NAN-H-9
Killing
By Moses Omorogieva
Lagos, Dec. 16, 2016 (NAN) A family, whose son was shot dead in Ojuelegba, Lagos, on his 24th birthday, has cried out to police for justice against the assailants who gruesomely murdered their child.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that Afenghide George was fatally shot on Nov. 27, few days after an hotelier allegedly threatened him with gun following an argument.

But according to the deceased’s father, Mr Matthew George-Umaigba, the four suspected killers of his son were seen moving about freely in the area.

“It is painful for my son to be killed at his youthful age, yet, the killers are walking freely.

“I want justice to be done in this case. I don’t want my son to die in vain while the killers are moving freely. I am in pain,’’ said the deceased’s father.

Narrating the events leading to his son’s killing, the bereaved father told NAN that on Nov. 25, Afenghide and some friends visited Civic Motel, located at 63, Ojuelegba Road, Surulere.

The hotel is three buildings from the victim’s house.

According to him, the hotel manager, simply identified as Solomon (a.k.a Sanction), accused Afenghide of disrespecting him and an argument ensued.

“Solomon brought out a short gun and attempted to shoot Afenghide.

“My son quickly pull up a table to defend himself and escaped out of the hotel,’’ said the deceased’s father.

George-Umaigba said that some boys, led by one Adams, met his son the following day and accused him of insulting their god-father, Solomon.

“They argued and the gang threatened to deal with him. Later that day, Solomon and five other men came to my house to report my son to me.

“I begged them for forgiveness. My son was however, not happy that they came to report after they have used gun to threaten his life.

“On Nov. 27, at about 8pm, while my son was seeing off a friend, two motorcycles carrying two persons grabbed my son and started shooting him in the head, chest and stomach and left him in the pool of his blood thinking he was dead.

“Some people took Afenghide to LUTH in a tricycle. He was in LUTH for seven days before he died at about 3 am the day he was to celebrate his 24th birthday,’’ said the father of the deceased.

According to him, the matter was reported at Surulere Police Station where Solomon said in his statement that some cult boys he identified as Adams, Musa, Timaya and Idimu, killed Afenghide.

George-Umaigba said Solomon, however, denied masterminding the killing and promised to produce the assailants but failed to do so.

“He even promised to take care of the medical bills.
“After my son died, the police re-arrested Solomon and two others – Ibrahim and Abbas – and detained them at State CID, Panti for investigation.

“ The police visited the crime scene, hospital and the hotel for further information but would not release the corpse for burial until autopsy is carried out,’’ he said.

Afenghide, until his gruesome murder, worked with a plastic company in Ijesha, Lagos and was the second child of six children in the family.

Contacted, the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident and the arrest.

Badmos said the police were on the trail of other members of the gang, stressing that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigation was concluded. (NAN)
MIO/WOJ

(Edited by Wale Ojetimi)

 NAN-H-78

Niboro

By Emmanuel Mogbede
Abuja, Dec. 15, 2016 (NAN) Mr Ima Niboro, former Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) says that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is a viable platform that will ensure the desired change in the country.

He spoke at the APC National Secretariat while meeting with the party`s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun on Thursday in Abuja.

NAN recalls that Niboro recently dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the APC.

He was formally received by APC stalwarts in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta, where he hailed from on Dec.5.

The former managing director urged politicians to remain focused and not to distract the President Muhammad Buhari-led administration.

“This is the time to work and not time for making noise.

“It is time for anybody who is a politician to go to the grassroots and work; we should not wait till election time.

“This is the time we should start the processes to convince people that this is a viable platform and once we do that, I am sure we will be able to do very well.’’

He described as a “wonderful one’’, his meeting with the APC national chairman whom he said he met last in 1992 when he was Governor of Edo.

Niboro said that the APC national chairman ‘’is a father-figure in the South-South,’’ adding that he had been following Odigie-Oyegun’s political trajectory for a long time.

He said that the APC national chairman received him warmly to the party, adding that he discussed major issues with him, especially issues concerning Delta.

Earlier, the APC national chairman, while receiving Niboro expressed satisfaction with his decision to join the party.

He expressed optimism that Niboro would bring his political expertise to bear in advancing the party and the country generally.

NAN recalls that Niboro had earlier said that his decision to join the party was to align Delta with the government at the national level with a view to fast track development in the state.

“It is not a sudden switch. I have had 18 months to study the situation as it concerned my ward, local government, community and even my state.

“I have to conclude that there is time for everything.

“This is the time for us in Delta to link up with the Federal Government in order to bring development to our land,’’ he had said. (NAN)
EEM/DUA

========
Edited by Dada Ahmed

Mayor of fallen eastern Aleppo urges EU to help civilians

NAN-F-14

Appeal
Brussels, Dec. 15, 2016 (dpa/ NAN) More than 50,000 civilians are at risk in eastern Aleppo and the EU should send observers to ensure that they are evacuated.

The mayor of the besieged community said in a Thursday appeal before a summit of the bloc’s leaders.

Brita Hagi Hasan, head of the city council of eastern Aleppo, spoke to journalists in Brussels, before he was scheduled to meet with European Council President Donald Tusk, who would later chair the EU summit.

“There are more than 50,000 civilians in eastern Aleppo and they are about to be victims of a general massacre,” including more than 800 badly injured people and an additional 5,000 in less serious condition, Hasan said.

“We want a courageous position from the European Union, a position of sending of sending some [observer] forces to monitor the evacuation of civilians. We are not asking any country to go to war […] we only ask to save civilians,” he added.

His comments came as convoys were set to begin evacuating fighters and civilians from the besieged enclave under a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey.

Hasan said he lived in Aleppo from “the beginning of the revolution” in 2011, and was elected mayor last year.

He fled in July, when government forces of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by a Russian bombing campaign, began an offensive to retake the eastern parts of the city.

The mayor insisted on the need to oust the “criminal regime” of al-Assad.

“Some terrible crimes are being committed in Syria, over half a million casualties, more than 12 million of people displaced, these are terrible crimes and unfortunately the international community is still silent,” he lamented.

“To tell the truth, the idea of international law has been killed in Aleppo. This idea has been killed in Syria because of the despairing silence of the international community in front of these crimes,” Hasan said.

Labelling al-Assad as “the real leader of terrorism in Syria” and claiming that his troops “have not used a single bullet against Daesh [Islamic State] or even al-Qaeda,” the mayor denied the presence of Islamist forces among rebel holdouts in Aleppo.

“The Free Syrian Army are the ones who kicked out Daesh from tens of villages and towns in Syria.

“This the only group in Syria really fighting terrorism,” and as long as it controls “a few centimetres” of land it will resist and ultimately “be victorious,” Hasan vowed. (Reuters/ NAN)

(Edited by Julius Enehikhuere)

NAN-H-66

Servants

Gusau, Dec. 15, 2016 (NAN) The Zamfara State Civil Service Commission (CSC), says it has introduced digital system of recording the data of its civil servants.

The Chairman of the Commission, Alhaji Attahiru Bello, disclosed this on Thursday in Gusau while speaking with journalists after defending the commission’s 2017 budget at the state House of Assembly on Thursday.

Bello, said that N10 million had been earmarked for the procurement of computers and data banks to implement the programme.

“We introduced this system to ensure preservation of authentic records of civil servants in the state,’’ he said.

According to him, the move is one of the major policies of civil service administration in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state House of Assembly commenced has commenced hearing the defence of the 2017 proposed budget by Ministries, Departments Agencies (MDAs).

NAN recalls that the governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, has presented N107 billion before the state House of Assembly for the 2017 fiscal year. (NAN)

IZ/ABA/DS/DUA

Turkey told to expect ruling on human rights violations in its south

NAN-F-13
Ruling
Paris, Dec. 15, 2016 (dpa/NAN) Turkey has been told to expect ruling in a series of cases where it has been accused of depriving citizens in south-eastern Turkey of their rights amid fighting between the Turkish army and Kurd militants, the European Court of Human Rights said Thursday.

After receiving complaints from 160 people about allegations of unlawful killings, ill-treatment and unlawful deprivation of liberty, the court said it would bring the cases to the attention of Turkey and issue a ruling at a later date.

The court said that it would give priority treatment to many of the 34 applications submitted, following the death of 43 people in six of the applications when buildings they took refuge in were allegedly bombed by security forces.

Reports say most of the cases originated in events that took place in south-eastern Turkey, primarily the town of Cizre and Sur.

The region is home to many of the country’s Kurds, a large number of whom complain of systemic discrimination by the state.

Open-ended curfews in the region have been imposed by the government since August 2015, after a two-year ceasefire between Turkey and the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) collapsed in July 2015 amid mutual recriminations.

The court had earlier accepted five of 40 submitted requests for interim measures. It said it lifted those interim measures after four of the applicants died, allegedly because they were not taken to the hospital by the government, and a fifth was taken to the hospital.

The European Court of Human Rights was established to oversee the European Convention of Human Rights, adopted by the 47 member Council of Europe. The court is not a European Union institution. (dpa/NAN)

(Edited by Julius Enehikhuere)

U.S. ready to confront Beijing on South China Sea — admiral

NAN-F-12

Confrontation

New York, Dec. 14, 2016 (Reuters/ NAN) The United States is ready to confront China should it continue its overreaching maritime claims in the South China Sea, the head of the U.S. Pacific fleet said on Wednesday, comments that threaten to escalate tensions between the two global rivals.

China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Neighbours Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.

The U.S. has called on China to respect the findings of the arbitration court in The Hague earlier this year which invalidated its vast territorial claims in the strategic waterway.

But Beijing continues to act in an “aggressive” manner, to which the U.S. stands ready to respond, Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech in Sydney.

“We will not allow a shared domain to be closed down unilaterally no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea,” he said. “We will cooperate when we can but we will be ready to confront when we must.”

The comments threaten to stoke tensions between the U.S. and China, already heightened by President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to accept a telephone call from Taiwan’s president on Dec. 2 that prompted a diplomatic protest from Beijing.

Asked about Harris’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the situation in the South China Sea was currently stable, thanks to the hard work of China and others in the region.

“We hope the U.S. can abide by its promises on not taking sides on the sovereignty dispute in the South China Sea, respect the efforts of countries in the region to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea region and do more to promote peace and stability there,” he told a daily news briefing.

The U.S. estimates Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) of land on seven features in the South China Sea over the past three years, building runways, ports, aircraft hangars and communications equipment.

In response, the U.S. has conducted a series of freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, the latest of which came in October.

The patrols have angered Beijing, with a senior Chinese official in July warning the practice may end in “disaster”.

Harris said it was a decision for the Australian government whether the U.S. ally should undertake its own freedom-of-navigation operations, but said the United States would continue with the practice.

“The U.S. fought its first war following our independence to ensure freedom of navigation,” said Harris. “This is an enduring principle and one of the reasons our forces stand ready to fight tonight.” (Reuters/ NAN)

Edited by Julius Enehikhuere

NAN-S-9
Badminton
By Kemi Ajayi
Lagos, Dec. 14, 2016 (NAN) The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Wednesday unveiled the first five Integrity Ambassadors for its “I am Badminton’’ integrity programme.

An online portal, Insidethegames, said that Japan’s Olympic women’s doubles champions, Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takanashi, who were jointly named Female Players of the Year, were among the ambassadors.

Others are Danish Viktor Axelsen and Christinna Pedersen, as well as Indian star, Saina Newhal, who is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission.

The ambassadors were announced in Dubai, host of the ongoing World Superseries Finals, which feature the best eight male and female singles players in the world.

According to the portal, Gustavo Delgado, BWF deputy president says the campaign seeks to underline the body’s commitment to clean, fair and honourable sport.

“We want to assure that from an early age, our athletes understand how they should conduct themselves.

“More critically why they should avoid any misconduct which could jeopardise their and badminton integrity.

“We want to protect our clean athletes and protect our sport,’’ it said.

It added that the programme was first launched at the 2015 BWF World Junior Championships, with the aim to address various threats such as doping, match fixing, illegal betting and corruption.

It said the ambassadors were selected from across the sport’s international spectrum and would represent the campaign’s values and serve as role models for the badminton world.

According to the portal, Thomas Lund, BWF Secretary-General, the programme will encourage athletes to state “I am clean, I am honest, I am badminton’’ as part of the campaign.

“It is great to have the support of our players which they want to step forward and become the faces and get the message out that this is extremely important for themselves and their colleagues and also for the young generation.

“The main thing is we are using these players in many different types of imaging, we hope they will also go out and promote this idea.

“Saina has recently become part of the IOC Athletes Commission and she has a central part of the community.

“It is great to have them on board and come out as when players speak to players it is stronger,’’ it said. (NAN)
KOA/ENN/PDE
===========
(Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Peter Ejiofor)

Re-issue: Gov. Bello directs Niger MDAs to accommodate corps members

NAN-H-40

Accommodation

By Aminu Ahmed Garko

Paiko (Minna), Dec. 14, 2016 (NAN) Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger, on Wednesday, directed all government organisations to provide decent accommodation for corps members posted to serve in the state.

Bello gave this directive at the passing-out-parade of the batch B corps members at the permanent orientation camp in Paiko.

He said that the provision of accommodation would enable the corps members settle down to contribute positively to social, economic and political growth of the state.

He charged the corps members to understand that service to humanity is the best legacy they could leave behind in their places of deployment.

The governor said the State Government would continue to provide the enabling environment for peaceful coexistence among the people.

Bello, who was represented by the Commissioner for Social Development, Alhaji Musa Mamman, called on the corps members to respect the norms and tradition of their host communities.

“We are peace loving people, we are always ready to accept visitors into our midst,’’ he said.

Speaking earlier, Mrs Bolande Loto, the NYSC State Coordinator, lauded the efforts of the State Government for making the state a peaceful place to live.

Loto said that the peaceful environment had made it possible for the corps members to interact with one another and their host communities.

She said that all the 2,424 corps members, who were posted to the state would be deployed to various government organisations across the state. (NAN)
AAG/AIB/YEMI

Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde/Yemi Idris-Aduloju

NAN-AE-1

Women

Story by Olubukola Olu-Ola

Ilorin, Dec.14, 2016 (NAN) A legal practitioner, Mrs Folakemi Oluseyi, has called on the Federal Government to empower more women living in rural communities across the country through agriculture.

Folakemi, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Wednesday, said that such would go a long way to enhance women capacity in agriculture and boost rural development.

She noted that rural women played vital role in the society, particularly in economic and agricultural development adding that they needed to be supported by government for increased productivity.

The lawyer also urged the government to launch a fund raising project to support rural women, adding that most of the women suffered as a result of poverty.

“I urge government to launch a fundraising project to empower rural women and encourage farming in the rural communities.

“Rural women depend mostly on agriculture for their livelihood. The best Federal Government can do is to support them.

“If you have visited some of the rural communities in the country, you will be amazed at the intensity of poverty and how these women are struggling to feed their families.

“Most of these women even suffer violence, assault and harassment and molestation because they cannot fend for themselves.

“They need to be empowered to stand against some barbaric cultures and suffering inflicted on them by the society.

“The rural women have right to freedom of expression and be economically productive, they should not be neglected to live in penury,’’ she said. (NAN)
OJB/DUA
Edited by Dada Ahmed
======================

UN warns of executions as Syrian regime closes in on Aleppo enclave

NAN-F-9
Aleppo
Beirut, Dec. 13, 2016 (dpa/NAN) The United Nations warned on Tuesday that it had received reports of dozens of extrajudicial executions by Syrian government forces in eastern Aleppo, amid appeals for protection of civilians.

Government forces have reclaimed the majority of the rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo and are poised to recapture the few areas still in rebel possession.

At least 82 civilians have reportedly been killed during the offensive, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said, though he cautioned that reports were very hard to verify thanks to an “extremely fluid” situation.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that around 60 people were killed in the neighbourhood of al-Faradous by either regime fire or shelling after government troops took the area from rebels on Monday.

The Observatory could not confirm reports of extrajudicial executions.

The head of the UN’s humanitarian task force for Syria urged the Syrian government and its ally Russia to agree to a ceasefire so that injured people could be given treatment.

“Our renewed urgent appeal to Russia and Damascus: ceasefire today to let us evacuate wounded and other vulnerable groups from Aleppo’s rubble,” Jan Egeland posted on his Twitter account.

Egeland also said that Moscow and Damascus “are accountable for any and all atrocities that the victorious [pro-government] militias in Aleppo are now committing.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that thousands of civilians were at risk as front lines closed around them, warning that “this may be the last chance to save lives.”

It said it had been in touch with all sides to find a humanitarian solution for more than a week, without success.

“We stand ready to oversee the implementation of any mutual agreement that puts civilians first. We cannot urge this strongly enough: this must happen now,” said Marianne Gasser, the head of the international humanitarian organisation’s delegation in Syria.

Limited fighting and airstrikes were reported in the enclave on Tuesday as heavy rain apparently hampered military operations.

Government forces made rapid advances on Monday, hemming in rebels and remaining civilians in an area less than 3 per cent the size of the original enclave.

Opposition leaders and people inside eastern Aleppo fear deadly reprisals by the Syrian government. Unarmed activists and medics in particular are concerned, with several telling journalists that they expect arrest and torture if they are caught.

Activists and civil defence workers were “at risk of grave violations including detention, torture and killing,” Colville warned.

He noted reports from Aleppo that some civilians trying to leave the area had been caught and killed on the spot and others arrested, as well as reports of pro-government forces breaking into houses and killing the inhabitants.

“We hope, profoundly, that these reports are wrong, or exaggerated, as the situation is extremely fluid and it is very challenging to verify reports. However, they have been corroborated by multiple reliable sources,” Colville added.

International monitoring was needed to “alleviate deep foreboding and suspicion that massive crimes may be under way both within Aleppo, and in relation to some of those who fled or were captured.”

“The news out of eastern Aleppo is catastrophic…people have to be saved or else they will be massacred by the regime and their allies when they reach them,” Samir al Nashar, a Syrian opposition figure originally from Aleppo said.

The Observatory said that nearly 600 civilians have been killed in the last month since regime forces launched the offensive that has seen them seize almost the entire rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo.

Some 463 civilians were killed in airstrikes and shelling in the East, and another 130 were killed in rebel shelling in the government-held western sector.

Rebel defences in eastern Aleppo collapsed in late November after a five-month siege by government forces. (dpa/NAN)

(Edited by Julius Enehikhuere)