Following frequent attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, some community leaders in Madagali, Adamawa state, have threatened that their people would relocate to neighbouring Cameroon.

Speaking during a presentation of relief materials by NEMA to those affected by recent attacks on Gulak town, the headquarters of the council on Thursday, the community leaders expressed disatisfation with the situation adding that distribution of food to the affected communities was not their ”top priority.”

Yusuf Muhammad, chairman of the council, said security of lives and property was their major concern.

”Our top priority in Madagali local Government Area is that we need security not food. Government, as matter of urgency should bring lasting solutions to stop excessive attacks and destruction on our people. If the deadly attacks continue, we have no other alternative rather than to relocate to Cameroon Republic,” Mr. Muhammed said.

He complained that the people of the area, ”were more affected by the insurgency and yet were neglected as if they were not Nigerians.” The council boss said insurgents lived just three kilometres away from Madagali area and this was why they (sect) find it easy to attack the community.

He urged the government to deploy more soldiers to the area to protect the people. Binta Garba, an APC Senator at the event, confirmed what the council chairman said as ”true.” Mrs. Garba said both Madagali and Michika local government areas were neglected in terms of Federal government intervention. ”Are we really part of Nigeria,? If yes; Government should prove to us and treat us as Nigerians,” the senator said.

Responding, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties, Abdulazeez Nyako, thanked the council chairman for his frankness. Mr. Nyako assured the people of the area that he would table the matter when he returned to the senate.

Mustafa Maihaja, Director General of NEMA, who was represented by an air commodore, Sunday Ohemu, said the relief materials were part of the government’s intervention meant to bring succour to the community. Three trucks loaded with assorted food and non-food items were presented to the community.

Source: Premium Times

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions has arraigned a Cameroonian, Leudjou Joel, for the alleged murder of his Nigerian employer, Miss Dayo Eniola. Joel, who worked as a cleaner for 33-year-old Eniola in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, was said to have allegedly stabbed his employer to death last December.

Twenty-one-year- old Joel was arraigned on murder charges before the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere. The Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr. Adeniyi Kazeem, who led the prosecution team that took Joel before Justice Adedayo Akintoye on Monday, told the court that the foreigner stabbed his Nigerian employer to death over his rejected request for salary advance.

He allegedly committed the crime at No. 15, Prince Tayo Adesanya Street, Park View Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. Upon Joel’s arraignment on Monday, Kazeem prayed the court to order that the accused be remanded in the prison custody, pending commencement of trial. Justice Akintoye made an order that Joel should be remanded at the Ikoyi Prison. She adjourned till January 18, 2018 for commencement of trial.

Source: The Punch

Boko Haram militants have launched an attack on a village outside the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least six farmers.

Locals and the civilian militia said the fatalities took place on Sunday, when the Takfiri extremist group raided Lawanti village in the Jere area of Borno state.

“Our people went to the farm to work. Seven Boko Haram on two motorbikes met them and slaughtered two, then killed the other four. They killed six people in all,” said Mohammed Asheik, from the Civilian Joint Task Force assisting the Nigerian military with security in the northeast.

Jidda Ahmed, a local resident, also confirmed the report and said his elder brother, Musa Jidda, had been “shot and beheaded” as he tried to flee.

Over the past months, attacks on isolated rural communities in the remote state of Borno have been a feature of Boko Haram’s militancy.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

The Nigerian military launched renewed counter-terrorism offensives after the end of the rainy season in northeastern Nigeria in September. Those offensives have diminished Boko Haram’s capacity to launch attacks, but the government warns that the group can still attack civilians at “soft” targets such as mosques, markets, and camps for displaced people.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others displaced as a result of eight years of Boko Haram militancy, which has also affected Nigeria’s neighbors, including Niger, Cameroon, and Chad.

Source:Presstv

Gunmen have killed at least 11 traders in central Nigeria, police said Wednesday, in the latest violence in the region, which has been hit by decades of ethnic and sectarian strife.

The traders were returning from a rural market in the Riyom district of Plateau state when they were ambushed by “unknown assailants” on Tuesday, said police spokesman Tyopev Terna.

“Eleven people who were returning from a weekly village market in Makera village were shot dead at about 7:30 pm (1830 GMT) yesterday”, he told AFP.

Four other traders were injured in the attack, which happened some 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the state capital, Jos, heh added.

An investigation has been launched to establish the motive for the attack and to identify the victims, who are believed to be from the Fulani ethnic group.

Plateau state lies in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt that separates the predominantly Muslim north from the largely Christian south.

It has long been a hotbed of ethnic, sectarian and religious tensions between indigenous Christian farming communities and the Muslim settler Hausa/Fulani cattle herders.

Tensions typically boil over into tit-for-tat violence over access to land and resources, and the struggle for political control.

Riyom district has been hit by waves of violence between farmers and herders.

Last month two people were killed in Jol village in the area after a young herder’s body was found nearby. The cattle drivers were blamed.

At least 29 were killed in an attack targeting people sheltered in a rural primary school in nearby Bassa district.

The attack was apparently in revenge for the death of six Fulani herders who were killed by unidentified assailants in the area.

(Source: AFP)

At least six people were killed when suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked a town in northeast Nigeria, in the latest attack against vulnerable, isolated rural communities, the local government said on Monday.

Bukar Wakil Tawu, secretary of the Magumeri local government area, said about 20 people believed to be from the jihadist group attacked Jaddannam at about 21:00 (2000 GMT) on Friday.

“They killed six people and burnt almost the whole town. They also burnt livestock and food supplies from recent harvests,” he told AFP from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, nearly 50km away.

“I went to the town yesterday (Sunday), where I met the poor residents. They are peasants who rely on subsistence farming and their livestock.

“They have now lost all their belongings. We are appealing to the government to come to their aid and for patrols to be intensified because the area is remote and it has relatively huge population.”

Eight years of conflict have left at least 20 000 people dead and more than 2.6 million homeless in northeast Nigeria but has also devastated infrastructure, including telecommunications, leaving communities virtually cut off.

Local residents had to travel to Maiduguri to report the attack. Recent weeks have seen an increase in Boko Haram activity in northeast Nigeria and the Far North region of neighbouring Cameroon after the end of the rainy season in September.

At least 20 people were killed in a series of raids and suicide bomb attacks in the space of a few days last month, while civilians were also killed when their vehicles hit landmines planted by the Islamists. Those deaths – and the latest in Jaddannam – underline the continued threat posed by Boko Haram, despite claims from the military and the government that the insurgency is nearing an end.

Boko Haram fighters loyal to factional leader Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi have been known to operate in the Magumeri area. In July, 19 soldiers and 33 militia members were among 69 killed when Boko Haram ambushed a heavily-armed convoy of oil exploration workers.

Source: News24

The Nigerian military says it is investigating reports that one of the wives of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram Takfiri group, has been killed in a recent airstrike.

“Efforts are ongoing to confirm the reported killing of Shekau’s wife, alongside other BHTs (Boko Haram terrorists),” said air force spokesman Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya on Tuesday, six days after an attack on Boko Haram militants near Urga in the Konduga area in Borno state.

Adesanya said the air raid on October 19 targeted “a large gathering of Boko Haram terrorists” at the Durwawa settlement. He added that the attack killed scores of militants on the ground and triggered a fire.

The official said that Shekau’s wife, identified as Fitdasi, was “reported to have been representing her husband in a coordinating meeting with other terrorists at the location of the airstrikes”.

Fitdasi was thought to be one of Shekau’s four wives. Nigerian army arrested another wife, Hassana Yakubu, in a raid in the northeastern city of Damaturu in 2012. She was released a year later along with the wives of several other top commanders of Boko Haram.

One of other wives of Shekau is a widow of Muhammad Yusuf, the founder and former leader of Boko Haram who died in custody in 2009.

Under Shekau’s leadership which began after Yusuf’s death, Boko Haram has led an insurgency in northern Nigeria and neighboring countries that has left around 20,000 people dead. Hundreds of thousands have also been displaced in the violence.

The Nigerian military claims its massive operations which began two years ago has made Boko Haram a spent force as the group has withdrawn from its major strongholds in Borno. However, the government still struggles to contain sporadic attacks that mostly target civilians in crowded places.

Source: Presstv

A triple bomb attack in northeastern Nigeria has left 14 people dead and more than a dozen others injured, authorities say.

The casualties occurred on Sunday evening, when three female bombers detonated their explosives in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

“So far, we have 14 people killed and 18 injured in the triple suicide bombings last night,” said Ahmed Satomi, from the Borno state emergency management agency.

No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly attack; however, an anonymous militia source said the blasts came “hours after reports of sighting of a lot of Boko Haram members outside the city.”

Last month, at least 15 people were killed after suspected members of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group targeted an aid distribution point in Borno state.

The group claimed an attack on August 16 in Konduga, during which three female attackers blew up their explosives outside a camp for displaced persons. It killed at least 28 people and left more than 80 others injured.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed back out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno state and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces there.

The Nigerian military launched renewed counter-insurgency offensives after the end of the rainy season in northeastern Nigeria in September. Those offensives have clearly caused attacks by Boko Haram to drop, but the government warns that the group can still attack civilians at “soft” targets, including mosques, markets and camps for displaced people.

Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced as a result of eight years of the Boko Haram insurgency, which has also affected Nigeria’s neighbors, including Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Source: Presstv

The Comptroller-General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede on Thursday commenced a two-day visit to immigration service formations in Cross River State, to evaluate the reported attacks on communities in the state by Cameroonian soldiers.

It was learnt that the CG would tour patrol bases and control posts bordering Cameroon to assess the situation on the ground following repeated invasions of border communities by the gendarmes, the latest of which occurred at Danare in Boki Local Government Area of the state.

The state Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Inuwa had said that six Nigerians were shot by gendarmes from Bodam community during the invasion on the Nigerian territory a few days ago. The victims, who were hospitalized, however survived the attack.

The Immigration Service Public Relations Officer, Sunday James said in a statement that Babandede would validate the reports from the operatives in the crisis area which would be presented to the Federal Government for further action.

He explained that the CG would also assess the readiness of operatives on the ground to ensure the safety of citizens and the preparedness of the commands around the Cameroonian border in checking influx of illegal migrants.

The NIS spokesman stated that Babandede admonished the NIS operatives to be diplomatic, professional, and where necessary midwife the Federal Government directive in managing the migratory issues in collaboration with other border security agencies.

He explained that the operatives were to enforce effective checks, data capturing, refusal of entry  where necessary and granting admission or entry in deserving cases. James noted that the Nigeria Immigration Service had the responsibility to ascertain the situation on the ground and validate reports from the field operatives on the issues involving the Cameroonian security forces and Nigerian nationals in the border communities.

“The Comptroller-General of Immigration would soon return to report his findings and draw up further line of action in line with his personal assessment of the situation;Meetings would also be held with stakeholders at Mumbai and other points in the course of his visit to the state,” the statement added.

It further said that the immigration boss paid a courtesy call on Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade  at the Government House.

Source: Punch Nigeria

Nigeria is going to try more than 2,300 suspected members of the Takfiri Boko Haram militant group in unprecedented mass trials behind closed doors.

The defendants, whose trials are to begin on Monday, have all been picked up and held in detention since the start of Boko Haram militancy eight years ago.

To date, just 13 people have been put on trial and only nine convicted for their links to the Takfiri group, according to official figures.

The most high-profile current case is that of Khalid Al-Barnawi, a leader of Boko Haram offshoot Ansaru, who is charged with the abduction and murder of 10 foreign nationals.

Nigeria’s Justice Ministry announced the start of the trials at the end of last month, saying four judges had been assigned and that defendants would have legal representation.

Some 1,670 detainees at a military base in Kainji, in the central state of Niger, will be tried first and will be followed by 651 others held at the Giwa barracks in the capital of the northeastern state of Borno State, Maiduguri.

The trials are seen as a positive step, as many of the detainees had been held in custody for years, without access to a lawyer or ever having appeared before a judge. Amnesty International said in a June 2015 report that more than 20,000 people had been arbitrarily arrested as part of the fight against Boko Haram.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected in 2015, has promised to look into repeated accusations of human rights violations, including by high-ranking officers.

At least two commissions of inquiry have been established but the army announced in June this year that no action would be taken against top brass accused by Amnesty.

Amnesty believes the mass trials of Boko Haram suspects were the result of international pressure on the Nigerian government.

Source: Presstv

At least 17 people drowned when a boat ferrying around 60 passengers capsized in northwest Nigeria, the National Emergency Management (NEMA) said on Wednesday.

The boat smashed into a tree trunk in the rain-swollen River Niger on Tuesday.

“So far 17 bodies have been removed from the water, 12 yesterday and another five this morning”, NEMA coordinator Suleiman Karim told AFP.

Another 17 passengers were rescued by emergency workers and local divers, Karim said.

“We are still searching for at least 26 people because the 60-passenger boat was full at the time of the accident”, he said.

The number on board may have been higher as ferries in the riverine region are usually overloaded, Karim said.

The boat had left Jilbabo village in Kebbi state and was heading to Tetebo village in neighboring Niger state in central Nigeria when the accident happened.

Capsizes are a frequent occurrence in Nigeria, where overcrowding is common and unscrupulous operators flout health and safety norms.

The accident rate typically rises in the May-September rainy season when rivers swell.

Last month 74 people were killed in three separate boat capsizes in northern Nigeria, according to emergency services.

In one instance 56 people drowned when an overloaded boat sank carrying 150 passengers in Kebbi state.

The boat was ferrying local traders from neighboring Niger Republic to a market in Nigeria.

(Photo by AFP)