Connect with us
study in Ukraine

Nigeria News

Killings: Jonathan calls off Namibian trip

Published

on

Following the violence in Nasarawa and a Tuesday attack in northern Borno state by the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram that killed 55 people, President Goodluck Jonathan cut short an African tour “to personally oversee efforts… to contain the fresh challenges to national security,” a statement said.

He called off a trip to Namibia, where he planned to travel after his state visit to South Africa.

His return home coincided with disclosure that more policemen died in the ambush by a little known militia in Nasarawa state.

Gunmen from the shadowy cult killed 30 policemen and then set fire to their bodies, police and officials said Thursday.

President Jonathan: calls off Namibian trip

President Jonathan: calls off Namibian trip

The Ombatse pagan movement, which says it is committed to purging social vices, has existed in Nasarawa state for years but has grown increasingly aggressive in recent months, including a campaign of forced conversions targeting both Christians and Muslims, officials said.

“A detachment of 60 police… came under attack from members of Ombatse cult in an ambush,” Nasarawa state police chief Abayomi Akeremale said of the attack on Tuesday in the village of Elakyo, some 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the state capital Lafia.

“The Ombatse gunmen opened fire on our men,” and set fire to those they killed, he told AFP, giving an initial toll of 23 dead and 17 missing.

But the police chief’s spokesman, Michael Ada, later said that seven of the missing had been found dead.

“I can confirm we have lost 30 men,” he told AFP.

Nasarawa roughly falls on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Christian south and predominately Muslim north.

One of the state’s major ethnic groups, the Eggon, is divided between the two faiths, but also has a history of links to pagan movements.

Ombatse, which means “time has come” in Eggon, has a significant presence, although its strength has typically been hard to estimate.

The group has identified alcohol consumption and adultery as some of the sins it seeks to eliminate.

Nasarawa’s Commissioner for Information, Hamza Elayo, said that the authorities had no issue with Ombatse until the movement’s aggressive turn.

“Everybody has right to freedom of religion, but when people go about forcing their creed on others in a violent way it becomes unacceptable,” he said.

Elayo and the police chief said the number of reported forced conversions has surged in recent weeks, prompting the security forces to move against a self-proclaimed priest and others.

“We decided to send our men to the area to arrest members of Ombatse including their priest,” Akeremale said.

“(They) have been going to churches and mosques initiating people into their cult by forcefully administering an allegiance oath to unwilling people.”

Elayo said there were indications that the movement’s change in conduct had political motivations.

The Eggon, according to Elayo, have been pushing for a member of their ethnic group to succeed the current state governor, Tanko Al-Makura, and certain Eggon leaders have reached out to the Ombatse to fight for their cause.

“It is obvious they are being sponsored by some ambitious politicians…The security agencies have been closing in on such politicians but I don’t want to mention names,” he said.

Access to massive resources are at stake in Nigerian state elections and several have turned violent.

Political and ethnic groups have also mobilised private militias to advance their agendas.

The male members of Ombatse are said to dress only in black, while women are reportedly barred from many of the major ceremonies.

Until recently, incidents of violence were limited.

Last November, Ombatse gunmen were reported to have shot dead three security personnel in a shootout with troops who stormed a shrine during an initiation ceremony.

Days later purported Ombatse gunmen killed 10 members of a rival group.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, includes some 250 ethnic groups.

While Christianity and Islam are dominant, various other religious and spiritual movements are present across the country.

Meanwhile, the Police High Command has reacted to the various killings of policemen in recent weeks, all over Nigeria.

In a statement issued by spokesman, Frank Mba, the police said;

“The Police High Command received early this morning news of the unprovoked and brutal killing of scores of Policemen who were on legitimate assignment in Nasarawa State.

“This disturbing, condemnable and highly distressing incident, coming closely after similar ones in Bayelsa and Borno States, have thrown up new and emerging threat in the delicate task of policing our country.

We consider the attack not just an attack on the Nigeria Police and its officers and men but an attack on the collective will of Nigerians to protect and preserve our dear fatherland; this we have vowed to put an end to.

“Consequently, the IGP has directed all its field commanders and Special Units including Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and Commissioners of Police to harness all resources available within their domain in ensuring that this reign of terror and lawlessness is brought to an end.

“The Nigeria Police Force working in conjunction with all positive minded Nigerians, will do everything within its powers to fish out and bring to book all those involved in this and other similar killings of law enforcement agents.

“We must put an end to this endless circle of impunity. Enough is enough.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

DisNaija.Com publishes regular posts on Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Online Nigeria Gist.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Nigeria News


Your Opinion Counts. Be sure To Leave A Comment, If You Have Any.

Please Like, Share or Tweet. Your Support Is Appreciated.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Nigeria News

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

Published

on

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

Continue Reading

Nigeria News

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

Published

on

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

Continue Reading

Nigeria News

Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

Tribune

Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

Published

on

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

Continue Reading
Advertisement study in Ukraine

Politics

Popular Posts