Nigeria: " Wearing bracelets of smoke, naked of understanding "

The Guardian reports

Boko Haram claims responsibility for kidnapping Nigeria schoolgirls

Islamist militants' leader threatens to sell the more than 270 girls abducted in north-east Nigeria on 14 April

Screengrab from video obtained by AFP of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claiming responsibility for abducting the schoolgirls. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images

The leader of Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has said that more than 270 schoolgirls snatched from their dormitories were "slaves" whom he planned to sell in the market.

"I abducted your girls," a man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, the group's leader, said in a video seen by the Guardian. "I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will sell them off and marry them off. There is a market for selling humans.

I can't wait for the day that Abubakar Shekau is given a chance to discuss this act of barbarity on a one to one level with Allah. Hopefully it will involve a particularly cruel and unusual form of punishment in the hours if not days leading up to that discussion.

"Women are slaves. I want to reassure my Muslim brothers that Allah says slaves are permitted in Islam," he added, in an apparent reference to an ancient tradition of enslaving women captured during jihad, or holy war.

This coward and that is a charitable description of him, conducts his holy war on school children I guess his band of madmen are unable to attract life partners in a conventional manner so in this instance he has targeted girls.

Speaking in northern Nigeria's Hausa language during a rambling hour-long speech, he threatened further attacks on schools and warned the international community not to get involved in Nigeria. Shekau has previously called western education "a plot against Islam" and urged his fighters to kill students and teachers.

The international community are already involved.

" The United States Department of State offered a $7 million reward and the Nigerian government offered a N50 million reward for his capture, making him the most wanted man in Nigeria and Islamist in Africa."  

I hope that the international community get more involved. This prick needs to be taken down fast, we have seen the damage that Joseph Kony has caused in the Great Lakes Region, this is the Nigerian equivalent. 

"I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of nine," he said at another point in the video.

Sub Saharan Africa has become the new battle ground between radical Islam and sanity. It is a fight that West must get involved insofar as it is our fight as well. One need only look at the Central African Republic and the religious insanity occurring there to realise there is a radical Islamic agenda at play.

The chilling message came as police questioned 'Gbenga Sesan – the activist behind the popular Twitter campaign #BringBackOurGirls – and two women who helped organise protests calling for the government to do more to rescue the girls.

And to make matters even worse the Nigerian Government has taken to the path of blaming the victims. It would seem that President Goodluck Jonathan's  government has opted to fight insanity through even more fucking insanity.

Protesters call for the release of the missing schoolgirls at the state government house, in Lagos, Nigeria. Photograph: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

Saratu Angus Ndirpaya and Naomi Mutah Nyadar were detained after attending a meeting with the president's wife, Patience, who, in a bizarre twist, suggested the mass abductions had never happened and were instead a conspiracy to derail her husband's presidential campaign for elections next year.

Yes no surprises there. Her husband being re-elected is far more important to the stupid bitch than the lives of 270 school girls. She is if nothing else a worthy member of the Crocodile Club.

At least 300 teenage girls were snatched in a dawn raid in Chibok, in Boko Haram's north-eastern heartland of Borno state, on 15 April. President Goodluck Jonathan did not publicly comment on the abductions for two weeks and the government's clumsy handling of the case has triggered protests across almost every major city.

Not just Nigeria. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls is recording huge hits including some fairly serious players such as Hillary Clinton.

" Access to education is a basic right & an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism.#BringBackOurGirls "

Jonathan pledged on Sunday evening that the government would return the girls to their families. "This is a trying time for this country. It is painful," he said.

Made even more painful for the victims by his wife, Nigeria's First Lady. If there was any justice in this world she would be sharing the fate of those school girls for her total lack of empathy and compassion.

Diplomats say the government is in talks with the UK and the US for assistance in bolstering the country's security.

This is bigger than the UK and the US, it is a crime against humanity and humanity needs to make it clear to those incompetent fools who are permanent members of the security council including the aforementioned states that we expect a resolution to this atrocity and the wider Boko Haram problem. If that solution involves killing every one of the pricks that is fine by me.

Mallam Mpur, whose two nieces are among the missing, said parents were reeling from reports the girls had been sold as "brides" to the extremists. He could not yet face telling the parents and relatives who gathered at his home for daily updates and support about the latest threats, he added. "In a few hours it will be exactly three weeks since our girls were taken away – we are counting every hour," he said.

"All I can say is, as parents we are desperate and begging. If the Nigerian government cannot help us, there is no shame in appealing to other African countries or the international community for help."

There is a huge amount of shame in the families having to appeal to the African and international community for help and that shame is our shame not the families. Boko Haram should have been destroyed long before now. We know their modus operandi, when they attacked the girls dormitories they should have hit heavily armed UN troops with an offensive mandate, it is clear that the Nigerian security forces are not up to the job. 

Some parents say their attempts to pass on information to the authorities have been fruitless. Farmer Dauda said his daughter called him from a forest training camp for militants last week. "One of the Boko Haram people came on the phone and told us not to worry; that our daughter is in safe hands," he told the Guardian. "The man told us, we have warned you not to send your children to school and this is the consequence. Then he told us that if we are patient and follow their orders, we will see our daughter again. But the government are not interested in hearing when we try to speak to them."

 It is also clear that the President Jonathan has failed in his most important role. He needs to go.

About 50 girls escaped in the confusion, some by jumping off trucks and fleeing for miles on foot through the dense Sambisa forest. Two girls have since died from snake bites, according to intermediaries in contact with the militants.

A demonstrator in London protests against the failure of the Nigerian government, to rescue the schoolgirls abducted by Boka Haram extremists. Photograph: Ruth Whitworth/Demotix/Corbis

Another Chibok elder, whose house was burned down during the five-hour raid by Boko Haram, said life was continuing in a state of terror. "Any little noise we hear at night, we all run out into the bush fearing for our lives," said the villager, adding that some households had resorted to organising their own night watch rotas.

The choice is simple deal with these Boko Haram scum now or later, it will cost a lot less to deal with them now.

The Christian Association of Nigeria published a list on Sunday of 180 Christian girls – about two-thirds of the total 276 – among the missing.

"Daughters of Zion taken captive, to be treated as slaves and sold into marriage to unclean people," the list was subtitled.

Understandable but not particularly helpful.

Its release has been widely criticised by Nigerians in a sign of how anger at the abductions has bridged the sectarian tensions that sometimes flare up between an evenly divided Muslim and Christian population.

Islam has a long tradition of scholarship something that I doubt the Boko Haram animals are aware of, it is no surprise that the muslim community is as horrified by this as the christian community, describing muslims as unclean is stupid.  

In a televised broadcast on Sunday, the first lady, who holds no official office, was seen alternately weeping and berating community members during a meeting to discuss the kidnappings. She warned against further protest marches: "You are playing games. Don't use schoolchildren and women for demonstration again. Keep it to Borno, let it end there," the official News Agency of Nigeria reported.

An official from the school who was at the meeting said: "She told us we were not patriotic; that we were members of Boko Haram ourselves and we wanted to disgrace the country."

Yes.. I have little to add to my comments above other than the first lady should just fuck off. The eyes of the world are watching Nigeria and it is clear who has disgraced the country.

The president's approval ratings have taken a battering as security has deteriorated in the runup to elections next year. In a weekly media chat late on Sunday, Jonathan denied that security had worsened, despite two bomb blasts on the outskirts of Abuja, the capital, which left 105 dead last month. "I believe we are succeeding" he said.

Really ?

" Nigeria was yesterday ranked the 16th most failed nation in the world, out of a total of 177 countries that were surveyed."

The government has launched a massive security operation in the capital this week as it prepares to host the World Economic Forum, at which dignitaries and heads of state will discuss Africa's positive growth story.

The glitz of the meeting will elude most ordinary Nigerians. Sitting forlornly on a plastic chair outside an Abuja police station, one woman who had travelled from Chibok to protest said: "We don't know why the government is treating us like we are less than animals. It is just really painful."

It is interesting to note that Nigeria is one of the MINT nations. It would seem that that was a wildly optimistic bit of wishful thinking.

Hat tip No Right Turn

Uganda: Museveni hits Europe

New Vision ( Uganda ) reports

Netherlands hails Uganda on regional peace

                                                 President Museveni meeting King of Netherland Welen Alexander in Hague


President Yoweri Museveni has called on Western countries not to focus on residual troubled spots when planning for Africa saying most of the continent is peaceful and secure with no war or the threat of potential war.

That is great news. However ...... 

Rwanda has responded to regional criticism about its military deployment along the frontier with the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo saying its territory had been repeatedly hit by cross-border shelling.

“Rwanda did not deploy along the border for the sake of it. During a 10-day period our country was shelled 34 times,” Rwanda’s ambassador to South Africa, Vincent Karega, told BDlive on Monday 

That of course the shelling was instigated at Kigali's command to their proxy M23 seems to have been forgotten. 

" We are also concerned by reports of shelling across the Rwandan border, including credible UN reports that the M23 has fired into Rwandan territory. We call on the M23 to immediately end the hostilities, lay down their arms, and disband, in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions."

“There are some problems in Eastern Congo, Somalia and parts of North Africa but almost 70percent of Africa is peaceful with no possibility of war. When planning for companies to invest in Africa, don’t focus on troubled areas because those are residual,” he said.

And let's not forget Tanzania and Malawi. 

However, the former Tanzania’s Prime Minister Edward Lowassa who is now the chairman of his country’s Parliamentary committee on defense, security and foreign affairs was last week quoted by he local media as saying that Tanzania was ready to go to war if need be.

Nigeria maybe ? 

In the last 18 months, Islamist militants have terrorised the north-east of the country and killed hundreds of people.

Abia state used to be known as the kidnapping capital of Nigeria - families of politicians and businessmen were targeted on what seemed like an industrial scale.

How about the Central African Republic ? 

In Central African Republic we have seen new displacement this week in the northwest of the country, sparked by new fighting there.

Heavy clashes were reported between Saturday and Tuesday between unidentified armed groups in and around the towns of Bossembele and Bossangoa, 150 kilometers and 300 kilometers northwest of the capital Bangui respectively. As of now fighting appears to have subsided in the area, but the situation remains very tense.

Then there is North Africa 

Yes. If unchecked, violence could intensify, at least in North African countries. Hardline Islamist ideology has gathered steam chiefly among poor young men left adrift amid youth unemployment and lack of development. Deepening conflict could also affect oil markets if installations in Algeria or Libya – both major hydrocarbons producers – come under threat.

The President, who is on a three-day working visit in Holland, was meeting the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Frans Timmemans at his residency at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Hague.

Timmemans was accompanied by the Director Sub-Saharan Africa Micheal Stibbe and the desk officer for Uganda Ms. Eva Van Woersem. The meeting was also attended by Uganda’s ambassador to the Benelux countries and the European Union Mirjam Blaak and that of the Netherlands to Uganda Alphons Hennekens.

He said what has been lacking in Africa is visionary leadership that could easily identify strategic bottlenecks that have been keeping Africa back.

Yes. Somewhat ironic though.

“There are various bottlenecks including the wrong attitude towards the private sector that led to the nationalization of private assets and the lack of infrastructure such as electricity generation. But these have been identified and the private sector is now emancipated,” he said, adding that they are now addressing the issue of markets and trade through regional integration.

Well it is fairly hard to gain a revenue stream from privately owned business the only real option is corruption. If they are part of the public sector you can raid their revenues and as a bonus sell the rotting hulks off in a privatisation drive.  

                                                                             Well yes

“There is more progress and Africa is becoming more vibrant. I speak English but am getting more business from the Chinese than from my English speaking friends. Europe needs to support their companies to invest in Africa,” he said.

I am guessing he does not speak Dutch.

On the conflict in Eastern DRC, President Museveni said they are trying to make sure that Eastern Congo does not become a haven for terrorists and called on political leaders and development partners to support President Kabila to concentrate on developing an ideology and building state institutions.

Maybe he would like to remind Rwanda of that.

“The idea is not to improve our CVs as having been president. The idea is the mission. If your country is sick what diagnosis do you have for it,” he said.

In Museveni's case that mission has so far taken him 27 years. The Irony Museveni on presidential terms. 

“The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.” He promised Uganda a new constitution that would empower the people and limit the powers and the time a president can serve.

The new constitution came into effect in 1995. Under this constitution, elections for members of parliament and the president should be held every five years and a president can only serve for two terms each of five years.

Minister Timmermans said his government highly appreciates President Museveni’s vision and efforts in Africa and in the Great Lakes region to bring peace and stability and pledged their support to more peace keeping initiatives. He said there is need for a change of attitude in the western world to have more enthusiasm to know what is happening in Africa.

“Government highly appreciates your vision and efforts in Africa and the Great Lakes region to bring peace and stability. Change of attitude is necessary so that people here can be more enthusiastic about what is happening in Africa,” he said.

Yes... there is of course one slight huge problem. 

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Museveni was lauded by the West as part of a new generation of African leaders. His presidency has been marred, however, by invading and occupying Congo during the Second Congo War (the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million deaths since 1998) and other conflicts in the Great Lakes region. Recent developments, including the abolition of presidential term limits before the 2006 elections and the harassment of democratic opposition, have attracted concern from domestic and foreign commentators.

For all that there seems to have been an improvement in Ugandas attitude towards regional security issues.

The two leaders discussed various local and regional issues including the situation in DRC and Somalia.

The meeting was also attended by Uganda’s members of parliament Monica Amoding for Youth and Kyewalabye Majegere Waira.

I am not convinced but..... 

Nigeria: Well it has taken 5 years.

The Nigerian Tribune reports

Akwa Ibom outlaws maltreatment of widows

 

                                                     Oge Okoye Nollywood Actress ( I think )

THE custom of seizing properties belonging to deceased married men  and subjecting their widows to several practices, such as shaving of the head and making them drink the water used to clean the deceased husbands, among others, has now become illegal and an offence against the state in Akwa Ibom State.

Wouldn't it just make a lot more sense to have joint matrimonial property ? That said this is a good start. I am struggling to believe the shaving of widows heads, and drinking of the water used to clean the deceased, the less said the better. 

The state government, in a bill passed by the House of Assembly and signed by the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, outlawed the customs which maltreat widows after the deaths of their husbands, declaring it as unlawful and inhuman.

Hmm. Let's hope this is a Road to Damascus experience rather than a stunt.  

In his Democracy Day speech, the governor declared that it had become unlawful for widows to be maltreated in Akwa Ibom State, saying defaulters of the new law would risk a penalty ranging from fines to three years imprisonment.

Three years maximum for human rights abuse and theft of an estate one might be a little skeptical of Governor Godswill.
While reacting on the new law, the First Lady of the state, Chief (Mrs) Unoma Ekaette Akpabio commended the House of Assembly and the governor for the pro-women law, describing the passage of the new law as a breakthrough for womenfolk in the state.

According to her, “I  appreciate the state House of Assembly and the state governor for standing with the womenfolk through this law. Akwa Ibom State has, in the last five years, shown itself as pro-masses and pro-women government.”

Well 5 years seems just a little tardy to me. Is there an election scheduled ?

Hat Tip:  Amwaltzinmatilda 

Nigera: There is no excuse we have failed you Esther. I am sorry.

Nigera News reports

There is nothing I can really add, other than we are all to blame for this.

Drama as woman bares breasts on court premises

                                                                                          Esther Odozi


In a desperate attempt to draw attention to her misfortune, Esther Odozi, 21, bared her breasts on Monday on the premises of Ikeja Magistrate’s Court as she protested against hunger that was “killing her and the five children” she left back home in Agbor Owanta, Delta State.

Odozi laid half-naked on a road in the court shouting, “Hunger, hunger. Government must do something today. I have not received anything from the plenty crude oil money government is spending in our state. Nigerians are wicked.”

She impeded movement on the premises. Passersby were astonished. One of them, who did not state her name but said she was a lawyer, told our correspondent that Odozi abused the “temple of womanhood.”

Odozi shunned passersby who shouted at her to cover herself as she rolled on the ground. She revealed wounds on her left leg and the right side of her hips; she said she was hit by a car. She refused a N500 given to her by a passerby, saying, “I don’t want your money. I want Fashola to give me N200, 000.”

When our correspondent approached her, she said, “After confronting serious hardship in my state, I was advised by an official of Human Rights Commission in Delta to go to Human Rights Commission in Abuja. I also went to Police Headquarters and NAPTIP (National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons) in Abuja. They all told me to go to Lagos; they said that is where I could get help.”

“My husband, Donald Ogbaja, was a retired policeman before he died of hunger. He married me when I was 17. I bore five children, including twins for him.”

Odozi said she tried to survive on her own by cultivating some crops. She, however, said she was hit by a car and had been hindered by her injury to continue working on her farm.

She said, “I will not leave this court without seeing N200,000 to start business. I want to sell melon and garri. Tell Emmanuel Uduaghan, the governor of my state, and the Federal Government to do something about my condition. They must give me part of the petrol money. I must take care of my five children.”

When she was asked that as a young woman, didn’t she feel ashamed to bare her breast? She answered, “I don’t have anything and I don’t have anything to hide anymore.”

Nigeria: Chinua Achebe dies

The Independent reports

'Father of modern African literature' Achebe, 82, dies after short illness

                                      Stolen from  Nnenna Amushan at WomenStyles 

Chinua Achebe, described as the “father of modern African literature” who inspired generations of writers across the continent, has died at the age of 82. 

I embarrassed to say I have never read any of his work. That will change soon.

The Nigerian author of Things Fall Apart, considered the essential novel on African identity and nationalism, passed away at a hospital in the US city of Boston after a brief illness.

From Wikipedia  

" Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village a changed place because of the presence of the white man. He and other tribal leaders try to reclaim their hold on their native land by destroying a local Christian church. In return, the leader of the white government takes them prisoner and holds them for ransom for a short while, further humiliating and insulting the native leaders. 

As a result, the people of Umuofia finally gather for what could be a great uprising. Okonkwo, a warrior by nature and adamant about following Umuofian custom and tradition, despises any form of cowardice and advocates for war against the white men. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo kills one of them. He realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia are not going to fight to protect themselves—his society's response to such a conflict, so long predictable and dictated by tradition, is changing.

When the local leader of the white government comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself. He ultimately commits suicide rather than being tried in a colonial court for killing a white man. Among his own people, Okonkwo's action has ruined his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide."

Colonialism can never be justified and that is something that the players in the Eastern DR Congo might want to consider.

In a statement, his family said: “One of the great literary voices of his time, he was also a beloved husband, father, uncle and grandfather, whose wisdom and courage are an inspiration to all who knew him.”

Achebe moved to the US for treatment after a car accident left him paralysed in 1990 and since 2009 had been a professor of Africana Studies at Brown University. In 2007, he won the Man Booker International Prize, where judge Nadine Gordimer dubbed him the “father of modern African literature”.

He received a string of literary honours and prizes throughout his career including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, honorary fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Unesco fellowship for creative artists. He became the first living author to be represented in the Everyman’s Library collection.

Achebe was born in 1930, in Igboland, a region in south east Nigeria. He discovered the power of fiction at University College, Ibadan, where he read the novel Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary, which depicted Africans as “jealous savages”. He set about challenging the literary trope that painted the Africans as “unhuman”.

Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and was one of the first novels to chronicle Africa from an African viewpoint. The novel, set in the 1890s, follows Okonkwo, a yam farmer in a fictional Nigerian village and tracks the effects of British colonialism and Christian missionaries.

Fans ranged from novelist Margaret Atwood and poet Maya Angelou, to Nelson Mandela, who called Achebe a writer “in whose company the prison walls fell down”.

When Nelson Mandela describes a novel in such a way I know I have got to read it and his other works. They will be reviewed here in due coarse.

Hat Tip: Nnenna Amushan  WomenStyles.

Nigeria: Public humiliation, it is quite funny.

I am not really up with Nigerian politics but Nnenna at Womanstyles is.

This is a hilarious time for the Nigerian community online. The #OgaAtTheTop video has gone viral.
The ignorance of the Lagos State Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps is now a common internet joke.
The video clip shows Obafaiye Shem the Lagos State NSCDC commandant unable to give the web address of his organisation during his appearance on Channels Television’s flagship breakfast show Sunrise.
The creative humour of the young Nigerian is on rampage with the joke now interpreted with several images courtesy of Photoshop splashed all over Facebook, Twitter and BBM.

It would appear that  Obafaiye Shem  has payed a fairly high price for memory loss 247ureports   reports in breaking news.

" Information reaching 247ureports.com indicates that the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) has suspended – Mr. Obafaiye Shem, the Lagos State Commandant of the NSCDC.

Shem’s suspension comes after his embarrassing ordeal at the Channel Television – while he was a guest of their morning show – Sunrise Daily."

Actually I think that this is a great thing that officials are mocked but suspending Shem strikes me as a bit over the top. Forgetting a website address is hardly a hanging offence.

That said it would seem that the youth of Nigeria are enjoying themselves and I suspect Obafaiye Shem will not be reinstated any time soon.

Hat Tip  Nnenna Amushan at Womenstyles   

Nigeria cracks down.

NAIJ reports

EFCC Arrests 20 Yahoo-Yahoo Boys In Benin City

31.01.2013, 14:26  Local

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested twenty suspected internet fraudsters. The arrest, which was carried out in a joint operation with officers of the 4 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Benin, followed intelligence report on their activities. They were nabbed in a surprise raid on their Cyber office tucked in an old building located on Siluko Road, Benin City.

It is great to see them being caught. I was made aware of this story by Nnenna at WomenStyles via her Facebook page. One of the comments on her Facebook wall was:

They parade innocent, deprived, unemployed young men that the Nigeria 

nation has failed to provide for as thieves. While the real thieves get two 

years for stealing billions of naira. Its a shame. When the elders steal where 

will the children learn good behaviour.

It is not a point of view I have much sympathy for. That there are worse thieves does little to ameliorate the heartbreak and suffering these guys inflict on their victims. That said I don't have an awful lot of sympathy for the victims either, if you get sucked in by a internet fraudster then you are probably even more a victim of your own stupidity. A further point worth considering is the damage that these guys do to reputation of Nigeria and for that matter Africa. That said internet fraudsters exist the world over and it is great to see Nigeria taking ownership of their problem and do something about it. The 4th Brigade of the Nigerian army would probably make me think twice about carrying on in a life of crime. 


At the point of arrest, the fraudsters had in their possession forty five (45) 

laptops of different make, twenty eight (28) telephone sets, eight (8) internet mobile modems and one Nissan car with registration number USL 375 AG.

The suspected fraudsters who are mostly in their twenties includes: Idehen Obabueki, Adesa Lucky, Usuagu Uche, Eloghosa Olikiabor, Larry Edomwonyi, Amowie Maike, Francis Ezegbede, Itua Samuel and Endurance John Egbeifo. Others are Amego Ovenseri, Iyen Ighodaro, Philip Agbodori, Lucky Robinson, Nnadi Obinna, Osabuohien Osahon, Chinenu Eze, Peter Sunday, Solomon Ogu, Niyi Femi and Osagie Aghedo.

Africa is not big on name suppression. In the West these guys would have been bailed and out on the street with name suppression. 

The suspects have made useful statements. Most of them confessed to be engaged in online dating of foreigners particularly widows. They also confessed to using different pseudo names and faces to deceive their prospective victims. They will be charged to court as soon as investigation is concluded.

Hat Tip  Nnenna at WomenStyles

Nigeria: Mass Murder

Information Nigeria  reports

Mystery: 50 Bodies Found Floating On Anambra River.

Bodies floating on the Amansea River that empties into Anambra River from Agba Ogwudu River in Enugu State yesterday left the people of Amansea and their neighbours in Awka, the Anambra State capital shocked, as people from the communities went to fetch water from the river.

That is a lot of bodies. This is not the result of a natural disaster so that means murder.

It was learnt that after counting up to 50 bodies, the bewildered villagers alerted their traditional ruler, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo, who mobilized his cabinet for an emergency meeting after which the state government and the state police command were contacted.

50 bodies reported so it is very likely the death toll will rise. It takes a few days after being submerged for bodies to surface. We can expect more.

The stench from the decomposing bodies could be picked from about one kilometre from the river and the development attracted many people to the area.

Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who was away from the state on official assignment, was immediately contacted and he directed members of the state executive council to move to the spot with a view to finding out the true situation of things.

Most of the state commissioners and local government chairmen from some local government areas, as well as other top government officials, who were at the scene posed questions to the communities’ leaders to find out if anybody was missing in their areas. The indigenes so far said no one was missing in their communities.

Not quite sure how to interpret that, probably there is a cover up being attempted but if so it will fail. This is a result of extra judicial killing or more simply murder. The scale is astonishing. I find it difficult to believe the bodies have been transported for a long distance before being dumped in the river.

The state commissioner for local government, Mrs Azuka Enemuo, who led the government delegation to the area, described the development as terrible.

“Since our arrival, we have counted about 14 dead bodies floating on this river and we may not have seen the last. We were duly informed by the security agencies and we believe they will carry out investigations to tell us actually what transpired.

The photos available on line so far all look to be male and adult. That tends to make me think there is something more in play than ethnic violence.  

“We have already contacted our neighbouring Enugu State government to find out if the bodies came from that state. The state government must get to the root of this matter,” Enemuo said.

Speaking on the incident, Igwe Kenneth Okonkwo said, apart from the mystery posed by the floating bodies, the worry of his people was that their main source of water supply may have been polluted.

He said the river is the only source of water for the five communities of Amansea, Ebenebe, Ugbenu, Ugbene and Oba-Ofemili and the development had caused a lot of discomfort to his people.

I guess they will have to drill bores away from the river or boil water. That is however a short term problem.

The Enugu State Police Commissioner, Mr Musa Daura, has assured the people of the communities affected and the state government that his command would probe the mystery surrounding the bodies, while he added when visiting the scene yesterday, that he would join hands with his Anambra State counterpart to investigate the source of the corpses.

According to him, the avalanche of dead bodies remained a mystery because he had not heard of any communal clash whether in Enugu or Anambra where many people were killed.

I will bet he finds out what has gone on fairly fast.

Hat Tip Nnenna Amushan at  WomenStyles   

Nigerian Bribes and British Jails

Life imitates reality in a strange way this from the BBC

African viewpoint: Scramble for Nigeria's $15m 'bribe'

                   James Ibori (in white, second on the right) used to be a very powerful governor

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa in Lagos wonders about the fate of $15m (£12m) deposited in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2007.

Somewhere in the vaults of the CBN a bag containing $15m has lain untouched for the past five years. It was taken there by an altruistic 47-year-old public servant who said he had been given the money as a bribe.

At the time of the deposit the story was incredible: The amount in Nigerian currency was far beyond the imagination of a majority of Nigeria's 150 million people; who was the Nigerian so mindlessly rich to dash away such money or who would reject it under any circumstance?

Well not beyond the imagination  of all Nigerians. This from Scam Watch.

 " A ‘Nigerian’ scam is a form of upfront payment or money transfer scam. They are called Nigerian scams because the first wave of them came from Nigeria, but they can come from anywhere in the world. The ‘4-1-9’ part of the name comes from the section of Nigeria’s Criminal Code which outlaws the practice.

The scammers usually contact you by email or letter and offer you a share in a large sum of money that they want to transfer out of their country. They may tell you about money trapped in central banks during civil wars or coups, often in countries currently in the news. Or they may tell you about massive inheritances that are difficult to access because of government restrictions or taxes in the scammer’s country.

Scammers ask you to pay money or give them your bank account details to help them transfer the money. You are then asked to pay fees, charges or taxes to help release or transfer the money out of the country through your bank. These ‘fees’ may even start out as quite small amounts. If paid, the scammer make up new fees that require payment before you can receive your ‘reward’. They will keep making up these excuses until they think they have got all the money they can out of you. You will never be sent the money that was promised."

Back to the BBC article

The depositor was indeed a Nigerian - and a Nigerian police officer to boot. He was Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, then head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

When he took the cash to the CBN in 2007, he said that it was a bribe given to him by James Ibori, then governor of the oil-rich Delta state, to stop the investigation of allegations of monumental corruption against him. Of course, Ibori denied it.

Mr Ribadu was undaunted. At the end of investigations he slammed a charge of 170 counts of corruption at the Federal High Court on Ibori, who was now out of his gubernatorial chair. The charge included the alleged attempted bribery.

Ibori was not only a state governor when he committed the alleged crimes, he was also a powerful member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) and a financier of the presidential campaign of President Shehu Yar'Adua, now late. Which court in Nigeria would touch him?

The charge was struck out wholesale. Ibori walked tall from the court, cheered on by hundreds of party supporters and officials of the state government.

Mr Ribadu is a rare public servant I would suspect in any jurisdiction that he did the right thing in a country as corrupt as Nigeria is to be doubly applauded. 

Dog fight

They danced too soon. Mr Ribadu had filed complaints with the Metropolitan Police in Britain and they were stalking Ibori.

Efforts were made by the Nigerian government to stop the investigations abroad, but in vain. Mr Ribadu had given London all the evidence needed to prosecute the case.

Coincidentally Mr Ribadu fell out of favour with the government at about the same time, and he was dismissed from office. Now, remember that the $15m alleged bribe remained in the CBN. Ibori could not retrieve it because he had denied giving it.

Not an unusual outcome unfortunately.

The Metropolitan Police eventually caught up with him in Dubai, had him extradited to the UK and charged him with fraud and money laundering. Five months ago Ibori was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

A very welcome and unusual outcome well done Mr Ribadu.

Now, a dog fight has started in Nigeria to claim the $15m. The Nigerian government which shielded Ibori wants it. Delta State which said Ibori did not steal while serving as governor has staked a claim.

A faceless politician and a former adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo have joined in with a claim that they gave the money to Mr Ribadu for a different purpose.

Have they all no shame? Hail, Mallam Ribadu, wherever you may be now!