At least 46 people have been killed and many others injured by two bomb explosions in the volatile central Nigerian city of Jos, police say.

The blasts happened in a busy market near a bus terminal.

No group has said it carried out the attack. However, Jos has seen several deadly clashes between Christian and Muslim groups in recent years.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram has also carried out a spate of recent bombings.

A spokesperson for the regional governor told AFP news agency that most of the victims were women. The market and bus terminal are part of the commercial centre of Jos.

Journalist Hassan Ibrahim told the BBC that tension was rising in the area, with youths blocking some roads. Religious leaders are appealing for calm.

BBC

the scene blast

the area here the blast took place

a closer scene of the blast at Amadubello way, GSM market

two bomb blasts in Jos

Two bomb explosions have occurred in the  Jos metropolis. the first one happened at about 3: 10 pm, while the other took place about ten minutes later, at a distance, ten meters away. the incident has claimed various casualties, as the event raised dust and lead to further accidents at the area. details later  

Detained Boko Haram members oppose covering witnesses’ faces

Three suspected members of violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, on Wednesday, insisted that faces of prosecution witnesses lined up to testify against them before a Federal High Court, Abuja, must not be masked.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole has fixed June 4 to rule on whether or not to grant the Federal Government’s application seeking that its prosecution witnesses’ facial appearances should be masked while testifying.

The accused, who are being prosecuted by the Federal Government for terrorism charges, are an Islamic scholar and a lecturer at the Kogi State University, Dr. Muhammed Yunus, Salami Abdullahi (aka Asta) and Musa Umar.

They were arraigned on

mine blast in Turkey claims over 200 lives

The death toll in a coal mine disaster in western Turkey has risen to 238, the country's prime minister said, adding that the accident would be "investigated thoroughly".

At least 80 others have been injured while 120 remain trapped inside the mine in the town of Soma, Recep Teyyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

"The accident is being investigated thoroughly.

Nigeria villagers kill Boko Haram fighters

Villagers in an area of Nigeria where Boko Haram operates have killed and detained scores of fighters who were suspected of planning a fresh attack, the residents and a security official said.

Locals in Nigeria's northern states have been forming vigilante groups in various areas to resist the armed group which has held more than 270 schoolgirls captive since last month.

In Kalabalge, a village about 250km from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri, residents said they were taking matters into their own hands because the Nigerian military was perceived as not doing enough to stem Boko Haram attacks.

On Tuesday morning, after learning about an impending attack by fighters, locals ambushed

The media in West Africa and the strugle for freedom and ethical conducts

Enenche Akogwu was a channel reporter killed in kano state, by Terrorists

By Evelyn Okakwu
The safety of journalists is an undeniable necessary prerequisite for
the successful dissemination of information in any society especially
in a democratic setting.
All over the world journalists are often prone to various forms of
violence and more often than not, these journalists either have to
face the threats squarely by themselves or suffer the consequence
alone.
Yet still the safety of any society is directly proportional to the
rate of freedom provided for journalists.
When people can be certain that the media will be objective in
protecting their interests and serving as an active voice, they are
motivated to participate actively in the polity and prevent the
anarchy that can come from the involvement of only a few set in the
leadership of the whole nation.

Obasanjo condemns abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday condemned the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State.

Obasanjo made the condemnation during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jigawa State Government to adopt a junior secondary school and a primary school in Kudai, Dutse.

He appealed to the abductors to release them without any condition because the girls were innocent and should not be made to suffer unreasonably.

“Whatever the grievances, objectives and anger of this group of people who are behind this abduction, they should not have acted on these innocent girls.

“We condemn their action

DSS parades Nyanya bomb blast suspects

the scene of the blast

The Department of State Services (DSS), on Monday paraded 5 suspected terrorists in connection with the Nyanya bomb blasts of April 14 and May 1, at which scores of people were killed.

DSS spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, while parading the suspects, declared one Rufai Tsiga wanted as the suspected mastermind of the unfortunate bomb attacks.

Equally declared wanted was Aminu Ogwuche, an ex-soldier.
Ogar, who spoke at a joint press conference at which information managers from the Police and the Armed services were present, announced rewards of N25m for information that could aid the arrest of each of the wanted men.

Those paraded were Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, aka Abu Ibrahim/Maiturare; Muhammadu Sani Ishaq; Yau Saidu, aka Kotar Rama; Anas Isah and Adamu Yusuf.

Ogar added that they all confessed to having a hand in the attack and would face trial soo

Northern elders warn against politicising Chibok abduction

footage picture of the abducted girls from the terrorist den

Following the release of a video clip by the insurgent group, Boko Haram, on Monday, that showed some of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram from Chibok, Borno State, the leadership of the Northern Elders Council has cautioned against undue politicisation of the matter.

Spokesman for the group, Ambassador Mamman Yusuf, who lauded the effort of the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration to rescue the abducted girls, said all initiative must be consolidated into the current rescue efforts.

Yusuf, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on  Monday at the venue of the ongoing National Conference, said the spirit and tenacity Nigerians adopted in fighting for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country during the civil war, should also be replicated in rescuing the abducted girls.

He said, “We do not need politics

Abducted girls: Women threaten to protest naked

Nigerians all over the world worry over the Chibok gilrs

Members of Women Arise, a civil society group, on Monday threatened to protest half-naked in Chibok, Borno State, if the abducted schoolgirls are not rescued within the next two weeks.

The women echoed the President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Odumakin, who said the protest, which began in Lagos State on Monday would go to different states and end in Chibok and Sambisa forest if the girls were not rescued in two weeks.

According to Odumakin, the protest would continue in Enugu State on Tuesday and move on to other places such as Kaduna, Lokoja, and Jigawa states.

She said it was unfortunate that there was no information of the whereabouts of the girls almost a month after the girls were abducted.

She said, “It’s a nationwide protest. We are dressed in white, because white signifies purity; most of those girls were virgins. There is a lot government need to do. Look at our borders that are porous. What are we doing about it?

“We are going round all the states. We will be in Enugu tomorrow. We will be in Lokoja, Kaduna, Onitsha, and Akure, and at the end of 14 days. God forbid if they don’t get these girls back, we will go to Chibok half-naked

Abducted girls not in Cameroon – US envoy

The Chargéd’Affaires in the Embassy of the United States of America to Cameroon, Gregory D. Thome has ruled out the possibility of Boko Haram hiding the abducted school girls anywhere in Cameroon.

The US envoy said this while addressing journalists in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon after holding a meeting with the Minister of External Relations, Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo.
One of the leading newspaper in Cameroon, Cameroon Tribune, posted this on its website on May 11.
According to the report, the US envoy was at the ministry to thank Cameroon for the efforts to support in finding the adducted girls.

Thome said, “I conveyed to the Minister that President Barack Obama is personally very interested and deeply offended by this terrible act that Boko Haram had done.
“We discussed the fact that there is really no evidence that the girls are in Cameroon.”
He assured that the US Government and its counterpart in Cameroon would collaborate in helping Nigeria come out of the throes of the Islamic militant group.

Earlier, a former United Kingdom Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that the search for the abducted girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State should be shifted to Nigeria’s neighboring countries including Cameroon.
The former UK Prime Minister who is the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Global Education told the Cable News Network.

Brown said, “The search must be in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, to see if we can find information.
“It’s vital to use the information to find the girls before they are dispersed across Africa, which is a very real possibility.”
The Pentagon had on Friday said the girls had been split into groups without giving out detail of how they arrived at the conclusion.

The Pentagon Press Secretary, US Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, expressed this.
Kirby said, “We do think they have been broken up into smaller groups.”
He declined to give the detail how US officials came to the conclusion but this is a sentiment that has been echoed by a number of others, who believe the girls already have been moved out of Nigeria and into neighboring countries.

A group of girls believed to be some of the abducted girls from Chibok were reportedly sighted being escorted by some gunmen in the war torn Central Africa Republic last week.
However, the Boko Haram posted a video on the girls on Monday.
Source- Punch

Go die on the battlefield, I'll be relieved': What wife of alleged British jihadist 'texted her husband before he went to Syria for terrorist training

The wife of an alleged British jihadist who travelled to Syria to join a terrorist training camp told her husband that she would be ‘relieved’ if he died on the battlefield, a court heard today.

Father-of-two Mashudur Choudhury, 31, of Portsmouth, allegedly went to the Middle Eastern country with four other people from his local area.

Kingston Crown Court in South-West London heard that his wife told him a text message: ‘Go die in battlefield. Go die, I really mean it just go. I’ll be relieved. At last. At last’.

Chibok: Patience arrests protest leader

The scene of the blast

Naomi Mutah took part in a meeting called by First Lady Patience Jonathan and was then taken to a police station, they say.

Mrs Jonathan reportedly felt slighted that the mothers of the abducted girls had sent Ms Mutah to the meeting.

Analysts say Mrs Jonathan is a politically powerful figure.

Ms Mutah, a representative of the Chibok community where the girls were seized from their school more than two weeks ago, last week organised a protest outside parliament in the capital, Abuja.

The protesters, and many Nigerians, feel the government has not done enough to find the missing girls, who are thought to have been kidnapped by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has not commented on the accusation.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday night spoke for the first time about the abductions.

In a live TV broadcast, he said he did not know where the girls were but said everything was being done to find them.

Pogo Bitrus, another Chibok community leader, told the BBC he had been to the Asokoro police station where Ms Mutah is reported to have been taken but could find no written record of her being there.

He described the detention as "unfortunate" and "insensitive".

He said he hoped Mrs Jonathan would soon "realise her mistake".

Mr Bitrus noted that Mrs Jonathan has no constitutional power to order arrests.

The AP news agency quotes another community leader, Saratu Angus Ndirpaya, as saying that Mrs Jonathan accused the activists of fabricating the abductions to give the government a bad name.

She also said the First Lady accused them of supporting Boko Haram.

Source BBC

The Nyanya Blast: Matters arising:

Scene of the Blast

By Evelyn Okakwu

The repeated occurrence of a blast in the Nyanya Motto Park has in no small measure attracted the interest of a vast majority of Nigerians.

In this report, some Nigerian speaks on the issues and effects it has on the nation.

 Peoples Daily: What do you think is the reason why this problem seems to be growing in Nigeria

Salisu jibril: “The reason why all of these things are happening is that we do not have a leadership in Nigeria, because if we do how can a president, decide to shoot up the price of fuel, and cause Nigerians another round of untold hardship, barely one week after the Madala bomb blast. How can we hear that they have killed over 41 young students in Yobe and this president will go ahead to hold a centenary celebration, just because according to them and his likes, they may say it has already been planned before the event happened. Yet they forget that the Security Council meeting was already planned before the death of the brother of the Vice President may his soul rest in peace; but

Nyanya blast: Jonathan summons security chiefs again

Scene of the blast

President Goodluck Jonathan is currently presiding over an emergency security meeting inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President summoned the meeting following the Thursday bomb blast in Nyanya, a satellite town of the Federal Capital Territory.

The meeting which has the heads of all security agencies and some ministers and top government officials in attendance is ongoing at the time of filing this report.

Vice President Namadi Sambo is also at the meeting.

Source Punch

Scriptwriter needs N10m for urgent kidney transplant

Chicke Bryan

Several months after the President of the Script Writers Guild of Nigeria, Chike Bryan, was diagnosed with a kidney ailment at the General Hospital in Isolo, Lagos, he is still in dire need of a transplant.

Investigation shows that in spite of attempts by Bryan’s friends and colleagues at the SWGN to raise money to fund the treatment of his ailment, preferably in India, not much progress has been made.

In an interview with our correspondent, the secretary of the SWGN, Stanley Okoronkwo said the Guild had made several efforts to raise funds for their ailing president, but in vain.

He said, “After we wrote to Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and requested financial assistance from him, Chike was referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital for assessment of his case. He was assessed and diagnosed with a kidney ailment.

“Before then, he was given a wrong diagnosis in some local hospitals and this made it difficult for us to initially detect the cause of his illness. But we have not received a positive response from the state government, with regard to funding. The bills for the tests and medical assessment he has undergone at LASUTH were paid by us.”

Okoronkwo added that Bryan’s condition grew worse in 2013 and ever since, he has been receiving a weekly dialysis at the Isolo hospital. Meanwhile, the SWGN has set up a committee to raise the sum of N10m for his treatment abroad.

“We appeal to government and well-meaning Nigerians to help save the life of Chike Bryan,” Okoronkwo said.

Source: PUNCH.

Saving Rural Children

The rising deaths of children in the cities and rural areas across the country is attracting the attention of stakeholders, writes Omolola Itayemi

For several years, those responsible for the delivery of women during childbirth have been struggling to meet up. In most rural communities, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) have taken up that responsibility to care for pregnant women. Of course, that has contributed to the statistics on maternal mortality around the country.