Change your style

Friday 29 July 2016

EPA TURKEY ERDOGAN POLICE WAR COUP D'ETAT TUR

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday slammed the U.S. for its reaction to a failed military coup attempt two weeks ago, accusing the country of harboring the man he says is responsible for the violence.
“Instead of thanking this government for thwarting this coup attempt, and for (maintaining) democracy, you are standing by the (plotters),” Erdogan said,according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.
Turkey continues to demand the U.S. extradite Fethullah Gülen, a cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania whom it accuses of being behind the coup attempt July 15 that left at least 290 people dead.
“The putschist (Gülen) is already in your country, you are looking after him. This is a known fact," Erdogan said. “You can never deceive my people. My people know who is involved in this plot, and who is the mastermind. With such statements, you are just revealing yourself. Turkey will not be duped.”
Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington, said last week that his country will accept a U.S. offer to work with the State and Justice departments on an extradition request for the Turkish cleric.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey must provide evidence of Gülen’s involvement for a U.S. judge to consider any extradition request. Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said the extradition is “a very legal technical process.”
On Wednesday, Turkey ordered the shutdown of scores of media outlets, including three news agencies, 16 television channels and 45 newspapers, Andalou reported.
The state also formally discharged around 1,700 officers from the military and brought the Turkish Coast Guard under the control of the Interior Ministry.
The moves represent a further tightening of government control in the country.
Amnesty International said the crackdown and state of emergency imposed by Turkey far surpass responses made by other countries after an attempted coup. The human rights group said that raises concerns whether Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to strengthen his hold on power, eliminate political opponents and curb the country's democratic tradition.
Kilic said that’s not the case. “All political parties are supporting the government,” he said.

Boko Haram Convoy Attack: UN suspends aid to Borno

Following yesterday’s attack by Boko Haram on a humanitarian convoy, the United Nations has temporarily suspended aid deliveries in Borno State.

The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF in a statement said that unknown assailants attacked the convoy on Thursday as it returned to Maiduguri from delivering aid in Bama, injuring a UNICEF employee and an International Organisation for Migration contractor, reports Reuters.

According to the agency, “The United Nations has temporarily suspended humanitarian assistance missions pending review of the security situation.”

Nearly a quarter of a million children in Borno suffer from life-threatening malnourishment and around one in five will die if they do not receive treatment, UNICEF said earlier this month Doctors Without Border otherwise known as Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Wednesday that severely malnourished children were dying in large numbers in northeast Nigeria, where food supplies are close to running out.


Kumuyi: How Nigeria can wriggle out of current recession

Kumuyi: How Nigeria can wriggle out of current recession

Pst Kumuyi

The General Overseer, Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM), Pastor Williams Folorunsho Kumuyi, has given insight to how Nigerians could wriggle out of the current economic downturn in the country.
kumuyi said apart from seeking God’s intervention through prayers for the nation, Nigerians should shun corruption, make a habit of doing the right thing always and also delve into agriculture to ensure food availability and security.
He said Nigerians need God’s help to “turn around the economic, social, individual, domestic needs and other hydra – headed problems of the nation,” adding that where there is no food on the table and enough apparel for the body, there would be grumbling everywhere.
The General Overseer spoke in Abeokuta, through the DCLM State Overseer, Pastor Dele Rosilu, while fielding questions from reporters at a press briefing to herald his planned visit to MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, next Friday, for a “turn around” crusade at the state capital.
Over 50,000 worshippers across the state are expected to attend the programme.
Rosilu who addressed the press on Kumuyi’s behalf, noted that Nigerians are not doing enough in agriculture, saying there are no better time to pour more energy into farming either on “commercial or part time basis” than this period of economic recession.
He also made case for more money to be expended on security of lives and properties of Nigerians by the governments if that is what it would take to keep enough manpower on ground amid rising cases of militancy and kidnappings in parts of the country.
He however, expressed the hope that at this period of “failures,” God would minister success to the country, stressing that the church in Nigeria should partner with the governments, its institutions and agencies to better the lot of the people.”

Military descends on Arepo vandals hideout in Operation Awathe

nigerian-army

Many people were feared dead, yesterday, as the Military commenced bombardment of Iroko creeks in Arepo area of Ogun State, suspected to be inhabited by militants.

This is just as gunmen, suspected to be militants, stormed Isawo area of Ikorodu, Lagos, and abducted a man identified simply as Hyginius. The bombardment, it was gathered, was carried out by the Military and police but it was not clear, last night, if those killed included civilians living around the creeks. Details of the operation, said to have lasted 20 minutes, was sketchy at press time.

But unconfirmed report had it that several lives were lost with about 30 houses destroyed. It was gathered that some helicopters were sighted hovering around the creeks at about 5.30p.m., followed by sporadic gunshots, which jolted the militants. Some of them were said to have hid inside the river.

Residents of Elepete area, who apparently thought it was another attack from militants, scampered for safety. Police sources said “it was a joint operation.”

 It was gathered that the helicopters deployed in the operation were of the Air Force, while personnel of the three forces, comprising the Army Navy and Air Force and Police were on board the boats that combed the creeks. A source said: “These militants are responsible for the attacks on residents at Elepete and Igbolomu areas of Ikorodu.

It is an ongoing operation.” Several were killed—Resident A resident, Nmadu Chionye, said: “We heard the gunshots and took cover. But when we contacted the security men, they told us they were in charge. We learned several persons were killed, but none can tell the exact number.” Effort to get the reactions of the military and police failed as they kept mum. However, a senior Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “It is too early to speak on such sensitive exercise. You will be briefed at the appropriate time please. There is no cause to panic.”

 Ogun Police Commissioner spits fire

 However, new Ogun State Police Commissioner, Ahmed Illiyasu, who resumed yesterday, had given a hint of what lay ahead when he threatened a showdown with militants and other criminals in the state. The commissioner, who spoke during the handing over ceremony by the immediate past Commissioner of Police, AIG Abdulmajid Ali, in Abeokuta, disclosed that the command had already made tactical deployment of policemen to the affected areas to flush out the militants. He said: “These people (militants) are hoodlums and already a very detailed report had been written and studied on them. We have made tactical and covert deployment of our men to flush them out of that place. “Several operations are going to be carried out and the process has begun.

We are assuring the people of their safety. “We want to raise the security we met to the next level. We want to make the state safer and more secured than ever before.”

 DHQ

Reacting to the development, Defence Headquarters, Abuja, said there was no aerial bombardment of the Arepo because of the critical infrastructure which involved oil and gas pipelines playing pivotal services to the nation’s economy. Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig-General Rabe Abubakar, who gave the clarification last night, however, said what happened was that the military and security agencies, in a joint operation codenamed Operation Awathe, under the Command of the Defence Headquarters, carried out a normal security operation to wipe out pipeline vandals and oil and gas criminals bent on sabotaging the economic assets of the nation.

He noted that there was no way the military could have bombarded the area because of the environmental damage that would also be inflicted on the area. Abubakar said: “Arepo is of critical importance to the nation and the infrastructure on ground has cost the nation huge resources to put in place. It is true we have received complaints and petitions about the activities of vandals and criminals causing problems and destroying pipelines and siphoning crude. “But the military did not and cannot bomb the critical economic infrastructure in place there.”


Going hungry in Venezuela



This mother eats so little that she cannot breastfeed her baby
Image captionThis mother eats so little that she cannot breastfeed her baby

Travelling through the country this month I saw endless queues of people trying to buy food - any food - at supermarkets and other government-run shops.
It's one thing to talk to people you've never met before who are suffering from hunger, and it's a completely different thing when they are from your own family, as the BBC's Vladimir Hernandez discovered when he returned to his native Venezuela to report on its failure to get food on people's tables.
I was stopped at a roadblock in the middle of the countryside by people who said they had eaten nothing but mangoes for three days.
I saw the hopeless expression of a mother, who had been eating so little that she was no longer able to breastfeed her baby.
I met a women affectionately known as la gorda - "the fat one" - whose protruding cheekbones indicated just how much weight she had lost in the last year.
I felt sympathy for all these people, but it was my family who really brought it home to me.
My brother told me all his trousers were now too big. My father - never one to grumble - let slip that things were "really tough". My mother, meanwhile, confessed that sometimes she only eats once a day. They all live in different parts of Venezuela, but none of them is getting enough to eat. It's a nationwide problem.
Young man at the roadblock erected by people who have been surviving on mangoes alone
Image captionThe roadblock erected by people who have been surviving on mangoes
A study by three of the country's main universities indicates that 90% of Venezuelans are eating less than they did last year and that "extreme poverty" has jumped by 53% since 2014.
There are a number of causes - shortages of basic goods, bad management, a host of speculators and hoarders, and a severe drop in the country's oil income.
Plus, of course, the highest inflation rate in the world.
The country's official inflation rate was 180% in December, the last time a figure was made public, but the IMF estimates it will be above 700% by the end of the year.
Shopper paying for meat with sheaf of banknotesImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionInflation obliges Venezuelans to carry fistfuls of banknotes
White line 10 pixels
Bran cereal boxes were available in this Caracas supermarket in JuneImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionBoxes of bran cereal were available in this Caracas supermarket in June
In an attempt to stop speculators and hoarders, the government years ago fixed the price of many basic goods, such as flour, chicken, or bread. But Venezuelans can only buy the goods at these fixed prices once a week, depending on the final digit of the number on their national identity card. If it's 0 or 1, for example, then you're allowed to buy on Mondays. For 2 or 3, it's Tuesdays, and so on.
Because there is a risk of the goods running out, people often arrive at supermarkets in the early hours of the morning, or even earlier. At 6am one morning in Caracas, I met a man who had already been in the queue for three hours. It was pouring with rain, and he didn't have an umbrella.
"I'm hoping to get rice, but sometimes I've queued and then been unable to buy anything because the rice runs out before I get in," he said.
Even if they are lucky, shoppers are only allowed a restricted amount of items per day. Those who can't get enough have to wait a full week until their turn comes round again - the tills will automatically reject anyone's shopping if they arrive on the wrong day.
As inflation rises, the incentive grows for people to queue to buy these goods at regulated prices and then sell them on the black market, where a pack of flour can cost 100 times more. The government has promised to crack down on the practice, but so far hasn't been able to stop it.
For years this oil-rich nation has been increasing food imports in an attempt to guarantee a supply of basic goods, but critics say that price controls and the nationalisation programme of the late president, Hugo Chavez, contributed to the current crisis.
President Nicolas Maduro, who was elected by a slim margin three years ago, after Chavez died, has also had to deal with a drop in oil prices that has reduced the country's foreign earnings by about two-thirds.
line

Find out more

Police monitor a supermarket queue in Petare, Caracas on 1 June 2016Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
  • Watch Going Hungry in Venezuela on Our World at 21:30 on the BBC News Channel on Saturday 30 July or Sunday 31 July - in the UK, you can catch up later on the BBC iPlayer.
line
His latest step has been to create Local Committees of Supplies and Production, better known by the Spanish acronym, CLAP.
The CLAPs essentially mean that the government will stop sending imported food to supermarkets and start handing it over to local community councils.
These entities will register people in their community, assign them a day for shopping, and sell them a plastic bag filled with a number of goods such as flour, pasta and soap, at a fixed price. You cannot choose what you want to buy. You just get what you are given in the bag.
"But this will only be available once a month!" a young mother, Liliana, exclaimed at the roadblock manned by people eating nothing but mangoes.
She admitted to going to bed in tears on days when she had been unable to give her two children any dinner.
In western Venezuela, in the oil-rich province of Zulia, I visited several small towns where people didn't know what they would eat the following day.
Zulay Florido: We call it here
Image captionZulay Florido: We call it here "the Maduro diet"
"We've always been poor here, that's true, but we've never been hungry," said Zulay Florido, a community leader in her 50s.
"Since (President) Maduro took power we are in a very bad situation. We call it here 'the Maduro diet'.
"When Chavez was in power this didn't happen."
In Zulia, food was already in the hands of the community councils rather than the supermarkets.
The ultimate aim of the CLAPs is to create self-sustaining communities, where people grow their own food.
I was taken to one of these places by Alejandro Armao, a member of a colectivo - a group of hardcore government supporters, often armed, who are sometimes accused of acts of violence against opposition activists.
Graphic showing frequency of food protests
Armao introduced me to several colectivo members in a slum called Catia. They appeared to be armed, and were carrying walkie-talkies.
After threatening to kick me out of the area, they agreed in the end to show me what the CLAP was aiming to achieve. I was taken to see a barren field - "which we aim to have ready for crops in eight months" - and several chili plants waiting to be planted.
It was, to say the least, disheartening.
I thought of my mother, and wondered whether this could be the solution for people like her, struggling to eat properly three times a day.
My mother, who's a staunch government supporter, truly believes it is.
"It will take time but it will happen," she says.
But I cannot help wondering whether other Venezuelans will be as patient.

India Dalit couple hacked to death over 22 cents debt


Police at the site of the murder
Image captionThe Dalit community in the village have blocked roads and protested over the murders
A man from India's Dalit community has been beheaded and his wife hacked to death after a row over a 15 rupees (22 cents; 16 pence) debt in Uttar Pradesh state.
Police said the couple were murdered by an upper caste grocer on Thursday when they told him they needed time to pay for biscuits they had bought from him.
The grocer has been arrested.
Dalits, formerly known as untouchables, form the lowest rung of India's caste hierarchy.
Police told the Press Trust of India news agency the incident took place in Mainpuri district early on Thursday as the couple were on their way to work.
They were stopped by Ashok Mishra, the owner of a village grocery, who demanded that the couple pay the money for three packets of biscuits that they had bought for their three children a few days ago, reports say.

Protests

The couple reportedly told him they would pay after they received their daily wages later in the evening.
"While Mishra kept shouting for the money, the couple started walking towards the fields. Mishra then ran to his house nearby and returned with an axe. He hacked Bharat repeatedly and then attacked Mamta who was trying to rescue her husband. The couple died on the spot," Nadeem, a local villager, told The Indian Express newspaper.
The Dalit community in the village have blocked roads and protested over the incident.
Earlier this month four low-caste Dalit men were assaulted by cow protection vigilantes while trying to skin a dead cow in western Gujarat state.
Many Hindus consider cows sacred and the slaughter of the animal is banned in many Indian states.
In March, a Dalit man was murdered for marrying a woman from a higher caste in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
The woman's father handed himself in and admitted to carrying out the attack on a busy road in daylight, police said.

Syria conflict: Deadly strike on Save the Children maternity hospital

Maternity hospital in Idlib hit by bomb. 29 July 2016Image copyrightSAVE THE CHILDREN
Image captionPart of the building was destroyed by the air strike

Syria Relief, the aid agency that manages the hospital, said those killed were relatives of patients.
An air strike has hit a maternity hospital supported by Save the Children in north-western Syria, killing two people and wounding three others.
Save the Children said the bomb, from an air strike, hit the entrance to the hospital in rural Idlib province.
Images show part of the building in Kafer Takhareem destroyed. It is not clear who carried out the attack.
Save the Children says the hospital is the biggest in the area, carrying out more than 300 deliveries a month.
UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a nearby civil defence building was also damaged.
Aftermath of air strike on hospital in Idlib. 29 July 2016Image copyrightSAVE THE CHILDREN
Image captionThe air strike in Idlib caused widespread damage
In other developments:
  • Activists say US-led coalition air strikes have killed 28 civilians in a northern Syrian village near Manbij. The US says it is investigating
  • The UN's envoy to Syria has appealed to Russia to let the UN manage safe corridors from besieged areas of the city of Aleppo
Russia, a key ally of the Syrian government, said on Thursday that three humanitarian corridors from Aleppo were being opened for civilians and unarmed rebels and a fourth for armed rebels.
About 300,000 people are trapped in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, under intense bombardment.
Russia's announcement was welcomed cautiously by the UN, the US and some aid agencies.
The US has suggested the plan may be an attempt to force the evacuation of civilians and the surrender of rebel groups in the city.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that if the operation was "a ruse" it could disrupt US-Russian co-operation in Syria.
"It has the risk, if it is a ruse, of completely breaking apart the... co-operation," he said.
"On the other hand, if we're able to work it out today and have a complete understanding of what is happening and then agreement on (the) way forward, it could actually open up some possibilities."
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said the UN supported such corridors in principle and was asking Russia for more details on how they would work.
Map locator
"Our suggestion to Russia is to actually leave the corridors being established at their initiative to us," Mr de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.
"The UN and humanitarian partners know what to do."
Map locator
He echoed calls from the UN's Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen O'Brien, for a 48-hour truce to allow aid into the east of the city.
"How can you expect people to want to walk through a corridor, thousands of them, while there is shelling, bombing fighting?" Mr de Mistura asked.
He said the UN was "in principle and in practice in favour of humanitarian corridors under the right circumstances" but said Russia needed to provide more information on how the system would work.
He reiterated that civilians who left should do so only through their own choice.
The UN said on Monday that food supplies in Aleppo were expected to run out in mid-August and many medical facilities continued to be attacked.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has said the three corridors for civilians and unarmed fighters would have medical posts and food handouts.
Scene of Aleppo, Syria. 29 July 2016Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionGovernment forces, backed by Russia, have pressed rebels back in eastern Aleppo
The fourth corridor, in the direction of Castello Road, would be for armed militants, he said.
The Syrian Observatory said on Friday that seven children were among the 28 killed in the coalition air strike on al-Ghandour village near Manbij.
The US confirmed air strikes took place near Manbij on Thursday and said it was investigating claims of civilian casualties.
Manbij is controlled by the so-called Islamic State group but encircled by Kurdish-led forces who are advancing with the support of coalition air strikes.

Hardship: Buhari begs clerics to pacify Nigerians

Hardship: Buhari begs clerics to pacify Nigerians

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has requested religious leaders in the country to “keep calming” Nigerians, saying his government was aware of the challenges confronting the average citizen.
Buhari appealed to Islamic leaders who visited him yesterday to convey the message of hope to the citizens that things would improve soon.
Receiving the Council of Abuja Imams at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, the president said the leadership at various levels was trying to solve problems of poverty, unemployment and insecurity bedevilling the country.
He noted that his administration decided to give priority to agriculture in order to create jobs and ensure food security, assuring that there was a bigger plan for the provision of fertiliser, insecticides and land preparations beginning from next year.
The president urged state governments and community leaders across the country to key into this by organising the citizens into cooperative societies.
“Extension services, not money, will be provided,” he said.
He said efforts were being made to  bring  investors from China and other friendly countries interested in developing the proposed Mambila and other hydro-electric power projects in Nigeria.
The president also assured that the steps the government was carefully taking on the Niger Delta crisis would bring about long-term peace and stability in the region.
Buhari told the clerics that his administration would remain resolute and relentless in the ongoing war against corruption and the Boko Haram insurgency. 
“We have no plan to humiliate or embarrass anyone through these actions.  We are merely interested in instituting justice and fairness for all,” he said.
He, however, vowed that whoever is found to have stolen public funds would be forced to return the funds, saying, “The nation needs the money.”
In his remarks, the chairman of Abuja Council of Imams, Dr Tajudeen Mohammed Bello Adigun, commended the administration’s efforts towards fighting corruption and terrorism but drew Buhari’s attention to the current economic challenges, especially unemployment as well as problems in the health and education sectors.

Rotary International sponsors 40 Kuje prisoners for WAEC

Rotary International sponsors 40 Kuje prisoners for WAEC



Six Rotary International clubs have paid the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) fees for 40 inmates of the Kuje Medium Prison.

The six clubs, made up of: Rotary Club of Abuja Federal; Rotary Club of Apo, Abuja; E- Rotary Club of Nigeria; Rotary Club of Abuja, Kubwa; Rotary Club of Jigawa and  Rotary Club of Wuse Central, Abuja, also presented study materials including textbooks, past question papers, notebooks and others to the inmates.

The Rotary International District Governor, Bisi Adegoke who unveiled the project after a meeting with the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) officials in Abuja on Thursday, said the project will expand beyond sponsoring inmates for examinations.

While lamenting that Nigerian prisons were suffering from infrastructural decay, he called on the clubs to look for more ways of partnering the NPS.

Speaking to Daily Trust after the meeting, the President of Rotary Club of Abuja federal, Mrs Koyona Duke said "we don't want their incarceration to be the end of their education."

She added that "the Nigeria Prison want the inmates to be reformed so that when they leave the prison, they become a better person and we want to be involved in that process."

Mrs Duke said the beneficiaries are both those on the Awaiting trial list and those already convicted.

"We want them to know that even if they are in the prisons, they are not just wasting time. So that when they leave, they are leaving with a change mind set to help contribute their quota to the development of the country," she added.

Also, the President of Rotary Club of Apo, Abuja, Abdullahi Idris said the project tagged "Liberating through Literacy" addresses the "Basic education and literacy" area of focus of Rotary International.

He said "the driving force behind the project is the need to give hope to the inmates so that they won't feel useless and neglected by the outside world.

Idris said the club will partner the NPS to explore other areas of welfare we could step in to help, especially in helping some of the inmates on awaiting trial to gain their freedom.

He also said other targets of the six clubs include the training of inmates to gain vocational skills to help them earn a living after leaving the prison.





Breaking: INEC announces results for Imo rerun election

Most careless and inciting statements are made in political campaign grounds

Most careless and inciting statements are made in political campaign grounds


NAN reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced Ben Uwajumogu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of Imo North senatorial district rerun poll held on July 28. Uwajumogu received 56,076 votes and defeated Athan Achonu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who has 43, 815 votes. Arinze Agbogu, the INEC officer, who announced the outcome in the early hours of July 29, said the results were a summary of scores of July 23 and that of July 28 exercise.

On July 23 Uwajumogu had scored 48,921 while Achonu of the PDP received 40, 142 votes which forced INEC to announce the election inconclusive. Likewise, the electoral body announced Nkenna Nzeruo of the APC winner of Oru East state constituency, though Collins Chiji also of APC was announced winner for Isiala Mbano state constituency.

 Uwajumogu told reporters in Owerri that he was highly overjoyed over the victory, continuing “my gratitude goes more to Gov. Rochas Okorocha whose structure helped me to win this senatorial election’’.

After the emergence of Ben Uwajimogu as Okigwe North Senatorial district it seems that chances of Senator Ekweremadu to continue as the deputy Senate president are slim.

National Defence college admits from Europe, Asia, others

 National Defence college admits from Europe, Asia, others

The National Defence College (NDC) for the first time is to admit Participants for its next course from Turkey, Germany, India, Brazil and other allied African countries.
The Secretary of the College, Air Vice Marshal Uko Etim made this known on Friday at a press conference in Abuja, in respect of the graduation of its Course 24 participants next week.
He said the new course expected to be inaugurated on 15th September 2016, showcases the College as the centre of excellence for developing potential strategic leaders in Africa and globally.
He also said the current course 24 is graduating 130 Participants drawn from the Nigeria Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service and Ministry of Defence.
Etim added that Participants from allied countries include: Ghana, Sierra-Leone, Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Zambia.
Etim said the college provides the highest military education intended to inculcate a sense of advance military professionalism and involvement in the decision making process under democratic culture and structures.
He added that college has developed consistent military expertise in the study of policy options as to where, when and how force could be applied for security and peaceful purposes.