Saturday, 3 November 2012

Nigeria: FFK Tribute To Rtd. General Muhammad Shuwa, Killed By Boko Haram in Borno

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November 2nd, 2012
SR- The Joint Task Force (JTF), in Maiduguri, today announced the death of Retired General Muhammad Shuwa at the hands of suspects thought to be Boko Haram.
In a press statement by its spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, JTF said the general was shot in his house by four men who were initially thought to have been his guest for the Juma,at prayers. They entered the house and opened fire on the General and his visitors.
“One of the guests died on the spot while the general died on the way to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital,” the statement said.
—

A tribute to General Mamman Shuwa, By Femi Fani-Kayode

Today is yet another sad day for our country Nigeria. This morning General Mamman Shuwa was murdered just outside his Maiduguri home by a group of heartless people who are suspected to be members of the muslim fundamentalist sect Boko Haram.This is a tragedy of monumental proportions. General Mohammadu Mamman Shuwa was not only an absolute gentleman but he was also perhaps the most respected, effective, disciplined, restrained and successful battle commander in the Nigerian Army during the civil war. He was in command of the 1st Division of the Nigerian army and it was the 1st Division that managed to defeat the Biafran Army and enter the east from the northern front.
Unlike many other commanders on both sides of the war, Shuwa was known for his immense compassion for the civilian population quite apart from his extraordinary courage and fighting skills. It is a matter of historical record that, unlike with other commanders, no massacres of civilians were carried out under him or by his 1st Division throughout the entire course of the war.
After capturing them he treated the Biafran soldiers, enemy combatants and the igbo civilian population with immense respect and remarkable compassion. This man was not just a profoundly good and humane person, he was not just a war hero, but he was also a great father, husband and family man. He was a very quiet man that consistently shunned the limelight and public office even though there is not one retired senior army officer in this country or politician, alive or dead, that did not revere him and hold him in the highest esteem.
He was not only one of General Yakubu’s Gowon’s most trusted and able officers and senior commanders during the war but he was also exceptionally close to and highly respected by other great and distinguished war-time commanders like General Olusegun Obasanjo, General Mohammadu Buhari, General TY Danjuma, General Benjamin Adekunle, General Adeyinka Adebayo, General Sani Abacha, General.Alani Akinrinade and General Ibrahim Babangida. They all looked up to General Shuwa just as did those of us in the younger generation and who are not in the military.
I should mention the fact that again as a measure of this great man’s level of compassion it is on record that during the northern officers counter-coup of July of July 1966 he saved the lives of many igbo offices by locking up the armoury and refusing to give up the key after the mass killing of igbo officers started all over the country. At that time General Shuwa was Commander of the 5th Battalion in Kano. Had it not been for his timely intervention and efforts and the efforts of the late Major General James Oluyele, who was his Second in Command at the time, many more igbo officers that were stationed in Kano, would have lost their lives that night.
Yet there is far more to the story of this great man than just his efforts, as gallant and indispensible as they were, during the civil war. He went on to live a long and distinguished life of honour, duty, selfless service and distinction after the war. I mourn with my brother Hon. Yusuf Tuggar and his dear wife who have lost their father-in-law and father respectively in such
tragic and cruel circumstances and I mourn with the Shuwa family of Maiduguri for this great loss. If I were to ever use the great Mark Anthony’s words when he saw Julius Caesar’s bleeding and dying body after he was cut short by Brutus and the other Roman traitors this is the time that it is appropiate to do so. For I can say of General Mohammadu Shuwa as Mark Anthony said of Caeser that “here lies a Caesar, after whom comes no other”.
We have lost a true ”titan” and a living ”immortal” all rolled into one. He was a great son of Nigeria and a glorious shining star and we must do all that we can to honour him even in death. May the Lord have mercy upon General Mamman Shuwa and forgive him of all his sins. May his good deeds speak for him before God. May the Lord welcome him into the hosts of Heaven. May his beautiful and compassionate soul rest in perfect peace. And may the Lord avenge him of all those that saw fit to cut short his precious life.

NewsRescue

Friday, 2 November 2012

The reality of competitive ethnicity in Nigeria

Tonnie Iredia
One obvious subject that has continued to elude the Nigerian nation is integration. Neither the political structure nor the law of the land is sufficiently positioned to redress the situation. The state of origin of every Nigerian has remained the most important ticket for getting anything.
At youth level, many Nigerians are favoured or deprived by the quota system of admission to schools- a system which accepts a scenario where two pupils of the same school write the same examination for admission into the same college and it is the pupil with the lower score that gets admitted because of his state of origin! At adult level, the situation is no less inexplicable. The other day, I read the story of an engineer in one organization complaining that his assistant was lifted to become his head of section. In the past, that could only happen where the position concerned was political.
To have an example of it now at a technocrat and purely professional position of senior engineer shows that there is cause for worry.
In the larger environment, ethnic groups in Nigeria cohabit under a cover of mutual distrust and suspicion with each scheming to undo the other. The majority groups naturally have the upper hand and they tell the rest us that Nigerians are Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba.
In fact, once one of them gets a position, the next consideration is what goes to the other two. Among the minorities, the bigger groups hold tight to whatever is available in their areas. For this reason, ethnic groups like Igede, Etulo, Abakwa and the Idoma may as well forget ever occupying the office of governor of Benue State. It appears reserved for the Tiv because they are the majority.
My Idoma in-law always wished that his ethnic group was located in my own Edo State where according to him the majority sometimes concedes power to the minorities. At this point, I had to straighten the records by summarizing for him a lecture I delivered in Benin the previous week titled, “Benin: Time to sow the seeds of resurgence”.
I recalled that although the Benins are the majority in Edo State, neither the incumbent state governor nor the minister representing the state in the federal cabinet is one of theirs. On its face value, one may be misled into seeing the Benins as liberal-minded and accommodating. The truth however is that at this point in history; the Benins are just a sleeping majority. The last time one of them got into the federal cabinet, he was made a junior minister when some other states had two full ministers.
Till date, no one knows or asked who negotiated that for the Benins. The story is the same even outside of politics. For example, although the Catholic faith came to Benin over one hundred years ago, no Benin man has been able to become the Catholic Archbishop of Benin. To say such matters are ordained and directed by God is to be unfair to the Almighty because everything is ordained by Him and because He is all fairness, He would not disapprove of members of only one tribe moving up towards the apex of their occupation. Why can’t a Benin man be the Bishop in other peoples’ homelands? In the area of education, a Benin man has at last become the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin after 40 years of its existence. The puerile argument for long that heading a university was not an ethnic thing is a language of deceit as only one group can head my own revered University of Ibadan.
What then is the problem of the Benins? I can see disunity, lack of courage and selfishness among others. Yes, the Benin political class has lately been engaged in atomistic politics, a term which aptly describes a class that is at war with itself and thus unable to negotiate aright.
Once some wealthy individuals among the minority groups can spread some resources around, the Benins collapse and begin to doggedly project their benefactors. If one listens carefully, one would hear things like that there are non-Benins with Benin interest as if other people can love somebody more than himself. Under the circumstance, it would not be difficult for a minority to win an election in Edo State. When compared to what our forbearers did, the fall of the famous Benin Empire of old shows clearly. If the late Chief Omo-Osagie was self-serving, he would not have declined to be Premier of the new Midwest region in 1963, so that Benin City could be the capital of the region.
The warrior Obas of Benin built an expansive wall as long as 20,000km around the empire. The defensive edifice is the world’s longest self-protective complex which according to the Guinness Book of Records is the greatest earth work ever constructed by man. Today, the Benins have only one town-Benin City-all their other areas remain villages.
No one else except the Benins can take responsibility for their poor state of affairs. They must thus rise now and take their destiny in their own hands because it will be unacceptable to posterity that the Benins were marginalized as a minority tribe in Nigeria and at the same time allowed themselves to also be marginalized in a state where they are in majority. To worry that some people would describe this argument as parochial is to overlook the imperatives of competitive ethnicity in a multi-ethnic society like ours . Some people may not like it but the truth is that ethnicity is one of the ‘settled’ issues of our federalism. If not, we would not have had an arrangement where our President had to go to his ‘place’ to register and to vote during the last general elections. But for the same over-all importance of ethnicity, zoning would not have assumed its important status in our political structure. Abia State would not have disengaged from its public service more than 1,800 workers of Anambra State origin. The indigene-settler imbroglio in Jos, Plateau State would not have been as fatal as it has become.
These and many more examples of inter-ethnic problems in Nigeria confirm that ethnicity is still the decider of all matters in the country as it was in those days when the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo who has been aptly described as the best President Nigeria never had, could not win either the General election of 1959 or the Presidential elections of 1979 and 1983.The United States which like Nigeria is heterogeneous does not have our type of problem because ethnicity is not worshipped there.
An American citizen born and bred in a place does not go in search of his ancestry to identify with a group so as to participate in any event. Until we take the issue of integration seriously, our ethnic groups would justifiably be engaged in cut-throat competition. Those who avoid it through self-centered rationalizations would naturally decline because every other ethnic category has its own agenda.
Vanguard

MIKE ADENUGA: Complete Story of The New Grand Commander of Business

That Dr. Mike Adeniyi Ishola Adenuga Jr., is conferred with National honour of Grand Commander of Niger (GCON) doesn’t come as a surprise. This is because the Chairman of Mike Adenuga Group, probably the biggest business empire in Africa, can fittingly be summed up as the story of African enterprise.
He is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable names on the African continent. Born 59 years ago, Adenuga is a quintessential businessman who has made his mark so distinctly that world leaders speak glowingly about him.
One of the world’s wealthiest men, Dr. Adenuga sits atop what is generally regarded as one of the continent’s largest business empires comprising oil and gas, telecoms, aviation, banking and real estate.
In each of these sectors, Dr. Adenuga has moulded his companies into major, if not dominant, players. In the oil and gas sector, for instance, Conoil Plc is one of the largest and most profitable oil marketing companies in Nigeria. Conoil Producing, the downstream arm of the conglomerate, made history by becoming the first Nigerian company to strike oil and produce it in commercial quantity in 1991. In banking, Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) was one of the few banks that effortlessly met the N25b capital requirement during the 2005 banking consolidation exercise without going to the stock market. It only merged with Devcom Bank which was also owned by Adenuga. Last year, ETB merged with Sterling Bank.
In telecoms, Globacom is not only the most innovative network in Nigeria, it also, in its first year of operation, became the fastest growing in Africa and the Middle East, with operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, Senegal, Gambia and Cote d’Ivoire. Adenuga also has a multi-billion dollar investment in real estate. These companies provide direct employment to thousands of workers and millions of others indirectly.
Dr. Michael Adeniyi Ishola Adenuga Jr. (CON) was born in 1953, in the ancient city of Ibadan, into the family of Chief Mike Adenuga Snr., a school teacher and Madam Oyindamola Adenuga, a successful trader and Yeyeoba of Ijebuland. Adenuga is a native of Ijebu Igbo in Ogun State of Nigeria.
The young Adenuga attended the famous Ibadan Grammar School, in Oyo State, Nigeria, for his secondary education and studied Business Administration at Northwestern State University, Alva Oklahoma in the United States. He also earned a Masters degree at Pace University, New York, majoring in Business Administration with emphasis on Marketing. In recognition of his business accomplishments and outstanding contributions to the growth of the country, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Ogun State University.
An encounter with Otunba Adenuga would reveal a man of uncommon intellect; a man with a deep passion for his calling; a man who is focused and considers achieving as a personal mantra. He lives a life that thrives on hard work.
His sojourn in the United States of America in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece added an exciting chapter to his impressive resume. Even though the young Adenuga came from a relatively comfortable background, he paid his way through school with money he raised from driving taxi cabs and working as security guard, at different times.
Adenuga is certainly no new kid on the block as far as entrepreneurial acumen is concerned. He had attracted national attention as far back as 1991 when his Consolidated Oil Limited struck oil in commercial quantity. He is reputed to have distinguished himself in the business of importation at the young age of 22! And ever since, Dr. Adenuga has bestrode the world of modern business like a colossus.
His latest achievement has been the laying of an international submarine cable, Glo 1, which has gigantic capacity to Africa directly to Europe and America. The optic fibre cable provides excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable, and has lead to a much faster and robust connectivity for voice, data and video.
The man Adenuga means different things to different people. A husband, father, team leader, role model, an entrepreneur par excellence! Though he has made giant strides in several business categories, Nigerians would probably remember him more for his timely intervention in the telecommunications arena, where he seems to hold the aces that determine the pace of play. Globacom’s historic introduction of Per Second Billing was the first time any network had launched on the billing platform. His network also pioneered such revolutionary products as Blackberry, vehicle tracking, mobile internet and mobile banking services in Nigeria. When the history of telecommunications industry in Africa is written, Adenuga surely would earn a chapter as a man who disrupted an oligarchic convention for the benefit of mankind.
He was honoured by the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the National Awards of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and later with the award of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). During Nigeria’ 50th anniversary celebration, Adenuga was one of the 50 pre-eminent Nigerians who were conferred with the Special Golden Jubilee Independence Anniversary Awards by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Adenuga’s nomination was as a result of his immense contributions to the growth of oil and gas, banking and the telecoms industries in the country. Checks showed that Adenuga merited the special award due to the great sacrifice he made to ensure the re-invention of the country’s telecoms industry.
An astute world-class business expert, with worldwide business interests, Dr. Adenuga is a highly respected entrepreneur and one of the biggest employers of labour in the country. In the last two decades, he has established a pedigree as a well focussed and prudent manager of men and resources with the uncanny ability to successfully transform ideas and dormant businesses to highly viable enterprises.
Dr. Adenuga Jr. has always been in the news on account of several patriotic initiatives. Globacom is the biggest supporter of football in Africa and has raised the profile of football in Nigeria and Ghana with the sponsorship of the Premier Leagues and national football teams of the two countries. The company has so far spent over N6 billion on Nigerian football. It has also transformed the annual CAF Awards and made it the most glamorous sports event on the continent.
CAF has awarded Adenuga, the Pillar of Football in Africa for his strong support for African Football at both national and continental levels. At the 2nd edition of the Glo-CAF Awards held in Ghana, former President John Kufour declared Adenuga Africa’s No.1 Businessman for his promotion of the continent through his business empire.
Dr Adenuga has won numerous awards in recognition of his personal and business accomplishments among which is the African Telecoms Entrepreneur of the year for his courageous and rapid investment in the telecoms sector. He was early 2010 voted Nigeria’s Most Outstanding Business Personality in the last 50 years. In an online poll conducted by This Day, he polled 4272 votes to edge out the Chairman, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote who scored 4156. Founder of Diamond Bank, Mr Pascal Dozie, polled 3316, Olorogun Michael Ibru got 3073 while the Chairman, First City Monument Bank, Otunba Subomi Balogun polled 2801.
In 2009, Dr. Adenuga won the coveted Silverbird Man of the Year Award, polling over 75% of the votes cast to edge out other eminent personalities such as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Foreign Affairs Minister, Odein Ajumogobia, and the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, among others. The annual award is facilitated by Silverbird Communications, owners of Silverbird TV and Rhythm 93.7 FM. Similarly, several other media organisations have also honoured the Globacom Chairman with their Man of the Year Award within the last few years.
In spite of his towering achievements, he remains an epitome of modesty.
News of the People

MEND warns FG on Boko Haram talks •CPC rejects choice of Buhari

Boko Haram had on Thursday said it was ready to negotiate with the Federal Government provided it agreed with its terms of listing those to be on the negotiation table and that former governor of Borno, Ali Modu Sherrif, be arrested and prosecuted.
MEND, in a statement released by an official of the militant group, Comrade Azizi, warned that if conditions given by Boko Haram were granted without the release of their leader, Henry Okah and other members of the group, “there will be serious consequences.”
Meanwhile, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on Friday rejected the nomination of its presidential candidate in the 2011 election and national leader, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, as a negotiator for the Boko Haram in its negotiation with the Federal Government.
The CPC said Buhari had no link with terrorism in the country and therefore could not be a nominee of the dreaded group for its proposed negotiation as a condition to cease fire.
The CPC, in a statement by National Publicity Secretary, Rotimi Fashakin, said the party rejected in its entirety the nomination of its leader as a negotiator.

We came to inspire Nigerian women – Williams sisters

By John Egbokhan

Famous sports superstars, Venus and Serena Williams, have said that they came to Nigeria to promote women’s tennis and the empowerment of women in the most populated country in sub-sahara Africa

US tennis superstars Venus (Center R) and Serena Williams (Center L) dance with children during a program entitled “Kick Like a Girl”, after an interactive session with students of the Federal Government College in Lagos, on Thursday. The Williams sisters, accompanied by their mother Oracene Price are in Lagos as part of a two-nation tour to usher in a change to Nigerian tennis and empower women and the girl child. Photo: AFP

Speaking with reporters in Lagos’ commercial hub, Victoria Island, the pair who between them, have won 22 Grand Slam titles, said they hope their presence in Nigeria, which saw them conduct a tennis club at the Ikoyi Club 1938, hold a conference with secondary school pupils and play an exhibition match at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club yesterday, was going to spark a change in the way Nigerian women do things.
Alongside their mother, Oracene, the Williams sisters, were treated with royalty by their loving hosts and they felt at home.
Taking their own successes in women’s tennis, a sport which before them was dominated by white players, the sisters want to inspire Nigerian women to take up the sport.
They also want them to pursue their dreams, irrespective of the stumbling blocks that are the lots of many a Nigerian women.
“We were able to break the mould and win a lot of Grand Slams and change the face of tennis, at a time, when tennis was very dominated by white people,” said Serena, who is 31.
She added that “It doesn’t matter what your background is and where you come from, if you have dreams and goals, that’s all that matters,”
Venus, who is a year older than her sister, said that Nigerian women must believe in their ability to get to the peak of their careers.
“Self-belief is very important in life. Nigerian women must believe that they can succeed. We did it and that is the message we bring to Nigerian women. It is possible to become the very best if you believe and work on the things that would make you achieve those dreams.
“I also believe that Nigerian tennis players can also become great if they train well, believe and stay focused”, added Venus.
Vanguard

Show of shame in Aso Rock: Ribadu panel members disown report

IT was high drama inside the Aso Chambers of the Presidential Villa on Friday when members of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, led by former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, openly disagreed on the report submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Task Force had been scheduled to present its report along with two other Task Forces, namely on Governance and Control in Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other Parastatals, the National Refineries and Petroleum Revenue earlier set up by the president in his drive to reform the petroleum sector and improve collection of revenue.
However, moments after Mallam Ribadu made his remarks preparatory to the submission of the report, a member of the Task Force and former Head of Service of the Federation (HOS), Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, objected to the submission on the ground that the process that produced it was flawed.
But it did not stop the president from accepting the reports and those of Governance and Control in (NNPC) and other Parastatals, the National Refineries, even as he counseled members who disagreed with the report to put their views in writing and forward to the Minister of Petroleum Resources or the Chief of Staff to the president.
He assured that government would make use of the reports saying that on the issue of finance, if it bordered on corrupt practices or outright stealing, it would go to EFCC for investigation, and so nobody would lose anything.
President Jonathan added: “If there are errors in calculation or misinformation from the relevant agencies of government, we can filter that out and it would not be used against anybody.
“The interest of government in setting up the committees is to help us to do what is right.
Let me assure Nigerians that government has no interest in hiding anything. This report is not to investigate anybody in government, it is to look at the oil industry and tell government the best approach to maximise our revenue base.”
Signaling his intention to make some remarks and obtaining the President’s go ahead, Oronsaye apparently tried to discredit the report, arguing that it was not implementable or sustainable in its current form.
The former HOS, who explained that he joined the Task Force late because of other assignments, posited: “No matter how elegant a house may be, if the foundation is faulty, it will collapse. In the same vein, if the process is flawed, the outcome of that process will not be sustainable.
“I want to say to you Mr. President, with all sense of responsibility, that the process that has been followed is flawed and the report that has just been submitted to the honorable minister is a knee-jerk reaction to Mr. President’s directive that the report be submitted today.”
He alleged that whereas it had been agreed by the Task Force members that a committee should be set up to consider the draft report before being considered by whole house, it was not done, noting that the report circulated was therefore not accepted by members.
Mr. Oronsaye noted: “I want to say that did not happen. No matter how good the effort that has been put into this may be, for as long as the process is flawed, that report is one that cannot be implemented.
“Let me say this, your excellency, this other report that was circulated for discussion was actually not accepted by members and that was the reason the committee was to go out to review, modify and return. Then, on Wednesday by five p.m., the notice comes, there will be a meeting at 12noon on Thursday with an attached report.
“With all due respect, I refused to open my mail because we had agreed if any report were to be considered, it should be circulated, it must be at least five clear days for members to review, make meaningful contributions and consider.
“When Mr. President gave the directive that the report be submitted today, we should have been man enough to say it is not feasible because of a process reason.
“The truth is, in my view, I do not know...when I came in, I asked the acting secretary, where is the signature page? He said the chairman is to sign on behalf of all of us and I said certainly, I have not authorised any person to sign on my behalf.”
Speaking in a similar vein, another member of the committee, Mr. Bernard Oti, said he had harped on the need for proper procedures to be followed but the Task Force did not heed the advice.
“From the onset, I was very clear that we were not following necessary procedures and processes that will enable us arrive with evidence, data and information of minimum standard of integrity and credibility,” he said
Mr. Oti added: “Mr. President sir, despite the circumstances that compelled our being here today, I am not persuaded to be part of what is being submitted. I believe that it is work in progress and I did say that yesterday in the meeting, Mr. President.”
However, contradicting Oronsaye and Oti, the acting secretary of the Task Force, Sumaila Zubairu, revealed that the members were opposed to the report because they believed that it was too harsh, saying that contrary to the claims by the Oronsaye and Oti, members were given the opportunity to make necessary inputs.
He said: “We gave notices of the timelines of the receipts of those comments and we got all necessary comments. I will also like to add that Mr. Ben Oti and Mr. Oronsaye had made some observations at our meetings.
“They indicated that the report was too harsh, the report was based on estimates and stuffs like that. We made it clear to them that this is the result of experts and professionals willing to make specific reference in areas where you don’t have knowledge and we will consider. We did not receive any such comments.”
Another member, Mr. Ignatious Odekunle, expressed sadness that members brought their disagreement to the venue of the submission of the report.
Mallam Ribadu, however, dismissed opposition to the report by saying that there were just two members of the task force who were not in its favour because they were appointees of the same establishments that were being investigated and told the President that they ought to have resigned their appointments to avoid conflict of interest.
Mr. Oronsaye is a member of the board of the NNPC, while Mr. Oti is its Director of Finance.
Mallam Ribadu, who said he was taken by surprise by the development, revealed that Mr. Oronsaye did not attend any of the deliberations of the task force but only appeared at the end.
He stated: “Mr. President, it is your government, it is your work and whatever it is. Nobody else. This recommendation is for you to use. You thought it wise to call people from outside, to come into the industry and look at it critically and give you an honest opinion.
“During the pendency of that committee, Stephen Oronsaye got himself appointed on the board of the NNPC. He became a member of the board. The other gentleman who spoke, Oti, became the Director of Finance, NNPC and they decided to, more or less, bully everybody and take over and they wanted us to fight for them. Committee members refused.
“By the time they were appointed, the honourable thing they would have done was to resign as members of the committee. They refused to resign.”
Before the crisis, he had told the president that the recommendations of the task force would strengthen institutions responsible for the management of the petroleum institution and increase revenue accruing to the federal Government of Nigeria.
He said government needed to put in place a coherent financing solution that allowed it to fund its obligation under the Joint Venture Contracts.
Mallam Ribadu said “most of the recommendations are about management, about people and about how we run our own affairs. It probably may not have to do with the law. PIB or no PIB, some of these things, right now, can be implemented, and even if PIB comes, it will still be very important in getting the result.”
He advised the Federal Government to take action on gas flaring and ensure that outstanding royalties were collected from companies operating in Nigeria as the task force discovered that companies have not been meeting up with their obligation.
The task force chairman emphasised the need to end crude oil theft and ensure security in the Niger Delta to attract investment.
In her remarks, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Allison-Maduekwe, said she was placed in an awkward position by the disagreement, but assured that she did not interfere with the work of the task force.
Noting that the task force members were people of integrity, she said that the reports were submitted in accordance with the directive of the president and could not be rubbished because of the level of hard work that was put in them.
According to her, “Mr. President called for the report and it was presented. I will not allow this to reduce the extent of hard work that people of integrity have put into all the work. They have done good work. It is more critical to concern ourselves about how well we will move forward when we finalise.”
NigerianTribune

Nigerian 'youths executed' in Boko Haram stronghold

The BBC's Will Ross: An imam said he "heard gunshots and four of his children were shot right there"

Dozens of young men have been shot dead in Nigeria by the military in Maiduguri, residents in the north-eastern city have told the BBC.

An imam told the BBC about 11 youths from his street alone were killed, including four of his own sons.
The alleged extrajudicial executions happened as Amnesty International accused the security forces of abuses in its crackdown on Islamist militants.
A military spokesman in Maiduguri said he was not aware of the incident.
But Lt Col Sagir Musa told the BBC investigations would be made.
Maiduguri is the stronghold of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is fighting to impose Islamic law across Nigeria.
Hundreds of people in northern and central Nigeria have been killed in attacks blamed on the group over the last two years.
On Friday, retired General Mohammed Shuwa - key to crushing Biafran separatists during the brutal three-civil war in the 1960s - was shot by gunmen in his home in Maiduguri.
No-one has claimed responsibility for his killing, but Boko Haram is known for targeted assassinations of those they suspect oppose their views and work with the authorities.
Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday that the security forces have carried out widespread abuses in their campaign against the militants, killing, torturing and burning the houses of innocent civilians. Allegations denied by the military.
'Bodies in mortuary' Malam Aji Mustapha, an imam in Maiduguri, said after morning prayers on Thursday soldiers took him and his children to an open field where many people had already been taken.

“Start Quote

In my street alone, about 11 youths were shot dead and no-one has given us an explanation about what they did”

Malam Aji Mustapha Imam in Maiduguri

He told the BBC's Newsday programme that they were told to lie on the ground.

People were called forward for a screening process - the young men were checked against photos on a computer database and some of them were separated.
He said that they were ordered to look away and then he heard gunshots.
"They killed four of my children in front of me. They took their bodies to the mortuary of the general hospital," he said.
When he went to collect the bodies later, he saw the bodies of 48 youths, the imam said.
"In my street alone, about 11 youths were shot dead and no-one has given us an explanation about what they did."
The BBC Hausa Service has spoken to other residents in the city who had similar stories about house-to-house searches across the city - and those rounded up taken to the field for screening.
One man told the BBC he saw a dozen corpses at the general hospital. He identified one of them as a friend with whom he played football.
In response to the Amnesty International accusations, Nigeria's Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that the government would never condone human rights abuses, but it should be remembered that the army was trying to curb "terrorist" acts.
"I think you need to look at the circumstances. When the UK was battling terrorism... the US, they had Guantanamo Bay.... All countries, when the security of their citizens is at stake, they try to use all the tools at their disposal," she said.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala added that she objected to suggestions that the security forces acted in a "heavy-handed" way.
"Everyday our security forces are putting their lives on the line to fight this issue [of violence by Boko Haram]."
BBCNewsAfrica