CAN drags Fulani herdsmen to NHRC over Benue killings

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Benue state Chapter yesterday filed a complaint at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) over alleged killings and wanton destruction of property by the Fulani herdsmen in Benue state.

Receiving the complaint in Abuja the Executive Secretary of NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe said “it is sad that these killings and destruction of property have continued over time and a lot of people have lost their lives as a result of these numerous attacks”.

He promised that the Commission would carry out an impartial investigation into the matter and ensure that justice prevails. Prof. Angwe called on the federal and state governments to take proactive steps to restore the affected families and avert hunger as the farmers could no longer go to their farms for fear of attacks.

He added that the Commission condemned in strong terms various attacks between pastoralists and farmers and that it has put in place measures to protect rights of all people living in the country.

Kidnappers to face death penalty says Senate

The Senate on Wednesday said it had started working to enact a law that would prescribe capital punishment for kidnappers across the country.

It also asked state governments to enact laws that would prosecute kidnappers and other crime-related offences in their jurisdictions and recommended that the Inspector General of Police and Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, in particular as well as other security agencies be encouraged to fight the crime.

These resolutions of the Senate were sequel to the consideration of a report of the Joint Committee on Police Affairs, National Security and Intelligence in respect of a motion on the unfortunate recurrence of kidnapping and hostage-taking in Nigeria, entitled, "A National Wake-Up Call."

Kidnap-syndicate
The Senate also recommended that the funding of security agencies be taken as a priority project, bearing in mind that the practice of envelop budgetary for security agencies had proved ineffective, adding that efforts should be put in place to create employment opportunities for the nation’s teaming unemployed youths.
It also agreed that security agencies should embark on training and retraining of their personnel for effective capacity building.

The Senate equally stated that synergy and information sharing between security agencies should be pursued vigorously.
The recommendation for death penalty, as adopted by the Senate, was recommended by Senator Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi Central) as an additional recommendation after the six resolutions were already adopted by the lawmakers.

In his contribution, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, noted that family members of kidnapped persons go through psychological trauma, having experienced it himself.

He said: “Just recently, one of my relations also was kidnapped. So, I believe I am talking as an expert or an experienced person in kidnapping. I know the psychology of kidnappers because I stayed for two days with them.

"These are normal human beings who are sometimes looking for money and also afraid of security agencies. I think there are three types of kidnappers. There are some who kidnapped either to make a statement or to intimidate the government, like the Boko Haram people and the Niger Delta militants.

“Then there is another type of kidnappers, these are just normal armed robbers. Sometimes, they just kidnapped you, put you in the boot and they can even use the vehicle as an escape or they use it to rob.
"Such kidnappers, once they succeed, it’s either they take away the vehicle, use it or they dump their victim. But the third type, which is very dangerous, is the professional kidnappers, who kidnapped for money and that is the one we are focusing on this afternoon.

“We have encouraged this type of kidnapping because we panic and pay money most times. This kind of kidnappers, when they take you, they put you somewhere else and they can refer you to negotiate so that they can set you free and go for another business.

"Most times, our people are reluctant to delay or endure the inconvenience or the hardship and then they quickly negotiate and if we can discourage this kind of kidnappings, the only way forward is to insist that you will not pay."

Firing squad for kidnappers.
Also in his contribution, Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West), recommended firing squad for kidnappers.
While contributing to the report, the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio (PDP, Akwa Ibom), regretted that kidnapping escalated in Nigeria when ex-governor and now Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, was kidnapped around 2002.
Earlier in the presentation of the report, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Abu Ibrahim, noted that the Senate at its sitting on Thursday, November 19, 2015, deliberated on a motion on the unfortunate recurrence of kidnappings and hostage-taking in Nigeria.

According to him, the Senate at the time, mandated its Committees on Police Affairs and National Security and Intelligence to invite the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, Director-General, and Department of State Services, DSS, Lawal Daura, to brief the committees on efforts to eliminate the menace.

According to him, in the course of the briefing, the Director-General of DSS told the committee that in October 2015, a total of 108 kidnap and sea piracy incidents in 24 states in which 180 victims, including 26 foreigners, were involved.

He listed the states to include Abia, Adamawa; Akwa Ibom; Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Zamfara.

N85m demanded, N28m paid by victims
Senator Ibrahim, who disclosed that N84,500,000 was reportedly demanded same month as ransom by kidnappers, said some victims’ family/employers purportedly paid a total of N28,016,000 ransom.

According to him, the committee was told that in November, 2015, a total of 117 incidents were recorded, involving 151 victims spread across 23 states.
Security agencies in unhealthy rivalry
Senator Ibrahim said the committee observed that there appeared to be unnecessary and unhealthy rivalry among the security agencies, leading to lack of required synergy and intelligence sharing on time.

He added that relations of the victims were always ready to pay ransom which tended to encourage the criminals. He said the committee also observed that security agencies had not been able to perform optimally due to lack of modern technology and equipment.

- Rexinews

- Vanguard

Civil societies link herds financing to terrorism, money laundering

A coalition of some civil society groups, the minority interest rights advocates in Nigeria (MIRAN) have called on the federal and states governments of Benue and Nassarawa to immediately constitute an all-inclusive panel of enquires in their respective states on the Agatu massacre and bring the sponsors and perpetrators of the heinous crimes against humanity to justice.

The group advised the Economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) to critically look into cattle herds financing as it can be inextricably linked to money laundering and possible terror financing in Nigeria.

Speaking after an emergency meeting held in Abuja to deliberate on the state of insecurity in the country , the group led by comrade Iyah Iyah who is the executive director of CDLE Nigeria chided the recent position of the northern governors forum on the criminal activities of herdsmen in all parts of the country and accuse them of being economical with the truth and clannish with the fact as it were with the Boko Haram issues during the last administration.

The group advised the Nigerian president to seek counsel and advice outside his political ranks and associates in order to address the conundrum, while stating that security is too important an issue to be left in the hands of government operatives and politicians to address. The group further expressed their disappointment with the state governments of Benue and Nassarawa, the minister of interior and inspector general of police (IGP).

The group lauded the success recorded in the north-east against Boko Haram by the Nigerian military but warned that the feat achieved on that front is being eroded by the activities of the so called herdsmen in other parts of the country.

The group also berated the leadership of the National Assembly of being selective as they were silent when the Idoma minority ethnic group in Agatu areas of Benue state middle belt Nigeria were being massacred and their lands occupied by the Fulani herdsmen in their hundreds and only came aloud after the ukpabi Nimbo community of Uzowani local government area of Enugu state killings, which shows how minority rights and lives are usually taken for granted by the Nigerian establishments.

The group went further in looking into the patterns of insecurity in Nigeria and exhaustively examined the federal governments mechanism to govern it within the paradigms of its ant-corruption fight and advised the Economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) to critically look into cattle herds financing as it can be inextricably linked to money laundering and possible terror financing in Nigeria.


- Rexinews

- Vanguard

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Lagos joins oil-producing state as Aje oil field begins production

Twenty years after it was discovered, the Aje field located in Oil Mining Lease 113 has achieved its first oil, putting Lagos on the list of oil-producing states in the country.

The milestone is coming after several missed targets for the achievement of first oil, the latest being March this year.

Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited, a wholly-owned indigenous firm and operator of the OML 113 offshore Lagos, on Tuesday announced the commencement of production of crude oil from the field. Other partners are New Age Exploration Nigeria Limited, EER (Colobus) Nigeria Limited, Pan Petroleum (Panoro Energy) Aje Limited and PR Oil & Gas Nigeria Limited.

Panoro had in an update posted on its website on April 20 said the final hook-up procedures were in progress with a view to bringing the wells into production shortly. The YFP said after over 25 years of exploratory, appraisal and developmental activities, it had successfully pioneered the opening of the Frontier Benin Embayment, describing the Aje field as the first to record production from this part of Nigeria and the first production outside of the Niger Delta.

It said the inauguration of the Front Puffin Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel was successfully completed after its arrival in Nigeria on March 16, 2016.

Oil produced from the Aje field will be stored on the Front Puffin, which has production capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day and storage capacity of 750,000 barrels, according to the YFP.
The Chairman, YFP, Mr. Tunde Folawiyo, was quoted in a statement to have said, “The attainment of this milestone is indeed a laudable achievement not just for the YFP, but for the Nigerian oil and gas industry as a whole and indeed Lagos State, which can now be addressed as an oil-producing state.”
He said recording the achievement in the present global oil climate, together with the peculiar challenges of the field, was clearly a no mean feat.

“We are very proud of and appreciate the efforts, determination and commitment of the entire Aje project team, past and present; the constant support from our regulators, the DPR and Ministry of Petroleum; and our financiers. We believe this crucial support will spur us on to even greater achievements,” Folawiyo added.

Aje is an offshore field located in OML 113 in the western part of Nigeria in the Dahomey Basin. The field is situated in water depths ranging from 100 to 1,000 metres and is about 24 kilometres from the coast. It contains hydrocarbon resources in sandstone reservoirs in three main levels – a Turonian gas condensate reservoir, a Cenomanian oil reservoir and an Albian gas condensate reservoir.

The joint venture partners had in October 2014 taken the final investment decision to develop the first phase of the field. They submitted the Field Development Plan to the Department of Petroleum Resources in January 2014 and it was approved in March, with first oil expected late in 2015.

Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum was granted the Oil Prospecting License 309 in June 1991 as a sole risk contract under the Federal Government’s Indigenous Allocation Programme, which was put in place to encourage the development of a locally-owned and operated Nigerian upstream oil industry.

The company said following the acquisition of 2D seismic data in 1994/95, and the drilling of the Aje-1 well in 1996, the field was discovered, adding that a second well, Aje-2, was drilled in 1997.
After the successful drilling and testing of both wells, OPL 309 was converted to OML 113 in 1998, with an initial term of 20 years, it said on its website.

-Rexinews

- Punch

Buhari pledges to deal decisively with armed herdsmen

President  Muhammadu Buhari has resolved to expedite action and deal decisively with reported cases of continued attacks by the armed herdsmen on communities across the country.

The president stated this on Monday night during a meeting with members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) held in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

A statement issued on Tuesday by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said that President Buhari confirmed that heads of national security agencies had been ordered to take all necessary action to apprehend and expose those behind the heinous attacks.

“We are determined to secure all Nigerians and I have told the Inspector-General of Police and other security agencies, in very strong terms, to deal decisively with the attackers,’’ he said.

President Buhari expressed his personal condolences to the Catholic Bishop of Enugu, the people of Ukpabi Nimbo and all other communities that had suffered fatalities and other losses from the recent attacks.

Speaking on other national issues, the statement quoted the President as assuring the Bishops that he was acting with deliberation and moving methodically to implement his Change Agenda for the good of the country.

“We need to rebuild our institutions methodically, we need to change the way we do things.
“In the last 10 years, crude oil sold for more that $100 per barrel, but Nigeria did not save.
“That is why we have found ourselves where we are today,’’ President Buhari told the Catholic Bishops, led by Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Jos.

The President assured them that his administration was working very hard to fulfill all the promises it had made to Nigerians.

According to him, his greatest motivating factor now is the desire to bring positive change to Nigeria.
On behalf of the bishops, Kaigama expressed the solidarity of the CBCN with the President.

“We are willing to collaborate with you and with your administration, in which we see hope for a greater Nigeria,’’ he said.

The bishops pledged continued prayers for Nigeria and the government, expressing their conviction that “current hardships are temporary, and Nigeria will soon overcome its present difficulties’’.

NDLEA arrests woman who disguised cocoain as candies

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has  arrested a 24 year old woman, Igbainoba Uche Rose, who disguised cocaine as candies.

Photo credit: Sahara reporters