Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world cup or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Nigeria  go world or na Warri Wolves F.C dey go, na question i dey ask ?

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram, in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, a source close to the talks told AFP.

The meeting took place last weekend at Obasanjo’s farm in Ogun State and included relatives of some senior Boko Haram fighters as well as intermediaries and the former president, the source said.

“The meeting was focused on how to free the girls through negotiation,” said the source who requested anonymity, referring to the girls seized on April 14 from the remote northeastern town of Chibok, Borno State.

Reports of the talks emerged as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said the girls had been located while casting doubt on the prospect of rescuing them by force.

Obasanjo, who left office in 2007, has previously sought to negotiate with the insurgents, including in September 2011 after Boko Haram bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja.

Then, he flew to the Islamists’ base in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to meet relatives of former Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody in 2009.

The 2011 talks did not help stem the violence and some at the time doubted if Obasanjo was dealing with people who were legitimately capable of negotiating a ceasefire.

Spokesmen for the former head of state, who remains an influential figure in Nigerian politics, could not be reached to comment on the latest reported Boko Haram talks.

But the source told AFP that Obasanjo had voiced concern about Nigeria’s acceptance of foreign military personnel to help rescue the girls.

Obasanjo is said to be worried that Nigeria’s prestige in Africa as a major continental power had been diminished by President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to bring in Western military help, including from the United States.

Mustapha Zanna, the lawyer who helped organise Obasanjo’s 2011 talks with Boko Haram, said he was at the former president’s home on Saturday.

But he declined to discuss whether the Chibok abductions were on the agenda.

“I was there,” he told AFP, adding that Obasanjo was interested in helping orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria’s embattled northeast and that possible charitable work was on the agenda.

Zanna had represented Yusuf’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the government following his death in police custody.

It was not clear if Obasanjo’s weekend meeting had been sanctioned by the government.

Obasanjo, who backed Jonathan’s 2011 presidential campaign, fiercely criticised him and his record as president in a letter released to the public last December and the two are widely thought to have fallen out.

According to the source, Obasanjo supported a prisoner-for-hostage swap that would see some of the girls released in exchange for a group of Boko Haram fighters held in Nigerian custody.

As a private citizen whose ties to the presidency have been damaged, Obasanjo likely does not have the authority to negotiate any deal on the government’s behalf.

The government, which has officially ruled out a prisoner swap, sent intermediaries to meet Boko Haram in the northeast to negotiate for the girls’ release.

The source identified one of the envoys as Ahmad Salkida, a journalist with ties to Boko Haram who had been close to Yusuf before his death.

“There was contact but it was bungled by the government,” according to the source, saying Jonathan backed away from the deal after returning from a security conference in Paris earlier this month.

The conference saw Nigeria and its neighbours vow greater co-operation to tackle Boko Haram because of the potential threat to regional stability.

The chief of defence staff on Monday said that despite having located the girls, the risks of storming the area with troops in a rescue mission were too great and could prove fatal for the hostages.

Wife of President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday advised Nigerians to desist from abusing her husband because God Himself made him the head of the nation.

Mrs. Jonathan gave the advice while addressing children at an event she organised to mark the 2014 Children’s Day at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Quoting from the Holy Bible, she said God’s instruction to mankind to honour their parents was not limited to biological parents only.

She said, “It is bad to abuse our country and the President because God has made him the head.

“The Almighty God commands us to pray for our leaders. We therefore need to pray for the development of our country and the president.

“Remember that a child that abuses his father and mother is disobeying God’s commandment because the Bible says in Exodus 20:12 that you should honour your father and mother so that you may live long in the land that the Lord your God has given you.

“The Holy Bible is not referring to only biological parents. Any one that is older than you even for a day must be respected. Let us therefore join hands and rebuild our country Nigeria.”

She assured the children and adults who attended the event that the Federal Government is doing all within its powers to secure the release of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted from Chibok, Borno State.

While calling on Nigerians to be united in the fight against terrorism, Mrs. Jonathan also advised that citizens should learn to encourage soldiers who are at the fore front of the fight.

“It is the right of every child to go to school. It is only through education that you can be able to achieve your dreams and contribute meaningfully to your community and the nation.

“We desire peace in our community and in our nation. I want you all to be ambassadors of peace in your schools and practise good manners. We have no other country than Nigeria.

“We therefore need to be patriotic and committed to our dear country. We should strengthen our covenant with our country as outlined in the National Pledge.

“Let us therefore be united in fighting terrorism. We should encourage our soldiers who are in the frontline to rescue our beloved daughters,” she said.

She promised that she would not relent in her efforts to assist in securing the release of the abducted girls.
 

The event which featured special inter-faith prayers for the release of the schoolgirls also saw some children presenting letters of demand on the abducted girls addressed to the Boko Haram sect to the President’s wife.

The President’s wife however said since she did not know members of the sect, she would forward the children’s letters to the National Security Adviser orthe Chief of Defence Staff.

“Let me thank the children that gave me letter to give Boko Haram. Well, I have received your letter, but I am not the one to give it to Boko Haram because I don’t know Boko Haram and I have never seen Boko Haram. But I will give it to the NSS or Chief of Defence Staff who will submit your letter accordingly.

“To my children parliament, thank you for your letter. Thank you for your deliberation. I have received what you gave to me. I will make sure I pass it to the President because it is addressed to him and the other one is addressed to Boko Haram. That is why the two are different,” she added.

A twenty Seven woman from Arizona, United States is facing child abuse charges after forcing step daughter to eat her own faeces.

Nicole Candelaria is reportedly said to have pushed down the girl into a toilet seat after she had defecated while being washed.

The woman is dating the girl's father according to reports by KNXV TV. Forensic report from hospital indicates that the girl had bruises i the legs, chest and back.

Cases of child abuse are on the increase world wide according to a recent study by United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF)

‘No budget will be enough to meet military demands, but for now, I think the sector takes almost a trillion of the budget’

–Okonjo-Iweala

‘It is not just about non-release of appropriated funds. Even money approved by the President was not released’

–Military source

 

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and service chiefs are at loggerheads over disbursement of allocations to the military.

While the finance minister said that the Federal Government released allocations to the military promptly because its welfare was one of government’s priorities, the service chiefs said that the delay in releasing its allocations had hampered its fight against terrorism.

Saturday PUNCH investigations revealed that the service chiefs, who met with the minister in Abuja during the week, complained about the delay in releasing the funds allocated for military operations.

It was learnt that the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh; Chief of Army Staff, General Kenneth Minimah; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Adesola Amosu, confronted the minister about the paucity of funds to contain the Boko Haram insurgents, who kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls on April 14, 2014 in Chibok, Borno State.

But during a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Okonjo-Iweala said the Federal Government had released a total amount of N130.7bn to the Ministry of Defence for military operations between January and April this year.

The minister said the welfare of the military was one of the priorities of the Federal Government owing to its campaign against terrorism in the country.

Giving a breakdown of the amount released so far to the military, Okonjo-Iweala said N85.9bn was released for personnel cost while the balance was for overheads and capital expenditure.

According to her, the military currently has a provision of about N1trn in the 2014 budget, adding that based on its demands, no amount of budgetary provision could take care of its operations.

The minister said, “Defence spending is top in everything, you know that military establishment needs new things to assist in its work and ours will not be different.

“To be specific, the military has about N968.12bn and we have disbursed N130.7bn between January and April 2014.”

Okonjo-Iweala debunked claims in some quarters that the ministry of finance was responsible for delays in the payment of salaries of men of the armed forces, adding that the military handled the payment of salaries of its personnel, as they had not been captured under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System.

IPPIS is a new payment platform of the Federal Government which allows salaries to be released directly into account of employees instead of going through the old system that is fraught with bureaucracies.

The service chiefs, Saturday PUNCH learnt, said that the delay by the ministry of finance in releasing funds for the military had hindered the service from procuring quality equipment to tackle terrorism.

It was gathered that the matter came to a head early this week when the service chiefs confronted the finance minister.

It was learnt that although it was true that some of the military equipment procured in 2012 were not working as reported by the media, the military was still bogged down by the delay by the ministry of finance in releasing funds.

Investigations showed that there were instances where “money would be released on paper,” but the military would be told that there was no cash back-up.

A senior government official, who confided in one of our correspondents, said that the problems ranged from inadequate budgetary provision for the military to delay in releasing appropriated funds.

He said that there were instances when some senior civil servants insisted on getting a certain percentage of approved funds before they could be released.

Nigeria’s defence budget (N256.02bn) was eighth in Africa in 2012.

In 2012, Algeria, which had the largest defence budget in Africa, voted N1.48tn for defence. It was followed by South Africa with N736bn. Egypt’s defence budget of N707.2bn ranked third in Africa.

Angola budgeted N663.36bn in 2012 for defence. It ranked fourth in Africa, while Morocco with a defence budget of N544bn ranked fifth.

Libya budgeted N477.92bn for defence in the same year. It ranked sixth, while Sudan’s N394.56bn ranked seventh.

Unlike Nigeria, Algeria had succeeded, to a very large extent, in containing the terrorism threat by an Al-Qaeda linked group, which is said to be supporting Boko Haram.

Algeria, apparently because of its strong army, turned down the United States and French help to assist in freeing 41 hostages held by an Al-Qaeda group at a gas plant late 2012.

The Associated Press had reported that some of the hostages were killed in an attempt by Algerian Commands to free the hostages.

In 2013, N281.51bn was allocated to the three security agencies (Army, Air Force and Navy) in Nigeria.

The Army got N130.01bn while N73.34bn and N78.15bn were earmarked for the Navy and Air Force respectively.

But of the N130.01bn budgeted for the Army, N1.85bn was allocated for purchase of defence equipment.

The Navy and Air Force had budgets of N409.4m and N1.51bn respectively for the same purpose.

Investigations revealed that the amount budgeted for military hardware was grossly inadequate for a country fighting terrorism.

It was gathered that there were no provisions for the purchase of mine resistant tanks in 2013 and 2014 budgets.

Such tanks are needed to fight the insurgents because of reports that they (Boko Haram members) had planted landmines round their camps.

Nigeria currently has no mine resistant tanks.

Saturday PUNCH had a few weeks ago reported that many soldiers were injured during a recent operation because of the landmines planted by Boko Haram at their camps.

Although a military source put the price of a standard mine resistant tank at N1bn, it was learnt that the United States bought 15 mine resistant tanks known as Buffalo in 2004 for $10m.

It was learnt that the problem was not limited to the delay in releasing budgeted funds.

It was gathered that there had been situations where civil servants deliberately refused to release special funds approved by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The top government official, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH said, “The civil servants would frustrate all efforts unless they get a certain percentage from the money.

“The Army has not cried out because it is a disciplined institution. It is an act of indiscipline and unprofessional conduct for the Army to complain in public.

“But do you know that because of this frustration, early in the week, all the service chiefs went to the minister of finance to protest to her,” the source said.

The Chief of Accounts and Budget (Army), Maj.-Gen. Abdullahi Muraina, on Wednesday in Jaji, Kaduna State, said without adequate funding, the Army would not be able to end the Boko Haram insurgency.

Muraina said, “Currently, budgetary allocation for the military is inadequate to meet the contemporary security challenges and also cater for the welfare of the Nigerian Army.”

He also noted that apart from inadequate funding, the Army was enmeshed in bureaucratic bottlenecks for funding approvals.

Muraina, however, urged the Federal Government to evolve other means of funding and supporting military operations aside the usual budgetary allocations.

When contacted for comments on the allegation against the Finance ministry on Thursday, the Special Adviser on Communications to the Minister, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, said one of our correspondents should give him till Friday to comprehensively react.

But Nwabuikwu had yet to respond as of 7pm on Friday despite a reminder sent to him on Friday.

Also when contacted, an official of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, who craved anonymity told Saturday PUNCH that the association would react when the full details of the allegation emerge.

Mr. Egbe Donatus and wife, Confidence, woke up with their two children, Joseph and Godwin, on Sunday, March 15, 2014, hail and hearty without an inkling that the hand of a child-snatcher lurked in the shadows.

By nightfall, one of their children was gone and a search party would turn up nothing. Their second child, five-year-old Joseph, had simply vanished without a trace.

For the next two months, the plight of the Donatus would mirror the popular saying that it is sometimes better if one’s child dies than for such child to go missing without a trace.

The day Joseph went missing in the front of the small two-bedroom apartment where the family live in Church Village, Ipaja, Lagos, became etched in their memory.

“I wondered if Joseph was taken by ritual killers. I could not imagine what they might have done to him. I always cried each time I remembered the day he went missing,” Donatus narrated to Saturday PUNCH.

Donatus, a commercial motorcyclist, was away at work that Sunday, when he received a call to come back home. He got home only to meet a crowd of residents gathered in front of his house.

A mother’s agony

The missing boy’s mother, a petty trader, explained that few minutes before he was kidnapped, she came back from church with her two children – Joseph and his elder brother, Godwin.

She said, “Joseph told me he wanted to go and play with one of his friends beside our house after we came back from church but I told him he should give me some minutes to shower.

“I rushed in, bathed and changed my clothes. I came out again a few minutes later and did not see him. I thought he had wandered off to his friend’s house next door. I went there and called him but I got no answer. I went to his friend’s house and they said he had not been seen there either.

“I became worried, I started screaming his name. We went from door to door. Neighbours and other residents too joined me. We searched everywhere. I screamed and cried but my child was gone. But I knew he could not have wandered off because he had never done so before. I knew something was very wrong.”

The residents of Church Village and neighbours of the Donatus organised themselves into search parties and knocked on doors. Among the crowd searching for the boy and knocking on doors to enquire if anybody saw the boy, was a friendly and concerned woman called Mrs. Beatrice Iwu, restaurateur, who operates Feed Well Restaurant in the area. But the groups couldn’t find the boy.

Then on May 12, the Donatus family got a break.

Donatus’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Oluchi Emereole, got a call from a young man in Enugu, who knew about the missing child.

The woman said, “I got the phone number of one Mr. Fidelis from the young man. The man told me that a lady he knew in Enugu, the daughter of Mrs. Iwu (the restaurateur who also helped in the search) had been arrested for kidnapping and selling a child.

“He told me the child was kidnapped in Lagos and when he gave me the child’s description, it matched that of Joseph.”

Our correspondent spoke with Mr. Fidelis, a prophet, who narrated how he got a call telling him about a lady called Esther, arrested in their village, for kidnapping a child.

He said, “I was in Lagos when I received the call. I know both Esther and her mother (Iwu). The mother lives in Church Village, Ipaja. Apparently, Esther had sold the child to another woman, who later returned him when he refused to eat.

“When the buyer demanded a refund, a fight broke out. But neighbours who were suspicious about the deal that caused their fight called the police.”

Immediately Donatus got information about the child, who was then kept in custody of the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Enugu Police State Command, he proceeded to Enugu to see if the child was his.

“I got to the SCID in Enugu and the police asked me about my missing child’s complexion, his height and his name. When I told them his name was Joseph, the Investigating Police Officer said the child was not likely to be mine,” he said.

Joseph had been given another name, Success, by his buyer, Saturday PUNCH learnt.

“But when they brought the child out, lo and behold, it was my child. He ran towards me and hugged me, shouting ‘daddy!’ They asked him who his father was and he pointed to me. They asked him the name I called him and he said Joseph. I wept for joy. They told me everything that happened and how he was recovered. They told me Joseph was sold for N350,000. I begged them to show me the woman who sold her but the police did not,” Egbe said.

How I was kidnapped – Joseph

During Saturday PUNCH’s encounter with Joseph’s parents at their home in Lagos, they had reunited with their lost son. Joseph played on his mother’s lap in the front of their home, joy clearly written on both parents’ faces.

With an uncanny detail, albeit in a child’s way of speaking, Joseph’s intelligence was apparent as he told our correspondent about the day he was kidnapped and taken on a long trip to Enugu.From his narration, Joseph’s kidnappers put him in a vehicle headed for Enugu that same day he was kidnapped.

Joseph said, “I was rolling tyre with my friend in the front of our house. The mummy living over there (he pointed in the direction of Iwu’s house about 50 metres away) came and cover my mouth with handkerchief.

“She (Iwu) carried me to her house and locked me inside. She said she would kill me if I shouted.”

He pointed to the house. “When she locked me inside here, a big car came and she put me inside it and we left. The journey was long. The woman told me not to talk inside the car.

“When we got there, he locked me inside a room and later, a woman took me away. They gave me food but I did not eat because my father told me not to take food from a stranger. I was always crying, the woman shouted at me and took me to the woman that put me in the vehicle.”

The police investigation

Saturday PUNCH learnt that Iwu was arrested and detained at the Gowon Estate Police Division, Ipaja, but has since been released under controversial circumstances. Her son, who was also detained at the same station, was released a day later.

When our correspondent contacted the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Enugu, Mr. Jonathan Towuru, he said at the moment, the case was no longer in his hands.

“We arrested three suspects in the case and it has been charged to court. The boy was released to his father after a positive identification with the involvement of the Enugu State Ministry of Gender Affairs,” he said.

However, on the Lagos end of the investigation, things seemed to have heated up as the family and residents of Church Village at a point broached the idea of destroying Iwu’s house in retaliation.

Having been calmed by the Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Segun Titiladunoye of the Ipaja Police Division, that justice would be done, the residents desisted.

Contrary to the rumour that Iwu and her son had been released, Titiladunoye said they were still in his custody.

He said, “You must understand that the person who actually perpetrated the kidnapping of the child has been charged to court in Enugu.

“We should have even allowed the Enugu command to carry on with the entire case but I had to approach my area command for advice on the course of action. He has advised that we refer both the woman (Iwu) and her son to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Lagos for investigation.

“When we arrested the woman, we realised that her daughter who is now facing prosecution in Enugu was the one who actually kidnapped the child. The woman (Iwu) said she travelled when the daughter came home to kidnap the child and we have found facts that support her alibi.

“The son who is now in our custody was the one who gave the daughter the key with which she gained access to the house and perpetrated the kidnap. The SCID would determine the culpability of the woman and her son when we transfer them.”

Kidnapping for slavery still rife – Experts

Policemen who are familiar with the investigation into Joseph’s kidnap told Saturday PUNCH that the boy was likely going to be used as domestic slave.

“He would have been used for all sorts of work, the same way people use equipment for domestic work. If the boy was bought for a ritual purpose, he would not have been found. But the woman who sold him would not have cared if she was selling him to a ritual killer, anyway,” a police officer in the Enugu command, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said.

Reports of kidnappings and attempted kidnappings in Nigeria have been on the rise in recent times with mob justice being the preferred way to go for residents who catch suspected kidnappers.

Such reports show that the victims are abducted especially for money ritual murders and modern-day slavery.

According to Walking Free, an international movement fighting to end modern slavery, there are at least 700,000 slaves in Nigeria.

Child rights advocate, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, who has now taken the Donatus family’s case before the Human Rights Commission for further action, said there were many pointers, which residents could look out for to prevent modern-day slavery.

She said, “It is necessary for people to understand that a lot of people are not likely to treat their own children like an animal. These things happen around us, but a lot of people just seem to shut their eyes to them.

“When you see a child who is being maltreated in your neighbourhood under severe conditions, you have the responsibility of reporting such to the authorities. The children may be a helpless victim of kidnap for domestic slavery like in the case of Joseph.

“What is the assurance that when the person who bought the boy got tired, she would not use him for rituals? No child should be subjected to slavery and people need to be sensitive to this. Cases of many of such children that we have rescued from abusive homes show that modern-day slavery is still very common.”

Modern-day slavery seemed to receive a renewed international focus with the threat issued by the leader of the extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, that he would sell into slavery more than 200 schoolgirls of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, kidnapped on April 14, 2014.

The British organisation, Anti-Slavery Society, states,” Although there is no longer any state which legally recognises, or which will enforce a claim by a person to a right of property over another, the abolition of slavery does not mean that it ceased to exist. There are millions of people throughout the world, mainly children.”

Founder of the Children’s Anti-Corruption Initiative Nigeria, Mr. Omololu Akinwande, whose organisation has worked to eradicate child labour and exploitation of children in Nigeria, said it was unfortunate that modern-day slavery was receiving very little attention from the Nigerian government.

ok