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Egypt army gives Morsi 48-hour ultimatum

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CAIRO(AFP) – The Egyptian army warned on Monday that if Islamist President Mohamed Morsi failed to meet the demands of the people within 48 hours, it would intervene with a roadmap of its own, after millions took to the streets to demand he step down.

The military’s statement, read out on state television, received a rapturous welcome from Morsi’s opponents who have been camped out in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and a muted response from his Islamist supporters.

Protesters want Morsi to go

Protesters want Morsi to go

The army high command renewed its call “that the demands of the people be met and gives (all parties) 48 hours, as a last chance, to take responsibility for the historic circumstances the country is going through.”

“If the demands of the people are not met in this period… (the armed forces) will announce a future roadmap and measures to oversee its implementation,” the statement said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, on whose platform Morsi won Egypt’s first freely contested presidential election in June last year, said it was “studying” the army’s statement.

President Morsi: Egypt in turmoil

President Morsi: Egypt in turmoil

Senior Brotherhood leader Mahmud Ghozlan told AFP that the group’s political bureau would meet later to decide its position.

Tamarod, the grassroots campaign behind Sunday’s massive protests, welcomed the statement by the armed forces which it said had “sided with the people.”

It “will mean early presidential elections,” Tamarod’s spokesman Mahmud Badr told reporters.

Tens of thousands of jubilant protesters poured into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other large cities after the statement was broadcast. Raucous cheers rang out across main squares.

In Tahrir, protesters voiced their support for army chief and Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, chanting: “Come down Sisi, Morsi is not my president.”

Analyst Hassan Nafea, a political science professor at Cairo University, said the ultimatum was a clear demand for the the Islamist president to step aside to pave the way for fresh elections.

“He has been given 48 hours to accept what the people want and there is only one demand and that is to hold early presidential elections,” Nafea said.

The army, which led a tumultuous transition after the 2011 revolt that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak, had given all parties one week to reconcile their differences.

“This week, there has been no sign of gestures or acts,” the army said.

“Wasting more time will lead only to more division… which we have warned and continue to warn against.”

Egypt has been deeply divided between Morsi’s Islamist supporters and a broad-based opposition.

The huge turnout for Sunday’s protests, which the military put at millions nationwide, handed the initiative to the opposition Tamarod movement, which gave Morsi until 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Tuesday to quit or face an open-ended campaign of civil disobedience.

The health ministry said 16 people died in protests on Sunday, including eight in clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi outside the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters.

Early on Monday, protesters set the Brotherhood’s headquarters ablaze before storming it. Looters walked away with petrol bombs, helmets, flak jackets, furniture and documents, an AFP correspondent reported.

“This is a historic moment. The Brotherhood ruined the country, so stealing from them is justified,” one man said.

A senior government official told AFP that four ministers — tourism, environment, communication and legal affairs — had tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

Tamarod — Arabic for rebellion — is a grassroots campaign which says it has collected more than 22 million signatures to a petition demanding new elections.

Opposition leader Hamdeen Sabbahi urged military intervention if Morsi refused to quit, stressing however that the best outcome would be for him to step down of his own accord.

Morsi’s opponents accuse him of betraying the revolution by concentrating power in Islamist hands and of sending the economy into freefall.

His supporters say he inherited many problems from a corrupt regime, and that he should be allowed to complete his term which ends in 2016.

They organised counter-demonstrations in the run-up to Sunday’s protests but they failed to draw the numbers that the opposition succeeded in bringing out onto the streets.

World leaders voiced alarm at the bloodshed that marred Sunday’s demonstrations.

US President Barack Obama, whose government is a major military aid donor to Egypt, called on all sides to show restraint.

He did not take a position on whether it was time for Morsi to go, but called on his government to reach out to the opposition.

“What is clear right now is that although Mr Morsi was elected democratically, there is more work to be done to create the conditions in which everybody feels their voices are heard,” he said.

The United Nations warned that the outcome of the turmoil in Egypt would have a major bearing on other countries in the Middle East where authoritarian governments were overthrown after the Arab Spring of 2011.

“What Egypt does with its transition will have a significant impact on other transition countries in the region,” said UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

jaz/k

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Nigeria News

Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.

The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.

Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.

Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.

Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.

Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.

In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.

Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.

However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.

Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria

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Nigeria News

COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container

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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The market women, said to be  from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.

Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.

A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.

Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that  smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.

 

Sourced From: Vanguard News

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Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

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Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole

The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.

Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.

He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid  in January 2020.

‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.

She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.

He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police  Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.

Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.

He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’

He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.

Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.

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Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

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President Buhari and the Service Chiefs in a meeting. (File photo)

Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend. 

He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart. 

Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.

The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad  problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”

The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad,  saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts.  This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose. 

Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them. 

Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter. 

“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said. 

 

Sourced From: Tribune

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