Terrorists killed in military raid -DHQ

The Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, has said that 13 insurgents were killed in a military raid on makeshift terrorists camp located between Borno and Adamawa states on Friday.

Olukolade said in an electronic mail on Friday that the special forces also arrested some of the insurgents who escaped the raid in Maiduguri and its environs.

He did not give the exact number of insurgents arrested in the raid.

Angry governor lashes military

Adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako is a bitter man. He was angry yesterday on the devastating Boko Haram attacks on defenceless people in the Northeast.

He criticised the activities of securitymen deployed in the states under a state of emergency and called for more proactive measures to stem the tide.

Nyako, a Rear Admiral, said the frustrated people might take to the streets in demonstration.

Lawyer Asks Political Parties To Put Interests Aside And Tackle Insurgency

Political parties in Nigeria have been asked to put political interests aside and mobilise their members through a general awareness campaign on the need to support the military in the fight against insurgents in the north east.

The call by a lawyer, Mr Emeka Onohwakpor, is coming, as the insurgents have heightened attack in recent weeks killing over 50 people in different attacks.

He said: “Political parties should drop their differences and see this as an assault that is eroding Nigeria’s sovereignty”.

In latest attacks, the insurgents were said to have come in Hilux vehicles and the lawyer called on the security agency responsible for vehicle registration to provide the needed information about the vehicles.

The Game of Boko Haram

The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, on Friday compared the interrelationship between the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Boko Haram terrorist group and Nigerians to a game of football.

On Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, Okupe said: “When you are playing against a very strong opponent and your goal keeper keeps away 20 or 40 shots and there are no goals but 2 minutes to the end of the match, the opponent scores one goal and you lose 1-nil, that is the one everybody remembers”.

Soldiers Fear Death

last Tuesday it was Yobe State where 59 schoolchildren were massacred. On Wednesday,  the bloodletting extended to Adamawa State where Boko Haram terrorists, armed with rocket-propelled grenades  nearly sacked  four  communities.

An official  death toll in the attacks  was  not available as of 9.40pm on Thursday. But  the  British Broadcasting Corporation Hausa Service put it at 37 while the Agence France Presse  reported 33.

A Judge caught steeling

Two judges, Justice Gladys Olotu of the Abuja Federal High Court and Justice U. A. Inyang of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, have been suspended for gross misconduct after the National Judicial Council forwarded a recommendation for their dismissal to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Dead man Rejects Award

Members of family of the late human rights icon, Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), have rejected an award meant for the deceased Senior Advocate of Nigeria as part of the country’s centenary.

The family said the late legal icon would not have received any award at a time that insurgents are killing innocent citizens in the north and when the nation is in the throes of debilitating corruption allegations as in the case of missing $20bn oil funds.

President Goodluck Jonathan  has again mourned the pupils  of the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe State, who were on Tuesday murdered in their sleep by Boko Haram  insurgents.

Jonathan, in a    20-minute national broadcast on Wednesday to mark the nation’s centenary, said he was deeply saddened by their death and that of other Nigerians in the hands of terrorists.

The President reassured Nigerians  that his administration would  continue to do everything possible to permanently eradicate  terrorism and insurgency from the country.

He said, “We recognise that the root cause of militancy, terrorism and insurgency is not the strength of extremist ideas but corrupted values and ignorance.

“That is why our counter-terrorism strategy is not just about enforcing law and order as we have equipped our security forces to do. It also involves expanding economic opportunities, social inclusion, education and other measures that will help restore normalcy not just in the short term, but permanently.

The factional Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, who is also the Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang, has described the faction of the NGF being led by the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as an extension of the All Progressives Congress.

The governors’ forum had split into two since last June after its controversial election with both Jang and Amaechi leading parallel factions.

Amaechi had met with members of his own faction of the NGF in Abuja on Monday night to deliberate on the suspension of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido.

The Forum condemned the suspension, which it described as a violation of the Constitution and the laws that established the CBN.

However, Jang in a statement by the Media Office of his faction, on Wednesday, berated the NGF under the leadership of Amaechi.

The statement was signed by Mr. Kassim Yakubu.

Boko Haram Attack banks

Suspected insurgents of the Boko Haram Sect have again attacked some communities in Michika and Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

A security source who confided in our correspondent said that an unspecified number of people were killed in Michika with several sensitive public facilities burnt.

An unconfirmed report claimed that nine people were killed in the attack.

Some of the residents told the News Agency of Nigeria on phone on Thursday that the attackers arrived the town around 9pm to unleash the mayhem for about five hours.