Nigeria begins 'final onslaught' against Boko Haram: govt

   
Nigeria has begun the "final onslaught" against Boko Haram, the country's national security spokesman said on Tuesday, after the militants were ousted from the strategic town of Bama.
On a visit to London, Mike Omeri told AFP that "significant strategic military successes and gains" had been made against the Islamists in recent weeks.

"Bama (the second biggest town in Borno state) was retaken yesterday (Monday) and we have Abadam, Gwoza and Askira as part of the remaining areas where we still have this presence," he said. Abadam, Gwoza and Askira are also in Borno, which has been worst hit by six years of violence and was under emergency rule from May 2013 to November last year with neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa.

The military announced that Adawama was "cleared" last Friday and that Yobe was retaken on Monday from Boko Haram, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. There was no independent verification of the claimed successes, which followed the deployment last month of troops from Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well as foreign mercenaries.

The operation not only aims at reducing the regional threat from the militants, after several cross-border attacks in recent months, but also to secure the northeast for elections to be held. Voting was initially scheduled for February 14 but was rescheduled to March 28 because of the counter-offensive on the grounds that soldiers would not be available to provide security on polling day.

Omeri refused to be drawn on when the insurgency would be declared over, although President Goodluck Jonathan said in an interview published last Wednesday that Borno would be free in three weeks. "As for the other three areas (Abadam, Gwoza and Askira), help is coming," said Omeri, who announced last week that 36 towns had been recaptured from Boko Haram.

"Soldiers are still out there working hard and we're en route to the final onslaught because it has started already from Bama." The insurgency has left more than 13,000 people dead since 2009 and forced some 1.5 million others to flee their homes.

But Omeri said that once the affected communities were free, "they will be advised to return home and continue with their lives". Jonathan is facing a stiff challenge from the main opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who has attacked the president's record on tackling Boko Haram.

Buhari, who headed a military government for 20 months from December 1983, has accused Jonathan of consistently failing to provide leadership. Chief among the retired general and his party's complaints have been an alleged lack of support and equipment provided to soldiers, which only recently seems to have been rectified.

The opposition has also voiced fears for the integrity of the overall result if the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence in its northeast stronghold are disenfranchised. Repeated bomb and suicide attacks in recent weeks have raised fears about the safety of polling stations.

But Omeri told a separate news conference: "We are confident there will be a level of security to enable citizens to vote." Boko Haram were now "running with their tails between their legs", he added, indicating that the militants were being contained within the northeast.

"Boko Haram are not being pushed into neighbouring countries, we are pushing them to an area where we are finding a solution to their menace," he said. Reports have suggested that Boko Haram fighters were amassing in Gwoza, which Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared part of a caliphate last year and is considered the group's headquarters.

On private military contractors, including South Africans who have been seen alongside Nigerian troops in the northeast, Omeri denied reports that some have been fighting on the front line. He maintained their presence was only for training purposes and no mercenaries were involved.

Source: AFP

New York Times calls GEJ lousy, says he's trying to frustrate Buhari

In an article titled 'Nigeria's Miserable Choices' Published on New York Times yesterday Monday February 16th, and written by the editorial board of the US newspaper, they described Nigerian president as a 'lousy incumbent' & described Buhari as a 'former autocratic leader'. 

 

See article below

The Nigerian government was supposed to hold presidential elections this past weekend, which presented voters with the dispiriting choice of keeping a lousy incumbent or returning to power a former autocratic leader. Now they will have to wait at least six weeks to cast votes.

The Nigerian election commission said earlier this month that it had pushed back the vote until at least March 28, after the country’s security chiefs warned that they could not guarantee the safety of voters in northeastern areas of the country where Boko Haram, the extremist militant group, captured international attention last spring when it abducted hundreds of schoolgirls. On Friday, Boko Haram fighters attacked a village in neighboring Chad for the first time, an alarming sign of the group’s expanding strength in a region that also includes areas of Cameroon and Niger.

Any argument to delay the vote might be more credible if President Goodluck Jonathan’s government had not spent much of the past year playing down the threat posed by the militants and if there were a reasonable expectation that the country’s weak military has the ability to improve security in a matter of weeks.

It appears more likely Mr. Jonathan grew alarmed by the surging appeal of Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who has vowed to crack down on Boko Haram. By dragging out the race, Mr. Jonathan stands to deplete his rival’s campaign coffers, while he continues to use state funds and institutions to bankroll his own.

That Mr. Buhari, who helped launch a coup against a democratically elected government in 1983 and ruled until late 1985, has emerged as potential winner is more of an indictment of Mr. Jonathan’s dismal rule than a recognition of the former military chief’s appeal.

Nigerian voters have grown increasingly worried about the stunning rise of Boko Haram, which has committed terrorist atrocities including bombings. 

The abductions and attacks by the group have exposed the weaknesses of Nigeria’s armed forces and the dysfunction of the government. Although Mr. Jonathan’s government has in the past been less than enthusiastic, and at times obstructive, in response to offers of American and European aid, he appears to be growing increasingly worried. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, he said he would welcome American troops to fight the insurgency. 

Beyond security matters, entrenched corruption and the government’s inability to diversify its economy as the price of oil, the country’s financial bedrock, has fallen have also caused Nigerians to look for new leadership. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, and a relatively young democracy, cannot afford an electoral crisis. That would only set back the faltering effort to reassert government control in districts where Boko Haram is sowing terror. The security forces may not be able to safeguard many districts on Election Day. But postponement is very likely to make the security threat worse.

 

Source

Photos: Protests against LUTH after woman detained for unsettled hospital bill dies

Family members and youths in the Idi-Araba area of Lagos state last Thursday January 29th took to the streets of Idi Araba, to protest the death of one Mrs. Folake Oduyoye who reportedly died on Dec. 13th 2014 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, after her husband could not offset her medical bill of N1.3million while she was admitted in the hospital for post delivery complications she developed after having a child at the hospital. 

According to Sahara Reporters, Mrs Oduyoye's husband, Mr Oduyoye said she was transferred to LUTH following post delivery complications. He said after she was admitted into the hospital, she was treated and given a bill of N1m which he was able to offset through the help of relatives and associates from his wife's fashion trade. Mr Oduyoye said after his wife was officially discharged by the hospital, he was issued another bill of about N1.3million.

Mr Oduyoye said that he was able to raise N300,000 out of the bill and then had an agreement with management of LUTH to discharge her on the condition that he would provide a guarantor who would stand to ensure that he pays up the balance in a systematic manner and that the guarantor must be a staff of LUTH. He said his inability to provide a guarantor within their workforce made the hospital management detain his wife who in the process developed other illnesses with symptomatic cough. He said the hospital refused to treat his wife's new illness because of the unsettled bill.

"At this point they [hospital management] policed me everywhere, saying I might smuggle my wife out of the hospital. I slept beside her all 45 days in the hospital, watching other patients die on daily basis,” he said.

Sadly his wife passed away in the hospital on 13th of December, 2014,

"She asked me if we would go home any time soon, since she was said to be discharged a month and half ago. But that was only the last five minutes into end for her, I didn't know. At about 2a.m on 13th of December, she finally dropped on my lap,” he said.

One of the leaders of the protest and frontline human rights activist, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin said this was a case of government corruption.

"This is neglect and a rip off. Where is the National Health Insurance Scheme and where are the billions earmarked for public healthcare?", Okei-Odumakin said.

Source

At the Independence Day Special Interactive Session with Pastor Sam Adeyemi

Trust you all had a splendid Independence Day celebration. Happy Independence Day to all our readers. I am sorry I could not come online all through yesterday. I had to attend some events in the spirit of Independence celebrations.

Let me first say that God has been faithful to us as a nation in the last 100 years of nationhood and 54 years of Independence. We have gone through the rigours of corruption, deficient leadership and above all terrorism to mention but a few and we are still standing strong.
I was privileged to attend the Independence Day Special Interactive Session with Pastor Sam Adeyemi at the Daystar Christian Centre, Ikeja yesterday. I would like to give brief highlights of the programme.
The senior pastor gave an insight into what it takes to solve Nigeria’s myriad problems. He humourously started the session by saying that Nigeria’s problems could be described as the outcomes from blind men told to touch the parts of the body of an elephant.

The Success Power host continued by saying that Nigeria has been spoilt by nature. He however said that Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria. From the pastor’s perspective, the cardinal points from which individuals can impact the nation are basically nine categories of influence namely Government, Family, Sports, Media, Religion, Education, Economy, Entertainment, Science and Technology.
An average of two persons spoke on the nine areas of influence. He pinpointed the fact that “if you try to control what you have no power over, you have signed a contract with frustration.” In his words, “You cannot solve Nigeria’s problem beyond your purpose. Everyone in Nigeria will not and cannot solve her problems at the same time but God needs some people.”
I believe Nigeria can be better off when we start aligning ourselves to our purpose in our everyday activities. God bless Nigeria!

Women protest half naked against Kaduna state governor

Women in Fadan Karshi in Sanga local government in Kaduna yesterday protested half naked when the governor of the state, Mukhtar Yero, came to pay them a condolence visit. Their grievance? Well, according to the indigene of the state who sent the pics to Sahara Reporters, over a thousand people have been killed in the area and neighboring towns and villages by terrorists since March this year, and the governor never came to see them until yesterday when he showed up with hundreds of security personnel following last week's attack that left over 40 people dead.

The angry women, who felt they'd been abandoned, lay on the ground crying as the governor and his team came through their town.

Source

Nigeria Government Approves N13bn for Rice, Cassava Mills

The Federal Government has approved N13 billion for the procurement of 10 integrated rice mills and six high quality cassava flour mills to boost rice and cassava production in the country.

The government also approved N568 million for the award of contract for the procurement and construction of an additional transformer for the Maiduguri Substation.

Briefing journalists after the weekly federal executive council meeting, which was chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, said the rice mills will be located in 10 states of the federation.

The 10 rice mills have a capacity to mill 36,000 metric tons of paddy rice, making it a total of 360,000 metric tons of paddy rice to be finely processed across the country.

The rice mills will be located in Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Ogun, Bayelsa, Niger, Kogi, Anambra, Benue and Bauchi States, while the cassava mills will be located in Ondo, Ogun, Abia, Delta, Cross River, Nasarawa states.

Mr. Adesina said the council deliberated extensively on the need for more integrated rice mills across the country as it is currently working at the total blackout of the importation of rice.

Man arraigned in court for posting negative remarks about Ogun state Governor on Facebook

A 31-year old man named Wasiu Ogunnoiki was arraigned before a Magistrate’s Court in Sagamu yesterday 2nd September for allegedly posting derogatory remarks about Ibikunle Amosun on his Facebook wall.

Ogunnoiki was alleged to have posted on Facebook saying that the State Governor had demolished the houses of some residents without compensating them accordingly, a statement the government found unacceptable.
Ogunnoiki was also alleged to have published the photograph of the APC Chairman in Sagamu Local Government, Femi Felix Kafar on his Facebook wall. He claimed that the latter in partnership with members of the Labor Party in the State have concluded plans to sack governor Amosun from office before the 2015 general elections.
When the two-count charge was read out, Ogunnoiki pleaded not guilty to the charges and the Chief Magistrate, Mr O.O. Ojo granted him bail in the sum of N400,000, with two sureties in like sum.
The matter was adjourned till 5th December.

U.S. Criticizes Nigeria Over Kidnapping Response

U.S. Criticizes Nigeria Over Kidnapping Response

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Defense Department official on Thursday said Nigeria had been too slow to respond to the threat of Boko Haram but Washington is committed to helping fight the Islamist militants and rescue over 200 girls seized from their school a month ago.

U.S. officials have said the effort to retrieve the girls is now a top priority but has been complicated by Nigeria's early reluctance to accept assistance, and U.S. rules banning aid to foreign forces that have committed human rights abuses.

"In general Nigeria has failed to mount an effective campaign against Boko Haram," Alice Friend, the Pentagon's principal director for African Affairs, told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Africa subcommittee.

"The Department has been deeply concerned for some time by how much the Government of Nigeria has struggled to keep pace with Boko Haram’s growing capabilities," Friend said.

Friend said it was troubling that atrocities have been perpetrated by some Nigerian forces during operations against Boko Haram.

Robert Jackson, acting assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, said Washington has urged Nigeria to reform its approach to the group. "When soldiers destroy towns, kill civilians and detain innocent people with impunity, mistrust takes root," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Abuja offered help almost immediately after the kidnapping. But it was two weeks before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to offer aid, which was accepted on May 4, Jackson said. Friend said U.S. reconnaissance flights started days later.

Nigeria has been reluctant to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist threat at the United Nations, but Jackson said it has changed its position and he expected that designation imminently.

Delaware Senator Chris Coons, the subcommittee chairman, said that the odds the girls would get home safely were diminishing every day.

"It took too long for the Nigerian government to respond to the girls’ abduction. It took too long for the Nigerian government to accept offers of assistance from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China, and once accepted, it took too long for that assistance to be fully implemented," he said. The U.S. officials said Boko Haram is a regional threat that is becoming international, with ties to al Qaeda. They said the Pentagon and Department of State were developing a "regional response," including improved security along Nigeria's borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

"We've definitely determined that there are links between al Qaeda in the Islamic Mahgreb and Boko Haram. They have probably provided at least training, perhaps financial support," Jackson said. 

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid, Andrew Hay and Ken Wills)

Source: Reuters Mobile

Chibok: Borno Governor Gives Names Of 54 Teenage Schoolgirls Spotted in Boko Haram Video

Some of the girls seen in the YouTube video posted online on Monday by the terrorist group Boko Haram have been identified by their parents, guardians, fellow students and school officials, the Governor of Borno State, Mr. Kashim Shettima said Tuesday.

THEWILL recalls that over 200 teenage schoolgirls were seized in the night of April 14th 2014, from the dormitory of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by the radical Islamic insurgents.

Governor Shettima had during a press briefing held after a peaceful procession by a coalition of civil society bodies and activists under the Bring Back Our Girls initiative in Abuja on Tuesday, said some of the girls had been identified.

A statement by the governor’s spokesman, Isa Gusau, said 54 of them were spotted in the video which Shettima Monday ordered to be downloaded into mobile devices and sent to Chibok in order for parents, fellow students and school officials to view.

The parents and students who did the identification were Tuesday transported to Government House Maiduguri for another round of identifications away from the media and observers.

Officials attached to the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Abubakar Kyari, prevented the parents and students from speaking to journalists after the exercise as they were escorted into waiting government marked vehicles and taken to unknown destinations.

THEWILL can however report that over 80 girls have been identified as at the time of filing this report. A senior official who asked to remain anonymous told THEWILL that “85 girls have so far been identified in the video as at this night (Tuesday). So that that is 31 more than the official number whose names have been made public. The list will be updated formally tomorrow.”

Those identified according to the statement are:

1. Agnes Gafane
2. Saraya Stober
3. Hauwa Bitrus
4. Hajara Isa
5. Na’omi Philimun
6. Hauwa Abdu (1st Speaking)
7. Magret Yama
8. Shitta Abdu
9. Jummai Muta
10.Ladi Paul
11. Roda Peter
12. Filo Dauda
13. Godiya Bitrus
14. Saratu Tauji (2nd Speaking)
15. Ross Daniel
16.Hauwa Ali
17. Hajara Isa (Amira 3rd Speaking)
18.Luba Afga
19.Na’omi Luka
20. Saraya Emos Ali
21. Bilkisu Abdullahi
22. Mairama Ali
23. Maryam Ali Maiyanga
24. Dabora Abbas
25. Kabu Mala
26. Halima Ali
27. Yana Bukar
28. Solomi Pugu
29. Lydia Emmar
30. Luba Sanda
31. Saraya Samuel
32. Comfort Habila
33. Rejoice Shanki
34. Gloria Yaga
35. ‎Mary Nkeki
36. Moda Baba
37. Hauwa Isuwa
38. Patient Jacob
39. Ladi Jajel
40. Abigel Bukar
41. Fanta Lawan
42. Zainabu Yaga
43. Aisha Lawan Zanna
44. Dokas Yakubu
45. Kabu Mala
46. Maryama Bashir
47. Hauwa M. Maina
48. Mary G. Dauda
49. Susana Yakubu
50. Maryam Abbas
51. Laraba John
52. Hanatu Nuhu
53. Na’ omi Bukar
54. Rifkatu Galang.

The statement further said their names are currently being compared with school records as well as names published some days back to ensure accuracy.

It added that “the exercise continues at the Government House and it is hoped that more names will be established by parents, students and teachers as well as management of the affected school.”

THEWILL gathered that the identification exercise will continue through the night until all the girls in the video are identified as Shettima has insisted that the names of all the girls in the video be established and compared with school and security records.

SOURCE: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/chibok-borno-governor-gives-names-of-54-teenage-schoolgirls-spotted-in-boko-haram-video/

THEWILL_ Posted date: May 13, 2014

THEWILL_ Posted date: May 13, 2014

Chibok: Borno Governor Gives Names Of 54 Teenage Schoolgirls Spotted in Boko Haram Video - See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/chibok-borno-governor-gives-names-of-54-teenage-schoolgirls-spotted-in-boko-haram-video/#sthash.jbgBsKbw.dpuf

Chibok: Borno Governor Gives Names Of 54 Teenage Schoolgirls Spotted in Boko Haram Video - See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/chibok-borno-governor-gives-names-of-54-teenage-schoolgirls-spotted-in-boko-haram-video/#sthash.jbgBsKbw.dpuf

Chibok: Borno Governor Gives Names Of 54 Teenage Schoolgirls Spotted in Boko Haram Video - See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/chibok-borno-governor-gives-names-of-54-teenage-schoolgirls-spotted-in-boko-haram-video/#sthash.jbgBsKbw.dpuf

Chibok: Borno Governor Gives Names Of 54 Teenage Schoolgirls Spotted in Boko Haram Video - See more at: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/chibok-borno-governor-gives-names-of-54-teenage-schoolgirls-spotted-in-boko-haram-video/#sthash.jbgBsKbw.dpuf

Goodluck Jonathan's Slow Motion Response to an Appalling Crisis

Goodluck Jonathan's Slow Motion Response to an Appalling Crisis

By Stephen Hayes - Associated Press 

The kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls, followed by the announcement by the leader of Boko Haram – the terrorist group which has claimed responsibility for taking them – that the girls are to be either sold or forced into slavery is beyond appalling. It amounts to mass rape. It also does no honor to Islam. Although child marriage may be permitted under Islam, certainly kidnapping and rape is not. It is primitive and barbaric that deserves the strongest condemnation of the entire world.

According to news reports, more than 300 school teenage schoolgirls were kidnapped from their school in a remote section of northeastern Nigeria last April 15.
The mass kidnapping and the response by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's administration may determine the future of his tenure and who is to succeed him. So far, the political leadership has handled the situation poorly. The question that hangs over the whole matter is how could more than 300 girls be kidnapped en masse and no one seems to know where any of them are? The president of Nigeria has admitted publicly he has no idea where the girls are, and only now has he begun to ask for outside help in finding the girls.

The whole matter raises many other questions, including why few, if any, of the northern governors, most of them in opposition to the Jonathan administration, have publicly been of assistance. One hopes that some have been quietly working with helping in the search. Nigerian politics, like those of many countries, are especially complicated. The northern governors, nearly all of them Islamic, believe that Jonathan has twice broken a political understanding that the ruling People's Democratic Party has that the presidency rotate between the north (mostly Islamic) and south (mostly Christian). Jonathan is a southerner who assumed the presidency in 2010 when his northern predecessor fell ill and died. Some northern factions believed Jonathan violated the agreement by standing for election to a full term in 2011 and then did so again by announcing that he will seek re-election. There may be no sense of urgency by the governors of the north to help Jonathan out of this. That they seem to know as little as Jonathan about the girls also raises questions about the connection between the rulers and the ruled, as well as the threat from Boko Haram that some may feel.

The Nigerian Government has also been slow in reacting to the crisis because much of their focus on Boko Haram has been a defensive one, aimed at protecting those participating in the upcoming World Economic Forum, to be held in Abuja this week. Several hundred of Africa’s top business leaders, along with various other representatives of Western governments and businesses are planning to be in Abuja for the group's annual Africa Forum. The forum’s presence in Abuja was to be a major feather in Jonathan's cap, and a showpiece of Nigeria for global business. Ironically, now the forum finds itself in a very awkward position of doing business as usual in the face of one of the most serious political crises in Nigeria since the Biafran Civil War. Yet, it is almost impossible for the group to cancel the forum, given that this program is a major part of their overall master plan for Africa. To cancel the forum would also be an enormous vote of no confidence in Nigeria’s ability to manage its most serious problems. The fact that the bulk of Nigerian security has focused on this meeting of the economic elite and not on the search for the schoolgirls has not gone unnoticed in Nigeria and elsewhere, as is underscored by demonstrations in New York and Washington.

How the Nigerian government handles these next 10 days may be not only the most important to Jonathan but to those that follow him.

Source: https://www.causes.com/causes/298145-for-a-corruption-free-nigeria/updates/911463-goodluck-jonathans-slow-motion-response-to-an-appalling-crisis?utm_campaign=post_mailer%2Fcause_update.cb_50474&utm_medium=email&utm_source=causes&ctag=9a229f9453c00f0b2d3ff4b9245d18ba96&ctoken=i6I-mGH4jKHnp-fSBu9ri0VP9fACWFicf0MsaWd1ufNph5zQqHvLkor_CB2j4i3TT73QATCQbVQEML3o6blXpKqBybHLDltK&uid=91781643

Boko Haram Bombs Bridge Linking Nigeria and Cameroun

The Boko Haram Thursday bombed the sole bridge linking Borno State, Nigeria and Cameroun. The strategic bridge is located at the border town of Gamboru, where the Boko Haram killed over 300 persons on Monday.

Residents of Gamboru told journalists that the downed bridge has cut off some of their relatives from Nigeria and left them stranded in Cameroun. One source who spoke to THEWILL said "The only option left for people traveling to and from Gamboru, is to go into Banki near Bama Local Government area of Borno into Cameroun and later enter Gamboru from another Camerounian village."

The source further revealed that 315 corpses were buried following Monday's attack.

Residents Malam Kolomi, a trader in the commercial city of Gamboru and Mamman Abu told reporters via telephone that several persons are still trapped under rubbles following the attack.

The Boko Haram a few weeks ago abducted over 200 teenage female students from a secondary school in Chibok town, Borno State and its leader Ibrahim Shekau has boasted that the girls would be sold into slavery or married off to men. The United States, UK, China, South Africa and the UN have promised to help Nigeria secure the girls' freedom.

Source: http://thewillnigeria.com/news/author/thewill_/

Stop those trivialising schoolgirls’ abduction, Falana tells Jonathan

May 8, 2014 by Ade Adesomoju

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to stop people from further trivialising the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 19.

The Lagos lawyer in a statement on Thursday said the comment credited to “some people”, including the President’s wife, Patience, that “no child was missing”, was “incendiary” and capable of deepening the agony of the abducted children’s parents.

“President Goodluck Jonathan should ensure that the abduction of the innocent girls is not further trivialised in the interest of our collective sensibility and public morality,” he stated.

He described as insensitive for some highly placed persons to insist that there was no missing child despite the step by the Christian Association of Nigeria to publish some of the abducted girls’ names.

He said, “In spite of the inauguration of the Presidential Committee to investigate the abduction of the over 200 girls  and the publication of the names of about 185 of the missing girls by the Christian Association of Nigeria some political leaders have insisted that no child has been abducted.

“Such level of insensitivity is being displayed by highly placed persons at a time that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau has admitted that the criminal sect abducted the innocent girls and threatened that they would be sold into slavery.”

He queried the basis for the government’s accepting of international aid to rescue the children if truly the girls were not missing.

His statement also read, “Why has the Federal Government accepted the offer of the United States’ Government to join in the frivolous -search for the girls since they are no longer missing?

“No doubt, the incendiary statements credited to certain people to the effect that “no child is missing” must have accentuated the agony of the parents of the abducted some of whom had taken part in street demonstrations to demand ‘Bring Back Our Girls’.”

He asked the President to disband the committee set up by Patience to investigate the incident arguing that she had no power to do so.

He added that even the one set up by the President himself for the same purpose could best serve as a “ministerial act” and never as a Commission of Inquiry.

The Punch Newspaper.

Some of my quotes on Nairaland

Some of my quotes on Nairaland:

"The most powerful system of government is self-government. The key to self-government is self-discipline. Being a leader doesn't make you superior to those you lead. We are building a New Nigeria on a New Generation. If the people are poor, then the government will be broke. -- Pastor Sam Adeyemi (The Platform 9.0 @ 10 Degrees)."

When we fail to heed the echoes of our heroes, we keep on falling at their least milestones. -- Ayodele Osho (May 13, 2012 on Nairaland)

Our Nigeria must be great again despite all odds. I love Nigeria and I mean it - Ayodele Osho (May 12, 2012 on Nairaland)

Source: http://www.nairaland.com/936303/naija-governance-where-stand