Biafra: Niger Delta didn’t betray Ndigbo —MASSOB

Leader of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign States of Biafra, MASSOB, Chief Solomon  Chukwu, has said that contrary to the widely held belief in the South East, the people of

the Niger Delta area did not betray Ndigbo during the Nigerian Civil war.

Chukwu in an interview with Vanguard, said; “During the war, people said the Niger Delta denied Biafra. It is not true; the major betrayers of Biafra were even from the South East than the South South bloc. People like Ojukwu’s second in command, Gen. Philip Effiong, fought for Biafra till the end. My father and many strong men of Niger Delta also fought for Biafra. I’m a Biafran from Ikwerre extraction in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

“I’m a true son of Niger Delta. Forget about the role of people like Ken Saro Wiwa, but in the mainstream of Biafra, many Niger Deltans stood to be counted. Today, they still support Biafra. Now, Asari Dokubo, Kalada George, Uche Okwukwu, among other great Niger Delta sons are in support of Biafra.

“Before now, everybody was saying Biafra is for Ndigbo and South East, but today the story has changed, the entire people of Niger Delta have realised the need to actualize Biafra. Again, with what Uwazurike has done in shifting the leadership of MASSOB to the Niger Delta, everybody has also seen that Biafra is not the business of the South East alone. People have embraced Biafra and it keeps expanding more than what they knew.”

He disclosed that MASSOB had embarked on sensitization visit to all cities in the Biafran territories where it had also opened liaison offices and commended the support of the people of Niger Delta to the struggle to actualize an independent state of Biafra.

“Today, people from all over the former Eastern region and Niger Delta now attend MASSOB meetings. Recently, we were in Warri, Delta State where the people received us with a rousing welcome. They were jubilating that this time, there will be no dichotomy again.  There will be no divide and rule; that Ikwerre is not Biafra or Niger Delta is not Biafra. The former Eastern region and Niger Delta are working in unison to actualize an independent Biafra.”

Kanu, Dasuki : NBA, SANs differ with Buhari, Sagay

ABUJA— Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and some leading lawyers in the country have disagreed with the Presidential Committee on anti-corruption led by Professor Itse Sagay over President Muhammadu Buhari’s insistence that the former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu who are facing separate criminal charges, would not be released from custody, despite valid court orders that granted them bail.


In his submission on the president’s stance, Professor Sagay argued that the Federal Government was not in violation of the rule of law as any bail granted an accused is completely related to the offence which he is charged before the court.

The NBA and some Senior Advocates of Nigeria, however, contended that the position the president took was offensive to the tenets of constitutional democracy, rule of law and presumption of innocence of an accused person. They argued that re-arresting someone immediately after the court has granted such person bail makes mockery of our democracy which is presumably anchored on the rule of law and separation of powers.”

Buhari had in his first presidential media chat at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, adduced reasons why the Federal Government would not readily allow both Dasuki and Kanu to regain their freedom from detention.
Whereas Kanu, who is facing a six-count charge bordering on treason, has been in detention since October 14, 2015, when he was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, the former NSA, who is facing multiple charges before three different courts, was re-arrested last week at the gate of Kuje Prison, Abuja, shortly after he perfected all his bail conditions.

Responding to a question during the media chat, President Buhari, justified the continued incarceration of the two accused persons. He said considering the weight of the allegations against them, they could jump bail if granted any form of freedom.

He said: “Technically, if you see the kinds of atrocities these people are believed to have committed against the country, if they are given the opportunity, they will jump bail. And the one you are calling Kanu, do you know he had two passports – one Nigerian, one British – and he came into the country without any? Do you know he brought equipment into this country and was broadcasting Radio Biafra? Which kind of government do you think should harbour that kind of person? There is a treasonable felony suit against him and I hope the court will listen to the case.”

Rule of law must be respected — NBA
Speaking to Vanguard, yesterday, on the issue, President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Augustine Alegeh, SAN, said “government has a need to respect the rule of law. As a matter of fact, there is need for government to be in the front burner in the respect for the rule of law. Whoever is unhappy, including government with a pronouncement of the court, has the opportunity of still going back to that court, for the court’s decision to be vacated or appeal to a higher court, but not to undertake to ignore it or carrying on as though nothing has happened or that the court’s order is not binding. That is an unacceptable principle in the rule of law”.

According to him, “an agenda for the respect of rule of law is a must for the government. For specific cases in court, it’s not the business of the Nigerian Bar Association to make comments on them, because we have our members on both side and they can decide to speak on the matter, but on the general principle of rule of law, as an association, it is one area we are passionate about, which we feel is very essential.

“So, both government and citizens must subscribe to the principles of rule of law and doing otherwise is not an option. You cannot pick and choose which court order to obey, if you try to do that, you are clearly undermining the principle of rule of law and the obvious consequence will not help the society in anyway.
We believe that from our interaction with the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, they do not have an option but to obey court orders. You must bear in mind that the courts are there to settle disputes between individuals as well as between government and individuals, so it is important that all parties respect the rule of law and judgments and decision of courts as that is one area we will not compromise”.

‘Uncle Had S*x with us Inside his Car’

Residents of a building located at Onueke Town, Ebonyi State, have been living like brothers and sisters for years. Although most of them met in the compound, they had however, developed love and affection for one another. A visitor wouldn’t be able to differentiate the kids.

There was rapport and easy camaraderie among them. The kids are often seen dashing from one apartment to another. The children acted like kids of the same parents.

But in this Garden of Eden, resides a serpent, Mr. Nwoja. The unsuspecting neighbours didn’t know his true nature until one of their children started having pains inside her private part. The girl’s parents almost collapsed in shock when the child revealed that Nwoja had serially raped her. The man didn’t just insert his fingers into the girls’ private parts, he also inserted his manhood. His wife was said to have travelled to the village since the news of the incident broke out.



Other parents quickly rallied round, comforting the mother of the girl and dishing out advice. Their good advice however ceased in shock after more kids in the compound revealed that the man raped them too. When the victims were counted, they were about nine girls. While mothers took to crying, fathers sharpened their swords. Others tried to calm frayed nerves. Seething fathers were finally persuaded to take the matter to the police. What makes a man to resort to defiling nine female children?

Attack on Iraqi military base kills at least 15

Attacks by five suicide bombers on an Iraqi military base north of Baghdad on Sunday killed at least 15 members of the security forces and wounded 22 others, security sources said.

Two of the bombers detonated their vehicle-borne explosives at the western gate of Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base outside the Sunni city of Tikrit.

Three others exploded themselves after entering the section of the base where Iraqi police are being trained, police and military sources in the Salahuddin operations command said.

Islamic State, the militant group controlling swathes of Iraq's north and west, claimed responsibility for the blasts in a statement distributed by supporters online.

It said it targeted "trainers from the rejectionist army", a term used by the Sunni insurgents to describe Shi'ite Muslims.

Iraq is gripped by a sectarian conflict mostly between Shi'ites and Sunnis that has been exacerbated by the rise of the ultra-hardline Sunni insurgents of Islamic State.

Camp Speicher became a symbol of the group's brutality and hatred for Iraq's Shi'ite majority after as many as 1,700 soldiers from the base were killed in mid-2014 during the militants' lightning advance across the Syrian border.

Iraqi forces retook the center of the western city of Ramadi last week, a victory that could help boost Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has been rebuilding the military after stunning defeats in the face of Islamic State.

Iraq's Defense Ministry said Islamic State has stepped up suicide blasts in response to setbacks in Ramadi. It said in a statement the group had used 22 bombers in two recent failed attacks in Anbar where Ramadi is located. The military responded, killing at least 42 militants including the bombers, the ministry said.

Reuters

(Reporting by Stephen Kalin and Maher Chmaytelli in Baghdad and Motsafa Hashem in Cairo; Editing by Alison Williams)

Oil will blow past $80 a barrel in 2016

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

The next big move in the price of oil will be up. For now, OPEC producers are flooding the market with cheap crude. But low-cost OPEC producers will win the hydrocarbon price war because they can fight harder for longer. And when they win, the price of oil will rise.

Brent crude has fallen about 40 percent over the last year to less than $40 a barrel as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has sought to defend its market share by pumping record volumes of oil and driving profit out of higher-cost production. Shale oil drillers in America and offshore operators in areas such as the UK’s North Sea are among the most vulnerable. Improving wellhead efficiency has softened the blows thus far. But these gains will be harder to repeat in 2016.

 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects shale oil production in the United States to shrink by more than 600,000 barrels per day next year if current low oil prices persist. At that rate, daily U.S. shale production would soon fall below 5 million barrels per day.

Lower prices will accelerate shutdowns in areas like the North Sea too. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie reckons that over a third of the area’s 330 fields could be threatened by early closure if prices remain below $85 per barrel for an extended period.

Like shale, the North Sea was once seen as a serious rival to OPEC’s cheap oil but now it looks like its first victim. Wood Mackenzie reckons that at least 1.5 million barrels of daily global production are uneconomic at $40. Those volumes make up no more than a couple of percent of supply. But the global oil market is finely balanced. Small changes can lead to big shifts.

As more high-cost production is either shut down or slowed down, OPEC’s pricing power will come to the fore. The IEA says oil prices will swill around the bottom of the barrel until 2018. If demand for oil rises with a global economic growth spurt – fuelled perhaps by the low cost of energy – the oil prices will move up sooner than that.

The precise price to be seen at any moment in 2016 is unpredictable. But elemental oil market forces suggest that a barrel of black stuff will revert back towards its 10-year mean above $80.

This view is a Breakingviews prediction for 2016. Click here to see more predictions.

Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Iran as row over cleric's death escalates

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday, responding to the storming of its embassy in Tehran in an escalating row between the rival Middle East powers over Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite Muslim cleric.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its security.

Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family.

Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia.

"The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them," he said.
 
Speaking on Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in Tehran's first response that by cutting diplomatic ties, Riyadh could not cover up "its major mistake of executing Sheikh Nimr".

The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, responded by encouraging diplomatic engagement and calling for leaders in the region to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions.
"We believe that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential in working through differences and we will continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions," an official of President Barack Obama's administration said.

Tensions between revolutionary, mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's conservative Sunni monarchy have run high for years as they backed opposing forces in wars and political conflicts across the Middle East, usually along sectarian lines.

However, Saturday's execution of a cleric whose death Iran had warned would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly", and the storming of the kingdom's Tehran embassy, raised the pitch of the rivalry.

Strong rhetoric from Tehran was matched by Iran's Shi'ite allies across the region, with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese militia Hezbollah, describing the execution as "a message of blood". Moqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shi'ite cleric, called for angry protests.

Demonstrators protesting against the execution of the cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, broke into the embassy building, smashed furniture and started fires before being ejected by police.

SHAMEFUL! ALLOW US TO OVER RUN BOKO HARAM, BORNO HUNTERS BEGS ARMY

HUNTERS BEGS ARMY

Borno State hunters have pleaded with the Nigerian Army to allow them join in the war against Boko Haram insurgents in the dreaded Sambisa forest.


Emir of hunters in the state, Mai-Gana Mai-Durma, made the appeal while addressing journalists in Maiduguri.

He said: “We are appealing to the military authorities to allow us join the fight against Boko Haram at the Sambisa forest. We are ready to pursue the terrorists because we know the terrain very well.”
According to him, the military should align them with members of the vigilance group, popularly known as the Civilian JTF, for effective result.

“We will overrun Sambisa in partnership with members of the civilian JTF if given the opportunity. This will help to complement the effort of military in the anti terrorism operation,” he said.

Lamenting that hunters from the 27 local government areas of the state had been rendered idle by the insurgency, he said: “Hunters from all the 27 Borno LGAs are all in Maiduguri with our leaders doing nothing at present because of Boko Haram.

“Rather than idling away, we will want to assist the military in crushing Boko Haram terrorists.”
The head of the hunters in Borno State also appealed to the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Garbai, to assist in forwarding their request to the military authorities for consideration.

 Mai-Durma said the call became imperative because the hunters were familiar with the terrain at the dreaded forest, the hideout and operational base of the terrorists.