Biafra Voice News

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has said the group will sack the All Progressives Congress-led government of Imo State in 2019.

Kanu, who spoke in Owerri on Friday, insisted that there would be no election in Anambra State in November and in the other four South-East states in 2019.

The IPOB leader said power devolution to states and restructuring would not solve the problems of the country.

He said, “We are in the land of Biafra. I have come to Owerri to spread the good news of the coming of Biafra Republic. I don’t want you to be deceived. Restructuring does not have any meaning. I want you people to go and tell Ohanaeze Ndigbo that. There is no freedom in Nigeria. All their children are abroad studying and enjoying a good environment.

“Only a referendum can solve the problems of Nigeria. Power devolution is not the solution. Resource control is not our problem. What we need is Biafra. They are going about deceiving our people in the name of restructuring. I want to say it again that there will be no election in Anambra State. There will be no election in 2019 in Igbo land. And there will be no election in Imo state.

“Tell Rochas Okorocha that I am a child of God. I want people to tell him that he will leave the Government House in 2019 and go back to Jos where he came from. Let him get ready.”

UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic said suspected Christian militiamen have killed two Moroccan peacekeepers.
MINUSCA said this is the second deadly attack on Moroccan forces this week in Central African Republic.
The UN said in a statement that the peacekeepers were ambushed by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the town of Banagassou, 700 km east of the capital Bangui, as they stocked up water to deliver to the population.
Tuesday’s raid, which injured a third soldier, followed similar attacks by suspected anti-balaka fighters in the diamond-mining town in recent days, including one on Sunday that killed a Moroccan peacekeeper and left three others wounded.
Thousands have died in an ethnic and religious conflict that broke out when mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias.
Violence has escalated in CAR since former colonial power France ended its peacekeeping mission in the country in 2016, and in spite of a peace deal signed between the government and rival factions in Rome in June.

Subsequently, the Chinese military has reportedly been building up defenses along its border with North Korea that coincide with warnings by President Trump that he is considering military action over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons push.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a review of official military and government websites and interviews with experts, reported that Beijing has built bunkers to protect against nuclear blasts, established a new border brigade and a 24-hour surveillance of the mountainous frontier.
The preparations are intended to respond to worst-case scenarios, like an economic collapse, nuclear contamination or a conflict, the experts told the paper.
The Chinese government has not spoken out about the report of preparations. An official from its defense ministry said in a statement that the forces “maintain a normal state of combat readiness and training.”
“Military means shouldn’t be an option to solve the Korean Peninsula issue,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
“If you’re going to make me place bets on where I think the U.S. and China would first get into a conflict, it’s not Taiwan, the South China Sea or the East China Sea: I think it’s the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
The Trump administration is searching for more effective ways to ramp up pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang’s recent successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile — the first by the North — has created even more urgency as the U.S. seeks to stop North Korea before it can master the complex process of putting a nuclear warhead atop a missile capable of hitting the United States.
President Trump has expressed frustration that his initial strategy — enlisting China’s help and influence to squeeze the North economically and diplomatically has not yielded major results.
Trump’s administration is also considering other economic steps including “secondary sanctions” that could target companies and banks — mostly in China — that do even legitimate business with North Korea, officials said.

Senate President Bukola Saraki has said the constitutional review at the plenary on Wednesday would include voting on Independent candidature.
He said this in a series of tweets while explaining the review.
He added that the creation of the office of Accountant General of Federal Govt and separation from the Accountant General of the Federation will also be considered.
see tweets below

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has said Boko Haram insurgency resulted in 54,911 widows and 52,311 orphans, quoting statistics from World Bank, in partnership with European Union and the Presidency.
According to Shettima, “these are official figures; probably the unofficial figure may be twice these numbers. The truth is that we either take care of these orphans or 10 to 15 years from now, they will be the monsters that will drive us out of this land.”
The governor, who spoke, yesterday, in Abuja at a ceremony organised by a female rights advocacy group, Girl Child Concerns, to celebrate the graduation of 42 Chibok schoolgirls and 31 indigent girls drawn from Kaduna, Plateau and Borno states, said Nigerians should appreciate the fact that the girls had been in the “deepest valley” before they were released.
His words: “You must have heard some of these girls speak. It is often said that it is only those who have been in the deepest valley that would appreciate when they are on top of the mountain.
“If we knew where they (Chibok girls) were coming from, they deserve a standing ovation.”
He said education was at a dismal state at the time he assumed office, saying only N20 million was being spent on feeding per month for 76 secondary schools.
He said: “I went to Government Girls Secondary School, Maiduguri, with a student population of 2, 500. I asked the principal how much they were getting for feeding and she said N1.2 million per month.
The 42 Chibok girls were among the 57 who immediately escaped hours after their abduction. In April 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from an all-female public secondary school in Chibok.
Of the figure, 57 escaped, leaving 219 missing. Of the 219, 106 are back, while 113 remain missing for the past 1,198 days, today.
Shettima added that while the school had no perimeter fence, hostels meant for 20 students had over 120 crammed in.
He said: “Guess what? The school had only two maiguards (security men). In the evening, Sugar Daddies lurked around, wreaking the lives of these students.
“But for us in northern Nigeria, we have no option than to embrace western education.”
The Board Chairman of the Girl Child Concerns, Dr Mairo Mandara, lamented that the educational advancement of girls in the north had been greatly constrained by a combination of economic, social and cultural factors.
She said: “It was difficult getting a school for them.
“In one school, some parents threatened to withdraw their children if we offered the girls admission.
“Bethel International Christian Academy, Jos, and Ulul Albab Islamic School Katsina not only gave them admission, but also created special remedial classes to help the girls catch up with others.”

 Ezenwanyi Eberechukwu Anigbogu, has said kanu has no right to stop elections in Anambra State and the South-East in general.
Anigbogu, who is the Director General of the Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria (MOBIN) said this while addressing journalists in Awka, Anambra State.
She said Kanu must see participation of Igbos in the coming Anambra governorship election as a way of electing a governor, who is sympathetic to the cause of Biafra.
She said, “Nnamdi Kanu should be aware that Biafrans are hungry for good governance. Biafrans are tired of governors who only shed crocodile tears when Fulani herdsmen kill their families without taking any action. Biafrans are tired of governors who sit and watch while unarmed, protesting Biafrans are being shot on the streets.
“We have discussed with him (Kanu) to see reasons why Biafra, as a matter of urgency, needs its own sons and daughters in power. We will not allow Fulani military administrators become the administrator in Anambra when their is chaos here.
“We will not allow people who who don’t have value for our lives rule over us and kill us. Kanu cannot stop the take over of this land by Umu Biafra. I am Ada(daughter of the land), and I speak the voice of my ancestors. Kanu cannot stand in the way of the same Biafra he and I have worked together to achieve. He must understand this.”

RITA ANIGBOGU WILL BE DISGRACED AT LAST

#NOELECTIONINBIAFRALAND

Britain will outlaw the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040 in a bid to cut air pollution, the government was set to announce later Wednesday.
Enviroment minister Michael Gove is due to present the government’s keenly-awaited £3 billion ($3.9 billion, 3.4 billion euro) air pollution plan, which is expected to demand that councils propose measures by March next year to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels, according to British media reports.
The ban on petrol and diesel cars as well as vans follows a similar proposal by the French government, and will also include hybrid vehicles that have an electric motor and a petrol or diesel engine.
Britain’s High Court demanded that the government produce plans to tackle illegal NO2 pollution, largely caused by diesel emissions, and a draft report was published in May, but the full report was delayed by last month’s snap general election.
The government will provide local councils with £255 million to bring NO2 levels to legal levels, with possible solutions including the removal of speed humps, reprogramming traffic lights and changing road layouts.
“Diesel drivers are not to blame and, to help them switch to cleaner vehicles, the government will consult on a targeted scrappage scheme, one of a number of measures to support motorists affected by local plans,” said a government spokesman.
ClientEarth, the campaign group that brought the case, arguing that a previous set of plans were insufficient to meet EU pollution limits, warned that health issues “caused by exposure to illegal air pollution are happening now, so we need urgent action.”
Air pollution contributes to the death of more than 40,000 people per year in Britain, according to official figures, with nitrogen dioxide a particular problem.

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped 10 members of a geological research team from the University of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, the state oil company, which contracted the work, said on Wednesday.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has been surveying for more than a year for what it says could be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin, a region wracked by Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.
OPEC member Nigeria relies on crude oil for two-thirds of government revenue. Attacks on energy facilities in its southern Niger Delta oil heartland last year cut production by more than a third, deepening the recession in Africa’s biggest economy.
“About 10 members of the University of Maiduguri geology and surveying department were abducted by suspected Boko Haram members,” Ughamadu said, noting that the group included academic staff, drivers and other workers.
The University of Maiduguri said some of its lecturers, who were accompanied by security staff, had not returned on Tuesday from an oil prospecting trip. Its spokesman said the university was waiting for a report from security agencies.

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WHERE ARE THE IGBO ELITES?

  Sometimes I look at these people who claim that they are Igbo elites as people bereaved of wisdom and knowledge,  these people passed through the same Primary, Secondary Schools and Universities which we also passed through. How come in a broad daylight they became Igbo Elites, did they study specially in the Sun, in the Moon or inside the Ocean where they graduated and impose on themselves  the position of the so called Igbo Elites.
       These people find themselves in one useless caucus or the other and believe that if anything is to happen in Igboland and they are not there it will not work. Sometimes People say " in this thing that is happening where are the Igbo elites" like Soludo said, many people were saying we are talking of Biafra what has the Igbo elites said and I will tell them taa kwuchie Onu gi kee ndi bu Igbo elites.
     My deepest anger is that these people will go in their caucus and  Political groups make one useless decision which does not favour me and expect me to keep to it  and some gullible individuals will be jumping up that the Igbo elites are now coming out, coming out to do what? and I keep asking who are the Igbo elites and where are they?
     I  challenged this expression some two years ago in my article I titled "who are the Igbo elites and where are they" when Bar. Emeka Ugwuonye used the expression in the first video he made after Director Nnamdi Kanu was arrested and the protest that followed,  Prof. Soludo also used it in his speech during  a book  lunching.
      Now looking at how far the struggle for Biafra restoration has gone what part has the so called Igbo elites played in understanding the inner feelings of the majority of about 90% of Igbo youths that have taken this on themselves to achieve this goal or die in the process instead they aliened with our enemies against their own people. The position of Ohaneze today concerning the Biafra restoration explains clearly what I am saying here.
      For me the Igbo elites are you and me that knows what is necessary for us to do for our good and the generations to come and we face it squarely not minding the difficulties involved in it. You don't need to read inside Pluto to become Igbo elite but your pure reasoning and ability to face the issues confronting you makes you one and those people you regard as Igbo elites, you expect to talk before we know if Biafra will be restored or not,  I call them "educated illiterates" who have nothing to offer.
    Director Nnamdi Kanu said it earlier that it is you and I that will restore Biafra not any other person that will do it and that is what we are doing and I hope that most of you that are waiting for the so called Igbo elites and Igbo Politicians to say something or lead the Biafra restoration struggle has been totally disappointed and your faces buried in shame.
ALL HAIL BIAFRA

Fred Onyeali
Elder Statesman Ipob
1st Ipob National Coordinator Worldwide

World leaders on Friday ratcheted up pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to compromise on climate and trade as a Group of 20 summit got underway in Germany amid clashes between police and protestors.
In a joint communique issued as the leaders gathered in a vast convention centre in Hamburg, Brazil, Russia, India and China, BRICS countries, called on the G20 to push for implementation of the Paris climate deal despite Trump’s decision in Jume to pull the United States out of it.
“The Paris agreement on climate change is an important consensus that doesn’t come easily and must not be given up easily,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said G20 leaders would urge Trump to reconsider his decision on Paris.
“We are not renegotiating the Paris agreement, that stays, but I want to see the U.S. looking for ways to rejoin it,” she told the BBC.
The meeting comes at a time of major shifts in the global geo-political landscape, with Trump’s “America First” policies pushing Europe and China closer together.
Trump will meet President Vladimir Putin for the first time on Friday afternoon, an encounter that will be intensely scrutinised following allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow meddled in the U.S. election to help Trump win.
The summit also brings together Trump and Xi at a time when Washington is raising pressure on Beijing to rein in North Korea and threatening the Chinese with punitive trade measures.
Amid the big egos and seemingly intractable conflicts, the host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, faces the daunting task of steering leaders towards a consensus on trade, climate and migration, all issues that have become more contentious since Trump entered the White House half a year ago.
Nor will she be keen for an open confrontation that could deepen tensions with Washington.
“There is quite a delicate balance that Angela Merkel will have to navigate in a way, because it is not clear that being confrontational won’t just create even more of a credibility problem for G20 cooperation,” Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters in an interview.
Merkel chose Hamburg, the trading hub where she was born, to send a signal about Germany’s openness to the world, including its tolerance for peaceful protests.
The summit is being held only a few hundred meters from one of Germany’s most potent symbols of left-wing resistance, a former theater called the “Rote Flora” which was taken over by anti-capitalist squatters nearly three decades ago.
German security officials have been clear that holding a summit of this scale in the center of a city like Hamburg comes with big risks.
After a night of clashes with police, groups of anti-capitalist protesters sat on the main intersections in Hamburg, blocking streets and bridges leading to the summit venue in the city center as well as a road used by container trucks at Hamburg Port.
The blockades forced German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble to cancel a discussion with pupils at a school in the city.
Police have used water cannon to clear roads that G20 officials are using.
About 30 protesters have been arrested and more than 100 police officers injured.

In comparing federal unions with confederacies, Karl Deutsch reveals, inter alia, that “states often may secede from confederacy, if their own governments or voters so decide, whereas such secession is not permitted in a federal union”.
The European Union is one example of a confederation, and it should be understood from the context of the above authoritative definitions why the pull out of a member nation, Britain being the latest example, has not been a subject of conflict or acrimony. Britons voted in 2016, albeit by a small margin, to pull out of the European Union and the process of withdrawal has since commenced with the triggering of “Article 50” by the former. The Scottish referendum of 2014, also, has to be understood within the context of the United Kingdom and the nature of laws and understandings that guide relationships therein.
On the contrary, the dissolution of a federal union has tended to result from some war or conflict. The United States of America is the oldest federal nation in the world, the founding fathers having rejected the erstwhile Articles of Confederation which did not meet the needs of a purposeful and dynamic nation. The attempted secession of 11 southern states in 1860 and 1861 led to the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865. The successful prosecution of the war by the federalists firmly established the indestructibility of the union as a doctrine. In Texas v White (1869), the United States Supreme Court held that the USA was an “indestructible union” from which no state can secede. However, the justices commented that revolution or consent of the states could lead to a successful secession.
However, the agitators have an option: they could warmly support the restructuring of the Nigerian federation, as currently being canvassed by politicians. Motives compete and contend in this advocacy; some proponents genuinely believe that their advocacy will lead to a better and more stable Nigerian federation, while there are those whose utterances suggest that they anticipate that such restructuring could lead to their ultimate goal of breaking up the federation. Beyond mere sloganeering, the protagonists of restructuring have yet to forcefully articulate and disseminate their agenda. Of course, some have suggested the scrapping of the states for new regions and this suggests that they might have quickly forgotten that some of the states were once violently agitated for by Nigerians.
Be that as it may, Kanu and his IPOB have said all they ever advocate is a referendum and not the restructuring of Nigeria. The agitators may very well end up engaging the Federal Government in a war that would eventually decide the fate of their cause. Their leadership seems to have adopted some stubborn and more militant posturing recently, not least in their declaration or warning that there would be no election in any part of the South-East states, beginning with the Anambra State governorship election in November, unless the Federal Government authorised a referendum on Biafra.
Although some politicians in the region have voiced their anger at the seeming arrogance and over-exaggerated feelings of self-importance on the part of Kanu in making that declaration or warning, it is in effecting it that the entire world will know or appreciate how determined and prepared the separatists are in daring the state. When Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu took on the state in 1967, he had a united Igbo nation behind him as well as an army reasonably prepared for war; time will tell if Kanu had got what it takes to back what would appear, on current assumption, to be mere rhetoric and grandstanding.

The head of the European Union’s election observer mission in Kenya says it’s no secret there are concerns about possible violence in next month’s presidential election.
Kenya a decade ago faced postelection violence that left more than 1,000 people dead and 600,000 displaced from their homes. It was arguably the worst upheaval the East African nation had experienced since independence from Britain in 1963.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is seeking re-election against a challenge by opposition leader Raila Odinga, whom he beat in the 2013 vote. Kenyatta supporters have accused Odinga of planning violence if he does not win.

On Monday, July 10, the Ibibio nation, Nigeria’s 4th largest ethnic group, will roll out the drums to celebrate one of its own, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr Udom Emmanuel and his wife.
The event, which is a grand reception for the state chief executive and the first lady of the state, holds at the ancestral Asan Ibibio grounds, Ikot Oku Ikono, in Uyo local government area.
According to the Chairman, Central Planning Committee and former Military Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Otuekong Idongesit Nkanga, the occasion is a further demonstration of the oneness of purpose of the Ibibio nation in support to an illustrious son who has discharged his duties meritoriously.
Nkanga said that despite challenging economic times, the governor has remained resolute in his pursuit of people-oriented governance and sustainable development in Akwa Ibom State after just 24 months in office.
According to Otuekong Nkanga, “the event is expected to bring together eminent Ibibio sons and daughters; friends and associates from within and outside Nigeria.
He enjoined all indigenes and residents of Akwa Ibom state to grace the occasion, as a show of solidarity with the Ibibio Nation and support for Governor Emmanuel, who has demonstrated dynamic and purposeful leadership.

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has vowed to kick against any restructuring in the oil and gas industry that will have a negative effect on its members and anything that could make the workers redundant.
President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson, who made the vow in his post election speech after his re-election in a keenly contested election reiterated that security of his members’ jobs would form the fulcrum of his regime.
He said, “Under no guise will we allow our members to lose their jobs. We will fight any form of unprocedural redundancies or restructuring that affects our members.
“We are ready to collaborate with the government and other agents towards the development and growth of our industry.”
Comrade Johnson in the election at the association’s triannal delegates Conference in Abuja defeated two other contestants Comrade Mohammed Saleh of NAPIMS and Comrade Eze Emmanuel Eze of NPDC.
Comrade Eleas Eduga of NAOC (Nigeria Agip Oil Company) was also reelected as National Financial Secretary, Comrade Victor Ononokpono of PPPRA emerged as the Treasurer and Comrade Fortune Obi of Shell Petroleum elected National PRO.
Comrade Evelyn Amaka Ijeoma of Fugro was reelected as National Women in PENGASSAN (WIP) Chairperson, Comrade Yon Paul Naron of PPPRA reelected as National Auditor 1 and Comrade Timothy Jaiyeoba elected as National Auditor 2.
The newly elected officers will be joined by six other officers who had earlier been elected at the various zonal elections that took place on May 25th 2017 in Abeokuta, Ogun State; Yola, Adamawa State and Asaba, Delta State.
However, the elections of the Zonal Chairman and other three notable positions for Port Harcourt Zone were nullified due to alleged irregularities.

A group, Joint Northern Youth Forum, yesterday condemned in strongest terms the disrespectful manner the Coalition of Northern Youth responded to an unconfirmed remark wrongly attributed to the billionaire investor Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
Dangote was alleged to have described the ultimatum issued to Igbo to vacate the North by Arewa youths as reckless and a manifestation of frustration and joblessness.
In a statement signed by the group’s director of Media and Publicity, Ashiru Abdullahi, noted with dismay the use of abusive language against Dangote, by the so-called Coalition of Northern Youth Groups, as a response to an unconfirmed statement credited to the respected investor.
The statement expressed disgust that a group that professes to be promoting Northern interest would insult a prominent son of the North who provided the highest number of job opportunities in the history of the region.
According to the statement, it is indeed surprising why anyone should associate Dangote to anything politics.
“It has never happened and anyone who knows Dangote would readily admit that he has been a hardworking investor for decades and not a politician. The Coalition’s bedtime story about Obasanjo asking Dangote to run for the nation’s presidency is also laughable indeed.
“The Coalition claimed that Dangote “can never be” among genuine Northern patriots. This can never be true, given the hundreds of thousands of Northerners earning a livelihood through his vast array of investments in the North.
“When the so-called Coalition said its members are not involved with “drug peddling and currency counterfeiting”, what are they insinuating? What business has the respected African entrepreneur got to do with it?
“It is not in the character of northerners to be involved with insulting elders, especially elders that are enterprising and economically productive,” the statement read.
The statement described as sad and unfortunate the accusations made by the coalition that Dangote group is a destination for corrupt government officials, saying there was no iota of truth in the allegation.
“The insinuation that Dangote group of companies is a “financial destination for every corrupt government official” is simply ridiculous because his chain of investments have never been associated with the trial of corrupt public officials by agencies like the EFCC or ICPC for many years. Dangote would not have been recognised by credible institutions like Forbes as the richest man in Africa.
“In accusing Dangote and others of bringing economic hardship to Nigeria “ for the past 25 years” the Coalition has not only ridiculed itself but insulted all those Nigerians who have escaped poverty and hardship courtesy of Dangote’s investments and Corporate Social Responsibility projects. It is also a blatant lie to say Dangote’s investments in the North are “negligible” or that the entrepreneur hates the North; it makes no sense at all,”the statement concluded.

The leader of Indegenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu today met with some men of the Nigerian police. The police men happily declared full support for Biafra and Nnamdi Kanu's fanatical and relentless work towards the restoration of Biafra.


I thought they said Nigerians want "One Nigeria" and that Biafrans are the only ones agitating for self-determination? Well, here are some Nigeria policemen who are boldly in support of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and they also asked him to keep fighting hard and never give up. #BiafraIsHere.

Germany is girding itself for possible cyber attacks on next week’s G20 summit in Hamburg, by hacker groups or cells linked to foreign governments, its top cyber official told Reuters.
Arne Schoenbohm, president of Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), said authorities had set up a 24/7 special command center to defend against such attacks, just as it was preparing for any physical violence.
“We’re preparing intensively for every form of protest,” Schoenbohm said in an interview.
“As the national cyber security agency … we’re concerned about everything from (persistent threats) to groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec that could be planning political protests using cyber attacks.”
Schoenboehm said the agency had no information about specific attacks, but had been carrying out so-called “penetration” tests to ensure the safety of computer networks involved when the leaders of the 20 major economies meet on July 7-8.
Dozens of cyber experts were standing by to respond to any attack, he said.
Some 20,000 police with dogs, horses and helicopters will be deployed to deal with tens of thousands of expected protesters in Hamburg.
Schoenboehm said the government realized people could protest virtually as well.
He said German cyber officials had been and remained in close touch with their counterparts in other G20 countries, including the United States to protect computer networks, surveillance cameras and other security equipment.
Germany holds national elections in September. APT 28, a Russian hacker group that experts say has links to the Russian government, is believed to be behind attacks on the German parliament, political parties and think tanks.
Schoenboehm said the attacks were continuing, with a clear aim to securing information that could be used to affect the election.
Last week, the BSI said it had seen a fresh wave of spearphishing attacks aimed at businesses and government that use emails to get users to click on links that download malicious software.
BSI has been working closely with German political parties and lawmakers to raise their security awareness and bolster security, but risks remain, Schoenbohm said.
He said he had just learned that Germany’s “Vote-Meter,” a government-generated computer program that allows voters to compare their views with party programs, was not secure, he said.
“We will be looking at that carefully in coming weeks,” he said.

No fewer than 12 West African countries will assemble in Nigeria to deliberate on ways to develop the mining sector in the region, Alhaji Sani Shehu, President, Miners Association of Nigeria, has said.
Shehu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja that the countries would meet on July 5 to discuss their progress, challenges in the sector and areas that ECOWAS could assist them.
The association is organising General meeting of ECOWAS Federation of Chambers of Mines (EFEDCOM), he said.
EFEDCOM was formed by ECOWAS to advocate for effective policies to promote sustainable and responsible mining sub-region.
The meetings of EFEDCOM are rotational; the 2016 version took place in Ghana and the 2017 edition would be hosted by the Miners Association of Nigeria.
According to him, the programme which is first of its kind in Nigeria, will be attended by Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Niger, Cote D’Ivoire, Guinea among others.
He said the programme would be of great benefit to Nigeria’s economy, as it would open up market opportunities to showcase available minerals in the country and areas that ECOWAS could assist the sector.
According to him, Nigeria is still backward among mining nations, adding that Nigeria is not on the World Mining Map due to its low performance in the sector.
“The programme will showcase Nigeria as a potential country that is capable of being in the World mining map, adding that most of the countries that will attend the programme are already in the map.
”There is no concrete achievement to show or point at in the last two years that has happened in the sector, except the Mining Road map that was produced and launched last year.”
He said that the association had been making efforts to promote Nigeria mining to compete with successful African and international mining countries.

The fire which gutted House on the Rock Church in Abuja on Sunday began on the top floor of the N3 billion edifice, according to a witness.

The church building, which is known as `Citadel and Towers’ with a sitting capacity of 10, 000 , went up in flames at about 2pm as the rain was falling.

The witness who identified herself simply as Esther said the fire began after the Sunday service had closed.

She said she was about to leave the Church premises when she noticed fire on the top floor of the building.

According to her, the plastic materials on the top floor of the building burned quickly, and spread to the second floor and onto the pulpit. Half of the building located on Airport Road was destroyed before the firemen were able to tame the fire.

Rev. Kennedy Asigime, a cleric in the church, said that there were no casualties as members of the church had gone home at the time of the event.

“The most unfortunate thing is the fact that we have a fire service that is not properly equipped to help in such situation.

“We have no idea what caused the fire, whether it is an electrical fault or not, nobody knows for now.

“This whole building cost about N3 billion and a very substantial part of the building has been totally destroyed.

“We cannot be sure of what is left standing now, we need to do an integrity test to know if the whole building is going to be knocked down,’’ Asigime said.

He, however, said that the timely response of the Fire Service was commendable but the response with substance to deal with the situation “is below zero.’’

He said the fire fighters were not well equipped to extinguish the fire as they lacked the required liquid and came with “the same ladder used by Electric Distribution Companies.’’

“They were just here because they want to put it on record that they responded to the call; but they got here and said they did not have water. Until trucks from the private sector started coming, trucks from Julius Berger and NNPC, may God help us in this country,’’ he added.

In his response, the Head of FCT Fire Service, Garki Station, Mr Stanley Ujobo, said the cause of the fire could not be ascertained yet.

“We cannot really ascertain the cause of the fire for now until we are done with dumping, which is pouring enough water to prevent resurgence.

“A lot of combustible and very highly inflammable materials were used in partitioning the building.

“Before you enter such a burning building, you have to take caution to avert loss of life; that was the reason we were unable to start fighting the fire on arrival,’’ he said.

According to Ujobo, the building did not have fire hydrant and that the alarm system was not working.

Ujobo said that the fire fighters were professionals trained to fight fire and would not rush into a building without proper strategy.

Ujobo advised Nigerians intending to build such big structures to consult the fire service for professional guidance on what type of materials to use.

Motorists and some members of the church who witnessed the fire incident from a distance were seen worshipping and singing praises to God for averting a bigger calamity.

The fire service deployed no fewer than eight trucks.

There were other private fire trucks that responded, before the fire was extinguished at 5.30 p.m.