We Pay Police To Kill Police, N500,000 per Head – Boko Haram

We Pay Police To Kill Police, N500,000 per Head – Boko Haram

Boko Haram Leader

Information recently made available to 247urep through sources within the operational ranks of the terrorist Islamic group indicates the merciless attacks and killings of the officers of the Nigerian Police Force [NPF] by Boko Haram may be the operational activities of hired Nigerian police officers at work. This is as available information indicates that the leadership of the terrorist Islamic group have gone beyond inflitration of the NPF – and have reached the extent to have turned the Nigerian police officer into the executor/assasinator of fellow police officers. The Boko Haram, through its extensive reach into the NPF and the Nigerian military, has gained significant followership within the NPF and the military which extends beyond passive followership. A good section of the NPF is said to actively engage in the operational activities of the terrorist group – in areas including intelligence gathering, whistleblowing, and attacks on Nigerian security outfits. The Boko Haram source revealed that it pays N500,000 to each Nigerian police officer who kills another police officer, and N1million for the life of a Nigerian soldier. The source further reveals that 7 out of 10 police officers’s death attributed to Boko Haram’s operations were carried out by Nigerian police officers and men from other Nigerian security outfits. He states that the Kano operation was executed by a mixed of Nigerian soldiers, Police Officers and ordinary members of Boko Haram. “That is why we have lost only 16 since we began our operation. He also added that none of the people arrested and shot in Kano and Borno were members of Boko Haram.
They are not our own. Our men are accounted for”, he boasted adding that the security apparatus in Nigeria are intimately involved in the planning stages of virtually all Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria. “We wait for their signal”. He explained that many within the police rank sympatize with the plight of the Boko Haram and support them ideologically. Many within the ranks of the military and the police appear disenfranchised by a Christian presidency.
Independent inquiry conducted by 247ureports.com into the Boko Haram’s claim appear credible. It was gathered that in Bauchi State, prior to the coming of the present Bauchi police commissioner, a Police Coporal was arrested and charged for murder following a shoot-out where he was alleged to have killed his fellow officers stationed at a checkpoint. The former police commissioner of Bauchi State was reported to have made the arrest himself – as he coincidentally drove by the checkpoint moments after the police coporal had shot the 5 police officers dead. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the police coporal had in his bank account the sum of N11million. The source of the money remains unknown to the police investigators. In Borno State, where the Boko Haram operation had been extensive. The source reveals that it is not a secret anymore in Borno the bounty placed on the head of a police officer and a military officer. It is an open secret on the streets. “None of our men were doing the killings”, he said. The killings came mostly from security men who shared the ideology of the terrorist group. The source claims that the security men in Nigeria are littered with their supporters.
In a related development, the source reveals that the terrorist group has called on all the feild commanders in northern Nigeria to temporally halt all operations – in response to what appears the onset of dialogue. The source notes however that not all members of the group are keen to the dialogue. “Our spiritual leaders are not interested in dialoguing” because, as he claims, when the members of Boko Haram were being ‘slaughtered’ via extra-judical means – that no Nigerian called for dialogue nor did the leaders of the north call for a dialogue.
Meanwhile violent operations credited to the Boko Haram continues in Kano State. Gunfire exchange between the men of Boko Haram and the Nigerian police at the Panshekara police station and the Naibawa Police post continued through the evening of Sunday 29, January to the evening of Monday 30, January – not minding the curfew imposed on Kano State by the State government. Seven persons have been reported [unconfirmed] dead at the Naibawa police post while no casualties have been reported at the Panshekara police station. The police is reported to have become visibly nervous on the trigger at the various police road block.
The morning of Monday January 30, 2012, near the town of Mandawari, a driver of a commercial bus was shot by a nervous police officer who mistook the bus for a possible Boko Haram threat. The Bus had approached the police road block at about 6am, at the end of the curfew, and as the bus slowed towards the road block, one of the officers shot the driver. The driver was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. No further information is available of the status of the driver.

We Won’t Call Off Strike – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated  that the ongoing indefinite strike will not be called off soon.

Contrary to wide speculations that the strike will be called off tomorrow,  the national president of ASUU, Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie, insisted that  said the speculation was  a far cry from reality as the government was still running in circles.

The ASUU boss, who spoke during a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP yesterday, said the ongoing strike would be one of the issues that would be discussed by the lecturers.

He said, “The 70 years retirement age is still an issue and we are not interested in what the government has given and what it hasn’t given. We need to be convinced.

Didn’t Prof Dora Akunyili on national television in 2009 state that the 70 years retirement age had been approved? The same in 2010, 2011 and we are now in 2012, and still discussing it.”

He noted that the issue had been discussed in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and had been approved by the National Assembly and was now on the table of President Goodluck Jonathan for his appendage to make it a law.

He said, “The same manner it was  treated all these years is still the manner it is treated today.” 

LEADERSHIP recalls that after about four hours behind closed doors in a meeting with the federal government, ASUU was unable to say categorically whether it will end the strike which had lasted for over 55 days.

In a related development, ASUU yesterday  blamed the rising rate of insecurity in Nigeria on government’s failure to resolve major socio-economic problems in the country.
In a statement signed by its National President, Awuzie, in Abuja, ASUU expressed concern over loss of innocent citizens following unresolved national conflict.

Awuzie said changes announced and intended by the federal government in the nation’s security agencies would not address the current security challenges.

According to him, the root cause of the current security challenge lies in the repeated failure of the ruling class to resolve the problems.

He said Nigerians were peace loving people who were interested in the unity of the country but noted that the politics of the ruling class was a great threat to the stability of the country.

Meanwhile, the Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri,  has appealed to the ASUU to call off the ongoing strike  to save the Nigerian youths from being recruited by enemies of the state to foment trouble. 

Omeri  made this appeal yesterday in Abuja when the leadership of the Nigerian Youth Parliament paid him a courtesy visit to congratulate him on his appointment as the new helmsman of the NOA.

Nigeria: Thrown into Chaos and a State of Civil War: The Role of the IMF

Nigeria: Thrown into Chaos and a State of Civil War: The Role of the IMF

by F. William Engdahl

Global Research, January 27, 2012

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its largest oil producer, is from all evidence being systematically thrown into chaos and a state of civil war. The recent surprise decision by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to abruptly lift subsidies on imported gasoline and other fuel has a far more sinister background than mere corruption and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) is playing a key role. China appears to be the likely loser along with Nigeria’s population.

The recent strikes protesting the government’s abrupt elimination of gasoline and other fuel subsidies, that brought Nigeria briefly to a standstill, came as a surprise to most in the country. Months earlier President Jonathan had promised the major trade union organizations that he would conduct a gradual four-stage lifting of the subsidy to ease the economic burden. Instead, without warning he announced an immediate full removal of subsidies effective January 1, 2012. It was “shock therapy” to put it mildly.

Nigeria today is one of the world’s most important producers of light, sweet crude oil—the same high quality crude oil that Libya and the British North Sea produce. The country is showing every indication of spiraling downward into deep disorder. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States and twelfth largest oil producer in the world on a par with Kuwait and just behind Venezuela with production exceeding two million barrels a day. 1

The curious timing of IMF subsidy demand

Despite its oil riches, Nigeria remains one of Africa’s poorest countries. The known oilfields are concentrated around the vast Niger Delta roughly between Port Harcourt and extending in the direction of the capital Lagos, with large new finds being developed all along the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.  Nigeria’s oil is exploited and largely exported by the Anglo-American giants—Shell, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco. Italy’s Agip also has a presence and most recently, to no one’s surprise, the Chinese state oil companies began seeking major exploration and oil infrastructure agreements with the Lagos government.

Ironically, despite the fact that Nigeria has abundant oil to earn dollar export revenue to build its domestic infrastructure, government policy has deliberately let its domestic oil refining capacity fall into ruin. The consequence has been that most of the gasoline and other refined petroleum products used to drive transportation and industry, has to be imported, despite the country’s abundant oil. In order to shield the population from the high import costs of gasoline and other refined fuels, the central government has subsidized prices.

Until January 1, 2012, that is. That was the day when, without advance warning President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan announced immediate removal of all fuel subsidies. Prices for gasoline shot up almost threefold in hours from 65 naira (35 cents of a dollar) a liter to 150 naira (93 cents). The impact rippled across the economy to everything including prices of grains and vegetables.2

In justifying the move, Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi insisted that “The monies will be used in provision of social amenities and infrastructural development that will benefit Nigerians more and save the country from economic rift.”3 President Goodluck Jonathan says he is phasing out the subsidy as a part of a move to “clean up the Nigerian government.” If so how he plans to proceed is anything but apparent.

The huge unexpected price hike for domestic fuel triggered nationwide protests that threatened to bring the economy to a halt by mid-January. The president deftly took the wind out of protester sails by announcing a partial rollback in prices, still leaving prices effectively double that of December. The trade union federation immediately called off the protests. Then, revealingly, Goodluck Jonathan’s government ordered the military to take to the streets to “keep order” and de facto prevent new protests. All that took place during one of the bloodiest waves of bombings and murder rampages by the terrorist Boko Haram sect creating a climate of extreme chaos.4

The smoking gun of the IMF

What has been buried from international accounts of the unrest is the explicit role the US-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) played in the situation. With suspicious timing IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was in Nigeria days before the abrupt subsidy decision of President Jonathan.5 By all accounts, the IMF and the Nigerian government have been careful this time not to be blatant about openly announcing demands to ends subsidies as they were in Tunisia before food protests became the trigger for that country’s Twitter putsch in 2011. 

During her visit to Nigeria Lagarde said President Jonathan's 'Transformation Agenda' for deregulation "is an agenda for Nigeria, driven by Nigerians. The IMF is here to support you and be a better partner for you." 6 Few Nigerians were convinced.  On December 29 Reuters wrote, "The IMF has urged countries across West and Central Africa to cut fuel subsidies, which they say are not effective in directly aiding the poor, but do promote corruption and smuggling. The past months have seen governments in Nigeria, Guinea, Cameroon and Chad moving to cut state subsidies on fuel." 7

Further confirming the role US and IMF pressure on the Nigerian government played, Jeffery Sachs, Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, during a meeting with President Jonathan in Nigeria in early January days after the subsidy decision, Sachs declared Jonathan's decision to withdraw petroleum subsidy  “a bold and correct policy.” 8

Sachs, a former Harvard economics professor became notorious during the early 1990’s for prescribing IMF “shock therapy” for Poland, Russia, Ukraine and other former communist states which opened invaluable state assets for de facto plundering by dollar-rich western multinationals. 9

Making the sudden decision to end the domestic fuel subsidy even more suspicious is the manner in which Washington and the IMF are putting pressure on only select countries to end subsidies. Nigeria, whose oil today sells for the equivalent of $1 a liter or roughly $3.78 a US gallon, is far from cheap. Brunei, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia all offer their petrol very cheap to their people. The Saudis sell their oil at 17 cents, Kuwait at 22 cents.10 In the US gasoline averages 89 cents a liter.11

That means the IMF and Washington have forced one of the poorest economies in Africa to impose a huge tax on its citizens on the implausible argument it will help eliminate corruption in the state petroleum sector. The IMF knows well that the elimination of subsidies will do nothing about corruption in high places.  

Were the IMF and World Bank genuinely concerned with the health of the domestic Nigerian economy, they would have provided support for rebuilding and expanding a domestic oil refinery industry that has been let to rot so that the country need no longer import refined fuels using precious state budget resources to do so.  The easiest way to do that would be to expedite a two-year-old deal between China and the Nigerian government to invest some $28 billion in massive expansion of the oil refinery sector to eliminate need for importing foreign gasoline and other refined products.

Quite the opposite—the criminal cabal inside NNPC and the Government making huge profits on the old subsidy system are suddenly making double and potentially triple more to maintain the old corrupt import system, and, of course, to sabotage Chinese refinery construction that could put an end to their gravy train.

Cutting their nose to spite the face…

Rather than benefit ordinary Nigerians as the IMF proclaims to want, the elimination of the subsidies has further pauperized the 90 per cent living on less than $2 a day, according to Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Nigerian Central Bank governor.12 An estimated 40 million Nigerians are unemployed in the country of 148 million.

Because transport costs are a significant factor in delivery of food to the cities, food price inflation has soared along with costs of public transportation for the majority of poorer Nigerians. According to the Nigerian Leadership Sunday, “prices of commodities which shot up as a fallout of the fuel pump price increase have refused to come down.” Everything from street vegetable sellers to carwashes to roadside photographers are feeling the shock of the rise in fuel prices. Unemployment is rising as small businesses fold. 13

The argument of the IMF and  the Jonathan Administration  is that by freeing fuel prices, funds would be available to  more social services and rebuild Nigeria’s “infrastructure.” Both the IMF and the Government know it would have been far more economically viable to replace the current corrupt system of importing refined gasoline and fuels with investing in rebuilding Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity.

Son Gyoh of the Nigerian Awareness for Development organization stated, “Would it not be more expedient to pressure government to service the refineries to full production capacity given the implications on overhead and competitiveness for local industries?”  14

Gyoh pointed to the source of the problem: “Why have successive governments left the refineries in a state of disrepair while spending huge on subsidy? Is there any chance that the savings from subsidy withdrawal will go directly into rehabilitating the refineries? Does deregulation imply NNPC will no longer operate a monopoly in importation of refined petroleum product or is this lobby a self-serving lifeline to continue its monopoly? ” He concludes, “In any case, there is good reason to doubt subsidy removal will solve the fuel scarcity problem as the cabal will only regroup to change tactics, a fact Nigerians are only too aware of.” 15

After Nigeria partly nationalized its oil sector in the late 1970’s they also took control of Shell Oil’s Port Harcourt I refinery. In 1989 Port Harcourt II refinery was built. Both refineries fell into serious disrepair after 1994 when the Abacha military dictatorship cut the “take” of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) from domestic sale of refined oil products such as gasoline from 84% to 22%. That caused a cash crisis for NNPC and a halt to refinery maintenance. Today only one of four refineries operates at all.16

What developed since was a system of NNPC importing foreign gasoline and other refined products for Nigeria’s domestic needs, naturally at a far more expensive cost. The price subsidies were to relieve that higher import cost, hardly a sensible solution but a very lucrative one for those corrupt elements in the state and private sector making a killing, literally, off the import process. 

NNPC criminal enterprise

The IMF is well aware of the real cause of Nigeria’s fuel industry problems. A Nigerian legislative committee examining the sources of the industry’s problems recently released a report documenting that at least $4 billion annually is taken from taxpayers in fuel industry corruption with the state Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) at the center. According to the commission, “every day, fuel importers drop off 59 million liters of fuel. The country consumes 35 million liters daily. That leaves 24 million liters of oil available for smugglers to export, paid for by government fuel subsidies. This costs the Nigerian people roughly $4 billion yearly, according to Reuters.” 17

The Nigerian government has said that the 7.5 billion dollars spent yearly on fuel subsidies could be used to provide desperately needed infrastructure. But they omit any mention of the rampant siphoning off of $4 billion of oil by black market smugglers, reportedly with connivance of high NNPC government officials, to sell to neighboring countries at a hefty profit. The refined imported fuel is reportedly smuggled into neighboring countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger where petrol prices are far higher, according to Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Deputy Governor of Kano State.18 

China as IMF target?

One major geopolitical factor that is generally ignored in recent discussion of Nigerian oil politics is the growing role of China in the country. In May 2010 only days after President Jonathan was sworn in, China signed an impressive $28.5 billion deal with his government to build three new refineries, something that in no way fit into the plans of either the IMF or of Washington or of the Anglo-American oil majors.19

China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) signed the deal to build three oil refineries with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in the biggest deal China has made with Africa. Shehu Ladan, head of NNPC, said at the signing ceremony that the added refineries would reduce the $10 billion spent annually on imported refined products. As of January 2012 the three Chinese refnery projects were still in the planning stage, reportedly blocked by the powerful vested interests gaining from the existing corrupt import system.20

A report in China Daily last November quoted Nigeria’s Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga, the minister of trade and investment that Nigeria was seeking added Chinese investors for its energy, mining and agribusiness industries. Last September on a visit to Beijing, Nigeria central bank governor Lamido Sanusi  announced his country planned to invest 5 percent to 10 percent of its foreign exchange reserves in China's currency, the renminbi (RMB) or yuan, noting that he sees the yuan becoming reserve currency. In 2010 China's loans and exports to Nigeria exceeded $7 billion, while Nigeria exported $1 billion of crude oil, Sanusi stated.21
Until now Nigeria has held some 79% of her foreign currency reserves in dollars, the rest in Euro or Sterling, all of which look dicey given their financial and debt problems. The move of a major oil producer away from dollars, added to similar moves recently by India, Japan, Russia, Iran and others, augurs bad news for the continued role of the dollar as dominant world reserve currency. 22 Clearly some in Washington would not be happy with that.

The Chinese are also bidding to get a direct stake in Nigeria’s rich oil reserves, until now an Anglo-American domain. In July 2010, China's CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) won four prospective oil blocks -two in the Niger Delta and two in the frontier Chad Basin, with plans to become core investor in the Kaduna refinery, and construction of a double track Lagos-Kano railway.23  As well China’s oil company, CNOOC Ltd has a major offshore production area in Nigeria.

The IMF and Washington pressure to lift subsidies on imported fuels is at this point in question as is the future of China in Nigeria’s energy industry. Clear is that lifting subsidies in no way will benefit Nigerians. More alarming in this context is the orchestration of a major new wave of terror killings and bombings by the mysterious and suspiciously well-armed Boko Haram. This we will look at next in the context of Nigeria’s recent transformation into a major narcotics hub.

F. William Engdahl, author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order          

Notes:

1John Campbell, Nigeria’s Turmoil and the Outside World, January 12, 2012, accessed inhttp://blogs.cfr.org/campbell/2012/01/12/nigeria%E2%80%99s-turmoil-and-the-outside-world/#more-3994.

2 Chika Otuchikere and Chibunma Ukwu, Nigeria: Aftermath of Subsidy Crisis Food Prices Hitting Roof Tops, 22 January, 2012, accessed in http://allafrica.com/stories/201201231627.html.

3 Mustapha Muhammad, Nigeria: Billions Siphoned by Corruption Could Have Been Used to Maintain Fuel Subsidy, Inter Press Service, January 11, 2012, accessed in http://www.globalissues.org/news/2012/01/11/12407.

4 Mike Oboh, Boko Haram Islamist Insurgents Kill at Least 178 in Nigeria's Kano, January 22, 2012, International Business Times, accessed in http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/285620/20120122/boko-haram-islamist-insurgents-kill-178-nigeria.htm.

5 Christine Lagarde, Statement by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the Conclusion of her Visit to Nigeria, IMF, Washington, Press Release No. 11/478, December 20, 2011, accessed inhttp://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2011/pr11478.htm.

The Killer Boko Haram - Not A Mystery (Part I)

The Killer Boko Haram - Not A Mystery (Part I)

By Segun Edward II

I have seen several write ups highlighting the endemic poverty in the North of Nigeria spun by the political elite as well as high illiteracy levels as factors responsible for the rise of the outlaw group: Boko Haram. Granted that those factors, inimical to true development of the North caused by a few are veritable basis to join outlaw groups, Boko Haram was not formed on that premise. The true premise has to do with preserving the culture of a people fast eroded by Western Culture steep in moral lasciviousness and recklessness. It is also based on the premise that Islamic education also had its own intrinsic values and many societies had been successfully run on those age-long precepts.

The group maintained this benevolent posturing until their members were harassed and killed by the police for no offense of theirs even at Checkpoints and they could not get justice through the formal courts of law. In keeping with Islamic injunctions to fight back when Muslims are prevented from practicing their beliefs and they are killed for doing so, the group took up arms to retaliate the killings and injustices meted out to its members. We all saw gory pictures of policemen picking up little boys who were unarmed, laying them on a file and shooting at them like some game.

The breaking point was reached when their leader was killed in an extra-judicial manner. That was too much for the group to bear, knowing fully the reason he was killed was to keep a secret secret by top government officials, including Ali Modu Sherrif, the erstwhile governor of Borno State. However, the level of militancy took a worse turn when elements masquerading as Boko Haram funded by this government stepped in and capitalized on the opportunity made congenial by hunger, lack, perceived injustice, religious intolerance and political considerations.

As it were, the religious Boko Haram started by one Yusuf is not fighting or planting and detonating bombs. Hell no. The two other dimensions of the group who have capitalized on the factors I had previously listed are both funded surreptitiously by agents of the Federal Government and the security agents at the topmost echelons know them. They both claim to be Boko Haram each time they strike. It would interest you to know that the boys do not really know who they work for.

They leave unmistakable signatures in their wake each time they strike. Even the security agents who are not in the know do not really know what to look for or who they are really fighting. The government financed agents may be arrested occasionally by patriotic security agents who are not in the know and those in the higher echelons in the know let them vanish into thin air. The perception of invincibility the notorious groups masquerading as Boko Haram have is a function of the level of superior 'intel' at their disposal from top security agents.

However, what is still missing is the angle that has infused secessionist agenda and those who profit immensely from importing and selling arms and ammunition. There is a thriving arms market with cover from above.

At this point, I find it pertinent to examine critically happenings in the past that show how involved top government officials are with the groups in question on a killing spree.

First, recall October 1, 2010 bomb blasts in Abuja. Recall that when they occurred, Mr. President was quick to absolve MEND who had claimed responsibility and to lay the blame at the doorsteps of his co-contestants in the last Presidential Election. The drama that ensued with conflicting lies told by Mrs. Ogah, the Spokes person of the SSS and those by the Police Force lend credence to uncoordinated subterfuge carefully planned and executed by Niger-Delta Militants to the knowledge of Mr. President and the security agencies. Mr. President specifically told the whole world he knew the persons behind it but until this day, Nigerians have not bothered to demand to know them. As a fall out, Raymond Dokpesi was suddenly implicated by the SSS with some supposed Call Log with evidence of telephone conversations between him and the Niger-Delta culprits. Recall also that Dr. Raymond Dokpesi had moved over to head the Media Group of the Campaign Team of one of the contestants, President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida to the chagrin of the Jonathan Campaign Group. Marilyn Ogah had told us so many times on national TV, Raymond Dokpesi was culpable. Surprisingly, as soon as Raymond Dokpesi moved over to join the Campaign Team of President Jonathan, all the charges fizzled out. Recall also that Tony Uranta, a Presidential aide was implicated by the culprits and it is instructive that Mr. President turned a deaf ear and shileded him from prosecution.

The real truth is that persons from the South East and the South South felt it was their opportunity to team up and punish the North for holding on to power all these years and also for the losses they had suffered during the Civil War and perceived marginalization. The clear agenda set for President Jonathan is the disintegration of Nigeria at all costs. I will come back to that shortly.

Why did those bombs have to go off during the Independence Day Celebrations? The answer is not far-fetched. Silly persons like Adamu Ciroma, claiming to speak for the North when he was only speaking for a small cabal that had lost out in the power equation had made uncouth and irresponsible statements to the effect that the North would make the country ungovernable. This provided an alibi for unscrupulous elements around the present government to strike with a view to laying the blame on the opposition candidates and to whip up sympathy for this government and it worked initially despite the see-through lies.

Then came the December 31, 2010 bomb blasts also in Abuja. That bomb blast was strategically planned to coincide with one of the most valued days in the lives of Christians: Cross-Over Night. Remember also that Muslims are averse to alcohol consumption and consequently drinking places also. This provided another fertile ground for this same group to strike and claim to be Boko Haram. The Army Barracks in Nyanyan, specifically the Mami Market located within, was blown sky-high and a number of deaths were recorded. Recollect also how the bombers mysteriously disappeared into thin air. The aim of all of these was to stir up sectarian and ethnic clashes.

Government, as usual came on air (security agencies too) to talk tough claiming to be on top of the situation until this very day. Long after it was clear that security agents were involved, Mr. President only told the public in church this year.

Then came the event that truly revealed the neck-deep involvement of security agents: The Force Headquarters Bomb Blast. It was obvious to any right thinking person that that event was planned and executed as a diversionary measure.

First, we hear that a suicide bomber in an unmarked car rode for a very long distance behind the IG's entourage and the security agents were so daft not to notice. Then as the IG drove in, the policemen on duty at the gate did spot a vehicle without plate number traveling with the IG's entourage (a vehicle that does not usually travel in the IG's entourage) and an officer supposedly allowed the car go in and stopped the driver and asked him to go to the car park where the bomb was detonated. The pertinent question is, why would a suicide bomber be sent to decimate the IG and yet he travelled all the way with the IG for a very long distance and did not ram into the entourage at break-neck speed? Why would the suicide bomber on entry into Force Headquarters prefer to be stopped and asked to go to the car park when he could have simply revved his engine and ram headlong into the IG's parking space just before he got off the vehicle, killing everybody there? Recall also the lie Marilyn Ogah had told us that the 3 Arms Zone had special devices which jammed signals to prevent more bombs from going off on Independence Day (It was a blatant lie!). How come the signals were not jammed to prevent the Police Headquarters bomb blast from occurring?

Part II will give critical clues that will finally resolve the mystery.
God bless Segun Edward II,

SUBSIDY PROBE! Plot To Disrupt Investigations Uncovered

SUBSIDY PROBE! Plot To Disrupt Investigations Uncovered

There are reports emanating that there is an ongoing attempts by individuals and a group to discredit and disrupt the efforts of the Hon. Farouk Lawan-led House of Reps committee investigating the management of petrol subsidy, the House leadership has restated its resolve not to bow to external pressure or blackmail.

In a statement in Abuja on Sunday the House said...

through its Media and Public Affairs Committee Chairman, Hon. Zakari Mohammed, that efforts to discredit the good works of the committee and by extension the House of Representatives would not deter them from carrying out their assignment. 

According to Hon. Mohammed, the Faroouk Lawan-led committee “will remain focused, in spite of the glaring attacks on their persons and the institution they represent.”

Below Are A Few Of The Revelations That Have Come Out Of The Hearings:

Farouk Lawan: What is Nigeria's daily fuel consumption?

Diezieni: 52million Liters

NNPC: 35m liters
DPR: 43m liters
PPPRA: 24M liters
Okonjo: 40M liters

Farouk Lawan: What was the subsidy for 2011?
Diezieni: 1.4Trillion
Okonjo: 1.3Trillion
CBN: 1.7Trillion

Farouk Lawan: Can we have the KPMG REPORT?

(Download KPMG-Consolidated Detailed Findings-v1)
Okonjo: I have to go through the report first
Diezieni: I have not seen the report

Farouk Lawan: What is the production capacity of our local refineries?
NNPC: 30%
PPPRA: 20%
DPR: 13%
Diezieni: 15%

Farouk Lawan: Does Nigeria pay subsidy on locally refined Products?
Diezaini: it depends
NNPC: The lay man cannot understand how it’s done
PPPRA: yes
DPR: No

Farouk Lawan: Why is Kerosene still scarce?
Diezieni: Because its use by the aviation industry as aviation fuel
NNPC: Because there is no subsidy so NNPC overstretched its resources
PPPRA: it’s not properly deregulated

Farouk Lawan: What is the balance in the subsidy accounts?
Diezieni: it’s a virtual account
NNPC: There is no account in existence as the lay man will look at it
PPPRA: The account is a technical one
CBN: There is no account with us for subsidy
Okonjo: The account exists but not with a bank

More still to come.........

Zuma snubs Lagarde {Img: CNN}

South Africa snubs IMF’s Christine Lagarde!

NewsRescue- According to CNN, IMF (International Monetary Fund) boss, Christine Lagarde received a rather chilly welcome from the South African government, when she visited this January. The global recession and a lack of growth in the North (western nations), has resulted in debt-laden North now looking to the emerging market economies in the south for assistance. Portugal recently directly asked Angola for help. And the IMF has sojourned round Africa seeking to impose policies to bring about the same aid.

Emerging nations coerced to help ailing richer western economies

The article further said:

The reasons for the South Africans lukewarm response to her visit are now more clear. The headline of the Johannesburg-based Business Day newspaper reads, “IMF taps BRICS to fund $1 billion crisis gap.”

The article said, “Emerging nations asked to help bail out ailing richer economies.”

It will be recalled from our article on January 1st, 2012 {IMF Forces African Nations to Remove Fuel Subsidies}, that Nigeria joined Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Chad, on New Years day to remove fuel subsidies in accordance with an order from the IMF, purportedly delivered by Christine Lagarde during her December visit to Nigeria. This created a jump in the price of automobile fuel from about 65 Naira per liter to 140Naira per liter overnight, Sunday. This brought fuel/gas prices in Nigeria to about the same price it is in the US, though lower than many European nations. The crushing economic crises has resulted in the famous “occupy” wall street riots in the US, that have resulted so far in 5,800 arrests and cases of police brutality; also the “Robin-hood” August riots of the UK. Greece is also hard hit and at the point of economic failure as are other western nations.

Related: NewsRescue-How The IMF-World Bank and Structural Adjustment Program(SAP) Destroyed Africa

Deadly crises invoked

There was resulting chaos, with strikes from the Nigerian Labor Unions and all businesses, markets, sea and air ports and other operations in Nigeria were halted  for over a week January, in what resulted in a massive, paralyzing civilian revolution against the Government. Over 20 people died as a result of this rejection of the IMF guided, abrupt government unilateral decision.

The Nigerian Government on Monday, 16th January, again unilaterally acted to return normality by decreasing gas pump prices to 50% above pre-subsidy removal costs, and unleashing the army to prevent further peaceful gathering and protest.

Related: NewsRescue- World protests against IMF, World Bank and Nigeria subsidy removal

South Africa acts differently

It is apparent that South Africa, unlike Nigeria and the other West African Nations took another option: Reject IMF forceful European debt crises sharing unto African, better thriving and actually growing economies. The South Africans, who were also some of the only governments in Africa to stand by president Gaddafi against the NATO led invasion to the very end, snubbed the IMF leader on her visit.

CNN article further describes:

The South Africans, despite knowing about her visit for more than a month, had not scheduled any meetings with the Finance Minister, the Reserve Bank governor or any other key economic advisors. Crucially, no meeting was lined up with President Jacob Zuma.

It seemed that IMF staff were scrambling to pin down the South Africans even after Lagarde had arrived in the country.

In the end, Lagarde had ad hoc meetings in Pretoria with the country’s economic teams the morning after she arrived. It is unclear if they apologized, but I understand that one minister told her she visiting at a bad time; most South African government employees were still on their long Christmas holiday and the ruling ANC was holding it’s 100th birthday celebrations in Bloemfontein, a four-hour drive away from Pretoria.

The arrival of one of the world’s most powerful women in southern Africa was clearly not a priority, it seemed.

At one stage it was suggested she would meet South African president Jacob Zuma the following Wednesday – five days away – and the only time he would be able to fit her into his schedule.

From what I understand, it was becomingly increasingly clear to the IMF folks that Zuma was not going to make the effort to meet Lagarde. She would have to go to him.

When we sat down for a wide-ranging interview in a Pretoria hotel, I asked Lagarde if she had managed to pin down Zuma yet? Lagarde smiled wryly to me and said she would be flying to Bloemfontein to meet Zuma the following day.

Deeply tanned and beautifully groomed in that indomitable French way, Lagarde appeared pragmatic, gracious and seemingly unfazed by this apparent snub.

CNN further described Lagarde as apparently arriving with a ‘begging-bowl’.

South Africa is the newest, most controversial member of BRICS, a club of new financial powerhouses originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa’s economy is a minnow compared to their BRIC brothers but the country is Africa’s largest economy and seen as a gateway into the continent’s lucrative and growing markets.

Oliver Twist {Img: SplinteredSunrise}

South Africa likes to think of itself as a global political heavyweight, a player on the multilateral stage and leading member of the South. The crisis in Europe and the U.S. has shifted the balance with the debt-laden North now looking to the emerging market economies for assistance.

This dynamic perhaps explains the cool South African response to Lagarde’s trip.

Perhaps the South Africans viewed Lagarde has arriving with a “begging bowl” in hand? She is reportedly looking to expand the IMF’s war chest to $500 billion, asking for contributions from emerging economies to help fund possible bailouts.

It is left to our imagination why Nigeria and other West African nations did not put the urgent development and progress of their nations ahead of Northern nations, but went head to implement pro-west survival, crushing financial policies on their citizenry.