03/03/18

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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

The Police Command in Taraba has confirmed that five people were killed and several others injured in fresh attacks on Fulani communities by suspected Mambilla militia in Sardauna local government area of the state.
The state’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP David Misal, disclosed this to  the Latest Reality Metro on Saturday.
He said that the crisis erupted in Nyiwa and Yerimaru areas on Thursday as a result of a misunderstanding between a farmer and a herder.
He said units of mobile policemen and soldiers from the 20 battalion in Serti have been deployed to the area to maintain law and order.
Misal added that the situation, which led to the burning of several homes and killing of many cows, had been brought under control.
A victim of the attack, Malam Abubakar Ardo, who escaped with his family, told LR News in Gembu that the attacks started at midday on Thursday and most of the killings occurred in the night.
He said almost all houses in about 15 Fulani communities were torched by the assailants.
Ardo said that the timely arrival of both army and police prevented further killings and destruction of property.
He said that about 15 people were killed during the violence on Thursday evening, adding that five of those killed were buried in Gembu on Friday.
Ardo also confirmed that security personnel have been drafted to the trouble areas leading to restoration of peace.
He called on the state government and security agencies to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators to serve as deterrent to others.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

The UN has called for the protection of big cats species such as lions, tigers and leopards, warning that they are fast going into extinction.
The UN spoke against the backdrop of the 2018 World Wildlife Day, celebrated every March 3, with the theme: “Big cats: predators under threat’’.
According to the UN, the big cats are under increasing threat, mostly caused by human activities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his message said “this year, the spotlight falls on the world’s big cats. These charismatic creatures are universally revered for their grace and power, yet they are increasingly in danger of extinction”.
Guterres said just more than a century ago, some 100,000 wild tigers roamed Asia, while fewer than 4,000 remained today.
According to him, all the big cats are collectively under threat from habitat loss, climate change, poaching, illicit trafficking, and human-wildlife conflict.
“We are the cause of their decline, so we can also be their salvation. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include specific targets to end the poaching and illegal trafficking of protected species of wild fauna and flora.
“Ultimately, the solution to saving big cats and other threatened and endangered species is conservation policy based on sound science and the rule of law,” he noted.
Guterres pointed out that by protecting big cats we also protect the landscapes they inhabit and the life they harbour, adding “it is a gateway to protecting entire ecosystems that are crucial to our planet’s health.
“Wildlife conservation is a shared responsibility,” he said, calling on people around the world to “help raise awareness and to take personal action to help ensure the survival of the world’s big cats and all its precious and fragile biological diversity.”
In his message, Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that while “the cheetah is the world’s fastest land animal, like other big cat species, it cannot outrun the threat of extinction.”
According to Fedetov, across the world, lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars, as well as many other big cat species, are under pressure due to poaching, lost habitats and disappearing prey.
“UNODC is working to help countries criminalise wildlife poaching and trafficking as a means of protecting animals, including big cat species, and halting their tragic disappearance into history.
“Our collective roar of defiance must be aimed at the poachers, traffickers and all those who would destroy our natural heritage. We must not let them succeed,” he urged.
The Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed also lamented that “biodiversity is disappearing at a thousand times the natural rate’’, saying that the varied causes could be linked to the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda.
“Protecting ecosystems and ensuring access to ecosystem services by poor and vulnerable groups are therefore essential to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger,” she said.
Mohammed said conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biological diversity was “an effective anti-poverty strategy,” and emphasised the need to better maintain the natural resources on which billions of people depend, especially the world’s rural poor.
“They say cats have nine lives. Our big cats are on at least number eight,” she said, observing, however, that in many cases, poverty, hunger and biodiversity loss are intrinsically connected.
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More details have emerged about the multiple terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou on Friday, with number of casualties raised and revelation that a car bomb at the army headquarters was targeting a regional security summit.
According to AFP, quoting security sources, the twin  attacks on the French embassy and the country’s military headquarters Friday left dozens dead or wounded.
The government said the attack on the military was a suicide car bombing, adding that a regional anti-terrorism meeting may have been the target.
Eight members of the armed forces were killed by the blast and the parallel attack on the French embassy, while 80 were wounded, said Security Minister Clement Sawadogo. The minister said eight attackers had been shot dead.
“The vehicle was packed with explosives” and caused “huge damage”, Sawadogo said, adding that it was a “suicide” attack.
Three security sources, two in France and one in West Africa, told AFP that at least 28 people were killed in the attack on the military HQ alone.
French government sources said there were no French casualties and described the situation in Ouagadougou as “under control”.
“Our country was once again the target of dark forces,” President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a statement.
The violence began mid-morning when heavy gunfire broke out in the centre of the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou.
Witnesses said five armed men got out of a car and opened fire on passersby before heading towards the French embassy.
At the same time, the bomb went off near the headquarters of the Burkinabe armed forces and the French cultural centre, about a kilometre (half a mile) from the site of the first attack, other witnesses said.
Sawadogo said a meeting of the G5 Sahel regional counter-terrorism force was supposed to have been held at the headquarters but had been moved to another room.
“Perhaps it was the target. We do not know at the moment. In any case the room was literally destroyed by the explosion,” said Sawadogo.
Officials from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger were at the meeting, representing the G5 Sahel nations who have launched a joint military force to combat jihadists on the southern rim of the Sahara.
The completed force will be composed of 5,000 troops and aims to be fully operational by the end of the month.
It has already carried out operations against jihadist fighters with help from the French army.
Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger’s president and the current chair of the G5-Sahel, said Friday’s attacks “will only strengthen the resolve of the G5-Sahel and its allies in the fight against terrorism”.
“More than ever, Africa and the international community must mobilize to stand together against this barbarity that must be permanently neutralized,” added Guinea’s President Alpha Conde in a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron telephoned his Burkinabe counterpart Kabore to express solidarity and send his condolences to the families of the slain security force members, his office said.
Macron, who made a high-profile visit to Burkina Faso in November, said the attacks “illustrate once more the threat weighing on the entire Sahel region”.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said damage to the embassy was minor, and the mission would be able to resume normal operations “in two or three days”.
He paid tribute to the Burkinabe forces defending the embassy: “It’s thanks to the courage of these troops and gendarmes that no one was hurt.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Burkina Information Minister Remis Fulgance Dandjinou said the attack “has strong overtones of terrorism”.
Burkina Faso has a history of military-backed coups as well as of jihadist attacks. LR News
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The abducted wife and child of the Voice of America ( VOA ) journalist, Malam Nasir Birnin-Yero, have regained freedom after the payment N2 million.
The abductors, who kidnapped the reporter’s family on Wednesday, also killed a staff of Federal Road Safety Commission that wanted to help the victims.
Birnin-Yero told the Latest Reality Metro on Saturday in Kaduna that the abductors released the victims late Friday at Sabon Birni, a village near Kaduna International Airport.
“When the abductors contacted me they demanded N12 million ransom for their release.
“The abductors told me that they came to kidnap me but they didn’t find me. So, if I want to see my family I most pay or I will never see them again.
“But we pleaded with the abductors and they later agreed to take N2 million which we paid before their release.
“Friends and family were able to source the money and pay to the abductors.”
He added that his wife and the child were not harmed by their abductors.
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
President Muhammadu Buhari in a group photograph with members of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative and Fertilizer Supplier Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) Committee, after a meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday. Above, President Buhari, 5th from right, Audu Ogbeh7th left, Chief of staff, Abba Kyari, 4th left, Governor Badaru, 3rd left. Ogbeh reports Buhari’s government blamed for collapse of rice mills in Thailand

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Audu Ogbeh says Thailand has accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s government of being responsible for the collapse of its seven rice mills as rice importation from  Nigeria fell drastically.
The minister made this known at a meeting of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and leadership of the Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers of Nigeria (FEPSAN) held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
The meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ogbeh said Thailand’s Ambassador to Nigeria made the “accusation’’ when he visited him in February.
According to the minister, the ambassador lamented that the collapse of the rice mills has increased the unemployment rate in his country from 1.2 per cent to 4 per cent.
“Just like two weeks ago, the Ambassador of Thailand came to my office and said to me that we have really dealt with them.
“But I asked what did we do wrong and he said unemployment in Thailand was one of the lowest in the world, 1.2 per cent, it has gone up to four per cent because seven giant rice mills have shut down because Nigeria’s import has fallen by 95 per cent on rice alone.
“So, Mr President we thank you for the support and we thank all the agencies and those of you in the private sector for your resilience,’’ he said.
The minister, however, alerted the nation on what he described as alarming smuggling of fake fertiliser and rice along the western borders of the country.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to take drastic measures to check the trend as all previous diplomatic measures had failed to address the menace.
“But one last request Mr President, we have to take one strong measure against our neighbour to the West. The smuggling is really compromising our capacity on our result.
“Too much rice, too much fake fertilizer is still coming across the borders into this country in spite of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we have with them they are not listening.
“Maybe if the Federal Government takes one tough action, they will come and renegotiate the terms because good neighbourliness means reciprocity.
“We can’t be allowing them to survive at our own expense and I believe that we will do something about it,’’ he said.
Ogbeh appealed to FEPSAN to adjust their blending formula using little more micro nutrients for some crops like cocoa, cashew, plantain, banana and others that would soon be revived by his ministry.
The minister noted that the agricultural sector had created millions of jobs for Nigerians in the last two years.
He said: “People may say what they like about jobs. Recently I heard that we lost four million jobs. Nobody has calculated the millions and millions of jobs created on the farms.
“So, this programme as it grows can only make us stronger.
“As soon as more dams and lakes are put in place, you begin to sell fertilizer all year round and not wait for the rainy season alone.’’
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