Female suicide bomber targets Maiduguri market

A female suicide bomber blew herself up Friday at a big market in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a vigilante and a witness said.

“There had been a suicide attack on Gamboru market this morning. It was a female suicide bomber. The attack happened around 6:30 am (0530 GMT) as the grocers were arriving in the market which starts early,” said the vigilante, Babakura Kolo.

There is no immediate information on the number of victims, although witness accounts suggest that there have been casualties.

“From accounts we gathered from people around, the woman arrived on a taxi tricycle, as every woman grocer does. She blew herself up as soon as the tricycle stopped in the midst of other tricycles that were dropping traders off,” Kolo told AFP.

A witness, who declined to be named, corroborated this account.

“I was at home when I heard a loud explosion that sent me rushing out of my house. It was coming from the Gamboru market. I went there, but from afar. The place was littered with victims and burning rickshaws,” the source told AFP.

The Gamboru market is the second largest in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.

A “mentally handicapped” female suicide bomber killed at least 14 people and injured 47 more last Sunday at a crowded market Damaturu, capital of neighbouring Yobe state.

Damaturu was also the scene of a triple suicide bombing on July 18 when three girls blew themselves up killing at least 13 people as residents prepared for the Eid festival marking the end of Ramadan.

Female suicide bomber targets Maiduguri market

Chadian soldiers kill 100 boko haram militants

At least 100 militants have been killed in an operation launched a fortnight ago against Boko Haram jihadists holed up in the islands of Lake Chad, the Chadian army said in a statement Friday.

“117 terrorists have been killed, two Chadian soldiers died and two others were wounded” in the operation, said army spokesman Colonel Azem Bermendoa Agouna, adding the operation was ongoing.

There was no immediate confirmation of the toll by an independent source.

Chadian soldiers kill 100 boko haram militants

Sri Lanka Election Violence: A woman killed, 12 others injured in Colombo

By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News

Election in Sri Lanka took a different dimension on Friday as gunmen opened fire at an election campaign rally in Colombo.

The shooting led to the killing of a woman and at least 12 others.

The Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake missed the sporadic gun shot by a whisker because the gunmen attacked the crowed few minutes after his departure from the venue, according to police report.

Sri lanka is to hold  parliamentary elections in August 17.

 

According to a police spokesman Ruwan gunasekerea: “The gunmen travelled in two vehicles and escaped in teh same vehicles after the shooting spree.

“A woman was killed and 12 wounded persons have been admitted to the Colombo National hospital.”

Reacting to the incident, head of the Campaign for Free and Fair Election (CaFFE) expressed shock at the shooting in Colombo, saying that security were tight and campaign had been mostly peaceful.

The CaFFE also revealed tht there has been tensions and about 55 incidence of clashes since President Maithripala Sirisena fired parliament on June 26 and called general election nearly a year ahead of schedule.

CaFFE said: “We are puzzled by this latest turn of events in Colombo because so far it has been relatively calm and even the level of violence in other areas has been very low”.

Mahinda Deshapriya, Election Commissioner has vowed to enforce poll laws and free and fair election in August.

Meanwhile, Police said they had launched an investigation into the incident and to track down the gunmen behind the attack.

 

 

Sri Lanka Election Violence: A woman killed, 12 others injured in Colombo

don"t allow kidnappers use you for evil - Fayose tells drivers

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has appealed to members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria against allowing themselves to be used by kidnappers to perpetrate evil.

Speaking on Thursday during the swearing-in of the new State Executive of the union in Ado Ekiti, the governor, who said he was once a ‘danfo driver’ appealed to the drivers to be orderly and not to be desperate.

He said, “Please, I want to commend you for contributing immensely to the development of the state’s economy, but don’t allow yourselves to be used by evil doers. You can see that some kidnappers were paraded recently. Information from them revealed that they have been using some of your members.

“I was once a driver like you. I used the money I got from driving to sponsor myself for HND at Ibadan Polytechnic, but I did not get desperate. All I’m saying is that being a driver you can make it in life. You will become what you want to become in life with hard work. Don’t join evil gang for you to get rich overnight, try and rise through the ladder like we did.”

He cautioned drivers against reckless driving, reminding them of the ‘don’t drink and drive’ rule.

“Though I am part of you, if you breach the law, I won’t save or spare you. You will be arrested and prosecuted by the security agents,” he said.

The governor, who recalled that he united the two unions — RTEAN and National Union of Road and Transport Workers — during his first term, said the occasion was a sign that good things were coming to Ekiti.

“We should emulate this kind of occasion. This is very good. We will always identify with this kind of achievements. You are doing a good job for this country. I don’t want to be the enemies of drivers, I want to be your friend.”

He also thanked the unions for standing by him during the failed impeachment plot against him by the former 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers.

Fayose, who had earlier spoken at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Institute of Strategic Management, appealed to leaders to focus attention on how to banish poverty that is killing the potential of many Nigerians.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Strategies for Poverty Alleviation’, Fayose said his desperate bid to banish poverty in the land had propelled him to pioneer the stomach infrastructure concept that had become a brand in the country.

“In tackling poverty, the first thing to do is to empower the people. But before empowerment, you must make them look healthy through provision of food. Let them get access to you as a leader, this will give them a sense of belonging and relief.

“Some of the projects being executed by MDGs centred on poverty alleviation. Poverty has become a serious issue in Nigeria. That was why my government made the payment of salaries the first thing, because this will keep the people and the economy going.

“I receive close to 200 to 300 calls and messages daily on stomach infrastructure thing. Though 90 per cent of it is about money, we should not shy away from the fact that the concept has become a way of life in Nigeria as a good weapon to tackle poverty among the common people.”

don"t allow kidnappers use you for evil - Fayose tells drivers

Microsoft unit fires 85% of Nigerian workers

Microsoft on Thursday sacked 34 (85 per cent) of the 40 employees in the Nigerian office of its phone division.

The sacking came 24 hours after the company’s latest Windows 10 was made available in Nigeria and 189 other countries.

Although, Windows 10 is now available as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 operating systems or with new personal computers and tablets, industry experts said it would leave about 15 million Nigerian payments cards prone to hacking.

Employees at the Nigerian office were silent on the matter, but a source said that the downsizing was part of the global decision of Microsoft to streamline its phone division.

The source said the sacking was in line with the massive layoff of workers “sweeping through the global offices of Microsoft’s phone division.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft, Satya Nadella, had said in a memo to all Nigerian employees in late June that the company needed to make some “tough choices” in areas that were not working.

The memo had stated that 7,800 jobs would be cut from the mobile division working on Windows Phone hardware.

The e-mail from Nadella to all employees, which was made available to our correspondent, read, “We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem, including our first-party device family.

“In the near-term, we’ll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio, while retaining capability for long-term reinvention in mobility.

“Microsoft was committed to our first-party devices, including phones, but needed to focus its phone efforts in the near term.”

According to him, the company will also write off $7.6bn from the acquisition of Nokia, despite it only paying $7.2bn for the company in 2014.

“The future prospects for the phone hardware segment were below original expectations due to the new plans,” he added.

Nadella said that the news would “surely leave an unclear future for Windows Phone.”

Although he said that in the near future, the company would run a “more effective” phone portfolio, he added, “But that doesn’t exactly throw the company’s weight behind the platform.”

Nadella said that the move would not give partners reassurance that the platform was a good choice to build new hardware or apps for the future.

“Microsoft is also pushing ahead to release Lumia flagships this year and is still actively developing Windows 10 mobile,” he added.

Microsoft unit fires 85% of Nigerian workers

I was the one who collected senators signature to impeach Ekweremadu - Ndume

The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, on Thursday, caused a stir in the upper chamber when he revealed how he collected signatures of other senators to impeach the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, in the 7th Senate.

Ekweremadu

Ndume stated this while raising a point of order to draw the attention of the Senate to an “offensive report” published in The Nation newspaper of Thursday.

The newspaper’s report had alleged that 22 Northern senators who signed the vote of confidence passed in Senator Bukola Saraki leadership of the Senate, were working against the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari, in the red chamber.

Ndume said he contested the deputy senate president position with Ekweremadu on June 9, 2015 with the intention to win but had to accept his fate when the latter defeated him.

He said, “I personally still want to be senate president. I also believe that any of us will not mind to be the senate president. As for the deputy senate president, I contested against the deputy senate president. I did not contest with him to lose that election.

“I contested with him in order to win that election but it is God that gives power to whoever he wants. What ever happened on the 9th of June, my friend Ekweremadu became the deputy senate president.

“Let me say for the record and for those that were not in the 7th Senate, it is not something of pride, but I stand here to say, he is here, that I am the only person that attempted to impeach him.

“ I collected signatures in order to impeach him because of certain things which I explained and we discussed.

“Why I am taking us through all these is because the nation is watching us and this drama that is going on cannot continue because that is not why we are here and this leadership thing whether we like it or not, whether we change it or we maintain this one, only one person will be the senate president.

“I want to say something about an issue that has been lingering in this Senate and it is about to distort or take us away from the main reason why we are here.

“I said it before and I am still maintaining this position. Each and every one of us here that is elected as a senator is qualified to be the senate president by all standards but it only that out of the 109 of us, one has to be the senate president while another person has to be the deputy senate president. It so happened, that Senator Bukola Saraki is now our senate president.

“Senate leadership has gone beyond an individual. You cannot become the leader of the Senate when the senators are not ready to accept your leadership. If two-thirds of the senators say today that I am not the leader I am out.”

I was the one who collected senators signature to impeach Ekweremadu - Ndume

I don"t expect Buhari to appoint me as a minister - Tunde Bakare

The General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has said that he is not expecting a ministerial appointment from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Tunde Bakare

Bakare, who spoke in an interview with Sahara TV monitored by our correspondent on Thursday, however, parried a question on whether he would accept a ministerial appointment if offered by the President.

Bakare, who was the running mate of Buhari on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change in the 2011 presidential election, defended the President’s style of governance, saying, “slow and steady wins the race.”

The cleric said, “As far as I am concerned, I am not expecting to be named a minister. If I am offered an appointment, when I get to that bridge I will cross it. I am already a minister of the gospel. Ministry is my calling and my life. The word minister means servant. When you expect nothing, you cannot be disappointed. I keep on doing what I am doing, to be a solid supporter of the Buhari movement and what he stands for in public life. I have no regret on what I did in 2011. If an opportunity presents itself, I will do it again. I am not seeking anything.

“Let’s not count chickens before they are hatched. The bible says the expectation of the righteous will not be cut off. That is when the expectation of the righteous is in tandem with God’s expectation. If you are expecting from God, the flesh can fail. Who knows tomorrow? In the next two months, when the ministers would be named, what if nobody is here or alive? ”

He, however, said he would continue to support the President in any capacity.

The cleric said President Buhari’s visit to the United States has improved the relationship between the two countries.

On whether former President Goodluck Jonathan should be probed, he said, “I will not advocate that President Jonathan should be probed or not be probed. A day or two before the inauguration of the President, the transition committee received a report. They worked on it for weeks.

“The President has looked into those reports. If there are anomalies, President Buhari will call the former president   and say things are irregular and the law should take its effect. But as for the witch-hunt of others, that is a waste of time. If you keep on chasing the wrong things, you will not do the right things. But that does not mean anyone who has done evil should get away with it.

Bakare said he would not support the restitution of stolen funds as amnesty for corrupt government officials, noting that this would promote a wrong attitude.

He added, “What Nigeria needs now are not so much of restitution. Some stolen funds that were sent back to Nigeria in the past went into wrong hands. What Nigeria needs is a clear example of good governance, the rule of law as against the rule of men.

“On the rule of men, might is right. On the rule of law, right is might. So if you can get ‘right is might’ in place, if you do something wrong and you are punished for it, those who have the desires to do similar things will know that there are consequences for their choices, that is where we are going. I can tell you that witch-hunt is not something that President Buhari would support. Perish the thought, it is not his character.”

I don"t expect Buhari to appoint me as a minister - Tunde Bakare