Boko Haram burns military camp in Yobe town

 
 Suspected members of Boko Haram sect yesterday attacked a military camp in Ngelzarma town of Yobe state, burning the military camp as well as a trailer load of grains meant for traders in the town.

According to Daily Trust, the sect members arrived the town at about 4pm and started shooting sporadically into the air. A security source who doesn't want to be named said that the attackers came in a very large number.

A resident of the town, Malam Hassan Aminu said residents in Ngelzarma had earleir informed the military men stationed in their area of an impending attack by the sect group as they got a hint that the sect members were sighted in a neighboring village.

"We reported to the security operatives but surprisingly they didn't take any action. The boys (insurgents) entered the town and set ablaze military camp, a trailer loaded with grains and some traders shops in the town. The military camp was burnt by the Boko Haram last year, they returned and burnt it again after being renovated by the state government. No action was taken to avoid the repeat" he said.

Three IEDs Go Off Close To APC Rally Ground In Rivers

Three Improvised Explosive Devices have gone off close to the rally ground of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Okrika, Rivers State.
This has caused a stampede, as people gathering for the APC rally scampered for safety.
The party supporters, in their numbers, had gathered and were waiting for the leaders of the party in the state to arrive the venue of the rally.
Loud sounds were heard in quick successions, causing panic among those who gathered for the rally.
So far, there are no reports of any injuries or casualties and it is not clear if the rally would eventually get underway.

Transforming Opportunity for Women and Girls

Nigeria is tackling gender inequality head-on with innovative reforms and programs to provide women with greater economic mobility. The Federal Government is addressing unequal treatment in land, property and inheritance rights, which in turn, will provide women with better access to public services and enable more to start a business or manage a farm. This multi-pronged approach is gaining international recognition, and positioning Nigeria as a leader in gender equality among developing countries.

Expanding Economic Opportunity

Nigeria’s commitment to empowering women begins at the very top. President Jonathan has demonstrated a commitment to increasing the role of women in public policy and governance by appointing 13 women ministers (out of a total of 42) and four Special Advisors (out of 18) into his cabinet. Nearly a third of all political appointees in the federal government today are women – the highest percentage of any African country.
Nigeria's Ministers of Communication Technology and Finance discuss the steps being taken to close Nigeria's gender gap.
At the other end of the socio-economic ladder, the government’s Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria (G-WIN) program aims to improve economic and social opportunities for hard to reach women and girls throughout the country. About 54 million of Nigeria’s 80 million women live and work in rural areas, where they constitute 60% - 80% of the rural labor force. The G-WIN project is an unprecedented coordinated effort among the ministries of Water Resources,  Agriculture, Works, Health, and Communications. Some early results of the initiative include:

• About 2 million women farmers have received mobile phones that allow them to access agricultural information to improve their farming methods. An e-wallet system allows the electronic transfer of money to purchase farm inputs like seeds and fertilizer.
• Through the SmartWoman Nigeria project, a part of G-WIN, the Ministry of Communications Technology is providing daily information on life skills, money management, entrepreneurship, careers, healthcare, parenting, and legal issues (such as wills and land ownership) to women. Through the SmartGirl Nigeria program, the Ministry is setting up IT clubs in schools, identifying mentors to support girls and young women, and creating a help desk to support their interest in information technologies.
• The Ministry of Health is increasing the pace of offering obstetric fistula surgery, a health condition that makes women incontinent after childbirth. Women who suffer from this condition are usually ostracized, and require specialized surgery. More surgeons have been trained and recruited for the program, and new treatment centers are being opened.
• There is a focus on capacity building for rural women by training them in water management, providing water kiosks and sanitation facilities, and better maintaining rural roads to help them travel more easily.

G-WIN is receiving technical and capacity-building support from UK-based DfID, and additional support is being sought so the program can be scaled up to other ministries.

UN Women Recognizes Nigeria

In October, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communication Technology was one of seven global recipients of the UN Women’s Gender Equality Mainstreaming–Technology Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievements by organizations and individuals in the area of women’s empowerment through information and communications technologies (ICT).
“The Nigerian government recognizes ICTs as tools for empowering women and girls and has put in place policy frameworks to ensure that gender issues move from the sidelines of policy and decision making and become one of the key priorities,” said ITU and UN Women.

Investing in Education and Health

Of the estimated 10 million children in Nigeria who do not attend school, the majority are girls.
Girls who are educated are better able to contribute to future economic growth when they become adults. That is why the federal government has launched the Girls Education Project (GEP), a partnership formed with UNICEF to promote girls’ education. GEP focuses on interventions in health, water and sanitation, and income-generation activities to support girls’ in school. The project works in six Northern states where access to basic education for girls is limited. By the time the project ends in 2020, an expected 1 million more girls will have access to better quality education.
 Studies show that educated women are more likely to use health services and have fewer and better-nourished children who are more likely to survive childhood illnesses. But education alone isn’t enough. There needs to be increased spending on healthcare for women and girls.
To promote a more holistic approach to addressing gender disparities in the health sector, in 2012 the Nigerian Government launched the Saving One Million Lives by 2015 Programme, which aims to expand access to essential primary healthcare services for women and children.
This initiative is focused on improving maternal, newborn and child health at thousands of primary healthcare clinics; expanding routine immunization coverage; preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV; scaling up access to essential medicines to marginalized groups; expanding the use of anti-malaria bed nets and medications; and improving child nutrition.
The program has gained the support of several multilateral and international partners, including the World Health Organization, World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development, United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Population Fund.

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Amaechi has abandoned APC presidential campaign – Wike

Rivers State PDP governorship Candidate, Barrister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has stated that the State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi abandoned the APC Presidential Campaign when it dawned on him that the PDP has overrun his party in the state.
He said that whether Amaechi spends the rest of the campaign period in Rivers State, the APC would be roundly defeated in all the 23 local government areas in the state.
A statement signed by his Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant (Media), noted that in his address at the PDP Ahoada East LGA Governorship rally during the week, Barrister Wike said: “Whether outgoing governor Amaechi sleeps in Rivers State till election, the APC will be roundly defeated in all local governments of the state.
“Amaechi abandoned his principal and embattled APC Presidential Candidate to run back to salvage his party. But, there is nothing Amaechi can do for his boy and the APC. It is PDP all the way. The people of Rivers State belong to PDP and no matter the amount of stolen funds Amaechi spends, PDP will win Rivers State”.
Speaking further, Barrister Wike assured the people of Ahoada East LGA that he would re-define development in the area by investing resources to improve their lives.
Wike promised to site a tertiary institution in the LGA and also revive the industrial district located in Ahoada East.
“We will develop Ahoada East LGA and ensure that the neglected people of the area feel the impact of government. We will site a new tertiary institution in the LGA.”
Barrister Wike lamented that the Ekpeye people had suffered neglect, noting that his administration would work with the Ekpeye people to develop the area.
He urged the people of the area vote PDP all the way.
Speaking, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Prince Chibudum Nwuche said that the entire people of Ahoada East had resolved to vote Barrister Wike to attract development to the area.
Member, representing Abua/Odual/Ahoada East Federal Constituency, Mrs Betty Apiafi called on the people of the area vote en-masse for President Jonathan, Barrister Wike and all PDP candidates.
Earlier, Barrister Wike was endorsed by the Ahoada East Traditional Council under the leadership of Eze Robinson O. Robinson.

Obasanjo finally dumps PDP, tears party’s card

The sore relationship between Nigeria’s former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on whose platform he served as president for eight years, has deteriorated with the ex-president reportedly tearing his PDP membership card in public and declaring that he no longer has anything to do with the ruling party. He did this on Monday morning at his hilltop presidential residence in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital,
Obasanjo tore his membership card before leaders of the PDP from the ward around his former residence in Ita Eko where he registered. They had come on a visit to express their concern with the former president’s recent utterances against the government of President Goodluck Jonathan and on what he said was the President’s role in the postponement of the general elections from February to March and April.

But, Obasanjo left his guests stupefied by tearing his PDP membership card before them, declaring that he would henceforth stay away from party politics and remain non-partisan.
This is coming on the heels of severe castigation he has received from PDP stalwarts and faithful for utterly criticizing President Goodluck Jonathan and hobnobbing with the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, and its presidential flag bearer, Muhammandu Buhari.
This action of the former president is one that would come as a surprise to many Nigerians as he has always prided himself as a card-carrying member of the PDP and rejected calls for him to quit the party since it was no longer convenient for him to condone the actions of its national leader, President Jonathan as well as other PDP big wigs.

16-year-old girl bathes lover with acid for cheating on her

For violating the oath they took, a 16-year-old girl, identified as Maureen (surname withheld) in Emede Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State at the weekend, allegedly bathed her boyfriend with acid.
Maureen accused her estranged boyfriend of cheating on her in the last three months of their relationship.
According to Leadership, the girl, now in the police net, upon interrogation by the police confessed to the crime, saying that her boyfriend violated the oath they took together.
It was reliably gathered that the victim was caught while making love to another girl right in a hotel within the community, a situation, when the suspect was informed about it, raced to the hotel where she attacked him with acid water.
DSP Celestina Kalu, police public relations officer in the state, who confirmed the incident, disclosed that the suspect claimed she was angered by the violation of their oath by the victim.
“I was determined to teach my boyfriend a lesson. So I went into my father’s car park where I picked an acid water to teach him a bitter lesson,” he said.
Sources said the acid water was allegedly poured on the victim’s penis, a situation that may render him impotent.

The Borno State government has declared today, Monday public holiday ahead of the visit of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

The Borno State government has declared today, Monday public holiday ahead of the visit of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) to the state.
Secretary to the state government, Alhaji Ahmed Jidda, announced this on Sunday in a statement in Maiduguri, the state capital.
According to Jidda, the public holiday would enable residents of the state to receive Buhari during his campaign rally.
The statement read, “The Borno State Government has declared Monday as a work-free day. The declaration is to enable the people of the state welcome the APC presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who will arrive Maiduguri on a campaign visit on Monday.
“Governor Kashim Shettima has enjoined all Borno residents to come out en mass and line up the streets to welcome the Peoples’ General.”
In another development, the National Christian Elders Forum on Sunday dissociated itself from the purported endorsement of Buhari by the Northern Christian Leaders Eagle-Eye Forum, led by one Pastor Aminchi Habu.
The Secretary of NCEF, Pastor ‘Bosun Emmanuel, in a statement issued in Abuja, advised Christians “to resist the temptation of putting personal interests above the interests of the Lord Jesus Christ, because such compromise has terrible eternal consequences.”
Emmanuel also called on politicians “to put the interest of the nation first in all forms of electioneering campaign and desist from acts that could be interpreted to imply desperate manipulation of the electorate for political power.”
His statement partly read, “It has come to the notice of the NCEF that an unaccredited group, claiming Northern Christians Leaders Eagle Eye-Forum, purportedly on Thursday February 12, 2015, in Abuja, adopted the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the forthcoming elections, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
“The National Christian Elders Forum wishes to state clearly that the only Northern Elders Forum accredited and recognised by the Christians Association of Nigeria is the Northern States Christian Elders Forum.
“The Elders Forum hereby declares that neither CAN, NOSCEF nor the NCEF at any time supported or approved of the action of this unaccredited group. The National Christian Elders Forum wishes to admonish Christian leaders in Nigeria to resist the temptation of putting personal interests above the interests of the Lord Jesus Christ, because such compromise has terrible eternal consequences.

• Amaechi reveals why he is against Jonathan

“The Elders Forum also advises politicians to put the interest of the nation first in all forms of electioneering campaign and desist from acts that could be interpreted to imply desperate manipulation of the electorate for political power”.