Bomb blast hits University of Maiduguri Mosque.

Many individual are believed dead after twin bomb explosions hit the University of Maiduguri early hours of Monday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is taken to have been carried out by the Boko Haram.

Monday’s explosion is the first major onslaught on the university since the insurgency began over seven years ago. 

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The Borno police spokesman, Victor Isuku, confirmed the bomb blast but could not provide details.

A source within the university said the first blast occurred at a mosque within the staff quarters at the time Muslim faithful were busy closing the early Morning Prayer.

The second attack was said to have happened near the university’s 5th gate usually used by pedestrians.

A female student, names withheld for security reasons, said her father was just lucky to have left the mosque before the bomb went off.

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“But many of his associates like Professor Mani and other senior staffers have either been killed or severely wounded. When we tried going to scene of the blast, everywhere was covered with sliced human flesh and blood. Most the bodies are being taken to the Teaching hospital while others were rushed to the school hospital

Victor Osimhen showing off his new jersey

German club Wolfsburg have secured the signature of Nigerian international striker Victor Osimhen in a three-and-half-year deal from Lagos-based side ultimate Strikers Academy once the striker turned 18 on December 29.
“I wish to express my gratitude to the coach and the entire club management for this chance and also the faith in me”.

“Wolfsburg is the right place to begin my career. Now it's up to me to grant something back. I actually have to work hard and learn”, said the clearly happy Osimhen.

Wolfsburg’s manager Valerien Ismael said…
“At the age of 18 Victor already has a large presence in our attack. He’s smart going forward and for his size very fast.

“However, he needs to improve his physical strength and get accustomed to playing in Germany. We wish to assist him take this step.”

Victor Osimhen starred at the under-17 tournament in October 2015, where he scored ten goals to assist the Nigerian clinch the title

He was also a part of the Nigerian team that won the Under-23 Africa Cup of nations in Senegal in November 2015, which also qualified them for the Rio Olympic Games last year.
His friend Nwakali shared the photos on Instagram wherever he congratulated him for the move.

Imo Pensioners Decry Non-payment of their pension for 77 months.

Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha

Scores of pensioners in IMO State, on Thursday, began a peaceful protest over the non-payment of pensions between 22 and 77 months by the government.

The aggrieved pensioners barricaded the Okigwe road as well as the entrance to Government House, Owerri.

Led by their state Chairman, Chief Gideon Ezeji, the pensioners called on the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha to elucidate what he did with the bailout fund the state received from the federal government.

They urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the State Governor Rochas Okorocha to order.

Ezeji said Okorocha “behaves and treats senior citizens in the state disrespectfully.

“Okorocha derives joy in seeing elders in this state come out from time to time to the streets to demand their pension.

“What did Okorocha do with the bailout fund that President Buhari gave to him? We are complaining for the third time.”

The aggrieved pensioners said it was wicked of Okorocha’s government to decide to pay 40 % of the accumulated arrears and gratuities whereas making them to forfeit 60% of their arrears.

“We say no to this latest government’s decide to deny us the payment of 60 % of arrears up to December.

“As at December 2016, the state is owing IMO pensioners between 22 months and 77 months arrears. Our gratuities have remained unpaid since 1998 until date.

“Also, the government has refused to harmonize our pensions since 2000 thus far. All the efforts by the union overseeing the welfare of pensioners haven't yielded any fruit”, they expressed.

Reacting to the allegation, the state government through the Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Sam Onwuemeodo said those who kicked off the protest weren't pensioners of the state.

A statement by Onwuemeodo reads partly: “No pensioner in the state was part of that protest.

“Those concerned in the exercise were between the ages of 40-45. and we challenge those concerned to prove us wrong by publishing their names, their autonomous communities, local government areas, years of retirement, wherever they retired from and their identification numbers.”

As tweeted by pulse Nigeria

Rich Nigerian Politicians

Former presidents and several Nigerian leaders have collaborated to sing a hymn for Nigeria’s progress on New Year’s Day, 2017

watch them here

Boko Haram's Shekau Shows up: Group is not Crushed.

According to reports on Nigerian Daily (Vanguard) Ibrahim Shekau, the embattled Leader of the Boko Haram sect has come out in a new video to dispute claims by the Federal Government and the Nigerian Army that the Jihadist group has been ousted out of sambisa forest.

"We are very safe and sound, we have not been ousted out of anywhere. No strategy or tactics can reveal our location except Allah wills by his decree" says Shekau in a 25 minutes video surrounded by armed fighters

Twitter User Says He may have found a cure for fibroids without surgery.

Could this be for real?

If this is true then there is a lot of hope.

Limbless teen who lived in plastic bowl died on Christmas Day

Rahma Haruna, a severely disabled Nigerian girl who became well known when photos of her appeared online earlier this year, has died at the age of 19.

The news was shared by local journalist Sani Maikatanga, whose photos were responsible for the wider world becoming aware of Rahma's plight.

Ms Maikatanga said in a social media post: "Rahma Haruna a 19 years old girl has pass away on Sunday 25th of December 2016 ... may Almighty grant her Jannatul Firdausi (paradise)."

Rahma, whose arms and legs stopped developing when she was six months old, lived with her family in the village of Lahadin Makole, close to Kano in Nigeria.

Practically immobile and in chronic pain, for many years she spent most of her waking hours in a plastic bowl, which her family transported her around in.

Her younger brother Fahad would take her into Kano each day to beg for handouts. However, last year a journalist, Ibrahim Jirgi, gave the family a wheelchair.

Earlier this year Rahma's mother Fadi told reporters: “From six months when she learnt how to sit that was when it began. She didn’t learn how to crawl.

“She started with a fever and that was it. Then stomach pains. Then her body parts like hands and legs. She cannot use any if the ache strikes.”

Fahad revealed he dedicated much of his life to helping his sister: “I help her in many ways," he said. "Bathing her is another thing I do, and taking her out every day.

"I feel happy whenever I see people helping her. I like taking to our relatives. She feels happy when we visit them.”

The Haruna family experienced an upturn in their fortunes when Ms Maikatanga's images of Rahma went viral on social media, prompting an inundation of requests from strangers who wanted to help in any way they could.

Despite her severe disability, Rahma held entrepreneurial ambitions, telling journalists she dreamt of starting a business. “A grocery store and anything people buy, that is what I want,” she said.

Obasanjo, Yar'Adua, Jonathan spent all savings on food Says Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he was shocked to learn that from 1999 to 2014, successive governments spent all the savings made from crude oil revenue on food.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he was shocked to learn that from 1999 to 2014, successive governments spent all the savings made from crude oil revenue on food.

President Buhari said this at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday when the representatives of the Federal Capital Territory paid him a Christmas homage.

President Buhari said it took him a long time to recover from the shock.

"We looked at the left and right. From 1999 to 2014, the crude production was over 2.2 million barrels per day. The average cost per barrel was $100. When we came, it was $37. I think it is now between $40 and $50.

"I asked for savings, there was no savings. I asked what they used the money to buy, they said they bought food and oil. I do not know how long it took me to recover from the shock," Buhari said.

The president regretted that when the country discovered oil, it threw away every other revenue source.

"Some of you will recall either by history or discussion that it was cocoa, palm kernel, cotton, agro-allied industries that we used to build infrastructure, be it rail or school. We also used the produce to develop oil. When we got the oil, we threw everything away.

"We thank God this year, the harvest was quite good, otherwise, I do not know what we would have done. No money saved, no infrastructure built, power is still our main problem. Old roads have dilapidated and they needed to be repaired from Lagos to Kano, Port Harcourt up to Maiduguri. There are rail lines we want to develop from Lagos to Calabar, from Lagos to Kaduna and the Abuja one.

"If we can get the infrastructure done, we cannot even know the number of Nigerians that will get job. So, we have to get infrastructure. It will take tankers and other articulated vehicles off the road, we will save vehicles and we will save lives and we will get jobs for a lot of Nigerians."

23-yr-old man kidnaps nephew, demands N4m ransom

Police officer have arrested a 23-yr-old man for kidnapping his nephew and car snatching.

A 23-years-old man has been arrested by officers of the Katsina State Police Command over the alleged kidnap of his three-year-old nephew.

According to the reports, the suspect identified as Kamal Bala Yunusa, is a sibling to the mother of the victim.

The command revealed that the child was rescued from a hotel in Katsina, after being drugged with “a cough mixture,” Punch reports.

The victim was reportedly revived in the hospital by the police at about 3 am on Friday. December 23.

While parading Kamal and another suspect, Muhammed Abubakar Sadiq, before reporters on Friday, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Salisu Agaisa, said that both suspects, along with two others, Abubakar Idris and Dabo Muhammed, said to be in Kaduna, “conspired to kidnap the child for a ransom of N4m from Tundun Wada area in Kaduna.”

The suspects are also accused of stealing the Peugeot 407 in which they made away with the victim from Kaduna.

Kamal confessed that he had planned to sell the car for N700,000 and that he only kidnapped the toddler with the help of the other suspects and brought them to Katsina, to divert attention from his main intention.

Punch reports that officers of the command are currently making efforts to return the boy to Kaduna.

Buhari to militants: Let's negotiate how we'll manage our resources

President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration will persuade "our friends" in the Niger Delta to sit down with it and agree to manage the nation's resources "rather than think of fighting it out."

President Buhari said this at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday when the representatives of the Federal Capital Territory paid him a Christmas homage.

He asked his visitors to talk to Nigerians to be patient with his government, saying "We are always thinking about our country and we are thinking about our people. 

"God has given Nigerians a lot of preachers and resources, both human and materials. We'd better do the same thing for our children and grandchildren. 

"I assure you that the country and the people of the country are always uppermost in our minds. Our performance in the North East, Nigerians know that this government is serious."

Buhari the challenges of security and economy which he identified during his election campaign still remained the nation's fundamental problems almost 18 months after he took over.

"I think it is good to select objectives and be honest about it and work towards it. It is now almost 18 months since we resumed here. We are very lucky, I believe some of you followed us during our campaigns and what we identified are still fundamentals problems. 

"The first is security, and we kept on saying whether it is an organisation or a country, we have to first secure it before we can manage it properly. Without security, nothing can work.

"Secondly, the economy and the unemployment of able bodied persons," the president said.

Chibok girl recalls "miracle" release by Boko Haram as reunited with family

YOLA, Nigeria (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Boko Haram militants decided to release some of the 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped two-and-a-half years ago in northeast Nigeria, Asabe Goni did not dare to dream that she would be among the girls allowed to go home.

During their time in captivity the girls were encouraged to convert to Islam and to marry their kidnappers, with some whipped for not doing so, but Goni said otherwise they were treated well and fed well until supplies recently ran short.

Hungry and ill, the 22-year-old did not even have the energy to stand up in October when the Islamist militants said that any girls who wanted to be released should line up. She just sat and watched as other girls scrambled to get into line.

"I was surprised when they announced that my name was on the list," Goni told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in the first interview by one of the 21 freed girls to international media.

"It was a miracle," she said, while expressing regret that she had to leave behind her cousin who was also abducted.

A group of 21 girls was released two months ago after Switzerland and the International Red Cross brokered a deal with the Boko Haram. They have been held since in a secret location in the capital Abuja for debriefing by the Nigerian government.

But the girls have been taken back to the Chibok area in Borno state to spend Christmas with their families, returning home for the first time since being seized from their school in April 2014, an act that sparked global outrage.

"I was very happy when they said I should go home," Goni said in an interview in her family's home in the northern city of Yola, surrounded by her father, stepmother, five siblings and several neighbours.

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014 hit international headlines and prompted global figures, including U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and a list of celebrities, to support a campaign #BringBackOurGirls.

But none of the girls were sighted again until May this year when one of the students, Amina Ali, was found in a forest with a baby and a man claiming to be her husband.

Her discovery prompted hopes that the girls were alive and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to ensure the release of the remaining girls in captivity.

"GIVEN UP HOPE"

Recalling the abduction, Goni said the girls, which included her younger cousin Margaret with whom she had lived since she was a child, trekked for three days through Sambisa forest, Boko Haram's vast woodland stronghold, before they arrived at a camp.

"I was in great pain," she said. "Many of us didn't stop crying until about three months after we were kidnapped."

While the girls were not forced to convert to Islam, the militants told them that they would all be sent home if they did so, said Goni. Neither were they forced to marry, she added.

"But the way they talked to us about it, you would be afraid not to," she said, recalling how the girls were sometimes flogged with a whip. "That is why some were convinced to marry."

Goni said the girls were otherwise treated well by the militants. They were given material to sew clothes and fed three times a day until recently when food became scarce.

The girls told state officials they were not abused or raped by the militants, and all tested negative for sexually transmitted diseases, according to a confidential report based on a two-week debriefing prepared for Buhari and seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in November.

When Goni was released, she did not have time to say goodbye to Margaret, whom she calls her sister, or the other girls.

"Some of the other girls left behind started crying," she said. "But the Boko Haram men consoled them, telling them that their turn to go home would come one day."

Nigerian authorities say they are involved in negotiations aimed at securing the release of more of the girls, while the army has captured a key Boko Haram camp in Sambisa forest, Buhari said earlier today.

Far away from negotiations and army operations, Goni chatted with her siblings and helped her mother prepare breakfast as she spoke of her excitement of going to church on Christmas Day.

"I never knew that I would return (home)," Goni said. "I had given up hope of ever going home."

Credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Black Christmas In Lagos Police College As Building Collapse Kills Two

Whilst the world was celebrating Christmas day, it was a black Sunday today at the Police College in Ikeja, Lagos, after one of the buildings collapsed and killed two persons, leaving several others with injuries.

Confirming the incident, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), said they responded to the distress call today.

The collapsed building was located at High Way Police Barracks opposite Area F, Ikeja.

According to investigation conducted by the agency’s officials at the incident scene, it was gathered that the toilets and stairway of ‘Wing D’ block collapsed at about 4am.

It was gathered that the agency’s officials in collaboration with men of Lagos State Fire Service, Nigeria Police (highway patrol) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA-) recovered the bodies of two dead adult male.

While one was simply identified as Mr. Danjuma, the other male was yet to be identified but their bodies has since be deposited at the Mainland Hospital Mortuary Yaba.

At the scene was LASEMA General Manager, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, who said the agency with other stakeholders has commenced the immediate demolition of the affected building under the directive of the Commissioner of Police.

Their decision to demolish was based on the directive of Commissioner of Police who was present at the scene.

He also ordered the evacuation of residents living in the affected building as well as other dilapidated buildings and gave an order for the immediate demolition of the affected block.

Fire guts Nigerian Breweries Lagos office

An early morning fire on Sunday gutted Nigerian Breweries at Orile Iganmu area of Lagos State.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Mr Fatai Owoseni, has redeployed about 100 policemen to the premises of the Nigerian Breweries Plc, Iganmu, Lagos where an early morning fire razed a part of the company’s premises on Sunday.

Owoseni told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the deployment was meant to give adequate security cover to the company.

The Police Commissioner explained that the policemen were deployed to hold back some miscreants who wanted to take advantage of the situation to enter into the company’s premises.

“There is a fire incidence at the Nigerian Breweries but the fire did not affect the operational areas of the company.

“It affected only the isolated areas where the company keeps empty bottles and cartons, as well as expired drinks,’’ Owoseni said.

A staff of the Breweries, who pleaded anonymity, said that he rushed to the company’s premises upon learning of the incident.

He said that no one could state the actual cause of the fire, adding that “presently, it is still burning and you can see that the fire service personnel are still battling to put off the inferno”.

He recalled that the fire was `very heavy’ in the morning hours, but that it had subsided significantly, following onslaughts by firefighters from the Lagos State Fire Service.

Mr Razak Fadipe, Director, Lagos State Fire Service, told NAN that the fire started at about 5.30 a.m.

He explained that the Lagos State Fire Service immediately mobilised five fire engines to the company premises, with support from Julius Berger, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the United Bank for Africa and Union Bank.

“As we speak, we are still battling the fire to contain its spread. We have been able to do that though. I can confirm that nobody is injured in the incident and that there is no loss of life.

Meanwhile, a section of the company’s fence bordering the Iganmu Interchange collapsed during the incident.

NAN reports that hundreds of miscreants invaded the area but police personnel from the Area ‘C’ Command, Surulere and nearby formations were able to contain the situation.(NAN)

The cause of the fire had yet to be ascertained as of press time but it was gathered that fire fighters have arrived the area to put out the fire.