Breaking: C’ttees’ report on Missing budget ready tomorrow- Saraki

By Ikenna Asomba

Senate President Bukola Saraki, on Wednesday, assured that a feedback from the committees assigned to look into reports of the missing 2016 budget, sent to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, on December 22, 2015, will be ready tomorrow (Thursday, January 14, 2015).

File: Buhari during the 2016 budget presentation to the National Assembly.

Saraki gave this assurance during proceedings on the floor of the Senate, following a Point of Order raised by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator, representing Abia South Senatorial District, Sen. Eyinnaya Abaribe, for the Senate to address the issue of the missing budget, which dominated the traditional and social media space since yesterday.

Abaribe, quoting order 42 of the Senate Standing Rule, said the matter was discussed yesterday, during a closed door session of the Senate without feedback.

But responding, the Senate President said: “It was agreed in the closed session yesterday, that the Senate will wait for a feedback from the committees assigned to look into the matter,” adding that “the feedback from the committees should be ready by tomorrow (Thursday).”

Suicide bomber kills 12 in Cameroon Mosque attack

A suicide bomber killed 12 worshippers at a mosque in northern Cameroon on Wednesday, security officials said, in an area regularly targeted by Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists.
The blast struck the mosque in the village of Kouyape, in Kolofata district north near the Nigerian border, at around 5:30 am (0430 GMT) during morning prayers, a security source said.
Since July last year Cameroon’s far north has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
“Eleven worshippers were killed at the scene. A twelfth died of their wounds in hospital,” the security source said, adding that the attacker was praying alongside other worshippers when he blew himself up.
Another source close to the security services confirmed the blast killed 12 people and the bomber.
The bombing came after two people were killed overnight in the same area in another attack blamed on Boko Haram, the security source said.
Cameroon has beefed up its military presence along the Nigerian border as part of a regional coalition, after years of doing little to stop Boko Haram fighters using its territory as a rear base to arm and equip themselves.
Since late November the Cameroon army has carried out operations in several border areas aimed at weakening Nigerian jihadists who have been very active in the region.
Sources say these operations have significantly weakened Boko Haram’s capability, forcing the insurgents to turn away from direct confrontations with the military in favour of suicide attacks.
Over the past year, Boko Haram has stepped up cross-border attacks in Niger, Chad and Cameroon while also continuing to mount shooting and suicide assaults on markets, mosques and other mostly civilian targets within Nigeria itself.
The group’s six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has killed at least 17,000 people and made more than 2.6 million others homeless.

Nigerian sees four-year-old grandson in ISIS video

A four-year-old gun-bearing boy shown in a recent Islamic State (ISIS) video has been confirmed to be partly Nigerian.

According to a report by The Telegraph the grandfather of the boy, Mr. Sunday Henry Dare, came forward as the video went viral.

Mr. Dare said Isa is the son of a British jihadi bride. The video as released by ISIS shows how five alleged British spies were killed and 32-year-old British ISIS fanatic accused of being the ‘new Jihadi John’, Siddhartha Dhar aka Abu Rumaysa, was seen shooting one in the head.

Isa, who was dressed in military outfit and a black bandanna bearing the white mark of ISIS, declared in the video that ‘We will kill kuffar (non believers)’. Confirming his grandson’s identity, Mr. Dare said the young boy is the son of his daughter Grace ‘Khadijah’ Dare, who grew up in Lewisham, south London, to Nigerian Christian parents and converted to Islam as a teenager.

Dare, who is a minicab driver, told the The Telegraph: “I was surprised when I saw the picture. It’s definitely him. Of course I’m worried but there’s nothing I can do now. I’m not angry – I would never have expected it. I just hope someone is trying to bring them back.” In an interview with Channel 4 news, Dare begged his daughter to return to Britain: “She should come back and face the music. Because, she has let herself down”.

On his grandson Isa, Dare further told Channel4 News: “He doesn’t know anything. He’s a small boy. They are just using him as a shield.” He added that he had not spoken to his daughter Grace for weeks because “When she calls me I keep on ignoring her calls because she has brought shame to my family and to herself”.

Grace ‘Khadijah’ Dare, who’s married to a Swedish Islamic fighter called Abu Bakr, is said to have left Britain for Syria two years ago where she joined the terror group ISIS.

Last December 14, Nigeria was listed among 34 mainly Muslim countries by Saudi Arabia to coordinate a global fight against terrorist organisations.

According to the government of Saudi Arabia, the alliance would confront not only ISIS, but “any terrorist group in front of us.”

Kano Preacher Sentenced to Death by Hanging for Blaspheming Prophet Mohammed

A Kano preacher, Abdulaziz Dauda, popularly known as Inyass, has been sentenced to death by hanging for blaspheming Prophet Mohammed.

 

According to THE CABLE, He reportedly committed the offence at the Maulud festivity on June 31, 2015. Counsel to the state government, Lamido Abba Soron Dinki, said five witnesses, including the police, testified before the court. Dauda’s counsel, who concealed his identity, refused to comment on the judgment.

The death counsel can be appealed.

EFCC Has Received Orders to Poison Metuh - PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has raised alarm over plans to poison the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, who was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) this morning. 

 

The PDP raised the alarm via a statement by Prof. Adewale Oladipo, the National Secretary of the party. 

See statement below: 

This development, which did not come to us as a surprise given series of threats to our party’s spokesman by the APC and the Federal Government, who are obviously not comfortable with our stance on the confused state of the nation under their watch, is a continuation of APC’s grand design to silence and decimate the PDP.

The arrest of Chief Metuh today underscores the growing political intolerance in our country and the foisting of a police state which was last Wednesday underscored by the President and Commander-in-Chief himself, who defended why a government in a democracy should flout constitutional provision and brazenly disobey court orders.

This onslaught against our spokesman, according to intelligence available to us is part of a larger script by the government to ensure that PDP wings are finally clipped in their mission to install a dictatorial one-party state in the country.

The excesses of security agencies under this government, especially the Directorate of Security Services (DSS) and the EFCC, in abridging the human rights of PDP members have become worrisome and a threat to our democratic evolution.

Nigerians and the international community will recall that on a number of occasions, the PDP, through its spokesman has been outspoken on some undemocratic proclivities being exhibited by the APC-led Federal Government in the last seven months.

The PDP insists that for whatever reason Chief Metuh was arrested, his rights as a citizen under the law must not be trampled upon. We therefore demand for his immediate release and that due process of investigation and prosecution concerning him should be strictly adhered to.

We state this because we have been made aware of top directives to break Chief Metuh and if possible poison him during his detention by the EFCC. Chief Metuh, has since his arrest at about 10 am, has been kept incommunicado, with his lawyers denied access to him.

The PDP declares the arrest of our spokesman as the last straw that may break our democracy. We therefore forewarn the Federal Government and its agencies to save our democracy and forthwith release our National Publicity Secretary.

We are also calling on the international community and well-meaning Nigerians to stand up for this democracy, which our party nurtured for 16 years and deepened to a level where the opposition, for the first time in our political history, had the opportunity to win in a general election.