Nigeria News
Egypt’s turmoil continues as Morsi warns army
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi insisted on his “constitutional legitimacy” on Tuesday and called on the army to withdraw its threat to intervene unless he resolves his differences with his opponents.
“President Morsi insists on (his) constitutional legitimacy and rejects any attempt to overstep it,” said a message posted on his official Twitter account.
“(He) calls on the armed forces to withdraw their warning and rejects any dictates, domestic or foreign.”
His latest position, which merely underscored the snub of the army ultimatum by Islamic Brotherhood, came as opponents of his government poured onto the streets of Cairo on Tuesday to press their demand that he step down.
Morsi and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have been locked in talks all day to “discuss the current crisis,” a military source said, as clashes in Cairo between opponents and supporters of the president left seven people dead.
The violence in Cairo’s Giza neighbourhood also injured dozens, “some of whom are in critical condition from bullet wounds,” medical sources told AFP.
Most businesses remained closed and very few cars were on the streets, as tensions soared ahead of the Wednesday deadline set by the army, which the president’s supporters have condemned as a coup threat.
Clashes also erupted in the Cairo neighbourhood Helwan and the northern province of Beheira, security officials said.
Egyptian women protest calling for the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi
A senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood called on its supporters to be ready to sacrifice their lives to prevent an army takeover, recalling that hundreds had died during the 2011 revolution that ousted veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.
The main opposition coalition said it was ready to join the urgent talks on a negotiated transition called for by the army and named former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei as its chief negotiator.
The June 30 Front called for mass protests to keep up the pressure on Morsi and tens of thousands packed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square and the large avenues outside the capital’s two presidential palaces.
Chants of “Leave” rang out from the crowds.
The mood contrasted with the tension that had gripped protesters earlier in the day after Morsi’s office issued a statement rebuffing the army’s ultimatum .
Accountant Mona Elghazawy said she was “very worried”. “It’s now a battle between all the state institutions and the Islamists.”
Fellow demonstrator Mostafa Gharib said he feared the Islamists would “fight to the end.”
A supporter of Islamist Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi holds up his image during a rally outside Cairo University on June 2, 2013.
Backers of the president joined a sit-in in his support in Cairo’s Nasr City neighbourhood, as crowds massed near Cairo University vowing to defend his legitimacy.
Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Beltagui urged them to honour the sacrifices of those killed during the 2011 revolution that paved the way for Morsi to take power as Egypt’s first freely elected president.
“Seeking martyrdom to prevent this coup is what we can offer to the previous martyrs of the revolution,” he said.
The opposition too expressed concern that the military was poised to play a political role in the deeply divided country, even as the army hastened to damp down talk of an imminent “coup”.
In a statement issued overnight, the presidency insisted it would continue on its own path towards national reconciliation.
The army declaration had not been cleared by the presidency and could cause confusion, it said.
The president was consulting “with all national forces to secure the path of democratic change and the protection of the popular will”, it added.
Egypt’s main opposition bloc, the National Salvation Front, said it would “not support a military coup.”
It expressed trust in the army’s insistence that it does not want to get involved in politics.
The army denied there was any attempt at a “coup”, saying that army chief Sisi’s statement was merely aimed at “pushing all political sides to quickly find a solution.”
The June 30 Front, which includes the grassroots Tamarod movement that brought millions of protesters out onto the streets across Egypt on Sunday — said it had delegated ElBaradei “to be the voice” of the opposition.
The Front “entrusts ElBaradei with the responsibility to ensure the execution of the Egyptian people’s demands and to draft a scenario that aims at the complete implementation of the roadmap for the political transition.”
As the political uncertainty grew, Morsi was hit with a spate of resignations, including by his foreign minister Mohammed Kamel Amr.
Presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmy and cabinet spokesman Alaa al-Hadidi also resigned, officials and the media reported.
US President Barack Obama, whose government is a major military aid donor to Egypt, called Morsi to warn him that the voices of all Egyptians must be heard, a White House official said.
Obama told him Washington was committed to “the democratic process in Egypt and does not support any single party or group,” the official said.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on all sides not to squander the hopes of democracy of the 2011 revolution.
“These are decisive days for the political transformation in this key country of the Arab world,” he said.
Morsi’s opponents accuse him of having betrayed the revolution by concentrating power in Islamist hands and of sending the economy into free fall.
His supporters say he inherited many problems from a corrupt regime, and that he should be allowed to complete his term, which runs until 2016.
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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
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
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.
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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