Why we’re killing Christians -Boko Haram

BOKO Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau said the sect would not be defeated by the security forces. The leader of Boko Haram also defended recent attacks on Christians, saying they were revenge for killings of Muslims.

In his first video message, posted on YouTube, Shekau referred to attacks on Muslims in recent years in several parts of northern Nigeria.

Boko Haram militants attacked several churches on Christmas Day, killing dozens of worshippers.

This has led to some reprisals in the mainly Christian South.

Mosques in two states have been attacked.

Thousands of people have fled their homes following the recent attacks, leading some people, including Nigeria's president and the leader of the country's main Christian organisation, to make comparisons with the 1967-70 civil war when leaders of the Igbo ethnic group tried to secede.

In the 15-minute video, Mr Shekau, wearing a red and white turban, a bulletproof vest and sitting in front of two Kalashnikov rifles, said he was responding to recent statements from President Goodluck Jonathan and the leader of the country's main Christian organisation, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

He warned President Jonathan that Nigeria's security forces would not be able to defeat the group.

President Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in some northern states but the attacks have continued.

On Tuesday night, gunmen opened fire on a bar in Yobe, killing eight people, including several police officers.

The president recently said that he suspected some officials, politicians and members of the security forces for being sympathisers of Boko Haram.

Defending the latest spate of violence, Mr Shekau referred to the killing of Muslims in places like Jos, Kaduna, Zango Kataf and Tafawa Balewa in recent years.

Some of these places have seen bitter communal clashes but they are often based on long-standing disputes over resources such as land, or are whipped up by politicians, rather than being based on religious differences.

"We are also at war with Christians because the whole world knows what they did to us," Mr Shekau said in the video, speaking in Hausa.

CAN head, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, had said on Saturday that his members would protect themselves against the attacks, which he said suggested "systematic ethnic and religious cleansing.”

On Tuesday, he told the BBC World Service that there should be dialogue with Muslim leaders to halt the violence.

Mr Shekau said the group could only hold talks with the government in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

He said the group's primary targets remained the security forces, who he said had summarily executed their former leader, Mohammed Yusuf, after he was arrested in 2009.

"Everyone has seen how we were treated. People have seen what has happened between us and armed security agents and their accomplices who give them information about us,” Mr Shekau said.

After a lull, in 2010 the group started to stage drive-by shootings on government targets in its base.

Last year, it carried out suicide bombings on high-profile targets, such as the headquarters of the UN and the police in the capital, Abuja.

The group wants to establish Sharia law in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, worried about the incessant killings of innocent citizens in the country by Boko Haram through bomb explosions, the Senate, on Wednesday, asked the Federal Government to  go after  and deal immediately with their sponsors.

The senators said they were prepared to give their lives for peace to reign in the country.

The Senate president, David Mark, made this known during his concluding remarks in a motion on the general insecurity in the country sponsored by the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and 72 others .

Mark said that “nobody is so big that is above the law in this country. If any Nigerian, irrespective of his position, is involved in sponsoring the current level of insecurity, he must be dealt with according to the law and as quickly as possible, because we did not want this to go on as it is becoming an impediment to our desire to develop our country.”

He dispelled the notion that a special ethnic group was being targeted by the islamic sect, noting that “no special group has been targeted deliberately. Those who are doing this are miscreants, misguided Nigerians, who are being sponsored obviously and if government knows who is sponsoring them, they must pick them out and deal with them once and for all, because we cannot condone it.”

The Senate president added that their activities had no religious colouration, explaining that “it  has nothing to do with religion, because all the clerics, both Christians and Muslims, have condemned the acts of these terrorists and people who are sponsors.

“ They are people who are prepared, with specific intention to destabilise this country but they will not succeed and the only way they will not succeed is when we all play our roles, the security agents, the ordinary man in the street. It is never a good reason for the level of insecurity we found ourselves today.”

He thanked all contributors to the motion, saying that their contributions were an indication of their concerns and the fearless manner in which they made their comments, noting “I know that when it comes to the issue of Boko Haram, people have been very scared sticking out their necks or even making comments. But today, we have broken that jinx and because we have been able to speak out, I hope well-meaning Nigerians will be able to join us in condemning in totality the existence and operation of Boko Haram in this country.”

He told his colleagues  that all of them received threat messages. “People send text messages, if you say this we will kill you, we are going to finish your family.

“The moment you accept a public office, your security is no more in your hands, it is in the hands of God.

“And if they want to kill all of us, 109 senators here for Nigeria to survive, we will offer our lives on a platter of gold to them. Those who received text messages, I urge them to disregard them completely because they cannot do you anything.”

Mark said that the activities of  the Islamic sect did not portray Nigerians, noting that Nigerians were a peace-loving people. We love ourselves and we love our neighbours. This idea is absolutely foreign to us, it does not represent us and we hope that it will stop,” he said.

He called on state governments to wake up to their responsibilities  in the area of security, believing that “every state has a responsibility in providing security for the people, in making sure that things don’t go wrong because the governors are the chief security officers in the states. They have a lot of responsibilities

“We have terrorism and insurgency on our hands and if we do not handle them properly, they will get out of control. We must do everything humanly possible starting with communities, local government, state level and to the federal level to make sure that we tackle this and nip it in the bud now before it gets out of control”.

He said Nigerians “must not allow history to repeat itself. What is happening now is beginning to give an impression of 1966. It must not happen again, no nation may survive two civil wars and we must never allow ourselves to degenerate into that level.”

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Islamist group leader challenges Nigeria president

The leader of a radical Islamist group has challenged the authority of Nigeria’s president in an online video, promising more attacks in a nation overcome by unrest and divided by religion, while Poland strongly condemned Wednesday recent violence targeting Christians in which 16 people have died.

“We are particularly disturbed by the fact that the difficult situation of Christians in Nigeria can be perceived in the wider context of an anti-Christian campaign in other parts of the world,” Poland’s Foreign Ministry said.

The video of Imam Abubakar Shekau cements his leadership in the group known as Boko Haram. Analysts and diplomats say the group has fractured over time, with a splinter group responsible for the majority of the assassinations and bombings carried out in its name.

It also exploits the widening mistrust those living in Nigeria’s Muslim north feel for a weak federal government run by a Christian president, who has sparked a nationwide strike and protests after removing subsidies that kept gasoline prices low.

“In the end, they said they should kill us. They kill us. They burn our houses. They burn our mosques,” Shekau says in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north. “They didn’t even leave us. Because of that, we thought, let us protect ourselves as well.”

Boko Haram, whose name in Hausa means “Western education is sacrilege,” has carried out attacks in Nigeria’s northeast and its capital that killed at least 510 people last year alone, according to an AP count. The group is blamed by the government for killing at least 63 people in the last week, as it continues its campaign to impose strict Islamic Shariah law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Shekau took control of the group after a riot and security crackdown in July 2009 saw Boko Haram’s leader and about 700 others killed. Police initially claimed to have killed Shekau during that violence in Nigeria, but he emerged last year in audio and video messages just before Boko Haram began its campaign of violence.

In the 15-minute video uploaded Tuesday to YouTube, Shekau appears relaxed, wearing a camouflage bulletproof vest and sitting between two Kalashnikov rifles. He criticized President Goodluck Jonathan for speaking out about the group and hints that the group carries much more popular support across Nigeria’s impoverished north than what authorities believe.

“All these things you’ve been seeing happening, it’s Allah who has been doing it because you refuse to believe in him and you misuse his religion and because of that, the thing is more than you, Jonathan,” Shekau says. You can “meet other people who think what we’re doing is good.”

“People are talking about us, that we are a disease, a cancer, to people in Nigeria,” Shekau says. “But we are not cancer and we are not a disease. And we are not wicked people with a bad habit. If people do not know us, Allah knows us.”

The U.S. government believes Boko Haram remains in contact with two Al-Qaeda-inspired terror groups in Africa, which could account for the increasing complexity of their attacks. The Shekau video also suggests an outside influence, copying the style of other terror groups’ messages.

Muslims and Christians largely live in peace, do business with each other and intermarry in Nigeria. However, tension over Boko Haram’s attacks have seen mosques attacked in recent weeks. Tuesday, an angry mob attacked a mosque and school in southwest Nigeria, killing at least five people.

Muslim groups also denounced Boko Haram’s violence, though many in the north are angry over the high unemployment and poverty as politicians embezzle billions of dollars of the country’s oil revenues.

Meanwhile, Ghanaian security agents seized a truckload of arms on its way to crisis-torn Nigeria and arrested five people, a senior police officer in Accra said Wednesday.

“The vehicle with Coca Cola inscription was loaded with the consignment which included pump action guns, double-barrel guns and a large quantity of cartridges,” Accra Regional Police Commander Rose Bio Atinga told AFP.

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Halt Igbo killings in the North, Kalu tells northerners

Former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, has decried recent killings of southerners and Christians in some parts of the North, declaring that such acts of violence are unacceptable.

Kalu, in a statement on Tuesday, said that he could no longer remain silent on such an issue, especially in the face of undue silence by some relevant segments of the society.

He said:  “It is unacceptable that whenever there is any disagreement or crisis of any sort in this country, the Igbos are targeted, whether the issue at stake concerns them or not. Whether the recent bombings and slaughters in churches are attributable to the hatred of western education or making the country ungovernable for the president, or even the alleged quest for revenge by the sect involved for the alleged extra-judicial killing of its leader, none of these issues has anything to do with the Igbos.

“It is beyond sheer coincidence that most of the killings are in churches attended predominantly by the Igbos. And the victims are innocent Ndigbo who know nothing of and are in no way connected with the issues for which they are being killed.”

He stated that he had watched “with extreme sadness” recent developments leading to the killing of some Nigerians of Igbo and Southern extraction in parts of the North.

He further stated: “The Igbos, as a group, have paid dearly for the unity of this country, and despite the pogrom that preceded the civil war, and the genocide against them during the civil war, they have continued to believe in and practically work for the unity of this country, settling in and developing the economies of all parts of this country despite the continued marginalisation and balkanisation of their region. Everywhere you go, you see the Igbos. We are the salt of the nation.

“Everyday, Igbo people in the North are now being slaughtered in huge numbers, and the Federal Government appears clueless, helpless and incapable of coming to the defence of these citizens. Unfortunately too, Northern political leaders have made statements and interventions — at levels that further question  the essence and founding vision of one Nigeria — notwithstanding the obnoxious dimension of carrying out such killings in holy places of worship.”

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Youth minister cautions security operatives

The Minister of Youth Development and Acting Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has urged security agents to exercise utmost restraint in the ongoing protests.

The minister observed that the excessive use of force by some security agents, which had led to the death of few young Nigerians and caused injuries to some others, was very unfortunate and regrettable.

He added that the right to protest was fundamental in a democracy, therefore, policemen and other security agents had a responsibility to protect this right.

Mallam Abdullahi, however, said that while democracy allowed such a right, it should be exercised with utmost responsibility.

He, therefore, called on the youth to be careful and not allow political opportunists to exploit their genuine grievances to destabilise the country.

He said that the government recognised that the youth would be affected by the removal of fuel subsidy and that was why a major component of the Subsidy Re-investments and Empowerment (SURE) programme was targeted at the youth, who would also be represented in the committee set up by the government to manage the programme that was estimated to deliver 370,000 jobs to the youths across the country.

He appeals to the youths to give the government a chance while urging them to take full advantage of the provision made for them under the SURE programme.

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Ministers stranded as protest shut down Abuja

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday shut down the nation’s capital in protest against the removal of fuel subsidy.

Ministers and top government officials were stranded as they had to attend to issues personally.

Workers stayed away from offices; all filling stations, markets, shops and other businesses were closed.

Despite the presence of about 15,000 policemen, workers, led by the National President of the NLC, Abdulwaheed Omar and the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele, converged on Julius Berger Roundabout in the Federal Capital Territory at about 8am for the mass protest.

In the presence of armed policemen and soldiers, the protesters sang solidarity songs and danced to the tunes of the late Afro-maestro music, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

But the five-hour mass action was peaceful although workers were restricted to some routes.

Although some of the protesters had mounted an emergency settlement opposite the Eagle Square at about 6.30pm on Sunday with their tents and blankets, the police and other security agencies disallowed them from gaining access to the place.

It was gathered that at about 3am yesterday, security agencies came to evacuate the protesters.

The Square was cordoned off by armoured vehicles and security agencies to prevent workers from accessng it.

The siege, however, did not deter the protesters from marching on Zone 5, Zone 6, Wuse Market to the AP Plaza in Wuse II.

The highpoint of the rally was the involvement of some past and present members of the House of Representatives, women in purdah, and physically challenged persons on wheel chair and roller skates.

Others who participated were lecturers, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), civil society groups and power bike riders.

Some of those at the procession were the NLC General Secretary, Owei Lakemfa; ace activist Prof. Toye Olorode; a pop star, Charly Boy; a member of the Police Service Commission, Dr. Otive Igbuzor; the National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, Osita Okechukwu; Clement Nwankwo; Ezenwa Nwangwu; the President of Human Rights Writers Association, Emmanuel Onwubiko; the President of the National Youth Council, Comrade Ajani ; a human rights activist, Kayode Ajulo; Tunde Aremu and a former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lanre Ogundipe.

The lawmakers who took part in the protest were Dino Melaye; Abdulmumuni Jibrin; Bamidele Opeyemi; Patrick Obahiagbon; Aminu Suleiman; and Babale Musa.

One of them said the House members who took part in the strike action were up to 50.

The star of the procession was Obahiagbon, whose grammatical bombshell and coinage enlivened the protest amid shouts of “we want more, we want more.”

The protesters wielded many placards with the following inscriptions: “Nigeria is not Animal Farm, it is our right to protest”; “Jonathan: Fight insecurity and corruption, our refineries must work now”; President Goodluck, is this your type of fresh air”; “Subsidy removal, a crime on Nigerians” ; “One day, the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich” ; “Security, stable power supply, good roads, education, job creation, affordable housing, not fuel price increase”; “We reject IMF/World Bank neo-liberal policies”; “Socialist Workers League: No to fuel price hike, revolution now”; and “Everyday for government, one day for its people” among others.

But at a stop over rally in Wuse Market at about 10.27am, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, asked Nigerians to prepare for a long drawn strike.

He said: “Comrades, we are not going to talk too much. But the message is that Nigerians are saying no to fuel price increase. What organized labour and civil society coalition are saying is that we must revert back to N65.

“Mr. President addressed the nation and in his address which of course was an emergency, he announced a reduction of 25 per cent of the basic salary of political office holders. Comrades, the President is the highest political office holder in Nigeria. His basic salary per annum is N3.5million. Alright if you reduce 25 per cent from N3.5million that means you are reducing about N650, 000.

“Comrades, let us assume that there are 1000 or 10,000 other political office holders in Nigeria. N650, 000 times 10,000 is only a paltry N65million. Comrades, the President’s entertainment alone as provided in this year’s proposed budget is N1billion. “The provision for travels by Mr. President this year is N10billion. If you replicate all these in the same proportion in the states, what we are saying is that that is not what the government don’t want. And if that reduction is done will it have any effect on the price of commercial vehicles? Will it have any effect on the goods we buy?

“Therefore the only solution is that you revert back to N65. Comrades, another thing about the issue of the fuel subsidy, we have been saying it that what was appropriated was N260billion last year. How come government will continue to claim that they have spent over N1.3trillion?

“Now there are two things that come up here: it is either somebody is telling lies that such money was not spent at all or that they spent the money illegally because any monies that should be spent especially in that quantum must be appropriated by the National Assembly.

“The National Assembly members have said that they have not appropriated such money. That means even the expenditure on purported fuel subsidy is illegal.

“Comrades, what we are saying is that even if government claims that they have spent N1.3trillion and that they cannot do it, why must it be that it is only removal of subsidy that would be the solution? Why don’t they go after those who have collected the money illegally?

“Comrades, I must say that in the last two days we have seen men and women of integrity in this country in the name of members of the House of Representatives especially. They defied all instructions, all entreaties, all threats that they must not reconvene but because they are close to the people, they could feel the pinch of the people they decided they must convene and take decision.

“And yesterday afternoon, they took a resolution calling on the Executive to revert back to N65 per litre. Comrades, this is a very patriotic thing and we commend the members of the House of Representatives. We also call on the Senate to also do the same thing. “Comrades, you know that some of our colleagues, even some honourable members were arrested on ‘orders from above’ that they should be arrested simply because they are coming out on the streets to express their grievances. I mean Hon Dino Melaye and co. What people do not know is that this thing is only making them heroes.

“We will continue the struggle. Comrades, like my colleague has just mentioned, we have a track record of very peace protest rallies and we must maintain that. We must not give anybody any chance to have reason of security to disperse us. We are harmless. Nobody should attack us.






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Boko Haram: Group warns Northerners to leave N/Delta

Niger Delta Indigenous Movement For Radical Change, NDIMRC, yesterday issued a 21-day ultimatum to Northerners to quit the oil-rich region.

According to a statement by its President, Nelly Emma, Secretary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer, Mukoro Stanley, the group described as senseless the killings of Christians in the North by Boko Haram and ordered all Northerners in the South, West and East of the country to return home within 21 days or face reprisal attacks.

The group said: ‘’We want to make it known to the Sultan of Sokoto and other Northern leaders that we are aware of their game plan to frustrate President Jonathan. The President is a nice man; if not a lot of people would have been killed by now as the late President Musa Yar’Adua did in the Niger Delta region by killing innocent people of Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State.”

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FG ignores labour over strike, protest •We have not been contacted -Omar, Esele, Lakemfa •INEC shifts Adamawa governorship election to Jan. 21

DESPITE the huge success of the on-going strike and mass protests against fuel subsidy removal and the killings that have attended the protests, the Federal Government has ignored labour and its civil society allies.

The Federal Government had set up a committee headed by Justice Alfa Belgore (retd)  to meet with labour on the crisis even before the strike and mass protests started on Monday, but till last night, neither the Federal Government nor the committee had contacted labour.

The NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, the TUC President, Comrade Peter Esele and the NLC Acting General Secretary, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, told Nigerian Tribune on Tuesday that the government had not contacted them since the protest started.

Besides the Senate president, Senator David Mark and the Senate leadership who met the labour leadership late Monday night at the Apo residence of the Senate president, no effort has been made by the presidency or his committee to contact labour.

However, labour has insisted that it would not meet for any form of dialogue with the Federal Government or its committee on the issue without returning to a status quo.

Comrade Omar said labour would not go into any negotiation without reversing the fuel price to N65 per litre first, adding that that is the only condition to meet with government, stop the mass protest and call off the strike.

He insisted that there is no going back except the government reversed the pump price to N65 per litre, declaring that there will be no retreat, no surrender.

Omar reiterated that the aim of the protests and the strike was to get oil price reversed to N65.

He said: “The aim of the protests is for government to reverse this very obnoxious policy of fuel subsidy removal and petroleum price increase that is imposed on Nigerians. We must get it reversed. Everybody is calling on us to call off the strike and we said no, the only condition is for government to first reverse to N65 per litre. If they reverse, we will also reverse and call off the strike and mass protests.

“No government can stay the way they are staying right now for a long time; it is only a matter of time.”

Comrade Esele said: “We came out in support of N65 per litre. It is our responsibility to make sure that this is achieve. Some people say we should go and see Jonathan but what differences can that make. Unless the price is reversed, we are not calling off the strike or stopping the mass protest. As I said earlier, there is no negotiation until the first demand, which is the reversal to N65 per litre by the government is met.”

Comrade Lakemfa said: “We see these stories of meetings with the Federal Government as mischievous and part of government’s strategy to break the fuel hike protest.

“We restate categorically that the Labour Movement has no intention to hold any discussion with the Federal Government or any of its officials on the issue of increases in petrol prices until the price is reverted to N65 per litre to allow for a level playing field.”

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the Adamawa governorship election slated for January 14, to January 21.

The INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, said in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday that the election was postponed because of the prevailing situation in Adamawa State.

Jega said that the decision was taken after due consultations with relevant stakeholders in the state.

He said: “The governorship election will now hold on Saturday, January 21,  instead of January 14, as earlier scheduled.

“INEC reassures all Nigerians, and Adamawa residents in particular, of its determination to conduct free, fair and credible election in the state.”

Jega said that INEC was working very closely with all stakeholders, including security agencies, to ensure a conducive environment for the conduct of the election.

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Cleric assures of Muslims’ support for anti-subsidy protest

Following calls on Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the organised labour to shelve today’s strike, Conference of Islamic Organisations, CIO, has insisted that the strike should go ahead.

Mufti of the organisation, Sheikh Dhikrullahi Shafi’i also condemned the Nigerian Police over attacks on protesters in last week’s protests across the country.

Speaking, yesterday, during a special programme in Lagos, the cleric said the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has followed the line of honour by planning the strike action to protest the increase on fuel pump price.

Sheikh Shafi’i wondered why security agency would want to abort the protest considered worldwide as a civilised way of expressing views against government’s policy.

He said: “I think stopping protesters is an affront on Nigerians.”

He assured the Abdulwahed Omar-led NLC and members of civil societies coalition of the support of the thousands of Muslims who gathered for the lecture. The Islamic cleric urged Nigerians to ensure that the protests were peaceful and devoid of any activity that could turn it to violence.

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Nigeria sliding towards civil war: Soyinka

Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka warned yesterday that his country was heading towards a civil war, blaming political leaders who spread religious intolerance.

His comments came as five people were killed when a mob attacked a mosque in the southwestern city of Benin, forcing about 3000 Muslims to flee the area.

An aid worker, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, told Reuters the mosque was attacked yesterday during nationwide protests at a hike in fuel prices.

Asked whether he agreed with President Goodluck Jonathan that the current unrest was worse than the 1960s civil war, Soyinka told the BBC World Service yesterday: "It's not an unrealistic comparison - it's certainly based on many similarities. We see the nation heading towards a civil war."

Soyinka was also asked whether the unrest threatened the state of Nigeria itself, and replied: "It is going that way. We no longer can pretend it's not.

"When you've got a situation where a bunch of people can go into a place of worship and open fire through the windows, you've reached a certain dismal watershed in the life of that nation."

Soyinka said the issues raised by Islamist group Boko Haram, which was blamed for violence targeting Christians in the north of Nigeria and has sparked fears of a wider religious conflict, had been brewing for some time.

"There are people in power in certain parts of the country, leaders, who quite genuinely and authoritatively hate and cannot tolerate any religion outside their own," he said.

Soyinka, a dramatist and essayist, became Africa's first Nobel laureate in literature when he won the prize in 1986.

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AGF appeals to workers to embrace peace

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Mohammed Adoke, has expressed dismay that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress TUC have refused to join issues with the government in the judicial process and other peaceful initiatives.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the attorney-general reiterated that the order of the National Industrial Court (NIC) was a subsisting order and the continuing disregard of that order was inimical to the public interest, as it constituted an open invitation to anarchy.

He stated that the current strike by the organised labour, which had prevented the legitimate pursuit of economic activities across the country in defiance of a valid subsisting order of a superior court of record, transgressed the parameters set by the constitution and extant laws.

He called on the NLC/ TUC to respect the order of the National Industrial Court and engage the government in a constructive dialogue with a view to addressing hardship arising from the deregulation in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

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Nigeria unrest: Mosque attacked in Benin City

A mosque and Islamic school have been attacked and set alight in the southern Nigerian city of Benin, police say.

A Nigerian Red Cross spokesman told the BBC that five people had been killed and six injured.

It follows a separate attack on a different mosque in the city on Monday.

In recent weeks, southerners, who are mostly Christians or animists, have been the targets of deadly attacks by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which operates in the mainly Muslim north.

A leader of the Hausa community in Benin told the BBC's Hausa Service that 7,000 northerners were seeking refuge in police and army barracks in the city.

The Nigerian Red Cross confirmed to the BBC that they were registering northerners at police stations and army barracks.

Spiral of violence

Two cars at the centre housing the mosque and Islamic school were also torched, police said.

The attack is the latest in a spiral of sectarian violence that has seen many southerners living in the north flee their homes.

The BBC's Naziru Mikailu in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, said the latest violence started in Benin on Monday when a group attacked a mosque, leaving 10 people injured.

Then, in Gusau, capital of northern Zamfara state, youths attacked a church. Police made 19 arrests, our reporter says.

Back in Benin on Tuesday, a mosque and Islamic centre were attacked and set alight in a different area from Monday's attack. Police told the BBC that 10 people had been arrested.

A group of youths tried to attack a Hausa community leader's house but it was defended by Hausa youths and the police then intervened, our reporter says.

Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka blamed the violence of recent months on leaders who put their own religion above national unity. He said the situation was not dissimilar to the one that existed before the last civil war that erupted in Biafra in the 1960s.

"We see the nation heading towards civil war. We know that the civil war was preceded by problems - serious killings on both sides of the regional divide," he told the BBC.

"When you get a situation when a bunch of people can go into a place of worship and open fire through the windows you've reached a certain dismal watershed in the life of that nation.

"There's no question at all, whatsoever. Those who have created this faceless army have lost control of that army."

The latest unrest comes on the second day of a general strike over the removal of a fuel subsidy.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in many cities in protest about the doubling of the price of petrol since the beginning of the year. Six people died in the unrest on Monday.

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Ex-governors lead petrol subsidy protests in Kaduna

Kaduna grinded to a halt on Monday as thousands of people joined labour leaders and civil society groups to protest the removal of subsidy on petrol by the government, demanding the immediate resignation of President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Arch Mohammed Namadi Sambo.
Two former governors of the state, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa and Col.Hameed Ali joined civil rights activist, Shehu Sani, President of the Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria, Tajudeen Oladoja, members of the Kaduna branch of the Nigeria Bar Association, the Nigeria Union of Journalists among others to march on the streets of Kaduna with full police escorts.
However, around mid-day, palpable tension started building up around the Sir Kashim Ibrahim house (Government House) as some protesters defiled the directive of the Nigeria Labour Congress to return to their house and prepare for the second day of the protest, insisting on entering the government house.
Anti riot police men and other security operatives at the government house were said to have fired tear gas to disperse them, but they soon returned and refused to listen the plea by the NLC leaders to leave the place.
From the NLC secretariat to the Lugard Hall roundabout which has been renamed Unity and Freedom Square by the protesters, the police led the protesters which continued to grow every second.
The protesters carried placards with the inscriptions - “Ebele Haram; Jonathan Haram, Back luck Jonathan, “Jonathan is worse than Boko Haram,” “Jonathan is the leader of Boko Haram, fuel subsidy must be reversed”.
Others read “give us better education and health, “Jonathan and Sambo must go,” “Boko Haram kills in hundreds, but Jonathan kills in millions and bamaso, bamaso (meaning we don’t want).”
 They matched peacefully through independent way to the state House of Assembly leading to the Lugard Hall roundabout and were joined by others who came in their number from Kawo, Rigassa, Tudun Wada and other parts of the metropolis.



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OBJ calls for religious harmony

Nigerians have been admonished to learn to live together in peace, devoid of any religious acrimony, no matter the level of their grievances.

Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, said this in Yola, on Monday, while addressing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faithful at the grand finale campaign of Governor Murtala Nyako seeking re-election in the Saturday governorship election.

He said since both religions preach peace, and by the strict adherences to the tenets of both religions, he suggested a situation whereby Muslims would form a guard at churches when Christians were worshiping, while Christians too formed the guard at mosques while Muslims were worshiping.

Chief Obasanjo said he had every reason to be grateful to God, because the candidate he sold to the people five years ago, in the person of Governor Murtala Nyako, had performed creditably well to deserve a second term in office.

Obasanjo also condemned the killings last weekend in the state, stating that Adamawa was noted for peace, wondering why disgruntled, wicked and “heartless persons would shed the blood of the innocent.”

He urged the people of the state not to attempt to change the present governor of the state, saying “there is no value in changing a winning horse in a race. Here we have a horse asking for mandate to carry on to do even better than before.”

Also, speaking at the event, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar assured that from that day to Saturday, “we shall do everything possible that PDP wins the election, because everybody is now a full member of the PDP, as there are no more fringe members but solid members of the PDP.”

He said the commitment was multi-party , saying all the political parties in the state would all vote Nyako.

Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, charged the people of the state to come out on Saturday and vote the PDP. He later presented the party’s flag to Governor Nyako and formally presented him to the people of the state as the party’s standard-bearer on Saturday election.

The grand finale campaign rally had in attendance, Governor Dambaba Suntai, top members of the PDP in the like of the incumbent Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourale Aminu Tambunal and his deputy, Alhaji Kawu Daraje, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Professor Rufai Alkali, and former speaker, Alhaji Ghali Umar Na’abba, among others

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Subsidy Removal Protests in Pictures

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Two Protesters Killed in Lagos

A team of policemen in Rapid Respond Squad (RRS) patrol van yesterday in Lagos shot and killed two persons, and wounded three others who were playing street football on Yaya Abatan Street at Ogba.


The deceased simply identified as Demola was said to be gearing up to play football match alongside other friends on Yaya Abatan street in Ogba area of Lagos state when the police DPO identified as Segun allegedly opened fire on him.





The other three affected persons are Idara, Samuel Ebujoi and Abubakiri Alimi. They were first taken to Ifako-General hospital, Ifako-Agege. But the critical state of the victims, all of whom were shot on their legs and arms were referred to another hospital, County Hospital, Ogba.


Witnesses said the RRS squad attempted to disperse the young teenagers who had gathered at the junction of their street to show their support for the labour strike action. They fired shots in the air and on the ground and in the process, stray bullets hit Demola and four bystanders, killing Demola instantly.


Abubakiri Alimi died shortly after he was admitted for treatment at County hospital, about 60 metres away from the playing ground.


"We were just standing by, waiting to participate in the football match going on when a police patrol van from Area "G" police station stormed the area. The DPO, whom we were able to identify as Segun was the one that led the shooting as I talk to you, one of the five of us shot, Demola has been confirmed dead," Ebujoi said.


At Area "G" Police station, hundreds of angry youth protesters were chanting war songs as they pushed Demola's body in a cart to the gate of the police station. The corpse was stripped of his cloth while his lifeless body showed that he was actually shot at the thigh.


Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim has ordered the immediate dismissal of a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) attached to the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly killing a protester at Ogba area of Ikeja.


The CSP who was identified as the DPO in charge of Pen Cinema Police Division, Mr. Segun Olubumi, allegedly fired at some protesters at Ogba, killing one of them in the process while the second victim died at the County Hospital where he was receiving treatment.



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Eminent political leaders intervene in national crisis

Amidst general mass action in the country against the removal of fuel subsidy as well as the worsening security situation in Nigeria, the National Consensus Group of Progressive Political Leaders has announced its decision to convene an emergency national summit on the state of the nation in collaboration with the National Summit Group led by Professor Pat Utomi

At a crucial parley hosted by Dr Tunji Braithwaite on Monday in Lagos, the leaders of the group endorsed the proposed national summit as a strategic means of urgently intervening in the crisis currently rocking the country before it degenerated into a full blown civil war between northern and southern Nigeria

The leaders, who met behind closed doors for two hours before admitting journalists into the venue said “the insurgency of the Boko Haram bombers as well as the unilateral hike in the price of fuel by government by over 120 per cent has exacerbated the instability in the country, compelling the immediate convocation of Nigeria’s peoples’ Conference to renegotiate Nigeria’s corporate existence and it governance structure.”

Addressing the gathering, Dr Tunji Braithwaite, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu and Professor  Pat Utomi, all expressed optimism that the summit slated for next week in Lagos, would help to articulate and give direction to the aspirations of the Nigerian people.

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Bayelsans shun oil subsidy removal protest

Against the back-drop of mass action staged on Monday, by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress [TUC] and other industrial unions to kick against the removal of the oil subsidy nationwide, Bayelsans shunned entreaties by the civil society group to participate in the street protest.

Normal business activities resumed on Monday on the streets of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State as everybody went about their socio-economic activities, with private and commercial vehicles plying the streets, while markets opened for sales, ignoring the call to boycott the stay at home order.

Investigation conducted by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that leaders of the civil society groups, including the Civil Liberty Organisation [CLO], NLC and rights activists were disappointed as residents chose to stay at home instead of coming out in solidarity to participate in the nationwide protest aimed at denouncing the oil subsidy removal.

Some of the filling stations visited by our correspondent were busy selling fuel to cars and motorcycles at the rate of N140 or N145 per litre.

As a result of the development, civil society groups and their leaders, who had converged on Opolo, the take off point, in Yenagoa, as early as 7.00am had to relocate to the premises of the Nigeria Union of Journalists [NUJ], Bayelsa State chapter, on Ekeki, where they addressed a press conference, calling on the Federal Government to revert to the N65 per litre pump price of petrol.

Addressing the newsmen over issue, on behalf of the civil society groups,  the Vice Chairman of CLO in Bayelsa State, Mr Williams-Odonmini Flint, decried the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to remove the oil subsidy, without considering its implications on the common man, in terms of arbitrary increase in the prices of goods and commodity.

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Catholic bishop leads protest in Ekiti

The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti, Bishop Felix Femi Ajakaye, donned the cassock to lead anti-subsidy removal protest in Ado-Ekiti, capital of Ekiti State, yesterday.

The Bishop marched with protesters who took off from Ajilosun through Okeyinmi and Ojumoshe,  and stopped at Fajuyi Park.

He and a coalition of labour/civil groups addressed protesters.

The protest was peaceful, although there were bonfires on Fajuyi-Adebayo Road and Danimo-StadiumRoad, where some youths converted the roads to football fields.

Ajakaye said President Goodluck Jonathan was running a government of deceit.

He said: “We expected Mr President to react briskly to the security challenges in the nation, the same way he quickly removed the oil subsidy and we urge him to use the money being used to finance pro-subsidy campaign to transform Nigeria.

“I am a Nigerian and I am interested in the Nigerian project. I can’t fold my arms because I am a Bishop and allow my people to suffer.

“We need to be visionaries and pursue causes that would not make Nigeria  fall apart

“The power of the people is mightier than any government. It is sad that our leaders don’t have listening ears. President Jonathan said he did not have shoes and he is trying to take our pairs of slippers off our legs.

“As much as I support that there should be no war in our dear nation, this policy is worse than a civil war, but with one voice we shall surely overcome.”

Also, State chairmen of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) Ayodele Aluko and Kolawole Olaiya and leaders of other civil society groups and trade unions addressed the gathering.

Others who spoke included Mrs Aduke Seriki (Council of Iya Lojas), Dr Ayan Adeleke, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Tope Agunbiade (Save Nigeria Group/Campaign for Democracy), Dr Wole Ogundipe (Nigeria Medical Association) and Adeolu Oyebode (students’ representative).

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