No fewer than 23 persons were reportedly killed, on Monday night, by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Dundu village of Kwal District of Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Daily Sun gathered that the attack which occurred at about 7pm on Monday at Dundu village of Kwal, left several houses burnt and scores injured, all who are now receiving medical treatment at Enos Hospital Miango.
It was learnt that the attackers took the villagers unawares when the villagers were preparing to take their dinner and the entire village was enveloped by gun fire from the attackers leaving children, women and the aged scampering for safety.
A youths leader, who gave his name as Lowrance Timothy, said 23 corpses had been counted and more were still being recover from the bush as the villagers were fleeing for safety.
“The suspected Fulani herdsmen stormed the village at about 7pm when people were preparing for dinner. Children and women including men who keep vigil in the community were taken unaware and killed 23 persons while several others were injured and houses burnt with foodstuff.”
Police Public Relation Officer of the Plateau State Police Command, ASP Tyopev Marthias Terna, confirmed the ugly incident and said he does not have detail of the casualty.
He pledged to call the DPO of Bassa Local Government Area to get details and communicate our reporter as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Irigwe women from Miango District of Bassa Local Government Area on Tuesday took over the major streets in the famous terminus market, Ahmadu Bello Way, Tafawa Balewa Street and Gada-Buyu road in Jos to protest the killing of women and children during the attacks in Miango villages.
The women protested to the mortuary of the temporary sit of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), where five corpses of children ages between 12 and 17 years deposited after they were attacked and killed from mining site by suspects herdsmen.
The women who dressed in black attires, carrying leafs and plea cards to register their displeasure over the reoccurring episodes of killings in Miango communities, returned more devastated from the mortuary when the news of the killing of over 23 persons was broken.
It could be recalled that Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, gave a marching order to the security agents in the state to immediately arrest and prosecute the criminals that perpetrated killings in various communities.
In a statement by Commissioner for Information and Communication, Yakubu Dati, said the state will not condone the activities of hoodlums who take advantage of conflicts among citizens to perpetrate killings and destruction of property in the name of ethnic crisis.
Governor Lalong believes that our differences are better resolved by sitting together to address our differences rather than taking arms against one another.
He warned that the state will not fold its arms and watch the enemies of Plateau take us back to the dark old days when citizens distrust one another, adding that “we must emphasize on the great values that unite us as a people.”
Judges of the International Criminal Court at a plenary sitting have elected Justice Chile Eboe Osuji, an Igbo Man as the president of the International Criminal Court for a three-year term with immediate effect. Judge Robert Fremr(Czech Republic) was elected First Vice-President and Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (France) Second Vice-President.
Profile of Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji
• The new president holds an LLB from the University of Calabar, Nigeria (1985), an LLM from McGill University, Canada (1991), and a PhD in international criminal law from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2011).
• He was elected to ICC in December 16, 2011, thus making him the first judge of Nigerian descent in that Court. He won the office in the fifteenth ballot in the Assembly of States Parties with 102 votes.
• He has taught international criminal law as an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, Canada, and has an extensive record of legal scholarship and publications.
• Judge Eboe-Osuji served as a legal expert to Nigeria’s delegation to the ICC-ASP Special Working Group on the Definition of the Crime of Aggression and practised law as a barrister, appearing in many criminal, civil and constitutional cases before national courts in Nigeria and Canada.
• Prior to joining the ICC, Judge Eboe-Osuji was the Legal Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, during which time he led the writing of submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and the United States Supreme Court.
• He also served as the Principal Appeals Counsel for the Prosecution in the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (2007-2008) and has held several posts at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including Head of Chambers (2008-2010) and Lead Prosecution Trial Counsel (2000-2003).
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established on 17 July 1998, by a conference of 160 States which established the first treaty-based permanent international criminal court. The treaty adopted during that conference is known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The court investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Several individuals have been indicted by the ICC which includes President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and the Former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, and his wife Simone.
Here are other important things to know about Eboe-Osuji.
1. Eboe-Osuji was born and had his first degree in Nigeria. Eboe-Osuji studied law at the University of Calabar (LL.B) and was called to bar in 1986. He practised briefly in the country before going to McGill University, Montreal Canada for his LL.M and University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands for doctoral degree in laws.
2. From 1997 to 2005, Eboe-Osuji served as a counsel and senior legal officer to judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
3. After this engagement, he returned to Canada and continue his private law practise.
4. In 2005, he appointed to work for the Special Court for Sierra Leone and also returned to the ICTR to work as a legal officer from 2008 to 2010. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) appointed him a legal advisor in 2010. This position he held until his appointment as a judge of the ICC on December 16, 2011.
5. Eboe-Osuji is also currently in charge of the genocide case against the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta at the ICC.
Consumers of alcoholic beverages and tobacco are soon to pay more as President Muhammadu Buhari at the weekend approved an amendment to the excise duty rates with effect from Monday, June 4, 2018.
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who made this known yesterday in Abuja, stated that the new excise duty rates were spread over a three-year period from 2018 to 2020 in order to moderate the impact on prices of the products.
She disclosed that the new excise duty regimes followed all-inclusive engagements by the Tariff Technical Committee of the Federal Ministry of Finance with key industry stakeholders.
According to her, the upward review of the excise duty rates for alcoholic beverages and tobacco was to achieve a dual benefit of raising the government’s fiscal revenues and reducing the health hazards associated with tobacco-related diseases and alcohol abuse.
“The Tariff Technical Committee (TCC) recommended the slight adjustment in the excise duty charges after cautious considerations of the government’s Fiscal Policy Measures for 2018 and the reports of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund Technical Assistance Mission on Nigeria’s Fiscal Policy.
“The effect of the excise duty rates adjustment on trade and investment was also assessed by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and it adopted the recommendations of the TTC.
“Furthermore, peer country comparisons were also carried out showing Nigeria as being behind the curve in the review of excise duty rates on alcoholic beverages and tobacco,” she said.
Following the president’s approval, Adeosun disclosed that the new excise duty rate on tobacco was now a combination of the existing ad-valorem base rate and specific rate while the ad-valorem rate was replaced with a specific rate for alcoholic beverages.
“For alcoholic beverages, the current ad-valorem rate will be replaced with specific rates and spread over three years to moderate the impact on prices. This will curb the discretion in the unit cost analysis (UCA) for determining the ad-valorem rate and prevent revenue leakages.
“For tobacco, the government will maintain the current ad-valorem rate of 20 per cent and introduce additional specific rates with the implementation to be spread over a three-year period to also reasonably reduce the impact on prices,” she explained.
Under the newly approved excise duty rates for tobacco in addition to the 20 per cent ad-valorem rate, each stick of cigarette will attract a N1 specific rate per stick (N20 per pack of 20 sticks) in 2018, N2 specific rate per stick (N40 per pack of 20 sticks) in 2019 and N2.90k specific rate per stick (N58 per pack of 20 sticks) in 2020.
The minister explained that Nigeria’s cumulative specific excise duty rate for tobacco was 23.2 per cent of the price of the most sold brand, as against 38.14 per cent in Algeria, 36.52 per cent in South Africa and 30 per cent in Gambia.
The new specific excise duty rate for alcoholic beverages cuts across beer and stout, wines and spirits for the three years (2018-2020).
Under the new regime, beer & stout would attract N0.30k per centilitre (Cl) in 2018 and N0.35k per Cl each in 2019 and 2020.
Wines would attract N1.25k per Cl in 2018 and N1.50k per Cl each in 2019 and 2020, while N1.50k per Cl was approved for spirits in 2018, N1.75k per Cl in 2019 and N2.00k per Cl in 2020.
The president has also granted a grace period of 90 days (three months) to all manufacturers before the commencement of the new excise duty regime to enable them adjust accordingly.
There is, however, no increase in excise duty of other locally excisable products at the moment.
The minister added that the new excise duty regimes are in line with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) directive on the harmonisation of member-states’ legislations on excise duties.
The ECOWAS Council of Ministers had at its 62nd and 79th Ordinary Sessions in Abuja in May 2009 and December 2017, respectively, issued directives on the harmonisation of the ECOWAS Member States’ Legislations on Excise Duties.
The directives seek to harmonise member-states’ legislations on excise duties of non-oil products and also stipulate the scope of application, rate of taxation, taxable event and amount.
A federal high court sitting in Enugu ruled today on an application brought before her against President Buhari.Alaigbo Development Foundation has approached the court to declare as illegal -the deployment of Solders code named operation python dance to Alaigbo without the approval of the National Assembly .
The judgement was given today and the detail of the ruling will be reported by Chinedu Asuzu before the end of today via BVI CHANNEL 1 YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
•We need help, or we’ll be wiped out soon, community leaders plead
David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
Except there is urgent intervention by government between now and the commencement of the rainy season, trouble looms for residents of Umuogbo Obiofia, a community in Nnewichi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State.
There are fears that the community would be completely destroyed soon and the people displaced by a devastating erosion that has continued to threaten buildings in the area.
Residents of the community, who raised the alarm recently, pleaded with the Anambra State government and other relevant agencies not to allow them to be consumed by erosion. In their words, there is no other place they could run to.
President-general of Nnewi community, Lagos branch, Chief Emma Orji Chukwu, told the reporter that his house was one of those that might soon be swept away by the rampaging erosion. He returned to Nnewi recently, where he joined those at home to make a passionate appeal to the Federal Government, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, the World Bank and other stakeholders in the area to make haste and rescue the community from the yawning jaws of erosion.
“The erosion site is at the heart of the community. Many farmlands have been wiped away. Many cash crops and economic trees of our people have been destroyed and human lives lost since the problem started. Chief Hycent Orji Chukwu, my uncle, died because of the erosion menace. His grave and that of his wife have been swept away by the erosion. My house, a castle I have here in the village, is under very serious threat as the erosion is only a few metres away from it.
“We have been doing our best through communal efforts to fix the problem but it has gone beyond what the community can handle. Governor Obiano, during the last gubernatorial election campaign, told us that he had made a down-payment of N1 billion through an international agency as counterpart funding to help handle the erosion menace. But we are worried that the erosion has continued to advance towards our residential buildings. At the last count, eight houses have been consumed by the erosion,” Chukwu lamented.
Chukwu, who is also the current president of Nnewi Improvement Union, said he was worried that contracts for the curtailment of the erosion crisis in other communities like Nkpor and Obosi who had the same erosion problem had been signed. He regretted that the contract for his own community was yet to be signed. He said that his community was confused and could not figure out what was happening.
Chukwu expressed gratitude to Willie Onyejekwu, one of the governor’s aides, for his concern on the community’s erosion problem. He said that Onyejekwu had spent his time and effort in many ways to assist the community.
Chairman of works at the erosion site, Mr. Innocent Obodoefuna, said the erosion started as a gully at a spot he called Mmiri Agu in 1983. He explained that successive administrations in Anambra State had visited the site without doing much, even as members of the community had spent over N40 million for all sorts of palliatives, but to no avail.
He said that Governor Obiano had shown considerable interest to assist the community by bringing the attention of the World Bank to the erosion problem. He added that it was for that reason that members of the community massively voted for Obiano’s second term in office. He, therefore, appealed to the governor not to relent. He told the reporter that the World Bank had also promised to start work very soon at the site.
“But our fear is delay, because delay is dangerous. The community has already encountered great human and material losses and that is why we are calling for action before this year’s rainy season actually sets in,” he said.
Obodoefuna said some people from the community, including Uchechukwu Uzoeto, Nwanyi Nkwo, Cyril Ojukwu, Oforkile and Assistant Superintendent of Police Enem had fallen victim to the erosion menace. He said some of those people died as a result of the erosion and their graves were washed away and could no longer be identified.
Chairman of Umuogbo Development Union, Mr. Tony Nzewi, stated that what the community expected from the federal and state governments was to face the ecological problem at the community squarely before it is removed from the map of Anambra State.
The site engineer, Metu Hilary, said his company had been trying to divert water that came into the big valleys already created by the erosion. He noted that the communal efforts had been wonderful without which the entire community would have been washed away by now.
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has told candidates participating in the 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam (UTME) that it has no plans to reschedule the exam dates for any reason.
This was in response to a barrage of complaints by some candidates that they have not been able to print their examination e-slips, which contains detailed information on the forthcoming test.
Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, at a press conference in Abuja, reminded candidates that the system was not the same as last year’s, when e-slips had been uploaded onto candidates’ JAMB profiles.
“Candidates are expected to have printed their e-slips because we released it since Tuesday 6th March. The e-slips obviously contain vital information like exam town/centre, date and time allocated to each candidate,” he noted.
He followed up with a caution that “candidates are to note that there shall be no rescheduling of exam for any reason. It is advisable that they adhere strictly to the date and time allocated to them for the exam. Failure to turn up on scheduled date means they have lost the opportunity.”
Meanwhile, JAMB spokesman Dr. Fabian Benjamin informed candidates, especially those claiming not to have received e-slip notifications, to visit the JAMB website to print their slips.
“We won’t accept excuses (sic) of e-slip,” he said. “This is because we have sent notifications to all candidates. But anyone that didn’t receive it should quickly visit JAMB website and print the e-slip before it is too late.”
The 2018 UTME begins today (Friday) and will last for one week. The first set of candidates are expected to write the exam by 3 p.m. across the 605 accredited Computer Base Test (CBT) centres across Nigeria.
Last week the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) released what looked like the Periodic table which we used in the O-level Chemistry class to determine the valency of metallic elements, announcing the dates of elections in Nigeria up to 2043 or so. Some people saw this as a strategic and audacious move of projecting the future. Indeed INEC said they did this to bring some certainty to election dates in Nigeria. Many other commentators have mocked INEC for ‘forming work’, that is pretending to be working when actually there is no work being done.
They think that INEC is leaving the substance and pursuing the shadow. Some think all this was INEC’s response to the “effrontery” of the National Assembly in trying to change the sequence of elections in Nigeria. The executive is decidedly unhappy about this and it looks INEC has gone on overdrive to project the President’s desire.
But there is little INEC can do, as it is their lot to implement the laws made by the National Assembly and not to make laws themselves. Some believe that INEC should spend its time and budget in tackling existing problems like a dispassionate and truthful investigation of the widely reported underage voting in parts of the North especially Kano during the 2015 elections and continued registration of the underaged currently going on in some parts of Nigeria. This is because,this would have marred the 2015 elections and may have caused post election crisis were it not for the single minded determination of Good luck Jonathan to avoid any bloodshed . In 2019, the combatants may not be as peace seeking or in the language of Charley boy as “mumu” like Jonathan.
It is further felt that if 2015 elections were expected to test Nigeria’s unity following several prophesies and theories, we do not need any other prophet to tell us that 2019 may be the 2015 that was prophesied. This is because at no time in recent history did we approach an election season with so much anomie in the land. Nigeria is currently so disunited and dysfunctional that anything worse than this will require a new definition of disunity. In 2015, we had some internally displaced persons(IDPs) camps in the North East only but as we approach 2019 we have IDP camps in the North East( courtesy Boko Haram), North West ( courtesy Zamfara Bandits), North Central ( courtesy Militant Fulani Herdsmen ), South East( courtesy militant Fulani Herdsmen and Kidnappers), South West( courtesy militant Fulani herdsmen and Badoo cultists), South South( courtesy militant Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers and militant oil thieves). How will INEC handle this logistics nightmare should occupy INEC instead of acting as Nostradamus- the man who saw the future. There is so much uncertainty regarding 2019 elections that it may not be worth my time thinking of what will happen in 2023, not to talk of 2043.
First, many Nationalities in Nigeria have taken positions regarding the future of Nigeria. Many still believe that there is some benefit in Nigeria remaining one big country with many Nationalities. But such believe that for that to continue to be, the Country has to be restructured in order to cure the Country of the chronic instability, corruption, profligacy and dysfunction that has brought the Country almost to its knees since the Military usurped power in 1966 and dislocated the arrangement made by the founders of modern Nigeria for a viable, thriving and mutually beneficial federation with strong federating units. Some other nationalities especially in the core North feel that there is nothing wrong with Nigeria or its structure and will like to see Nigeria wobble from one crisis to another and continue to shed innocent blood daily perhaps to satisfy thirsty deities foistered on this Country by the workers of iniquity. And then there are some other nationalities that feel that Nigeria is a lost cause. They look at the contradictions-ethnic bigotry, religious intolerance, manifest injustice, entrenched greed, sustained retrogression and the ‘we must rule or baboons and monkey be soaked in their blood’ mentality and they conclude that the only lasting solution is to let the Nationalities go their seperate ways in peace. To this last group belongs Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB and many from his nationality. To day, I hear that many other nationalities especially in south-south and the middle belt share this view point,having tasted a little of what the South East has suffered in the Nigerian federation for years.
So it is clear that we are going into 2019 a very fractured Country with different nationalities holding different views about the future. While some are willing to have discussions on what to do, first to avoid any cataclysm that may be imminent and second on how to rearrange the relationships to assure future prosperity of all stakeholders in the Federation, some have already become impatient that they are already taking it out on the rest of us by different acts of violence and malfeasance. This is evident in the current state of affairs in Nigeria where it is as if we are in a state of war, one new killing field every day and yet some people think all is well.
I think INEC should begin to create scenarios as to what will happen if the election does not hold in 2019. That is a possibility, even if remote. Some Nationalities have insisted that there will be no elections in 2019 if the restructuring of Nigeria does not happen, resulting in a new constitution before elections. They opine that the cosmetic piecemeal amendments of the 1999 Constitution being undertaken by the legislature is only begging the issue and only a brand new constitution written by the true representatives of the federating nationalities will satisfy their demand. The Government of Nigeria certainly does not take that kind of threat lightly and would rather prepare the military to undertake an operation ‘Elephant gyration’ to subdue any such nationalities. But my point is that there is so much real work INEC should be doing, instead of just ‘forming’work.
Over the weekend, I heard that a particular political party was doing ’empowerment’ programs in my town and they were cajoling young men and women to come and collect money to start businesses or help themselves on the condition that they will drop their Permanent Voter’s cards. Then on the Election Day, they would use the PVCs to vote for these ’empowered’ young men and women.That is part of their desperation strategy to come to power in 2019. I do not know If INEC knows about this unique winning strategy by this particular political party? There must be other such devious strategies being devised by other political parties to win the elections in 2019. How does INEC prepare to counter these moves? How are they preparing to stay ahead of all the partisan efforts to bend or break the rules?. Now INEC has registered so many new parties and many more are angling for registration. By 2019, we may have 200 parties on the ballot. How will INEC deal with all these new parties including Obasanjo’s coalition for Nigeria and the multitude of contestants for a single position? These are serious tasks for INEC and my main point worth repeating is that there is so much work INEC needs to occupy itself with now and so, should stop amusing us with setting date for 2045 election when there is so much uncertainty about 2019.
An accident that involved a truck belonging to Zeberced limited, on Friday, claimed multiple lives including a solider and 19 vehicles along Abuja-Keffi expressway in Abuja.
Preliminary investigation confirmed that the accident which happened at about 10:30 am was as a result of break failure on the side of the truck.
Eyewitness told Saturday Sun that the driver was descending the Kugbo hill when he realized that his break system have failed.
“It was obvious that he couldn’t control the vehicle anymore and instead of heading to nearby ditch to stop the truck, he took the wrong decision of using people and vehicles as break. It was catastrophic because innocent lives were lost and vehicles destroyed,” he explained.
Nyanya Unit Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), Micheal Arinzeagu, who led the rescue operation narrated what happened.
He said: “There was minor crash earlier between two motorists who were unable to settle themselves peacefully. They parked and were claiming right. In the course of the argument, a soldier on a motorcycle stopped and tried to make peace among them. Before then, the traffic had built up.
While the soldier was trying to make peace, the zeberced truck that had already failed break, apparently loaded with chippings, was descending the Kugbo hill.
“As the driver could not control the vehicle again, he begun to crush vehicles along the way. Unfortunately, the soldier that was trying to make and many others were crushed by the truck.”
When asked on the number of people that died, the FRSC official said, “We could not give exact number of people that died because we were busy trying to rescue those that were still alive.
“We are yet to visit the hospitals where they were taken to. But we counted 19 vehicles including the Abuja high capacity bus (elrufai bus) and several other expensive vehicles that was damaged,” he explained.
He appreciated the combined effort of the Police, Civil Defence, VIO and others that led to quick response to the occasion.
I greet you in the name of Allah and congratulate you on the return of your son Yusuf after an apparently successful medical tourism to a country better managed than Nigeria. When I saw Yusuf’s smiling face on television, I recalled the gloomy faces of my schoolmates picked up by moonlight that fateful night as we were being driven by our abductors to a land unknown after they forcefully took us from our school.
The excitement on your son’s face as he returned back to a life of luxury whereby he uses expensive motorbikes to drive away boredom contrasted sharply with the dreadful melancholy on the faces of my schoolmates as we were being taken in a rickety truck to a life of certain misery. I saw Yusuf being surrounded by ministers, government officials and a state governor, each person trying hard to identify with his joy. This was almost the same way our abductors surrounded us, each of them trying to identify closely with any of my schoolmates he found most sexually attractive.
When I saw the mirth and glow on the face of your wife over the recovery of her only son from a serious accident, I remembered the crying and tear-ridden face of my mother when they showed her on television. I heard that your wife thanked Nigerians for their prayers and concern over Yusuf’s accident. I also heard that my mother complained that security agencies harassed and beat her because she lamented the way the government handled the issue of our abduction.
Please send my warm regards to Yusuf. Tell him that I envy people like him – those who are fortunate to live like kings in a land full of suffering. Tell him that people like us still exist – those whose cardinal sin was that they were unfortunate to be born in a country cursed with incompetent leadership and insensitive leaders.
His Excellency, I currently live with two men who take turns to rape me countless times in a day. The first day, I fought one of them as he tried to deflower me but he hit me so much that I passed out. It was when I woke up that I realised that he had deflowered me while I was unconscious. I wept for several hours over my lost virginity and wept more when I realised that the second man also slept with me too in my insentient state.
I wish you can ask these men why they usually thrust their stinking bodies on me one at a time, one after the other, anytime they finish saying their prayers, taking my pride as a woman in such a violent manner that I wonder whether the god they just prayed to do assent to such cruelty. I used to struggle and cry in the past but now I am drained of energy. So I only close my eyes and beg God to take my life and save me from an existence I never thought was possible. But God has refused to listen so I starve myself and eat any strange substance that I come about, hoping to die of hunger or poisoning. I am disappointed that I am still alive.
They did not care whether I ate or not in the first four days. But since their commander came and talked to them, they have been bringing food to me, sometimes begging me to eat. I overheard their commander telling them that they need to keep me alive and well so that they would use me to make a lot of money from the Nigerian government and get some of their commanders in government custody released. Initially I did not understand what they meant until one of them said they want to use me and my schoolmates the way they have been using the other girls they took from Chibok to blackmail and extort the government.
Sir, even in the lowest point of your glorious military service and your remarkable life, you wouldn’t have experienced half of what I am going through. I am permanently disheartened over my uncertain, miserable future and I keep thinking of my parents and siblings who don’t know whether I am still alive or dead. My mother is hypertensive and I doubt whether she would survive the abduction of her favourite daughter by bloodthirsty terrorists.
I don’t know where exactly we are being kept but I know we are very very far from our school where they took us. The truck that took us from our school drove through the road and bush for several hours in the night, until we got to a newly cleared place that looked lonely and deserted. They kept all of us who were taken from our school there for a day and then separated us and drove me and nine others for several hours to another place where we were shared out to twenty dirty, stinking bearded, Quran-clutching, gun-trotting men. The place we now find ourselves looks like it was hurriedly built with wood and paper cartons and is located deep inside a thick bush.
Every evening, they bring ten of us together in the house of a man they call Sheikh where I was surprised to see a big television with satellite connection which is powered by a small generator. Most of the men were usually interested in Nigerian news, which Sheikh interpreted to those who do not hear English.
All of us former schoolgirls usually sit quietly in a corner of the large room, each of us aware of the trauma and tragedy of the other. We recognise one another but we hardly talk to each other as we are aware that our oppressors may be listening and they have instructed us not to speak to each other. Even if we wanted to talk, I wonder in our anxiety and anguish what any of us may want to say to another. So we always sit face down, innocent girls whose lives have been ruined by the failures of the government and institutions that were supposed to protect them.
Mr. President, you need to do something about those in your government that tell regular lies and those who bring disgrace to your name. You need to see the way the men laughed when they heard that you have deployed 100 aircraft to look for 110 girls and how they laughed harder when they watched a newscaster narrating how the Nigerian police and army were blaming each other over our abduction.
It was the third day we were taken there that Sheikh explained the existence of the television. I heard him telling one of them that looked like a fresh recruit that they bought the television together with a generator and a lot of sophisticated weapons after your government paid them handsomely in order to secure the release of some kidnapped lecturers. They talk about you as if you are one of them. They seem very delighted that you are Nigeria’s president.
Sheikh has huge white beards and spoke with authority. He looks like you – tall, dark in complexion and lanky – but with a beard. He speaks to us like an uncle and keeps telling us that we were abducted in the service of the holy prophet and that we may be needed on an important mission. One day, I complained to him about the persistent rape and beating by the men that I live with. That was after one of them beat me mercilessly only because I was menstruating.
I wasn’t surprised or shocked when Sheikh told me that I should count myself lucky that some servants of Allah were violating an infidel. My ordeal is like an unending horror movie that I have become inured to surprises and shocks.
When we got back to the place we are staying after the encounter, both men beat me thoroughly with sticks. I did not cry or shed a tear. Maybe the tears refused to come or my body is now deadened to pain. I don’t really know.
Our dear President, it was during our sixth visit to the Sheikh’s place that I saw you on television looking very happy and excited amongst other expensively clothed men and women. It took me a while to understand that you were attending the wedding of the children of two serving state governors. Do you know that our abductors found the scene on television so amusing that they laughed and laughed and laughed? Their laughter was so loud and consistent that it drew the attention of all of us in the corner of the room. When we realised what tickled the men, all of us started crying. Our scalding tears were because of the tragedy of our lives and the tragedy of our country.
You see, when I was in primary school, I dreamt of being married by a wealthy man and having the kind of wedding you just attended. I realised that the easiest route to achieving such dream was to read hard and work hard. I read hard, I worked hard. That was the reason I have been top of my class since I entered secondary school.
Now my dreams are shattered. I don’t think I have a future. I don’t even want to have a future. Because the future offers me lowlife, endless sexual assault, possible pregnancy, death from the bullets of the Nigerian Armed Forces or the terrorists themselves. A future for me means possible indoctrination to become a suicide bomber whereby I go and blow up a market killing innocent people or being abused in captivity until I will be used as a bait to fund the terrorists and increase their capacity to kill more people. Or sometime in future I will appear on Shekau’s video, which would surely kill my mother. I just want to die now.
President Buhari, you have failed me. Your government has failed me, Nigeria has failed me.
Among those affected in the purge are the 18 members of the state executive council and all political appointees in ministries, departments and agencies.
A letter signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu, in Awka, ordered the affected officers to hand over to permanent secretaries of their respective ministries, departments and agencies or to the most senior civil servants in the absence of permanent secretaries.
