RED ALERT | Continuous Threats To The Life of Chinakwe And His Family – COHRD

Mr. Joachim Foretemose Iroko Chinakwe and his wife, Mrs. Ifeoma Chinakwe, have intimated the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD) of the rising threats to their lives.

In the evening of Thursday, 25th August, 2016 Mr. Chinakwe and his wife observed strange individuals lurking within the precinct of their residential apartment in Sango Otta, Ogun State. On noticing the suspicious movements, Chinakwe took his wife and two children to where they (his wife and two children) could get a vehicle to convey them to a relation’s house to pass the night and returned to his house.

As Mrs. Ifeoma Chinakwe who is heavily pregnant was about entering a commercial bus with her children to where their relation resides, some unidentified men who spoke in Hausa language pointed at her and made comments which she did not understand. Luckily, another female passenger who is conversant with Hausa language and heard the comments made by the men who pointed at Mrs. Ifeoma asked her if she offended the men. That the men were saying that her husband is the “troublesome” man who named his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari. That she and her husband can continue running but that they will be caught.

Upon the translation of the threatening comments made by the unknown men, Mrs. Ifeoma called her husband immediately and asked him to leave the house. Chinakwe rushed out to his friend’s apartment where he passed the night.

We have equally been informed by Chinakwe and his wife that they have observed that since Chinakwe was released from prison custody, the Complainant (by name Musa) who reported him to the police has been roaming their residential area in an observatory and very suspicious manner which has made them apprehensive.

Some spirited residents of Sango Otta community have been advising the Chinakwes’ to be very vigilant and possibly relocate from their community for their safety. Though they have expressed readiness to relocate to a safer area, they are constrained by paucity of funds.

Given this troubling state of affairs, we advised Chinakwe to make an official report of the seeming and continuous threats to his life and family to the nearest police station. Consequent to the above, Chinakwe on Saturday, 27th August, 2016 reported the threats to the Divisional Police Station, Sango Otta. The Investigation Police Officer (IPO) in charge of the case at the Ogun State Police Headquarters, Abeokuta has equally been notified.

Recall that Chinakwe had earlier raised an alarm over looming threats to his life. Speaking with the Punch Newspaper on Friday, August 19, 2016 minutes before he was again locked behind bars at the State Police Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, after initially being released, the 41-year-old father of two stated as fellows:

“I am a law-abiding citizen of this country, I have never deliberately committed any offence before, I don’t know why I am being treated like this. I only called the dog that name for the love I have for President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria, I didn’t mean to taunt or hurt anybody with it. I don’t know what next could follow this, I am afraid for my life, I am in danger, please help me,” Chinakwe said before the telephone line went off.”

Without necessarily questioning the integrity and capacity of the police, it is pertinent to observe that the Chinakwes’ are terribly afraid that the police may be siding their adversaries. Mrs. Ifeoma had earlier briefed us about negative comments by some policemen when her husband was arrested. One policeman pointedly told her that she will give birth to her unborn child while her husband is in detention and that they will suffer.

It should also be noted that while Chinakwe was in custody, his pet dog, ‘Buhari’ was killed by unknown persons. Could it be that those who killed the dog are planning to also kill the owner of the dog?

Since Thursday, 25th August, Chinakwe and his family have been squatting outside. They only visit their apartment in the day. They are currently restless because of this pervasive sense of insecurity. It has been a harrowing experience for them, especially for the heavily pregnant Mrs. Ifeoma and their two children.

We solicit the urgent intervention of the government, human rights community, security agencies, media, government, international community and the general public in this matter.

The right to life is sacred and guaranteed by the provisions of Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended); Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981 and Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.

Every citizen of Nigeria, irrespective of his or her ethnic, religious or political identity and economic or social status should be treated with dignity and accorded equal protection by the law and the government.

Injury to one, is injury to all.

Thank you.

Inibehe Effiong, ESQ.
Convener, Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD).
August 27, 2016.

FG destroys 15 containers of imported frozen fish, Read Why

The Federal Department of Fisheries on Saturday destroyed 15 containers of frozen fish allegedly belonging to a company, Food Solution Nigeria Limited.

According to the Deputy Director of Fisheries, Mrs. Olabisi Adepegba, out of the company’s frozen fish-filled containers, 15 contained spoilt fishes.

Olabisi said the firm, Mediterranean Shipping Company, which brought in the fishes, would pay for the destruction exercise.

The 15 containers were evacuated from Sifax Terminal to Lagos State Waste Management Authority’s dumpsite, at Epe, where the products were destroyed, after which a destruction certificate was issued to the shipping company and a copy to FDF for record purposes.

She noted that the task of clearing and destroying the 15 containers took some time because those involved were reluctant to bear the cost of evacuating and destroying the products.

Olabisi stressed that the FDD had a mandate to protect the public and prevent unwholesome fish from getting to the market.

Reacting to the development, the General Manager of Sifax Duck Yard, Mr. Oliver Omajuwa, said the consignment came in a batch of 43 containers out of which 15 were condemned and 28 had been taken delivery of, certified for consumption by the FDF.

PUNCH

A Journalist Reveals His Experience With Boko Haram,Read

The terrible incident that happened to me on February 1, 2015 at my house  in Maiduguri, Borno State, has refused to go away from my memory. This is despite the fact that I witnessed more depressing, countless  and unbearable traumas during my six years of covering the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency.
On that day, out of confusion, fear and helplessness, I observed the dawn prayers (Subh) around 12.30am instead of 5.10am.

My trouble started when hundreds of Boko Haram terrorists, armed with rocket launchers and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) attempted to take over Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, from four different fronts.
Though the attack, which began with a thunderous sound of blasts around 12am, did not succeed, many civilians, including women and children, were rattled as soldiers from the Maimalari Barracks, Giwa Barracks and the 333 Artillery Brigade battled the daring terrorists.

The temperature in Maiduguri at the time was over 35 degrees, and beside the curfew imposed on the town, Maiduguri had been without electricity for over four months and, therefore, sleeping indoors was nearly impossible.
Worse still, you couldn’t afford to keep your generator on at that hour because anything could happen…,the wicked may tiptoe and eliminate you.
Therefore, left with no other option, most residents with perimeter fences around their homes took to sleeping outdoors.


On that day, the moonlight was as bright as daylight. And while I was deep asleep, alone in the house, (I had relocated my family two years earlier), when the cracking sounds of rockets, accompanied by the chants of the Takbir (Allahu Akbar - meaning Allah is Great - from both the advancing terrorists and the horrified residents, who were seeking Allah’s intervention), woke me up.


Deceived by the glowing moonlight, I concluded it was already 7.30am, which meant I had overslept. I told myself:  “It is better to observe the morning prayers and think of an escape route, so that even if I’m killed on the way, I have relieved myself of the obligatory prayers.” 
I performed ablution and hurriedly observed the prayers.
But when I checked the time on my iPad and wristwatch, I discovered that I observed the dawn prayers in the dead of night (Inna Lillahi Wa’inna Ilaihi Raji’un - (From Allah we came and to Him we shall return).


From the time the Boko Haram launched its campaign in 2009, thousands of people have been killed in their sleep, some praying in mosques and churches, many others in the markets, farms and on the highway; when they least expected death, and therefore robbed of the opportunity to reconcile with their creator. 
My pain was, if I had died asleep that fateful day, the transition would have been the same as for those poor souls. Thank God I escaped without a bruise and I am still alive.
More troubles, more escapes


I have written over 2000 stories on Boko Haram that were published in Daily Trust, and many of them have landed me in trouble with either the security forces, especially the army, or the dreaded sect.


My first encounter with the Boko Haram was in January, 2011 when I did a report for the then Weekly Trust about the killing of the gubernatorial candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Modu Fannami Gubio.


The newspaper ran the story with the picture of the slain Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf in handcuffs and wearing only trousers, a development that angered his successor, Abubakar Shekau and members of his Shura (Supreme Council). 
About 6pm on the day the article was published, I was rattled by a phone call from the group’s spokesperson and operations commander, called Abu Dardaa.

Dardaa declared that my action - publishing the story and the picture that portrayed them in bad light - had made it halal (legitimate) for my blood to be spilled.
Shaken and unable to stand on my feet, I quickly called our editor, Malam Mahmud Jega, and relayed my blood-curdling encounter with Dardaa to him. A few minutes after, Malam Jega sent a text to me that read: “Hamza, move, move out of Maiduguri and go far, very far until you get assurance that all is well.” 


But my predicament was that my wife and daughter were in my house at Bolori and there was no way I could either find my way out of Maiduguri at that point in time or even go home. Boko Haram fighters were not known to miss their targets when they wanted to get them. And once they issued you a threat, it meant they knew all your movements.
Our marketing officer at the time, Aminu Ado, who joined me around the Post Office area, where I was taking refuge, could not also go to my house to evacuate my family because he may be mistaken for me. 


We, therefore, resolved that his wife should use his car and pick my wife and daughter.
All of us passed the night in his house and fled Maiduguri very early in the morning, which was a Sunday. But I returned later and continued with my work.
They came for me


I had another close shave with death in 2013, when four Boko Haram foot soldiers came to our office in Maiduguri, with guns hidden under their flowing gowns.
The gunmen asked for me and three of my colleagues - our manager, Malam Hassan Karofi; the marketing officer, Aminu Ado and the audit officer, Mr. Auwal.
I think the problem had to do with a story we didn’t publish.

Luckily enough, all of us were not in the office, and when we heard of the ‘visit’, we all fled and stayed away from Maiduguri for over two months. 
And soldiers too

In 2014, after we published a story in the Daily Trust about soldiers refusing to go to Bama and Bulabulin in Damboa because they had no weapons to confront the Boko Haram, the then JTF spokesman, alongside some soldiers, stormed our office along Baga road, looking for me.

I was not in the office at that time, so they whisked away Ado and the newly employed regional manager, Jamilu Dayyabu, to the Maimalari Barracks. 

They were asked to explain the source of our story and retract it.
But our Editor-in-Chief, Malam Mannir Dan-Ali, issued a statement, saying we stood by our story because we ran it after interviewing some of the soldiers that refused to go to the battlefront.

The two members of staff were allowed to go some hours after stories of their “arrest” began trending in the online media.

The soldiers came again looking for me when the Daily Trust online platform published the story of soldiers’ revolt at the Maimalari Barracks, when they shot at the vehicle conveying the GOC, in protest over the killings of their colleagues by the Boko Haram around Kala-Balge due to lack of fighting equipment.
Unknown soldiers besieged our office because of the story, but lucky me, I had already fled.  

As journalists covering the Boko Haram, we were targets for the security agencies, locals and the sect, because there was no single story that could be seen by all the sides as well balanced. 
At the height of the crisis, when you reported that the Boko Haram was soundly routed, their commanders would simply call and accuse you of lying and favouring the Nigerian authorities.

The security agents would also call and accuse you of doing propaganda for the terrorists whenever you wrote a report indicating that the insurgents “had an edge” during an encounter. 

The allegation was the same when you did not report an attack in a certain community, as the elite would accuse you of “conniving” with the authorities to kill stories on the plight of their people. 

So stressful was covering the Boko Haram that many journalists had no option but to relocate their families out of Maiduguri.
At one time in 2013, I had to rush my wife and daughter out of Maiduguri around 6.30am (which was the last time they stayed with me there) after sporadic attacks at a church near my house.

By then, my daughter Umma Rabi, who was barely two years old, had known the sound of bombs and could scream and lie flat on the floor as a precautionary measure whenever she heard the first sound of a blast.

The thought of a “nameless” woman who was picked by the Nigerian troops in the wilderness of northern Borno, makes me cry till date.
She was found deaf, dumb, pale and visibly sick, a pointer to the fact that she must have passed through traumatic experience.
With no way to verify her identity, the woman was simply kept alongside multitude of other women who were in detention in military facilities over links with the dreaded Boko Haram group.

Few days after, she was found to be pregnant, meaning that she was probably abducted, raped and impregnated by the ruthless insurgents and thereafter abandoned.
The nameless woman and her newborn baby were among the 182 people that were released to Governor Kashim Shettima at a ceremony by the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, after it was discovered that they had no links with the Boko Haram sect.
‘Huge relief’

It was, therefore, a huge relief when my employers transferred me to Abuja in July, 2015.
 However, the credit of my perseverance goes to my father, Alaramma Malam Idris and my mother, Umma Rabi.

At every distressful moment, when I thought of seeking for a transfer or tendering a resignation, they kept consoling me to remain strong.
“Don’t ask for a transfer until your employers ask you to leave.  There’s a reason why God keeps you there and there would be a huge reward for reporting the plight of the Boko Haram victims,” my father once said.
I recall that soon after the transfer, a white friend who works  in an international humanitarian agency jokingly said, “Now that you are done with the Boko Haram terrorists, you must develop a thick skin to deal with political terrorism in Nigeria.”

Source: DailyTrust

FUNAAB Crisis: Put All the Blames On the Students --- Ogun Police

The Police and representatives of the students of the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun state on Saturday traded blames over the peaceful protest that turned violent last Thursday in the university community.

 

At least one student, Taiwo Abisoye and Police officers were injured, with Taiwo still at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, where he is recuperating after a surgery on the head in the violence, which erupted during the protest.

 

Also some vehicles were burnt and a church, Divine Height Bible Church in Kotopo belonging to the University Vice chancellor, Prof. Olusola Oyewole was vandalized.

 

While the Police claimed that there was no live bullet shot during the crisis and the injured Taiwo was taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) by them, the students declared that there could be nothing far from the truth in the claim.

 

Also, while the police said the about 50 students under prosecution were arrested at the scene of the violence, the students said almost all the arrested students was picked from their hostels and some outside the community where the incident occurred, hours after.

 

The students, led by the Secretary of the Union Government (SUG), Oyekunle Afeez and Speaker of the Students' Representative Council, Segun Mark Odebowale on a youth programme on Rock City FM few minutes ago said the Ogun state Police  spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi was economical with the truth on the position of the police during the violence last Thursday.

 

Oyeyemi, who had called in into the programme claimed: "No single shot was fired at them. The boy who was injured must have been hit by one of the stones. We took him to the FMC, if it has been a live bullet, the boy would have died instantly."

 

The students however, disagreed that the Police actually took Taiwo to the FMC, "but, a Good Samaritan did. It was while we are on the way to FMC that we saw a police vehicle behind us. So let me say emphatically that the Police did not take him to the hospital, but, let me say they provided escort.

 

"When we got to the hospital, we were asked to get a letter from the school, before he could be treated, so it is not true that they took him to the hospital," the SUG scribe said. 

 

The students' representatives also declared that there was no iota of truth in the claim that no live bullet was used as Afeez said the cartridge of the bullet was picked by the students, as Mark also said most of the students arrested were picked from their hostels hours after the Police had retreated.

 

This was contrary to the submission by Oyeyemi that the arrested students, who are now in courts were picked at the scene of the incident. 

 

The students demanded compensation for injured Taiwo, which include sponsorship of his education and offsetting the medical bill at UCH.

DailyTrust

Every Intending Pilgrims Should Settle their Debts and Leave their Will Behind Before Travelling to Saudi Arabia --- Muslim Cleric Warns

The Chief Imam of Area 10 Mosque, Abuja, Sheikh Yahya Al-Yolawi, on Friday advised intending pilgrims to settle their debts and leave their wills behind before travelling to Saudi Arabia.

The Abuja-based Islamic scholar, while delivering Jumma’at sermon titled ‘Essential tips for Hajj Preparations’, said the need to leave a will behind was because the journey to Holy land may be the final journey for some pilgrims.

He explained that it was an invitation from Allah to the most famous acts of worship, adding that hajj was a unique and extra ordinary journey in the life time of all pilgrims.

Al-Yolawi said, “An intending pilgrim should settle his debts and leave behind him a clear record as well as writing all his wills or what he intends to pass to his family.

“Journey to hajj requires high level of patience, because it was always accompanied with difficulties ranging from fatigue to physical and social abnormalities as well as intolerance from other pilgrims.

“One should not allow Shaitan (devil) to hijack him and spoil his hajj out of ignorance or annoyance. This emphasises on the importance of piety as first ingredient of one’s journey to Mecca, which means to maintain good relationship with your Lord by devoting yourself to obey him.”

According to the cleric, the intention behind one’s journey to hajj must be for the sake of Allah alone as, whoever, performs any act of worship in order to please people or gain popularity has done wrong.

While admonishing pilgrims that they should ensure that their sources of income are clean and legitimate as that would please Allah, the cleric said, “Prophets Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: learn your rituals from me, for I do not know whether I would be performing Hajj after this Hajj of mine,” (Muslim Hadith no 1297).”

On taking photographs, Al-Yolawi warned that it was wrong to take photographs for whatever purpose while observing hajj rites, saying that such action could contradict pilgrims’ sincerity of performing hajj for the sake of Allah.

He, however, prayed to Allah to continue to protect Islam and safeguard Nigerian pilgrims as they take off to Saudi Arabia, saying, “May the Lord accept their Hajj, prayers, grant their supplications and bring them back to us in peace and safety.”

Ghanian Pastor Claims He Would Become the Next Jesus

Obinim

Speaking with Joy FM, Obinim said “I saw Jesus Christ in my dreams, who said: ‘Collect this angelic gift.’

“So, if I’m faithful to Jesus Christ, maybe the next spiritual gift He will confer on me will be a replica of what happened in Exodus Chapter 7 in the Bible where God told Moses: ‘Now I’ve made you god, so whatever you say is final.

“But now God has not made me God. Maybe the next time God will say: ‘Obinim, now I’ve made you a god, you can even conjure up money.”

Speaking further, the controversial pastor said, “I have more than 20 houses given to me by Jesus Christ. I had about eight Range Rover cars which I gifted to my pastors. I had five Infinity SUVs and three Chryslers which I also gifted to my pastors because my car is ‘AUTOBIOGRAPHY’, meaning the car’s brain power is superior to that of a human being.

“If you cross that car, it stops automatically, and its door is not slammed, it shuts by itself. It is also bulletproof,” he bragged.

Troops kills 5 militants, recovers heavy guns, Ammunitions (PHOTOS)

The 133 Special Forces Battalion of Nigerian Army troops have carried out a precursor operation to Exercise CROCODILE SMILE aimed at getting rid of all forms of criminal activities in the Niger Delta region.

In the course of the operation, five militants that attacked the troops were killed in action, while many others were injured. Twenty-three suspects were arrested.

A statement by Army spokesman, Col. Sani Usman, said the operation conducted yesterday was carried out by the Special Forces at the militants camps.

Items recovered from the camps include: 2 AK-47 rifles, 11 Pump Action Guns, a locally made revolver pistol, 292 cartridges of live Ammunition, 199 rounds of AK-47 rifle Ammunition, 4 electricity generating sets and a Camp Gas Cooker.

The troops also recovered an abandoned Engine Boat left by the fleeing criminals.

More Photos Below