BOKO HARAM: The Massive Destruction Of Baga

(Johannesburg, May 1, 2013) – Satellite images reveal massive destruction of civilian property from a military raid on April 16 and 17, 2013, in the northern Nigerian town of Baga, undermining the military’s claim that only 30 houses were destroyed, Human Rights Watch said today. The Nigerian government should thoroughly and impartially investigate allegations that soldiers carried out widespread destruction and killing in the town.
Baga residents told Human Rights Watch that soldiers ransacked the town after the Boko Haram militant Islamist group attacked a military patrol, killing a soldier. Community leaders said that immediately after the attack they counted 2,000 burned homes and 183 bodies. Satellite images of the town analyzed by Human Rights Watch corroborate these accounts and identify 2,275 destroyed buildings, the vast majority likely residences, with another 125 severely damaged.
“The Nigerian military has a duty to protect itself and the population from Boko Haram attacks, but the evidence indicates that it engaged more in destruction than in protection,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The glaring discrepancies between the facts on the ground and statements by senior military officials raise concerns that they tried to cover up military abuses.”
Since the attack, the military has restricted journalists’ access to Baga, a remote fishing community on the shores of Lake Chad, 200 kilometers northeast of the city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram has destroyed mobile telephone towers in the area, claiming that security services used mobile phones to track down its members, making communication particularly difficult for survivors of the attack.
Human Rights Watch interviewed seven residents of Baga who fled the town on the night of the devastation. Many survivors spent several nights hiding in the bush and expressed fear in describing what they saw, fearing military retaliation.
Military officials publicly said that on the evening of April 16, Boko Haram attacked a military patrol in Baga, killing a soldier and wounding five others. Military reinforcements responded by engaging Boko Haram militants, whom the military said were armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and improvised explosive devices. There were running gun battles through the town, the military said.
In a statement released the week following the attack, Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye, the commander of the troops in Baga, asserted that “[c]ontrary to media speculation that hundreds of houses were burnt down, instead, it was the explosions from Boko Haram terrorists’” weapons that “triggered fire to about 30 thatched houses.”
Residents recalled hearing some explosions as well as gunfire on the night of the attack. Many fled the town. One resident, a 42-year-old-fisherman, told Human Rights Watch that while he was fleeing he saw two men in civilian clothes, whom he assumed were Boko Haram members because they were not in uniform, running while firing assault rifles. Residents said that, as they were fleeing the heavy gunfire, they saw bodies in the streets and in front of houses.
Some residents said that they saw soldiers in uniform kill residents and burn houses. A 27-year-old woman, who stayed in her house after the gunfire erupted, described to Human Rights Watch how soldiers went door-to-door looking for any men that remained in her neighborhood.
“I saw the soldiers drag a man out of another house. They started beating him with their guns. They were beating him severely and he was crying,” she said. “The man then ran, and I saw the soldiers shoot him. I heard the gunshots and saw him fall. On the other side of the road the soldiers were beating other people.”
Another resident, a 32-year-old fisherman, believes soldiers killed his uncle, whose bad leg kept him from fleeing the town. He discovered his uncle’s badly beaten body after the attack.
“We had heard the soldiers say before [the attack] that since you people are not cooperating with us and are hiding your brothers, we will treat you as one of them,” the fisherman told Human Rights Watch. “I heard the soldiers say this. Everyone heard them say this. They were saying this in the open.”
The area where the attacks took place, Borno State, is Boko Haram’s stronghold. Military officials have accused Borno State residents of harboring Boko Haram members. Boko Haram has killed numerous Borno State residents, including community leaders whom it accuses of helping authorities identify group members, which has created a climate of fear in the area.
There are conflicting accounts as to how many people were killed in the attack. A community leader who participated in the burial of victims told Human Rights Watch that 183 people were buried on April 18 in individual graves within two cemeteries. Other victims were also later buried, he said. The military called these figures “terribly inflated,” and in an April 22 statement, Edokpaye claimed that only 37 people were killed – 30 of them Boko Haram members. He said that only one soldier and six civilians died.
Senator Maina Lawan, the federal senator representing Baga, told Human Rights Watch, based on a two-day site visit on April 25 and 26, that some 220 people had been buried in three cemeteries, while six others had been buried in separate locations.
None of the residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch saw how the fires were started on the night of April 16, but they all described seeing parts of the town alight. Two residents who returned to the town the following morning, April 17, said they saw soldiers in military vehicles setting fire to houses.
“I saw a group of soldiers throw explosive devices into houses,” one of the residents, a farmer, recalled. “They would throw [the explosive] and then fire would come out of it. I saw them do this to about 10 houses.”
Satellite images analyzed by Human Rights Watch indicate that damaged structures were likely caused by intense and widespread fires. Additional satellite data detected the presence of active fires in the southern part of the town on the night of April 16 and during the day of April 17, consistent with witness accounts and the location of identified building damages.
Because of the number of buildings destroyed by fire as well as their distribution across large sections of the town, Human Rights Watch believes that such fires were intentionally set and not inadvertently sparked by the detonation of rocket-propelled grenades or improvised explosive devices. Such weapons could not ignite fires on such a wide scale, nor could they set fire to non-attached structures. Small arms and light weapons do not contain the amount of explosive or incendiary material to produce such a scale of damage, Human Rights Watch said.
“The destruction and killings by soldiers in Baga are serious human rights violations,” Bekele said. “The government needs to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, regardless of rank.”
As reports of the Baga attack filtered out, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered a “full-scale investigation into reports of high civilian casualties.” The Defence Headquarters in Abuja sent a military team to investigate the incident.
Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, the director of defence information, and a member of the military team sent to Baga to investigate, told Human Rights Watch after his visit that reports of civilian casualties and homes destroyed were “grossly exaggerated.” He said that “the atrocities, if any, were carried out by the insurgents in an attempt to cause destruction and attack people not sympathetic to their cause.” The military team said they visited two graveyards in Baga but could only identify 32 fresh graves.
Community leaders, including a senior politician interviewed by Human Rights Watch, allege that the military is trying to cover up evidence of what happened. In the past, Nigerian military authorities have repeatedly denied or even covered up reports of security force abuses, Human Rights Watch said.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which in 2010 opened a “preliminary examination” of the situation in Nigeria, has indicated that crimes committed by Boko Haram members might constitute crimes against humanity, and members of the Nigerian security forces might also have committed serious human rights violations in their operations against Boko Haram. This incident in Baga should be added to the prosecutor’s preliminary examination of Nigeria, Human Rights Watch said.
“There’s a tragic lack of accountability for atrocities with high body counts in Nigeria,” said Bekele. “The government needs to end this murderous cycle of violence by bringing all those responsible to justice.”
To read the Human Rights Watch’s report “Spiraling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and Security Force Abuses in Nigeria,” please visit:
http://hrw.org/reports/2012/10/11/spiraling-violence-0
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Nigeria, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/nigeria
For more information, please contact:
In Washington, DC, Eric Guttschuss (English): +1-202-612-4325; or +1-202-510-1106 (mobile); or guttsce@hrw.org
In New York, Rona Peligal (English): +1-212-216-1232; or +1-917-363-3893 (mobile); or peligar@hrw.org
In New York, Babatunde Olugboji (English): +1-646-204-5082 (mobile); or olugbob@hrw.org
In Washington, DC, Sarah Margon (English): +1-202-612-4326; or +1-917-361-2098 (mobile); or margons@hrw.org
In Paris, Jean-Marie Fardeau (French, Portuguese, English): +33-1-43-59-55-35; or +33-6-45-85-24-87 (mobile); or fardeaj@hrw.org
In London, David Mepham (English): +44-20-7713-2766; or +44-75-7260-3995 (mobile); or mephamd@hrw.org
Witness Accounts
A 27-year-old woman who lived in the “Hausa Quarters” of Baga told Human Rights Watch that on the night of April 16, soldiers dragged a man out of a house in her neighborhood and shot him:
I was in my house at night, after prayers, when we heard gunshots. Everybody was in a panic and people were running. My husband wasn’t home, so I was very disturbed. I asked my neighbors what am I going to do because my husband isn’t around? My neighbors ran, but I couldn’t carry my two children, so I stayed inside the house.
I saw soldiers come into the community. They came in military vehicles. The soldiers were shouting “Come out! Come out!” They asked me if there any men in the house. I said there were none. One of the soldiers came inside and searched the house. He then told us to go outside. When we were outside I saw the soldiers drag a man out of another house. They started beating him with their guns. They were beating him severely and he was crying. The man then ran, and I saw the soldiers shoot him. I heard the gunshots and saw him fall. On the other side of the road the soldiers were beating other people.
The soldiers told me to leave the place, pushing me to go. I held one of my children in my arms and the other one I dragged. I was with two other women. We heard gunshots everywhere, so we did not know who was who. When we were running we saw dead bodies on the road and some outside houses. Some [of the bodies] were women and children, but the children were fewer. Army vehicles were passing from here to there, and we saw things with the lights of the vehicles. We were trying to run to save our lives.
We went into the bush and were moving without knowing where we were going. There were a lot of people inside the bush. When we went about half a kilometer, we saw fire everywhere [back] in the town. Almost at midnight we reached one place and slept there. The following day we woke up and found our way toward [name of location withheld].
Later we heard that all the houses around where we lived were burned…. We lost two people among our family: my brother and my cousin. I was told some people saw their dead bodies in the river. Even my neighbors lost family members – both men and women. I have not gone back to Baga.
A farmer described to Human Rights Watch how soldiers set fire to houses in the “Kampala Ward” of Baga on the morning of April 17:
On Tuesday [April 16] around 8 p.m. we heard gunshots in the town. I was in the house. Our house is in the northern part of Baga. I heard gunshots and explosions in the southern part of the town. I also saw fire. I stayed in our house for about two hours. The gunshots started to increase rapidly and we saw that a large part of the town was on fire. When we saw this, I ran to the bush with my family. We spent the night in the bush.
The following morning, I came back to the town. I saw about six military vehicles and groups of soldiers in Kampala Ward. The soldiers were putting fire on the houses. It was about 9:30 a.m. I saw a group of soldiers throw explosive devices into houses. It was a military device which as a layman I would not know. They would throw it and then fire would come out of it. I saw them do this to about 10 houses. I was about 100 meters away. I snuck out of the place and ran back to the bush…. I [haven’t gone] back to my house, but my older brother said that that our area wasn’t affected. None of my family members were killed.
A 42-year-old fisherman described how he and his family fled their home in “Kalumbu Quarters” of Baga after gunfire erupted on the evening of April 16:
It was on Tuesday, around 7 p.m. we heard gunshots and all of us ran into the house. I live in Kalumbu Quarters. It is in the middle of the town. The gunshots were getting too much and were getting closer to our quarters. We came out and ran helter-skelter everywhere. I was with my family – my wife and two children –
and some neighbors. We heard gunshots everywhere. We also heard a lot of explosions. Two of my friends I work with were shot. We were running together with them. They were behind us and we saw them fall. We couldn’t do anything about it. We just ran to escape the bullets.
I don’t know whether it was military or Boko Haram [who shot them]. We saw two people with Kalashnikovs [AK assault rifles]. They were not wearing army uniforms. I think they were Boko Haram members. They were running and shooting. We saw some [other] dead bodies by the side of the road. A neighbor of mine and his two children were also killed in the incident. We ran together with them – they were behind us. When we looked back we didn’t see them. The other people who came from that side told us that they were killed. We ran toward [name of location withheld], because it would be safer there.
After we left the town, we saw some fires in the town…. I heard that my house has been burned and the houses of most of my neighbors were burned. We were told that 45 percent of the town has been burned. I will never go back there. What will I do there?
Background
Human Rights Watch has documented attacks by Boko Haram in northern and central Nigeria, as well as abuses by Nigerian state security forces in response to the violence.
Boko Haram means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria. The group, which seeks to impose a strict form of Sharia, or Islamic law, has carried out a brutal campaign of violence across northern Nigeria. The group has primarily targeted government security agents, Christians, and other “infidels,” and Muslims critical of the group or seen as cooperating with the government. Boko Haram has also claimed responsibility for numerous attacks, including suicide bombings of police stations, the United Nations building in the capital, Abuja, and two newspaper offices; burning down dozens of schools; and bombing or small-arms attacks on more than 20 church services.
As part of its operations against Boko Haram, security forces have killed hundreds of Boko Haram suspects and other members of the public with no apparent links to the group. During security raids in communities where attacks have occurred, the military has burned homes and summarily executed men in front of their families.
The Nigerian authorities have also arrested thousands of people in raids across the north. Many of these people have been held incommunicado without charge or trial for months or even years. In some cases they have been detained in inhuman conditions, tortured, or killed.
The Nigerian authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of security force abuses, labeling those who report such abuses as “Boko Haram sympathizers.”
The International Criminal Court, which opened a preliminary examination of the situation in Nigeria, found in 2012 that there is a “reasonable basis to believe” that Boko Haram attacks, including murder and persecution, amount to crimes against humanity.
Attacks by Boko Haram or splinter groups, clashes between these groups and government security forces, and extrajudicial killings by the security forces have killed more than 3,600 people since 2009.
Source: Sahara Reporters

BIG FRAUD: The Ghost Shopping Mall, Over N750 Million Gone?

Details emerged yesterday at the Senate on the alleged abuses in the disbursement of the N701.4billion Natural Resources Funds and indeed, the N1.5trillion created by the Federal Government as “slush funds”. The money was used to funnel unauthorized loans to state governments, individuals, private companies and friendly foreign governments. Senators also insisted that the establishment of the accounts contravened sections 80 (2) and 162 of the 1999 Constitution (As amended).
Of the said sum, N701,489,494,960.61 billion was paid into the development of Natural Resources Account and the entire sum was paid out, either as loans or or grants to state governments, MDAs and a private construction company unknown to the Consolidated Revenue Account (CRF). Details of the abuses of the three accounts were supplied to the Senate Public Accounts Committee by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Out of the N1.5 trillion allegedly given out as loans, N577 billion was classified “bad debt” and “unrecoverable.”
The monies were paid out of the three dedicated accounts without any fiscal guidelines and statutory regulations. The account was created in 2002 during the Obasanjo administration and had been operated by the successive governments of the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. In one of the abuses detailed by the Senate committee, government released N750 million for the “development of Abuja Downtown Mall” on January 1, 2007. There was no beneficiary named for the loan.
Senators expressed umbrage during consideration of the Report of the Status Inquiry into the Special Funds Accounts (Development of Natural Resources Account, Derivation and Ecology Account and Stabilisation Account) maintained by the Federal Government. Presenting the report in the Senate yesterday, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Ahmad Lawan, gave further details of how the account was created and how former President Olusegun Obasanjo made a proposal of how the funds in the account would be distributed and how it was distorted.
He explained that contrary to information given by government officials during investigation of how funds were spent in the three accounts, the Special Funds Accounts were administered by successive governments without recourse to due process. “It’s not a discretionary account and there are no guidelines in the disbursement and utilization of the funds… Most of the monies were given out as loans to state governments, foreign countries and private individuals and companies…Some states got so much from the accounts while some states got virtually nothing from the Ecological Fund. While the Public Accounts meets, we look at issues patriotically and nationally.
It’s not about the PDP or any opposition party. Giving more details of how the abuses under the Development of Natural Resources Account wherein N701.489 billion was paid into the account and the same sum was equally drained, Lawan said N2 billion loan was granted for payment to Gitto Costruzioni General Limited on September 19, 2005 while another N3.745 billion loan was granted to the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to buy a chancery in Tokyo, Japan on November 25, 2004 and December 30, 2004. A loan of N10.11 billion for the payment of October-December 2005 arrears of monetized fringe benefits in all Federal Government parastatals on February 2, 2006 was paid twice.
Another N10.11 billion for the same payment of monetization arrears was paid on August 21, 2007. Under the same subhead, N15 billion loan was given to the Ministry of Works against the 2007 appropriation for the dualisation ion of the East-West roads on January 18, 2007. Shortly after the account was created, N612,276,016.65 was paid as JVC contribution deducted from Akwa Ibom grant between March and May, 2002. Another N1.3 billion loan was granted the Derivation Escrow Account on July 24,2003. On April 18, 2005, N864,725,036 loan was given to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for ID cards production while N452,218,449.70  loan was granted the Federal Government on September 9, 2005 as payment to ADB for purchase of shares.
In other abuses detailed by the committee, the Ministry of Water Resources got N14,988,625,000.02 for the Gurara Water Project while N100 billion was released for financing of second quarter capital on May 15, 2007, barely two weeks to the end of the Obasanjo administration. On September 1, 2010, the last tranche of N70 billion in the account was released to the CRF as loan to accelerate capital budget releases. Under the Stabilisation Account, out of N255,487,900,570.38, government loaned out N191,780,136,241, making 75 per cent of the funds abused.
Out of the account, N16.2 billion was loaned to the Directorate of Pilgrims’ Affairs between 2003-2005 while N12.002 billion loan was granted Ghana and São Tomé and Principe between September 22, 2004 and May 7, 2005. Another N142.6 million was released to Gong Publishing Company as loan of debt owed by local government councils on September 26, 2005. In 2006, various loans totalling N309,208,000.30 was equally granted the Inspector-General of Police for the “purchase of vehicles for the UN Peace-keeping operations in Haiti.” Contributing, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, expressed surprise that even though he hails from the South-East which is predominantly controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), “no state in the South-East has benefited from this fund…
We have seen where money meant for ecological funds are being used to build airports, malls and abattoirs. “If the beneficiaries have not returned the money, then the EFCC, ICPC must be invited.” Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) noted that the National Assembly is tacitly complicit in the abuse of the accounts because it failed to exercise its oversight rights over the executive. His words: “If these funds were appropriated for, we need to ask what happened to them before we now come to this. We need to ask questions…we are here because the system has allowed too much discretion to the executive. “This report is more of an indictment of the National Assembly than the executive.
This report indicts us more than the executive and it should serve as a wake-up call for us to be alive to our responsibilities…” Ndoma-Egba’s deputy, Abdul Ningi, described the loans as “sheer, crass executive recklessness and the National Assembly’s indifference to them. The trend continues; it’s ongoing because releases were made as early as 2011…” To the Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Committee, Smart Adeyemi, “when government doesn’t spend funds for purposes of helping the public, it can be described as rascality of the executive.”
He wondered why government continued to “grant loans to governments that have enough. It’s encouraging them to misappropriate public funds.” Senator Adeyemi called for proper investigation of the Lawan report to ascertain the extent of misappropriation of public funds. Also, Senator Isa Galaudu described the accounts as “slush funds for executive recklessness. The Abuja Mall is still at the ground level at the Central Area of the FCT!” An obviously angry Galaudu wondered how top government officials treated the Special Funds Account with levity when invited by the Public Accounts Committee to state their involvement in its operations.
“A high ranking member of this government had the temerity to tell the Public Accounts Committee that if some of the payments were not made, Nigerians would go on strike. Unfortunately, the ledger balance and bank statements had no reconciliation. The Finance Minister claimed to have been reforming Nigeria when in fact, she refused to be reformed.” Senate resolved that the committee should go back and conduct further investigation, including inviting the beneficiaries to ascertain whether some of the loans have been paid back and if not, how the funds taken were utilised.
The committee has four weeks to report back to the house.
Source: Sun News

CONFESSION: Pastor Provides Gun For Our Operations – Kidnappers

Solomon Eze, a 30-year-old pastor, who is currently cooling off at the dreaded cell of the special anti-robbery squad, SARS, Ikeja, Lagos over an alleged case of armed robbery and kidnapping is finding it difficult to maintain his innocence.
The Abia State-born suspect, who was arrested with an Ak 47 rifle, told Crime Alert that he is a deliverance minister at The Bride Assembly, a Church located at Ijesha area of the State. He explained further that the rifle found in his possession belongs to a friend he met at Ikire prayer mountain in Osun State.
However, police sources intimated Crime Alert  that Eze  was arrested during investigations into the gruesome murder of a police corporal,  Iweka Ramat, at kirikiri area of Lagos State.   Sources said Eze and one of his colleagues were accosted inside a taxi cab by a police patrol team at Berger axis of kirikiri Town in February 2013 and while the police attempted to search them, they bolted out of the cab and the policemen went after them.  The police officer, Ramat, who went after Eze was later found dead in an isolated part of the area after a deafening sound of gunfire was heard.

The suspects

The taxi driver was taken into custody and later transferred to the SARS where he was interrogated.    It was gathered at that point that Eze contacted   the taxi driver on the phone before he picked them.  “We retrieved the phone number from the taxi driver and we contacted the network provider who furnished us with Eze’s home address.   On April 4, 2013 the officer in charge of SARS, Sp Abba Kyari led a team of crack operatives to Eze’ s apartment at No.113, Idowu Street, Olodi Apapa, Lagos, around 2 am in the morning where they apprehended him.
He later took the operatives to an apartment in Ikorodu area of the state where they recovered an Ak 47 rifle with number 6090. When we interrogated him further, Eze led us to arrest six other members of his gang identified as Sunday James, 29; Emmanuel Iloakazi, 26; Ikechukwu Okafor aka Osuofia I, 37; Obinna Egbugha, 26; Ikechukwu Chedom, and Christian Ezinkwo aka Alhaji, 3, while two additional AK47 rifles, 11 Ak47 magazines  loaded with 30 rounds of live ammunition, were recovered from them,”the source added.
When Crime Alert spoke with Eze who hails from Osisioma village, Abia State,  he said the AK 47 rifle belongs to his friend Uchenna.   According to him   “On October 15, 2012, I met a brother, Uchenna where I used to pray for people – Mountain of Mercy, Ikoyi, Osun State. After three days’ prayer, he started calling me. He asked me where I live and do prayer. I told him that I live in the Leadway Estate, Eruwe.

Pastor suspect, Solomon Eze

He later came with one Ogonna on January 2.   Ogonna collected my number and left. I did not see him for more than a month until I was about traveling to Anambra for a church programme.   I left them in Ikorodu and travelled to Anambra.   I was there when my brother, Kingsley called me that the police had arrested him because of me. I was arrested and brought to SARS. Uchenna told me that his brother used to bring cars from abroad and asked me to follow him to bring them. We went and brought a Toyota Camry car. He gave me N30, 000.
“I only prayed for Uchenna before my encounter with them. I am married. My wife sells fruits and she is carrying a seven-month pregnancy. It was James that put me into trouble because I arrested him. I did not participate in four armed robbery and kidnap operations as he is claiming. I don’t even know that I was arrested for belonging to a robbery/kidnapping gang. It is a surprise to me because I have never been involved in this type of case.”
Sunday James who is the second in command to the gang said “ I am from Ebonyi State but I live in Coker, Orile, Lagos. I was introduced to the gang by Victor Emmanuel, who is the leader of the gang.
In January, Emmanuel rented an apartment in Ajah area and in February, we started the business fully. Whenever we kidnap, we take the victim to the apartment. We have kidnapped four people so far.
“The first person we kidnapped paid N1m ransom and my share was N100,000. Emmanuel received N200,000 since he was the leader. The second victim paid N1m and we shared the money in the same manner.”  The suspect however added that they later increased their ransoms for subsequent operations. “We later started demanding N2m as ransom.
After our last operation, we bought a jeep for N1.5m and the remaining money was shared equally. I got N70,000 and that was the last time I saw the gang,” he said.    The suspect said the gang was much organized as every member had his own role to play.

The sealed storey-building

According to him, a gang member had a duty of feeding and looking after victims while in captivity. He said, “Emmanuel was the one responsible for spotting people that we will kidnap. He was the one who usually contacted the families of victims and he also collected the ransom.“Pastor’s job is to provide the guns that the gang will use. I only follow the gang but I don’t carry guns.”
Kidnap of a prominent person
When asked how the gang usually picked its victims, the suspect said anyone seen in a flashy car was a potential victim.  He said, “Emmanuel usually sits on the passenger side and anytime he spots someone in a flashy car, we trail the person and then grab him or her.  We then dump the victim’s vehicle somewhere before contacting the family. We have never kidnapped a prominent person.”
The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Umar Manko, told newsmen  while parading the suspects that,  “ in our efforts to rid the state of kidnapping, we were able to identify two groups of kidnappers, we have been able to uproot one group and we believe that the other group is responsible for the kidnap of the LCDA boss. We also sealed off two of the kidnapper’s dens located at Ikorodu and Ibeju-Lekki and a storey-building belonging to one of the kidnappers located at Ajangbadi area of Lagos.
Source: Vanguard

FACTS: FESTAC Town, A Festival Of Sex?

In the beginning, FESTAC Town was a purely residential estate. Originally referred to as Festival Town or FESTAC village, it is found along the Lagos – Badagry Expressway in Lagos. It derives its name from the second World African Festival of Arts and Culture held in Nigeria in 1977. Participants in the festival were given accommodation in the housing units, which were later allocated to winners, who emerged through a ballot.
But FESTAC Town is no longer what it used to be. It has lost its past glory in more ways than one. In particular, it is not a residential estate in every material particular anymore. It has become home to various commercial activities. Many private developers have put their fingers in the juicy pie.
Town of prostitutes
One of the businesses that define FESTAC Town presently is prostitution. Indeed, it could be said there is a festival of sex, going on in some parts of the town. Some of the residents volunteered that they were harassed daily by the commercial sex workers on the prowl.
One of the preferred places where the women of easy virtues display their wares is First Avenue. As night falls, they converge on the long stretch and wait patiently like vultures.  While some stand in twos and threes, others go solo. And to keep warm and high while standing in the dark, some of them puff cigarettes and weeds.
In various sizes and shapes, they come. Some are-not-so-young, others look as young as 14 and 15 year- olds, flaunting apple size breasts and buttocks still forming. But here, age is nothing; street wisdom is everything. Everyone strives to beat the other in the highly competitive sex trade. The roadside prostitutes, made up of students, married women, divorces and single mothers openly solicit for patronage from passers-by.
Perhaps, the highest concentration of sex workers in FESTAC is in a brothel found near the bride, linking the town with the extension. Indeed, it could be described as a ‘one-stop sex super market.’ There, sex walks on all fours. Ladies in skimpy attires that leave little to imagination strut their stuff. Some are bold enough to solicit for patronage, promising to give prospective customers “treats.” They also adopt fancy names like Beauty, Mimi, Cindy, Suzzie, Floxy, etc.
Recently, Daily Sun spent a night at the prostitutes’ paradise and saw them, reenacting Sodom and Gomorrah. Indeed, anything can happen there. Men were seen caressing women openly just as lovemaking took place inside cars parked in the neighbourhood.  Drug dealing and weed smoking were also some of the activities going on there.
How they operate
Some of the ladies come from elsewhere to ‘hustle’ in FESTAC at night and leave in the morning. Coming to ‘work’, they dress somewhat respectably but when they get to their ‘office,’ they don their business outfits. The work clothes consist of breasts and belly exposing tops and tight fitting bum shorts, low waist trousers and micro-mini skirts.
Investigations revealed that some of the prostitutes’ camp in the brothel located near the bridge, linking the town with the extension. A number of them take up rooms at the rate of N3,500 daily and split the bill among themselves. The ladies, who camp at the brothel entertain clients in their rooms. But for a customer to be entertained inside the room before 12am, he has to pay N1,000 to the management of the hotel.
Services   
The market rate for sex there is not fixed. It depends on the time, class and desperation of those involved. The call girls charge between N1,500 and N3,000 for a trick. An all-night outing is put at anything from N3,000.
Some of the girls can engage in three-some if the price is right. A lady, who gave her name as Sylvia, told the reporter that she could sleep with two men if they pay well. “If two guys can pay me N8,000, I will spend the night with them.” Asked if she can cope with two men, she smiled and said: “Try me. No bi today yash dey for back.”
And in their desperation for customers, some of them flaunt their area of specialisation. Happiness, as one of them called herself, said she was a blow job expert. Another said she was willing to do it through the anus.
Condoms, pants everywhere
Evidences that the sex business is thriving are everywhere. For instance, used condoms are strewn all about the neighbourhood. Pants and bras of every colour hang in the open windows, painting the area in the colour of a red light district.
Deaths
It was gathered that deaths are sometimes recorded in the brothel or guesthouse. A source said: “We have witnessed instances where dead bodies were brought out of the brothel.”
Residents’ dilemma
Those living near the enclave of sex are crying blue murder. According to them, the nuisance value of the commercial sex workers and their patrons is unbearable.
A resident, who lives close to the brothel complained: “They said it was a guest house but it is purely a brothel, it is for harlots. They are constituting nuisance and this is affecting the upbringing of our children. Sometimes, as early as 6.00pm, I can’t even see the way to enter my compound; somebody will just come and pack at the gate and the manager and so-called security men they have there will not control their customers in terms of how they park their cars.
They don’t have parking space. In fact, it is compound problem. It is the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) that caused this problem. I can tell that the house, standing there is not the one FHA approved. FHA knows that, the owner of the hotel knows that.  They approved about five or 10 rooms as a guesthouse but what they have there is something else. I have called the police but nothing happened. Even policemen used to sleep there. You can investigate by yourself. So, they are the same. Sometimes, armed robbers jump from the guest house into my compound. Do you believe that a whole officer was asking me irrelevant questions. Am I supposed to go to the hotel to monitor what is happening? The police, by the nature of their job, are supposed to know that this thing exists in Festac. If I complain to the police, they will start asking me: Did you see the armed robber? Was he carrying gun? They may want to implicate me; nothing is impossible.”
He further said: “This thing is not supposed to be here. If you ask other neighbours, they will narrate the same experience. If you come about 6.00pm, you will wonder if someone is living in my house, you will think that my compound is even the hotel. They will park cars in front of my house and have sex right inside the cars, not inside the hotel. It is the people that came to the hotel that are doing that. Another thing is the music they play.
They start playing the music from 6.00pm till 5.00am the following day. The speakers will be booming, disturbing the neighbourhood. This goes on everyday of the week. I wonder why FHA will allow this kind of nonsense in this place. They are there, taking bribe; if you give them money you will build any kind of nonsense you want in FESTAC. Otherwise, why should they allow this?”
Another resident said his children and visitors had been harassed by patrons, who mistook them for sex workers. “It is better forgotten,” he said with unmistakable agony in his voice.
Another resident added: “I live at the back of the guesthouse. We find it very difficult to enter our houses, especially in the evenings because harlots and men of the under world will be everywhere, blocking the road. So, everyday that you enter your house, you thank God that you have succeeded for that day. We have encountered all sorts of problems because of the guesthouse. Sometime last year, somebody was visiting us in the evening; he could not have access to our house. What he did was that he parked the vehicle beside the hotel and came in. After staying with us and was about to go, he discovered that the vehicle he parked there had been vandalised. They took away his laptop, international passport and everything that was inside the vehicle. So, we are begging the government to come and rescue us, we are in a very big problem in FESTAC.”
He added that the place was a den of thieves.  “A lot of times, armed robbers run into the hotel and police will pursue them and get them. After few days, it will recur. Our lives are not safe in his this Close we are living. We are living in fear. If you come to the back of the guesthouse, you will see how the harlots display their pants, bras and other things in the windows and this is a place where we are training our children.
Anyone who comes around here in the evenings will witness what we are saying. We acquired the place as a residential area but we are crying because of the hotel and hoodlums that are attacking us. We are begging government and people concerned to come and rescue us before things get out of hand.”
On the efforts the residents have made to redress the situation, one of the residents said: “We have reported this matter to the owner of the hotel and he promised us that he would look into it but up till now nothing has been done. The situation of the place is getting worse by the day. To make matters worse, they started to play band every night. As soon you get home to rest after a hard day’s work, they start playing band. We don’t sleep till about 5.00am when they close. All these things are happening in a residential area. We have called the man times without number to see what we are passing through. His progress should not be a problem to us. He acquired a land as we acquired ours through FHA as a residential area. Only God knows how he got the approval to run it as a hotel. Hotel is different from brothel. Hotel is a place where people go to rest but this one is the abode of harlots from all over the country. They come and pay for rooms and begin to operate from there. Maybe, six or 10 girls will be resident in one room to terrorise the FESTAC area. It is an eye sore. We have young people we are training and they are going out and coming in. We have no value as human beings in FESTAC because of the area we are living and what is happening there. We are begging government to come and rescue us.”
Petitions
The concerned residents have also petitioned the FHA and management of the guesthouse over the issue. The petitions bother on noise pollution, blockade of the road, leading to their houses by guests and patrons of the brothel, provocative and irresponsible behaviour of the harlots, loss of value in the property within the vicinity and revocation permit to operate as guesthouse.
Efforts to speak with the managing director of the outfit proved abortive. Daily Sun called him on telephone number 08034345784 but it though it rang there was no response.

Source: Sun News

INTERESTING: NCC Order MTN To Raise Tariff?

In a bid to create a level playing field for telecoms  operators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed MTN Nigeria Communication Limited to raise internal mobile tariffs.
NCC in its recent industry review, phone calls between MTN customers cost three times lower than calls to other networks. The report stressed: “This is indicative of the likely establishment of a calling club for MTN subscribers.”
MTN, which has about 44 per cent of the market, must cut the difference in price and face further scrutiny to ensure the competitive landscape is even for all operators, the NCC insisted.
Nigeria, Africa’s fastest growing telecoms market with a population of 167 million people has a subscriber base that is slightly above 113 million at the end of 2012, according to the NCC. MTN Nigeria is the market leader with 47 million lines.
Globacom had 24 million subscribers, Airtel-23 million customers while Etisalat had 14 million, according to data on the NCC’s website.
The report also showed that MTN and Globacom were found to “jointly control about 62 per cent of the public terrestrial transmission infrastructure,” raising concerns they may “squeeze the margins of their competitors who are also their customers.”
“As a result of the determination outlined above, the Commission has resolved that the Dominant Operator in the mobile voice market shall be required to adhere to the following obligations:
“Accounting Separation: The Commission will immediately enforce and implement Accounting Separation on the dominant operator
“ Collapse of On net and Off net Retail Tariffs: The differential between the on–net and off net retail tariffs will be immediately collapsed. The tariff for on net and offnet will be the same, and subject to periodic review.
“ Submission of Required Details: The Commission may require the dominant operator to submit details on specific aspects of its operations from time to time as the need may arise.” The regulator added that the Commission shall make a determination of pricing principle to address the rate charges for on-net and off-net calls for all other operators
On the dominat operators in the Wholesale Leased Lines and Transmission jointly dominated by MTN and Globacom, NCC said it will impose price cap/price floor for wholesale services and price floor for retail services which shall be subject to periodic review. It also plans to “immediately enforce and implement accounting separation on the joint dominant operator.”
The regulator added that it may require any of the joint dominant operators to submit details on specific aspects of the operations from time to time as the need arises.
“The determination shall take effect from 1st May 2013 and remain valid and binding on licensees for the services specified in relevant market segment of this sector until further reviewed by the commission,” the NCC said.
Source: Nigeria Trends

SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE: What Happened - Solomon Akiyesi

• I loved Ezinne, my first wife, but she was deceitful, greedy
• If I hadn’t left Lillian, my second wife, I would have committed suicide
• Uloma gives me true love, inner joy
On Saturday, April 13, Nigerians were shocked when the supposed wedding of Nollywood actor, Mr. Solomon Akiyesi, to Ms Uloma Agwu, turned into a major scandal in Lagos.
The ‘wedding’, which was taking place at the Overcomer’s World Outreach in Aguda, Surulere, was truncated when Solomon’s authentic wife, Lillian, stormed the church with some family members, creating a scene and accusing the groom-to-be of abandoning her at home in Port Harcourt while he was busy, plotting an illegal wedding in Lagos.
It took the intervention of policemen to restore sanity. The wedding was eventually cancelled by the General Overseer of the Overcomers Church World Outreach, Bishop N.E. Moses.
Since then, many Nigerians have taken to the social media, raining unprintable invectives on the Nollywood actor, who was said to have been married twice before his latest failed attempt. In a chat with Daily Sun, Solomon tells his own story, explaining why he decided to take the actions that he took, concerning his marital life. Excerpts: Over the last one week, hell has been let loose on me.
I’ve not only suffered verbal attacks, but also vituperations and near fisticuffs, all because of another futile attempt of mine at my journey towards achieving that which I honestly and passionately desire – a peaceful home and family. Social network sites and blogs have been awash with how I left Lilian, my “pregnant” wife, to marry Uloma, my Lagos “mistress” whom they also claimed was pregnant for me. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
Only a mad or cursed man would simply leave his pregnant wife and elope with another one. And lest I forget, I urge you, as you read this, to have an open mind to listen to that which is true instead of taking sides and jumping into wicked conclusions with its attendant wicked insults and uncouth commentaries about how Solomon is running his life and how he is not. I’m not asking for pity or trying to buy anybody’s love at this time.
This is my life. If at my age I don’t know what I want, then I may just remain the dumb ass that I’ve been called over and over again. I don’t think I need anyone to give me any lecturing on how I should exercise my privileges.
For the record, I never planned on marrying more than one wife. And unlike the serial husband I’ve been labelled, I had dreamt and planned a lovely home and family.
And my quest for this dates back to 2003 after I had moved into Port Harcourt. I soon settled down with Ezinne, my university days girlfriend, whom I ran into in Port Harcourt during her National Youth Service. As fate had it, we couldn’t help reliving old times and one thing led to another. One fateful, rainy Thursday evening in October, 2002, Ezinne came to inform me that she was pregnant.
It was as far as I was concerned, a devastating blow to the new life I was living; rap music, cars, money and women. So, I told her the pregnancy was unacceptable to me. Besides, I only just started working and needed stability. But months later, Ezinne was to inform me that she was carrying a baby girl.
And knowing my attachment to baby girls and not wanting to ever have a baby outside wedlock, I repented and changed my thuggish ways and asked her to marry me, more so that I was mature enough in every ramification. Or so I thought.
And so, sometime in April, 2003, I hired a hall and invited a pastor to come officiate at my marriage with Ezinne and bless our rings. All done, we went home and started as husband and wife. God, the creator, knew how glad I was and looked forward to a happy home. However, five days after that marriage, I called my new wife on my way from work to ask what was up for dinner and she told me she had been in the hospital.
I rushed to the hospital and was told by Ezinne that she lost the baby. I got her discharged and took her home. But I was completely broken at the loss of a baby I had expected so much. Four days later, I asked my wife if she actually saw the dead baby. She responded by saying the doctor brought it but she gave instruction for it to be buried because she could not behold the sight. Instinctively, I called the doctor – both to thank him and to confirm because he wasn’t around when I went to pick her home. After thanking the doctor, I asked of the sex of my dead baby.
The doctor didn’t talk for like six seconds. I asked him the same question again and he said he’s been restless in his spirit and that he could no longer keep the fact that there was no baby inside Ezinne and that nothing like miscarriage happened in his hospital. I challenged him again and asked if he was not the same person, who confirmed her pregnant and that Ezinne had been attending antenatal in his hospital.
He responded that he had not set his eyes on Ezinne since October of the previous year. Meanwhile, Ezinne had always taken money from me for antenatal and had even shopped for the baby! It then became clear to me that this was a fluke all together.
Sadly enough, Ezinne denied any wrongdoing. For three years, I exposed opportunities for Ezinne to simply tell me the truth but she never took advantage of any of the opportunities. Alas! She was not pregnant. I decided to investigate myself and took her for HSG where it was discovered that there were no fallopian tubes in her and that there was evidence of previous surgery of the uterus. I independently probed further and found out with evidence that Ezinne had a life-threatening abortion in 1992 that resulted in the rupture and subsequent removal of her womb and tubes.
My biggest pain was not what I found out but the fact that Ezinne hid all this from me all these years and was still being economical with the truth even when confronted with hard evidence! In frustration, I moved out of the house but not before taking her to her mum in search of the truth.
Even the mum corroborated what Ezinne gave as excuse for the scar that runs from her navel down to her pubic region, i.e. she was operated upon due to menstrual irregularities. I then decided to stay out for good. While I was out, my relationship with Lillian whom I had known years earlier grew.
I was always going to see her in Enugu. I then got me another apartment and Lillian came around quite often too. Gradually Lillian grew from that little girl I was merely helping in her schooling, into a mature, witty and intelligent young woman. So, having taken my people to Ezinne’s place for the dissolution of the marriage – since we did only traditional marriage – I proposed to Lillian.
And, in 2007, we proceeded to the registry for marriage. And that was the day her father started troubling me. He insisted Lillian was not supposed to go home with me. For two years, he cut communication with me. Shortly after the marriage, my businesses ran into a crises and my entire life nose-dived.
There was tremendous loss in my finances. In my travail, Lillian’s father went to the police and told them to deal seriously with me because I was an “irresponsible son-in-law”. When the challenges kept mounting and seeing my life was at risk after I was badly shot, I left town to sojourn elsewhere. In 2010, I gradually re-emerged and we started finding our footing again.
Even though I tried to settle down again, I found that the centre could no longer hold, as Lillian had metamorphosed into a nag and had acquired a fire tongue with which she talked me down and reigned curses on me at any little provocation. There was no week we didn’t have a major fight, whether I was home or not.
At some point, she became religious. And having found her way into Winners Chapel, she suggested to me one day that it was necessary we took our marriage to God since we hadn’t a proper wedding. She said her church pastors were willing to help in blessing our marriage so there could be a turnaround. To this, I obliged. She said she would love for us to wear wedding costumes for the purpose of photographs. To this I also consented. And so, to Winners Chapel we went and were blessed and certificated.
But it was as if that blessing was what someone was waiting for before they would blow the whistle that would usher me into the hall of pain. Lillian became insatiable.
You would see tiny ingredients of marriage only when I could ensure her comfort. Once Lillian’s comfort was compromised, she would lampoon me and tell me my life history in graphic details and lecture me on what Mr. A and B have done for their wives that I’m not able to do.
It’s even worse when I try to remind her of the recent past that I laboured tenaciously to keep her happy. Once she told me that there was nothing I had done in the past that anybody couldn’t have done. Imagine sacrificing all you’ve got, including almost your life, for someone who would tell you it’s no big deal and that any other person could have done what you did. And then, suddenly, she wanted me to quit my acting career or she would divorce me. My phones were always her best companions at night. If she was not reading my texts, she was in my facebook or BBM.
I had no peace. My best moment was whenever I had to leave home for work. And after work I never wanted to go back home. On a trip back home sometime ago, I was praying that my aircraft should crash and I die instead of going home. Even when I was driving home, I was under strong temptation to ram into oncoming vehicles instead of going home.
It was either that a long list of demand would be waiting for me or an equally longer list of questions about whom I had been online with and whom I had been calling and not calling.
Then on the side was a supposed father-in-law, who claimed he regretted the marriage because he wasn’t getting anything from it and that I only came to destroy the love that existed in their family before the marriage. So, my joy knew no bounds when Lillian told me last year that she was pregnant. For me, it was a good thing. Maybe the baby would take her attention away from me at last. Then the heat started again. I must provide N2 million for her to deliver her baby, even though she knows my income and its source. When her pressure got to a head and to avoid the same road I travelled with Ezinne, I took Lillian to a gynaecologist. A scan was run on her and the result was declared before the two of us that she was not pregnant.
This was after she told me that she had done an independent scan and that she was carrying triplets! Even with the medical confirmation, Lillian never stopped her push for N2 million and money for baby shopping. I ended up suffering a partial stroke in January. Yet she would wake me up at 2am to ask me of my plans to raise N2 million for her, even while I was bedridden with stroke.
I knew then that I was going to die in that marriage and had to do something about it. Ladies and gentlemen, this is about my life. If what greeted the Internet and press was that I died, trying to please Lillian and my marriage, people would still insult me and ask why I didn’t take a walk. And taking a walk I tried to do but I did not do it right.
I tried to skip due process to avoid hurting anyone. More so, I did not have the political and emotional will to ask for divorce. Pray, people, divorce is not like going to a grocery store where you go to pay your money and come back with a bag full. What would have been my ground for divorce? I should also confess that I could not find an answer to what would happen to Lillian if I asked her to go because I was more than a husband to her.
So, I foot-dragged to the point of taking the easy way out. And the easy way is not usually the best way as I found out on Saturday, April 13.
Uloma did not just jump into the picture to “snatch” Solomon from Lillian. Uloma has been my friend since 2006. We met again in 2009 at the peak of my business crisis and have been seeing each other afterwards. Candidly, I was swept away by the love, understanding and the peaceful disposition Uloma proffered even as a friend, far from the opposites I was getting back home. The way Uloma treated me was the exact desires any man longed for in a wife. So, I was always running to her whenever Lillian lit her fires.
So, I asked myself why I couldn’t marry her. Far from the evil rumour that I wanted to marry Uloma because of her money, I wanted to marry Uloma to fill a vacuum in her life and make her happy and fulfilled because this woman with a heart of gold who has impacted many lives deserved to be happy.
If that was what I could ever do to plant some comfort in her life. If there was going to be any immediate gain for me, it would have been peace of mind and its attendant long life, not her money or any physical or material gains. I’m not a lazy man.
Apart from being an actor, I have been in business for almost fifteen years. Years back, when I poured millions of naira on exotic cars and a posh house in Port Harcourt, Uloma was a seventy thousand naira recovery staff in Sterling Bank. Today, even if Uloma gave me all her salary from where she presently works, it won’t be enough to put Internet credit in my tablets and phones. Someone even posted that I said I would have ‘hammered’ if I had married Uloma.
What could I possibly gain? Uloma wasn’t frustrated to the point of desperation to pay a man to marry her. There was no award for anyone who married her. She does not own an estate or anything willed to her by anyone that I was running after. Uloma is not the daughter of any rich man or top politician. She’s as much a hustler as I am.
Ok, yes, sincerely, maybe I actually would have ‘hammered’ long life, happiness, inner joy, a sense of being loved and long life. I also would have ‘hammered’ having her sisters as my sisters because they love me like their own brother – a far cry from what my own people give me.
If I had married Uloma, I know I would have had a good burial whenever I died because I’ve always been scared that at my level of loneliness, whenever I die, my corpse would probably have decomposed before my people would find me. I beg to be loved and appreciated. Nobody to call my own.
No one ever cared about me. I have always been alone and hardworking too. From way back, my joys, my sorrows I have always swallowed alone. But Uloma was the only person who truly listened to my heart and understood where I was coming from. So to say any of my failed marriages was for money is simply stupid and unreasonable. The first car Ezinne ever drove and financing for her first attempt at business all came from me.
Lillian was not born with a silver spoon. Her father is only a retired naval officer and the last time I checked he had no wealth ascribed to his name. On her 18th birthday, I bought Lillian an exotic Corolla car. At 300 level in school, I gave her a Mercedes Benz.
Then she graduated with an LS400 Lexus. This is apart from a lush apartment and school bills that God used me to help her take care of. So, who amongst these would I have married for money? Uloma stood out because she’s shared my pain even when it was because of me and that explains why it was a difficult task telling her Lillian was still in my tracks.
I couldn’t have deliberately gone out of my way to hurt Uloma, because that will be simply committing suicide. Hurting Uloma is like waging war against a nation. Is it her legion of admirers I will have to contend with or her nation of die-hard lovers who will be tumbling over each other to get a pound of flesh?
I wouldn’t give hurt for the love and hope Uloma and her family gave me. Unfortunately the same scandals I thought I was preventing by not doing what everyone is saying I would have done is now the same thing staring me in the face, and everyone is worse hurt.
And above all, my own life is now seriously at risk because I feared hurting anyone. I ask all concerned to please sheathe their swords of anger and find it in their hearts to forgive me. I will make restitution as much as the mercy of God permits me. It’s never too late to begin again as far as God keeps us all alive.
I’m a man on a mission for a peaceful marriage, a good home and family life. I guess my desperation took good reasoning off me. Again, I am humbly and truly sorry. I thank my friends who have stood by me through this trial. Your comforting words are like lights on my dark path.
And for the judgmental few, I urge you; work with the truth while the Almighty fixes that which went wrong in my life.
Source: Sun News

2015: APC Tips Tambuwal, Buhari For Presidency …Okorocha May Get VP Baring any last minutes political recalculation, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and General Muhammadu Buhari will slog it out at the Presidential primaries of the All Progressive Congress, APC, ahead of the 2015 Presidential elections. APC leaders are reportedly considering zoning the Presidency to the Northwest and mulling zoning the running mate to the South East. The Chairmanship of the party might be zoned to the Southwest, Pointblanknews.com has been reliably informed. Immediate past Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is also in the race but will face a stiff opposition from the camp of General Muhammadu Buhari. The duo of Mallam El Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu lost out of consideration because they are said to have no solid political structure to withstand the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, whose party, the All Progressive grand Alliance, APGA, is still controversially linked with APC, is being considered for the Vice Presidency slot, a reliable source knowledgeable with the thinking and calculation of the emerging opposition party, told Pointblanknews.com. Okorocha is being considered for the VP slot to entice and compensate the South East voters. The Imo State Governor has already assured the leadership of APC of his ability to deliver the South East to the party in 2015. Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu who is expected to supply the war chest for the 2015 elections is eyeing the Senate Presidency and he is expected to take over the seat currently being occupied by his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a source told Pointblanknews.com in Lagos. Tinubu, a very wealthy politician and former Lagos State Governor who is noted for funding most of the election of members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has also promised to provide the funding for APC, a source said. The source hinted that overtures made by senior members of the APC to stop General Mohammed Buhari from running for the Presidency failed. The retired General who has contested and failed in three Presidential elections, a source said, insisted on testing his acceptability once again in 2015. He will be 73 in 2015. General Buhari at a recent interview said he could still contest the Presidential elections in 2015 if called upon to do so by members of the APC. “Since I am in the new party as a member, if after consultations they included me among their aspirants, I will not reject their offer. This is what I want people to know. I want people to be patient with what we are doing now. They should allow the merger to succeed first. I am sure the new party leaders will know those that are relevant and saleable to Nigerians electorate,” he said. Although Speaker Tambuwal is of the PDP but current political wrangling within the ruling party could make the Sokoto born politician consider the offer if it is eventually narrowed to him, a source hinted. The source noted that Tambuwal has always been in the good books of the opposition because of his “cordial relationship” with members of the opposition Parties in the House and the support he got from them to emerge as the Speaker. “They trust him and they simply believe that it is just a matter of time if he is well approached, he can ditch the PDP anytime and join APC,” the source said. A source confirmed to Pointblnaknews.com that after series of meeting with some leadership of the APC, the Speaker appears willing to dump the PDP and join the APC to contest the Presidential elections in 2015. “From outcome of our meetings with him and some of his political friends, we are confident he will join us. But as a politician, we believe he is still weighing his options and we respect that,” a top APC member told Pointblanknews.com. The source said as soon as the Speaker accepts to join APC and run for the Presidency, its leadership will try once more to persuade General Buhari to allow the party to adopt Tambuwal. Source: Pointblank News

Baring any last minutes political recalculation, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and General Muhammadu Buhari will slog it out at the Presidential primaries of the All Progressive Congress, APC, ahead of the 2015 Presidential elections.
APC leaders are reportedly considering zoning the Presidency to the Northwest and mulling zoning the running mate to the South East. The Chairmanship of the party might be zoned to the Southwest, Pointblanknews.com has been reliably informed.
Immediate past Governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is also in the race but will face a stiff opposition from the camp of General Muhammadu Buhari. The duo of Mallam El Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu lost out of consideration because they are said to have no solid political structure to withstand the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, whose party, the All Progressive grand Alliance, APGA, is still controversially linked with APC, is being considered for the Vice Presidency slot, a reliable source knowledgeable with the thinking and calculation of the emerging opposition party, told Pointblanknews.com.
Okorocha is being considered for the VP slot to entice and compensate the South East voters.
The Imo State Governor has already assured the leadership of APC of his ability to deliver the South East to the party in 2015.
Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu who is expected to supply the war chest for the 2015 elections is eyeing the Senate Presidency and he is expected to take over the seat currently being occupied by his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, a source told Pointblanknews.com in Lagos.
Tinubu, a very wealthy politician and former Lagos State Governor who is noted for funding most of the election of members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has also promised to provide the funding for APC, a source said.
The source hinted that overtures made by senior members of the APC  to stop General Mohammed Buhari from running for the Presidency failed. The retired General who has contested and failed in three Presidential elections, a source said, insisted on testing his acceptability once again in 2015. He will be 73 in 2015.
General Buhari at a recent interview said he could still contest the Presidential elections in 2015 if called upon to do so by members of the APC.
“Since I am in the new party as a member, if after consultations they included me among their aspirants, I will not reject their offer. This is what I want people to know. I want people to be patient with what we are doing now. They should allow the merger to succeed first. I am sure the new party leaders will know those that are relevant and saleable to Nigerians electorate,” he said.
Although Speaker Tambuwal is of the PDP but current political wrangling within the ruling party could make the Sokoto born politician consider the offer if it is eventually narrowed to him, a source hinted.
The source noted that Tambuwal has always been in the good books of the opposition because of his “cordial relationship” with members of the opposition Parties in the House and the support he got from them to emerge as the Speaker.
“They trust him and they simply believe that it is just a matter of time if he is well approached, he can ditch the PDP anytime and join APC,” the source said.
A source confirmed to Pointblnaknews.com that after series of meeting with some leadership of the APC, the Speaker appears willing to dump the PDP and join the APC to contest the Presidential elections in 2015.
“From outcome of our meetings with him and some of his political friends, we are confident he will join us. But as a politician, we believe he is still weighing his options and we respect that,” a top APC member told Pointblanknews.com.
The source said as soon as the Speaker accepts to join APC and run for the Presidency, its leadership will try once more to persuade General Buhari to allow the party to adopt Tambuwal.
Source: Pointblank News