FACTS: Gideon Orkar’s Calculations And Nigeria’s Unity

The name of Major Gideon G. Orkar has a place in the history of Nigeria. He will be remembered along with officers like the Late Col. Buka Suka Dimka and Brig. Gen Iliya Bisalla, names synonymous with failed coup plots.
On April 22, 1990, Major Okar led a group of young officers to storm Dodan Barracks, the then seat of power. His men gained control of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and he made an address that jolted Nigerians.
One of the high points of the speech was the decision to excise 5 states, namely Sokoto, Bauchi, Borno, Kano and Katsina from Nigeria. 24 years after however, the unity of Nigeria is still a topic being discussed at public and private fora.
Below is the full text of the announcement:
“Fellow Nigerian Citizens, On behalf of the patriotic and well-meaning peoples of the Middle Belt and the southern parts of this country, I , Major Gideon Orkar, wish to happily inform you of the successful ousting of the dictatorial, corrupt, drug baronish, evil man, deceitful, homo-sexually-centered, prodigality, un-patriotic administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. We Have equally commenced their trials for unabated corruption, mismanagement of national economy, the murders of Dele Giwa, Major-General Mamman Vatsa, with other officers, as there was no attempted coup but mere intentions that were yet to materialise and other human rights violations.
The National Guard already in its formative stage is disbanded with immediate effect. Decrees Number 2 and 46 are hereby abrogated. We wish to emphasise that this is not just another coup but a well conceived, planned and executed revolution for the marginalised, oppressed and enslaved peoples of the Middle Belt and the south with a view to freeing ourselves and children yet unborn from eternal slavery and colonisation by a clique of this country.
Our history is replete with numerous and uncontrollable instances of callous and insensitive dominatory repressive intrigues by those who think it is their birthright to dominate till eternity the political and economic privileges of this great country to the exclusion of the people of the Middle Belt and the south.
They have almost succeeded in subjugating the Middle Belt and making them voiceless and now extending same to the south. It is our unflinching belief that this quest for domination, oppression and marginalisation is against the wish of God and therefore, must be resisted with the vehemence.
Anything that has a beginning must have an end. It will also suffice here to state that all Nigerians without skeleton in their cupboards need not to be afraid of this change. However, those with skeleton in their cupboards have all reasons to fear, because the time of reckoning has come.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state the three primary reasons why we have decided to oust the satanic Babangida administration. The reasons are as follows:
(a) To stop Babangida’s desire to cunningly, install himself as Nigeria’s life president at all costs and by so doing, slowpoke the progress of this country for life. In order to be able to achieve undesirable goals of his, he has evidently started destroying those groups and sections he perceived as being able to question his desires.
Examples of groups already neutralised, pitched against one another or destroyed are:
(1) The Sokoto caliphate by installing an unwanted Sultan to cause division within the hitherto strong Sokoto caliphate.
(2) The destruction of the peoples of Plateau State, especially the Lantang people, as a balancing force in the body politics of this country.
(3) The buying of the press by generous monetary favours and the usage of State Security Service, SSS, as a tool of terror.
(4) The intent to cow the students by the promulgation of the draconian decree Number 47.
(5) The cowing of the university teaching and non-teaching staff by an intended massive purge, using the 150 million dollar loan as the necessitating factor.
(6) Deliberately withholding funds to the armed forces to make them ineffective and also crowning his diabolical scheme through the intended retrenchment of more than half of the members of the armed forces.
Other pointers that give credence to his desire to become a life president against the wishes of the people are:
(1) His appointment of himself as a minister of defence, his putting under his direct control the SSS, his deliberate manipulation of the transition programme, his introduction of inconceivable, unrealistic and impossible political options, his recent fraternisation with other African leaders that have installed themselves as life presidents and his dogged determination to create a secret force called the national guard, independent of the armed forces and the police which will be answerable to himself alone, both operationally and administratively.
It is our strong view that this kind of dictatorial desire of Babangida is unacceptable to Nigerians of the 1990′s, and, therefore, must be resisted by all.
(b) Another major reason for the change is the need to stop intrigues, domination and internal colonisation of the Nigerian state by the so-called chosen few. This, in our view, has been and is still responsible for 90 percent of the problems of Nigerians. This indeed has been the major clog in our wheel of progress.
This clique has an unabated penchant for domination and unrivalled fostering of mediocrity and outright detest for accountability, all put together have been our undoing as a nation.
This will ever remain our threat if not checked immediately. It is strongly believed that without the intrigues perpetrated by this clique and misrule, Nigeria will have in all ways achieved developmental virtues comparable to those in Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, India, and even Japan.
Evidence, therefore, this cancerous dominance has as a factor constituted by a major and unpardonable clog in the wheel of progress of the Nigerian state. (Sic) It is suffice to mention a few distasteful intrigues engineered by this group of Nigerians in recent past. These are:
(1) The shabby and dishonourable treatment meted on the longest serving Nigerian general in the person of General Domkat Bali, who in actual fact had given credibility to the Babangida administration.
(2) The wholesale hijacking of Babangida’s administration by the all-powerful clique.
(3) The disgraceful and inexplicable removal of Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Professor Tam David-West, Mr. Aret Adams and so on from office.
(4) The now-pervasive and on-going retrenchment of Middle Belt and southerners from public offices and their instant replacement by the favoured class and their stooges.
(5) The deliberate disruption of the educational culture and retarding its place to suit the favoured class to the detriment of other educational minded parts of this country.
(6) The deliberate impoverishment of the peoples from the Middle Belt and the south, making them working ghosts and feeding on the formulae of 0-1-1- or 0-0-0 while the aristocratic class and their stooges are living in absolute affluence on a daily basis without working for it.
(7) Other countless examples of the exploitative, oppressive, dirty games of intrigues of its class, where people and stooges that can best be described by the fact that even though they contribute very little economically to the well being of Nigeria, they have over the years served and presided over the supposedly national wealth derived in the main from the Middle Belt and the southern part of this country, while the people from these parts of the country have been completely deprived from benefiting from the resources given to them by God.
(c) The third reason for the change is the need to lay a strong egalitarian foundation for the real democratic take off of the Nigerian state or states as the circumstances may dictate.
In the light of all the above and in recognition of the negativeness of the aforementioned aristocratic factor, the overall progress of the Nigerian state a temporary decision to excise the following states namely, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Kano and Bauchi states from the Federal Republic of Nigeria comes into effect immediately until the following conditions are met.
The conditions to be met to necessitate the re-absorption of the aforementioned states are as following:
(I) To install the rightful heir to the Sultanate, Alhaji Maccido, who is the people’s choice.
(ii) To send a delegation led by the real and recognised Sultan Alhaji Maccido to the federal government to vouch that the feudalistic and aristocratic quest for domination and operation will be a thing of the past and will never be practised in any part of the Nigeria state.
By the same token, all citizens of the five states already mentioned are temporarily suspended from all public and private offices in Middle Belt and southern parts of this country until the mentioned conditions above are met.
They are also required to move back to their various states within one week from today. They will, however, be allowed to return and joint the Federal Republic of Nigeria when the stipulated conditions are met.
In the same vein, all citizens of the Middle Belt and the south are required to come back to their various states pending when the so-called all-in-all Nigerians meet the conditions that will ensure a united Nigeria. A word is enough for the wise.
This exercise will not be complete without purging corrupt public officials and recovering their ill-gotten wealth, since the days of the oil boom till date. Even in these hard times, when Nigerians are dying from hunger, trekking many miles to work for lack of transportation, a few other Nigerians with complete impunity are living in unbelievable affluence both inside and outside the country.
We are extremely determined to recover all ill-gotten wealth back to the public treasury for the use of the masses of our people. You are all advised to remain calm, as there is no cause for alarm. We are fully in control of the situation as directed by God. All airports, seaports and borders are closed forthwith.
The former Armed Forces Ruling Council is now disbanded and replaced with National Ruling Council to be chaired by the head of state with other members being a civilian vice-head of state, service chiefs, inspector general of police, and one representative each from NLC, NUJ, NBA, and NANS.
A curfew is hereby imposed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice. All members of the armed forces and the police forces are hereby confined to their respective barracks.
All unlawful and criminal acts by those attempting to cause chaos will be ruthlessly crushed. Be warned as we are prepared at all costs to defend the new order.
All radio stations are hereby advised to hook on permanently to the national network programme until further notice.
Long live all true patriots of this great country of ours. May God and Allah through his bountiful mercies bless us all.”
Source: Street Journal

NYANYA MASSACRE: We Did It - Boko Haram

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack ever in Nigeria’s capital in a video obtained Saturday, as the search continued for 85 schoolgirls still missing after a mass abduction by the Islamists.
The bombing at a bus station packed with morning commuters early on Monday killed at least 75 people on the outskirts of Abuja, hours before gunmen kidnapped 129 girls from a school in northeastern Borno state, Boko Haram’s base.
Officials said a total of 44 have since escaped and are now safe.
The shock of the bombing and the kidnapping, which have broad worldwide condemnation, have underscored the serious threat posed by the insurgents to Africa’s most populous country and wealthiest economy.

A survivor of the blast

“We are the ones that carried out the attack in Abuja,” Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau said in video message obtained by AFP.
“We are in your city but you don’t know where we are.”
Shekau, declared a global terrorist by the United States which has a $7 million (5.1 million euro) bounty on his head, spoke in Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in northern Nigeria.
The 28-minute video made no reference to the abductions from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok but the military, local officials and girls who have escaped have blamed that attack on Boko Haram.
Borno’s education commissioner Inua Kubo told journalists late on Friday that 14 more girls had been found, leaving 85 girls still missing.
Some girls had escaped immediately after the kidnapping, jumping off the back of a truck as the Islamists tried to cart them away under the cover of darkness.
It was not yet clear how the latest group managed to flee, but Kubo said 11 were found in a town on the road that connects Chibok to Borno’s capital Maiduguri, and three others had fled back to their school.
Some of those who escaped earlier this week said the hostages were taken to the Sambisa Forest area, where Boko Haram is known to have well fortified camps.
The military said it had launched a major search and rescue operation, but some in the region say they have lost confidence in the security forces after the defence ministry issued an erroneous report claiming that most of the girls were safe.
That statement, issued late on Wednesday, said all but eight of those abducted were free, but defence spokesman Chris Olukolade was forced to withdraw the report on Friday after it turned out to be inaccurate.
- Parents quit search -
Parents have been scouring the bushland for days looking for the hostages, pooling money to buy fuel for motorcycles and vehicles to help with the search.
One father said he and others decided to turn back after locals told them the insurgents were nearby and were prepared to slaughter anyone who advanced further.
“If we were armed as they are we would surely go…and face them,” said Enoch Mark, whose daughter and two nieces were among those taken.
Boko Haram, which says it wants to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, is blamed for killing thousands since 2009.
The group’s name loosely translates as “Western education is forbidden,” and attacks targeting schools and universities have been a prominent feature of the five-year uprising.
Students have been massacred while sleeping in their dormitories, but a mass abduction specifically targeting girls is unprecedented.
A security source said there were indications that the Islamists have used female hostages as both sex slaves and cooks.
Boko Haram has categorically ruled out peace negotiations and backed away from several ceasefire offers, but Mark nevertheless pleaded with the insurgents to show compassion.
“We call on Boko Haram to release our daughters who have committed no offence against anyone,” he said.
Source: Vanguard

Lagos boat accident kills 8

Image: Getty Images

3 days ago By I-Net Bridge

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A passenger boat sank after hitting a rock in Lagos, killing eight people, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Thursday.

"The boat capsized after hitting a rock... around 18:00 yesterday," Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency said.
"Eight people lost their lives while we were able to rescue 12 others," he said.
He said the small, privately-owned passenger ferry had launched from the Ebute-Ero neighbourhood in southern Lagos and was headed north across the city's vast lagoon towards Ikorodu when the accident occurred.
He said the boat was carrying 20 passengers, all of whom have now been accounted for.
Three weeks ago, an overloaded wooden boat capsized in the Festac Town area of the city, killing 13 while six others had to be rescued. The boat had capacity for only 12 passengers.
Overloading on such vessels is common, as operators often seek to maximise their profits while downplaying safety concerns.
Lagos officials have been trying to promote ferry travel to help ease traffic in the congested city of more than 20 million people, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
But commuters have been reluctant to embrace water travel, partly because of safety fears.

Source: Punch

SHOCKING: Boko Haram Attack Presidential Villa, SSS Headquarters?

There have been heavy gunfire exchanges around the vicinity of Nigeria’s presidential palace and the headquarters of the Department of State Services in the Asokoro District of Abuja in the past one hour, security sources and residents of the area said.
The expansive headquarters of the State Security Service, popularly known as Yellow House, is almost adjacent one of the remote gates of the presidential villa.
Residents of the nearby Aso Drive Area said the gunshots were either coming out of the SSS headquarters or the presidential villa.
A resident of the area told PREMIUM TIMES, “We don’t know what’s going on here. Heavy gunfire has been coming from the direction of the villa. The entire area has been barricaded. SSS operatives are scampering out of their headquarters as the gunshots get louder.
“Soldiers are now heading in the direction of the SSS headquarters with Armoured Personnel Carriers. Those of us living around here have been asked to stay indoors and not venture out.”
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, could not be reached for comments.
But the spokesperson of the SSS, Marilyn Ogar, said the gunshots were triggered by attempted jailbreak at the Service’s headquarters by suspected members of the extremist Boko Haram sect.
She said, “What happened was that the suspects handlers went to feed the detainees here but suddenly they attacked him with their handcuffs, disarmed him and started shooting.
“The military was quickly called in before they could do any harm and that is responsible for the shootings you heard.
“It was an attempted jailbreak but it has been brought under control.”
It is however not clear how detainees, held in the highly fortified complex, got guns with which they shot at soldiers and SSS operatives for over an hour.
It is also not known whether there were casualties in the attack.
Military helicopters have now been deployed and are now hovering around the area.
A resident of the area, Yoosooph, twitted as follows during the attack.

Our soldiers taking cover from the invaders/attackers! pic.twitter.com/EeYqnLZyrc
— Yoosooph (@ciaxon) March 30, 2014

Chopper hovering over my head and searches continue! God help Nigeria!
— Yoosooph (@ciaxon) March 30, 2014

Another resident, Bashir Yusuf, tweeted:
With gunfire & this chopper hovering endlessly over my house, I pray the pilot doesn't mistakenly drop ordinance & plead the targeting of BH
— EagleEye (@bashiryusuf) March 30, 2014
UPDATE: El Rufai, Femi Fani-Kayode react
UPDATE 1: Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and resident of the Asokoro District of Abuja where the SSS headquarters is located, Nasir El-Rufai, just posted the below comment on his Facebook page:

IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD: Exchange of gunfire still going on with helicopter gunship hovering over the Aso Drive neighbourhood of Maitama adjoining the SSS Headquarters.
Whatever this is, it appears more serious than an attempted jailbreak claimed by the SSS.
May God Protect the innocent and destroy the murderers, kidnappers and planners of genocide, Amen.

UPDATE 2: Another resident of the area, Femi Fani-Kayode tweeted:

I live 50 metres away from the SSS headquaters and the Villa and what I witnssed with my eyes and heard this morning was a full scale battle
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) March 30, 2014

Source: Premium Times
UPDATE: Attack under control - Military
Suspected Boko Haram members Sunday morning attacked the headquarters of the Department of State Services.
It is believed that the attackers were on a mission to free their captured leaders being detained at the SSS office.
Yellow House as usually called, is located within the vicinity of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, which also houses the Supreme Court and the National Assembly.
But the attack was promptly repelled as other security forces, including the military were immediately mobilised.
Presently, all roads leading to the Three Arms Zone have be cordoned off and vehicles are turned back.
Reports however say Presidential Villa is calm. The Sunday service at the Chapel went on as scheduled.
Meanwhile, various points in Abuja city as well as some roads leading to the nation’s capital are under lock down.
Armed Nigerian Air Force personnel are noticeable at roads leading to the airport, while military helicopters have been deployed around the city, especially around Aso Rock.
No word yet from the federal government but spokesperson of the SSS, Marilyn Ogar, confirmed an attempted jailbreak at the Service’s headquarters by the Boko Haram sect.
“What happened was that the suspects handlers went to feed the detainees here but suddenly they attacked him with their handcuffs, disarmed him and started shooting, she said.
“The military was quickly called in before they could do any harm and that is responsible for the shootings you heard.
“It was an attempted jailbreak but it has been brought under control.”
Source: Daily Post
UPDATE: What happened
Security was quickly beefed up around the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday morning as heavy shootings were recorded at the neighbouring headquarters of the State Security Service known as Yellow House.
The SSS headquarters is located behind the Villa.
The access gate to the seat of power through the Fire Service office in Asokoro was quickly shut while more heavily armed soldiers were seen at the gate leading to the Villa through the Federal Secretariat.
Military helicopters were also seen hovering the sky at the time of filing this report.
Our correspondent who attempted to access the SSS headquarters area through the Aso Drive was turned back alongside other motorists in front of the Millennium Park by armed SSS operatives.
An operative who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that trouble started earlier in the day when one of the suspects in the service’s custody overpowered an operative who was in his cell to feed him.
The suspect was said to have shot the operative with his own rifle and went ahead to release his co-suspects.
The source said, “An operative went to feed a suspect this morning. The suspect was not properly chained, so he pushed down the operative and quickly dispossessed him of his rifle and shot him.
“He quickly released his co-inmates who started escaping with some scaling the fence.”
The incident led to a gun battle between the suspects and the SSS operatives.
Our correspondent learnt that in the process, no fewer than 18 suspects were killed while about 20 were re-arrested with two rifle recovered from them.
Two SSS operatives were also said to have been critically injured.
At the time of filing this report, security operatives were still combing the thick bush that surrounds the headquarters in search of remaining fleeing suspects who were said to have scaled the fence.
As the news of the incident spread, security was also quickly beefed up at the Nigeria Police Force headquarters called the Louis Edet House located in Area 11, not too far from the Presidential Villa.
An Armoured Personnel Carrier was used to completely block a lane on the road leading to Federal Secretariat with motorists driving one way.
Source: Punch