BREAKING!!! Massive Explosion as Militants Blow NNPC Pipeline

A Crucial NNPC Pipeline has be blown up by suspected Militants around Warewa bridge, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, before Arepo, Ogun State ..

The pipeline is still on fire as at the time of this report.

BREAKING!!! Massive Explosion as Militants Blow NNPC Pipeline (Happening Now) PHOTOS 

We shall stop at nothing to resist Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest – Asari Dokubo

​Ex-Niger Delta warlord, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has revealed how the move by the Nigerian Government to rearrest leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, will be resisted.

Asari, the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Salvation Force, NDPSF, spoke in a video where he also expressed doubt that it was President Muhammadu Buhari that returned from London.

Addressing “fellow Biafrans”, Asari said the same stone the biblical David used to crush Goliath is still available for Biafra.

“Biafrans, today we are going to look at a very dark cloud trying to envelop us. And that cloud is the re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu.

“After the return of the thing they said is Muhammadu Buhari, which I doubt very much, the cabal around that thing they brought home from London needed to feed that thing with blood. The blood of Biafrans, you and I.

“How can our blood flow? The only way our blood can flow unstoppably is the re-arrest or the attempt to re-arrest Nnamdi Kanu.

“They don’t give a damn, killing us is fun. Its a game; a religion to them but killing their own people pinches them a little. Because the people who issued death sentence on us that after October 1 if any of us are found on their land will be killed. They used different medium: they TV, radio, internet to circulate that after Oct. 1 any one of us seen in their land should be killed. And the DSS said those who issued death sentence on us were quoted out of context.

“Minister of Internal affairs said attempting to arrest them will cause crisis. But Nnamdi Kanu is arguably the greatest crowd puller of this part of the world, nobody can rival him not even Buhari that when they brought him back from London had to go and beg people, paid them N2000 to come out and show their support.

“The world has suddenly lost it vision to see. The world has suddenly lost its ear to hear how Biafrans have been killed.

“May be Nnamdi Kanu’s time is the fullness of time, God almighty has given so much grace to this Egyptians and they have refused to heed. They have hardened their minds and this Pharaoh, moreso, this thing they brought from London, who wants blood to keep him alive said he’ll kill all our people.

“May be its really the fullness of time, and the stone with which David killed Goliath God will make it available for us to fight our battle.”

Kanu Rejects Southeast Govs’ Plea, Insists on Biafra

By: Tony Adibe, Enugu

The leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) headed by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu yesterday rejected the plea of the governors of the Southeast zone of Nigeria during a meeting between the pro-Biafra group and the politicians.

 

Daily Trust was reliably informed by an insider that after long hours of the closed door meeting at the Enugu Government House, the governors were unable to convince Kanu to drop his agitation for Biafra.

Also, the meeting failed to stop his threat against the November 18 governorship election in Anambra state, our reporter gathered.

The governors were said to have invited Kanu to discuss issues concerning the alleged violation of his bail conditions for which the Federal Government had asked an Abuja High court to issue an order to re-arrest him

”They called him and pleaded he talks to his supporters to relapse on IPOB pursuit; he brought out his phone and showed them a picture of the crowd in one of the IPOB rallies saying:

“These are the people that sent me. I didn’t send myself. If you leaders genuinely love this land and her people, you will not call these people my supporters but our supporters.

They are pursuing the most sacred cause in life. That is freedom!

You don’t kill people who are begging for breathe and life. It is sacrilegious but you have done such.

Biafrans want freedom which is life”..

Another issue of concern to the governors was the Biafra Secret Service (BSS), which Kanu reportedly inaugurated at Umuahia, Abia state, an act the police described as unlawful.

During the meeting which was attended by constitutional lawyer, Prof Ben Nwabueze and Deputy Secretary General, Igbo Leaders of Thought (ILT), Evangelist Elliot Uko, Kanu was said to have remained adamant on restoration of Biafra.

“They begged him to drop Biafra agitation but he shook his head. That’s why they decided to have further discussions with him and his group,” the insider said.

But Ebonyi State Governor and Chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum, Dave Umahi had assured that the governors would continue to have further dialogue with the leadership of IPOB.

At the meeting were Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Deputy Governor of Anambra state, Dr Nkem Okeke. Governors Rochas Okorocha (Imo) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) were said to be out of the country.

 

S’East, N’Delta, Middle Belt Groups Warn Against Move To Re-arrest Kanu

As concerns grow over the ongoing move by the federal authorities to re-arrest leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, groups across the geopolitical zones have described it as a“costly mistake” and warned of dire consequences.

In a statement issued at the weekend by the Eastern Consultative Assembly (ECA) and Igbo Leaders of Thought said the federal government which has been floundering with one political mistake after the other should restrain itself from plunging the nation into more crises by angling to re-arrest the IPOB leader.

The ECA which is a coalition of several civil society groups noted in the statement signed by its secretary, Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, who also doubles as Deputy Secretary of Igbo Leaders of Thought, said the government at the centre has continued to portray itself as “a parochial and ethnic-driven government” in its actions and policies hence the bias in handling case of IPOB and its leader.

“Any attempt to re-arrest Kanu, especially without arresting the quit notice givers, genocidal song writers and herdsmen-murderers will spell doom for Nigeria. May the world never say nobody told them. Those plotting the re-arrest of Kanu do not know how deeply divided Nigeria is at the moment. It will be a miracle if Nigeria survives this re-arrest agenda.”

“The agenda to re-arrest Kanu, agreed by the political class, sponsored by those fiercely opposed to the restructuring of Nigeria and endorsed by those who hate our people with passion, will permanently alter the Nigeria political firmament. This is probably ordained by God,” the statement said.

The group recalled that “for close to two years, the world has been regaled by series of childish mistakes by the Nigeria government, as regards to the manner the federal government has handled agitation for self-determination.”

It therefore noted: “The decision to re-arrest the most popular easterner alive today in the belief that nothing will happen, is a very costly mistake (and) there will be consequences, from which Nigeria might never recover.

“Arresting him in October 2015 was a big mistake. Denying him bail was another mistake. Executing his followers in cold blood in Aba, Onitsha, Asaba and Nkpor, a much bigger mistake. And now, re-arresting a man who commands the fanatical following of millions of angry young men will definitely spur grave surprises for us all, head or tail. Nigeria will never be the same after Kanu’s re-arrest.”

Meanwhile, groups in the Niger Delta and Middle Belt have equally voiced their opposition to the move by the federal government to re-arrest the Biafran leader, saying the entire nation would bear the consequences of such action.

Speaking from the Niger Delta, the leader of the Afra Descendants Movement (a pan- Ijaw ethnic organisation), Jene Kalada, said any attempt to re- arrest Kanu would only exacerbate the already bad political situation in Nigeria.

Kalada who voiced the concerns of Niger groups on phone, said the federal government should know that the Niger Delta people “fully support the Biafra agitation adding that the ongoing move to re- arrest Kanu was ‘a step in the wrong direction because it negates the spirit of unity the government claims it wants to achieve.’”

He argued that re-arresting Kanu would bring no solution to the rising ethnic tensions in the country but rather it would “postpone or even bring nearer the doom’s day,” adding that the demand for self- determination did not amount to treason.

From the Middle Belt, an activist, Dr. John Danfulani, said the consequences of re-arresting Kanu should not be taken lightly as it would definitely spell doom for the nation.

He pointed out that there was no doubt that Kanu had so far conducted his activities peacefully and had done nothing to be labelled a threat to national security “when in fact obvious threats to national security are ignored and allowed to fester.

Danfulai, who is from Southern Kaduna, warned: “I don’t see the security agents ready and capable of containing the fall out together with the Boko Haram insurgence in the North-east. So, the best is to avoid any action capable of unleashing anarchy in the land.”

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide, the umbrella body of all youths from Ijaw land, yesterday alleged that the federal government was institutionalising double standards in the running of the nation’s affairs.

President of the group, Mr. Eric Omare, in a statement in Yenagoa, national headquarters of the IYC, specifically noted that the planned re-arrest of Kanu was not only unfair but smacks of double standards.

He argued that the federal government partiality had even become more obvious given that the Arewa youth leaders that threatened to evict Igbo people from the North were neither arrested nor firmly reprimanded.

According to the group, many Niger Delta agitators are also languishing in various jails in the country, while the Arewa youths are being feted by state governments in the North.

Also, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has said any attempt by the federal government to re-arrest Kanu will be resisted by the people of the South-east zone.

The group described media reports credited to Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in which he requested the Federal High Court to revoke the bail given to IPOB leader as the “height of insensitivity’ and unwarranted ‘intimidation.”

The group in a statement by its leader, Uchenna Madu and made available to journalists in Enugu yesterday, said Kanu’s non-violent activities towards Biafra actualisation and restoration have never breached, truncated or confronted the “fragile and inconsistent constitution of this federation called Nigeria.”

He said the minister’s request was born out of “mischief and ignorance,” stressing that the federal government was indirectly trying to overheat the polity. “Even the Interior Minister, Abdurahman Dambazzu, a Fulani man defended his Hausa Fulani youths of Arewa that threatened the people of Biafra with an ultimatum of quit notice to vacate Arewa land before October 1, 2017 that the coalition of the Arewa youths were misquoted by the media,” he noted.

Our quit notice to northerners, Yoruba stands – Niger Delta militants

​The Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators has said that despite the volte-face by the Arewa youths on the quit notice to the Igbo in the North, it will stand on its position that the northerners and the Yoruba in the oil-rich region must leave before October 1, 2017.

The militants, who spoke through an electronic mail made available to our correspondent on Sunday, rejected the call for the arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

They maintained that call for Kanu’s arrest was used to replace the withdrawal of the quit notice earlier issued to Igbo people living in the North, adding the government and security agencies headed by northerners ignited the quit notice fire.

John Duku of the Niger Delta Watchdogs and Convener of the Coalition; Ekpo Ekpo of the Niger Delta Volunteers; Osarolor Nedam of Niger Delta Warriors; and Henry Okon Etete of the Niger Delta Peoples Fighters were among those who signed the statement.

Others are Asukwo Henshaw of the Bakassi Freedom Fighters; Ibinabo Horsfall of the Niger Delta Movement for Justice; Duke Emmanson of Niger Delta Fighters Network; Inibeghe Adams of Niger Delta Freedom Mandate and Ibinabo Tariah of the Niger Delta Development Network.

Part of the statement by the agitators read, “It is our avowed determination to ensure that the Niger Delta remains focussed on our demands for a total overhaul of the basis of our unity. We have therefore resolved to stand by our previous demands as follows:

“That the northerners and Yoruba should leave the Niger Delta before October 1, 2017; return of all the oil blocs own by northerners and Yoruba to Niger Delta people. Relocation of the oil and gas companies headquarters to their operational base as well as relocation of NNPC headquarters, all other offices that has to do with oil and gas; replacement of the Group Managing Director of NNPC.

“We reaffirm our resolve for the declaration of the Niger Delta Republic on 1st October, 2017. We reaffirm our resolve to resume attack on all the oil blocs that are owned by the northerners and Yoruba in the Niger Delta from September 10, 2017.

“We hereby call on PENGASSAN, NUPENG and international communities to withdraw their members/expatriates from such oil wells/blocs as we shall not spare any person found in such platforms, including NNPC offices in Abuja and Lagos, oil companies’ headquarters outside the Niger Delta region.”

Biafra: Nnamdi Kanu dares Buhari, says “anyone who tries to arrest me will die”

The Leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has warned that anyone who tries to arrest him will die.

Kanu stated this in reaction to the call of the federal government, that his bail should be revoked.

He was granted bail on April 25, but the IPOB head has flouted all the bail conditions, prompting the calls for his arrest.

Speaking on Sunday at Boys Technical College (BTC) in Aba, Abia state, Kanu paid tribute to those reportedly killed at National High School by security agencies.

“Where we are, is Biafra Land. Aba is the spiritual capital of Biafra land. We started in Aba in 2015 at CKC (Christ the King Catholic Cathedral),” Kanu said.

“That day, heaven authenticated our move that IPOB will restore Biafra and that’s what we’ve come to do. We died in Aba; at National High School.

“They shot and killed us in other places in Biafra land when they were protesting for my release. As our people rest in the grave, we’ll never rest until Biafra is restored. I don’t care what they say in Abuja. I don’t give a damn what they say in Lagos.

“I’m a Biafran and we are going to crumble the zoo. Some idiots who are not educated said that they’ll arrest me, and I ask them to come. I’m in Biafra land. If any of them leaves Biafra land alive know that this is not IPOB. Tell them that’s what I said.

“Tell Buhari that I’m in Aba and any person who comes to arrest Nnamdi Kanu in Biafra land will die here. I’ll never go on exile I assure you.

“Some people talk about restructuring, are we doing restructuring of Nigeria now? Are we doing fiscal federalism? Are we doing devolution? What we want is Biafra!

“Forget all the nonsense they write about us. We are not slowing down and no man born of a woman can stop us.

“They thought we are joking and God gave us a simple message that no one can stop us. The movement to restore Biafra is unstoppable.

“The message of heaven is what I bring to you. Don’t be afraid. The plans of our enemies are not going to be actualized. The enemies are planning, but we are formidable.

“We are going to boycott Anambra state election. After Anambra 2017, in 2019, there’ll be no elections in Biafra land. Signed and sealed. My message is that there’ll not be election in Biafra land ever again until they give us date for referendum.”

Biafrexit: Implications of US Law Suits Against Nigeria’s Gen. Buratai, Others

A landmark civil damages and human rights lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against sixteen Nigerian officials for their direct or indirect complicity and in the extrajudicial killings or torture of Igbos who were protesting marginalization based on their ethnicity, political viewpoint or religion. The Igbos organized themselves as the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), which is as nonviolent as, if not as symbolic as – for instance – the ‘agitation’ for Republic of Texas, or of California in USA; and even Scotland that its own Premier is the one leading the charge for a referendum of autonomy from Britain. In all these cases, the agitators are not being shot at, tortured or killed by the army and police.

I determined from my inquiries that service of the summons and complaint, as well as the initial orders has been accomplished by certified international courier on all defendants. They are currently in default for failure to file a response within 21 days of service as stipulated in pertinent United States federal rules of civil procedure. The lead defendant is Nigeria’s army chief, General Tukur Buratai.

The claims of the plaintiffs are grounded under two muscular United States’ statutes – the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA or ATS – the Alien Tort Statute); and the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Both laws have extraterritorial reach, meaning that they allow US federal courts to assert long-arm jurisdiction that extends beyond the borders of United States.

Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) provides that ‘the district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort (or civil wrong) committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States’. Since 1980, courts have interpreted this statute to allow foreign citizens to seek remedies in US courts for human rights violations for conduct committed outside the United States.

Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 is a statute that permits civil suits in the United States against foreign individuals who – acting in an official capacity for any foreign nation – committed torture and/or extrajudicial killing.

Both laws, especially the TVPA endow individuals or their legal representatives to sue foreign individuals, including officials, to collect damages for extrajudicial killings or torture committed “under color of foreign law.”

In the instant case, the plaintiffs already won first round as the United States District Court has granted them leave to file anonymously as “John Does” after making a ruling that they have a well-founded fear of retribution/persecution by the government of Nigeria or its agents or officials if their identities were disclosed. Violence against Igbos by individuals in the military/police and directed and encouraged by their superiors is notorious and well-known to the international community.

The defendants would be foolhardy to believe this lawsuit will be difficult to win in the United States or stultify and drag on as might have been expected if filed in Nigeria. Judicial independence and the rule of law, as well as speedy trials are the hallmarks of United States jurisprudence. There are legions of US judicial precedents pointing to the high likelihood of a summary judgment for the plaintiffs.

Defendants will have no defense of official immunity because they are being sued in their individual capacities and as officials who purportedly ‘acted under color of law’. They are not sovereigns or diplomats. Further, extrajudicial killings or torture are crimes against humanity. Upon the prompting of the aggrieved, US courts will task any foreign government officials that perpetrate atrocities of the kind visited on the Igbos of Nigeria. It’s not a secret that Nigerian officials had, in the past, engaged in misconducts that resulted in monetary judgments against them – in the millions of dollars – in the United States. This case appears bound for the same predictable result, unless handled differently from the inexplicable bravado and laches that doomed Nigeria in the previous suits preferred against its officials in the United States.

The factual case against the defendants is convincing. All Nigerians know of the widespread beatings and slaughter of Igbos by elements of Nigerian security forces for merely and peacefully exercising their fundamental human right to protest marginalization and urge a new political dispensation. Indeed, beyond Nigeria, Amnesty International and other credible foreign sources have confirmed those killings and torture; and to be sure – their reports will be deemed probative and admissible under standards of evidence long established in US federal courts in cases of this nature. Plus, plaintiffs are all on standby in the United States to air their tearful testimonies in open court. It even makes it worse that the Nigerian army is reported to be denying and covering up an atrocity that was so open and notorious.

It doesn’t make it any better that the Nigerian government – so far – appears to have condoned the wanton killings by failing to publicly discipline the officers that pulled the trigger or the commanders that gave the order. It’s even worse that President Buhari, upon his return from vacation, reportedly ordered his troops to renew their crackdown on Igbo protesters. That VP Osibanjo gave no such orders when Buhari was away is noticeably demonstrative of the widespread notion that Buhari – a Fulani core Muslim – has profiled the Christian Igbos for persecution because of their ethnicity, their love of freedom, and the perception that they did not vote for him in the 2015 election that saw him to power.

At present, the savage mentality that is directed against Igbos in Nigeria of this era is widespread and underscored by the notorious threat to expel or destroy millions of Igbos and seize their properties in the Muslim northern states of Nigeria if they refused to surrender their right to reside and work peacefully in that part of the country. And the federal, state, and local governments appear as spectators to the looming genocide – a spectacle that is not lost on a wary international community; and which might as yet make Nigeria a ‘state actor’ in the ultimate fallouts. Such fallouts will surely raise the specter of an International Criminal Court intervention that may engulf the present crop of Nigerian leadership at the very top.

The Nigerian defendants are mistaken if they believe they can defend from the safe confines of Nigeria. If the case goes to trial, they will be required – under penalty of default or even contempt – to appear in a United States court to testify under oath and dangerously probing cross-examination that will dwell on the details of the Igbo killings and the complicity of other unnamed Nigerian officials, which shall include whether they received their orders from the presidential levels of security leadership to use lethal force on unarmed protesters. This evidence could be used in a sequel criminal prosecution before the International Criminal Court or a special court of the likes employed in the prosecution and conviction of Chad’s former dictator, Hissene Habre in Senegal. The State governors – of Abia and Anambra – where these killings largely occurred will also be ensnared by virtue of being the ‘chief security officers’ of their States. Those two governors are also listed as defendants.

If the defendants refuse to appear, default judgments will be entered against them, in addition to the prospects of undefended huge damage awards that will run in the millions of dollars. The ultimate loser – diplomatically and financially – will be the Nigerian and State governments that presumably control the officials who acted under color of state law when the Igbo killings occurred. In the end, it may snowball to the government of Nigeria being listed as a state sponsor of terrorism in the same manner as was done with Sudan, etc. In the interim and despite the continuing menace of Boko Haram, the United Nations Security Council (or the US – under the Leahy Act) could vote an arms embargo on Nigeria to prevent the diversion of military weapons that could be geared to perpetrating more official violence against the Igbo people.

Christian lobby groups in the United States were largely responsible for making Sudan a pariah state, which culminated in the creation of South Sudan through a referendum organized and supervised by the United Nations. Like Nigeria, Sudan also fancied itself indissoluble just because its Constitution said so. That same political dynamic will be at work against Nigeria if the TVPA/ATCA litigation is not resolved amicably before Nigeria’s dirty linen is exposed at trial in an open United States courtroom for the entire world to see.

Better yet, there’s a third way – a time honored window of opportunity the defendants can exploit to end the case early and avoid the severe rigors of a foreign trial. US trial lawyers and the courts within which they operate are known to have a proclivity for encouraging any alternative dispute resolution path that brings closure through a pre-trial fair settlement of suits. Though this suit has progressed to a point of some disadvantage to the defendants, it’s not too late for them to begin now to seek out plaintiffs’ lawyers and start talking to them.