Biafra Voice News

Twenty villages were set ablaze and at least four women burned alive, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The alleged atrocities were part of an escalating conflict that began in late 2016 when an attempt to use English in classrooms and courts was violently repressed by the French-speaking government.

HRW identified several hundred homes across the 20 villages using satellite imagery and then collected testimony from residents who said security forces were responsible.

Its report also documented the burning of schools by armed separatists, in an apparent attempt to enforce their school boycott. Tens of thousands of Cameroonian children have not been able to attend school for the past two years.

The separatists’ numbers have increased as the violent repression continues, particularly since security forces killed dozens of protesters and wounded more than 100 others in October.

With hundreds in jail, and more than 180,000 displaced, many anglophones feel they have no choice but to fight.

In response to the HRW report, Cameroon’s government said the level of force it used remained “proportional to the extent of the threat”.

The report’s author, Jonathan Pedneault, said the government needed to “recognise the fact that its soldiers have committed severe abuses. It needs to order a stop to the abuses and ensure accountability for crimes”.

The Cameroonian military is dealing with multiple accusations of abuses. Four men were recently arrested in connection with a widely shared video showing two women and two children being killed by armed men, who accuse them on camera of being members of the extremist group Boko Haram.

The minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma, has denied the footage showed Cameroonian soldiers, while the minister of defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, has accused the writer and activist Patrice Nganang of creating the video in order to  “overwhelm” the armed forces.

Last week, as it travelled through the anglophone south-west region, although he and his six generals were travelling in an armour-plated vehicle with an armed escort, and their attackers had “homemade hunting guns”, so they escaped unharmed.

Paul Biya, who has ruled the country since 1982, has announced he is to run again for office. If he wins, he would be 92 by the end of a seventh presidential term.

Foreign companies, particularly those based in the United States of America, are complaining of pervasive corruption, poor judicial system, inconsistent regulations, and lack of transparency as hindrances to doing business with ease in Nigeria.

The complaints were contained in a report, ‘2018 Investment Climate Statements’ published by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, a copy of which was obtained by THISDAY on Saturday.

The latest report, which was released on Thursday, provided information on the business climates of more than 170 countries including Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s full market potential remains unrealised because of significant impediments such as pervasive corruption, inadequate power and transportation infrastructure, high energy costs, an inconsistent regulatory and legal environment, insecurity, a slow and ineffective bureaucracy and judicial system, and inadequate intellectual property rights protections and enforcement…. Nigeria’s underdeveloped power sector remains a particular bottleneck to broad-based economic development,” it said.

The report prepared by the US economic officers stationed in embassies and posts around the world examined matters like investment, legal and regulatory systems, dispute resolution, transparency, responsible business conduct, and corruption.

The document which acknowledged that Nigeria’s imports rose in 2017, largely as a result of the country’s gradual recovery from the 2015 economic recession, noted that US goods exports to Nigeria in that year were $2.16 billion, up nearly 60 per cent from the previous year.

While US imports from Nigeria were $7.05 billion, an increase of 68.7 per cent, it disclosed that “US exports to Nigeria are primarily refined petroleum products, used vehicles, cereals, and machinery.”

The US government further claimed: “Maritime criminality in Nigerian waters, including incidents of piracy and crew kidnap for ransom, has increased in recent years and law enforcement efforts have been limited or ineffectual. Onshore, international inspectors have voiced concerns over the adequacy of security measures at some Nigerian port facilities. Businesses report that bribery of customs and port officials remains common to avoid delays, and smuggled goods routinely enter Nigeria’s seaports and cross its land borders.”

The pointed out that corruption and lack of transparency in tender processes has been a far greater concern to US companies than any discriminatory policies based on foreign status.

It noted, “Government tenders are published in local newspapers, a ‘tenders’ journal sold at local newspaper outlets, and on occasionally in foreign journals and magazines. The Nigerian government has made modest progress on its pledge to conduct open and competitive bidding processes for government procurement.

“Reforms have also improved transparency in procurement by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). Although US companies have won contracts in a number of sectors, difficulties in receiving payment are not uncommon and can inhibit firms from bidding.”

It further stated that agencies created to promote industrial exports were burdened by uneven management, vaguely-defined policy guidelines, and corruption.

“Nigeria’s inadequate power supply and lack of infrastructure and the associated high production costs leave Nigerian exporters at a significant disadvantage. Many Nigerian businesses fail to export because they find meeting international packaging and safety standards is too difficult or expensive…. The vast majority of Nigeria’s manufacturers remain unable to compete in the international market,” it said.

The report berated the country’s judicial system accusing it of allowing corruption to thrive, saying: “Nigeria has a complex, three-tiered legal system comprised English common law, Islamic law, and Nigerian customary law. The Nigerian court system is slow and inefficient, lacks adequate court facilities and computerized document-processing systems, and poorly remunerates judges and other court officials, all of which encourages corruption and undermines enforcement.”

Although Nigeria’s constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, report concluded: “The judicial branch remains susceptible to pressure from the executive and legislative branches. Political leaders have influenced the judiciary, particularly at the state and local levels. Understaffing, underfunding, inefficiency, and corruption have at times prevented the judiciary from functioning adequately.”

ALERT! ALERT!! ALERT!!!

Information reaching Family Writers Press news desk has it that there is a serious crisis at the moment between the people of Obudu and Bekwara near Ogoja of Cross River State in Biafra Land and Tiv people of Vandekeiya and Ushongo of Benue State of Nigeria. According an eye witness, Comrade Odey Aturuogor from the area whom Family Writers Press contacted through phone calls, the crisis is caused by land dispute between the two people. From what we gathered, Nigeria Army and police are spotted siding the Tiv people to be killing the people of Obudu instead of making peace. Another call made to a resident of Obanliku, a place severely effected by the crisis, Mr Poland Ugeche Samuel Peter, to get his own side of the account but his phone number was not connecting. More information coming from there........

Mazi Onyebuchi Eze reporting for Family Writers Press

Herdsmen has early this morning attacked a town called Dowaya outside Numan in Adamawa state, slaughtered 33 women, children, and injured 78 others.

Starnews reliably gathered that the victims were Christians that were praying and conducting a wake-keeping for others in their community that had been murdered by the herdsmen a few days earlier.

In a swift reaction, chief Femi Fani Kayode has pointed accusing finger at the military, alleging complicity in the incident.

In one of his tweets, Chief Fani Kayode said :

“The soldiers that were posted to Dowaya refused to protect them and stood by and watched as the carnage took place before their very eyes,” he said.

A leading Igbo socio-cultural group, Igbo Bu Igbo, has condemned what it terms “the continued indiscriminate arrest and persecution of political and business leaders of Igbo extraction by overzealous security agents”.

In a statement signed by Dr Law Mefor-Anueyiagu and Jude Ndukwe, Chancellor and Head, Media Directorate, respectively, the group stated that ” With this latest arrest of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, it has become indisputably obvious that Ndigbo have been deliberately marked out for intimidation, harassment and, ultimately, perpetual subjugation”.

Continuing, the Igbo group said, while they believe in the efficacy of the rule of law which also implies that no one is above the law, “we will not accept a situation where our leaders are subjected to random humiliation without recourse to decorum and constitutionalism”. “We call on good-spirited Nigerians, human rights organisations and the international community, to take note of the systematic use of state institutions to persecute opposition members and those who hold divergent views from the government.

“Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe is a ranking Senator of the Federal Republic, and, it is our belief that, if not a system where things are done crudely and where persecution takes the place of persecution of political opponents, the Senator should have been invited rather than arrested in a manner executed to humiliate him. “Let us assure those on this path of error, that, just like it was with our leaders and people who have faced one form of persecution or the other under this government in the recent past, Ndigbo will never be intimidated to abandon their own.

The era when our common traducers used to pitch us against one another for their own selfish interests is gone. Today, our common age-long  persecution in the country has taught us to be together and be there for one another no matter the circumstances. It is therefore needless for any person, group of persons and or institution(s) to continue picking on Igbo sons and daughters in the hope that such victims of persecution would be abandoned by their people; rather, such actions bind us even closer and stronger. “Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe remains one of our leading lights not only in Igboland but also the entire country. We hereby demand his unconditional and immediate release,” the statement concluded.

A reputable non-governmental and pro-democracy organization – Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) – has asked the United States of America’s government and the European Union to impose sanctions on Nigeria over the spate of killings of civilians by security forces in the last two years ago which are unaccounted for, despite global outcry.

The rights group has also asked the United States Congress to freeze the sale of weapons to Nigeria already approved by President Donald Trump during a recent state visit by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari under whose command and control over a thousand unarmed Igbo demonstrators and sympathisers of the now proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra were mauled to their gruesome deaths by Nigeria Army.

HURIWA also described as strange, the decision by Donald Trump to sell sophisticated weapons to the Nigeria Army who are responsible for the gruesome mass murder of unarmed members of the Shiites Islamic movement and the unjust incarceration of its leader; his wife and hundreds of other members arrested and dumped in detention facilities for demanding the release of their leader who was thrice granted bails by Federal High Court but for which the Nigerian government disrespected.

In a statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA condemned the inhumane decision by Donald Trump to approve the sale of fighter Jets to the Nigerian government whose security forces killed thousands of Nigerian civilians.

HURIWA asserted that Amnesty International had done highly scientific and evidence-based findings which indicted the Nigeria Army for the extra-legal killings of over 600 demonstrators suspected to be members of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), and over 350 persons belonging to Shiites Islamic Movement who were killed by Army in Zaria over two years ago.

“We are in deep shock that, although, the United States President is aware of all the damaging facts about large-scale extralegal killings that occurred in South East of Nigeria and North West of Nigeria, but still proceeded to okay the sale of the deadly fighter jets to the Nigeria Army whose human rights record is about the worst globally.”

HURIWA recalled that a Frontline rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) on recently accused the Nigerian Army of illegally killing about 150 pro-Biafra activists last year apart from the number listed by Amnesty International. It alleged that the crime was committed last year and covered up under the blanket of Operation Python Dance II.

“The allegation was contained in a statement signed by Intersociety Board Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, and Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Programme, Barr Obianuju Joy Igboeli,” the group noted.

It said the statement released from the group’s head office in Onitsha, Anambra State, reads: “The combined authorities of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force are responsible for the killing of no fewer than 456 defenseless and unarmed citizens of the country in 2017 alone. The killings included jet-bombing of no fewer than 236 Christian IDPs at Rann IDP camp in Kale-Balge LGA of Borno State on 17th January 2017.

“There were also no fewer than 20 supporters of Biafra Indigenous People, shot and killed by soldiers at pro Trump Rally in Port Harcourt on 20th January 2017; no fewer than 50 rural Christians bombed to death in Numan, Adamawa State on 4th December 2017; and no fewer than 150 mainly supporters of Biafra Indigenous People killed on 12th, 13th and 14th of September 2017 in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia (105 deaths), Isiala-Ngwa (20 deaths) and Aba (25 deaths). Over 100 unarmed and defenseless others were also shot and wounded particularly in Afara-Ukwu; which witnessed the highest number of injuries and Aba with the second highest number of injuries.

“In 2016, the Nigerian Army, joined by Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies killed no fewer than 200 pro Biafra activists in Aba on 18th and 29th of January and 9th of February (60 deaths including 16 slain bodies dumped in two burrow pits and over ten recovered slain bodies) and 29th and 30th of May 2016 at Nkpor, Onitsha and Asaba (140 deaths with only about 15% bodies of the slain recovered and buried by their families).

“In 2015, the Nigerian Army, joined by Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies killed no fewer than 50 unarmed pro-Biafra campaigners. They were killed at Awka and Onitsha on 30th August; again in Onitsha and Aba on 2nd December and lastly for the year in Onitsha on 17th December at Niger Bridgehead. Out of no fewer than ten killed in Aba on 2nd December 2015 along Aba-Port Harcourt Road, five slain bodies were later dumped inside a burrow pit.

“The remaining number of deaths associated with army massacre of pro-Biafra Campaigners came from other violent crackdowns that greeted their street protests between 2015 and 2016 in Asaba-Delta State, Enugu-Enugu State, Abakiliki and environs-Ebonyi State, Yenogoa-Bayelsa State, Port Harcourt-Rivers State and Uyo-Akwa Ibom State. There are also unreported others technically classified as dark and grey figures of crimes. In the above-highlighted massacre operations, no fewer than 500 were shot and maimed with some crippled for life and a number of others died from injuries sustained.

“The Nigerian Army is also responsible for killing between 12th and 14th of December 2015; of no fewer than 1,000 members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria or IMN. The killings took place in Zaria, Kaduna State during the annual sacred procession of the sect. Subsequent killing by security forces in 2016 and above; of the unarmed Islamic sect members also led to no fewer than 120 deaths.

“There are also other military killings resulting from custody related deaths in Northeast Nigeria. These deaths perpetrated in conflict environment and outside military necessity, clearly constitute war crimes. They include torture-deaths (including starvation and malnutrition) in army detention centers involving hundreds of civilians including newborn and others aged not above five. Among such deaths were 240 deaths recorded in the Giwa Military Barracks in 2016 in Borno State. Statistics relating to these custodial deaths are contained in the reports of Amnesty Int’l including its 2016/2017 and 2018 reports on Nigeria.”

HURIWA said: “We have resolved to dispatch letters directly to the United States Congress to demand for immediate imposition of military sanctions and immediate embargo on proceeding with the military commercial partnership with Nigeria not until the Nigerian state is able to prosecute and punish all the armed operatives responsible for these massive extra-legal killings in the South East and also the killers of Shiites Moslems.”

It endorsed the investigation by the Onitsha based NGO which stated that: “From our findings following several months of investigation, no fewer than 150 pro-Biafra activists and other defenseless members of the public were killed by the Nigerian Army; with 70% of the deaths arising from Afara-Ukwu massacre. In the Afara-Ukwu massacre of 14th September 2017, no fewer than 105 deaths were recorded.

“No fewer than 20 deaths were also recorded at Isiala-Ngwa Army Checkpoint, while 25 others occurred in Aba. The Army massacre operation in Afara-Ukwu; which commenced around 3.26pm of 14th September 2017, resulting in the death of not less than 105 citizens, was executed in less than three hours during which no fewer than 70 others were shot and injured. No single soldier lost his life in the operation. Sixty (60) unarmed citizens including survivors of the massacre and other members of the public were also arrested during and after the massacre and arraigned at Umuahia Magistrate Court on “terrorism charges”. They were later reminded at Aba Prison Custody.

“As it has become the atrocious practice of the Nigerian Army military since mid-2015, approximately 80% of the bodies of those shot and killed in Afara-Ukwu, Isiala-Ngwa and Aba were taken away and dumped in undisclosed locations till date. For instance, days after the Afara-Ukwu massacre, corpses numbering eight were found inside a bush at a location in Umuahia. The dumped dead bodies later identified as supporters of Biafra Indigenous People and its leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu by their survivor-colleagues.”

HURIWA said these killings must be accounted for and the mass murderers in military uniforms identified, prosecuted and punished for these crimes against humanity.

Source News Express

About 200 beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme are currently undergoing training in Ondo State as the process of reintegration of ex-agitators in the Niger Delta gets a boost.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo was quoted as saying this yesterday in Abuja in a statement issued by his media adviser, Murphy Ganagana.

“We have a lot of training programmes now; we have a training programme in Ondo and most parts but for me, that of Ondo is the most spectacular in the sense that we are training about 200 people and they will not just be trained, but they are going to be employed by the firm that is training them. It is an exciting example of reintegration. It only not trains you but empowers you to work, earn a living and pay taxes also”, Dokubo was quoted as saying in the statement in an interview with Radio Nigeria.

The presidential adviser was also quoted as saying that with the Amnesty Programme at the critical stage of reintegration, vocational centres have been set up in states across the Niger Delta for training of ex-agitators to enable them to become self-reliant and contribute to the development of the country.

“It is mostly about reintegration. You train people and retrain people. They must also be part of the society, the wider society that they were not part of. So, we are trying to reintegrate. We train them; we also give them jobs and make sure that they earn their own and not depend on the stipend of the Amnesty Programme, and the process has been going on very well. The vocational centres have been set up, and so we are training them with expert trainers, dealing diligently with the work they’d like to do.

“The training is taking part of the work now because some people have been trained for a very long time now and they have lost the knowledge of what they have studied so what we are trying to do is to retrain them again before they are given hands-on on whatever they want to do.

“We are also thinking of setting up clusters so that when you train them and they don’t have a job, they can also fend for themselves in the business clusters. We are doing that at the same time”.

Dokubo added that proper training and retraining of beneficiaries of the programme was vital for their smooth reintegration into the society. “If we cannot train them, we cannot reintegrate them, if you cannot give them assistance in setting up things, they will always be dependent on the Amnesty Office. We want them to be cast out of the armpit of the Amnesty Office and have a firm hold in whatever they are doing”.

Dokubo assured of his determination to ensure the sustenance of peace and security in the Niger Delta through training and empowerment of beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme, as he spoke on his vision. “I am a new broom and I am sweeping well now; but then, the Niger Delta people will give me time to set this office in motion. I want to leave a footprint that people will say that there was a man called Charles Dokubo; he did his best for this programme”.

He listed the gains of the Amnesty Programme to include peace and security in the Niger Delta with the attendant increase in oil production and empowerment of the people in the region.

Like it did between 1967 and 1970, Britain is crafting an entrance-way into Nigeria to aid another ethnic cleansing of Biafrans

Why is it difficult for British government to legitimately go to owners of resources in Biafraland to negotiate with them, instead of arming the murderous Fulani people and using them as proxies to “ethnic-cleanse” Biafrans and take the resources by force?
Elements of British government, like they did 51 years ago (1967 – 1970) have been looking for ways to pump deadly arms into Nigeria, with the intent to arm its house-slaves (the Fulani people), without its citizens and the world being the wiser. Meanwhile, the arms would not be for any good purpose other than to annihilate Biafrans so that their oil resources will be available for free.
They appear to have found a way.
The recent news planted in some British newspapers few days ago appears to have revealed the method they have chosen. Simply put, the news was that the British have discovered terrorists were being trained in Nigeria with the aim of attacking the British.
The news had it that 150 British troops were conducting counter-terror training with Nigerian forces in an attempt to stem what they called a bloody tide of Islamic State (IS) taking hold of the region. It claimed that during a training session in the city of Kaduna, that a senior Nigerian Air-force Officer revealed that his country’s jihad groups were learning tricks from IS after swearing allegiance to its black flag. “They come and train their fighters here and some of our insurgents too are granted access to their training in Yemen and Syria, acquiring those skills and they come back and teach others”, it claimed the officer, who had been fighting terrorism since 1991 said.
Many Biafrans like this writer refused to accept this false flag called news story by British newspapers. Such activities are not new. They had been on for such a long time in Nigeria, and why is the British government speaking out about it now? The answer is simple: it is for a sinister purpose.
Is British government claiming to be asleep when two Nigerian jihadist youths (Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale) stabbed Lee Rigby (a British soldier) to death on a street of London in 2013. What about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab popularly known as "Underwear Bomber", was caught in London Airport in 2012 about to bomb the plan he boarded.

Adebowale: One of the British soldier killers
Did Nigeria terrorists and their connection with IS and other terrorist groups from the Arab world start today? British government were you not aware? Where you not aware that Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen, Nigerian Army, Navy and Air-force, are all terrorist groups under one chief commander, Muhammadu Buhari.
British government was there when Nigerian Army invaded the home of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in September 2017 (a British citizen), to murder more than 28 people; and then “disappeared” his parents. What did British government do? British government, you were aware that your poster boy (Muhammed Buhari) has turned the whole of Nigeria into one massive killing field; killing Christians everywhere, and you have not spoken out. Why are you speaking out now; planting stories in British newspapers?

al-Asiri: Court under disguise
British government, you were there in 2015, when Nigerian government granted visa to Amad al-Asiri (known popularly as emir of IS in Lebanon), who is wanted and high-up in IS leadership. He was court under disguise. He was one of the most wanted persons in high command of the dreaded IS, and the visa was granted to him by your chief house-slave Muhammadu Buhari. British government, what have you done to Buhari since then? Have you not been in bed with him facilitating and training his chief terrorists called Nigerian armed forces? Have you not watched him drench Nigeria in the blood of Christians and Biafrans as he continued with his Islamic sharia law obsession?
The reality is that British government is looking for excuse to transfer heavy armaments to Nigerian government, hoping it would use same to prosecute an unjust war against Biafrans (a cloak for another genocide). British government does not want its citizens to know what it is planning. The British government does not want the world to know of the next evil plan it wants to perpetrate in Biafraland against Biafrans.
This is the time to let the British government know that nobody is fooled; nobody is deceived. It is time for Theresa May, British Prime Minister, to come out clean and declare that it wants Biafra oil. Nobody will deny you the oil, but negotiate with the owners and stop this wicked plan to use your house-slaves (the Fulani) to perpetrate a second genocide against Biafrans
We are not fooled one bit!

The Nigerian Army and police have been accused by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) of secretly recruiting former Boko Haram terrorists into the military and force, respectively.

CAN’s President, Samson Ayokunle, who spoke in a statement by his media aide, Bayo Oladeji, accused the security agencies of recruiting the insurgents on the orders of the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

The Christian body alleged that the move is in line with the Operation Safe Corridor of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) which seeks to rehabilitate repentant insurgents.

CAN equally frowned at the death sentence recently passed on some Christians who reportedly killed some Fulani herdsmen in Yola, Adamawa State, in retaliation for attacks carried out on their communities.

It said, “According to reports, Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri of a High Court in Adamawa State, recently sentenced Alex Amos, Alheri Phanuel, Holy Boniface, Jerry Gideon and Jari Sabagi to death for culpable homicide.

‘‘The convicts were said to have allegedly on June 1, 2017, aadamun village in Demsa Local Government Area ‘willfully and intentionally conspired and attacked three herdsmen rearing cattle, killing one of them, Adamu Buba, whose body they threw into a river and also maimed several cows.

“While CAN is not supporting jungle justice or any criminality, but we note with regret how hundreds of our members in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Plateau states in the North-central geo-political zones, and a state like Enugu in the South, have been killed and are still being killed on a daily basis by some criminals parading themselves as Fulani herdsmen, but are yet to be apprehended.

“We recall with sadness how President Donald Trump had expressed sadness over killings of Christians in Nigeria and even told President Muhammadu Buhari, when he recently visited the White House in Washington DC that the United States of America would no longer tolerate a situation where Christians are being killed with impunity.

‘‘He also stressed that despite the outrage that had trailed the killings of Christians in Nigeria, it is disheartening that none of the killers has been brought to justice. We are shocked at the speed of light deployed by security and judicial officers in sentencing the alleged killers of the herdsman in Adamawa state.”

The Christian body further queried why the court discharged “the alleged killers of Madam Bridget Agbahime on the orders of the Kano State Government? Why have security officials not arrested those behind the killings of Christians in Southern Kaduna, while those arrested for the murder of Mrs. Eunice Elisha Olawale in Kubwa, Abuja, have been set free by the Nigeria Police?’’

There are indications that the oil industry of the United States of America, USA, is now capitalizing on the recent upsurge in oil prices to pump-up volume in the market, leading to excess supply glut and slump in prices.

Consequently, after hitting a five year high of $80 per barrel last month, oil prices slipped, yesterday to $75.68 per barrel occasioned by rising supplies in the United States and expectations that producers could relax voluntary output cuts.

This development may be threatening the current expectations on oil revenue for Nigeria’s 2018 fiscal plan which propelled the National Assembly to revise the oil price benchmark for 2018 budget as well as the expected revenue and expenditure.

In its latest report released yesterday, OPEC said, however, that world oil demand growth in 2017, as projected by the Organisation remained unchanged at 1.65 mb/d, averaging 97.20 mb/d for the rest of this year.

It also kept oil demand growth unchanged in 2018 despite some offsetting revisions in both Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, and non-OECD countries.

The report noted that “OECD consumption is forecast to grow by 0.40 mb/d in 2018, some 0.02 mb/d higher than in the previous year, following positive revisions in OECD Americas. Meanwhile, oil demand in the non-OECD is now projected to grow by 1.27 mb/d, showing a downward revision of 0.02 mb/d from last month’s assessment.

Oil price report released yesterday by OPEC showed that Brent crude was down 20 cents at $75.68 a barrel, as U.S. light crude was 35 cents lower at $66.01.

Prices were weighed down by another rise in the number of rigs drilling for new oil production in the United States.

This implies that U.S. crude output, which is already at a record-high of 10.8 million barrels per day (bpd), will also rise further, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes.

Nigerian Muslim Judge, sentence five Christians to death, for defending themselves against the 4th deadliest terrorist in the world Muslim Fulani Herdsman Militias

A Yola High Court Presided over by Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri has sentenced five men to death for culpable homicide and for killing a herdsman.
The convicts, Alex Amos, Alheri Phanuel, Holy Boniface, Jerry Gideon and Jari Sabagi of Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State, were found guilty of criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide which contravened Section 96 (1) (a) and Sections 79 and 221 (b) of the Penal Code of Laws of Adamawa State, 1997.

The convicts were said to have on June 1, 2017 at Kadamun village in Demsa local Government Area willfully and intentionally conspired and attacked three herdsmen rearing cattle, killing one of them, Adamu Buba, whose body they threw into a river and also maimed several cows.

Justice Waziri said the case against the accused persons had been proved beyond reasonable doubt by the counsel to the state, Mr. Salihu Mohammed. He ruled: “I hereby sentence the accused persons on counts one and two to death by hanging, while on counts four and five, I sentence the accused to three years in prison to run concurrently. “Any aggrieved party is at liberty to file an appeal to the Court of Appeal, Yola Judicial Division within 90 days from today.”

Cross River Province In Biafra land Are Under-siege

It was earlier reported that angry villagers chased away soldiers yesterday at Boki local government area of Cross River State following clash between military men and community youths. It was gathered that the soldiers were deployed to the region due to the raging cult war which has seen many dead.

The soldiers allegedly shot and wounded two youths from Nsadop community before the villagers retaliated and attacked the soldiers to the extent of burning one of their vehicles.

Fresh report has it that the soldiers have invaded the Nsadop community and have destroyed telecommunications masts in order to make communication impossible.

Some indigenes of Nsadop were allegedly killed by the soldiers.

Human rights group @amnesty accuses Cameroon military of attacking and torturing English speakers

Cameroon police with riot shields patrol on a street in the administrative quarter of Buea on October 1, 2017.
(CNN)Cameroon is in the grip of spiraling violence that has seen security forces and armed separatists torture and attack people in the country's English speaking region, a new report by Amnesty International has said.

The human rights group says it has spoken to more than 150 victims and eyewitnesses to gather evidence of escalating violence in the northwest and southwest region of the country.

Rights groups call for probe into protesters' deaths during 2016 demonstrations in Cameroon. 01:20
The report stated that English speakers in the country were being targeted by both the Cameroon military and armed Anglophone separatists in waves of violence that Amnesty describes as "unlawful, excessive and unnecessary."
In the report titled, "A turn for the worse: Violence and human rights violations in Anglophone Cameroon," victims gave harrowing accounts of beatings and allegations of simulated electrocution and torture carried out by the military as well as attacks on schools and teachers by armed Anglophone separatists.
Residents of Cameroon's two English-speaking provinces, which make up 20% of the country's population, have longstanding grievances against the largely Francophone central government.

They complain of being marginalized and having the French legal and education systems forced upon them, a practice that dates back to the post-colonial 1960s era.
Tensions boiled over last year when protesters took to the streets in Cameroon's Anglophone regions, later calling for symbolic independence from the West African country's French-speaking majority.
Amnesty says Cameroon's military has responded to these protests with "torture, unlawful killings and destruction of property."
Some of the people Amnesty spoke to described being severely beaten with sticks, hammers and while blindfolded by soldiers in the Cameroon army.
One man who spoke to Amnesty said he and others were arrested in December last year and tortured with their hands tied behind their backs.
"They ... gagged us and tied our faces with our towels and shorts ..." he said.

"They then made us lie in the water, face down for about 45 minutes. ... During three days, they beat us with shovels, hammers, planks and cables, kicked us with their boots and poured hot water on us ... when I tried to move and shouted, one of them used the cigarette he was smoking to burn me."
Amnesty said it had also received information about numerous instances of deaths in custody.

Graphic images of torture and mutilated bodies have flooded social media sites as Anglophone Cameroonians appeal for international help against what they say is genocide.
CNN has seen some of these graphic images but cannot independently verify their authenticity.
"Their heavy-handed response will do nothing to calm the violence -- in fact it is likely to further alienate Anglophone communities and fuel further unrest," said Samira Daoud, Amnesty International deputy director for West and Central Africa, in a statement.
For their part, armed separatists reportedly attacked at least 42 schools between February 2017 and May 2018, targeting teachers and students for not taking part in a boycott of schools, long seen as a symbol of Francophone marginalization, Amnesty said.

A teacher told Amnesty he was wounded after a masked gunman, suspected to be a member of an armed separatist group, stormed his school in the northwest province and shot him in the leg.
"The assailant ... told me that I was still coming to school in defiance of calls for a schools boycott. He then asked me to raise my hands, but before I could do so, he shot me. I fell to the ground...," the teacher told Amnesty.

"The armed separatists repeated targeting of the general population demonstrates a total disregard for human life, and is another example of the threat faced by people in the Anglophone regions," said Daoud.

Didier Badjeck, a spokesman for the army, rejected Amnesty's claims of torture and violence, dismissing them as "rumors."
Badjeck told CNN: "The Cameroon army is professional. Amnesty is writing against the armed forces based on rumors."
Badjeck labeled the armed separatists "terrorists," and accused them of attacking and burning down schools.
"Since 2016, they have been attacking schools and we are working against terrorists. The army defends itself against attackers," Badjeck said.
"If any of our soldiers is found to have breached the rules of engagement, they will be punished," he added.
President Paul Biya has condemned "all acts of violence, regardless of their sources and their perpetrators," although some see the actions of the security forces as a way to secure his 35-year grip on power.

A lawyer in the Warri branch of the Nigeria Bar Association, Mr Bernard Oyabevwe, was a June 5, 2018, allegedly beaten to a pulp by policemen attached to a police station in the ‘A’ Division of the Delta State Police Command in Warri for defending his client.

The lawyer was said to have visited the division to defend his client who was arrested by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Southern City News learnt on Sunday that Oyabevwe had visited the police station attached to the division, which is directly adjacent the state magistrate court, when the incident happened, leaving the victim brutalised with his eyes injured.

It was learnt that trouble started when Oyabevwe found out that his client and his wife had been forcefully arrested by the EFCC officials from Magistrate Court II and taken to the division.

The lawyer was said to have gone to the division to ascertain why his clients were arrested.

While there, a source told Southern City News that policemen at the station threatened to kill the lawyer and whoever dared to intervene.

The Brutalized Lawyer, Mr Bernard Oyabevwe,
The source, who spoke on condition of annonymity, said one of the policemen pushed the lawyer against the EFCC vehicle that was conveying his client and his wife to unknown destination.

Other policemen were alleged to have held Oyabevwe and beat him to the point that he could no longer talk.

“He started bleeding and coughing out blood until some court officials from both the high and magistrate’s courts intervened and insisted that he should be rushed immediately for medical treatment,” the source said.

The assault on the lawyer was said to have been carried out by over ten policemen (names withheld) who were alleged to have used their guns to hit the victim’s eyes.

Oyabevwe, who confirmed the attack on him, accused the Divisional Police Officer of the station, Mr Kenneth Zuokumor, a Chief Superintendent of Police, of being behind his attack, saying that he lost mobile set and N50,000 cash in his pocket.

He stated that he was charged to court at the end of the melee in his bleeding condition on three count-charge of obstructing justice, threat to peace and attacking the station.

Meanwhile, the Warri branch of NBA has called on the Inspector-General of Police and the Police Service Commission to immediately probe the assault by police on its member.

Briefing journalists at a news conference in Warri on Sunday, the Chairman of the Warri NBA, Mr Godwin Ebowe, flanked by his deputy, Mr Kunle Edun, among others, demanded the dismissal of the police officers involved in the attack and the transfer of the DPO, Area Commander and the state Commissioner of Police for their alleged complicity in the attack.

Ebowe said, “We will not accept that as lawyers. We want the world to know that we are not going to sleep and allow this matter to be wished away or swept under the carpet. No amount of pleading, they must be brought to book. The policemen involved must be prosecuted before the relevant courts, while we take our civil action.”

However, the state Police Command denied the allegation, accusing Oyabevwe of assaulting a uniform police officer on duty.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Andrew Aniamaka, said the lawyer had already been arraigned in court for obstructing officials of the EFCC by conducting himself in a manner that caused the breach of peace and assaulting a police officer.

“There is a matter that the EFCC is investigating for which some officials of the agency came to Delta State and the lawyer while trying to defend his client became violent and the EFCC could not contain him and, so, the matter somehow was brought to the station. And still, he would not reason with the policemen who were trying to control the situation,” he said.

Abia State High Court, has granted Bail, to Seven Jewish adherents who were arrested at AfraUkwu Ibekwu the residence of IPOB Leader Citizen Nnamdi Kanu.

Recall that on the 13th Of May 2018, over eight Jewish worshippers were arrested by the Nigeria security agents in Umuahia, including juveniles.
The Abia State Police Command released the juveniles after detaining them, for hours and arraigned Nine in Umuahia Magistrate Court.
The Bail application was denied as the Magistrate court denied the jurisdiction, to grant Bail upon which their Bail application was filed on High Court by IPOB Legal Team.

Stay tuned for note details..

Ibeh Gift Amarachi reporting For Family Writers Press

The Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide has condemned the killings of four persons during a military invasion of Oluasiri community in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

During the incident, which occurred last Thursday, a mother and her six-month-old baby, as well as two other persons were reportedly killed by soldiers during a security operation.

It was learnt that the military operation was launched to dislodge suspected militants and sea pirates allegedly hiding in Oluasiri community.

While some security personnel claimed the soldiers opened fire into the community following gunshot attacks from the suspected militants, the indigenes of Oluasiri community debunked the claim, insisting that the military attack was unprovoked.

Reacting to the killings, the Chairman, IYC, Central Zone, Mr. Tare Porri, said the invasion was a provocative action by the mislitary, alleging the development confirmed the suspicion that the military is sectional and biased.

He said the military was determined only to wage war against the people of the Niger Delta, the Ijaw people, all in a bid to control the region’s oil, sustain Nigeria’s unjust unitary structure and resist calls for restructuring.

Porri said the invasion of Oluasiri community would heighten tensions in the region and could potentially lead to “a full-blown seige” capable of destabilising the country and the already existing peace created by Governor Seriake Dickson.

He said, “The military has insulted us to provoke war in our land. We call on the Federal Government to apologise without delay for this infantile act of deliberate provocation.

“This wanton act is an action against the laws of human rights and a threat to democracy. We kick against the logic of civility in a supposed free society to deploy overwhelming weapons and personnel of warfare against a peaceful community within the ambit of non-violence.

“President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, must be held accountable for the military’s actions. There could be no justifiable excuses why soldiers would invade and murder an innocent baby and others.”

Porri urged the military to desist from further attempts at muzzling Ijaw people, through acts of premeditated assault or intimidation of communities.

via @todayng

Elder statesman and chieftain of Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has reacted to the declaration of June 12 as democracy day by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Punch Newspaper, the Afenifere Leader accused the President of using the recent declaration as a political gimmick ahead of 2019 presidential election.

Listen To His Exact Words:

“We are no fools in this country. He should know that many of us have not got cattle brains, we are well educated and we know what we want. Nobody can come and bamboozle us because elections are coming. It is just like he said in 2015 that he was a born-again democrat. Now, he has shown us that he is a dictator. We are not moved by it. It is a welcome idea and yes, it is a thing that ought to have been done. But that he is now doing it because elections are coming, I am not excited by that at all.

“Don’t deceive yourself! Do you think Yoruba people are that stupid? We are not that stupid. Quote me; if Buhari thinks he can bamboozle the Yoruba people with that, he has failed. Go and ask (Asiwaju Bola) Tinubu; Tinubu himself knows that he has burnt his boat if he continues to support Buhari on the question of restructuring. For anybody to think that he is going to do anything for us in Yorubaland now, he should restructure the country.

“And not that we will continue with a constitution imposed on us and you begin to harass us, keep all the security people in your hand, and use this (June 12 declaration) to bamboozle us and yet, you say you are a democrat. That time is gone. As some people have said, he can change Christmas Day to June 12, that doesn’t mean that they won’t get rid of him in 2019.

“What we are saying is that if he wants to honour the memory of Abiola and June 12, he should implement what June 12 stands for, which is good governance and democracy. He should restructure the country before the elections to show his genuineness and not just be playing to the gallery. This is because all that June 12 stands for is democracy and good governance. It is not about people being killed right, left and centre and pretending that you don’t know what is happening. It is not people being killed every day and after three months, you now wake up and say you are beefing up security.

People have been complaining about the awkwardness of the lopsided appointments of heads of security agencies since you came into office, but it was not until now that the vice president (Prof. Yemi Osinbajo) said, “Oh yes, we are going to review it” – because election is approaching.

Via- Eco City News Online