Thursday, May 23, 2013
Middle East Crisis
Fighting In The Congo
Air Zimbabwe New Bus
Pregnant Woman, Husband, Sell Unborn Baby For N200,000
By Eniola Akinkuotu
Punch, Friday, May 24, 2013
A 23-year-old pregnant woman caused a stir at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters on Thursday after she confessed that she had sold her unborn baby for N200,000, in advance.
The suspect, Adaeze Mba, who was arrested for conniving with her husband to sell their neighbour’s four-year-old son for N400, 000, said it was poverty that pushed them to crime.
She confessed that she and her husband, Chibueze, had sold two other children for N700, 000.
She said, “In March 2013, my neighbour’s son, Stanley Ezeaka, was following me about in the compound at Jakande Estate and it was at that time that my husband received a phone call from his partner that she needed a child for sale. My husband then suggested that we took Stanley even though he was a bit old.
“We travelled to Imo State the following morning and sold him for N400, 000 after which we relocated to Calabar.”
When asked why she took to crime and how she would feel if someone bought her own children, she said, “I am seven months pregnant and as I speak to you, my husband has already sold our unborn baby for N200, 000.
“I was against it but he convinced me to agree to it, saying he had already collected the money.”
When asked about the other children she and her husband had sold, she said, “The male child was sold at N400,000 while the female child, who was two months old but is now over a year old, was sold at N300,000.”
Chibueze on his part, said he went into the business last year. He said he had sold ‘only’ three children to his business partner, Benedicta Ogbonna, and maintained that the children were in turn sold to caring parents and not ritual killers.
He said, “One of the children was born by a mentally challenged woman; so I have committed no crime by selling the child to people who would take care of her.”
Ogbonna, who bought the three children from Chibueze and his wife at different times, said she sold children to bAREEN.
She said, “I am doing this business for humanitarian reasons and not for monetary gain. I am 35 years old and I have four children. I can never sell my own children and in fact my husband does not know I am into this kind of business.
“Chibueze brought Stanley to me and told me that his mother was a prostitute so he sold him to me at N400, 000. I then sold Stanley to Mrs. Patricia Anibogwu for N600,000. So far, I have sold only three children. I buy boys at N400, 000 and girls at N300,000.
“I use the money to take care of people and also invest it in my business. I sell shoes for a living at Anambra Wholesale Market.”
Anibogwu, who was the final buyer, said she thought Ogbonna was an employee of an orphanage. She said she bought Stanley because she was lonely having lost her husband.
She said amid tears that, “I was married for 28 years without a child. After my husband died, I decided to adopt the child because I was lonely. Someone introduced me to Ogbonna. Ogbonna told me she worked at an orphanage and would sell Stanley to me for N600, 000.
“I used my savings to pay for him and she brought Stanley to a roadside. I took Stanley home and started taking care of him like my own child. I changed his name to Uchenna. Ogbonna promised me that she would give me legal documents later but, unfortunately, I was arrested.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, urged parents to be vigilant and also advised childless women to go through the formal process of adoption rather than buying children.
She said, “In March 2013, one Caleb Ezeaka reported at Ilemba Hausa Police Division that his son, Stanley, had gone missing the previous day, adding that he was last seen with his neighbour, Adaeze Mba. All efforts to reach the neighbour proved abortive as she and her husband had disappeared and their phones were switched off.
“Through investigations, we traced them to Calabar and they confessed that they had sold him at N400,000 to one Benedicta Ogbonna. We traced Ogbonna to Anambra who then said she had sold him to Patricia Anibogwu for N600,000. So we arrested them all.
“Adaeze and her husband, Chibueze, confessed that they had sold three children to Ogbonna and they were also rescued. One of the children was sold when she was three months old and she is now a year and three months old.”
Mourners Gather To Honor Chinua Achebe At Funeral
Mourners gathered in Prof. Chinua Achebe's hometown for a funeral Thursday in Ogidi, a small town in Nigeria's east. Among attendees was Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who held up copies of Achebe's books during the service at a local Anglican church _ including his famous essay "The Trouble With Nigeria." Achebe will be buried tonight by his family in a mausoleum next to his home in Ogidi. Images: Sunday Alamba/Associated Press
Pallbearers carry the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013. Writer Chinua Achebe shunned Nigeria’s corrupt politicians and twice turned down national honors, never fearing to criticizing those he felt ruined a country he once supported breaking away from. On Thursday, however, the lawmakers and the country’s elite came to him. Hundreds attended Achebe’s funeral among the rolling hills of his eastern Nigeria home, a service that saw even President Goodluck Jonathan literally hold up the writer’s books. The gold plaque on his coffin simply called him the “eagle atop the Iroko tree” in his native Igbo language.
Pallbearers carry the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.
Family members follow the coffin of late author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.
Christie Achebe, the wife of late author Chinua Achebe, at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.
Unidentified traditional Igbo chiefs attend an event to celebrate the life of late author Chinua Achebe in Awka, Nigeria.
A woman sells Tell Magazine copies with portrait of Chinua Achebe.
From left, Deputy speaker of the house of representative Emeka Ihedioha, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, centre, and Ghanaian President John Mahama, right, attend the funeral of author Chinua Achebe at his funeral service, held at St. Philip's Anglican Church in Ogidi, Nigeria, Thursday, May 23, 2013.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Who Is Afraid Of GEJ?
By Enyioma Orji,
Abakaliki, Nigeria
In 1818,
Mary Shelley published what was arguably the first science fiction in her book Frankenstein. The book told the story of
Victor Frankenstein and his intrepid creation of a humanoid, which later turned
out to be a monster tormenting Frankenstein’s life and killing his loved ones.
A
really horrifying story, and every reader often shudders with relief that it is
only a fiction. The point however is that this particular fiction is a reality
in our dear country today.
Our
political history since independence has been dominated by a particular section
of the country called “The North”. The North is a behemoth which had to absorb
into itself every other ethnic group from the boundaries of Nsukka to Kwara in
order to remain the dominant male in a territory which would have otherwise
been equitably if not symbiotically occupied by every member of the ecosystem.
Once this domination was achieved in the largely illiterate community of early
post-independence Nigeria, perpetuation was achieved by manipulation of both
military powers and democratic process. The North was to remain dominant either
in military uniform or in the more bogus civilian garb. Frankenstein’s creation
was alive!
However
time had a different perspective on the unfolding events. Literacy levels
started rising. Cultural and Ethnic identities were springing up. We were no
longer a nation of 3 but 250 ethnic groups. Each with its own identity
different from the rest. The agenda of ethnic interests were gradually
discovered to have been scripted by and for a few self-serving interests
claiming to be the core of what is actually a loose amalgam where the periphery
were in fact being milked to the advantage of the core. The sad truth remains
that the true northerners whose interests are purportedly being served are
still very low on all standards of living. Who is fooling who?
The
true picture of the state of affairs, and the true strength of ethnic interests
was glimpsed when for once in the lifetime of our nation an election was
adjudged free and fair by the international community. It became obvious that
the so-called strength of The North was not omnipotent after all. Nonetheless
the perpetuation agenda has been entrenched, and again the true will of the
people was not allowed to see the light of day. By now it was clear that
Frankenstein’s creation was a monster.
President
Goodluck Jonathan is currently saddled with the leadership of Nigeria. A
product of an election keenly contested among other members of the core North.
And again the will of the people prevailed. Clearly, hailing from the core
North is no longer a criteria for winning an election. Ever since some elements
have been disgruntled about the turn of events, and the message had been
unequivocal. ‘Do not contest the next election’. Most recent of which is the
outburst against Alhaji Dokubo’s vocal support for GEJ.
Why
would this particular group of Nigerians want President Goodluck Jonathan not
to exercise his constitutional rights. The answer is either they are afraid
that the President may decide to subvert the electoral process to his personal
benefit or they lack the ideas to match the President’s agenda. To the former I
would say it is only the Frankenstein’s monstrous creation coming back to haunt
him. President Jonathan has no such antecedents. It is important to remember
that GEJ went out of his way to appoint a man well known for his integrity to
oversee the 2011 elections, and immediately funded the expensive Voters’
Registration so it would not be said that he stood in the way of a free and
fair election. To the latter, it is purely the antics of a group whose
subjugation and perpetuation agenda have failed them because more people have
come to realize that their interests are only self-serving. It should also be
noted that the shouts this time has not been of marginalization as has been
common with previous administrations.
While
the current paradigm shift may be incomprehensible to those interests who are
bent on the suppressive conquest of the will of the majority, the best response
to their cowardly calls would have been to ignore them and forge ahead with the
current national progressive awakening but silence is often misconstrued for
acceptance. The best course of action left for them is to immediately desist
from asking the President not to exercise his constitutional rights, then look
within their ranks if they believe they have a candidate who they believe would
be acceptable to the majority of Nigerians, let us go to the husting come 2015.
Enyioma
Orji writing from
Abakaliki
Why Obama Cancelled Visit To Nigeria
Barack Obama
By Abiodun Oluwarotimi
Leadership, May 23, 2013
Facts have emerged as to why the United States president, Senator Barrack Obama, decided not to put Nigeria in the list of the African countries that he will be visiting, as earlier scheduled.
These facts came barely forty-eight hours that the White House in Washington, DC relased to the press, the details of President Obama’s travel to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.
Checks by our correspondent revealed that the American president was initially having it in his plans to add Nigeria to the planned Africa’s visit but had to change his mind as a result of the unfavourable security reports that the White House has been receiving about the country since three weeks ago.
Our correspondent gathered that Obama had been in constant touch with President Goodluck Jonathan for over two months regarding the visit as a way he (Obama) felt could be used to pacify Nigeria over the way and manner he canceled his earlier schedulled trip to the country during his first term as the American president.
Although, several diplomatic efforts were made by Nigerian officials both in the United States and Nigeria to make the American President Obama visit Nigeria, the American government decided to ignore the idea as a result of the high level of insecurity in the country.
Further checks by our correspondent showed that the Department of State had earlier given the federal government some conditions that could make President Obama add Nigeria to his planned visit to Africa but the inability of the Jonathan-led administration to curb the insecurity in the nation disqualified the country from making the list of the countries that the American leader and his wife, Michelle, will be visiting between the 26th of June and 3rd July, 2013.
It would be recalled that the United States government has recently been complaining about the loss of lives, bombings, impunity and corruption on the side of the federal government, and the idea of using force on families of the members of the Boko Haram Sect by the Nigerian security agents.
The inability of the Nigerian government to strictly adhere to the warnings of the American government, LEADERSHIP gathered made the White House to see Nigeria as a place its president cannot visit.
An official of the United States who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone however disclosed that the canceled visit of President Obama to Nigeria would not jeopardised the good relationship that both countries share together.
“The United States present has a very good Bi-national relationship with Nigeria and the fact that President Obama did not include the country in his planned visit to Africa will not make the US to withdraw all her supports from Nigeria. Nigeria is our most strategic partner in Africa and nothing will ruin our relationship. Maybe in the future, the president will visit but now, he cannot because the security reports available are not encouraging” the official who pleaded anonymity hinted.
Meanwhile, President Obama will return to Africa this summer for the first time since his first year in office, the White House announced Monday.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Archbishop Of Canterbury, Others Eulogise Achebe At Service Of Songs
• Academy of Letters, college old boys, others pay tributes
MOHAMMED ABUBAKAR, NKECHI ONYEDIKA (ABUJA), TUNDE OYEDOYIN (LONDON), LAWRENCE NJOKU (ENUGU) AND ANOTE AJELUOROU (LAGOS)
The Guardian Nigeria, Sunday, May 19, 2013
FRESH tributes came for the late Nigerian novelist, Prof. Chinua Achebe, as the Archbishop of Canterbury – the leader of the Anglican Church Communion worldwide – the Most Rev. Justin Welby, led a full Anglican service of songs for him in London.
The Bishop of Woolich, Rt. Revd. Michael Ipgrave and his Southwark counterpart, Rt. Revd. Christopher Chessun, also eulogised him, so also was the Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Mrs. Aloun Ndombet-Assamba.
Also, the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) and old boys of Government College, Umuahia, Sunday paid tributes to the late literary icon.
In a one-page eulogy read by his representative at the service held at All Saints Cathedral in New Cross on Saturday evening, Welby said “it is a great privilege to be able to send this tribute to Chinua Achebe as you gather for a service at All Saints in his memory. Chinua Achebe was a wonderful poet and novelist, and one of the most important and influential writers in the history of Literature in English.
“He was a world figure, and played a significant role in shaping my own understanding of Nigeria and of the post-colonial era. In offering my condolences, I would also like to express my admiration for his courage in pursuing justice and integrity. ”
Welby also described Achebe as “a tremendous human being, and also a family man.”
In his own eulogy, Chessun described him as a “novelist of great stature.” The cleric also echoed what Nelson Mandela famously said of Achebe, that he, through his writings, “brought Africa to the world” while remaining rooted as an African.
Continuing, Chessun noted: “Certainly his role in the formation of national identity and consciousness in post-independence Nigeria cannot be under-estimated.”
Eulogising Achebe, Ipgrave said he was not just “a great teller of stories,” but “a notable academic” who “lived between the worlds of scholarships and of popular culture, and at times, also of politics and religion.” According to him, that place in-between often proved to be a hard and costly place to be.
The bishop told the congregation of about 200 not to be gloomy, noting that: “What we mark tonight for Chinua Achebe is his journey into a place which is no longer at the centre where things fall apart.”
On her part, Ndombet-Assamba commended Achebe for not only having a “great impact” on her personally and others who read his books in the Caribbean, but that he “gave them dignity as people of colour.” The diplomat thanked Achebe for giving her and millions of others the “wonderful gift of words from an African perspective.”
There were also eulogies from the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the United Kingdom (CANUK), Chief Bimbo Afoloyan and from the service organiser, Alex Achebe, who was Achebe’s nephew. Alex also read from his uncle’s last work, There was a country.
At the colloquium and night of tributes organised by old boys of Government College, Umuahia, elder statesman, Dr. Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo, regretted that the societal ills, which made Achebe reject national honours on two occasions, still thrive in the country.
He particularly lamented the state of infrastructure, especially the deplorable Enugu-Onitsha highway, where Achebe sustained the road mishap that condemned him to a wheelchair until his death, stressing that it was unfortunate that Achebe’s remains would be taken through the same road in its poor state.
He said: “He had hoped that in his lifetime, he would see a Nigeria that is truly federal in character and practice; he had hoped that Nigerians would have come to a roundtable to discuss the basis of their continued existence; he had hoped that the leadership would have by now improved infrastructure in the country; repaired the many damaged roads in the country, which, in the first instance, condemned him to a wheelchair till death; rehabilitated our collapsing institutions and given hope to the ordinary Nigerian. That he died without seeing these expectations come to fulfilment is an indictment on Nigeria and her leaders and an indication that all is not well with Nigeria. More than anything else, we should while paying deserved tribute to this literary icon and avatar, give serious thought to the tragedy that Nigeria has turned into if there is going to be a tomorrow for all of us.”
He said it would have been a smear on the reputation of Achebe had he accepted on two occasions national honours based on his belief that the government was notorious for its corruption, ineptitude and economic strangulation of the masses.
Nwankwo, who is the Chancellor of Eastern Mandate Union (EMU) and former presidential candidate, described Achebe as a ‘dictionary’, stressing that he lived in the library at Government College, Umuahia, devouring the writings of such writers as Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens and Joseph Conrad.
He insisted that the views expressed by Achebe in his last book, There was a country, represented the minds of the Igbo, stressing that the book was outstanding because it was written with pride and not prejudice.
He said the death of Achebe had brought to an end a glorious career that spanned over six decades, adding that he reshaped the English Language to accommodate Igbo voices and concepts.
The Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) described Achebe’s death as a great tragedy not only to his immediate family, the country but to the whole world.
In a statement made available to The Guardian in Abuja, the President of the Academy, Prof. Munzali Jubril, said the passage of Achebe, who was a foundation fellow of the organisation, would continue to leave a very deep vacuum in the literary world when taken into account the impact his literary works had had on the world.
According to Munzali, a one-time Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), “Achebe is universally remembered as the author of Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, two of the great African novels of the 20th century. Both are stories of the colonial encounters told from the point of view of a post-colonial era. Besides, Achebe had a profound sense of history. For him, the past is the foundation of the present, and that what we do with our past has a consequence for posterity.
“He had always insisted on the need to understand where we are coming from if we are to remain in control of the present and future, and he applied this principle to his creative writing, and he even extended it beyond himself by mentoring the young generation of writers that would succeed an aging generation that includes Profs. Wole Soyinka and J.P. Clark, two other distinguished fellows of the academy.”
The statement continued: “His bequest to the younger generation includes creative writing journal, Okike and the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) that he founded a generation ago. He was a creative intellectual who was politically engaged with the issues of his country. As a spokesman for races, nations, ethnic groups and small communities, he claimed the privilege of the visionary who would not see his people perish by insisting on the right of every community to tell its own story.”
Lamenting the decadence of infrastructure in the country, Munzali said: “It is an irony that such a culturally engaged writer and a nationalist should die in another country seeking medical care for an accident that he sustained through his country’s neglect of its road and infrastructure. It should not be that Achebe, who has written so well about the indigenous civilisation of African peoples and in their defence, should now be diminished by being presented champion of one ethnic group.
“In culture-specific, but politically representative fictions, he wrote about the colonised for a global reading public as no one has written before.”
Meanwhile, at a commendation service organised by the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, in Achebe’s honour in Abuja, the Archbishop Metropolitan and Primate of Anglican All Nigeria, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, described the late writer as a great man, pride of Africa, a world-class professor and a gold medallist of African literature.
He noted that Achebe was God’s gift to Africa, Nigeria and Igbo people, adding that he developed African literature and succeeded in spreading the knowledge of African literature to the entire world through his writings.
For the Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Achebe was a man that brought fame and dignity to Nigeria.
Describing Achebe’s literary works as classic, Okonjo-Iweala noted that he encouraged other young Nigerian writers, adding that his departure had created a vacuum in the literary world.
Also speaking, Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, described Achebe as one of the most important Nigerians in the last 100 years.
On behalf of the family, the Chairman of the burial committee, Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, noted the family was not mourning but celebrating his transition knowing that Achebe had achieved an immortal place in human civilisation.
Chuka Umunna, 'Britain's Obama' Urges Ties With West Africa
By Robbie Corey-Boulet
Associated Press, May 19, 2013
ACCRA, Ghana — A rising star in Britain's Labour Party, described by some as the "British Barack Obama," Chuka Umunna urged the United Kingdom to more aggressively forge ties with West Africa's fast-growing economies.
During a trade mission to West Africa last week that included a stop in his father's home country Nigeria, Umunna, a member of the British Parliament, dismissed the comparison to the United States president.
"Let's not beat around the bush. The reason why people make the comparison is, frankly, there are not that many black people in Western politics," said Umunna, who represents the London district of Streatham and is Labour's shadow business secretary. "And I'd love to have a situation where you can be elected as a black politician without constantly having comparisons made."
Umunna, 34, grew up in Streatham and worked as a lawyer before being elected to parliament in 2010. The son of an Irish mother and Nigerian father, he said he made seven or eight trips to Nigeria "for pretty long stays" during his childhood. But prior to last week's visit, he hadn't been to the country since his father's funeral in 1992.
Umunna said that while West Africa's high growth rate is well-known, he was struck by just how different Nigeria seemed today compared to his last visit, which occurred during a time of military rule.
"It didn't have the feeling of a country that was going anywhere in 1992," he said. But today Nigeria "does have the feeling of a country on the up. What you find physically and you see on the street matches up with a growth rate of 7 percent, which it is forecast to have this year."
He had similar things to say about Ghana, where at a reception Thursday night hosted by the British High Commission in Accra he said Britain was eager to help develop infrastructure and remove other barriers to economic growth.
"We are acutely conscious that we come here with some humility," he said in brief remarks. "This is clearly an economy that is taking off, and we know that between 2011 and 2015 Ghana is forecast to be the eighth-fastest growing economy in the world. And of course that is at the same time that our economy in the U.K. has been struggling to grow somewhat."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Umunna acknowledged there was a feeling in its former colonies that Britain has been less engaged than other partners such as China, Brazil and India.
"I think it's fair to say that there is a perception that we've been a bit complacent and because of our historical ties have felt somehow that we don't need to put as much effort in," he said. "I want to be very clear and send out a very strong message to policymakers and business communities in all of the West African countries that the U.K. wants to do business."
Back home, Umunna said he was focused on helping put the Labour Party back into power in the 2015 elections under party leader Ed Miliband – something he said the party was in a good position to accomplish.
Umunna said he left the law for politics "to achieve massive positive change" and that he was frustrated being in the opposition.
Though widely regarded as an up and coming force in the Labour Party, Umunna has received some recent negative press related to his online footprint. Last month Britain's Daily Mail reported that on an invitation-only social networking website, Umunna complained in 2006 that clubs in London's West End "seem to be full of trash and C-list wannabes, while other places that should know better opt for the cheesy vibe." The paper said the comments undercut the lawmaker's "man of the people" image.
Umunna has also been criticized in the press for editing his own Wikipedia page to include references to "the U.K.'s Barack Obama," something his office has said he has no recollection of doing. Prime Minister David Cameron made light of the story on May 8 in the House of Commons, saying, "Now he has been famously comparing himself to Barack Obama. As he would put it, can we change our Wikipedia entry? Yes we can." In BBC footage of the remarks, Umunna rolls his eyes in response.
"With respect to the nightclub comment I've never claimed to be a saint," Umunna told AP. "My generation, we're probably the first generation to actually have grown up online and to have social media accounts . We all say stupid things in our younger years and I'm no different from anyone else, and I regret what I said and I can't really say more than that."
He declined to be specific when discussing his political ambitions. "I'm not particularly interested in positions and in my own personal position in as much as I am ambitious to actually do things and make a difference," he said. "I'm ambitious in my politics and the kind of society I'd like us to build."
Nigeria Offers Amnesty To Insurgents Who Surrender
By Joe Brock. Maiduguri
Reuters, May 19, 2013
\
Women attempt to cross Jos Road with their belongings, after the military declared a 24-hour curfew over large parts of Maiduguri in Borno State, May 19, 2013. Image: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters
(Reuters) - Nigeria offered an amnesty on Sunday to Islamist militants who surrender and said 17 people had been killed on the fifth day of a military operation to try to crush the Boko Haram insurgency in the country's northeast.
In their biggest offensive since the insurgency began in 2009, Nigerian forces are trying to chase well-armed militants out of territory they control in remote semi-deserts around Lake Chad, along the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
They have also launched a crackdown on them in northeastern cities such as Maiduguri, where the sect has powerful cells.
Nigeria's defense spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade said the operation was continuing on Sunday, with patrols sent out to secure towns and villages, and that special forces had killed 14 insurgents in battles that left three Nigerian soldiers dead and seven wounded.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. The operation has targeted areas of Africa's top energy producer where Boko Haram, which is fighting to create a breakaway Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria, has bases and weapons caches.
Nigerian forces used jets and attack helicopters to bombard militant camps in the northeast on Friday.
Some analysts fear the offensive may have rendered the already slim chance of a political solution to the conflict even slimmer, but the president's spokesman Reuben Abati denied this. Jonathan set up a committee to work out the terms of a possible amnesty for Boko Haram members last month.
"Mr president has urged Boko Haram members to surrender their arms and embrace the amnesty option which is still open as the committee is working on the option of dialogue for a peaceful resolution," Abati said by telephone.
An amnesty for militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta in 2009 helped end a conflict there that cut oil output by nearly half at one stage, but Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau rejected the offer of amnesty last month.
COMMUNICATIONS CUT
Phones have been largely cut to the entire northeastern region, to prevent the rebels from communicating.
"The insurgents have people who look out and tip them off by phone, which opens the military up to ambushes. Without phones, raids will have the element of surprise," a security source in Maiduguri said, adding a 24-hour curfew in some areas also aimed to limit their movements.
"It will be painful for the public without communications and movement, but it may be a price worth paying," he said.
The military said on Friday it had destroyed a number of camps in dry forests around Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency and a region that once hosted one of Africa's oldest medieval Islamic empires, founded on trade connecting the continent's interior with its Mediterranean coast.
"Dislodged terrorists (are) in disarray," Olulokade said.
The crackdown is meant to finish off the rebels decisively, but efforts to do so in the past have failed, as they hid under pressure and then popped up again when it eased.
Human rights groups and the United States are also concerned about more possible abuses against civilians by the army.
President Jonathan, a Christian southerner, had been accused of not taking seriously enough the violence in the largely Muslim north where some fear Islamist insurgents allied to al Qaeda could take over large swathes of territory as they did in Mali before French-led troops ejected them this year.
After being pushed out of city centers, the Islamists had been re-arming this year, drawing on weapons still flooding into the West Africa region in the aftermath of Libya's conflict.
An attack on the town of Bama by 200 Boko Haram militants armed with anti-aircraft guns this month killed 55 people, and it may have been what finally prompted Jonathan's declaration.
(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Ajuba; writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Friday, May 17, 2013
Nigeria Bombs Islamists, U.S. Sounds Alarm
By Lanre Ola, Maiduguri
Reuters, may 17, 2013
(Reuters) - Nigerian warplanes struck militant camps in the northeast on Friday in a major push against an Islamist insurgency, drawing a sharp warning from the United States to respect human rights and not harm civilians.
Troops used jets and helicopters to bombard targets in their biggest offensive since the Boko Haram group launched a revolt almost four years ago to establish a breakaway Islamic state and one military source said at least 30 militants had been killed.
But three days after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strongly worded statement saying: "We are ... deeply concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations, which, in turn, only escalate the violence and fuel extremism."
The United States is the biggest foreign investor in Africa's most populous nation, notably in its energy sector, and buys a third of Nigeria's oil. Washington "condemns Boko Haram's campaign of terror in the strongest terms", Kerry said, but urged Nigeria's armed forces to show restraint and discipline.
Nigerian defense spokesman Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade said in a statement that troops destroyed several Boko Haram camps and weapons stockpiles in forests around Borno state, epicenter of the uprising and relic of a medieval Islamic empire: "Heavy weapons including anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns were also destroyed in the process," he said.
"The special operations ... resulted in the destruction of much of the insurgents' weapons and logistics such as vehicles, containers, fuel dumps and power generators."
He said the death toll amongst the insurgents would be verified during mopping up exercises in the camps, including in the Sambisa game reserve in Borno state. A military source said at least 30 insurgents had been killed in one operation.
Nigerian forces are trying to regain territory controlled by well-armed militants in remote northeastern stronghold states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, put under a state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday.
The Islamists, seen as the main security threat to Africa's top oil producer, have been staging bolder attacks since last month, including one on the town of Bama that left 55 dead.
Nigerian authorities fear they are creating an enclave in remote border areas, as al Qaeda linked militants did in the deserts of Mali before the French forced them out in January.
But previous efforts to crush Boko Haram have always proved temporary, forcing them to dissipate into hiding places or across borders, where they wait, regroup and then come back.
The military is already overstretched in the north, by operations against oil theft in the south and foreign missions.
More troops arrived on Friday in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded as a clerical movement opposed to Western culture, but which after a military crackdown on it killed 800 people, morphed into a full armed rebellion and forged ties with al-Qaeda linked groups in the Sahara.
"I saw more than 20 trucks loaded with soldiers fully kitted for battle towards Marte. I wish them luck in ending this BH (Boko Haram) madness," resident Ahmed Ibrahim said.
A day earlier, 11 trucks of police trained in counter-insurgency had arrived in Maiduguri, security officials said. Mobile phone connections to Borno and Yobe states were cut.
In some parts of Maiduguri, and in Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, traffic returned to roads and shops re-opened, as most military operations took place in remote rural areas. Roads out of the city to such areas were sealed off by soldiers.
MILITARY SOLUTION?
Thousands of troops are involved in the offensive - the precise number is a secret - an answer to critics who accuse Jonathan, a southern Christian, of underestimating the severity of the crisis in the largely Muslim north.
Several thousand people have been killed since Boko Haram rose up in 2009 to try create an Islamic state in a nation of 170 million split equally between Christians, the majority in the south, and Muslims, mostly in the north.
The violence has mostly happened far from the commercial hub Lagos or political capital Abuja, and hundreds of miles away from oilfields in the southeast, which has dulled a sense of urgency about it amongst Nigeria's elites.
Beyond the region covered by the state of emergency, gunmen stormed a police station and a bank in Katsina state, the army said, a sign the offensive could provoke violence by smaller militant cells across the north.
It was not clear who carried out the attack.
This is not the first time planes have been used to quell an Islamist uprising. In the 1980s, military leaders used air power to put down religiously inspired protests in the north's main city of Kano, a crackdown that left some 5,000 people dead, according to state media at the time.
The emergency affects semi-desert states of some 150,000 sq km (60,000 sq miles) along Lake Chad - near borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon - an area home to around 10 million people.
Rights groups are concerned the state of emergency will lead to more of the abuses they have documented by Nigerian forces, and some commentators are concerned that this pushes a political solution to the conflict even further out of sight.
Kerry said: "We urge Nigeria's security forces to apply disciplined use of force in all operations, protect civilians in any security response, and respect human rights and the rule of law."
Last month Jonathan floated the idea of an amnesty, but Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau rejected it.
"A state of emergency appears to be a further step toward responding to the crisis in the north through military rather than political means," a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, wrote in a blog.
"The brutality of the Nigerian security services appears to generate support for the Islamists."
(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Lagos, Joe Brock in Abuja, Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri, Imma Ande in Yola and Chukwuemeka Madu in Kano and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Alastair Macdonald)
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