Nine people have been killed in a car bomb blast at a military checkpoint in northern Nigeria. Officials and witnesses said on Tuesday that the bomb exploded at the checkpoint on a road leading to the northeastern city of Maiduguri. The victims were all aboard the explosives-laden vehicle. There was not clear if any soldiers were injured in the incident.

Preliminary reports said the vehicle was a minivan transporting ordinary passengers. The driver was also among the victims. There was no immediate claim of responsibility although local officials blamed the attack on Boko Haram, a Takfiri terrorist group operating in northern Nigeria and certain neighboring countries.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and some 2.6 million people have been displaced from their homes since Boko Haram began its terror activities in 2009. Many blame corrupt officials in the Nigerian government and army for the continued militancy. Recent reports say the terrorist group is receiving some of its arms and ammunition from corrupt Nigerian officials.

Attacks by Boko Haram had subsided in the recent past as leadership struggle in the group intensified. However, the months-long lull seems to have ended as the militant group has stepped up attacks on civilians and security forces in recent weeks.

Last week, nine people were killed and two dozen were injured when Boko Haram operatives carried out two explosions in Maiduguri. The attacks were aimed at residents of a camp of refugees who had run away from Boko Haram.

Presstv

Cameroon Concord News has learned that things are not looking good for Patience Jonathan, former first lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

After the freezing of her bank accounts, there are reports that financial crime experts have begun listing and confiscating material assets belonging to Patience Jonathan. Nigeria’s anti-corruption body, the EFCC has ordered detectives to identify the houses and property belonging to Patience in cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Yenagoa.

Pending the outcome of this action, a federal court in Lagos has fixed the 7^th of December 2016 as the date to hear the complaint filed by Mrs. Jonathan for her bank accounts to be unfrozen. She is also asking the government of Nigeria to pay her the sum of 200 million dollars in damages for violating her rights.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Two bomb explosions, blamed on the Boko Haram terrorist group, have killed at least nine people and injured 24 others in Nigeria’s northeastern restive province of Borno, officials say. The almost simultaneous blasts rocked the provincial capital, Maiduguri, at around 0600 GMT on Saturday, said military spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka in a statement released in the wake of the deadly incidents.

In the first attack, he added, a female bomber, detonated her explosive vest in front of the Bakasi camp, set up for internally displaced persons (IDP), on the outskirts of the city, killing five men and injuring 11 women. The second explosion, which claimed the lives of four people, occurred about one kilometer away from the first one, when a tricycle taxi was exploded outside a fuel depot of state oil firm NNPC, when the driver failed to enter the facility, Anka further said.

He added that the bomber was following a fuel tanker “with the sole aim of gaining entry to cause maximum damage and casualty.” The spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, Sani Datta, said nine bodies, including those of the bombers, were recovered from the blast sites. The wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, she added.   The Bakasi camp is home to some 16,000 refugees, who fled Boko Haram’s reign of terror.

Boko Haram started its campaign in 2009 with the aim of toppling the Nigerian government. The terror group later expanded its activities to the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. These countries have, in return, stepped up counter-offensives in the form of unilateral operations or contributing to a multinational force against the militant group.

The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly operating in Iraq and Syria. Many blame corrupt officials in the Nigerian government and army for the continued militancy, as recent reports say Boko Haram is receiving some of its arms and ammunition from corrupt Nigerian officials. Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes.

Presstv

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has negotiated the release of scores of children held in detention by Nigerian government forces for their possible association with the Boko Haram Takfiri militants. UNICEF’s Manuel Fontaine said after visiting the capital city of the northeastern state of Borno on Friday that “876 children had been held in the barracks in Maiduguri.”

It was not immediately clear how long they had been detained, but the army routinely keeps close tabs on civilians who have been living in areas that had been under the control of the militants on suspicion that they too might be linked to terrorist activities. Rights groups say there is no proper legal process for such civilians, including the children, since they do not get formally charged and some end up in so-called rehabilitation centers, which the groups say have lots of resemblance to prisons.

The United Nations insists that children should not be kept in detention. “We fear that there are still kids who are being at least temporarily detained because they are being released from Boko Haram areas by the army but then kept for a while,” Fontaine, UNICEF’S regional director for Western and Central Africa, told reporters by telephone. He gave no details of the ages of the children or how long they had been held at the barracks.

Meanwhile, despite the government’s fight against the militants, the security situation remains volatile in Borno and its capital Maiduguri because Boko Haram still stages terrorist attacks and bombings, often using women or teenagers for the attacks. Fontaine also said the conflict, which has killed thousands and displaced more than two million, had separated about 20,000 children from their parents, of which 5,000 had since been reunited with their families.

“Once we get children out, there is a major issue of stigmatization in the communities,” Fontaine said. “There is a sense that children who have been associated with Boko Haram for a while, could be, and in some cases we have some evidence, are rejected by community and people around them.”

This was also a problem for the girls freed from the town of Chibok, he said. Nigeria this month negotiated the release of 21 of more than 200 girls Boko Haram kidnapped in April 2014. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

Presstv

Reuben Abati, the former Aso Rock spokesman during the Goodluck Jonathan administration was arrested yesterday in Abuja. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands his arrest was sanctioned on Monday the 24^th of October 2016 by the Commission against financial and economic crimes (EFCC).

Our source in Abuja say Abati allegedly received funds from Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security adviser also of the Goodluck government. The Commission confirmed the arrest earlier today and stated that Abati will be interrogated by financial crime experts soon.

The arrest of Abati brings to three the number of former acolytes of former President Goodluck Jonathan currently deprived of liberty by the EFCC.

By Chi Prudence Asong

President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to his wife’s statement that she may not support him if he runs again. Buhari who is on a state visit to Germany reacted to the interview saying, “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room”

In an interview with the BBC Hausa service Aisha Buhari said her husband does not know many of his top government appointees. President Muhammadu Buhari has laughed off his wife’s statement that she may not support him if he runs again, saying, “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” The Associated press reports.

Culled from Naija.com

The Nigerian government says the military operation against Boko Haram will continue even though the Takfiri militant group released several of girls who had been held captive for more than two years. Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed said Thursday that Boko Haram’s release of 21 girls who had been kidnapped in the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014 would not change the status quo regarding Abuja’s fight against the terrorist group.

The announcement came hours after officials announced the release of 21 girls by the Boko Haram militant group. A local source claimed that the girls had been swapped for four Boko Haram prisoners held in the recently liberated northeastern town of Banki, which borders Cameroon. The Nigerian minister said the release of the girls was not linked to any alleged agreement between the government and Boko Haram, stressing that Abuja had not swapped any militant prisoner for the Chibok girls.

Of the total of 276 girls that Boko Haram kidnapped from a secondary school in Chibok in April 2014, about 60 had managed to escape. The government has been under immense pressure to secure the release of the remaining captives. A campaigning group for the girls, known as Bring Back Our Girls, said Thursday that the identity of the girls had yet to be confirmed.

In August, Boko Haram released a video purportedly showing some of the girls and demanding the release of comrades in exchange for the freedom of the abductees. A masked member of the group speaking in the footage claimed some of the girls were still alive, and that the others had been killed in airstrikes carried out by the Nigerian air force on the Boko Haram hideout. Boko Haram’s seven-year militancy has killed around 20,000 people in northern Nigeria and neighboring countries.

Presstv

At least eight people have been killed in a bomb attack in Nigeria’s violence-plagued northeastern state of Borno. The bomb blast was carried out on Wednesday, when a female assailant detonated her explosives in a taxi in Maiduguri, the militancy-riddled capital of the northeastern Nigerian state. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said, “About eight persons lost their lives, [and] 15 injured persons were evacuated to specialist and teaching hospitals.”

There has been no claim of responsibility for the bomb attack. Nigerian officials, however, often blame such acts of terror on the Boko Haram Takfiri militant group, which has been active since 2009. Boko Haram started its campaign with the aim of toppling the Nigerian government. The Takfiri terrorist group later expanded its activities to the neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

On September 30, Toby Lanzer, the UN assistant secretary general, urged more donations to satisfy the humanitarian needs of people affected by Boko Haram militancy, warning that the world’s worst humanitarian crisis awaited the Lake Chad Basin if enough was not done. The UN official said over nine million people in the region were in “desperate” need of aid, warning that 65,000 people were living in “famine-like conditions.”

According to the United Nations, about 80,000 children could starve to death if they did not get food aid within the next year.

Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

Presstv

In the ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria carried out by the security agency, Department of State Services (DSS) over 800,000 U.S. Dollars  in various currencies, have  been recovered from some Supreme, Appeal and High Court judges following sting operations in  their premises,  Reuters reported.

The Department of State Services in a statement on Saturday, October 8, 2016 said its raids were carried out to investigate allegations of corruption against the judges. “We have been monitoring the expensive and luxurious lifestyle of some of the judges as well as complaints from the concerned public over judgment obtained fraudulently and on the basis amounts of money paid,” Reuters quoted the DSS statement.  DSS said it had found, “cash of various denominations, local and foreign currencies, with real estate worth several millions of naira and documents affirming unholy acts by these judges”.

Sahara Reporters media organ citing DSS sources, said an overnight raids were carried out on the residences of some nine court judges culminating in the arrest of several of them. It said the raids came as a result of petitions and decisions of the National Judicial Council (NJC), a statutory body that regulates the activities of judges. Full details of the money recovered indicate that there were  93,558,000.00 Naira, 530,087 U.S. Dollars, 25,970 Pounds and 5,680 Euros, as well as other amounts in some foreign currencies. Reports say the money was recovered from the premises of  just three of the arrested judges.

Reports say two Supreme Court justices, John Inyang Okoro and Sylvanus Ngwuta, were arrested in connection with the receipt of bribes from Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. Justice Ngwuta reportedly traveled to Qatar to receive bribes that he shared with Justice Okoro and other justices in order to help Mr. Wike to win a case at the Supreme Court regarding his disputed election.  It is said that the two judges have been linked with massive properties development in Abuja and Calabar.  Other judge concerned includes Justice Muhammad Ladan Tsamiya, an Appeal Court, Justice Adeniyi Ademola and Justice Kabiru Auta.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

Two of Nigeria’s 10 presidential jets have been put up for sale as part of a drive to cut costs, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday.

Buhari, a 73-year-old former military ruler who took office last year, has vowed to crack down on corruption and mismanagement of public funds that has seen a rich elite benefit from the OPEC member’s oil wealth while most Nigerians live on less than $2 per day.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu issued a statement to say newspaper advertisements for the sale of two presidential planes had been authorised by the presidency. “This is in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that aircraft in the presidential air fleet be reduced to cut down on waste,” said Shehu.

Nigeria has 10 planes in its presidential fleet. Nigeria is in a recession for the first time in more than 20 years, largely due to low oil prices. Sales of crude oil, the country’s main export, make up 70 percent of government revenue.

Reuters