General Buhari bares it all in an exclusive interview with The Sun

Buhari bares it all
•I won’t forget what IBB did to me, although I’ve forgiven him
•I’ve not forgiven Obasanjo
•My civil war experiences
•No regret shooting cocaine pushers

 It's a very long interview so be prepared..:-). See it after the cut...

 

Ever since the Supreme Court ruled on the 2011 presidential election, former Head of State and candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari, has always refused to grant an elaborate interview on his experiences and feelings.
However, on the auspicious occasion of his 70th birthday, Buhari has finally spoken. In an exclusive interview with Saturday Sun, he talked about his growing up days, experiences in the Army, his emergence as head of state when he never participated in any coup, the 1966 coup and the counter-coup, the General Ibrahim Babangida coup that swept him out of office, the execution of cocaine traffickers, Decree 4 and the controversial ‘53 suitcases’ that allegedly came into the country during his government.
He also spoke about his relationship with General Babangida, who he said he had forgiven, although he would not forget what he did to him and his plan for the 2015 elections, among others.
Excerpts:
What kind of childhood did you have?
Well, from my father’s side, we are Fulanis. You know the Fulanis are really divided into two. There are nomads, the ones that if you drive from Maiduguri and many parts of the North you will find. They are even in parts of Delta now. And there are those who settled. They are cousins and the same people actually. From my mother’s side and on her father’s side, we are Kanuris from Kukawa.
Where’s Kukawa?
Kukawa is in Borno State. We are Kanuris. On her mother’s side, we are Hausas. So, you can see I am Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri combined (he laughs). I am the 23rd child of my father. Twenty-third and the 13th on my mother side. There are only two of us remaining now; my sister and I. I went to school, primary school, in Daura and Kaduna, also a primary school, in Kachia. I also attended Kaduna Provincial Secondary School, now Government College. I didn’t work for a day. I joined the military in 1962.
You mean as a boy soldier?
No, after school certificate. There was an officer cadet school from here in Kaduna, called Nigeria Military Training College then. In April 1962, I went to the United Kingdom (UK), Mons Officers Cadet School.
You mean the famous Mons Officers…?
Yes. And when I was commissioned, I came back and I was posted to 2nd Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta. That was my first posting. The battalion was in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I went there. When I came back from there, I was first in Lagos, as Transport Officer. That was where I was till the January coup. I was posted back to my battalion and we were posted to Kaduna here. And then, there was a counter coup, civil war, coup and counter-coup. We participated. I too was overthrown and detained for more than three years. And having had that major political setback when I was made a head of state and then, ended up in detention, I went out and eventually, I decided to join party politics, participated three times and lost as presidential candidate and I am still in and fighting.
You have never given up?
Even though I said at some stage that I wouldn’t present myself for candidature again, I said I remain in party politics as long as I have breath in me.
Your Excellency, why did you join the Army?
The interest was built while I was in secondary school. The emirs of Katsina, from Dikko, were known to be interested in the military. They always have members of the military or police in their family right from World War 11. One of the emirs of Kaduna-Dikko died in Burma. And of course, everybody in the country knows General Hassan, the son of the Emir of Katsina. He was grandson of Emir Dukko. So, when General Hassan was in Sandhurst, we were in secondary school in Kaduna. His father, the Emir of Katsina, Usman Nagogo, used to ask him to go and talk to the senior students who were in form four to six, to get them interested in the military. And we were told that he deliberately wanted a military cadet unit in Kaduna Secondary School. Then, it was limited to Federal Government Colleges or Government Colleges and we had a military cadet unit, which I joined.
That was the transition?
That was where the interest started.
Did your parents object to it?
No. Well, I didn’t know my father really.
Oh! How old were you when he died?
I think I was about three, four years? I couldn’t remember his face. The only thing I could recall about my father was the horse because it threw me down. We were on the horse with one of my half brothers going to water it and then, it tripped and I fell. It stepped on me. So, that is the only impression I have of him. That is the only thing I could recall.
What of your mother?
Oh! my mother died in 1988 when I was in detention.
Ok, I remember then the controversy of allowing you to go and see her buried. Did they eventually allow you?
No.
Then it was quite an issue …
Yeah, it became an issue; so I was immediately released after she was buried.
You didn’t see her buried?
No.
It was after you were released you then went to her grave and all that?
Exactly!
What kind of childhood did you then have?
Well, you know communities then were living communal life. Clearly, I could recall I reared cattle. We had cattle; we had sheep and then, there was good neighbourhood. Not many children had the opportunity to go to school, but I went to school. I left home at the age of 10 or 11 and went to school, like I said. And I was in the boarding school for nine years. In primary school and secondary school, I was in the boarding house and from there, I went straight into the Army.
So, you have always been on your own?
In those days, there were not many schools and the teachers then were professionals. They were working teachers and were committed. And teachers then treated the children as if they were their own students. You were made to work and if you don’t, they never spared the cane really. So, I was lucky to be in the boarding school for my impressionable years, nine years. I was very lucky.
Did you play any pranks as a young person?
Oh, certainly!
What where the things you did?
(Laughs) I wouldn’t like to mention them.
Tell us some of them…
We used to raid the emir’s orchard for mangoes mainly. Of course, unfortunately we were caught and punished.
When people talk of Buhari today, they are looking at a disciplined man. Was it the boarding house that put you through that or the military? Was the boarding house part of where you got your Spartan, disciplined life?
Both did. As I told you, the teachers then treated their students as if they were their own children. So, we got the best of attention from teachers. And as I told you, they never spared the cane. You were meant to do your homework; you were meant to do the sports and clean up the environment, the compound and the area of the school and so on. And from that type of life, I moved into the military, the military of that time.
Would you say going into the military was the best thing that ever happened to you?
I think so, because from primary to secondary school and in the military, it will continue, both the academic and the physical one. I think it was so tough, but then, once it was inbuilt, it has to be sustained because you don’t contemplate failure.
You just succeed? Does it mean failure was not an option?
No. It was not.
Was it also the Fulani training of perseverance? Because when you have reared cattle, for those who have been doing it, they said it toughens you…
It did.
The sun is there, the rain and you are there with your cattle…
The period was remarkable, in the sense that those who are brought up in the city have limited space. If you are in a confined school, you learn from the school and what you see immediately. But the nomad life exposes you to nature. You will never learn enough of plants, of trees, of insects and of animals. Everyday you are learning something.
You have seen them and everyday you are learning. You will never know all of them. So, it is so vast that it takes a lot of whatever you can think of. And then, the difference again in the environment. In the Savannah, in the Sahel, after harvest, you can always see as high as your eyes can go. And then, at night when there is moon, it is fantastic. So, I enjoyed those days and they made a lasting impression in me.

What are the remarkable things you can think of during your military trainings?
Initially, from here in Kaduna, at the end of your training, the height of the field exercise was then conducted in two places. Here in southern Kaduna and somewhere in Kachia area. There was a thick belt in that forest. You go for field firing and so on. And then you go to Jos for map reading and endurance. That was why mathematics at that level, the secondary school level, geometry and algebra, were absolutely necessary. It had always been, because to be a competent officer, you may be deployed to be in charge of artillery; physics, where you help find your position. Wherever you are from, you work it on the ground in degrees and so on. You have to do some mathematics.
We were in Jos. Again, I was made a leader of a small unit. We were given a map, a compass and you dare not cheat. If you are found out, you are taken 10 miles back. So, you have to go across the country. You find your way from the map; you go to certain points and on those points, mostly hills, you climb them and you will get a box. The weather there is cold. You put your own coat and you cover it over the hills and at the end of the exercise, part of your scorecards, are those marks you won or you lost. We arrived with one compass, which led us to a certain bushy hill.
In Jos?
Yes, in Jos. And it was night, dark and it was raining lightly and definitely, our compass led us to that hill, which means there was a point there. And there were five of us: myself, one Sierra Leonean or Ghanaian, one from Sokoto, and one other. I think the other person is Katsina Alu, the former Chief Justice.
You mean he was in the military?
He was. He did the training but he was never commissioned. He went to university and did Law. I went up to the hill. I picked the box. I copied the code, and I said if I were forced to join the Army, I would have left the following day because that place, a viper or a snake or something or hyena or lion could have finished me. But I said if I run away the following day, people would say well we knew you couldn’t make it, we knew you would be lazy. But because I voluntarily joined the Army, I said I have to be there. That is one point. The second one was when I was in training in the UK. I came there and we were drilled so much and at night again, we were on an exercise. We were putting our formation. In anyway position was created, and they fired at us. We went down automatically that day and by the time the commander asked us to move, I fell asleep. It must be few seconds, not up to a minute. That was how exhausted I was.
Was it really the cold or what?
It was cold. It was 1962. It was cold and it was rainy again just like in Plateau. Just between the time we went down and to move and climb the mountain, I fell asleep. So, those two moments, I would never forget them.
Who were your classmates in the military and in the officers’ training in the UK?
Well, the late Gen. Yar’Adua. I was together with him throughout the nine years primary, secondary school and in the military.
So, you have always been colleagues…?
We were together from childhood.
Ok, that is interesting. Who else?
Well, not the ones that are here. In the military, most of them did not reach the position I reached; myself, and Yar’Adua. They couldn’t make it.
Why did you choose the infantry and not the other arms? What was the attraction?
Maybe it was the training of the cadet unit in secondary school. I found the infantry much more challenging and when we were doing the training, the Federal Government decided that we were going to have the Air Force. So, I was invited. A team came from the Ministry of Defence to interview cadets that wanted to be fighter pilots in the Air Force. I was the first to be called in our group. I appeared before them and they told me that those who could pass the interview would be recommended to go to the Air Force training either in the UK, some went to Ethiopia or United States or Germany. So, they asked me whether I wanted to be a fighter pilot and I said no. They asked why, and I said I wasn’t interested. We were given three choices. Number one, maybe you went to infantry; number two, you went to reconnaissance then before they became armour and later, maybe artillery. So, all my three choices, I could recall vividly, I put infantry, infantry. So, they said why? I said because I liked infantry. And they asked if I wouldn’t like to be a fighter pilot. I said no, I didn’t want to join them. They said why. I said I hadn’t done physics. Normally, I did some mathematics but to be a fighter pilot, you must do some physics. They said no, that it was no problem, that I could have an additional one academic year. So, since I had some mathematics background, it was just one year purely to do physics and I would reach the grade required to be a pilot. I said no, I didn’t want it. They again asked why. I told them I chose infantry. The reason is: when I am fighting and I was shot at, if I was not hit, I can go down, turn back and take off by foot. They laughed and sent me out. So, I remained infantry officer.
Where were you during the coups and counter-coups? And what rank were you in the military then?
I was in Lagos, in the barracks, as transport officer. I was only a second lieutenant.
That was during the January 15, 1966 coup?
Yes, January 15, 1966.
The coup met you in Lagos?
Yes. I think that was my saddest day in the military because I happened to know some of the senior officers that were killed. In the transport company, after the 2nd Battalion and we came back, I was posted to Lagos to be a transport officer and in my platoon, we had staff cars and Landrovers. So, I knew the Army officers, from Ironsi, Maimalari, because I detailed vehicles for them every working day. So, I knew senior officers.
So, you were in contact with them?
I was in contact with them somehow because I was in charge of transportation.
Where were you that night of January 15 coup?
I was in Lagos.
Can you recall the circumstance, how you got to know?
The way I got to know was, my routine then was as early as about six in the morning, I used to drive to the garage to make sure that all vehicles for officers, from the General Officer Commanding (GOC), who was then General Ironsi, were roadworthy and the drivers would drive off. And then, I would go back to the Officers Mess in Yaba, where I would wash, have my breakfast and come back to the office. And around the railway crossing in Yaba, coming out from the barracks, we saw a wounded soldier. I stopped because I was in a Landrover. I picked him and asked what happened. He said he was in the late Maimalari’s house and they were having a party the previous night and the place was attacked. So, I took the soldier to the military hospital in Yaba and I asked after the commander. Maimalari, I think, was commander of 2 Brigade in Apapa. He was the 2 Brigade Commander. They said he was shot and killed.
Then, you didn’t know it was a coup?
Well, that became a coup. That was the time I really learnt it was a coup.
And then there was a counter-coup of July?
Yes, July.
Where were you at this time also?
I was in Lagos again. I was still in Lagos then at Apapa at 2 Brigade Transport Company.
And then, there was ethnic colouration and all that. And at a point, they asked some of you to go back to the North. Am I correct?
Yes, because I was posted back then to the battalion. That was in Abeokuta. It was first to Ikeja Cantonment, but after the counter-coup, we were taken to Lagos by train, the whole battalion.
Did you play any role in the counter-coup?
No! Not that I will tell you.
You know at 70, you are reminiscing. You are saying it the way it is, you don’t give a damn anymore…
Well, there was a coup. That is all I can tell you. I was a unit commander and certainly, there was a breakdown of law and order. So, I was posted to a combatant unit, although 2 Brigade Transport Company was a combatant unit. You know there were administrative and combatant units and the service unit, like health, education. Even transport, there are administrative ones, but there are combatant ones also.
The question I asked was, did you play any specific role?
No. I was too junior to play any specific role. I was just a lieutenant then. In 1966, January, I was a Second Lieutenant, but I was promoted, I think, around April, May, or June to Lieutenant.
And what were your impressions of that period?
You see, senior military officers had been killed and politicians, like Sardauna, Akintola, Okotie Eboh. They were killed. And then in the military, Maimalari, Yakubu Pam, Legima, Shodeinde, and Ademolegun; so really, it had a tribal tinge.
The first one?
Yes. And then, there was a counter.
One mistake gave birth to another one?
Certainly, certainly.
And then long years of military came?
Oh yes.
From 1967-75, it was Gowon. At that point in time, where were you?
When Gowon came into power, I wonder whether I would recall where I was. It was July 1967 that Gowon came in. That was when I was in Lagos. I was again in Lagos, then in the transport company.
Then he took over?
Yeah, Gowon took over or Gowon was installed.
Well, more like you…
(Laughs) Yes.
And then in 1967?
Civil war.
So, you have to give me that part because there are some books I have read, that featured your name. So, what were your experiences during the civil war?
Well, I told you that we were parked into the rail to Kaduna from Ikeja, 2nd Infantry Battalion and when states were created by General Gowon, police action was ordered; we were moved to the border in the East. We were not in Nsukka, but in Ogoja. We started from Ogoja.
And you took active part?
Yeah. Well, I was a junior officer.
Who was your GOC then?
My GOC was the late General Shuwa.
How did you feel during that period of the civil war? Did you think that when the first coup started, that civil war would just come?
No. I never felt so and I never hoped for it. Literally, you are trained to fight a war but you are not trained to fight a war within your own country. We would rather have enemies from outside your country to defend your country, but not to fight among yourselves.
Some of those officers you were fighting were your comrades…
They were.
You knew some of them.
Some of them were even my course mates. We were facing each other, like when we were in Awka sector. The person facing me was called Bob Akonobi. We were mates here.
Robert Akonobi?
Robert Akonobi.
Who later became a governor?
Yes. He was my course mate here in Kaduna.
And there you were…
Facing each other.
It was really crazy.
It was. It was unfortunate, but it is part of our national development.
And the way we are going, you think it is a possibility again?
I don’t think so. No, I don’t think so.
After Gowon, Murtala came.
Yes.
By the time you were no longer a small officer…
No. I was just, I think, a colonel? Was it a lieutenant colonel or major? I think I was a lieutenant colonel.
But during the Obasanjo administration, you had become a minister, as it were.
No. I first became a governor when Murtala came, in North-East.
This same North East that is giving problem now.
Yes. I was there and there were six states then: Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba.
And they were all under your control or command?
North East went up to Chad; anyway, they are on the same latitude with Lagos. The bottom before you start going on the Plateau, Mambilla Plateau, if you look here on the map, the same latitude was in Lagos and then, up to Chad. That was the extent of the whole North East.
Now, some of them can’t govern even one state…
They are now six states.
I know, but you governed six states and now, some of them have problems with one state…
Yes.
What were the challenges you faced governing the North East as a military governor?
Actually, at that time, because of competent civil service… I was a military man but once you get to the rank of a lieutenant-colonel, after major, you are being taught some management courses. It needs a few weeks for somebody who has gone through the military management training, you have junior staff college, senior staff college; by that time, you will have enough experience for most administrative jobs because you must have had enough of the combat ones. I think I didn’t have much problem. And then, the competent civil servants. Civil servants then were very professional.
And not political as we have them now?
No. They were really professionals and they can disagree with you on record, on issues.
They were not afraid to make recommendations to the military governor or administrator?
No, they were never. People like the late Liman Ciroma, Waziri Fika, who was eventually Secretary to the Government of Babangida. And the late Abubakar Umar, who was Secretary to the Government of Bauchi State; and the late Moguno. They were real professionals, committed technocrats.
So, you didn’t really have much challenges?
No, not much challenges.
There was no insecurity then, like we have in the North East today?
No, the police then, with their Criminal Investigation Department (CID), were very, very competent. They interacted closely with the people. So, criminals in the locality were easily identified and put under severe surveillance. And really, there was relative peace in the country.
What were your major achievements in the North East as governor?
I think the way the state was divided into three; if you remember, it became Borno, Bauchi and Gongola. So, the way we divided the assets, including the civil service and so on, I think it was one of our achievements because it was so peaceful then. We had a committee on civil service.
And eventually you became minister of petroleum under Obasanjo?
Yes.
That was the only ministry you held under Obasanjo?
Yes.
During your time as petroleum minister, what were you doing differently that they are not doing now that has made the sector totally rotten?
Well, I was lucky again. When I was made a minister, I met an experienced man, a person of great personal integrity, the late Sunday Awoniyi. He was the permanent secretary then before the Supreme Military Council approved the merger of the Nigerian National Oil Corporation (NNOC) and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and made Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Sunday Awoniyi was then the permanent secretary of the ministry. That was when I was sworn in eventually, I think in 1977, it became NNPC when the ministry and the NNOC were merged. He retired from the civil service. Another competent technocrat, Morinho, he became the Director of Petroleum Resources and he had a very competent team of Nigerian engineers, petroleum engineers and chemical engineers. And as minister of petroleum, I signed the contract for Warri Refinery, for Kaduna Refinery, for more than 20 depots all over the country, for laying of pipelines, more than 3200 kilometers and I couldn’t recall Nigeria borrowing a kobo for those projects. And then, by the time I became head of state, because I went to War College in the United States before the military handed over to the Second Republic and came back in 1980 and then, there was coup at the end of 1983. And that time, you can verify from Professor Tam David-West who was Minister of Petroleum Resources. We were exporting 100,000 barrels per day of refined products.
Exporting from the country?
Yes, refined one.
Refined one, not the raw one they are taking to import to…?
No.
100, 000 barrels?
Yes. Because we had four refineries then.
They have all collapsed…
Well, that is the efficiency of the subsequent governments!
You achieved so much success and all that. But there was an issue that became quite contentious: N2.8billion. They said N2.8billion oil money was missing.
It couldn’t have been missing. The governor of the Central Bank then, the late Clement Isong, said it was ridiculous, that N2.8billion couldn’t be missing because he said even the king of Saudi Arabia, couldn’t issue a cheque of N2.8billion. When you have paid your money for petroleum, they are normally put in the country’s external account and no bank will release that amount of money at a go because it was deposited. And then, at that time, Nigeria was exporting about 1.82 million barrels a day. And the cost of barrel a day was about $18. You work out N2.8billion. How could N2.8billion be missing and we still have money to run the country? So, it was just a political…
How did that issue come about? What happened and how did you feel during that period?
No, no. Shagari did the only honourable thing. He ordered a judicial enquiry and put a serving Justice of the Supreme Court, the late Justice Irikefe, to carry out investigation. And their terms of reference were put there. They said anybody who had an idea of missing N2.8billion, let him come and tell Justice Irikefe. Nobody had any evidence. It was just rubbish. Well, later, Tai Solarin and Professor Awojobi were confronted and Fela, the late Fela, to go and prove their case. They had no evidence, most of them took the newspaper cuttings of their allegations to the tribunal.
As evidence?
As their evidence…Cuttings of newspapers publications where they said N2.8billion was missing. That was their evidence. That was what they took to the Irikefe panel.
And Fela sang about it! Fela was your friend.
He couldn’t have been, because of what Obasanjo regime did to him. Because we were part of Obasanjo regime.

There is one other incident that has also been in the public domain: that Shagari gave you an order and you disobeyed your commander-in-chief. What happened then?
Which order was that?
That he gave you an instruction not to go to war against Chad or something like that?
Well, that was when I became GOC. When I came back from War College, I was in Lagos. Then, 4 Infantry Division was in Lagos, in Ikeja. I was in War College when I was posted there before General Obasanjo’s government handed over to Shagari. So, when I came, after about four months or so, I was posted to Ibadan, to command 2 Infantry Division. And after that, I was posted to Jos to command 3rd Armoured Division. It was when I was there as the GOC that the Chadians attacked some of our troops in some of the islands and killed five of them, took some military hardware and some of our soldiers. Then, I went into Army headquarters and told them then, the Chief of Army Staff then, General Wushishi, why they shouldn’t just allow a country, our neighbour to move into our territory, where we had stationed, to kill our people. So, I moved into Maiduguri, former Tactical Headquarters, and I got them out of the country. Something dramatic happened: I didn’t know I had gone beyond Chad and somehow, Shagari, in the United States, was sent pictures that I was with my troops and had gone beyond Chad, beyond Lake Chad. So, I was given direct order by the president to pull out and I did.
Oh, you did?
I did. I couldn’t have disobeyed the president. So, I handed over the division to Colonel Ogukwe, who was my course mate but was my…
He was in National Population Commission (NPC)?
I think so. Colonel Ogukwe. Yeah, he must have been. I handed over the tactical headquarters to him.
So, you never went against presidential directive?
I couldn’t have. He was the Commander-in-Chief. But maybe it was too slow for them, for me to withdraw, but you don’t disengage so quickly.
But after that, Shagari was overthrown?
Yes.
Now, they said you were invited to head the government after the coup?
Yes.
As the most senior officer?
Yes.
What really happened because it was not a Buhari coup?
No.
Could we say you never plotted a coup throughout your military career?
No. I didn’t plot a coup.
You were not a coup plotter?
No.
You were invited?
Yes.
Where were you when you were invited?
I was in Jos. They sent a jet to me flown by one of General Gowon’s younger brothers. He was a pilot. He told me that those who conducted the coup had invited me for discussion.
You went to Lagos?
I went to Lagos. I was flown to Lagos. Yes. And they said ok, those who were in charge of the coup had said that I would be the head of state. And I was.
When you made that statement that ‘this generation of Nigerians has no country other than Nigeria,’ for me it was like a JFK statement asking Americans to think of what they could do for America. Twenty months after, your same colleagues who invited you sacked you. What happened?
They changed their minds.
They changed their minds? So, what happened in between that, because part of what they said when they took over power was that you had become “too rigid, too uncompromising and arrogated knowledge of problems and solutions to yourself and your late deputy, Idiagbon. What really happened?
Well, I think you better identify those who did that and interview them so that they can tell you what happened. From my own point of view, I was the chairman of the three councils, which, by change of the constitution, were in charge of the country. They were the Supreme Military Council, the Executive Council and the National Council of State. I was the chairman of all. Maybe when you interview those who were part of the coup, they will tell you my rigidity and whether I worked outside those organs: the Supreme Military Council, the Council of State and the Council of Ministers.
Before I come to that, there was also this issue of Decree 4, alleged drug peddlers who your regime ordered shot. Looking back now, do you think you made mistake in those areas?
You see, maybe my rigidity could be traced to our insistence on the laws we made. But we decided that the laws must be obeyed.
But they said it was retroactive.
Yes, they said so. But I think it should be in the archive; we said that whoever brought in drugs and made Nigeria a transit point committed an offence. These drugs, We We (Indian hemp), is planted here, but the hard drug, cocaine, most Nigerians don’t know what cocaine is. They just made Nigeria a transit point and these people did it just to make money. You can have a certain people who grow Ashisha or We We and so on because it is indigenous. Maybe some people are even alleging that those who want to come for operation, brought the seed and started to grow it in Nigeria. But cocaine, it is alien to our people. So, those who used Nigeria as a transit, they just did it to make money. And this drug is so potent that it destroys people, especially intelligent people. So, the Supreme Military Council did a memo. Of course, I took the memo to the Supreme Military Council and made recommendation and the Supreme Military Council agreed.
There was no dissenting voice?
There was no dissenting in the sense that majority agreed that this thing, this cocaine, this hard drug was earning Nigeria so much bad name in the international community because Nigeria was not producing it, but Nigerians that wanted to make money didn’t mind destroying Nigerians and other youths in other countries just to make money. So, we didn’t need them. We didn’t need them.
But there were pleas by eminent Nigerians not to kill the three men involved in the trafficking?
Pleas, pleas; those that they destroyed did they listen to their pleas for them not to make hard drug available to destroy their children and their communities?
So, it is not something you look back now at 70 and say it was an error?
No, it was not an error. It was deliberate. I didn’t do it as an head of state by fiat. We followed our proper system and took it. If I was sure that the Supreme Military Council then, the majority of them decided that we shouldn’t have done so, we could have reduced it to long sentencing. But people who did that, they wanted money to build fantastic houses, maybe to have houses in Europe and invest. Now, when they found out that if they do it, they will get shot, then they will not live to enjoy at the expense of a lot of people that became mental and became harmful and detrimental to the society and so on, then they will think twice.
Decree 4 was what you used to gag the press?
Decree 4. You people (press), you brought in Nigeria factor into it. When people try to get job or contract and they couldn’t get it, they make a quick research and created a problem for people who refuse to do the

FG to float national carrier with 30 aircraft

Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Stella Oduah

The Federal Government said on Thursday that a new national carrier with at least 30 brand new aircraft would soon be established.

The Director of Operations, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. Henry Omeogu, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen during his visit to the Port Harcourt International Airport.

Omeogu explained that though the new national carrier would be private sector-driven, fairly used or old aircraft would not be allowed to be among the fleet of its airplanes.

He said the move was part of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan for the aviation sector, adding that the Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, was determined to turn around the industry.

Explaining that the Federal Government was interested in raising the standard in the aviation sector to a world-class level, Omeogu disclosed that the government had begun the renovation of 11 airports across the country.

“We are going to have about 30 brand new aircraft and they (aircraft) will be our national carrier. The effort will be private-sector driven. We will insist that others who would want to be part this should come with brand new aircraft,” Omeogu stressed.

The FAAN director gave an assurance that by 2014, the Federal Government would have achieved nearly 100 per cent of its plans to transform the aviation sector.

He said improved security within and around airports across the country was part of the arrangement for a new aviation industry, adding that over 50 policemen had already been moved from Abuja to the Port Harcourt International Airport.

“The President has signed performance contracts with all the sectors, and at the end of the day, any person that cannot key into the new vision of the Federal Government will naturally leave the system,” he added.

Omeogu explained that the ongoing transformation of the country’s aviation sector would provide many employment opportunities for the citizens.

He said materials needed for the renovation of some of the airports in the country were available, while the contractors had been paid to avoid any delay in the completion of the projects.

$11bn cash taken abroad through Nigerian airports — Sanusi

CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, has said that about $11bn (N1.73tn) has been taken out of the country through the airports this year, a development he describes as worrisome.

Sanusi, while speaking at an event organised by Bank Directors Association of Nigeria in Lagos on Thursday, wondered why many Nigerians now preferred carrying out transactions with the United States dollar at the expense of the local currency, the naira.

According to him, the dollar is becoming the country’s second currency based on its usage, adding that the central bank’s aim for contemplating the introduction of the N5,000 bill was to address the development.

He said, “In this country, almost everybody uses the dollar. This year alone, the records we have based on the declared amount at the airports is getting to about $11bn in cash that was taken out of Nigeria.

“Why would anyone walk out of an airport with $5m? Well, they will say is because the law has made it clear that you can take any amount so long as you have declared it and I cannot stop you. These are some of the issues we wanted the introduction of the N5,000 note to address.”

Sanusi said the planned introduction of the N5,000 bills was part of a thought process aimed also at driving the cash-less policy initiative.

He said, “If people want to carry N15m, they go to Bureau De Change and change it into dollars. You give them $100,000 and that is about N15m. The dollar has become a second national currency. Barely two months ago in Zambia, the nation passed a law stating that anyone who refuses to accept its local currency and who charges for a transaction in a foreign currency goes to jail for 10 years.

“But you come to Nigeria and you see people paying their children’s school fees in dollars. We laugh about this but it is an important issue. Can you go to America and buy something using pounds sterling? Or you go to Tokyo and use dollar and see if the hotel will accept the currency? Before they will transact with you, you must change it into their local currency.

“So, this is a problem, and it is apart from the fact that we are in a country where monetary and economic policies have been subjects to popular vote. In fact, it is not an election! If I want popular vote, I will go and contest for the chairman of a local government. Everybody is an economist, a central bank governor and many more.”

Total fuel subsidy removal is a must – Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday launched a fresh campaign to totally remove the subsidy on fuel, barely a year after a similar campaign and forceful removal of subsidy almost brought the country to a standstill.

Jonathan said only the total removal of subsidy on petroleum products would attract investors to the oil sector and put an end to the importation of petroleum products as it is currently being done.

About this time last year, the President, in his budget estimates submitted to the Senate, proposed total removal of subsidy on petroleum products and in spite of public protests removed subsidy on January 1, 2012.

The President’s action was greeted by spontaneous protests among the citizens.

A mass action coordinated by civil society groups paralysed activities in the country for about two weeks until the government backpedalled and announced a partial removal. Per litre pump price of petrol was consequently reduced to N97 from the initial N141 under the zero-subsidy regime.

The pump price of the product pre-January 1, 2012 was N65.

Jonathan started the fresh campaign to totally remove subsidy while receiving the report of the graduating participants of the Senior Executive Course 34, 2012, of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“Why is it that people are not building refineries in Nigeria despite that it is a big business? It is because of the policy of subsidy, and that is why we want to get out of it,” the President said.

Like the President did late last year, he argued that while the total removal of subsidy could be painful to Nigerians he said they would be happier at the end if they could bear the initial pains.

Jonathan said, “To change a nation is like surgery. If you have a young daughter of five years who has a boil at a very strategic part of the face, you either as a parent leave that boil because the young girl will cry or you take the girl to the surgeon.

“So you have the option of just robbing metholatum on the face until the boil will burst and disfigure her face or you take that child to the surgeon. On the sighting of a scalpel of the surgeon alone, the child will start crying.

“But if she bears the pains and do the incision and treat it, after some days or weeks, the child will grow up to be a beautiful lady.

“There are certain decisions that government must take that may be painful at the beginning and people must be properly informed so that they will be ready to bear the pains.”

Jonathan said he believed that Nigeria could witness a turn-around within 10 years once the right policies were put in place.

“I believe that you do not need a lifetime to change a nation. Under 10 years, Nigeria can change and people will not even believe that this is Nigeria again. Immediately you come up with strong policies in key sectors of the economy and keep it for 10 years, the change will be astronomical,” he said.

He said Canada had 16 functional refineries and Nigeria has four that are struggling to refine at 30 per cent of installed capacity because all the refineries in Canada are privately-owned.

In the aftermath of the January protests and in the desire to assuage ill feeling of citizens over large scale corruption in the oil sector, Jonathan had promised to probe the sector.

The probe committee set up by the House of Representatives subsequently found that oil thieves had defrauded the country of N1.7trn under the fuel subsidy regime. Many suspects, including a son of the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mahmud Tukur, and children of other notable Nigerians and their companies, are currently on trial for making claims for fuel not imported.

Curiously, the nation has been suffering from acute shortage of fuel for almost two months with filling stations selling, unofficially, at between N100 and N150 per litre.

The situation has also made critics to submit that the shortage, notwithstanding official explanations, might be a design by the government to surreptitiously increase fuel pump price in the new year.

Obasanjo Refer To Jonathan As A ‘Weak Leader’?

From right:; and L-R: Deacon Gamaliel Onosode, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi & Chief Olusegun Obasanjo At A Lecture Entitled “The Nigeria Of My dream: Towards The Consolidation Of National Unity” In Honour Pf Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s 40 Years In The Ministry At Word Of Life Bible Church, Warri, Delta State, Yesterday.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, blamed president Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, to fester and grow into a monster that is out of control by his failure to act on a report submitted to the government.

The former president was speaking at a lecture delivered by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi in celebration of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s 40th anniversary as founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri in Delta State. Obasanjo also tasked Nigerians to choose between a strong leader who might adopt unusual approach to tackle a problem or a weak leader who will leave the problem to fester.

While responding to a question from a pastor from Borno State on how he could forge any form of unity with those who are perpetuating violence in the northern part of the country, Obasanjo went philosophical, saying: “Boko Haram is an ill wind that blows nobody no good.”

The former president also narrated his experience when he visited the hot-bed of Boko Haram, Borno, on a fact-finding mission and blamed the government’s inability to act on his findings as reason why the problem grew to “become something else.”

“Whichever way, you just have to attend to it. Don’t leave it unattended to. On two occasions I had to attend to the problem I faced at that time. I sent soldiers to a place and 19 of them were killed. If I had allowed that to continue, I will not have authority to send security whether police, soldier and any force any where again. So, I had to nip it in the bud and that was the end of that particular problem,” he said.

Obasanjo was however quick to admit that not all problems might require a tough stance as according to him, “if you say you don’t want a strong leader who can have all characteristics of leaders including God fearing, then have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours.”

Theformer president was also quick to dispel insinuations that he single-handedly foisted president Jonathan on Nigerians saying that he didn’t give all the votes that brought him to power. But he did give a remedy when he said, “the beauty of democracy is that power rests in the people, and every elected person would seek your votes to come back; if you don’t want him, he won’t come back.”

And like he has been advocating over the last couple of days, the erstwhile PDP BOT Chairman charged Nigerians to stand up and take their destinies in their own hands, reminding them of a Yoruba adage, “if you say it the way it is, you will die; if you don’t say anything at all, you will die, why don’t you say it and die?”

Kwara declares 3-day mourning Over Sola Saraki`s Death

Following the death of Second Republic Senate Leader and frontline elder statesman, Dr. Olusola Saraki, the Kwara State Government on Wednesday declared a three-day mourning period across the state in honour of the late political stalwart.

According to the state Governor, Abdulfattah Ahmed who announced the demise of the late iconic leader at the Government House in Ilorin, the late Waziri of Ilorin passed away in the early hours of Wednesday at the age of 79.

The remains of the late politician would be flown to Ilorin at 2:00 p.m while interment commences at 4: 00 p.m according to Islamic rites.

It was gathered that when the news was broken on Wednesday morning, many residents stormed the GRA residence of the late Saraki to sympathize with the family.

Insiders disclosed that the state-owned radio station, Radio Kwara, suspended all regular programmes in honour of the late politician.

In its place, the station was playing different songs celebrating the life and times of their former leader.

Arrival of the body of former Senate leader Dr. Sola Saraki's for burial

This is the Arrival of the body of former Senate leader Dr. Sola Saraki's for burial at the Ilorin International Airport.

Oshiomhole appoints Patrick Obahiagbon as Chief of Staff

Former lawmaker and a member representing Oredo constituency in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, has been appointed by Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as Chief of Staff.

His appointment was announced on Wednesday evening and he will be officially sworn in by 10am on Thursday morning at the Edo State government house.

The Law Graduate of University of Benin is as self-styled verbal contortionist who enjoys a cult following.

Ask Obahiagbon about himself and he would simply tell you: “I want to give you homo sapiens a infinitesimal sample of how the ingredients compose to form me. Anyone care to know? Most yes and a few imbeciles who lack compassion and common sense to get inspired.

“Since it’s most yes, I’ll navigate you through my journey. I grew up in Benin, but was born and had my elementary education in Sapele. When my father went for further studies in England, we had to relocate to Benin and that got me into Edo College and St. John Bosco Government School, Ubiaja. I proceeded to read law at the University of Benin. After my youth service, I contested an election to represent my ward as a councilor in Oredo Local Government Area in 1990. After, I went to England in search of greener pastures, but I could not take it for more than 18 months.

“This was because I had a passion for the political developments going on in Nigeria. I died silently in London, but returned to Nigeria , where I joined again in the political development. Six months after my arrival, there was a local government election and I contested for the chairmanship position Long story short, after a few losses. I won an election to the Edo State House of Assembly, where I spent eight years on the platform of my people and it was time to move to a latitudinarian pedestal to discharge service to Nigerians and I presented myself before my party in a hotly, fiercely, but democratically contested primary and it pleased the cosmic masters and my constituents to give me the mandate to fly the party flag and I won. That began my journey to the House of Representatives.”

B*R*EA*K*I*N*G News!!! Gunmen Kills Gen. Mohammed Shuwa.

Gen. Mohammed Shuwa (rtd) has been shut dead by unknown gunmen at his residence in Maiduguri, Borno state. Locals suspected that the killers were members of the Islamic terror group, Boko Haram.

Gen Shuwa was a former Federal Commissioner for Works during military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo, and until his death, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

In May of 2012, General Shuwa had disagreed with the comments of former minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. (Rtd) T.Y. Danjuma when he called Borno State a failed state. At that time Shuwa had said “I commend General Danjuma for raising his voice on challenges currently being faced by different states in Nigeria including Borno state. Agreed, Borno is facing challenges but to call it a failed state is a remark in bad faith.”
Gen Mohammed Shuwa (rtd) had a long and distinguished military career. He succeeded Col. Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu as the commander of the 5th battalion in Kano after the Nzeogwu/Ifeajuna led coup was foiled. He also fought on the Federal side as a war time commander.

RIP Gen Shuwa!

PM News Apologises To Mrs Ajimobi

A statement from the Management



Mrs Florence Ajimobi, wife of the Oyo state Governor,
returned to Nigeria Wednesday morning from the United Kingdom.


She literally walked into a maelstrom, triggered by reports online 
that she was arrested by the London Metropolitan Police.

Understandably, she devoted her press
 conference at the Murtala Muhammed Airport to debunk the reports.



Just like Mrs. Ajimobi, pmnewsnigeria.com has had to cope 
with a turbulence of its own as reactions poured forth over its online report 
that appeared to give a seal of authenticity to earlier reports by some bloggers that Mrs.
Ajimobi was arrested by the Metro Police in the UK.

Reports about the purported arrest had gone viral since the weekend. On Tuesday, pmnewsnigeria.com, sought to tear through the web and 
ascertain the truth by first of all visiting the site of the organization and checking its data base for any mention of “Mrs Ajimobi”.

Its search drew blank. It also similarly searched for her name on the website of Her Majesty’s Customs Service. Again, the search turned up nothing. These efforts were reflected in the story.

Still trying to dig the truth, pmnewsnigeria.com sent an e-mail to the London Metropolitan Police,
asking the organisation to confirm or deny whether the woman was ever arrested.


It was a familiar path in investigative journalism that the company behind
 pmnewsnigeria.com had trodden so many times before, one of which was over the certificate forgery and age 
claims of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives.



After about one hour, pmnewsnigeria.com got a response from the 
Metropolitan Police, that said at the bottom of its query: “Confirmation: Yes”.

In another part of the response, MET said: “Thank you 
for your email. I am sorry, we are unable to disclose any information to you 
under the Data Protection Act.” It was signed by “The Email Office,
Lambeth CCC, Metropolitan Police.”



Pmnewsnigeria.com wrote its report about the ‘confirmation of 
the arrest’ based on this response.

At the point of writing the report, the pmnewsnigeria.com team, interpreted the MET’s “Confirmation : Yes”, as a
 confirmation of the question they had asked, viz: “We are trying to confirm
 whether the story(about Mrs. Ajimobi) is true and whether the MET is planning
 to press a charge”.



Was this where the team went wrong?

Events thereafter appeared to suggest that the e-mail response was a mere auto-response, its standard, robotized and programmed answer to all enquiries.

The team was misled by it and had acted on it innocently.

Since then, the Oyo state government, acting on behalf of Mrs Ajimobi has vehemently denied the report and also threatened to sue the website.

Since then, 
the attorney-general of Oyo state has 
made another contact with the same London Metropolitan Police and got one-liner response from a Mr. Rob Singh of the Press Bureau of Metropolitan 
Police, Scotland Yard:

“Re your press query. I am afraid we 
have no knowledge.”



On our part, we have carried out further checks. And we have found nothing to justify the pmnewsnigeria.com story. Several reporters within the organization have also mailed the Metro Police, separately, asking the same question that pmnewsnigeria.com had asked in an earlier e-mail.

They all got the same response, with a note at the bottom of the mail saying: “Confirmation: Yes”. This further confirmed pmnewsnigeria.com belief that it has been a victim of a computer game.

In line, with journalistic best practices, management wants to formally disassociate pmnewsnigeria.com with the content of this story and apologise to Mrs Ajimobi and all our readers for this reportorial error.

One salient point that we want to make, as management, is that pmnewsnigeria.com did not deliberately go out of its way to seek to malign Mrs Ajimobi or bring her into
public opprobrium. Its story was not also the product of any political machination.

The quest for the truth in the public interest is this website’s duty. It is what the site pursued in the case of Mrs. Ajimobi.



Akwa Ibom State Gets New Deputy Governor

 Lady Valerie Ebe a former commissioner of Environment during Obong Victor Attahs' government has been appionted as the New deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom state following the resignation of Mr Nsima Ekere.

Lady Valerie Ebe's appointment has been ratified by the Akwa Ibom state house of assembly.

I Don't Know About the Boko Haram Nomination - Buhari.

**the whole thing may be just speculation to me.

Contrary to the news making the rounds that the Boko Haram sect has nominated Former Head of States, General Muhammadu Buhari as the mediator between them and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the proposed peace talk, the retired Military General has denied knowledge of his nomination.

According to the National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Engr Buba Galadima, the National leader of the CPC is not aware of the appointment: “As at 10pm yesterday when I spoke with Buhari, he said he has not even heard about it.”

Galadima said: “He (Buhari) said the whole thing to him, is just speculation. And since nobody has contacted him as a person for him to even know who is behind what, and what are the motives of the whole exercise, he would not speak to the press.”

He revealed that Buhari, the 2011 presidential candidate of the CPC, further told him that as an elder statesman and a patriotic Nigerian, he will continue to pray until peace and tranquillity return to Nigeria.

It would be recalled that the sect had said in a telephone press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno that they would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and now Senator, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the federal government.

Abdulaziz claimed he had the mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau, disclosing that the sect was highly offended due to what happened three years ago (referring to the killing of the sect’s leader, Mallam Mohammed Yusuf).

R*E*V*E*A*L*E*D! ‘I gave Boko Haram N1.5 million to buy Sallah rams’ – Sen. Zanna.

**this is to stop them from attacking me.

The Senator representing Borno Central District, Ahmed Zanna, at the SSS headquarters in Abuja, yesterday revealed how he gave his aides N1.5 million to buy Sallah rams for the insurgents and their threat to attack him unless he gave them N10 million.

Zanna arrived at the SSS headquarters in Abuja at about 1 pm where he was processed for interrogation.

He gave further insight into his relationship with the dreaded Islamist sect and reiterated his denial that Bama was arrested in his Maiduguri home.

He told his interrogators that he gave N1.5 million for Sallah Rams to the sect members following their threat to attack him.

He, however, added that when the insurgents accosted one of his aides at gunpoint to know how much he gave him, he lied to them that he (senator) gave out N1 million.

He explained that when they took his aide to his house for a search, they retrieved N250, 000 and left a message with the aide for him that he should provide them N10 million or they would come for him.

The senator, who was released at about 10pm, is expected to report back at the SSS headquarters by 11am this morning.

Motorcyclist Sells Nurse To Ritual Killers For N10,000

A commercial motorcyclist, identified simply as Ifeanyi, has been arrested for allegedly handing over a nurse, Mrs. Helen Ilonge, to ritual killers after collecting N10, 000.

It was learnt that Ilonge had on Tuesday last week took Ifeanyi’s motorcycle on her way to Igoli along the Ogoja-Ikom Highway in Ogoja LGA.

Ilonge, the coordinator of Primary Health Care in Bekwarra Local Government Area of Cross River State, was coming from a programme at the Assemblies of God Church, Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, and had alighted from a vehicle at Okpongrinya junction before taking the bike.

It was gathered that Ilonge (51) was beheaded while her other vital reproductive parts such as bosom and womanliness were removed for ritual purposes.

Ilonge’s neighbour, Mrs. Theresa Idagwu, on Sunday said, “Ifeanyi took the lady from Okpogrinya Junction on the pretence that he was taking her to the village, which is 10 minutes drive from the point. But along the way, he stopped and handed her over to kidnappers at Ukpe.

Meanwhile, the woman had called her daughter, Victoria, around 9pm that she had taken a bike at Okpogrinya Junction on her way to Igoli. She said when she gets to her destination; she would call again so that Victoria would boil water for her to take her bath. That was Ilonge’s last call.”

Repeated calls made to the woman’s line, according to Idagwu, indicated that it was switched off.

She said Ilonge’s family became worried when the woman did not return home. “We went everywhere- police stations, hospitals and even her friends in Igoli, thinking that may be an accident had occurred along the road but we got nothing,” Idagwu added.

Two days later, Idagwu said someone called Victoria on her phone and informed her that her mother had been kidnapped. The caller demanded a ransom of N50, 000 to be remitted in form of recharge cards.

She said, “Since her daughter could not raise the money, she rushed to the Bekwarra LGA headquarters where the head of administration, Mr. Bisong Bogbo, and the chairman, Mr. Linus Edeh, provided the money with which she bought recharge cards and sent to the caller.

“The voice claimed that he needed the recharge cards so he could sell and run away from his master who is a ritual killer. He claimed that he had been serving his master for a long time and wanted to run away. He said once he gets the cards, he will break the door where the nurse is being kept and release her.”

The LGA’s head of administration, Bogbo, confirmed that the cards were sent to the kidnapper through Victoria’s telephone.

He said immediately the alleged kidnapper confirmed receipt of the cards; he switched off his telephone.

Luck, however, ran out of Ifeanyi. Policemen tracked his telephone line and discovered that he called Victoria from Abuochiche.

Further investigations, it was gathered, showed that Ifeanyi had been selling the cards in the village immediately he got them.

When he was arrested, Bogbo told our correspondent that Ifeanyi led the police to one of the ritual killers identified simply as Elvis.

Elvis, according to Bogbo, confessed that the nurse had already been killed and some of her vital organs removed before Ifeanyi asked for the recharge cards.

Elvis also said the remains of the woman were buried in a swamp.

At the council headquarters, one of the late nurse’s colleagues, Mr. Gabriel Ogar, said she was probably the kindest woman he ever worked with.

Ogar said, “I have worked with five coordinators, but I know that she is just the best so far. She worked to the admiration of Governor Liyel Imoke and now she has been killed leaving her five children without a helper.

“Her husband died 12 years ago and since then she has been the one taking care of the children and only one has graduated. Please let the government do something for those poor children.”

When contacted on Monday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Osita Ezechukwu, said the police were still investigating the matter.

He said four suspects had been apprehended by the anti-homicide unit, adding that when the investigation was completed the suspects would be prosecuted.

“We have taken confessional statement from them. Those who are not involved have been allowed to go while those who are involved are still in detention,” Ezechukwu said.

BOKO Haram Senator Is Talking.

“I never knew my Nephew, Bama to be a member of Boko Haram, But I know him to be of a bad character and a drug addict.”
“I was never told or contacted by anybody that they were looking for Bama. I saw him about six months ago". - Senator Khlaifa Ahmad Zannah, Borno Central District.

Boko Haram Member Tries To Blow Up Arik Plane While In Flight

The wave of terror attacks in Nigeria seem took a new turn on Tuesday as reports of a suicide bomb attempt to blow up an Arik Air plane flying from Maiduguri to Abuja jolted Nigerians . A suspected member of the Boko Haram sect who had boarded in Maiduguri, Borno State got up mid-air and told all the passengers to say their last prayers. As he brought out the explosive device, he disclosed that his main targets were the white people in the aircraft.

The explosive device failed to detonate before the plane landed in Abuja. Police bomb experts moved in and the suspected terrorist was arrested when the plane touched down in Abuja. How he passed security checks at the airport with the explosive device remains unknown. Personnel at the local wing of the airport are keeping mum over the issue as no one wants to be quoted.

Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah denied that there was an attempt to bomb any Arik aircraft. The Minister via her Twitter handle described it as a rumour as she tweeted “The alleged Breaking News about a bomb scare on an Arik flight is absolutely false. There is no iota of truth whatsoever in this rumour.” Five minutes later, she tweeted “The flying public should please go about their normal businesses as the airport/airspace is safe. Thank you.”

Street Journal however gathered that the bomber came in as the last passenger in First Class and he spoke Queen’s English and Hausa fluently. He claimed they were three bombers that were supposed to enter the plane but two could not make it due to security. The bomber wired himself and used bandages to cover up. He gave his age as 27 and he identified three members of the Joint Task Force on board by name.

The attempt on the airline has shown the dynamism of the dreaded Islamist sect. Meanwhile, the Joint Task Force had earlier hinted that the sect has plans to launch attacks on Sallah day.

E*X*P*O*S*E*D! Sen Zanna Is A Boko Haram Kingpin - Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff.

*Zanna takes helpless Nigerians on his Hajj by road only to put them into terrorist activity and arms importation.
**he disowned his house where the JTF arrested

the suspect.
**what would his nephew be doing in the house of his political rival?
**It is on record that 27 of those pilgrims are still missing up till date.”

Ahmed Zanna, the Senator for Borno Central in whose Maiduguri home an alleged Boko Haram top commander was arrested late two days ago, “is a drowning man” who must be fully investigated.

This verdict was passed in a press statement today by Senator Modu Sheriff, the former governor of the state, who called on the security authorities to fully investigate the incident and Senator Zanna’s possible links with Boko Haram.

He also drew attention to Zanna’s “Hajj-by-road” activities for which, he said, the legislator was suspected to have used as a façade for the importation of arms and window for the training of terrorists.

Shuaibu Mohammed Bama, called a “high profile Boko Haram commander” by the Joint Task Force (JTF), was arrested in “a serving politician’s house,” JTF announced on Friday.

Following the JTF press statement, Senator Zanna told newsmen that although Bama was his nephew, the arrest did not take place in his home. “Since he was not arrested in my house, they should go and investigate his relationship with people they arrested him in their house,” he said.

But the former governor scoffed at that account. “Senator Zanna in a comic u-turn, shortly after these developments, told journalists in a face-saving interview that while he could not deny his relationship with his nephew, he disowned his house where the JTF arrested the suspect, stressing that the house belongs to Senator Ali Modu Sheriff the immediate former governor of the state.”

The former governor, who is now the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria People’s Party, noted that Zanna has had a “recent political encounter” with him, and now “appears desperate to settle scores by dragging Ali Sheriff into the controversy.”

Said Modu Sheriff: “Senator Zanna’s inconsistencies in trying to defend himself are clear indication of a sinking man’s desperate attempt to hang himself on anything available in order to save his neck. If not so, what would his nephew be doing in the so-called house of Senator Ali Sheriff, the man he said is his political rival?”

The ex-governor said Senator Zanna has “obvious involvement with Boko Haram, given his past antecedence where people finger him as illegal importer of arms via his Hajj-by-road fame.”

He said it was common knowledge in Borno state that Senator Zanna takes some hapless Nigerians on a seeming religious voyage by road only to put some of them into terrorist activity and illegal arms importation.

While it is not clear if he had ever reported this information to the security agencies, the former governor said that some of the so-called “pilgrims by road” have been traced to terrorists’ camps in Afghanistan and Syria, and not Saudi Arabia, their preferred destination.

“It is very much on record that 27 of such pilgrims are still missing uptill date.”

He refuted the senator’s claims that he had parted ways with his nephew, Shuaibu Bama, saying he can “authoritatively confirm” the man was still his associate up to the time of his arrest.

He further queried why Senator Zanna never spoken against the atrocities being committed by Boko Haram, noting that instead, he has been calling for the declaration of state of emergency or the disbandment of the JTF.

The former governor also declared the People’s Democratic Party in Borno State as “the engine room behind Boko Haram,” arguing that Zanna being the second senator fingered as having links with Boko Haram confirms “the wildly believed theory.”

He wondered how the Senator who he accused of not having visited Borno or his constituency even once since his inauguration can afford to play politics with the serious issue at stake by sponsoring terrorism against his own people.

“At his age and with the position he holds as a senator of the Federal Republic we felt it is the height of un-patriotism and irresponsibility for Senator Ahmed Zanna to not only fuel the crisis in Borno, but to attempt to drag the names of descent citizens, like Ali Sheriff in the mud.”

Personal Doctor, Niece, Ex-Minister Plan To Poison Benin Republic President

Republic of Benin has charged three suspects accused of plotting to poison President Boni Yayi, the public prosecutor said Tuesday in Cotonou.
“They are formally charged with criminal conspiracy and attempted murder,” Justin Gbenameto told Agence France Presse of the suspects, who include Yayi’s doctor, his niece and an ex-minister.

Gbenameto said they were charged late Monday following their arrests on Sunday.

On Monday, Gbenameto had announced their arrests and described the alleged plot to kill Yayi, also the current chairman of the African Union.

Those arrested were Moudjaidou Soumanou, former minister of commerce; Yayi’s personal doctor Ibrahim Mama Cisse; and Zouberath Kora-Seke, one of Yayi’s nieces who worked at the presidency.

It was alleged that the president’s niece and his doctor were promised one billion CFA francs (1.5 million euros, $2 million) to replace Yayi’s anti-pain medicine with poison.

An aide to the president, speaking on condition of anonymity, has alleged that the plot may have been linked to a decision to end the monopoly of a company supplying materials for the cotton industry as well as a major port contract.

Nigerian Couple Smuggled N3.2m Worth Of Illegal Drugs In Car Engine

A couple has been arrested by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) for smuggling 30 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa, locally known as Indian hemp in the Gbaji-seme area of Lagos.
The machine compressed hard drugs valued at N3.2 million was concealed in the engine compartment of a Kia- salon car from the Republic of Benin.
Handing over the suspects and exhibits to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) official, the Comptroller of the Seme Area command of the NCS, Mr Othman Salleh warned smugglers to steer clear of the border post.

30 Civilians killed by military in Maiduguri

The Associated Press has confirmed that Nigerian soldiers today killed at least 30 civilians in the northeaster city of Maiduguri.
The soldiers were retaliating following the killing of one of their officers, a lieutenant.
According to the report, “The attack came from soldiers attached to a special military unit on guard in Maiduguri, the spiritual home of the sect known as Boko Haram, in an effort to supposedly protect its citizens from the violence gripping the city. The killings likely will further antagonize a population already alienated by checkpoints, security force harassment and the threat of being killed by soldiers who are targets for the sect’s increasingly bloody guerrilla attacks.”

A MUST READ! Awolowo And Achebe’s Tale Of Fantasy

I am a historian and I have always believed that if we want to talk history we must be dispassionate, objective and factual. We must take the emotion out of it and we must always tell the truth. The worst thing that anyone can do is to try to re-write history and indulge in historical revisionism. This is especially so when the person is a revered figure and a literary icon.

Sadly, it is in the light of such historical revisionism that I view Professor Chinua Achebe’s assertion that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late and much loved Leader of the Yoruba, was responsible for the genocide that the Igbos suffered during the civil war. This claim is not only false but it is also, frankly speaking, utterly absurd.

Not only is Professor Achebe indulging in perfidy, not only is he being utterly dishonest and disingenuous but he is also turning history upside down and indulging in what I would describe as ethnic chauvinism.
I am one of those that has always had tremendous sympathy for the Igbo cause during the civil war. I am also an admirer of Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who stood up for his people when it mattered the most and when they were being slaughtered by rampaging mobs in the northern part of our country.
At least 100,000 Igbos were killed in those northern pogroms which took place before the civil war and which indeed led directly to it. This was not only an outrage but it was also a tragedy of monumental proportions.Yet we must not allow our emotion or our sympathy for the suffering of the Igbo at the hands of northern mobs before the war started to becloud our sense of reasoning, as regards what actually happened during the prosecution of the war itself.
It is important to set the record straight and not to be selective in our application and recollection of the facts when considering what actually led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Igbo women, children and civilians during that war. And, unlike others, I do not deny the fact that hundreds of thousands were starved to death as a consequence of the blockade that was imposed on Biafra by the Nigerian Federal Government.
To deny that this actually happened would be a lie. It is a historical fact. Again I do not deny the fact that Awolowo publicly defended the blockade and indeed told the world that it was perfectly legitimate for any government to impose such a blockade on the territory of their enemies in times of war. Awolowo said it, this is a matter of historical record and he was quoted in a number of British newspapers as having said so at the time.
Yet he spoke nothing but the truth. And whether anyone likes to hear it or not, he was absolutely right in what he said. Let me give you an example. During the Second World War a blockade was imposed on Germany, Japan and Italy by the Allied Forces and this was very effective. It weakened the Axis powers considerably and this was one of the reasons why the war ended at the time that it did. If there had been no blockade, the Second World War would have gone on for considerably longer.
In the case of the Nigerian civil war though the story did not stop at the fact that a blockade was imposed by the Federal Government which led to the suffering, starvation, pain, death and hardship of the civilian Igbo population or that Awolowo defended it. That is only half the story.
There was a lot more to it and the fact that Achebe and most of our Igbo brothers and sisters always conveniently forget to mention the other half of the story is something that causes some of us from outside Igboland considerable concern and never ceases to amaze us.
The bitter truth is that if anyone is to be blamed for the hundreds of thousands of Igbos that died from starvation during the civil war, it was not Chief Awolowo or even General Yakubu Gowon but, rather it was Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu himself. I say this because it is a matter of public record and a historical fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria made a very generous offer to Ojukwu and the Biafrans to open a road corridor for food to be ferried to the Igbos and to lessen the suffering of their civilian population.
This was as a consequence of a deal that was brokered by the international community who were concerned about the suffering of the Igbo civilian population and the death and hardship that the blockade was causing to them.
Unfortunately Ojukwu turned this down flatly and instead insisted that food should be flown into Biafra by air in the dead of the night. This was unacceptable to the Federal Government because it meant that the Biafrans could, and indeed would, have used such night flights to smuggle badly needed arms and ammunition into their country for usage by their soldiers. That was where the problem came from and that was the issue.
Apart from that, Ojukwu found it expedient and convenient to allow his people to starve to death and to broadcast it on television screens all over the world in order to attract sympathy for the Igbo cause and for propaganda purposes. And this worked beautifully for him.
Ambassador Ralph Uweche, who was the Special Envoy to France for the Biafran Government during the civil war and who is the leader of Ohaeneze, the leading igbo political and socio-cultural organisation today, attested to this in his excellent book titled ”Reflections On The Nigerian Civil War”. That book was factual and honest and I would urge people like Achebe to go and read it well. The self-serving role of Ojukwu and many of the Biafran intelligentsia and elites and their insensitivity to the suffering of their own people during the course of the war was well enunciated in that book. The fact of the matter is that the starvation and suffering of hundreds of thousands of igbo men, women and children during the civil war was seen and used as a convenient tool of propaganda by Ojukwu and that is precisely why he rejected the offer of a food corridor by the Nigerian Government. 

When those that belong to the post civil war generation of the igbo are wondering who was responsible for the genocide and mass starvation of their forefathers during the war they must firstly look within themselves and point their fingers at their own past leaders and certainly not Awolowo or Gowon. The person that was solely responsible for that suffering, for that starvation and for those slow and painful deaths was none other than Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of Biafra, himself.
I have written many good things about Ojukwu on many occasions in the past and I stand by every word that I have ever said or written about him. In my view he was a man of courage and immense fortitude, he stood against the mass murder of his people in the north and he brought them home and created a safe haven for them in the east. For him, and indeed the whole of Biafra, the war was an attempt to exercise their legitimate right of self-determination and leave Nigeria due to the atrocities that they had been subjected to in the north. I cannot blame him or his people for that and frankly I have always admired his stand. 

However he was not infallible and he also made some terrible mistakes, just as all great leaders do from time to time. The fact that he rejected the Nigerian Federal Government’s offer of a food corridor was one of those terrible mistakes and this cost him and his people dearly. Professor Chinua Achebe surely ought to have reflected that in his book as well. When it comes to the Nigerian civil war there were no villains or angels. During that brutal conflict no less than two million Nigerians and Biafrans died and the Yoruba who, unlike others, did not ever discriminate or attack any non-Yorubas that lived in their in their territory before the civil war or carry out any coups or attempted coups, suffered at every point as well. For example prominent Yoruba sons and daughters were killed on the night of the first Igbo coup of January 1966 and again in the northern ”revenge” coup of July 1966. 

Many of our people were also killed in the north before the outbreak of the civil war and again in the mid-west and the east during the course and prosecution of the war itself. It was indeed the predominantly Yoruba Third Marine Commando, under the command of General Benjamin Adekunle (the ”Black Scorpion”) and later General Olusegun Obasanjo, that not only liberated the mid-west and drove the Biafrans out of there but they also marched into Igboland itself, occupied it, defeated the Biafran Army in battle, captured all their major towns and forced the Igbo to surrender. Third Marine Commando was made up of Yoruba soldiers and I can say without any fear of contradiction that we the Yoruba therefore paid a terrible and heavy price as well during the war because many of our boys were killed on the war front by the Biafrans.

The sacrifice of these proud sons of the South-West that died in battle to keep Nigeria one must not be belittled, mocked or ignored. Clearly it was not only the Igbo that suffered during the civil war. Neither does it auger well for the unity of our nation for Achebe and the Igbo intelligentsia that are hailing his self-serving book to caste aspersions on the character, role and noble intentions of the late and revered Leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, during the civil war. The man may have made one or two mistakes in the past like every other great leader and of course there was a deep and bitter political division in Yorubaland itself just before the civil war started and throughout the early ’60′s. Yet by no stretch of the imagination can Awolowo be described as an Igbo-hating genocidal maniac and he most certainly did not delight in the starvation of millions of Igbo men, women and children as Achebe has tried to suggest.
My advice to this respected author is that he should leave Chief Awolowo alone and allow him to continue to rest in peace. This subtle attempt to denigrate the Yoruba and their past leaders, to place a question mark on their noble and selfless role in the war and to belittle their efforts and sacrifice to keep Nigeria together as one will always be vigorously resisted by those of us that have the good fortune of still being alive and who are aware of the facts. We will not remain silent and allow anyone, no matter how respected or revered, to re-write history.
Simply put by writing this book and making some of these baseless and nonsensical assertions, Achebe was simply indulging in the greatest mendacity of Nigerian modern history and his crude distortion of the facts has no basis in reality or rationality. We must not mistake fiction and story telling for historical fact. The two are completely different. The truth is that Professor Chinua Achebe owes the Awolowo family and the Yoruba people a big apology for his tale of pure fantasy.

Lagos State Destroys 3,000 Motocycles For Violating Traffic Law

The Lagos State Government has commenced the process of crushing 3, 000 motorcycles, popularly called okada, impounded from their owners for violating traffic law.
Officials of the state Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit on Tuesday dismantled the okadas at the task force yard in Alausa.
The Taskforce Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman, an Assistant Superintent of Police, said after the end of the dismantling exercise, the iron parts would be taken to the state Crushing Plant in Oshodi, where they would be crushed and recycled.
He said the action was to show that the government had stepped up its enforcement of the state traffic law, adding that the crushing of the okadas would serve as deterrent to other commercial motorcycle operators.
Sulaiman said, “These are okadas impounded since the new traffic law was signed into law. There are 3, 000 of them. Okada riders must obey our traffic law. They are fond of driving against traffic, on kerbs and several unauthorised places. The law has been passed and gazetted and there is no going back on its enforcement.
“We are dismantling the okadas now to separate the parts that are crushable from the ones that are not crushable. After this, we will take the crushable parts to Oshodi crushing plant, where they will be crushed and recycled. The non-crushable parts will probably be auctioned, but not in the state.
“The Taskforce has not started enforcing the law fully. But this should serve as a warning to them because we won’t hesitate to impound any okada caught on the restricted roads in the state.”
Sulaiman, however, said there were no riders to be prosecuted because the owners of the 3, 000 okadas abandoned them on sighting law enforcement officials.
On Monday’s protest by some of the riders, Sulaiman said, “They have the right to protest, but the government will be firm in what it does. It does not in any way stop our job, those who intend not to obey the law, we are coming after them. The protest is a group action, but our arrests will be one after the other and we will be out there on a daily basis.”
According to him, the law has been passed and those who will not obey the law will be punished.
The task force boss, however, said the law’s compliance level was improving on a daily basis. He advised the riders to go to areas where their operations are not restricted.