Brazil 2014: Yobo, Osaze in, Uche out

Joseph Yobo
| credits: www.goal.com

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has sensationally left out Ike Uche from the 2014 World Cup, thus making good his earlier statements that the Villareal forward would not make the flight to Brazil. Keshi however selected Joseph Yobo and Osaze Odemwingie on a provisional squad released on Tuesday after the meeting he held with officials of the Nigeria Football Federation.

Goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim also made the list. The decision to include or drop Uche, Agbim, Yobo and Osaze was reportedly central during the first meeting held last month on the provisional squad. It was said that while the Technical Committee members were not too disposed to Agbim being in the squad, they wanted Keshi to include Uche whom he had publicly denounced. No agreement could be reached on Yobo and Osaze. The meeting was eventually adjourned to yesterday.

Uche, the leading Nigerian scorer this season has scored 12 goals in the Spanish league and he is regarded as one of the Super Eagles most reliable strikers. But in rejecting him, Keshi said he was not tactically disciplined. Uche has not played for Nigeria since featuring at the 2013 Africa Cup Nations which the country won in South Africa.

Agbim was in goal for Nigeria at the 2014 Africa Nations Championship and was largely criticised for his performance which fell far below expectations. He was eventually dropped by his club Rangers but has picked up with Gombe United in the Nigerian league.

Boko Haram kills 300, abducts 11 more girls

Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau
| credits: saharareporters.com

IN another daring operation, members of the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on Monday night killed about 300 people in Gamboru Ngala, Borno State. Gamboru Ngala is a border town with Cameroon.

The Boko Haram insurgents also abducted 11 more girls in Warabe and Wala communities in the Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State late on Monday.

The insurgents reportedly drove into Gamboru Ngala in armoured vehicles.

It was learnt that the insurgents, who seemed to have targeted a local market, shot sporadically at traders at the market before proceeding into the town to wreak more havoc.

Gamboru is situated along Nigeria-Cameroon border and is the administrative headquarters of the Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State. It is about 200 kilometres  from Maiduguri, the state capital city.

Senator Ahmed Zannah, who is representing the area in the Senate, confirmed the killings. He said the invaders spent about 12 hours wreaking havoc on defenceless Nigerians.

He revealed that several other persons were injured in the attack, while almost all the houses and shops in the town were burnt down.

The senator, who spoke in a BBC Hausa report monitored in Maiduguri on Tuesday, said many people were wounded, while surviving victims rendered homeless as thousands of houses and shops were burnt by the rampaging gunmen.

He claimed that the attackers were armed with dangerous weapons comprising Armoured Personnel Carrier, Improvised Explosive Devices, petrol bombs, assault rifles and Rocket Propelled Launchers.

“The attackers stormed the communities in the night when residents were still sleeping, setting ablaze houses and shooting residents who tried to escape from the fire,’’ he said.

He added, “About 300 persons were confirmed dead after the incident, with several others injured. Almost all the houses in the communities were destroyed by the hoodlums who threw IEDs at the buildings.

“My brother who was at the scene of the attack told me that the actual number of the dead cannot be ascertained but at least they are up to 300. In fact, as he spoke he wept following the high number of the dead bodies which littered the market.”

Girls’ parents go on hunger strike

Left: One of the mothers of the missing Chibok schoolgirls wipes her tears as she cries during a rally by civil society groups in Abuja. (R)Protesters gather outside the Nigerian embassy in Washington DC, to demand action for the release of Chibok 200 schoolgirls... on Tuesday
| credits: AFP

The Head, Chibok Community in Abuja, Mr. Hosaih Sambido, on Tuesday said some parents of the abducted girls had embarked on hunger strike to protest against the incident.

Sambido said this when a former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, led a protest to the Defence Headquarters to demand the urgent release of the girls.

Sambido, who broke into tears while pleading for help from the military, said the development had instilled fear among female students in the area.

He said some parents had refused to eat as a result of the development.

Sambido said, “Since April 14 we have entered this trauma which is no more news in the whole world that insurgents came and set part of our village ablaze and cart away 276 girls. Though 53 of the girls escaped on their own effort but up till now we don’t know where the rest girls are and the situation they face.

“Their parents cannot do anything. Some have refused to eat. Some of the men mobilised themselves and went to the forest twice but they came back because the kidnappers are too strong.

Patience’s intervention distracting, says APC

Patience Jonathan weeping

The All Progressives Congress has decried what it described as the “melodramatic intervention” of the wife of the President, Patience Jonathan, in the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok three weeks ago.

The party said her conduct had been “distracting, counter-productive and calibrated to scapegoat others with the sole intention of exculpating her husband” rather than finding the girls.

The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this in a statement in Lagos on Tuesday.

According to the party, there is nothing wrong in Patience, as a woman and the mother of the nation, playing a role in resolving the unfortunate abduction of the girls, but that role must be within the realm of social activism, not in policy making or conduct of state affairs.

Panic in Abuja as gunmen invade school

L-R: The driver, The Vine Kiddies Academy bus, Abu Sunday, fielding questions on his encounter with unknown gunmen who hijacked the school bus at Nyanya. With him are Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba; and the Executive Director of the school, Mrs. Temitayo Fola-Kolade, in Abuja... on Tuesday
| credits: NAN

There was panic in the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday when three unknown gunmen invaded a private school, The Vine Kiddies International Academy, Nyanya,  Kurudu, in a white Golf Volkswagen car.

The school is located a few kilometres from the scene of the first and second bomb blasts that occurred on April 14 and May 1, 2014 respectively.

The three gunmen, according to the security guard of the school, arrived in the area at about 6 a.m. in the car and parked a few metres away from the school gate but waited until  8am when classes began.

The security guard, Gabriel Fishing, told our correspondent that no harm was done to any of the pupils during the attack.

Jonathan allowed insurgency to fester, says Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka
| credits: File copy

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Tuesday said the era of denial of President Goodluck Jonathan on the magnitude of the Boko Haram menace was over.

Soyinka said the President should have sought international assistance long ago before allowing the situation to fester and escalate.

He accused the President of failing to heed his earlier warnings and addressing the insurgency “very late and lackadaisically.”

He spoke on Tuesday during a global affairs interview television programme, Amanpour, on Cable News Network, monitored by our correspondent in Lagos.

Soyinka described the video released by the leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, as  “gleeful obscenity” and called on the international community to intervene.

He said, “President Jonathan should have asked for it (assistance) from the very beginning. I don’t believe in false pride. The history of the movement to which Boko Haram belongs is one which is a menace to the entire world.

Reps to Jonathan: Diezani must appear before us

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke

FEDERAL lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Monday described as unfortunate President Goodluck Jonathan’s comment on the credibility of the probes being conducted by the House during his Sunday’s media chat.

Stopping short of saying they were disappointed in the President, the legislators said Jonathan had been the “highest beneficiary” of the House resolutions, hence the least they expected from him was to encourage his ministers to respond to parliamentary inquiries.

The President had said during his Presidential Media Chat that the House was conducting politicised probes and that his petroleum resources minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, had appeared before the lawmakers up to 200 times.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, reacting to the President on Monday, said the comment was  “unfortunate, particularly coming from Mr. President.”

Mohammed said Jonathan did not consider the House intervention as politicised when he wanted to succeed his late boss, former President Umaru Yar’Adua.

He said, “We recall the Doctrine of Necessity; this House contributed to his (Jonathan’s) stability in office.

“We hold the office of Mr. President in high esteem, but it is unfortunate that he said we conduct politicised probes. The House is about accountability; Diezani has to appear before us because we cannot ask questions in her absence.

“She has to come; she has to be accountable to the Nigerian people.

“As legislators, we are also accountable to our electorate.”

He said the House could summon any member of the President’s cabinet, including Alison-Madueke, “1000 times” if the legislators needed to do so in the course of their investigation.

Mohammed said, “There is no limit to the number of times a minister can appear before the House for the purpose of accountability. There are many investigations or issues being considered by the House.

“That a minister had appeared before over a particular issue does not mean that when summoned over a different subject, the minister cannot appear again.