Extortion: 17 Policemen Arrested in Kano

Kano State police command has disclosed that in response to public complaints over alleged extortion by police and other security personnel at various check points in the state, about 17 policemen have been arrested in connection with the sharp practice.

The State Commissioner of Police Mr. Ibrahim Idris revealed that the clamp down on corrupt officers was part of their efforts to sanities the force to provide better services to the people of the state.

Idris told reporters at the weekend that to this effect, 17 officers comprising six inspectors, three sergeants, five corporals and three constables are facing disciplinary action for alleged extortion at road blocks.

State Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Idris

“Orderly room trial is in progress to ascertain their culpability and the public is hereby warned to desist from offering money for whatever reason to policemen on duty at check points for they too will be held culpable if caught,” the commissioner disclosed.

The commissioner stated that any officer who demands money from members of the public should be reported to the police using the emergency numbers and public complaint numbers.

Idris also added that the command has held a meeting with Islamic leaders in the state on modalities to be used for the sustenance of peace in the state.

According to him, the meeting with religious leaders had been successful, resulting in some major decisions.

"At the latest meeting with religious leaders with members of the Hisbah, Vigilante, Civil Defence and FRSC in attendance, it was agreed that during this period, persons coming to mosques shall remain there until the close of prayers and no loitering around the mosques would be allowed. It was also agreed that there would be erection of barricades where and when applicable.”

Woman to court: What kind of man would strip his wife naked in public?

A 28-year-old woman, Mrs.Rachel Raheem, told an Agege customary court that her husband, Mr. Aliu Raheem, beat  her constantly and  once stripped her naked in the public.
The husband denied the allegations. Rachel, who lives at 84, Egbabo Street Agege, said  her husband  was  fond of bringing home other women and had sex with them in her presence. According to her, confronting him on his behaviour always led  to him beating the hell out of her.
She informed the court that her husband would not  give her more than #500  as  feeding allowance, but would increase the money to #700 whenever he wanted to have sex with her.
The wife  claimed that  they had lived as husband and wife for 11 years despite the fact that no formal marriage was contracted and no bride price was paid.
“To my surprise, he got married to another lady secretly, and  the lady delivered a baby shortly after l gave birth to my second child”. Rachel alleged that her husband became something else after the second wife moved  in. Once, she claimed,  he descended heavily on her to the extent that she had to deliver  a baby through Caesarian operation. She  informed the court that her husband threw her belongings out of  the matrimonial home, while she was away in Abeokuta to report the marital problems to her mother-in-law.
The estranged wife said  she regretted  marrying Aliu, because “he was  a very difficult person”. Speaking in the same vein, Chief  Oloyede lsaac, who claimed to be Rachel`s father’s  childhood friend, testified that Aliu was wicked, adding that he always beat the wife.
Oloyede informed the court that he was the one that encouraged Rachel to institute  the divorce case  when he could no longer tolerate the way the husband was  always stripping  his wife  naked in pubic. In his defence,  Aliu  said his wife lacked  care for him and the children.
The husband  added that Rachel always returned  from the market late in the night and that the situation made  it difficult for him and the children to eat. He denied beating the wife, but admitted to slapping  her when they had misunderstanding sometime ago.The court president, Mr. Emmanuel Shokunle, adjourned the case till August 7 for further hearing.

(http://www.vanguardngr.com)

Chaplain at same-sex rite leaves Southern Baptists

A long-serving Air Force chaplain has left the Southern Baptist Convention after the conservative denomination publicly questioned his attendance at a same-sex civil union ceremony at his base in New Jersey.
The chaplain, Col. Timothy Wagoner, is remaining on active duty and has affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which holds more moderate views on homosexuality and some other issues than the Southern Baptists.
“I find very little that is more important and nothing that is more exhilarating than providing for the religious freedoms and spiritual care of all service members and their families — and will joyfully continue to do so,” Col. Wagoner said in an e-mail to the Associated Press.
Col. Wagoner’s exit from the Southern Baptist Convention, which SBC leaders welcomed, is a direct fallout from the repeal a year ago of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prohibited acknowledged gays from serving in the military.
Gay service members are now able to be open about their relationships, and same-sex civil union and marriage ceremonies can take place at military installations if they are legal under state law. New Jersey recognizes civil unions, and thus the June 23 ceremony uniting Tech. Sgt. Erwynn Umali and civilian Will Behrens had legal stature.

(www.washingtontimes.com)

First person believed to be cured of AIDS gives hope to researchers

An influential group of scientists gathered this week at the International AIDS Conference in Washington is committing to a goal that just five years ago would have seemed ludicrous: to cure HIV. While acknowledging substantial challenges, they argue that the effort is necessary because the epidemic cannot be contained through treatment and prevention alone. And recent medical and scientific advances — including the case of the first man definitively cured of the human immunodeficiency virus — offer proof that it’s possible.

Timothy Ray Brown, known as the "Berlin Patient" and the only person to have been cured of AIDS, holds a press conference to announce the launch of the Timothy Ray Brown Foundation at the Westin City Center hotel on July 24 in Washington, D.C.

The first person believed to have been cured of AIDS, Timothy Ray Brown, addressed the media in the U.S. for the first time on Tuesday and said that reports he still has the HIV virus are false.
Brown, also known as the “Berlin patient,” says doctors have told him he’s “cured of AIDS and will remain cured.”
Brown was an HIV-positive American who was living in Germany when he developed leukemia. After failing to respond to first-line cancer treatments, he chose to have a bone-marrow transplant in 2007. As his doctors searched for a suitable donor, they looked for one with a rare genetic mutation that disables a receptor known as CCR5, which HIV needs to gain entry into immune cells. Brown had two transplants that not only put his leukemia into remission but replaced his HIV-susceptible immune system with one that could ward off the disease.
Doctors declared him “cured” soon after.
Researchers in California recently found traces of HIV in his tissues. But Brown says any remnants of the virus still in his body are dead and can’t replicate.
He appeared frail but energetic Tuesday, and announced the formation of a new AIDS foundation in his name.
Paula Cannon, a molecular biologist at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, said that until Brown came along, a scientist who proposed HIV cure research “would be laughed out of the room.”
“There’s nothing like success to galvanize the research,” she said. “People are daring to hope again that with a lot of hard work and ingenuity, scientists can deliver.”

(www.thestar.com)

U.S. is pushed to label Nigeria’s Boko Haram a terrorist group

As attacks by the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram become increasingly violent, some members of Congress are criticizing the Obama administration’s refusal to formally designate the group a terrorist organization.
Senior U.S. officials contend that they still don’t know enough about Boko Haram and that the most serious attacks attributed to the group may not reflect its overall ideology. The designation would put the group on a watch list and would bar American individuals and entities from providing it with financial or other resources.
Johnnie Carson, the ranking U.S. diplomat for African affairs, has been quick to condemn the group’s actions. He noted that some of its members have been slapped with U.S. sanctions, but he argued before Congress recently that Boko Haram isn’t a homogenous organization.
“We believe it is an organization of several parts,” Carson told the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights earlier this month. “We believe the individuals we have designated represent a core group which is desirous of attacking not only Nigerian targets of interest but also international targets of interest.”
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful,” has targeted primarily Christians in an attempt to create an Islamist state governed by Shariah law in Africa’s most populous nation. The group claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in December that targeted churches across the country and claimed the lives of dozens of Nigerians.
To some critics, Carson’s explanation doesn’t stand up against the group’s increasingly militant efforts.
“The U.S. government has a lot to learn about Boko Haram and their intelligence should remain high, but that should not be an excuse for inaction,” said Morgan Roach, a researcher at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center in Washington.
Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., introduced a resolution in the House in May urging the State Department either to designate Boko Haram a terrorist organization or explain its reasons for not doing so. He introduced the resolution in response to the group’s increasing aggression, including the Christmas bombings and an attack on the United Nations offices in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, he said.
“We’re seeing a growing body of work, not a diminishing body of work, and I think the more those activities carry on the greater the demand will be for the Department of State to explain the position that they’re taking,” Meehan said.
Given the advancement in Boko Haram’s attacks, particularly its increased use of homemade bombs, some U.S. officials suspect that the group is receiving technical support and training from other extremist groups in the region. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of the U.S. military’s Africa Command, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have explicitly said that Boko Haram now is allied with two other major African militant groups, al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Somalia’s al Shabab, both of which the State Department has designated as terrorist organizations.
“I think (given) the amount of training and the quickness with which Boko Haram has been able to improve their tactics, improve their attacks, we have to be looking a bit more closely at where this is coming from,” Roach said.
However, much disagreement among experts remains about Boko Haram’s ties to the other terrorist groups. Unlike the other groups, Boko Haram’s rhetoric is focused on Nigeria, not the United States, said John Campbell, a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. Slapping it with the designation might limit the ability of nongovernmental organizations and the State Department to work in Nigeria, Campbell said.
But it also might prod the Nigerian government to improve its security efforts, Meehan and others say. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has followed a strategy of diplomacy toward the group but his attempts at engaging it in a dialogue have failed, Roach said. Jonathan last month fired his national security adviser, Patrick Owoeye Azazi, and replaced him with Sambo Dasuki, the cousin of Nigeria’s most prominent Muslim leader, in an attempt to build bridges between the mostly Christian southern half of the country and the mostly Muslim north.
Designating Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization “would put pressure on the Nigerian government to say, ‘We take this threat seriously,’ ” Roach said.
Meehan said the United States also needed to take this potential security threat seriously, to avoid domestic disaster down the line.
“We don’t get to choose those who are making threats against the country, nor do we get the luxury of choosing how we might characterize them,” Meehan said.
We will love to hear your views on this imminent declaration from U.S.

(www.mcclatchydc.com)

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/23/157309/us-is-pushed-to-label-nigerias.html#storylink=cpy

Nigeria signs $23-million electricity deal with Canadian firm

Nigeria on Monday signed a $23-million deal with a Canadian firm aimed at overhauling power transmission in Africa’s most populous nation, part of plans to improve its woeful electricity network.

Manitoba Hydro International signed the management accord that will see it reorganize the Transmission Company of Nigeria, with the aim of eventually privatizing part of it, the firm said.

Capacity of 330/132KV line is 6,894MVA.This means Nigeria current transmission network can't bear 7,000MW output from generation stations.(@budgITng)

The head of Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises, Bolanle Onagoruwa, told reporters the contract was worth $23-million.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but electricity blackouts occur daily.

President Goodluck Jonathan has laid out plans to privatize electricity production and distribution in the nation of some 160-million people. The country’s electricity grid would remain state-owned, but privately managed.

Electricity workers fearing layoffs have protested, including in recent days, over the planned overhaul.

Nigerian man raped to death by six wives

A Nigerian man was killed by his six wives after they forced him to have sexual intercourse with them all, the Daily Post has reported.

The man, Uroko Onoja, reportedly married six women after he became rich.

Five of the wives came at Onoja with knives and sticks in jealousy after seeing him entering his youngest wife's room to demand that he have sex with all of them, according to reports.

Onoja reportedly stopped breathing when he was going to bed with the fifth wife after having had sex with four of his other wives.

The five ran away after they saw that he had died, according to the youngest wife.

“Suddenly, my husband stopped breathing, and they all ran out, still laughing, but when they saw that I could not resuscitate him, they all ran into the forest," the youngest wife said.