National Security: Nigeria’s Military Being Compromised

Corruption and gross, malicious ineptitude of the fourth republic has taken its toll on the Nigerian security department, the last remaining, touted vestige of decency in the nation. It can no longer be denied that the military and entire security network of the nation right up to the office of national security, ONSA and ministry of defense has been compromised.

In September last year, PremiumTimes and SaharaReporters broke a story about a Security massacre of innocent citizens squatting in a building in Apo area, Abuja. The Nigerian forces had reportedly simply fired upon squatting civilians who they were reportedly trying to evict from the building. The security department claimed it was a battle with terrorists and that guns were found. Their claims were all later proven to be lies and this month the Nigerian Human Rights (NHRC) indicted the Directorate of State Security, DSS of murder.

Prior to this, there had been several reports and serious complaints by human right associations and concerned citizens that the military was killing as many or more innocent civilians than the terrorists were, as it battled Boko Haram in the north. There were and still are many complaints of the military actually withdrawing forces to permit Boko Haram terror attacks, including in the killing of distinguished army veteran, General Muhammed Shuwa in 2012, in whose case it was reported by PM News that soldiers actually watched as he was killed.

In February of this month, the Nigerian president threatened to pull out forces to “illustrate” to the northern leadership the effect of the military in the north; shortly after his announcement, there was a reported pull out of troops stationed near a school in Yobe which was subsequently attacked by terrorists, with dozens of students massacred.

About a hundred military dressed gunmen or groups of this number have been ravaging the middle belt of Nigeria, killing all people in sight and burning buildings in towns they visit. This situation has never been accosted by the Nigerian security department and has lasted for three years. It was believed that there were no leads, however an exasperated community head of the recently attacked Yar Galadima village in Zamfara where 250 were killed, revealed that the perpetrators and their camps were known by the town’s men and the security department; and that several had been arrested and released to continue their mayhem. The village head even gave the names of the terror leaders arrested and released by the state security department.

In Keana, a town in Nasarawa state, this month at least 15 civilians were summarily executed while burying a relative. The attack was initially reported in the nation’s top dailies as a successful military engagement against terrorists, however as the actual details unfolded and it was found to be a military men massacre of innocent cooperating civilians, the military retracted their ownership and submitted that an investigation was being conducted into the true occurrences.

This same April, a Voice of America, VoA broadcast suggested that there was top level military, treasonable sabotage, with military on military ambushes and slaughters of the nation’s security men by their own trainers. The report captioned,” Army, Boko Haram Working Together in Parts of Nigeria?” was a seriously embarrassing news piece, which the Nigerian military quickly denied, claiming the soldier who made the revelation was not a real soldier in the Nigerian army; however since the report, we have spoken with other military men, including others attacked in the same reported ambush, who substantiated the report that they were left with one or two magazines and ambushed by their own military.

A recent report by SaharaReporters alleged that junior officers had complained that the generals were undermining the mission of the army in Borno, embezzling funds for security equipment and mobilizations, sometimes placing two army units in one zone to reduce costs while sabotaging security delivery. The report revealed that ammunition was in inadequate supply, allowing the superiorly kitted Boko Haram terrorists, with things like night-vision goggles Nigeria’s troops did not have, and more rounds of superior ammunition, the capacity to defeat the Nigerian army. Even food was scroungy, further defeating the morale of the soldiers.

In latest news reports, according to the Borno government office, the school involved and the populace, the Nigerian military dangerously lied about the release of the abducted 100+ girls. The military had claimed it had released the girls; this was allegedly a very evil and deadly lie, as the citizens said their wards were still in the bushes with the terrorists.

Nigeria’s security department has visibly, deliberately failed to curb terror freely plaguing the nation; not a single sponsor of terror has ever been prosecuted, despite preponderance of evidence including the Abba Moro White report indicting Borno politicians in the establishment of Boko Haram. These politicians exiled by the Borno populace now live safe in the nation’s capital. The army has also been accused of not responding for up to eight hours when villages call and report impending and ongoing attacks. Helicopters have been reported to be surprisingly flying in Nigeria’s monitored air spaces across the north, also indicating dangerous compromise and sabotage of the army and State security department. The security department seems further compromised, accused of aiding and abetting terror and lying to condone military massacres and failures.

When Nigeria’s former head of state security, NSA Andrew Owoye-Azazi had revealed that terror in the nation was not accidental but was sponsored and supported by top ruling-party, PDP politicians, he was fired, and killed in a helicopter crash later that year. Nigeria is today in a very precarious situation as terror increases across the nation, especially its northern parts. More than 21,000 people have died of the violence since Jonathan came into power. Not a single sponsor of terror has been prosecuted by this government.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah

Why I can’t be probed by Financial Council – Sanusi

Apr 17 at 6:22 PM

 by: Joseph Jibueze 

Suspended Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido, on Thursday accused the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) of bias and bad faith in its bid to investigate him.

Arguing his Originating Summons before Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Lagos, Sanusi’s lawyer, Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN) said FRCN lacks power to conduct such probe.

Sanusi is praying the court to stop his investigation by the council. He joined FRCN and its Executive Secretary as respondents.

According to him, FRCN’s declaration in a Briefing Note dated June 7 and submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan were ultra vires (outside) its powers as contained in the FRCN Act, 2011.

The applicant is urging the court to hold that the defendants, having reached a conclusion as to his culpability as Governor of CBN, as indicated in the briefing note and newspaper publications, can no longer conduct any investigation on the same matter.

Awodein said the defendants do not have the power to conduct the wide-ranging investigations as reported in a news medium and as contained in an invitation letter sent to Sanusi.

He added that the defendants cannot, therefore, conduct that kind of investigation regarding the period that the plaintiff was the CBN governor.

According to Awodein, the defendants reached conclusions and made far reaching recommendations without giving Sanusi a fair hearing.

“In those conclusions and decisions they have taken, they have breached his fundamental rights to natural justice, because the plaintiff was not given any opportunity to defend himself before they reached those decisions,” Awodein said.

For instance, the lawyer said FRCN wrongly accused Sanusi of misappropriating N20.2billion in legal and professional fees.

He said had the defendants given Sanusi the opportunity to defend himself, he would have shown how the money was spent.

Terrorism: IYC Indicts Presidency

sola adebayo

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) yesterday indicted the Presidency over the spate of bombing rocking the northern axis of the country.

The IYC said the Presidency could not claim ignorance of the identities of the sponsors of the dastardly act, which has led to the death of many Nigerians, particularly in the North-East geopolitical zone of the country.

To this end, the group in a statement issued by its spokesman, Mr. Eric Omare, in reaction to Monday’s bomb explosions at Nyanya market, Abuja, in which over 100 persons were reported dead, asked President Goodluck Jonathan to speedily identify and punish the sponsors of the heinous crime.

IYC accused Jonathan of not being desicive in the war against terrorism and called for drastic actions against sponsors of Boko Haram and terrorism.

The umbrella body for the youths of Ijaw extraction in the Niger Delta condemned the terrorist attack on the Abuja market and commiserated with the families of the victims.

The Ijaw group notes that Tuesday’s sad development in Abuja indicated that the perpetrators planned to extend the heinous crime to others parts of the country with the ulterior motive of making the country ungovernable and overthrow the democratically elected government.

Consequently, it urged the Federal Government to extend the emergency rule in the North-East.

IYC said, “However, considering the deadly nature of attack and the implication on our national security, the IYC call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to take drastic and far reaching steps against sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria. The problem of terrorism cannot be resolved without tackling the source of their sponsorship.

“The sponsors of Boko Haram should be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law. The Federal Government cannot claim ignorance of the sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria with all the security apparatus at its disposal. Government must act decisively irrespective of whose ox is gored and protect the ordinary people of Nigeria.

“The interest of the generality of Nigerians is over and above the interest of a few powerhungry people who are sponsoring terrorism. The IYC wish to reiterate its earlier position that the ultimate objective of the sponsors of Boko Haram and terrorism is to make the country ungovernable and forcefully take over the government of Nigeria. Hence, it is an issue that government must treat with utmost seriousness,” IYC added.

Military’s Claim On Freeing 107 Abducted Girls False – Principal

By Kareem Haruna

Borno State government and management of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS) Chibok where over 100 school girls were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen on Tuesday, have said the military’s claim on freeing 107 of the missing girls is false.

The spokesman of the Defence Headquarters, Brigadier General Chris Olukolade had Wednesday issued a statement claiming that 107 of the kidnapped SSS-3 girls had been freed.

His statement reads: “More students of the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok have been freed this evening in the ongoing search and rescue operations to free the abducted students. With this development, the principal of the school confirmed that only eight of the students are still missing. One of the terrorists who carried out the attack on the school has also been captured. Efforts are underway to locate the remaining 8 students.”

But the principal of GGSS Chibok, Mrs. Asabe Kwambura, whom Brigadier Olukolade said had given him the information on Wednesday, has denied ever feeding him with such figure, even as she insisted that only 14 of the abducted girls had been freed as announced earlier by Governor Kashim Shettima.

Mrs. Kwambura, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri, said “There is nothing in the statement issued by the military that is true about our abducted girls. Up till now, we are still waiting and praying for the safe return of the students; all I know is that we have only 14 of them, and the security people, especially the vigilante and the well-meaning volunteers of Gwoza, are still out there searching for them. The military people too are in the bush searching. So we have not received any information that they have the students yet. So let it be clear that all the information passed on through the media by the military concerning 107 girls is not true. I, as the principal, did not give anybody any figure on released students other than what His Excellency, Governor Kashim Shettima had informed the media,” said Mrs Kwambura.

“They contacted me from the army headquarters in Abuja and I told them that I don’t want to be seen to be contradicting myself on that because what the governor had said was what we knew.I also told them there could be further rescue of the girls, but up to this moment, we have not received any of them apart from what we had before. What the governor said is still the true picture of the whole issue and the information given by the military is totally wrong.”

The Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima was also heard speaking in an interview aired on the Hausa Service of the BBC on Thursday morning that only 14 girls had been recovered so far.

“We have recovered 14 of the girls and we have announced a N50 million reward for any credible information that will help us get our girls released and rejoined with their families,” the governor said.

Many residents of Maiduguri who are angered by the sad development feel this denial has laid bare the truth on how the military may have been feeding the public with false claims on victories of their troops over the Boko Haram insurgents.

Nigerian Observer confirms pregnant employee’s death in blast

Mrs. Macelina Omon Iyogun

 by: Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin 

A circulation officer with the Abuja office of the Nigerian Observer, Mrs. Macelina Omon Iyogun, died in Monday’s Abuja blast.

A release by the newspaper’s management said the late Mrs. Iyogun was a mother of two and was pregnant at the time of the incident.

She joined The OBSERVER Newspapers as a Circulation Clerk on January 3, 2000.

She was in the Benin office until 2010 when she was transferred to Abuja following her marriage in 2009.

According to the management, Mrs. Iyogun was on her official duty to take delivery of the day’s Observer at Nyanyan Park, Abuja for circulation when she died.

Born on January 12, 1979, the late Mrs. Iyogun hailed from Uhiele, Ekpoma in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State.

IS NIGERIA A NATION RULED BY PATHOLOGICAL LIARS? (PART 1)

                          

FACT:-

 “POWER GENERATION IN NIGERIA DROPPED TO 1,714 MEGAWATTS”.

 SOURCE:- A.I.T NEWS, FRIDAY 18^TH APRIL, 2014.

By: Eddy Ogunbor.

Last weekend, Friday 11^th April 2014 to be precise, my daughters informed us (my wife and I) that they were going out to, as they will always say, “hang out with their friends”. We always laugh over this and thereafter advise them to “hang out” responsibly and moderately. This particular weekend, when they came back home, it was noticed that my younger daughter’s shoes had some traces of sand and on further prodding, she accepted that the “hang out” was in the open park.

Now, for those that frequent Abuja and socialize, Abuja has Parks and these are the usual places for relaxation. On impulse, they were advised to avoid such places for now because of the security situation in Abuja and especially the threat by Boko Haram terrorists that they will strike in Abuja and environs. Curiuosly, Abuja parks do not have adequate security checks!! Anyone could drive in and out with anything at anytime. In places where there are security checks, even in the five star Hotels, apart from metal detectors to check under the car chassis (that is, if the metal detectors are really effective), you are asked to have your car booth opened. The check takes only few seconds. Explosive devices are not only planted or installed underneath the car chassis or booth for crying out loud!! What about the car engine and the interior of the car!?

This discussion with my daughters was just one week away from the festive (Easter) holiday. The government and security agencies assured Abuja residents that they were “on top of the situation” and adequate security arrangements will be put in place during the festive period. The normal government and security agencies official response to all situations – good or bad.

Reasonably, security should have been beefed up in a responsive government, atleast one week before the festive period. For government and security forces, Easter was still a week away when all security personnel will be deployed to worship places because the “ogas at the top” will worship in these places and must be protected. The Parks were now left vulnerable and travellers in the motor parks (masses) were left at the mercies of the terrorists.

Was it any surprise that the terrorists struck at Nyanya Motor Park early morning on Monday 14^th April 2014? Lives were lost and many injured. The country’s security preparedness was once again exposed to all and sundry. Expectedly, government moved to Nyanya Park. The who-is- who in government visited the motor park. Condolences as usual were conveyed to the victims (dead or alive), the relatives of the victims etc and to Nigerians. As usual, Nigerians were informed that government and security agencies were “on top of the situation”, “the perpetrators of this dastardly acts will be fished out”, “security is not only the responsibility of government” and “ politicians/people should not play politics with the situation” blah, blah, blah.

Finally, government moved to the various Hospitals (public and private), in full glare of national and local TV cameras, then promised full responsibility in taking care of all hospital bills. What did we find out thereafter, relatives of victims and survivors were asked to settle bills by the hospitals pending when government will settle the bills and therefore wait for refund. In Nigeria, knowing the way things work, getting refund will take eternity and some people in government will make a “kill” from this situation.

The medical team called for blood donations to save victims lives. Sadly, no government official and all the “ogas at the top” responded to the call. The British Envoy to Nigeria shamed them all and along with his members of staff at the British High Commission, became the first blood donors to save the lives of Nigerians in Nigeria.

The shock of all these had hardly sunk in on Nigerians, then followed the shock from the stable of the ruling party PDP, that is, the rally in Kano, to receive just one "decampee" to their fold, on the following day Tuesday 15^th April 2014. This shocked most Nigerians to a state of “unshockability” (late Dele Giwa). The party bigwigs, including Nigeria’s President, danced, clapped, laughed and threw abusive words at the host Governor and the main opposition party, APC, in the country. This took over two hours of live TV broadcast, at a time Nigerians mourned, grieved and survivors still in different hospitals, still not certain of their chances of living.. This was, in the opinion of most Nigerians, one dance too many on the grave of the dead from the bomb blast and outright insensitivity on the part of these shameless politicians to the plight of the injured, still recovering in the hospitals and the relatives of all the victims.

Not done with that shameful act, on the same day, the President, some government officials and ruling party members jetted to Ibadan to celebrate with the Olubadan of Ibadan on his centenary birthday ( which was celebrated a day before) and photographed cutting a  special cake with the Monarch.

The country was further informed and shocked same day, while the ruling party and the President conducted the shameful rally in Kano, that over 200 secondary school girls were abducted by gunmen in  Chibok, a remote village in Borno State. Nigerians are informed by one of the girls that was lucky to escape, that the gun men came in buses, woke them up at about 9pm, ushered them into the buses and drove off with the girls at about 3am. A whole six hours and no security check points and no trace of security in the area for those long period of time they operated!? The girl informed Nigerians also that at least two of the buses broke down twice. Yet, no security agencies picked the terrorists up?

Then the mother of all lies and deceit by the military. The military spokes person, a serving General informed Nigerians and the world that the military rescued some of the girls, while the school Principals and parents of the girls debunked the the story. Nigeria’s Minister of National Planning, Bashir Yuguda was on international TV Al Jazeera talking through both sides of his mouth and lying to the world that, indeed the abducted secondary school girls were rescued by the military. On Thursday, 17^th April 2014, the military shamelessly came out to retract their earlier statement that the military had rescued the girls. The military spokesperson claimed that the military was misled!!

The “celebrated” megaphone" of the ruling Party, Olisa Metuh, in an effort to gain political mileage from these situation, came on air and with a press statement, to announce and accuse the opposition party, APC and its leaders led by General Muhammadu Buhari of launching and master minding the Nyanya Park bomb blast. His ruling party towed the same line of accusation even though the security agencies informed Nigerians that investigations to unravel the perpetrators of the bomb blast are still ongoing. The good news is that General Buhari has given the ruling party PDP and its Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh a seven day ultimatum to retract their claims or face legal action. This is a step towards the right direction by General Buhari to redeem his image and put a final stop to these  unwarranted  and unsubstantiated falsehood by pathological liars. We await this retractions  anxiously.

This informed my decision to go on a three day mourning period, shunning postings on facebook in honour of all victims, dead or alive and to protest my disgust for the shows of shame and insentivities of government and the ruling party.

The President, as a result of the nation’s security challenges, on Thursday summoned an “extended” Security Council meeting, supposedly to include all security Chiefs, the 36 State Governors, DSS, DMI and NIA Chiefs, NSA, Defence Ministers etc, with the President to preside as the Commander-in-Chief. However, only the PDP Governors attended as the APC Governors were not present. Then another embarrassing situation of claims and counter claims ensured. The Presidency gave the impression that the APC Governors shunned the security meeting. The President’s “man Friday”, Godswill Akpabio informed Nigerians that the APC Governors were not invited as the meeting was only for the PDP Governors. Lai Mohammed, APC Interim Publicity Secretary claimed that the APC Governors were initially invited but, a phone call from the Presidency to one of the APC’s Governors aides informed them that the security meeting had been called off. Hence the APC Governors did not attend.

Olisa Metuh's Comment On Nyanya Blast: A Sample Of Stupidity By Amene Terheme

By Amene Terheme

In the early hours of Monday 04/14/2014, a terrible blast rocked the ever busy Nyanya Park claiming not less than 50 lives.
The PDP in its official reaction by their spokesman, Olisah Metuh blamed the opposition. Keep in mind that so far no security agency has made public any report of the investigation of the blast. This piece of information is important because if Metuh who has no official link to and is holding no office with any of the security agencies will know the perpetrators of a blast even before those saddled, constitutionally, with the responsibility to fish out those behind the crime start work, two things may be possible:
(1) He is behind it himself.
He planned it all along with the intent to pin it on the opposition because of statements they had made which he perceived were directed at propagating violence and mass murder - that's a good alibi.
(2) He knew all along when the opposition was planning the attack but kept quiet to make political capital should they succeed with the attack. Whichever be the case, DSS needs to pick Mr. (can't call him chief because I don't know what qualifies him to be one) Olisah Metuh to explain his role in the Nyanya Park blast.
Now let's go to the main substance:
When Gov. Shetima of Borno State said Boko Haram was better armed, PDP said he, a governor on the platform of APC, must have an insider information on Boko Haram armament to make such a statement, by extension he is a sponsor.  I had argued that I do not need to open students' skulls to look at their brains before I'll know who is more intelligent; the result of what they put on paper will give me who is.
Days later, Boko Haram attacked a school in Yobe killing scores of students; from the blue a document emerged trying by all means to link the Central Bank Governor (Sanusi Lamido Sanusi) who had just been suspended to the attack, with some even crediting him with membership of the opposition, APC. That document was spread by a hitherto unknown name (Wendel Simlin), later shown by tech savvy persons to be an alias of Reno Omokri a staff of the PDP controlled presidency.
After today's attack, a PDP spokesman is playing another card linking APC to the attack. What a way to value human life!
I brought to fore these three examples to show that the PDP's eagerness to blame APC for violence in Nigeria is not new. Equally not new is the fact that even though they claim to have facts that link the opposition to violence, they have failed to use same to nail those involved so as to stop the violence. They may be waiting for 2015 to slap and rub the facts in their faces or they just enjoy watching as APC kills us all day after day.
My pain and anger is not in PDP trying to pin the attack on the opposition, because such an attempt is at best a stupid display of low-life stupidity and immaturity. A man who fails to prevent the death of his children but turns around to quickly blame his brother staying with him who wants to take over his wife as the culprit is not only stupid, but insensitive, inhuman and patently useless. Such to me is the definition of the People's Democratic Party now.
I am angered because Olisah Metuh and by extension PDP would prefer to use, of all happenings in Nigeria today, the needless death of Nigerians to glean some political capital which has and is continually slipping through its fingers by the careless conduct and statements of those connected to it. To do such a thing alone shows insensitivity to the plight of the bereaved and wounded, but to do it when the heat from the blast has not yet dissipated, the smoke still thick in the air and the fire still raging with the injured still on their way to the hospital and the dead to the morgue is wicked and evil.
Let's us analyse the Metuh-PDP Campaign of Calumny presented as a statement on the Nyanya blast. The entire report has eleven (11) paragraphs, of this only three (3 - 27%) deal with the attack, six (6 - 55%) are reserved in proving the opposition has a hand, two (2 - 18%) paragraphs invite others to join PDP, to ask sponsors of violence to repent and thank those who shelved official engagements as a result of the blast. This is like cooking 3 cups of egusi and putting 6 cups of pepper - it can't be egusi soup with pepper added, it must be pepper soup with egusi added to it. What Olisah Metuh did was to find an occasion to paint the opposition bad but then remembered to throw in a few words on the blast itself to give it a semblance of expression of shock over the incident. This is what makes the PDP statement shocking (but not out of character from whom it came), irresponsible, annoying, childish and above all stupid. You don't go to condole a man whose child was killed and begin to reel out names of those you think may be responsible; that's unheard of, at least in my part of the world.
Now to some pertinent questions:
1.  If Olisah Metuh and PDP know that the opposition is responsible for the attacks by virtue of their statements, whose job is it to call them to order? Is it not the PDP led government? And if they have not been called to order until scores of lives are lost, who has failed? Is it not the PDP government?

2.  Since Olisah Metuh and PDP are so sure APC by their statements is promoting violence yet the government they control has not deemed it fit to bring to book those found to have made statements in favour of violence, should we take it to mean the government they (PDP) control is deliberately allowing the death of citizens it swore to protect so as to have an opportunity to point an accusing finger on the APC?

3.  Since some PDP members/apologists have at one point or another made statements that were widely perceived as fueling the embers of violence, how is Metuh able to separate the violence attributable to the statements made by APC and those by PDP?

4.  If no investigation has been done, yet Metuh traces this blast to APC, is it a sign he knew of the attack before it happened? If YES, why didn't he stop it by reporting to appropriate agencies? Does this not make him culpable in the crime? (Withholding information that could have stopped a crime from the authorities).
A word of advice to Mr Metuh; the Holy Book I read says "Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent" (Prov 17:28 NLT).
I conclude - again with these words; a man who cannot prevent the death of his children but turns around to quickly blame his brother staying with him who wants to take over his wife as being responsible for the deaths is not only stupid, but insensitive, inhuman and patently useless. Such to me is the definition of the People's Democratic Party now.

By Amene Terheme

Saharareporters