:)The State Security Services (SSS) earlier today in Abuja grilled the immediate past governor of Benue State and serving Senator, George Akumeh, former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman, Barnabas Gemade, former Campaign Director of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Dr Iyorchia Ayu and 27 other prominent citizens of the state for several hours.

Others interrogated are Daniel Saror, the AC Governorship candidate, Prof. Steve Ughah, and Dr steve Agboh.

Pointblanknews.com learnt that their invitation is linked to the spate of violence in Benue culminating in the recent shooting of Gen Lawrence Onoja by unknown gun men.

Onoja had accused the Senate President, David Mark for masterminding the attack that left Onoja hospitalized.

Curiously, the SSS did not invite Mark for routine questioning.


The interrogation which took place at the underground cell of the SSS National Headquarters in Abuja lasted for about five hours.

Spokesperson for the Service, Marilyn Ogar told Journalists that they were invited because investigations revealed that they were behind the present political violence in the State and that after the interrogation, they showed remorse and were mandated to sign an undertaking to give peace a chance in the State.

 
According to SSS, when they were in the underground cell, the Director General of SSS Mr. Ita Ekpeyong directed that lightening in the cell should be off for ten minutes and that the whole place was thrown in total darkness for that period, signifying that it’s what they will face if such incident persist after today.

“The undertaking which read in part said “sponsors of political violence will be held liable for any breach leading to the disruption of the April 2011 elections in any part of Benue State. That we as political leaders of Benue State have signed an undertaking binding us to ensure peaceful elections in Benue State in April 2011”.

. .Who did these politicians wants to rule? when they r killing people randomly, It's  a very sad news....For those who lost their lives may their soul rest in peace....

DEAR COMPATRIOTS

Since this Commission started work in July 2010, I have repeatedly promised Nigerians that in carrying out our duties we shall always be sincere and truthful with Nigerians. I have always said that this INEC will be upfront with Nigerians, telling you exactly how things are – sharing both our successes and difficulties with you.

This is one such occasion. Indeed, it is an emergency. As you know the National Assembly (House of Representatives and Senate) elections are supposed to be taking place as I speak. You would also have noticed that things have not proceeded smoothly as expected with the elections. The reason for this is the unanticipated emergency we have experienced with late arrival of result sheets in many parts of the country. The result sheets are central to the elections and their integrity. Accordingly, in many places, our officials have not reported at the polling units, making it now difficult to implement the Modified Open Ballot Procedure that we have adopted. Not only do we have to enter the results in the sheets, the number of accredited voters is also to be entered in the result sheet. While we could have proceeded with the elections in a few States of the country, where all the materials are available, such as Lagos, Kaduna, Kebbi, Delta, Zamfara and Enugu, among others, in order to maintain the integrity of the elections and retain effective overall control of the process, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to postpone the National Assembly elections to Monday, April 4, 2011.

I appeal to all Nigerians for their understanding in this difficult situation. We as a Commission appreciate the profound sacrifice that you have all made not just in turning out today, but also throughout this election season. We are greatly encouraged by you and our appeal is that you remain steadfast in this last lap of this electoral process in the interest of all Nigerians and in the cause of democracy.

The Commission will immediately be contacting all political parties, as major stakeholders to explain the situation. I appeal for their support in explaining the situation to their members and supporters.

May I also appeal to all other stakeholders, particularly national and international observers and our development partners for continued understanding. I realize that they have committed enormous resources to this process, especially in deploying observers in the field. However, we think that what is worth doing is worth doing well.

Finally, while we deeply regret this situation and apologise to Nigerians for the hardship this may have created, I would like to reiterate that we are fully committed to conducting free, fair and credible elections for Nigerians. The decision the Commission has taken is weighty; but it is also a very important step in further ensuring the credibility of the elections.

Professor Attahiru M. Jega, OFR,

Honourable Chairman

....hyummm,  am just passing, don't have anything to say......

Windhoek – Namibia’s President Hifikepunye Pohamba Tuesday declared a state of emergency in northern parts of the country after heavy flooding displaced nearly 10 000 people and washed away roads.
“I and my cabinet colleagues have discussed the prevailing situation in depth, consulted various experts… and I have come to the conclusion that I declare an emergency situation in the north and northeastern parts of our country,” Pohamba said at State House.
About 62 people have drowned in Oshakati, 720km north of the capital Windhoek and 5 000 have been driven from their homes.
Pohamba told reporters that 247 schools had had to close because of rising water levels, with clinics and homes submerged.
Since January heavy rains have been pounding the northern parts of the country, resulting in high water levels in the Zambezi river along the northeastern Caprivi region and the Okavango river which borders Angola.
“Namibia is once again experiencing most devastating floods… this could be the worst flood disaster in (its) recorded history,” Pohamba added.
He said he was worried that floods may affect crops of maize, which is the country’s staple food, and the government has made available N$30m to address the emergency.
More rain in southern Angola was expected to increase chances of flooding in north central parts of the country, where rainfall is also expected.
      In March 2009, floods killed 92 people in this southern Africa desert country.
                                    URL: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=13616ern Africa desert country.
             

Nigeria’s main opposition candidate in April’s presidential election cancelled an appearance in his political heartland Tuesday amid fears of a deadly crush among his massed supporters.
Hundreds of thousands of people had turned out for the rally at a polo ground in the northern city of Kano for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator seen as the main rival to President Goodluck Jonathan.
But having travelled to the venue and seen the mammoth crowd, which was overflowing into the surrounding streets, he decided not to enter because of security concerns, a political associate, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
He made the decision to “avoid stampede and loss of lives,” the politician said.
“Having considered the security implication of going to the venue of the rally, given the unbelievable crowd that gathered waiting for him, he decided not to go to the rally ground.”
The venue was so crammed that people had to perch on nearby building walls and atop wooden sheds. One shed collapsed from the weight of people on it seriously injuring six people, an AFP reporter saw.
Hoards of sweat-drenched loyalists danced to the beat of praise songs blaring from loudspeakers hoisted on roofs of cars and buses in and outside the rally ground.
Two weeks ago Jonathan staged his own rally at the same venue, trying to woo voters with promises to unite the country.
Buhari, a northern Muslim, enjoys tremendous support in the predominantly Muslim north.
This part of the country has reacted angrily to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s decision to field Jonathan, a southern Christian, as its presidential candidate.
The move upsets an unwritten agreement to rotate power between the north and the south every eight years to smoothe over Nigeria’s ethnic and sectarian divide.
Jonathan came to power in May last year after the death of his predecessor Umaru Yar’adua two years into his first tenure.
The north felt the region should produce the next president to complete the eight years allotted to it.
                 Short URL: http://indepthafrica.com/?p=13460

APA, Abuja (Nigeria) Nigeria is to deploy no fewer than 370, 000 policemen to oversee the April 2011 polls, the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, has said.
He said in Abuja on Friday that training and retraining of the personnel had been going on to ensure free and fair elections.
According to him, the police are collaborating with other security agencies for the election coverage.
``There is no cause for alarm, the police are not working alone. We have to collaborate with other security organisations like the military, civil defence, Immigration service and Customs Service to cover vulnerable areas’’ he pointed out.

The government, he said had released funds for logistics to ensure a violence-free elections.

 

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has also promised to deploy more than 120,000 personnel across the country for ensuring security during voting and monitoring the activities of politicians.

 

 

MM/as/APA

 



No fewer than 356 stranded Nigerians were yesterday brought home from war-torn North African country, Libya.

The evacuees came in two flights.

One more flight was being expected at 9:25pm with another batch.

The first flight was said to have landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by 2.00 am with about 178 Nigerians. The same number of passengers were also in another flight that arrived by 2.00 pm.

The aircraft that brought the returnees were owned by Nouvel Air and it is also the same airline that would bring the third batch of returnees, which is expected to be over 170, by 9.25 pm.

According to statistics of the evacuees, the first batch consisted of 157 men, 16 women and three children.

The second flight also came with 140 men, 36 women and two minors.

The returnees boarded their flights at Bjerba, a Tunisian city in the border between Tunisia and Libya as No-Fly-Zone has been declared in all Libyan airspace by NATO forces.

Many of the returnees arrived with travel certificates issued by the Nigerian embassies.

Most of the certificates were issued about three months ago, weeks before the crisis in Libya started, it was learnt.

According to them, this indicated that many Nigerians living in Libya have been longing for home but did not have money to buy air tickets and had obtained these certificates preparatory to return home.

"Many of them came back with travel certificates that were issued three months ago. This means that they have been longing to come home. The papers (travel certificates) they were holding were dirty. I saw one that was issued two and half months ago and when I asked the man holding it, he did not say anything coherent. The crisis is barely one month now.," a source said.

The number of Nigerians evacuated are now 1, 704 in addition to about 170 citizens that would have arrived later in the night.

NEMA said the Federal Government would continue to evacuate Nigerians till all of them were returned home.

The Buhari/Bakare Presidential Campaign mourns 4 Nigerians murdered in cold blood by the police in Jos yesterday just as we demand investigations into the brutal killings.

The whole world is aware of the unjust attempt by the state police command to sabotage our Jos rally on the spurious pretext that an after thought rally by Governor Jona Jang should take precedence over our own which was earlier communicated to the police.

We rejected the unjust diktat in our quest to ensure that the ruling party does not continue to ride roughshod over the opposition and closing the democratic space in the process.
Upon arrival in Jos on Monday, we headed for the Governor's office on a courtesy visit, the normal thing we do in every state we go no matter the party in power.

While with Governor Janga large crowd of supporters had gathered outside which made us to shelve our proposed visits to the paramount ruler of Jos as well as the leaders of both the Christian and Islamic communities who were expecting us with due apologies conveyed to them.

The above move was in tandem with our responsible conduct mindful of the unparalleled support we draw every city we have gone. This informed our diverting to Ganya the day our movement was to meet President Jonathan convoy near Yola as we campaigned in Adamawa the same day.

From the Governor's office we proceeded to the Polo Ground venue of our rally where we had a successful event without any incident. It was at the end of the rally that we got report that the police acting out the PDP script waylaid thousands of our supporters at Massalacin Ja'ama area, some distance from Polo Ground and insisted that they must not go for the rally. The police subsequently fired gunshots into the crowd killing four people and wounding several people.

Though eyewitnesses said the police brought a fire fighting truck to clean the blood of the innocent, we have no doubt that their blood will get justice as Nigeria will not endure this lawlessness for long. Those who murdered citizens whose only offense was exercising their freedom of association will face the full wrath of the law in due season.

The black Monday in Jos has clearly exposed the ruling party as deliberately Beirut sing Jos to explore the diversity of the people for political advantage. We have no doubt that these killings were masterminded to halt the balance of faith which the Buhari/Bakare combination was bringing to Jos as against the balance of hate which the PDP banks upon to maintain its tenuous hold in the area.

Let them rest assured that the people of Jos will not be bound to violence for long. Healing is coming to that land as indigenes and settlers would be brought to the table of brotherhood which a responsible leadership under Buhari promises.

.All the shut factories of Jos will have the enabling environment to re-open and engage the idle hands to bring about sustainable peace.

Our condolences go to the families of the deceased as we wish the wounded speedy recovery........

Berlin (CNN) -- A German man who pleaded guilty to segxwally abusing his daughter, stepdaughter and stepson was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison Tuesday, a court official said.
The man, identified only as Detlef S., was accused of hundreds of incidents of segxwal abuse of his children between autumn 1987 and summer 2010.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to all charges, said Alexander Walter, Koblenz state court spokesman. He was convicted of severe segxwal abuse of children in 42 cases, rape, segxwal abuse of wards and sponsoring rape, Walter said.
He was sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison, and will stay in preventive custody after that because the court feared he would commit further criminal acts, Walter said. Preventive custody usually means that a person who has served their sentence remains behind bars but receives extra privileges.
Detlef S. admitted last month when the trial opened that he was the father of multiple children with his stepdaughter.
He was charged with the segxwal abuse of dependents and facilitating the segxwal abuse of minors.
He was also accused of bringing his underage stepdaughter and his daughter to men who paid for sex with them on multiple occasions.
The first allegations of abuse came more than a decade ago, in 1998, but there was no medical evidence to support the claims then, Germany's youth welfare office said in a statement when the trial opened February 15.
Two stepsons leveled fresh accusations in 2002, saying the defendant was abusing his biological daughter, then 11. Police began an investigation but found no medical evidence and dropped the case, the statement said.
The daughter denied having been abused, the welfare office said.
Two men other men are facing trial on charges of segxwal assault in connection with the case. A third man suspected of abusing the children has died, Walter said.
The stepdaughter gave evidence against Detlef S., the court spokesman said. It was unclear at what age she gave birth to the children.
DNA test results introduced in court gave a "99.999%" certainty that the defendant is the father of her children, Walter said.
Seven of the stepdaughter's eight children survived infancy, he said. He did not know the cause of death of the eighth.
The segxwal assaults took place in the defendant's home, in woods nearby and in various apartments near where the family lived, prosecutors alleged.
Only two of the 350 charges are related to the stepson, Walter said.

 A German man who pleaded guilty to segxwally abusing his daughter, stepdaughter and stepson was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison Tuesday, a court official said.
The man, identified only as Detlef S., was accused of hundreds of incidents of segxwal abuse of his children between autumn 1987 and summer 2010.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to all charges, said Alexander Walter, Koblenz state court spokesman. He was convicted of severe segxwal abuse of children in 42 cases, rape, segxwal abuse of wards and sponsoring rape, Walter said.
He was sentenced to 14 and a half years in prison, and will stay in preventive custody after that because the court feared he would commit further criminal acts, Walter said. Preventive custody usually means that a person who has served their sentence remains behind bars but receives extra privileges.
Detlef S. admitted last month when the trial opened that he was the father of multiple children with his stepdaughter.
He was charged with the segxwal abuse of dependents and facilitating the segxwal abuse of minors.
He was also accused of bringing his underage stepdaughter and his daughter to men who paid for sex with them on multiple occasions.
The first allegations of abuse came more than a decade ago, in 1998, but there was no medical evidence to support the claims then, Germany's youth welfare office said in a statement when the trial opened February 15.
Two stepsons leveled fresh accusations in 2002, saying the defendant was abusing his biological daughter, then 11. Police began an investigation but found no medical evidence and dropped the case, the statement said.
The daughter denied having been abused, the welfare office said.
Two men other men are facing trial on charges of segxwal assault in connection with the case. A third man suspected of abusing the children has died, Walter said.
The stepdaughter gave evidence against Detlef S., the court spokesman said. It was unclear at what age she gave birth to the children.
DNA test results introduced in court gave a "99.999%" certainty that the defendant is the father of her children, Walter said.
Seven of the stepdaughter's eight children survived infancy, he said. He did not know the cause of death of the eighth.
The segxwal assaults took place in the defendant's home, in woods nearby and in various apartments near where the family lived, prosecutors alleged.
Only two of the 350 charges are related to the stepson, Walter said.
            Reference from CNN

....Gradually Nigeria will catch up...

A new curriculum for Secondary education was yesterday launched by the federal government.

Billed to commence in September when a new academic session commences, it is tagged Secondary School Education Curriculum (SSEC).

The curriculum is designed to produce graduates who are well prepared for higher education with relevant functional trade and entrepreneurial skill needed for poverty eradication, job creation and wealth generation.

Executive Secretary of Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) Professor Godswill Obioma whose council developed the document, explained that graduates from the SSEC are expected to have been equipped for higher education. They will also possess the relevant technical, vocational and entrepreneurship skills.

He said the new curriculum was planned to build on the gains of the nine-year Basic Education Curriculum and to connect logically to the learning experiences in the tertiary education.

Obioma said the first public examinations based on the SSEC would be conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and the National Board for Technical and Business Education (NBTE) in 2014.

“The new SSEC is planned to commence in September 2011 beginning with year one of the Senior Secondary School and the first batch of the Basic Education Certificate holders. This implementation process will be systematic through year 2 to year 3 until the old SSEC is gradually phased out. The first batch will graduate by June 2014”.

He said candidates must offer five compulsory cross-cutting subjects which include English language, General Mathematics, Computer Studies/ICT and one trade/ entrepreneurship subject to be selected from the list of 34 approved trade/entrepreneurship subjects. He said four distinct fields of studies such as Science and Mathematics (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Further Mathematics) among others can be added to the earlier five selecte

President Goodluck Jonathan

The camp of President Goodluck Jonathan has explained why he was unable to attend the presidential debate organised in Abuja last night by a Lagos-based cable news station, NN24.

In a release signed by Ide Eguabor for the Director of Media , the campaign organisation said the President was unable to attend the debate because of his busy schedule. It added that such debate was best organised by the Nigerian Election Debate Organisation (NEDG), which has been doing that since 1999.

It said the President was willing to attend the debate if organised by NEDG.

It said further: "A presidential debate to be organised by the management of NN24, a subscriber to Multichoice’s DSTV cable, is deliberately being heated up by those who now see what the President will do or not do as an opportunity for political capital.

"The truth of the matter is that several applications from various groups, including that of NN24, has reached the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation seeking to organise the presidential debate preparatory to the April general election.

"The campaign organisation sent its officials to sit as observers at some of the meetings called to deliberate on modalities.

"However, after a thorough examination of the reports of its observers to these meetings, a collective decision was taken to retain the body that had organised presidential debates since 1999 and has performed creditably well and so, saw no need to discard the platform and template for another.

..............I no get mouth to yam, Am just passing......... :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Kano state governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, was chosen by Nigerians across the world who watched the independent presidential debate conducted by Lagos-based NN24 TV channel between three presidential candidates which was streamed live on SaharaReporters.
 
SaharaReporters conducted a straw poll through its Blackberry chat users as well as a Facebook survey located on our fan page. Most of our respondents who gave their locations across different cities in Nigeria said they were most impressed by the calm, composed and effective responses given by the Kano state governor and candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate.
 
Former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman and candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was picked by pollsters as the second most impressive debater, most respondents thought he was passionate but restless.Former army general and military strongman, Muhammad Buahri, was thought to be unprepared and cocky.The survey could not be considered accurate in any form. The president of Nigeria, and the candidate of the ruling party, Goodluck Jonathan, did not show up for the debate.
 

..I want marry a white lady, and the condition is; Before I marry the girl I have to nationalize in her country, I have to become a citizen of U.K before any other thing will take place. And I like this girl more than any thing in this world....
Please PALS advice me......should I go ahead or leave her....pls..

.......The govt should find out the reason why that small boy of 13 yrs old is involve in such act and where and how did he get the gun,
but if we have to look at this the other way round our society and govt. has corrupted in this present generation.....

One suspect has already been arrested in connection with the bomb attack at a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rally in Suleja, Niger State yesterday.

President Goodluck Jonathan who made this known in a condolence mercy signed by his media aide, Ima Niboro assured that government would deal decisively with any persons found culpable for pre-electoral or electoral violence.

The statement said the president has directed all national security agencies to step up intelligence and surveillance operations across the country to thwart any further attempts by enemies of democracy to unleash politically-motivated violence on innocent Nigerians.

According to Niboro: “President Jonathan strongly condemns as most deplorable, callous, cowardly and wicked, the attack which claimed some lives and injured several persons. The President condoles the families of those who lost their lives in the dastardly attack and commiserates with all those who are currently receiving treatment for the injuries inflicted on them.

“President Jonathan urges all Nigerians and lovers of democracy to remain strong and refuse to be cowed or intimidated by the actions of enemies of progress in the country who are behind the bomb attack at Suleija and general acts of criminal violence aimed at creating the impression that free, fair and violence-free elections are not possible in the country.

“He assures all Nigerians that his Administration remains resolutely committed to ensuring that all eligible Nigerians have the opportunity to freely participate in the electoral process in safety.”

...@This is funny, it must be a set-up....if not..........