Governor Kashim Shettima insists on Amnesty for Boko Haram

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, yesterday once again asked that the federal government  grant pardon through a programme of amnesty to Boko Haram members

According to Thisday, Shettima's support for an amnesty programme for the terrorist group was re-emphasised at an interactive session organised by his Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Mallam Isa Gusau, with selected journalists in Abuja. 

Gusau said Shettima's call was scientific and had been vindicated by a very desperate effort of Boko Haram leaders to stop their fighters from leaving their fold when a group of 16 members renounced the sect's ideology in Borno State following which they were slaughtered by the sect's leaders.

He said: "Governor Kashim Shettima was misunderstood by many Nigerians when in his May 29 inaugural remarks revisited his stance on the need to apply a political solution to fighting the Boko Haram by way of granting a window to admit those willing to surrender their arms and renounce the Boko Haram ideology.

"Shettima has held this position from his campaign days ahead of the 2011 elections for his first term. He had always advocated a combination of three approaches, which are:  the military which is what we have in place, an economic approach which is aimed at providing jobs for people and discourage citizens that Boko Haram terrorists are recruiting."

"It is important to note that the governor has always advocated that the three approaches should be applied together not exclusively. However, the amnesty issue has been the controversial one. The governor is not really talking about dialogue as a start, what he is advocating is to create an opening for those ready to abandon the sect to be able to do so freely, so that the sect can be broken.

"He is very particular about hundreds, if not thousands of members that were conscripted or forced to join the sect and became killers against their wish. If attacks on all communities can be efficiently done, then there wouldn't be need for any debate on amnesty but we all have seen that many communities have continued to suffer from these attacks because the communities are so much, not only in Borno but round Nigeria and we don't have the right proportion of security personnel to secure all communities."

"When insurgents attack communities, they mostly target male youths, they arrest them and guard them into bushes. In most cases, even before taking them out of the towns they attacked, they preach in support of their ideology with promises of heaven for adherents and then openly ask aloud if any of the youths is willing to join them or not and whoever said he is not ready to join them, they slaughter him right there sometimes in the presence of his parents or they lay them on row and shoot all of them in matter of seconds targeting their skulls.

"We have seen many of these instances in videos recorded in Gwoza and other parts of Borno State. Now, what Governor Kashim Shettima has been saying is that hundreds of these forcefully arrested and initiated young men may want to run away and drop their arms and there should be a policy and programme to admit them so that insurgents lose members and their strategy of arresting youths and forcing them to join them which is what they apply in sustaining their membership, can be deflated and I think the governor's call on May 29 has been vindicated less than two weeks ago.

"You might have read it on most news platforms that on Friday, July 3, 2015, Boko Haram insurgents beheaded 11 of its members who renounced their ideology. According to accounts by some locals, what happened was that some members of the sect who are indigenes of some villages in Damboa Local Government Area indicated interest in abandoning the ideology but most of them were afraid of the consequences. Out of them, 16 summoned courage to renounce the ideology and they moved to Miringa village in Biu Local Government Area of Southern Borno. They wanted to join some communities like Ajigin and Talala in Damboa.

"The 16 insurgents went to Miringa on Friday, July 3 according to locals, then at night, commanders of Boko Haram sent a team to Miringa to fish out the 16 members that denounced the sect. The team went from house to house and got the 16 members intact. They didn't fire any shot in order not to attract soldiers. They took the members out of Miringa and slaughtered 11 of them and went away with five. The bodies of the 11 executed members were found the following day while the other five were not seen," he said.

Culled from Thisday

Detained ex Jigawa gov, Sule Lamido and two sons flown to Abuja

Nigerian Prison sources say ex Jigawa state governor, Sule Lamido and his two sons Aminu and Mustapha, have been flown to Abuja this morning ahead of the court hearing for their bail application holding tomorrow July 14th. The former Governor and sons who are standing trial for allegedly collecting bribe totaling N1.35 billion from government contractors when he was governor, were on July 9th ordered to be remanded in Kano Prisons by Justice Evelyn Anyadike.

Read story of how a man found out his two wives are lesbian lovers Twitter user shared this interesting story of how a man found out his two wives were sleeping with each other under his roof. Well, Monkey dey sleep... Read the rest of the tweets after the cut... Read from bottom up to understand the story... Posted by Linda Ikeji at 11:29 AM

Read story of how a man found out his two wives are lesbian lovers

Twitter user shared this interesting story of how a man found out his two wives were sleeping with each other under his roof. Well, Monkey dey sleep... Read the rest of the tweets after the cut...


Read from bottom up to understand the story...

Photo: Davido dresses daughter in OBO diamond-encrusted chain He must be proud!

Photo: Davido dresses daughter in OBO diamond-encrusted chain

Man dies during church deliverance in Benin (See his photo)

A 45 year old man named Osayande Ekhator, died on Tuesday July 7th during a deliverance session at a pentecostal church named Hope Ministry aka Holy Ghost Deliverance centre located at Okwanga Street in the Egor LGA are of Edo State. According to reports, the man's family brought him to the church for spiritual cleansing a day before he died after battling an undisclosed ailment for sometime.

During the deliverance session the next day, which the man - with a mental illness - had reportedly shown interest in participating in, he died. Witnesses claim the man's legs and hands were tied and at some point he was thrown on the hard floor. Some say he fell on a hard object and hit his head. He was bleeding from the head when he was rushed to the hospital. (picture above). 


His sister however said he was beaten to death by those that were delivering him. She said they kept hitting him after removing his clothes, poured a bucket of water on him and tied him up. The church told the family it was the usual practice...but Ekhator died.

After youths of the area heard what happened, they descended on the church, and vandalized the property. The police has since gotten involved and are now investigating what led to the man's death.

Photo credit: Punch

Photo: Acting INEC Chairman Mrs Amina Zakari assumes office

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Fayose congratulates Fani Kayode over his victory at a Lagos court today

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state took to his twitter handle to congratulate Femi Fani-Kayode over his victory at a Federal high court in Lagos today. See interesting tweets after the cut...

Buhari Changes Personal Security But leaves Nation Under Risk - by Perry Brimah

Article written by Dr Peregrino Brimah of Ends.ng. Read below...

Nigeria’s president Muhammad Buhari takes his personal security seriously. After being sworn in, the president waited over a month before moving into his official Aso rock residence. The delay in relocation was attributed to suspicious security lapses, possible espionage and overall distrust of the department of state security, DSS headed by the service chief Ita Ekpeyong and NSA Sambo Dasuki.

Reliable reports have it that the DSS has been expelled from all sensitive positions in Aso rock.

It is understandable that where Buhari has a choice, he chose not to move into Aso rock because he did not trust the nation’s service chiefs and security departments. The people of Maiduguri have no such choice, nor do the people of Adamawa and Yobe. They cannot simply decide to not occupy homes under protection by these same risky chiefs. They cannot order an overhaul or select the departments to provide them security. They cannot simply handpick what agents and agencies to protect their displaced camps and rescue their abducted sons and daughters.

While president Buhari obviously considers his personal security seriously, can we say he does the same with the entire nation as he keeps the very same Sambo Dasuki, DSS chief and Defense and army chiefs Badeh and Minimah in charge of the nation’s security?

Based on the history it is reasoned that the service chiefs left at the reigns are likely planting devices to permanently undermine and sabotage Nigeria and larger Africa’s war against terror and Nigeria’s security capacity for decades to come.