The Nigerian Embassy in Berlin was attacked with paint bombs on Wednesday night by unknown persons, the police have said.
According to police spokesman, unknown attackers threw glass bottles filled with a thick and sticky liquid at the front of the building in Neue Jakobstraße, (The name of the street where the embassy is situated), the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
The spokesman said the police have handed over the investigation of the incident to state security authorities, adding that political motive may not be ruled out in the attack.
The police said security workers noticed the damage to the building on Thursday morning.
The spokesman said that on Monday, 120 activists, members of the “Refugee Protest March in Berlin campaign” gathered in front of the Nigerian Embassy to demonstrate against the practice of deporting asylum seekers from Germany.
According to him, 14 of the activists illegally entered to the embassy, in order to “occupy” it as part of the protest march.
He explained that those who entered the premises were later ejected by security officials while 25 of the protesters were temporarily detained and later released.
The spokesman stated that the demonstrators accused the embassy workers of “working closely with the German state to ensure that the processing of the largest number of deportations from Africa came from Nigeria.”
He emphasised that his agency would, however, investigate if there was a connection between the attempted occupation of the embassy on Monday and the recent paint attack on Wednesday night to the early hours of Thursday.
Heavy explosions and gunfire rocked Potiskum in Yobe State on Wednesday, residents said, after violence this week left at least 24 people dead in the sister city of Maiduguri in Borno State.
Blasts and shootings shook residents of the town, previously hit hard by violence blamed on the extremist group Boko Haram, residents told Agence France Presse.
Yobe State Commissioner of Police, Patrick Egbuniwe, said there had been a bomb explosion and security forces afterward cordoned off the area and began house-to-house searches.
He did not say whether there had been any casualties.
“There was a bomb explosion this morning and the Joint Task Force has already cordoned off the area for the safety of residents,” Egbuniwe said, referring to a military and police task force.
“Right now, there is a house-to-house search by JTF to fish out the perpetrators of the terror attack.”
Residents said the unrest began just before 6a.m.
“It started with a huge explosion followed by successive blasts and gunfire,” one resident told AFP.
The blasts and gunfire came from an area of the town where a bank, a military base and the office of the anti-narcotics agency are located, residents said.
On Tuesday, Nigeria’s military said 24 Boko Haram members were killed in violence that rocked the city of Maiduguri, Borno State after the extremists launched attacks with bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
The military has been regularly accused of abuses, including the killing of civilians. Tuesday’s statement said there were no civilian casualties and one soldier was wounded, but the claims could not be independently verified.
Maiduguri is considered the base of Boko Haram. The conflict is believed to have killed at least 2,800 people since 2009.
Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr Umar Manko, on Wednesday disclosed that 39 of its officers, including four women, have been arrested for various offences in the last seven months.
Manko who disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, added that the officers were arrested by the Command’s Monitoring Unit.
He expressed displeasure over the deviant attitude of some officers, stressing that he would no longer tolerate any act of indiscipline in the command.
“Officers arrested included Inspectors and other ranks; 11 of the officers were arrested for illegal duty operation, 9 officers arrested for discredited conduct.
“One officer was arrested for corruption, while 18 others were arrested for extortion, “ Manko said.
The commissioner said that the officers were arrested in different parts of the state carrying out duties which were contrary to police operations.
“There is a new order by the Inspector General of Police, which includes discipline. This order must be carried out in this command. Anyone that is not ready for the new order should look elsewhere.
“We are treating their matter in line with police discipline. In Lagos State, no police officer has any reason to be indisciplined or corrupt.
“My monitoring unit is out every day, anyone caught for illegal duty would be arrested, “ he said.
Manko said that the officers have already been tried according to police laws and regulations.
Areas where the officers were arrested, according to him, include Mushin, Surulere, Dopemu, Owode and Ogudu.
Patience, wife of President Goodluck Jonathan returned to Nigeria on Wednesday.
She had been away from the country two months ago for medical treatment in Weisbaden, Germany for an undisclosed ailment.
Her Chief Press Secretary, Ayo Osinlu, had said at the time that she was on holiday.
But press reports indicated that she was flown from Abuja to Germany in an air ambulance for treatment.
She returned to Abuja in a presidential jet.
More details later.
Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday said the Labour Party’s allegation that the commission’s National Commissioner, Prof. Lai Olurode, is a member of a political party.
Speaking in Akure on Wednesday during a stakeholders’ meeting, Jega said INEC’s had found out the claim was meant to smear the commissioner’s integrity.
He stressed that none of INEC’s workers had any affiliation with any political party.
Jega said,” Your allegation is spurious. No member of INEC is a member of any political party.
“If you have any evidence to support your allegation, provide it. We will do the right thing.
“But our investigation has shown that your claim is spurious.
“We don’t take any allegation as spurious immediately it is made. We investigate every allegation.”
GUNMEN on a motocycle on Wednesday shot dead two officers of the Federal Road Safety Commission in Kano, Kano State.
The killers were suspected to be members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
One other FRSC official sustained bullet wounds.
The killing occurred at about 1pm around Madobi Road, near Sani Abacha Youth Centre, in Panshekera, a suburb of Kano metropolis.
The incident came barely 24 hours after two policemen were shot dead by suspected gunmen in the city.
A policeman close to the scene of the incident, who preferred anonymity, told our correspondent that, “A Federal Road Safety Commission patrol vehicle was attacked by gunmen on a motorbike, killing two officers and wounding one.”
Sector Commander of the FRSC, Kano State Command, Zaaki Alkali confirmed the incident to journalists.
He said his men were four in the vehicle when the attackers opened fire on them.
“Two officers died instantly, while one sustained bullet wounds, but the fourth person survived the attack unhurt. It is a very sad incident”, Alkali explained.
Apaediatrician, Dr. Solomon Adeleke, on Wednesday said that forced feeding of babies, common among mothers could lower the strength of the lungs causing pneumonia in the child.
Adeleke of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the food could enter the lungs and decay to cause pneumonia.
According to him, pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that is caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. It is characterised primarily by inflammation of the lungs’ tissues.
“It is a very serious condition, pneumonia can make a person very sick or even cause death; the disease can occur in young and healthy people.
“It is more dangerous for older adults, babies, and people with other diseases or impaired immune systems.
“But adults have a way of fighting against it unlike babies, who do not have much strength, hence more care should be taken while nursing them,” he said.
Adeleke said that cold, which was always attributed to pneumonia, was not the major cause, though it could predispose one to pneumonia.
“This is because the presence of cold might affect the movement of cilia, which fight against bacteria from entering the lungs, not to function effectively.
“Cilia act as brush, collecting all the large foreign particles that are inhaled.
“They move everything that they collect back up the throat toward the back of the mouth, so that the foreign particles can be expelled or swallowed,” he added.
Adeleke cautioned adults who were in the habit of spiting saliva carelessly, saying that pneumonia was infectious as children might be infected through that means.
According to him, some children may have congenital pneumonia; unusual condition present at birth or acquired one, which may be contracted through organisms buried in saliva.
The paediatrician also advised that babies should be kept warm and indoors to prevent them from contracting pneumonia as a result of dirty environment.
He also urged mothers take their babies to the hospital early enough for proper diagnosis and treatment, adding that early detection would enhance proper treatment.
President Goodluck Jonathan will on Thursday begin the first-phase of an inspection tour of states affected by the floods.
This is contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
He said the president would visit flooded parts of Kogi, Anambra, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states.
He said before embarking on the tour, the president would inaugurate the National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation on Thursday.
The president had, on Tuesday, constituted the committee on the ravaging flood during a national broadcast.
The committee was established as part of measures by the Federal Government to provide urgent succour and relief to victims of the floods across the country.
It has Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Mr Olisa Agbakoba as co-chairmen and Dr. Mike Adenuga of Globacom as the chief fund raiser.
It is charged with the responsibility of raising additional funds to support ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to ensure the provision of adequate relief to flood victims.
The committee will also ensure effective post-impact rehabilitation of affected persons and communities.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spent much of his first presidential debate Wednesday walking back some of his core primary positions and highlighting similarities with President Barack Obama — from keeping bank regulations in place, bringing in more teachers, maintaining taxes on the wealthy, to making sure those with pre-existing conditions have health insurance.
But Obama failed to respond effectively, drifting into his professorial demeanour and barely attempting to veil his annoyance with Romney, Huffington Post reports.
It wasn’t pretty, but Romney won, according to the general consensus among reporters and political operatives after the debate at the University of Denver.
Romney appeared more relaxed than Obama, who spent much of his time explaining policies he would likely rather be done selling by now. He hardly looked Romney in the eye during the debate.
There is one critical caveat, of course, in determining the winner of a debate: It’s difficult to know how the millions of voters, whose prisms are radically different than those of mainstream reporters, took in the debate. But, at minimum, Romney cleared the most critical bar, by appearing presidential.
Still, one issue continued to plague Romney: details. While he said he would end Obama programs, he was vague on how he would do so without eliminating a host of components he pledged to keep.
“At some point, you have to ask, is he keeping all these plans to replace (programmes) secret because they’re too good?” Obama said. “Families are going benefit too much from them?”
The debate was the first of three presidential debates, this one with a focus on domestic policy. Obama and Romney each went into the debate attempting to tamp down expectations, insisting their opponent might have a bit of an edge and that they just hoped to do well.
Romney had more to prove, with Obama leading by large margins in swing states, according to a number of polls. Obama also has had more time to lay out his policy plans and present himself to the American people, while Romney is still being pressed for more specifics.
Romney did give one specific on taxes, making the promise that he will cut taxes only to the extent it doesn’t increase the deficit. Romney said he doesn’t want to cut taxes by $5 trillion, a widely reported figure, and put a strict limitation on how much he would actually lower taxes.
“If the tax plan he described were a tax plan I was asked to support, I’d say, ‘Absolutely not,’” Romney said. “I’m not asking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I’ve said is I won’t put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. … I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it.”
Obama struck back.
“Now … he is saying that his big bold idea is ‘never mind.’ The fact is, if you are lowering the rates the way you describe, governor, it is not possible to come up with enough deductions or loopholes,” Obama said. “It is math. It is arithmetic.”
Romney insisted a few times that he would leave things as they were, or that he agreed with Obama. He said he wouldn’t cut funding for education and that he agrees more teachers are needed.
Romney also said he and Obama agree that Social Security should not be changed for current seniors, effectively taking it off the table, although the two still attacked each other on the issue of Medicare.
Romney also said the two men agree that young people should be kept on their parents’ insurance plans, even if he successfully repealed Obamacare.
He also said he supports another Obamacare component: requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions. Romney said he would continue that policy, a key part of Obamacare that isn’t actually part of his plan.
Romney’s health care plan would require insurers to cover pre-existing conditions if they were switching from one insurer to another — but would do nothing for those trying to get insurance who do not currently have it.
But there still weren’t many details, something Obama pointed out. A few minutes after jabbing Romney on his math, Obama said the public can visit his website to see the specifics of his deficit-cutting plan, alluding to vagaries in Romney’s deficit reduction promises.
Romney pointed out, rightly, that Obama didn’t get behind the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction bill — which his vice presidential pick, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), voted against — even though he admitted he doesn’t support it either.
“The president should have grabbed that,” Romney said of deficit reduction, specifically citing the plan.
“Do you support it?” moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS countered.
“I have my own plan,” Romney responded. “I think the president should have grabbed it. If you have some adjustments, make it, take it to congress, go for it.”
Romney, when it came to bank regulation, played it both ways. He charged Dodd-Frank with leading to community bank closures, while also complaining that elements of it hadn’t been implemented fast enough. He praised some parts of it, criticised others, but declined to get specific.
Both candidates seemed a bit touchy, especially with the moderator. Obama kept talking at one point when Lehrer said his time was up, saying, “I had five seconds before you interrupted me.”
Romney made even more of a fuss about the times, insisting on the first question that he get the last word, and refusing at several points to stop talking when asked. He also promised to cut funding to PBS, with an apology to Lehrer.
The debate ended with another attack from Obama over how Romney and Ryan would run the government. Romney promised to work with Democratic and Republican leaders “on day one,” or the day after his election, to work to collaborate, an idea Obama mocked.
“I think Governor Romney is going to have a busy first day because he’s also going to repeal Obamacare,” Obama said. “Which will not be very popular with Democrats as you’re sitting down with them.”
Former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Gambo Jimeta
| credits: leadership.ng
A former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Gambo Jimeta, on Wednesday accused members of the Northern Elders Forum of sowing seeds of discord in the country.
Specifically, he accused the elders of causing confusion in the polity in order to discredit the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Responding to a comment credited to the NEF that the Jonathan administration was worse than that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the former police boss accused the northern elders of being hypocritical in their assessment.
Jimeta said instead of seeking real solutions to the nation’s problems, the elders “chose cowardly path to create confusion and mistrust.”
He said in a statement, “As for the unfortunate comment credited to the Northern Elders Forum that Jonathan’s government is worse than Obasanjo, it is disappointing to note that other Nigerians who should have been steering the course of nation building decided to pull those pillars down by sowing the seeds of enmity and political hypocrisy in order to distract Nigerians from the truth.
“Rather than rolling up their sleeves to actively find solutions to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians, they chose to pull us backward again and force us to play the blame game. The hydra-headed monster of collective responsibility in the nation’s down fall also has thousands of fingers pointing at those who sit in judgment in the Northern Elders’ Forum.”
Comparing the administrations of Jonathan and Obasanjo, he said, “How short is the memory of these Nigerians that they would choose to sweep away the cases of massive corruption that plagued the Obasanjo administration or the flagrant disregard of court judgments?
“What about the elections that brought the violent ethnic and religious crisis? The Jos and Kaduna crises all happened under his watch. Have they so easily forgotten the crisis in the aviation industry that saw a season of death through multiple air crashes?”
Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on Wednesday expressed sadness at the excruciating fuel scarcity in the South-West, arising from the vandalism of a vital pipeline at Arepo in Ogun State.
A statement by the governor’s Senior Special Assistant (Media), Mrs. Funmi Wakama, said he spoke in his office in Abeokuta when a delegation from the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria Western Zone, comprising Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara and Kogi, led by its Chairman, Mr Olumide Ogunmade, paid him a visit.
He sought a joint effort by all stakeholders to end the menace of pipeline vandals, whose activities led to the inferno at Arepo and shutdown of Mosimi depot.
He cautioned against indiscriminate parking of fuel tankers along the Lagos/ Ibadan highway, “which results in traffic congestion and economic losses.”
Ogunmade, who spoke earlier, urged the government to intervene in fast-tracking the repair of the pipeline, emphasising that the continued closure of Mosimi depot would not only result in job losses but hinder the smooth supply of petroleum products to all the states in the zone, as Lagos alone could not service the entire region.
An ambush in Sudan’s western Darfur region killed four Nigerian peacekeepers and wounded eight, the UN-African Union Mission (UNAMID) said on Wednesday.
The attackers struck late Tuesday in the West Darfur state capital El-Geneina, the peacekeeping force told AFP.
“The incident, which involved a Nigerian military patrol, occurred approximately two kilometres (just over a mile) from the mission’s regional headquarters,” the force said.
“UNAMID personnel, who were heavily fired upon from several directions, returned fire. UNAMID and local authorities are work
ing at the scene of the incident.”
UNAMID Force Commander Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba called on the Khartoum authorities to hunt down those responsible.
“The mission condemns in the strongest terms this criminal attack on our peacekeepers who are here in the service of Darfur’s people. I call on the government of Sudan to bring the perpetrators to justice,” he said.
Ethnic minority rebels rose against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003.
In response, the government unleashed state-backed Janjaweed Arab militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide.
The UN estimates at least 300,000 people died but the government puts the toll at 10,000.
UNAMID has been in Darfur for more than four years with a mandate to protect civilians in the vast area the size of France.
Although violence is down on its peak, clashes between rebels and government troops, banditry and inter-ethnic fighting continues.
Key rebel groups refused to sign a deal reached last year between the Khartoum regime and an alliance of smaller rebel splinter factions.
With more than 22,000
international troops and police officers, UNAMID has a budget of about $1.4 billion for 2012-13.
Nigeria Union of Teachers on Wednesday set January 2013 as deadline for states that have not implemented the new Teachers’ Salary Structure to begin payment or face industrial disputes.
NUT National President, Mr. Michael Alogba-Olukoya, stated this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
The governors’ forum had in 2009 approved 27.5 per cent increase in salary of teachers in public schools, in line with the new Teachers Salary Scale.
Alogba-Olukoya lamented that 18 states were yet to commence implementation of the TSS.
He said that teachers’ welfare must always be held in high esteem, describing it as an important factor needed for the reform in the education sector.
According to the NUT president, the union has displayed enough patience and understanding by suspending its recent strike over the delay in the implementation.
Alogba-Olukoya observed that the affected governments were not showing concern to reciprocate the position of the teachers.
“We only suspended the strike, based on the intervention of the Minister of Education, who promised to prevail on all the defaulting state governments over the issue.
“However, we have started getting some commitments from some of the affected state governments who have promised to capture and commence the implementation of the TSS in their 2013 budgets.
“We, therefore, want to appeal to these state governments to be honourable enough to honour this agreement which we went into in 2009,” he said.
Alogba-Olukoya noted that teachers were not interested in strike because their position in national development was critical and should be treated with respect.
He warned that the union would not be held responsible for actions taken over non-implementation of the TSS by January 2013.
On the World Teachers Day, scheduled for October 5, Alogba-Olukoya said that series of activities had been lined up for the celebration.
“We have set aside a lot of activities to mark our day and celebrate ourselves in this part of the country because, truly we deserve to be celebrated.
“We shall also be using that day to officially co-opt teachers of all the 104 Unity Colleges across the country into our fold.
“You know that before now they had been seeing themselves as civil servants, even though they are all professional teachers,” he said.
Alogba-Olukoya said that the union was hopeful that the Federal Government would use the celebration to come out with policies that would create the enabling environment for teachers to perform optimally.
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