Gunmen from Boko Haram sect kill 13 people in fresh Borno attack

Suspected members of the outlawed Boko Haram sect on Friday attacked a police station, barracks and commercial bank in Damboa, around 100 km south of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, killing 13 persons.
Reuters reports that the attackers used explosives and assault rifles in the incident, in which eight civilians and five policemen died.
The attackers detonated explosives and opened fire on the divisional police headquarters in Damboa.
Police Commissioner, Borno State Command, Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar, blamed Boko Haram, whose members have been blamed for almost daily killings in recent months, including frequent attacks on policemen, soldiers and local leaders.
”Police and military personnel have mounted a massive manhunt to arrest the more than 70 Boko Haram members believed to be involved in the attacks,” Abubakar told Reuters.
Police Deputy Superintendent Abba Lawan Kirawa confirmed the death of the 13 persons.
Members of the sect launched an uprising in 2009, attacking government buildings and leading to days of gun battles with the security forces in which as many as 800 people were killed.
The persistent insecurity in the region near Nigeria‘s northeastern borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara risks becoming President Goodluck Jonathan‘s biggest security headache, Reuters reports.
The group was blamed for a series of explosions at police stations last week and security in the capital Abuja has already been tightened ahead of Jonathan‘s inauguration on Sunday.
Gunmen in the state capital had on Thursday shot dead a prison guard. In a separate incident in the same city, sodliers were involved in a gun battle with suspected Islamists.
Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed the prison guard as he was waiting to pick his boss‘ children outside a school, Lawal Abdullahi, spokesman for the state police command, told Agence France Press on the phone from Maiduguri.
”The prison warden was at the wheel outside the private school his superior‘s children attend, waiting to take them home when he was shot and killed by the attackers we suspect to be members of Boko Haram, who then burnt him along with the car,” Lawal said.

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Gunmen kill two watching Champions League in Nigeria

KANO, April 10, 2014 (AFP) – Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists stormed a packed viewing centre in Nigeria’s restive northeast and shot dead two people watching Champions League matches, police said Thursday.

The centre was showing the two quarter-final matches between defending champions Bayern Munich and Manchester United, and Atletico Madrid-Barcelona, on Wednesday when it was attacked.
“The gunmen came in a car and opened fire outside the viewing centre and sped off,” Yobe State police commissioner Sanusi Rufa’i told AFP of the incident in Potiskum, a hotbed of the insurgency.

“One person died on the spot while another died later at the hospital. Several other people were injured, some critically,” he added.

Residents said the centre was full at the time, with those who could not get a space inside hanging around the windows to watch the second-leg games, which saw Bayern and Atletico reach the last four.
Rufa’i did not directly blame Boko Haram for the attack but the hardline group has been known for preaching against football as part of its agenda to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria.

In several video clips, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has described football and music as a Western ploy to distract Muslims from their religion.

In April 2012, gunmen killed two men at a viewing centre in Potiskum, days after Boko Haram warned people in leaflets to stay away from such centres and calling for such places to be closed.

Football is Nigeria’s national sport and the country’s national team, the Super Eagles, are the reigning African champions.

English Premier League football is wildly popular, with many Nigerians supporting top clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, whose matches are shown live on television.

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Pastor of Christ Citizen Glorious Assembly arraigned for allegedly defrauding church member

The Pastor of Christ Citizen Glorious Assembly, Okota, Lagos, Pastor Ikechukwu Ezeiru, has been charged with fraud at an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court. He was arraigned on Tuesday for allegedly defrauding a church member, Ifeanyi Ohazurume, of N7m. The police said Ezeiru collected the money to help the defendant purchase auction goods from the Nigerian Customs Service. He allegedly didn’t return the money or the goods. It was learnt that the pastor claimed to have given the money to his wife, who equally claimed to have passed it to someone else. He was arraigned on three counts of obtaining under false pretences and stealing. The charge reads in part, “That you, Pastor Ikechukwu Ezeiru, and others at large, sometime in the month of February, 2012, at about 10.00hours at First Bank Plc, Okota branch, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire to commit felony to wit: obtaining property by false pretences and stealing. “That you on the same date, time and place in the aforesaid magisterial district, did obtain the sum of N7m from one Ifeanyi Ohazurume, under the pretext that you are in position to help him buy auction goods from Nigerian Customs Service, a representation you knew to be false.” The police prosecutor, George Nwosu, who represented the resident prosecutor, DSP Etim Ekankuk, said the offences were punishable under sections 409 and 312 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge and elected summary trial. The defence counsel, Razak Adeyemi, applied for his bail in liberal terms. The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Demi Ajayi, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum. The matter was adjourned till April 16, 2014

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Cossy Orjiakor claims she was robbed and sustained minor injuries

Apparently this supposedly happened 2 days ago in the Orile area of Lagos. Don't like driving around that area, especially at night! Those guys will come and knock on your car window like they own it. First they gently ask you to wind down, when you refuse, they smash it..with other cars around sef.

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Sad!! Five Children Drown As Canoe Capsized In Kaduna

There was confusion in Hanya Danbushiya,
Kaduna North Local Government Area, on
Tuesday following the drowning of five children
when their canoe capsized in River Kaduna.
The children, who were all canoe peddlers, were
said to be returning to the river bank to pick
other passengers in the early hours of Tuesday.
It was gathered that residents of the village
immediately organised a search party to look for
the bodies of the children.
As of the time of filing this report, three out of
the five bodies had been recovered.
Aminu Ibrahim, leader of the search party, gave
the names of the victims as Aliyu Mohammed, 13;
Shehu Ismaila 13; Ibrahim Ladan 14; and his
brother, Musa Ladan, 15, and Mustapha Hamad,
15.
Ibahim said, "We know that these boys were very
good canoe paddlers and are trusted by those
who use canoe as a means of transport. They left
early with full passengers and on their way
coming, from what we learnt, the canoe hit an
object in the river and then capsized."
On his part, the Village Head of Doka in
Danbushiya, Alhaji Musa Liman, described the
incident as unfortunate.
He expressed disappointment over the response
by the state Fire Service, who failed to respond to
the villager's distress call when contacted.
The bodies of the deceased had been buried at
the Danbushiya cemetery according to Islamic
rites.

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T.B. Joshua: "I Would Have Halted President Mills' Death If..."

Founder and General Overseer of the Synagogue Church, Prophet T.B. Joshua says in an unusual manner, God did not reveal the death of Ghana’s President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, which occurred on Tuesday in Accra. The renowned cleric in a mournful mood affirmed he would have intensified prayers to avert the sudden departure of the late President if he had received any revelation from God. “The Ghanaian President was like a spiritual son to me so I could pray to God to avert the death, if I had received any revelation from him,” Prophet T.B. reportedly told reporters in Legos, Nigeria when ommenting on the death of President Mills. On that score, he revealed President Mills and other senior government officials had visited his temple thrice this year to receive special prayers, but God never revealed his death to him in all the three instances. “Of course, I knew he had been ill for some time now and he had come for special prayers concerning his health thrice this year, and I and my other ministers had prayed fervently for him. I was so hopeful he would recover his health completely, but it is sad and only God knows best why he should die now,” he asserted. Against that backdrop, Prophet TB Joshua expressed profound shock over the death of Prof. Mills and urged Ghanaians to remain calm in this torrid period. T.B. Joshua added: “Mills was a very committed person in the things of God and also very dedicated. Each time he was in church, you could see the fervor and hunger and thirst for God written all over his countenance. He was a very dear son to me and I was his spiritual godfather. “I know many persons will be saying how come my fervent prayers did not save his life. All I can answer such persons is, why God allowed Stephen in the New Testament Bible to be stoned to death. Why did God not save the life of Stephen, an innocent man, as he was being stoned, dying? The answer is simply this: sometimes God allows things to happen for unknown reasons, and indeed reasons no man can explain, that is why God is Almighty Sovereign God; who indeed can question Him, who can challenge God?  “When we humanity eventually see God in the glorious city of Heaven, then, can we have answers to all our questions. For now, he can only get a 99 percent answer but never a 100 per cent answer”.

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“We’ve Reduced Population Of Hungry Nigerians” – FG Speaks

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Millennium Development Goals, Dr. Precious
Gbenol, on Tuesday said Nigeria had succeeded
in reducing the number of people that were
suffering from extreme hunger by half.
She did not however disclose the population.
Gbenol spoke with State House correspondents
after the quarterly presidential committee
meeting on assessment and monitoring of the
MDGs chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan.
She said the achievement was in fulfilment of
Goal One of the MDGs.
She said the Federal Government achieved the
feat well ahead the 2015 deadline for the goals to
be met.
She said, "The country as a nation has made
tremendous efforts and has been able to achieve
MDGs Goal one. We have been able to reduce the
number of people by half that suffers from
extreme hunger way ahead of 2015.
"On gender equality in schools, we have also been
able to achieve Goal Three. We have also been
able to achieve Goal Six, which is the HIV
prevalence of the country.
"It has been halted, reversed and is on the
downward side. Currently, the national
prevalence of HIV for the country is 3.4. It rose
to 5.8, it came down to 4.8, 4.4, 4.1 and the
current national prevalence of HIV for the
country is 3.4.
"We were able to tell the President too that the
country is working very hard on achieving Goals
Five, which is reducing maternal mortality.
"Between now and 2015 at the next statistics that
goal, I am very positive, will be achieved. And we
were able to tell the President that."
Gbenol said the President had directed her office
to henceforth work closely with the 36 state
governors to ensure that their various indices
and targets were met on or before May 2015.

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