live in their ancestral homelands peacefully, wondering why President Muhammadu Buhari has kept silent all this while despite the avalanche of security reports that must have been reaching him concerning the deteriorating development in Southern Taraba.
Bako called on all Nigerians and the international community to stand up and condemn the genocide and ethnic cleansing ongoing in Southern Taraba before it spreads to other parts of the country.
He added that the association had since submitted copies of the document to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other rights organisations around the world.

Wike Empowers 35000 Small Business Owners,Disburses Loans To Them

In a bid to empower small and medium scale business owners in the state, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has approved the disbursement of business loans to 35000 less privileged business operators under the CBN N2billion Micro, Small and Medium Entreprises Development Fund.



Under the first phase, Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike approved a list of 35,000 from the 23 Local Government Areas of the State. Amongst these beneficiaries are Indigenes and non-indigenes resident in Rivers State.



The list of beneficiary small and medium scale business owners included: barbers, plantain sellers, restaurant owners, painters, tailors, hairdressers, traders, market women, mechanics, fishermen, farmers etc. These are the ordinary folks committed to developing themselves with the support of the government.



The empowerment loans approved by the governor is being distributed by the Rivers State Micro Finance Agency.







The beneficiaries got their loans in this order:

1) Cosmopolitan Microfinance Bank: #9 Agudama street, D/line Port Harcourt. This is for the people of: Opobo/Nkoro, Oyigbo ,Andoni,Asari Toru ,Bonny ,Degema, Eleme , Gokana , All Traders , Market women and all non Indigenes.



2) RIMA Growth Pathway Microfinance Bank: Located at Rivers State Secretariat Complex, Podium Block, Port Harcourt. This is for the people of: Obio Akpor ,PHALGA ,Khana , Okirika

and Omuma .



3) PREMIUM Microfinance Bank: plot 202 Olu Obasanjo Road, Port Harcourt. This is for the people of: Abua/Odual ,Ahoada East ;Ahoada West ,Emohua ,Ogu/Bolo ,Etche ,Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni , Akuku Toru ,Tai and Ikwere .



The injection of the N2billion into the businesses of the less privileged in the state has kick-started the expansion of many of these businesses. The multiplier effect is already being felt by the people in the lower rung of the economic ladder. The empowerment programme has led to employment opportunities as several beneficiaries have expanded their businesses.







Prior to the disbursement of the loans , Governor Wike organised a training session for all the beneficiaries on how to effectively use the loans to improve on their respective businesses.





Simeon Nwakaudu,

Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor, Electronic Media.

20th April , 2016.

Nigerian Soldiers Receive Hero's Cheers From Jubilating Crowd In Borno. Photo

Thumbs up to the men of the Nigerian armed forces who have upped their game in recent times in the fight against insurgency. The victims who once fled for their lives due to incessant Boko Haram attacks in the past -have got back their smiles and hope -all thanks to these brave men...

Pictured are elated children hailing some gallant soldiers while returning to their base in Borno state -which has been cleansed off terrorists. A soldier took a selfie during the jubilation to cherish the moment. 

Man Cuts Off The Hand Of Boy Who Tried To Steal His Phone Via Window In Delta (Pics)

The young man pictured above met his waterloo as he tried to steal a phone by passing his hand through someone's window in Sapele, Delta state. The owner of the house on sighting the man’s hand fiddling for the phone, quickly went for a cutlass and cut of the man’s hand. Mr. Burglar ran away into the night crying with his amputated hand. Pictured above is the burglar at the hospital. See graphic photos below; 

Chad Intercepts ISIS Weapons Going To Boko Haram

Chad has intercepted a large cache of different types of weapons sent from ISIS affiliate in Libya and going to Boko Haram insurgents in the Lake Chad region.

The weapons were seized two weeks ago, underscoring the increasing ties between Boko Haram and the Islamic State, which now has a foothold, from its northern base of Sirte, south of Libya, next door to Chad.

Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, commander of US special operations in Africa made this revelation in Ndjamena today as US ambassador to the United Nations; Samantha Power came for a visit.

The Boko Haram-IS nexus may pose the greatest immediate threat to the Lake Chad region, Bolduc said.

Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, right, accompanied by U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Secretary for African Affairs Bruce Wharton, speaks to members of the media outside the U.S. Embassy in Chad in N’Djamena, Chad.

Although Boko Haram pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State last year, the operational connection has been unclear.

Bolduc said the groups clearly share “tactics, techniques, and procedures,” from the way they conduct complex ambushes and set improvised explosive devices like roadside bombs, to how they undertake high-profile attacks on hotels.

“You can, I think, draw a conclusion,” Bolduc told reporters. The implication was that the weapons were sent by the Islamic State, which has established a foothold along Libya’s Mediterranean coast, near the city of Sirte.

[Samantha Power, left, listens as Chad President Idriss Deby Itno, center, answers questions from members of the media]

Given the range of threats here, he said the “Lake Chad Basin region is Ground Zero” in the fight against extremism in Africa.

U.S. officials warned of deepening links between the Islamic State and Boko Haram and prodded Chad’s ruling strongman to introduce reforms for the sake of long-term stability.

The visit to Chad by America’s U.N. envoy, Samantha Power, and top U.S. military officials highlights the country’s precarious position dealing with a multitude of hostile militant groups and unstable neighboring governments. It also underscores the impoverished, land-locked country’s growing geopolitical value.

Boko Haram has launched attacks on Chad’s territory from its base in Nigeria to the southwest. The Islamic State and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb lurk in chaotic and lawless Libya to the north. To the east is Sudan’s Darfur region; to the south is the Central African Republic, still recovering from years of interethnic conflict.

Stressing the civilian aspect to defeating Boko Haram, a once indigenous Nigerian militant movement whose rebellion has morphed into a regional force, Samantha Power stressed the need to bolster economic development, job opportunities, and political inclusiveness.

The message carried added weight, coming less than two weeks after Chad held elections that are widely expected to return Deby for a fifth term as president. Deby has led the country since 1990. Election results haven’t yet been announced.

“We noted how far Chad has come from the dark days of dictatorship to today,” Power said.

President Idriss Deby rejected opposition claims that some 60 security forces who voted against him in the elections have since disappeared.

“There are no disappearances,” he stated. “They will be presented on television, in front of the world.”

The 63-year-old Deby, who seized power himself in a coup after helping Chad defeat Libya in the 1980s, said Washington and other powers were partly to blame for the Boko Haram-IS threat. He said they are destabilizing Libya through their effort to install a functioning government.

“The international community is imposing a unity government from outside Libya that will fail,” Deby said.

*Source: AP report

National Grazing Bill Still Active In National Assembly - Vanguard

CONTRARY to the claim of the Senate, the controversial National Grazing Bill is before the National Assembly, Vanguard checks have revealed. Currently, the bill is at the House of Representatives and was sponsored by a first term legislator elected in 2015.


The Senate, in a statement by its Committee on Rules and Business, Tuesday, said the bill that was sponsored by Senator Zainab Kure, who represented Niger Central in the Seventh Senate was not before it, that it was presented for consideration in the last Senate and was rejected.

The Senate denial was in response to the request of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who wanted to know if the Senate was treating any such bill.

However, Vanguard checks show that the bill is alive. In fact, there are two of them and the House of Representatives had initiated moves to consolidate both bills.

The two bills are a Bill for an Act to establish the National Grazing Route and Reserve Commission, to establish and control Grazing Routes and Reserves in all parts of Nigeria; and for Other Matters Related Thereto (HB, 388) sponsored by Karimi Steve Sunday, PDP, Yagba East/Yagba West/Mopamuro Federal Constituency, Kogi State;
A Bill for an Act to create a Department of Cattle Ranches under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture or any such Ministry Overseeing the Production and Rearing of Cattle; and for Other Matters Related Thereto (HB 323) sponsored by Dickson Tarkighir (Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency, Benue State.

According to a notice paper of the House of Representatives for the week March 14 to March 18, consolidation of both bills was scheduled for Tuesday, March 15.