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  • UN-AU partnership crucial to tackling ‘complex peace, security challenges in Africa’ — Envoy

    UN-AU partnership crucial to tackling ‘complex peace, security challenges in Africa’ — Envoy

    Partnership between the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) is crucial to tackling the “complex peace and security challenges in Africa”, a UN special envoy, has said.

    Ms Sahle-Work Zewde, who is the UN Special Representative to the AU, told the UN Security Council that a stronger partnership between the UN and the AU is “not a choice but a necessity”.

    The UN envoy briefed the Council on the Secretary-General’s report on strengthening the partnership between the two organisations on issues of peace and security in Africa, including the work of her Office.

    Zewde, who is also Head of the UN Office in AU (UNOAU), said: “The complex peace and security challenges we face in Africa are such that neither the United Nations nor the African Union can address the challenges on their own.

    “As the Secretary-General noted during his briefing to the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa last week, the African Union is the most important strategic partner between the United Nations and a regional organization in peace and security, development and human rights.”

    The two organisations have prioritised the development of a systematic, predictable and strategic partnership, based on mutual respect, shared values and comparative advantage, Sahle-Work Zewde, the UN Special Representative to the AU and Head of the UN Office there (UNOAU), the UN envoy to the AU said.

    The UN and AU signed the Joint Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security in April last year, and the Joint Framework for Implementation of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in January 2018.

    “The partnership has since been characterised by closer collaboration, more regular exchange of information and consultations, and coordinated action including joint field visits and joint statements”, she said.

    They also need to recognise the critical role of sub-regional organisations, which are often the first to detect early warning signs of impending conflict, and are important partners in promoting dialogue and reconciliation.

    She stressed however, that even though the UN-AU relationship was stronger than ever, they need to work even more closely.

    She also underscored the importance of conflict resolution by reacting quickly and decisively to head off conflict before it escalates, while ensuring African ownership of this process.

    In the report, the Secretary-General has expressed his support for the financing of AU-led peace support operations authorised by the Security Council, including through UN assessed contributions.

    It is also essential that the issue of predictable and sustainable financing for AU peace operations authorised by the Security Council is – on a case-by-case basis – framed within the context of a mutually-agreed political strategy, and informed by joint analysis, she added. (NAN)

  • British Man plots to kill Prime Minister Theresa May

    British Man plots to kill Prime Minister Theresa May

    A British Man was found guilty on Wednesday of a plot to kill Prime Minister Theresa May.

    He was caught by first detonating an explosive device to get into her Downing Street Office and then using a knife or a gun to attack her.

    Naa’imur Rahman, 20, of north London, was convicted at the Old Bailey court of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

    Rahman planned to detonate an improvised explosive device at the gates of Downing Street and gain access to May’s office in the ensuing chaos and kill her, according to police.

    No. 10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of British prime ministers.

    It is heavily guarded and there is a gate at the end of the street where members of the public and tourists gather to get a glimpse of the house.

    “We are talking about an individual that would have killed, injured and maimed a number of people including police officers and members of the public,’’ said Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

    Britain suffered four deadly attacks last year and the head of the domestic spy agency MI5 said in May that a further 12 Islamist plots had been foiled since the first of these in March 2017.

    The Downing Street plot was foiled when Rahman believed he was corresponding online with members of the Islamic State (IS) militant group while planning the alleged attack but was in fact talking to members of undercover officers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain’s MI5 Security Service.

    Rahman was arrested in November 2017 shortly after meeting with undercover officers posing as IS members and collecting two dummy explosive devices.

    Haydon said Rahman had been in contact with an uncle who had travelled to Syria and joined IS and who had encouraged his nephew to carry out attacks in Britain.

    Rahman had been planning to carry out the attack for two years but his resolve was hardened when he heard that his uncle had been killed in a drone attack last summer, Haydon added.

    Rahman was described by police as a drifter, who lived on friends’ sofas, and attempts to involve him in the government’s counter-extremism programme had failed. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Amaechi seeks public opinions on performance in transport sector

    The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi on Wednesday sought public opinions on his performance in the transportation sector.

    Amaechi disclosed this in a statement issued by his Media Aide, Mr Israel Ibeleme in Abuja.

    The Minister, however, appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari and the general public for the opportunity given him to serve.

    “I wish to express my gratitude for this opportunity given me to serve the Nation as the Minister of Transportation.

    “However, I would like to get feedback on our overall performance from you; where you feel we have succeeded or should improve on.

    “It is our duty and desire to serve you better. Kindly email me on chibuikeamaechi526@yahoo.com.

    “I will deeply appreciate this gesture,” he was quoted as saying.

    Meanwhile, the minister few days ago received the award of the Blueprint Newspaper for his contribution to the transportation sector and construction of the first monorail in Africa. (NAN)

  • Cameroon arrests 4 soldiers suspected of executing women, children

    Cameroon has arrested four soldiers suspected of shooting dead two women
    and two children in the country’s far north where its army is battling jihadist group Boko Haram,
    two security sources told Reuters.

    A video of the incident, which has been shared tens of thousands of times on Twitter since it emerged
    on July 13, has provoked international outcry.

    Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary initially described the footage as “fake news” and said that
    the men in the footage, who were wearing military fatigues, did not appear to be Cameroonian soldiers.

    However, he said the government would open an investigation.

    “Four soldiers were arrested on Sunday. They are suspected of being the authors of the executions in
    the video,” said an army officer in Cameroon’s Far North region near the border with Nigeria.

    A second security source said that three of the soldiers had been transferred to the capital Yaounde while
    the fourth was still being held in Maroua, the capital of the Far North.

    Spokesmen for the army and the government did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    The shaky footage shows two women, one with an infant strapped to her back, being led across a patch of
    dusty scrubland by a group of uniformed men, who accuse them of belonging to the Nigerian militant
    group Boko Haram.

    The women, silent throughout the ordeal, are blindfolded and told to sit down alongside their children.

    Moments later, two men step back, level their rifles and fire a series of rounds.

    Amnesty International said that it had gathered credible evidence that the men in the video were indeed
    Cameroonian soldiers based on an analysis of their weapons, speech and uniforms.

    Four Cameroonian military sources, including the officer in the Far North, told Reuters that the video
    did show Cameroonian soldiers.

    Two said the video was filmed in 2014 or 2015 in the early months of Cameroon’s operations against
    Boko Haram. (Reuters/NAN)
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  • Minister clarifies directive to NERC on service delivery

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, says his directive to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is rectify issues impeding electricity supply in the country, but not to demonise DisCos.

    Fashola offered the clarification while reacting to an assertion by Mr Sunny Oduntan, the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Association of Electricity Distributors (ANED), in Abuja on Friday.

    The minister said in a statement that his directive was to legal entities and not to an interloper.

    He said it was untrue that Oduntan’s minded interpretation of his directive was an attempt to demonise the DisCos.

    Fashola had at a news conference mandated NERC in line with the law to prevail on the DisCos to improve their distribution equipment and capacity to take up the available 2,000MWs.

    He had said that NERC should enforce the contract of DisCos to supply meters and act to ensure urgent speedy supply and installation of meters to eliminate estimated billing and promote efficient industry market structures.

    However, ANED, in a response by Oduntan, faulted Fashola’s directives to NERC to prevail on the DisCos.

    Oduntan also spoke on the wrong timing of declaration of customers’ eligibility by the minister.

    He also faulted the minster’s comment on meter supply by DisCos and claim on current power generation, among other pronouncements of the minister on the sector.

    Fashola said: “Before fiction becomes fact for lack of a response, I feel obliged to respond to some, not all of the allegations credited to one Sunday Oduntan.

    “Which he made in response to my directives to NERC and Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) as contracting parties to the DisCos.

    “Throughout my press statement which contained the directives, I referred copiously to the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) which is the law that regulates the power sector.

    “I referred to DisCos in their capacities as licencees.

    “If ANED is not a licencee, who is ANED, an NGO? If so, they should listen to consumers because nothing is going on about poor service.

    “The BPE, NBET and NERC, to whom my directives were made, contracted individually with DisCos not as an association.

    “However, to suggest therefore that my directives were political turns reality on its head.

    “For the past 20 months, in all my public briefings at monthly meetings with the DisCos these same issues of service delivery of meters, estimated billings, investment in distribution equipment by DisCos have dominated my remarks.

    “However, assuming this was not so, do the onset of elections preclude the quest for better service or continued governance?

    “His statement that no directives from me will save the power sector from collapse is consistent with the views of someone who has no skin in the game.

    “It is revealing of the mindset of a saboteur not a builder, and he will do very well to acquaint himself and advise his co-travellers about the consequences of sabotaging the economy under our laws.

    “I am optimistic that the power sector will prosper in spite of Oduntan-minded personalities.

    “As for the allegation that figures of power generation and distribution released by me are not true, the taste of the pudding lies with those who eat it.

    “Electricity consumers know what their experience was in 2015, 2016, 2017 and today.

    “These figures have been released many months back when we reached those milestones as part of my monthly report and roadmap of incremental power.

    “It is obvious that the warning lights of compliance necessity are blinking, and those he represents do not like the colour.

    “If the DisCos connect with their consumers, they will hear from them first-hand, how traumatised they feel about load shedding, absence of meters and estimated billing.

    “The GenCos, who are short paid because the DisCos under-remit in spite of high estimated billing to consumers, will tell DisCos how they feel.

    “If Oduntan truly speaks for the DisCos, which I doubt, he should ignore the messenger (Fashola) and advise those for whom he acts as surrogate, to focus on the message.”

    The minister said his directive seeks to rectify the problems because he believes they could be rectified.

    According to him, his directive, among others, is that electricity consumers want better service, NBET wants its money of about N800 billion from the DisCos, so it can pay GenCos.

    He also said DisCos should respond on why 408 feeders, which have a capacity to deliver 5,756MW of power to consumers only carry 444MW because of faulty lines, bad equipment and load shedding.

    “These are part of the subject of my directives to NERC to address deliberate load shedding, that is what electricity consumers want, better service,’’ the minister said. (NAN)

  • Nursing mother, 154 stranded Nigerians in Russia arrive Abuja

    Nursing mother, 154 stranded Nigerians in Russia arrive Abuja

    A nursing mother and 154 out of 230 Nigerian football fans stranded in Russia after the 2018 FIFA World Cup arrived the country on Friday night.
     The stranded football fans including a nursing mother in her mid thirties came through Ethiopian Airline flight number ET-ALP that arrived Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport Abuja at about 9.12 p.m on July 20.
    The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, who was at the airport to monitor their arrival, lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s effort to ensure their safe return.
    He said that Mr President had directed that Nigerians, who were stranded in Russia after the 2018 World Cup tournament, should be evacuated immediately.
    According to him,  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been monitoring the process of the evacuation, which is under the coordination of the Mission of Nigeria in Moscow.
    He said that 155 stranded Nigerians had been cleared to board an Ethiopian Airline flight to Abuja.
    ”The aircraft departed Domodedovo Airport in Moscow with the stranded Nigerians in the afternoon and arrived in Abuja this evening.
    Onyeama said he had been working very closely with the Minister of State for Aviation following President Buhari’s directive on the exercise.
    He recalled that some Nigerian football fans who were stranded had besieged the Embassy of Nigeria in Moscow on July 12.
    ”They were among the fans who travelled to the Russian Federation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Tournament and were stranded after the events due to lack of funds for their upkeep.”
    The minister explained that there was also an allegation that some airline travel agents cancelled return tickets of their customers without informing them.

    He said that Mr President, however,  gave the directive that they should be evacuated with immediate effect at the expense of the government.

    Onyeama commended the good gesture of Mr President, saying those stranded were never part of government delegates to Russia.
    According to him, the Nigerian Mission had been supportive by making arrangements for the feeding and accommodation of the stranded Nigerians in hostels around Moscow.
    One of the returnees, Bamidele Fatai was full of praises to President Buhari for making their journey possible.
    He also thanked the Nigerian Mission in Moscow for giving them necessary support.
    Another returnee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was swindled by an agent who cancelled his return ticket.
    He said he was in Moscow to support the Nigerian Football Team and to catch fun only to discover that his ticket had been cancelled when he was ready to return home. (NAN)
  • Fears of arrest, abuse by Govs may kill State Police Bill – Sen. Ibrahim

    Fears of arrest, abuse by Govs may kill State Police Bill – Sen. Ibrahim

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Sen. Abu Ibrahim, says the fear of indiscriminate arrest and detention by state governors may kill passage of the State and Community Police Bill.

    Ibrahim, who made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, said the bill which had passed first reading in Senate, may not get two third majority to allow for a third reading and passage.

    He said that while lawmakers from some parts of the country may vote in favour of the bill because of their control system, others may not for fear of abuse.

    “My fear is the required numbers. The disagreement between the national assembly members and governors may kill it.

    “This is because I know many senators and House of Representatives members think that if state governors get state police, they can trample on them, arrest and detain them.

    “From my assessment, there is no way it will get two thirds in the National Assembly.

    “Probably the bulk of South West senators will go for it because in the area,  there is some control and there is synergy because of the control system.

    “I do not want to mention names but there are states that there is no way they will vote for its passage.

    “From the way I see it, nine states out of 37 will no vote for it. But let us see how it goes,” he said.

    On whether or not there is merit in the clamour for state and community police, the lawmaker said if passed and signed into law, it would help in tackling security challenges in the country.

    However, he said, besides the fear of intimidation and abuse, there were other factors that may not allow the structure to work effectively.

    According to him, basically, the problem with the Police is funding.

    “If you create state police, will you get a better funding? These are the things we should ask ourselves.

    “What are the main reasons for failure of the Federal Police system if it is regarded as failure. The reason is lack of funding.

    “You give Nigeria Police N20 billion as budgetary allocation when they require about N300 billion.

    “Even the N20 billion is not fully released. It is sometimes between 40 per cent and 50 per cent.

    “So, will state police do better. They may know the locality better but do they have the resources?.

    “Can the states pay them their salaries and allowances. These are things we should look into, ” he said.

    Ibrahim advised that rather than creating a system that would be dead on arrival because of the mirage of problems that would come with, the current internal security system should be overhauled and properly funded.

    According to him, creating state police would be overburdening for states that have to be assisted by the Federal Government for not being able to pay workers’ salaries.

    He pointed out that if state police must work, there must be change in the revenue allocation formula to give states more money.

    “If we maintain the current allocation formula, maybe Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Kaduna may pay. But after that who else.

    “This is a federal function, if I have to take a federal function to state, it is reasonable that I reduce the amount going to federal and give more to the states.

    “Also, there are questions like, how many functions do you take from federal to states.

    “We cannot just say, create state police with the present allocation formula.

    “It will not work and that is beside the political angle I spoke about earlier, that is, the relationship between state governors and lawmakers,” he said.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports  that a Bill seeking the amendment to the 1999 Constitution to accommodate State and Community Police passed first reading in the Senate on July 12. (NAN)

     

  • FG to adopt National Policy on Protection of Civilians in conflict situations – Lai Mohammed

    The Federal Government says it will soon adopt National Policy on the Protection of Civilians in Conflict Situations, to strengthen and entrench its constitutional practice on civilians protection.

    The Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this in Washington, US, while addressing a High-Level Roundtable organised by the Atlantic Council, an American think tank on international affairs.

    The minister said that the policy, which would be drawn in collaboration with the National Hunan Rights Commission, would form part of the several measures put in place to address human rights violations.

    Mohammed, for the umpteenth time, faulted the Amnesty International’s periodic reports on alleged human rights violations by the Nigerian military.

    He specifically dismissed the latest of such reports bordering on violations of human rights and International Humanitarian Law by the Nigerian Armed Forces and other government agencies.

    The minister said, “the protection of human rights is a cardinal objective of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration, and that the violation of rights is not a government policy”.

    He told the Roundtable that the government has taken several measures to address human rights violation in the course of the counter insurgency operations.

    He gave examples of such policies as the establishment of Human Rights Desks in all military formations and the quarterly Human Rights/Military Dialogue.

    He said the military also organised trainings on Mainstreaming Human Rights into Counter-Insurgency Operations, and Court Martials officers indicted for human rights violations.

    Mohammed insisted that Boko Haram had been badly degraded hence “it is incapable of carrying out organised massive attacks beyond using women and children to carry out suicide bombings against soft targets.”

    He also told the Roundtable that the incessant farmers-herders clashes were neither religious nor ethnic in nature, as they had been portrayed in some circles.

    ”There is no question that this (conflict) is driven mostly by an increased contest for dwindling natural resources like land and water.

    “This has been worsened by demographic pressure and climate change.

    “Nigeria’s population in 1960 was 45 million, and this has ballooned to
    about 200 million in 2018, but the available resources have not grown
    at all. If anything, they have shrunk.

    ”As desertification continues to encroach and the Lake Chad that
    provided a livelihood for over 35 million in several countries shrank
    from 25,000 to 2,500 square kilometres.

    “Herders in particular are forced to move south in search of grazing land and water for their cattle,” he said.

    The minister said beyond the main causative factors, however, disgruntled politicians and beneficiaries of corruption, who have vested interest in undermining the Buhari Administration through any means necessary, have latched on to the conflict.

    The Roundtable, which was convened by the Africa Centre of the 57-year-old think tank, was attended by about 30 current and former senior US government officials, as well as other stakeholders
    in the US Policy on Africa.

    The participants included retired Gen. William E. Ward, former Commander, US Africa Command, former US Ambassador to Nigeria Robin Sanders and Ms Florizelle Liser, President and CEO, Corporate Council on Africa;

    Mr Thierry Dongala, Senior Advisor, House Foreign Affairs Committee; Mr Trevor Keck, Deputy Head of Policy, International Committee of the Red Cross and Dr. EJ Hogendoorn of the International Crisis Group’s Africa Programme.

    The Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Ambassador Sylvanus Nsofor, led a team of the Nigerian Embassy officials to the event. (NAN)

  • Vote-buying biggest threat to Nigeria’s democracy, says Group

     

    By Ikenna Osuoha

    The Integrity Group (TIG) on Monday said that vote-buying was not only a criminal offence but the biggest threat to Nigeria’s democracy.

    The founder of the group, Livingstone Wechie, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that such act contravened sections 124 and 130 of the Electoral Act.

    He called for immediate enforcement of the punitive prescription of the law to deter recurrence.

    “We are calling for the immediate enforcement of the law against perpetrators of such act.

    “This is the time to save our democracy for posterity sake,” Wechie said.

    The group’s leader, who called on the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) to rise up against such electoral offence, said the battle was a collective one.

    He condemned in strong terms any of form of undermining the integrity of the electoral process.

    According to him, this crime if established must be treated with the full weight of the law.

    Wechie commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its efforts on voter education.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there are allegations of vote-buying in the Ekiti election by politicians. (NAN)