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Here
are the top stories in Nigeria today:
Local Stories
7-year-old female suicide bomber kills 5, injures 19 in Potiskum, Nigeria
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A seven-year-old girl, yesterday, killed herself and five others in a suicide bombing in Potiskum, Yobe State. This came on day the Nigerian defence headquarters said the Nigerian troops fighting the insurgent group, Boko Haram, have reclaimed the town of Baga and other surrounding communities in Borno state after... days of fierce fighting.
The suicide attack on a market in the city of Potiskum is the latest in a string of suicide strikes in which children have been used.
Nineteen people were injured in the blast in Yobe State’s commercial capital, a vigilante leader, Mr Buba Lawan, told AFP.
“So far, five people were killed with the girl while 19 others have been taken to hospital for injuries,” Buba Lawan said. A hospital source speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the dead and the wounded count.
Yesterday’s bombing in Potiskum was the second suicide attack in or near the market where new and second-hand phones are sold and repaired.
POLLS: 6m OPC members’ll vote for Jonathan – Adams
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National Co-ordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, yesterday, said that six million members of the group have resolved to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan at the March 28 presidential polls. He said OPC members took the decision at their National Co-ordinating Council meeting after taking time to assess President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He made the disclosure at his Lagos residence while hosting Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs, Hon Kingsley Kuku, who came to solicit his and OPC’s support for Jonathan’s re-election.
Adams said OPC is rooting for Jonathan because of his human rights records in not arresting or detaining any activist since he came to power, convocation of national conference and promise to implement the 633 recommendations that will help to restructure the country, which he said is in the interest of the Yoruba and South-west.
Foreign Stories
Australia's battle with Indonesia intensifies over fate of death row inmates
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As two Australians await execution in Indonesia, tensions between the two countries are reaching the boiling point.
The Australian Government and activists have called for Indonesia's President Joko Widodo to halt the firing squad deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who were convicted of being the ringleaders in a heroin smuggling racket in Bali in 2005.
The men are now in the middle of a diplomatic tug-of-war. Australian officials, as well as 62% of the Australian public, are against capital punishment for Chan and Sukumaran, while the Indonesian government and many Indonesiansbelieve drug smugglers should feel the full force of Indonesian law.
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President
Goodluck Jonathan, weekend, said there was no going back on privatization of
electricity projects in the quest of his administration to give stable power
supply to Nigerians.
The
President, who spoke at the commissioning of Unit ST-6, at Egbin Power Plant,
Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria also said reliable power sector facilitates socio-economic
development of any nation, adding that small and medium scale industries cannot
thrive without reliable electricity.
He
said: “Small and medium enterprises cannot thrive if owners of such businesses
are left to generate their own electricity. Egbin power facility presents a
vision of our drive to give stable power supply to Nigerians. We are committed
to irreversibly taking power sector to the expected height where every Nigerian
will be proud of it.” The President also enjoined host communities of Egbin
plant to partner with the company in ensuring security of the facilities and
the employment of the youths.
He
explained that terrorism will be reduced to the barest minimum in a no distant
time in the country, as his administration was committed to security of the
citizenry.
FG to begin feeding programme in Almajiri schools in Northern Nigeria
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The
Minister of National Planning, Dr Abubakar Sulaiman, said yesterday that plans
had been perfected by Federal Government to introduce school feeding programme
for Almajiri Integrated Schools in the Transformation Agenda of President
Goodluck Jonathan in the next four years, if he is re-elected. The minister
announced this during a strategic stakeholders roundtable on the milestone
achievements on the Almajiri Integrated Schools programme organised by the
National Planning Commission, NPC, weekend.
Swear that you didn’t visit UK’s hospital, Gov. Fayose tells Buhari
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Ekiti
State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has challenged the All Progressive Congress (APC)
presidential candidate,Major General Mohammodu Buhari to swear with the Holy
Quran if he did not visit hospital for medical attention during his
visit to United Kingdom last week.
Fayose
ask Buhari to swear with the Holy Quran if he did not visit hospital in UK
.
Fayose
who blamed the leadership of APC for not being fair enough to the nation by
hiding the health status of the former Military ruler.
In a
statement signed in Ado Ekiti yesterday by his Special Assistant on
communication and new media,Lere Olayinka said Buhari will never be the
president as he would dash the hope of his followers
.
“Buhari
will never be Nigeria president again because some APC stalwarts want tp ride
on his back by seizing power at all cost.
I’ll inherit huge debt profile, empty treasury – Buhari
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Presidential candidate
of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that he would inherit a huge
debt profile and empty treasury if elected president, expressing confidence
that his wealth of experience would assist in turning the situation around.
He also
stated that his party’s economic policies are conceived to be people-centred,
adding that the country would for the first time in over three decades
experience a truly pro-people Federal Government if elected. Buhari said this
in a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential
Campaign Organisation, APCPCO, Malam Garba Shehu.
His
words: “It is crystal clear that our revenues are dwindling by the day and if
we must survive, we cannot continue on this path of near absence of
accountability, mismanagement, outright waste and jamboree that has
characterised the management of public resources under the Jonathan-led PDP
government.
Calls for interim govt treasonable, says Jonathan
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President
Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed the idea of an Interim Government being
insinuated by some people saying that such utterances amount to treason.
Speaking,
yesterday, at the first 2015 plenary session of the Catholic Bishops Conference
of Nigeria (CBCN), in Abuja, President Jonathan reiterated that the
re-scheduled elections will hold on March 28 and April 11 as announced by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Catholic Arch Bishop of
Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan on his part urged the president to call his
supporters to order in their hate speeches and campaigns.
President
Jonathan said that having been elected with clear mandate of the people, there
was no way he would push for an interim government, assuring that his personal
ambition will never supersede the interest of the nation.
According
to him: “Interim government is not known to the Nigerian constitution. I don’t
have powers to redefine our constitution. “There is no way Goodluck Jonathan,
who was elected by the people with a clear mandate, will now go and head an
interim government without a mandate.
“The
only interim government that anybody can contemplate is a military government
which, of course, will not be accepted.
“ECOWAS
will not accept it, that is why we forced Burkina Faso to take the decision
they took; AU will not accept it, the UN will not accept it and Nigerians will
not in this present generation accept it.
“So any
insinuation about interim government is treasonable and people should not talk
about it. Elections will be conducted as scheduled by INEC,” he said.
World's first 15-minute Ebola test approved
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The
World Health Organization has assessed and cleared an Ebola test that shows
results in as little as 15 minutes.
Although
previous tests are more accurate, they can take as long as 24 hours to show
results, wasting valuable time to contain, treat and isolate an Ebola victim.
The
ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test Kit, made by U.S. medical firm Corgenix, is unique in
that it is "based on detection of the Ebola protein rather than nucleic
acid," WHO said.
What's
more, it's easy to perform and doesn't require electricity, making it easier to
use in community care clinics and mobile healthcare facilities throughout the
western African countries at the heart of the current Ebola outbreak.
Previously, Ebola has been tested in labs using commercial or in-house tests,
which "require well-established laboratories and fully trained
personnel."
At least 31 dead after Bangladesh ferry with 100 passengers
sinks
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A river
ferry carrying about 100 passengers capsized in central Bangladesh on Sunday
after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing at least 31 people, officials said.
A rescue operation was underway, but it was not clear how many people were
missing.
The
ferry was struck by the cargo vessel at the Daulatdia-Paturia crossing on the
Padma River on Sunday afternoon, according to fire department official Shahzadi
Begum. Rescue teams were deployed and passing boats were helping in the
operation, he said.
The
ferry was submerged at a depth of up to 6 meters (20 feet), said Inspector
Zihad Mia, who is overseeing the rescue operation.
By
Sunday evening, at least 31 bodies had been recovered, Mia said.
More than 1,000 Muslims form human shield around Oslo synagogue
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"No
to anti-Semitism. No to Islamophobia."
That
was the message chanted by what's estimated to be more than 1,000 Muslims who
created a human shield, or what they called a "ring of peace," around
a synagogue in the Norwegian capital of Oslo late Saturday.
"Muslims
want to show that we strongly condemn all type of anti-Semitism and hatred
towards Jews. And that we are there to support them," the group that
organized Saturday's event wrote on a Facebook page inviting Muslims to attend.
"Islam is to protect our brothers and sisters, independently of what
religion they belong to."
The
peaceful demonstration comes...
