Cameroun Launches Air Strikes against Boko Haram

(NIGERIA) Cameroun has carried out its first air strikes against militant Islamist group Boko Haram, after it overran a military base and attacked five villages, officials have said.

The military repelled the coordinated attacks and regained control of the base, they added.

At least 41 militants and one soldier died in the attack, the officials said.

The Nigeria-based group is increasingly carrying out cross-border raids, threatening Cameroun’s security.

The latest fighting was the most intense, lasting for three days along several fronts, reported the BBC from Cameroun’s capital Yaounde.

About 1,000 militants attacked five villages, including Amchide, and seized the nearby Achigachia military base, army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Didier Badjeck, told Reuters news agency.

“After that, the head of state ordered the air force to carry out strikes. With the bombardment, the fighters were forced to decamp from Achigachia,” he said.

In a statement, Cameroun’s Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said the multiple attacks showed that Boko Haram had adopted a new strategy aimed at “distracting Camerounian troops on different fronts, making them more vulnerable in the face of the mobility and unpredictability of their attacks”.

At least 34 militants were killed after the army raided one of their bases in Cameroun, while another seven were killed in a separate clash which also claimed the life of a soldier, Bakary said, Reuters reported.

The air strikes marked “a new escalation in the Camerounian response... to multiple enemy attacks”, he added, AFP news agency reported.

Last week, Cameroun said it had dismantled a Boko Haram training camp on its territory, and had seized 84 children who were being trained there.

More than 40 of its soldiers have been killed in fighting with Boko Haram this year, according to Reuters.

Boko Haram launched its insurgency in North-eastern Nigeria in 2009, saying it wanted to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.

It recruits mainly unemployed youth and has seized large swathes of territory in Borno State, raising fears that it could launch an assault on its main city, Maiduguri.

At least 2,000 civilians have been killed by the group in Nigeria this year.

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in April from the town of Chibok in Borno sparked international outrage.

-THISDAY-

Aregbesola blames Jonathan, PDP for Nigeria’s woes

(NIGERIA) Osun State governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has launched an attack on President Goodluck Jonathan, lamenting that the country under the current administration is being badly managed.

Aregbesola, who spoke at a book presentation to mark the 50th birthday of a front line rights activist, Comrade Amitolu Shittu, said under Jonathan, Nigeria’s economy has nose-dived to the point of near collapse and that Nigerians deserve to know the true state of affairs in the country.

He said: “Politics aside, the truth about Nigeria is that the people currently managing it at the centre, careless about the people but themselves.

The governor added that the situation has gotten so bad in Nigeria that all Nigerians must decide to change the situation and save the country from bad managers who only think about themselves.

He reminded pro-democracy activists and organisations in Nigeria and beyond of the urgent need to reconvene as a strategy towards ensuring the victory of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate for the 2015 election, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

Aregbesola said the time is now for those who had in the past rendered selfless services to their fatherland by confronting dictatorial governments and installing democratic rule.

“Wherever you find PDP, you will find misery, poverty, under-development. We must remember that the encounter of our people and experience especially in the South West geo-political zone have never brought anything positive. Our people had associated their party with misfortune and till today, they remain the same.”

Earlier, Shittu chided former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida for openly supporting Jonathan, saying it was only corrupt Nigerians like Babangida that would support the current administration which had no good plans for Nigerians.

-VANGUARD-

2015: INEC releases names of presidential candidates, running mates

(NIGERIA) The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has released the names of the presidential candidates and their running mates who will contest next year’s elections

Of the 26 registered political parties in Nigeria, only 11 submitted names of candidates to run for the presidency.

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, submitted the names of President Goodluck Jonathan and his vice, Namadi Sambo, while the main opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, submitted the names of Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo as presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Anambra Supplementary Election: INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega addressing pressmen , announcing November 30 for Supplementary election at Anambra State while National Commissioner Lawrence Nwuruku looks on in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan.

Others are Oluremi Sonaiya and Saidu Bobboi for Kowa Party, Ambrose Albert and Haruna Shaba for Hope Democratic Party, Ganiyu Galadima and Balarabe Ahmed of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN, Rafiu Salau and Clinton Cliff Akuchie for Alliance for Democracy, AD and Godson Okoye and Haruna Adamu, for United Democratic Party, UDP.

Others are Nani Ibrahim Ahmad and Obianuju Murphy-Uzohue of African Democratic Congress, Martin Onovo and Ibrahim Mohammed of National Conscience Party, NCP, Tunde Anifowoshe-Kelani and Paul Ishaka Ofomile of Action Alliance and Chekwas Okorie and Bello Umar of United Progressive Party.

The Labour Party, LP, and the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, have already adopted the PDP candidate, Goodluck Jonathan as their candidate as well.

Of all the 11 candidates, only Jonathan and Buhari were candidates in the last election in 2011.

-VANGUARD-

2015: Buhari fails to submit academic qualifications to INEC

(NIGERIA) Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari, did not present his academic qualifications to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, even as he prepares for the 2015 presidential contest.

Unlike his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, President Goodluck Jonathan, whose academic certificates were conspicously displayed by the commission upon presentation, Buhari’s credentials were visibly without trace at the commission’s office at Area 10, Abuja.

The former Head of State, explained in an affidavit he deposed, which he submitted to the commission that all his academic credentials were with the Secretary, Military Board.

The affidavit deposed at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Abuja and dated November 24,2014, was stamped and received at INEC headquarters on December 18, 2014.

In the affidavit, Buhari said: “All my academic qualifications (documents) as filled in my presidential form, President APC/001/2015, are currently with the Secretary Military Boards as at the time of this affidavit.”

He added: “The affidavit is made in good faith and for record purpose.”

-VANGUARD-

Troops kill 41 Boko Haram fighters in Cameroon

At least 41 militants and one soldier were reportedly killed as Cameroon military launched rockets at suspected Boko Haram fighters, who attacked its base on the border near Amchide and seized a huge portion of the town of Ashigashia.

Voice of America reports Cameroon military spokesman, Colonel Didier Badjeck, as saying that about 1,000 suspected Boko Haram fighters had seized parts of the villages of Ngouma, Sagme, Ardebe, Mbaljuel, Dambore, Soueram and Ashigashia and briefly occupied a military camp on Sunday.

Badjeck also said the militants had kidnapped several girls since Friday for forced marriages to the group’s fighters.

He said the military was informed by local residents that Boko Haram had taken girls between the ages of 12 and 15 and performed forced marriages and obtained Hausa language documents announcing the “weddings.”

President Paul Biya was said to have personally ordered the air strike, which forced the Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria to flee the camp at Assighasia, Al Jazeera reports Communications Minister, Issa Bakary, as saying in a statement.

Bakary said the multiple attacks showed that Boko Haram had adopted a new strategy aimed at “distracting Cameroonian troops on different fronts, making them more vulnerable in the face of the mobility and unpredictability of their attacks.”

No fewer than 34 militants were killed after the army raided one of their bases in Cameroon, while another seven were killed in a separate clash, which also claimed the life of a soldier, Bakary said, Reuters reports.

Last week, Cameroon said it had dismantled a Boko Haram training camp on its territory, and had seized 84, children who were being trained there.

More than 40 Cameroonian soldiers had been killed in fighting with Boko Haram this year, according to Reuters.

-THE PUNCH-

Mutiny comment: Amaechi meant to undermine FG, says DSS

(NIGERIA) The Department of State Services has warned Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and other politicians against inciting and unguarded statements ahead of the 2015 general elections.

The service frowned at the statement credited to the governor in which he said that soldiers have the right to protest if their welfare was not taken care of, noting that his utterance was meant to undermine the Federal Government.

Amaechi, who is Director-General, All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, had said, “The challenge of the Nigerian military is not funding but corruption. Now they want to kill some 50 officers for their own failure to equip them properly to fight terrorism. The soldiers have the right to protest for the federal government’s failure to fully equip them.”

But the DSS in a statement by its Deputy Director, Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar, on Monday in Abuja, said the governor’s statement was meant to achieve a selfish desire, against the collective well-being of the nation and warned that it would not condone acts that are inimical to the general interest of the nation.

“Political office-holders must not hide under the privileges of their offices to perpetrate and encourage the commission of acts inimical to the general interest of this nation, as this will henceforth not be tolerated,”the statement said.

The service said that such similar unguarded statements by politicians in the past had encouraged violence that resulted in loss of innocent lives and property.

The statement reads, “The attention of the Department of State Services has been drawn to inciting and unguarded statements and utterances by some politicians ahead of the 2015 general elections.

“Of particular interest is the statement of a serving governor calling on men of the armed forces to rise up in protest against constituted authority, with the intent to undermine the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“This statement therefore serves as the last warning to all those seeking to truncate the nation’s democracy by their careless and obviously mischievous utterances and actions to desist and retrace their steps immediately.

“This Service and indeed all security agencies will not rest on their oars and are committed to the successful conduct of the 2015 general elections in Nigeria.”

-THE PUNCH-

Patience Jonathan faults calls to scrap ‘first ladies’ office

(NIGERIA) Dame Patience Jonathan, wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, has faulted the calls in some quarters for the scraping of the office of the First Ladies, arguing that “First Ladies have made profound contributions to the development of Nigeria.”

Mrs. Jonathan said this in Umuahia, Abia State while speaking at the grand civic reception in her honour by her maternal kinsmen of the Ohuhu clan in Sunday.

She said contrary to opinions and wrong impressions by some people, First Ladies played essential roles in moving the country forward, adding that those behind the calsl might not have appreciated the good parts being played by First Ladies.

The wife of the President recalled that she had, through her office, touched positively on the lives of many Nigerian women and youths, adding that in the same vein many governors’ wives had also impacted positively on the lives of people in their various states.

She maintained that First Ladies all over the world played supportive roles which, she noted, were very germane for the successes recorded by their husbands.

-THE PUNCH-