Fulani herdsmen kill many Adamawa villagers in pre-dawn attack

An early Sunday morning attack by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen on three communities in Jire local government area of Adamawa State has left several people dead and many more injured.

The attackers reportedly invaded Ko, Gereng and Ndikajam communities at about 3.30 am shooting indiscriminately.

According to the Executive Director of Stefanos Foundation, Mr. Mark Lipdo, who interacted with some survivors of the attack, the villages are now ghost towns as the inhabitants have fled for their lives.

“Information says early morning today, Fulani terrorists unleashed violence on three communities in Jire local government area of Adamawa State. Survivors said they burnt down houses in Ko, Gereng and Ndikajam and were shooting sporadically. It is still difficult to establish the casualties as people are currently running for their lives,” he said.

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Senate rerun: Kinsmen urge David Mark to withdraw

David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark, former President of the Nigerian Senate in under increasing pressure to withdraw from the February 13 Benue South Senatorial rerun election.

Not quite one month after the Conference of Idoma Pressure Groups, an amalgamation of ten smaller Idoma groups called on the former Senate President to withdraw from the race, another ten groups, under the umbrella of the United Idoma Citizens, on Sunday, asked Mark, who has been in the Senate since the return of democracy in 1999, to step down for Daniel Onjeh. 

The UIC, in a statement signed by its coordinator, Sunday Ogbe, listed its grievances against David Mark to include abandoned projects like
Oweto Road, Otukpo dam and the University of Medical Sciences.

“Should this be a credit or a discredit since these projects are either nonexistent or levels of completion are still below 30 per cent?

“Why has Mark chosen to return to the Senate as a floor member, having served as the number three man in the nation for eight years.

“Mark’s 16 years in the Senate is a complete disaster. His achievements were only seen on the pages of newspapers and blogs.

“As the number three man in the nation for eight years, his kinsmen back home had no portable water,” the group said.

The group said that the roads in Mark's constituency are not motorable while those which the Federal Government has paid for their construction were abandoned by contractors he recommended.

“It is sad, yet shameful, that Mark is asking for votes from Idoma people he betrayed.

“He has been using the creation of Apa State as a gimmick to hoodwink our people.

“He promised to use the last drop of his blood to create Apa State; now the story has changed.

“We thank the Senator for his 16 years of ‘disservice’ to Idomaland and request that he kindly give way to the young and progressive Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress,” the group concluded.

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El-Rufai Suspends Top Education Official For Mishandling Free School Feeding Money

Barely one week into the free school feeding program for public primary schools in Kaduna State, a senior education official in Zaria Local Government Area has been suspended for misconduct bordering on the disbursement of funds meant for payment of food vendors. 

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr Shehu Adamu announced the suspension of the unnamed official in Kaduna on Saturday while giving an update on the implementation of the program.

His words :
“Based on our arrangement, the monies for the vendors would be deposited weekly in banks where each of the vendors’ cooperative societies opened their account. The heads of the cooperative societies will thereafter access the money and distribute same to each vendor accordingly, based on the number of pupils expected to be fed in a week at N50 per plate.

"But it was alleged that the officer gathered all the heads of the cooperative societies within the local government in his office. He collected the monies from them and was personally sharing it to the vendors which lasted up to the middle of Monday night, thereby affecting the implementation of the programme in Zaria. That is not his responsibility, and therefore, he is suspended to enable the ministry carry out full investigation into the matter.”

Adamu said that government was investigating similar occurrences in some other locations across the state

The free feeding program which aims to provide a meal a day for about 1.5 million pupils in over four thousand public schools is expected to generate close to seventeen thousand jobs in catering and ancillary services.

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Army nabs Boko Haram kingpin, to confirm his identity soon.

The Nigerian Army announced yesterday that it was trying to confirm the real identify of Jarasu Shirawho, a suspected Boko Haram terrorists leader who was captured in Borno State last week.

The Deputy Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Major General Lucky Irabor disclosed this in a chat with News Agency of Nigeria, NAN correspondent in Maiduguri.

He said that certain checks needed to be done before final confirmation of the suspect's identity to the media.

“We are in custody of a good number of suspected terrorists that were apprehended as a result of our routine operations. One of those suspects is believed to be on the list of our 100 most wanted terrorists’ leaders.

.“There are checks that must be done before final confirmation. Facial attributes tended to show that he is the one. But then, there are other things we need to do to ensure that he is who we said he is.

“Although the facial attributes confirmed he is the one, it is not just by looks alone. We have had cases where we had mistaken identity, only to come up to say we are sorry,that is what we are trying to avoid this time,’’ he said.

Shirawo is believed to have masterminded the kidnap of the Chibok Girls on April 14, 2014. He was reportedly in charge of the insurgents around Damboa-Chibok- Askira Uba axis of Borno State before his arrest last week.

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See what happens when a monkey loves a dog

Photos: Incredible story of a Monkey that adopted a lost puppy http://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2016/01/photos-incredible-story-of-monkey-that.html

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FG sacks top civil servants for job racketeering

Some highly placed federal civil servants including grade level 17 officers have been sacked for conducting illegal recruitment into the Civil Service.

The affected civil servants were said to have extorted about N160m from desperate job seekers before fixing them in a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture during the Jonathan administration.

Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed told a gathering of On-air personalities on Saturday that the dismissed officials collected N400, 000 each from 400 people and thereafter, included their names in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel System, IPPIS.

“The first scandal I met in one of the parastatals when I assumed office was the illegal employment of 400 people.

“This scandal started with very senior officers up to level 17 in that department. They sent out letters and text messages asking people to apply for jobs for a fee of N400, 000 and they were given letters of employment.

“They did not stop there. They invited these people to go and be captured on the IPPIS and they even took cameras to hotels to get them captured. At the end of the day the bubble burst.

“One of the victims told these officials, ‘you cannot take my money and still disengage me. I have a valid letter.

’“That was how we got to know that there was a dedicated account these people paid into. Of course, we dismissed these officials and we even handed them over to the Police,“ he said.

The minister said that the Buhari administration is working on the IPPIS to protect it from abuse by unscrupulous civil servants.

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INEC to acquire new technology to collate, transmit election results

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmud Yakubu has announced the intention of the electoral body to deepen the use of technology in future elections.
To this end, he to told a meeting of representatives of 30 political parties in Abuja that INEC will be acquiring a technology that will enhance the collation and transmission of results.

His words :
“This Commission will not experiment. It will rather consolidate. Technology has come to stay.

“Not only will the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the Smart Card Readers remain, we are going to go a step higher to see if we can also deploy technology for collation and transmission of results so that we make the processes between the conclusion of elections at the Polling Units, the counting and final tally at the Collation Centre speedy and more accurate and technology driven.”

Prof Yakubu assured the political parties of the continued neutrality of INEC in the conduct of elections across the country.

“While strengthening the Card Reader and the PVCs, which were innovations introduced in 2015, as we approach 2019, we shall move an inch higher by introducing technology in the processes of collation and transmission of results so that the processes will be faster and more accurate.

“New approaches are required to strengthen election management in the country and consequently consolidate our democracy further.

“We believe this can be best achieved by consultation with stakeholders and political parties are one of the most critical stakeholders.

“We will remain an unbiased Election Management Body.

“All political parties have equal status with INEC,” he said.

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