Gunmen blow up Anambra hotel, kill two policemen...

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Gunmen on Monday shot and killed two policemen on patrol at Abor Akuzor, Umusoime, Nkpor in Anambra State. Some other policemen on patrol with the cops were also injured in the incident. The policemen were said to be attached to the Ogidi Police Station, Idemili North Local Government Area. The gunmen were also said to have led some people to destroy part of a hotel building under construction in the area.

The building allegedly belongs to the Chairman of Abor Akuzor kindred, Chief Okechukwu Nwafoagu. The killing of the two policemen came on the heels of a similar killing of a woman, Ogechi Okechukwu, on Sunday by gunmen, who attacked the village.

The hoodlums were alleged have used explosives suspected to be dynamite to destroy the mega hotel. The Abor Akuzor people have been embroiled in a land dispute with their neighbouring Oramadike people in Ogidi.

The dispute, which sometimes turned violent, has led to loss of lives and destruction of property.

The Monday attack on Abor Akuzor was the third since May this year. The hotel, which is at the roofing stage, was attacked and property including generators, were set ablaze.

The Police Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters, had, because of the killings and destruction, summoned the Chairman of Abor Akuzor and his Oramadike counterpart to Abuja, where they were made to sign an undertaking to maintain the peace and order.

US embassy and pregnant women...

Hello Friends!

The United States’ embassy in Nigeria seems to have perfected the art of denying well-meaning and legitimate non-immigrant Nigerian mothers visa for reasons best known to it. At the end of visa interview sessions, what one hears is, ‘’You are not qualified at this time’’! Women of child-bearing age are asked questions such as: Are you pregnant at this time? How many children do you have? Do you plan to have more children? And if the response to any of these questions is in the affirmative, then the next set of questions may be: Do you plan to have the baby in America? Can you afford to pay the medical bills? You are probably asked to show evidence and even after showing evidence you are told mostly that you do not qualify at this time or that you should reapply after having your baby.

Please note that there have been cases when female applicants did not even know they were pregnant during the interview and later discovered in the weeks to follow! Obviously, a married woman who is sexually active can become pregnant at anytime even with the use of contraceptives. Asking these kinds of questions during interviews is not a way to determine the purpose of the interview, which is to determine if the visa applicant is an intending immigrant. Finding out if an applicant is pregnant or plan to become pregnant soon, has nothing to do with the application but is an unnecessary invasion of privacy.

Moreover in Africa, questions like these are very sensitive as people like to keep such information private until the pregnancy becomes advanced. If one may ask, is the visa meant to be an agreement to celibacy in marriage? In my own case, I had used my American visa many times for holiday and even business before deciding to make use of the medical facilities available in the US to have my baby. I also decided to do this because I developed some complications during the pregnancy and decided to seek better health care. Why then would a consular officer overlook all the business transactions done and deny an applicant for the simple reason of having a baby in America?

Paedophile who changed his name to Michael Jackson abducted, tied up and sexually assaulted 10-year-old boy...

Paedophile: Michael Jackson abducted, tied up and sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy

 

 

Hello  Friends!

A paedophile who changed his name to Michael Jackson abducted, tied up and sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy. The 50-year-old's identity was revealed today as reporting restrictions were lifted after previous sexual offence charges against him were dropped.

Jackson, who changed his name from Albert English to impress his wife, attacked the boy as he left his home to buy a drink from a shop last December, a court has heard. The naked boy was found covered with Christmas decorations and wrapped in a sheet in Jackson's flat in Oldbury, West Midlands, following a frantic two-hour search by police and family members.

A family friend saw the boy at a window of the flat shouting for help and called police, who were able to lift the boy out. Jackson is facing an indefinite sentence for public protection after pleading guilty to the offence which sparked mass public protests in Oldbury, West Midlands, during a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court in May.

Jackson admitted charges of kidnap, sexual assault, false imprisonment and kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence in relation to the boy’s disappearance.
The former pirate radio DJ will be sentenced later this month.
He was arrested last November after the boy was found at his ground-floor flat in Bristnall Hall Road, Oldbury.

Local people and police launched a frantic search for the boy after he disappeared while walking in the street and it is thought he was held captive for more than three hours.
During a hearing on May 11, the offender, who has previous convictions for sexual assault, also pleaded guilty to abducting a 10-year-old girl in the West Midlands in September last year.

Reporting restrictions had been imposed after Jackson pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, false imprisonment and indecently assaulting a woman in Dudley in 2003. The charges were later dropped.

But Debi Gould, prosecuting, told Judge Nicholas Webb they were now no longer proceeding with those charges and the restrictions forbidding the use of Jackson's name could now be lifted.
 
Although the facts of the offences were not opened at today’s hearing, it is understood that the boy’s hands were bound before he managed to move towards a window of the flat, where he was spotted by a local woman searching for him.

Giving brief details of the offences committed against the male victim, prosecutor Debi Gould told the court: 'The second of the children that was abducted - a young boy - was trussed up, was thrust into a cupboard, and was sexually assaulted.

'They are very grave offences.'


An artist's impression of Michael Jackson at an earlier court appearance at Warley Magistrates' Court in the West Midlands.

Lowery Court in Oldbury where the boy was rescued after being kidnapped by the former radio DJ.
A court heard previously how the 10-year-old was found by mum-of-11 Jean Masih, 49, standing at the window of a nearby flat wrapped in a sheet.

His brother and aunt had called at her home at around 10.30am asking for help in finding the youngster.An hour later she was walking to nearby Tesco when she saw the boy through an open window and asked who he was.

She said the boy replied 'please help I've been kidnapped'.
Speaking at the time Miss Masih said: 'His brother told me he was missing.
'I went round to see what I could see, people were around everywhere looking.
'I looked up to this window and saw him there wrapped in a sheet.

'He said 'help me, I've been kidnapped', I ran back to get the police and they came and picked him out of the ground floor window.
'His arms looked like they were bound and he had a white sheet wrapped around his body. I asked who was in the house and he said "no-one, the man has gone and left me".
'I told him to wait and I ran to call the police from his parents house. I was really shaken up by it all.'

Debi Gould, prosecuting, said the question of dangerousness had to be a real issue in the case which could result in the imposition of an indeterminate prison term for Jackson.An indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection is reserved for particularly dangerous offenders who pose a significant risk of harm.
Jackson has made 20 previous court appearances for 70 offences, mainly burglary, theft and other dishonesty.

His ex-wife Lisa Grose, who has an A4-size cut-out of the singer Michael Jackson sitting in the kitchen of her home in Rowley Regis, West Midlands, said after a previous hearing in February : 'I haven't had anything to do with Michael since we divorced in 2000.


Micheal Jackson 50, at his wedding in 1995.


. 
Jackson, who will be sentenced later this month, was arrested last November after the boy was found at his ground-floor flat.

 
Forensics as they searched the flat at the time of the kidnapping. Christmas decorations are seen hanging in the window.

 'We got married in Birmingham in 1995. It was a low key affair with just friends and family.'But it didn't work out. My life has moved on since then.'But this has all come as a bit of a shock to say the very least.'
The incident sparked outrage amongst people living in the area and a heated demonstration outside the flats prompted the Adullam Homes Housing Association, who provide homes for vulnerable people, to rehouse all the tenants.

It also lead to the formation of the Sandwell United Parents Group who began a campaign to get better protection for children from paedophiles.
Jackson was remanded in custody until sentencing on October 29.


Culled From The Daily Mail UK.

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Simply Cheska...
 



 

Boko Haram leader warns over anti-Islam movie ...

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The suspected leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram sect, has issued a threat in a YouTube video over a US-made anti-Islam film that has sparked widespread protests in the Muslim world.

“First, insults against the prophet, evil plots against him, making blasphemous movies against him, all these will do no harm to Islam,” Abubakar Shekau says in the video which appears to have been posted on Sunday.

“Anybody plotting this will surely pay for it. Everybody knows what this statement entails. Everybody should wait and see what we will do regarding this,” he adds in the Hausa language spoken in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.

The video could not be independently authenticated, but it closely resembled previous such clips of Shekau, who has been in hiding since a 2009 crackdown by Nigeria’s military on Boko Haram.

Nigeria marked 52 years of independence from Britain on Monday, but Shekau makes no reference to it in the video.
A number of protests over the anti-Islam film have been held in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north organised by a Shiite Muslim group not connected to Boko Haram, with no violent incidents occurring.

The crudely made “Innocence of Muslims” movie, produced by US-based extremist Christians, has however sparked angry and at times violent demonstrations across the globe.
In the nine-minute video, an AK-47 assault rifle leant on the wall next to him, Shekau also threatens Nigerian authorities, says he is prepared to die and denies government assertions that there has been dialogue with his group.

He also claims the purported spokesman for Boko Haram, who goes by the alias Abul Qaqa, is still alive despite claims from Nigeria’s military that he was killed by security forces some two weeks ago.Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria is blamed for more than 1,400 deaths since 2010.

The group has claimed to be fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, though its demands have repeatedly shifted.
It is also thought to have a number of factions with varying aims, with Shekau believed to lead its main Islamist wing. Criminal gangs and imitators are believed to also have carried out violence under the guise of the group.

Nigeria’s government has claimed to have engaged in back-channel talks with the Islamists in a bid to end the violence. Shekau denied this in the video, while accusing authorities of arresting members’ wives and threatening to take revenge.

“We have never sat down with anyone in the name of dialogue … Our people are being killed and humiliated, while on the other hand people are being deceived with the issue of dialogue,” he says.
“By God, there is nothing like dialogue. They are only killing us. We will never abandon our faith because of that.”

In a message directed at Nigerian secret police officers, he says he will “slit your throat.”“I’m alive, well and hearty. Nothing has happened to me,” he says. “I’m even longing for death, you vagabond.” In June, the US State Department labeled Shekau and two other Nigerian extremists “global terrorists.”

Washington has however so far declined to label Boko Haram a terrorist organisation, saying the group did not appear homogeneous and that the threat in any case remained domestically focused.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Culled from PM News Nigeria.

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Simply Cheska...

Two die as JTF raids Boko Haram’s hideout...

 

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Two suspected members of Boko haram were killed in an early morning explosion during a raid by security operatives on a hideout of the sect near a secondary school in Gaskiya area of Zaria on Sunday.
 

Punch"s correspondent gathered that working on a tip-off, the combined forces of the military, police and the State Security Services raided the hideout of the militant group at the Gaskiya area of the city.

A source said in the process of carrying out the raid, an object, suspected to be a bomb, exploded at about 2.00am, leaving two suspects dead while 10 others were injured.
Some, including a woman, were arrested.
 Also, two policemen were killed by gunmen in Minna, Niger State on Sunday. The attackers, who shot the policemen, were said to be riding on a motorcycle.

A resident of Gaskiya, Zaria, told our correspondent that there was a gun battle between members of the sect and the security operatives for several hours.
 A lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said on condition of anonymity, that the team raided in Zaria following an intelligence report that the militant had regrouped in a hideout to plan attacks on churches on Sunday in the ancient city.

“It not a matter of normal military exercise as people are trying to paint the scenario. Actually, we heard that the joint task force got an intelligence report that the group were planning to attack some churches in the city.

“They said the raid started at about 2am or so. The person that told me is a highly placed figure in the military hierarchy,” he said.
 Our correspondent also gathered that some members of the militant group were arrested while weapons and vehicles were recovered.

The house where the operation took place, it was gathered, was also used as a bomb manufacturing base and storage of the sect.
Also, it was learnt that no fewer than seven houses and car were completely destroyed during the raid.

Culled from The Punch Nigeria.

xoxo
Simply Cheska...

Two die as JTF raids Boko Haram’s hideout...

 

Hello Friends!

Two suspected members of Boko haram were killed in an early morning explosion during a raid by security operatives on a hideout of the sect near a secondary school in Gaskiya area of Zaria on Sunday.
 

Punch's correspondent gathered that working on a tip-off, the combined forces of the military, police and the State Security Services raided the hideout of the militant group at the Gaskiya area of the city.

A source said in the process of carrying out the raid, an object, suspected to be a bomb, exploded at about 2.00am, leaving two suspects dead while 10 others were injured.
Some, including a woman, were arrested.
Also, two policemen were killed by gunmen in Minna, Niger State on Sunday. The attackers, who shot the policemen, were said to be riding on a motorcycle.

A resident of Gaskiya, Zaria, told our correspondent that there was a gun battle between members of the sect and the security operatives for several hours.
A lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said on condition of anonymity, that the team raided in Zaria following an intelligence report that the militant had regrouped in a hideout to plan attacks on churches on Sunday in the ancient city.

“It not a matter of normal military exercise as people are trying to paint the scenario. Actually, we heard that the joint task force got an intelligence report that the group were planning to attack some churches in the city.
“They said the raid started at about 2am or so. The person that told me is a highly placed figure in the military hierarchy,” he said.

Our correspondent also gathered that some members of the militant group were arrested while weapons and vehicles were recovered.
 The house where the operation took place, it was gathered, was also used as a bomb manufacturing base and storage of the sect.
 Also, it was learnt that no fewer than seven houses and car were completely destroyed during the raid.

Culled from The Punch Nigeria.

xoxo
Simply Cheska...

INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH, 1960: Nigeria stands upon firm foundations –Balewa...

Sir Abubarkar Tafawa Balewa

 

 

Hello Friends!

 

 

I find this speech very interesting indeed and although I wasn't born at this time, my parents view of the Nigeria of Old, is still my motivation that just maybe, we would go back to the basics of Our Independence...

Today is Independence Day. The first of October 1960 is a date to which for two years every Nigerian has been eagerly looking forward. At last, our great day has arrived, and Nigeria is now indeed an independent sovereign nation.

Words cannot adequately express my joy and pride at being the Nigerian citizen privileged to accept from Her Royal Highness these Constitutional Instruments which are the symbols of Nigeria’s Independence. It is a unique privilege which I shall remember for ever, and it gives me strength and courage as I dedicate my life to the service of our country.

This is a wonderful day, and it is all the more wonderful because we have awaited it with increasing impatience, compelled to watch one country after another overtaking us on the road when we had so nearly reached our goal. But now we have acquired our rightful status, and I feel sure that history will show that the building of our nation proceeded at the wisest pace: it has been thorough, and Nigeria now stands well-built upon firm foundations.

Today’s ceremony marks the culmination of a process which began fifteen years ago and has now reached a happy and successful conclusion. It is with justifiable pride that we claim the achievement of our Independence to be unparalleled in the annals of history. Each step of our constitutional advance has been purposefully and peacefully planned with full and open consultation, not only between representatives of all the various interests in Nigeria but in harmonious cooperation with the administering power which has today relinquished its authority.

At the time when our constitutional development entered upon its final phase, the emphasis was largely upon self-government. We, the elected representatives of the people of Nigeria, concentrated on proving that we were fully capable of managing our own affairs both internally and as a nation. However, we were not to be allowed the selfish luxury of focusing our interest on our own homes. In these days of rapid communications we cannot live in isolation, apart from the rest of the world, even if we wished to do so. All too soon it has become evident that for us Independence implies a great deal more than self-government. This great country, which has now emerged without bitterness or bloodshed, finds that she must at once be ready to deal with grave international issues.

This fact has of recent months been unhappily emphasised by the startling events which have occurred in this continent. I shall not labour the point but it would be unrealistic not to draw attention first to the awe-inspiring task confronting us at the very start of our nationhood. When this day in October 1960 was chosen for our Independence it seemed that we were destined to move with quiet dignity to place on the world stage. Recent events have changed the scene beyond recognition, so that we find ourselves today being tested to the utmost We are called upon immediately to show that our claims to responsible government are well-founded, and having been accepted as an indepedent state we must at once play an active part in maintaining the peace of the world and in preserving civilisation. I promise you, we shall not fail for want of determination.

And we come to this task better-equipped than many. For this, I pay tribute to the manner in which successive British Governments have gradually transferred the burden of responsibility to our shoulders. The assistance and unfailing encouragement which we have received from each Secretary of State for the Colonies and their intense personal interest in our development has immeasurably lightened that burden.

All our friends in the Colonial Office must today be proud of their handiwork and in the knowledge that they have helped to lay the foundations of a lasting friendship between our two nations. I have indeed every confidence that, based on the happy experience of a successful partnership, our future relations with the United Kingdom will be more cordial than ever, bound together, as we shall be in the Commonwealth, by a common allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, whom today we proudly acclaim as Queen of Nigeria and Head of the Commonwealth.

Time will not permit the individual mention of all those friends, many of them Nigerians, whose selfless labours have contributed to our Independence. Some have not lived to see the fulfilment of their hopes on them be peace, “but nevertheless they are remembered here, and the names of buildings and streets and roads and bridges throughout the country recall to our minds their achievements, some of them on a national scale. Others confined, perhaps, to a small area in one Division, are more humble but of equal value in the sum-total.

Today, we have with us representatives of those who have made Nigeria: Representatives of the Regional Governments, of former Central Governments, of the Missionary Societies, and of the Banking and Commercial enterprises, and members, both past and present, of the Public Service. We welcome you, and we rejoice that you have been able to come and share in our celebrations. We wish that it could have been possible for all of those whom you represent to be here today: Many, I know, will be disappointed to be absent, but if they are listening to me now, I say to them, “Thank you on behalf of my Thank you for your devoted service which helped build up Nigeria into a nation. Today we are reaping the harvest which you sowed, and the quality of the harvest is equalled only by our gratitude to you. May God bless you all.

This is an occasion when our hearts are filled with conflicting emotions: we are, indeed, proud to have achieved our independence, and proud that our efforts should have contributed to this happy event. But do not mistake our pride for arrogance. It is tempered by feelings of sincere gratitude to all who have shared in the task of developing Nigeria politically, socially and economically. We are grateful to the British officers whom we have known, first as masters, and then as leaders, and finally as partners, but always as friends. And there have been countless missionaries who have laboured unceasingly in the cause of education and to whom we owe many of our medical services. We are grateful also to those who have brought modern methods of banking and of commerce, and new industries. I wish to pay tribute to all of these people and to declare our everlasting admiration of their devotion to duty.

And, finally, I must express our gratitude to Her Royal Highness the Princess Alexandra of Kent for personally bringing to us these symbols of our freedom, and especially for delivering the gracious message from Her Majesty The Queen. And so, with the words “God save our Queen”, I open a new chapter in the history of Nigeria, and of the Commonwealth, and indeed of the world.

- The first Independence Day speech by Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister, 1960

Culled from The Punch Nigeria.

xoxo
Simply Cheska...