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Police report indicts Nigerian army in Baga killings

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Nigerian soldiers fired wildly “at anybody in sight” during a deadly April incident in Baga, Borno state, a police report cited Sunday by the country’s Human Rights Commission said.

Troops completely “razed” five wards of the town of Baga during the rampage, according to police findings quoted in the rights commission’s new report.

The incident was reportedly sparked by the killing of a fellow soldier.

File Photo of victims of Boko Haram killings

File Photo of victims of Boko Haram killings

The police report on the violence that began on April 16 in Nigeria’s remote northeastern corner and may have continued into the following day had not been previously made public.

The Red Cross has said that 187 people were killed during the incident, while a local senator put the death toll at 228.

Nigeria’s military has denied accusations of abuses, insisting 37 people were killed, 30 of whom were militants, six civilians and one a soldier.

Military officials further denied fires were lit during the violence, saying they were caused by Islamist insurgents terrorising the region.

The commission report, a copy of which was provided to AFP, says police provided the same death toll as the military, though it does not say if the victims were civilians.

Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, a defence spokesman, told AFP the military stood by its previous account.

The police report cited differed from what had been previously discussed between the police and military, he conceded, but declined to provide further details.

A police spokesman said he could not comment as he had not yet read the report.

The commission’s report on the Baga incident and insecurity in general in the northeast does not assign blame, as it was unable to visit the area because of safety concerns.

Mobile phone lines have also been cut in much of the northeast since the military launched a sweeping offensive in the region on May 15 to try to end a four-year insurgency by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

Soldiers involved in the Baga incident were part of a multi-national task force that includes personnel from Nigeria, Niger and Chad, the report said. The borders of the three countries converge in Nigeria’s northeast corner.

But under the rules of the force, only Nigerian soldiers would have been operating on Nigerian territory, rights commission head Chidi Odinkalu told AFP.

Troops are said to have returned to Baga after a soldier was shot dead, allegedly by members of Boko Haram. Other soldiers may have also been wounded.

The commission noted allegations that the soldier’s killing “was one of many acts of provocation with fatal consequences attributed to (Boko Haram) which may have inspired or invited a firm response by the military deployment in the town.”

The police incident report as quoted by the commission said troops who arrived after the soldier was killed had “started shooting indiscriminately at anybody in sight,” including domestic animals.

“This reaction resulted (in) loss of lives and massive destruction of properties.”

The commission added later that the police report had established that five wards — Bulabulin, Bayan Tasha, Panpan Gajagaja, Adam Kolo and Bagadaza — had in the words of the police, been “completely razed down by the soldiers”.

It quotes the police report saying “properties worth millions of naira ($ 1 = 160 naira) were lost ‘through fire which burnt over 30 vehicles, 57 motorcycles, 100 bags of beans/maize’.”

It did not say how many homes had been destroyed.

– ‘No credible allegations’: defence –

The Baga violence was among a string of incidents contributing to President Goodluck Jonathan’s May 14 declaration of a state of emergency in the northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe. Baga is located in Borno, the worst affected of the three.

The rights commission report cited claims that Boko Haram “had active or dominant presence” in up to 12 of Borno’s 27 districts when Jonathan declared the state of emergency.

Since then, Nigeria’s military has claimed major successes in pushing out the Islamists. Independent confirmation has been impossible however, with phone lines cut and access to remote areas restricted.

The military has declined to provide casualty figures.

The insurgents have hit back recently. In two attacks on schools, militants killed 16 students and two teachers. There have also been reports of fresh attacks in the Gwoza area near the border with Cameroon.

The commission’s report also raised fresh concern over “extensive” allegations of the unlawful detentions of suspects linked to the insurgency.

It said there have also been credible allegations of summary executions, torture and rape by soldiers.

“We’ve not had any credible allegations against our men and when we do have we will investigate,” defence spokesman Olukolade told AFP.

The commission warned that the 2013 planting season had been lost in the northeast and prices were soaring for staple goods.

Such factors “threaten a foreseeable humanitarian crisis on the region which could endanger the short-term gains of the ongoing security operations,” the report said.

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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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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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