THOUSANDS OF NIGER TO SEEK REFUGE IN CHAD

Mercy Lank



Fear of Boko Haram attacks has driven at least 7,000 people from Niger to seek refuge in Chad in the last week, and thousands more may cross the border if the violence escalates, the United Nations said. The recent arrivals in Chad’s Lake region felt compelled to leave Niger after attacks by Boko Haram militants on their village and neighbouring communities in the southeastern Diffa region, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). Diffa has seen intense fighting over the past year between Niger’s army and Boko Haram militants. The region hosts almost a quarter-of-a-million uprooted people, from Niger and Nigeria, who have been forced to flee their homes by the violence. “The new arrivals fled into Chad because they were scared of Boko Haram attacks … after a few took place recently,” UNHCR official Edward O’Dwyer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “They also said they felt exposed after Chad scaled back the number of troops in Niger due to a lack of resources,” he added. Those who crossed the border into Chad said at least 10,000 more people could follow suit imminently due to fears over their safety in southern Niger, according to the U.N. agency. Suspected Boko Haram fighters killed nine people and abducted dozens more in southern Niger last month, while female bombers killed two and wounded 11 at a U.N.-managed camp for the displaced in the first suicide attack in the region in a year. This violence has stoked fears about Niger’s inability to stop Boko Haram crossing the desert border from their bases in Nigeria, with the frequency of the militants’ attacks having ramped up recently as their eight-year insurgency rages on.

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ACTING PRESIDENT -ALL CHIBOK GIRLS WILL BE RELEASED SOON

Mercy Lank

• Tasks govs on welfare of Nigerians From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi The 113 Chibok schoolgirls still in Boko Haram’s custody will be released “very soon.” Acting President Yemi Osinbajo gave the assurance, yesterday, when he received members of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram insurgents abducted 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. The sect released 82 of the girls in May, in a prisoner-swap deal with the Federal Government, and 21 were let go in October 2016. But since then, little has been heard from the Federal Government concerning the 113 still being held by the insurgents. Osinbajo, who was represented by Babafemi Ojudu, Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters, said government’s silence was only strategic. He reassured the group that government had been meeting with service chiefs concerning the abducted girls as well as others in Boko Haram custody, and that efforts were being intensified to secure their release. “I’ve been directed by the acting president to assure you of the support of the government concerning your agitation for the return of all the girls that were kidnapped by members of Boko Haram,” Ojudu said. “He said he heard you loud and clear. On the issue of the policewomen that are being held and even concerning the girls, on a daily basis, the acting president has been meeting with security chiefs and making contacts with negotiators across the world, who have helped in the past to secure those that have been released. “We have not, at any point, forgotten the children who could be anybody’s children. The acting president has asked me to reassure you, this afternoon, that he is with you, and that your cries are his cries. “And the fact that we are not coming out to say what is being done is strategic and, also, for security reasons. He also said I should tell you that very soon, more of the girls, if not all of them, will be brought back home.” Oby Ezekwesili, co-convener of the BBOG had urged the government to restrategise its anti-terrorism approach to ensure that all the girls, as well as the policewomen and oil workers abducted by the sect are released. “We thought the government had figured a way to get back our girls, so we estimated that the remaining 113 would return in lesser time it took the 82 to come home. “If only one voice remains, that would continue to demand the release of our Chibok girls, it is good enough. It’s enough to re-echo our voice across the universe,” she said. Meanwhile, the acting president charged governors of all states controlled by the ruling the All Progressive Congress (APC) to think out of the box in meeting up with social welfare of the people. Osinbajo, who stated this yesterday in Birnin Kebbi during a parley with Progressive Governors’ Forum, noted that the present administration promised better life for Nigerians and urged them to deliver on it. “That is why in the budget, we have N500 billion for social welfare. If States think out of the box, like Lagos, Kebbi, Jigawa and other States who used their initiatives, we can improve their lives.” Osinbajo noted that APC States must support the Federal Government to fight corruption which he described as an endemic disease. “If we don’t killed corruption, corruption will kill us, ” he said.

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Tennessee bride 'put gun to groom's head and pulled trigger'

Mercy Lank

A Tennessee bride has been arrested after police say she pulled a gun from her wedding dress and threatened her new husband just hours after they wed. Kate Elizabeth Prichard, 25, was still in her bridal gown when she was detained at a motel in Murfreesboro. She allegedly drew the 9mm handgun, put it to her husband's head and pulled the trigger. The gun was not loaded, but she later allegedly loaded it and fired into the air, causing onlookers to flee. Witnesses made statements about events preceeding the police's arrival.

They said the couple had been drinking and arguing outside the motel.

Sgt Evans said the bride had tried to hide the weapon in the motel bathroom. Ms Prichard has been charged with aggravated domestic assault, and was taken to jail before being released on a $15,000 (£11,300) bond

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Let Us Have" Biafra, Oduduwa Republic ‘Instead Of Restructuring"------Yoruba Group Tells FG

Mercy Lank

A South West group, Yoruba Liberation Command, YOLICOM, has called on the Federal Government to declare Biafra and Oduduwa independent nations instead of yielding to the call for restructuring. Speaking in Lagos, spokesperson of the group, Opeoluwa Akinola, said it was time for the Yoruba nation to exit Nigeria which is “dominated by the Fulani north.” Akinola maintained that Nigeria will never be genuinely restructured by the present crop of political leaders. The group also said it is in support of Nnamdi Kanu’s pursuit for restoration of Biafra. According to Akinola, “We totally reject the idea of restructuring as proposed. It is an attempt to restructure Nigeria on their own terms and not on the terms of the people. Nigeria will never be genuinely restructured by the present crop of political leaders who are themselves beneficiaries of the same skewed system. “Even if the country will be restructured, it will pass through the National Assembly, which was created during the era of military rule of the Fulani to ensure an upper hand for the Fulani North. The National Assembly is an organ of the Fulani and their agents, so also is the Nigerian military, which has continuously been used to repress, intimidate and humiliate Nigerians.

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Breaking News: Trump helped come up with misleading statement on Jr.'s meeting

Mercy Lank

had met with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to discuss adoption of Russian children by people in the US. The Post reports that Trump dictated the statement while flying back to Washington from the G20 summit in Hamburg, aboard Air Force One. Wapo: Trump dictated initial misleading response to son's mtg One of Trump's advisers told the Post that Trump's move was "unnecessary" and warned that it opened Trump up to criticism that he was seeking to obfuscate the full truth about the meeting.Jay Sekulow, an attorney for the President, issued a statement, saying, "Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate, and not pertinent." Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Trump Jr., told the Post he had "no evidence" to support a theory about Trump's intervention in writing the statement and described the process of crafting it as "communal." CNN previously reported the involvement of White House aides in Trump Jr.'s response to the Times may have opened them up to more scrutiny from Mueller's probe. People briefed on the matter said some of Trump's aides helped craft the statement while in the air.

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NEWS ALERT: IRA HAS WARNED FG IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO NNAMDI KANU NIGERIA WILL CEASE TO EXIST

Mercy Lank

An Igbo group known as Igbo Renaissance Agenda, IRA, on Monday warned that if anything happens to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nigeria “would not survive it, even a minute longer.” The group issued the warning while reacting to a recent call by Arewa youths asking the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo to arrest the IPOB leader for what it termed “threat to national security”. Reacting to the call, IRA, in a statement by its Coordinator, Jude Ndukwe and Secretary, Amaka Ekwo, described the call as “hypocritical and callous.” The group warned that the era of the North “lording it over Nigerians and cowing the rest of the country into silence was long over.” IRA noted that rather than been “obsessed” with Kanu, Arewa group should “face the cankerworm and work assiduously to tackle the menace of terrorism, abject poverty, illiteracy, disease, laziness (a vice that makes them threaten to acquire properties of Igbo by seizure) etc that ravage their region”. Clainig that the ultimate target of the Arewa youths was to see to the failure of the Acting President, IRA said, “They are looking for ways of pushing Osinbajo into making monumental errors that are capable of imploding the nation so that they would turn around to say he lacks the capacity to lead thereby using that alibi to create chaos that could see him ousted and have any of their kinsmen replace him.‎” The statement reads, “Following the call last week by the Arewa Youth Assembly to the Acting President to arrest the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, for what they termed “threats to national security” arising from his movements in parts of his country, we, the Igbo Renaissance Agenda, IRA, wish to state that such calls are not only hypocritical and callous but also prove that the real enemies of Nigeria are the several Arewa groups being used to achieve some sinister agenda by their elders. ONE MIC “We are alarmed that while the dreaded Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen terrorists designated as the most dangerous and fourth most dangerous terrorist groups in the world respectively are having a field day killing innocent Nigerians almost on a daily basis especially the latest one in Maiduguri where oil explorers, university lecturers, staff of NNPC and our security agents were mowed down in cold blood, some still missing while some others were kidnapped, the concern of Arewa groups is an Nnamdi Kanu who is non-violent, never kidnapped anyone, nor requested for ransom from anybody unlike terrorist groups from Arewa’s enclave. “While the Arewa controlled military and other security forces keep releasing dangerous terrorists into the society in the name of de-radicalisation, they also empower them by giving them huge sums of money in exchange for kidnap victims thereby compromising the general safety and well being of law abiding Nigerians. “The non-prosecution of a good number of these criminals and their funding by Arewa-led government agencies in the name of ransom payment have the unimaginable propensity to embolden the them to carry out the kind of brazen attacks they did in Maiduguri and other places in recent days. This should be the concern of any reasonable Arewa group. “Rather than face the cankerworm and work assiduously to tackle the menace of terrorism, abject poverty, illiteracy, disease, laziness (a vice that makes them threaten to acquire properties of Igbo by seizure) etc that ravage their region, they are so obsessed with the legendary Nnamdi Kanu who has always conducted himself peacefully everywhere he goes. “We know the main objectives of the Arewa youths and their elders. We know that their other target is Osinbajo. They are looking for ways of pushing Osinbajo into making monumental errors that are capable of imploding the nation so that they would turn around to say he lacks the capacity to lead thereby using that alibi to create chaos that could see him ousted and have any of their kinsmen replace him. “This is why they stated in their vexatious release that “This level of lawlessness has left us with no option than to doubt the ability of our Acting President to successfully preside over the affairs of our country”. We know where they are going but we shall stop them in their tracks. “They are trying to push Osinbajo into the kind of stark indiscretion deployed by Buhari in mishandling the agitations all over the country today. The Acting President surely would not fall for such cheap trap. “Our message to the Arewa youths and their elderly sponsors is simple: we dare anyone to touch Nnamdi Kanu and see if the nation would survive it even a minute longer. “The days of lording it over Nigerians and cowing the rest of the country into silence are long over. It is a new dawn and the earlier the misguided Arewa youths and their elders know this, the better for all of us!”

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BREAKING!!! SENATR'S. REJECTION OF RESTRUCTURING ERWIN CLARK CALL FOR BREAK -UP

Mercy Lank

Elder statesmen from the Niger Delta region have reacted to Senate’s rejection of restructuring by calling for Nigeria’s break up. According to them, their continued support for a united Nigeria is hinged on the immediate restructuring of the country. In an emphatic declaration on Monday in Abuja, the leaders led by First Republic Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, under the aegis of the Pan Niger Delta forum (PANDEF), stated: “No restructur­ing, no Nigeria.” They also threatened to withdraw from negotiations with the Federal Government, if it fails to implement their 16-point agenda, which they had presented to President Mu­hammadu Buhari some months ago. After a meeting in Abuja yesterday, PANDEF accused the government of avoiding dialogue with its members after it had persuaded the youths in the region to halt all forms of violence in return for dialogue with the Federal Government to address all the issues that forced them to attack oil and other public installations in the zone. PANDEF regretted that since November 1, 2016, when it presented its charter of demands to President Buhari, the govern­ment has frustrated all efforts to dialogue with them, adding that their patience has been exhausted. The elder statesman stated that they would no longer push for any form of dialogue with the government at the expiration of their November 1 ultimatum. After the deadline, the Niger Delta elders disclosed, they would rather refer the government to the region’s youths who have vowed to fight for their right, lamenting that the youths had continuously seen them as betraying their cause since they sued for peace to pursue dialogue with the Presidency. In a statement issued at the end of the meeting, PANDEF condemned the National Assembly’s rejection of devolution of power and restructuring, stating that with the prevailing situation in the country, it is either the government agrees to restructur­ing or there will be no Nigeria. Clark said: “Restructuring has become a pain in the ears of a few champions of wicked hegemony. All we are saying is let us go back to the negotiated 1960 Independence Constitution on which the 1963 Republican Constitution was moulded. “Anything else is more obnoxious and totally unacceptable to the entire Southern and Middle Belt areas of Nigeria, as well as the growing number of well-meaning Nigeria in the North. All we are saying is “No restructuring, no Nigeria.” At a separate press briefing, Clark regretted that the government had made the Niger Delta elders to look like brazen liars before their youths. Clark claimed that as a result of his efforts to ensure dialogue, he had received several messages from the youths calling on the Niger Delta elders to leave them to fight their cause since PANDEF had failed in its task to dialogue on their behalf with the government. He said: “The Niger Delta as created by God is a very difficult area as it is surrounded by swamps and water. The same God that created us in that difficult area made it easy for us to hold the economy of the nation with water and oil. “Since 1956, when oil was discovered in Niger Delta, we have been the pillar of the Nigerian economy, even though we have severely suffered from that position. “By the provision of the 1963 Constitution, which described Nigeria as practicing fiscal federalism, the about 50 per cent of whatever was produced in a region went to the development of the region. ONE MIC “Before Independence, cocoa was there, groundnut was making the pyramids, palm produce helped each region to develop at its own pace. Why is it now that what belongs to us, we are not allowed to benefit from it? “You come to my house to take the oil and give me handout, and you want me to say thank you. So, when some people brand our people militants, terrorists, or say we are causing trouble, I laugh at them. “This is not the Nigeria our founding fathers built. When the youths decided in 2015 under the Niger Delta Avengers to begin the vandalism of oil pipelines, and nothing was done, no negotiation, the production of oil went down. At a point, we stepped in and that led to the founding of the Niger Delta Forum. “On the 19th of August, we had a negotiated arrangement with the youths and they stopped vandalism of the pipeline, and sent us to go and negotiate for them with the Federal Government,” he stressed. Clark recalled that PANDEF was granted audience by President Buhari on November 1, last year. The delegation of 100 elders

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