NIGERIAN AIR FORCE MANUFACTURES HER OWN DRONE

Wednesday, 23 January 2013 09:47

NIGERIA now has a home-grown solution to the menace of Boko Haram after four air force engineers successfully designed an unmanned jet bomber popularly known as a drone used to devastating effect against Al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan.

All four officers were flight lieutenants from the Nigerian Air Force School of Engineers, Aircraft Design Centre in Kaduna. Yesterday, they displayed their drone to Professor Ita Okon Bassey-Ewa, Nigeria's minister of science and technology, asking that the credit for breakthrough be given to the commandant of the school and the chief of air staff, pleading that their names not be mentioned.

Their work is the culmination of three years of collaboration with Cranfield University in the UK funded by the federal government. This new drone they have developed can fly non-stop for about four hours at 3,000 feet and comes with a rear empennage of about three metres and a wing span of about half a metre.

It was conceptualised, designed and built in Kaduna under the direct supervision of the provost of the Nigerian Air Force Institute of Technology Professor Emmanuel Ezugwu. All four officers had bagged masters degrees in various fields relating to avionics from Cranfield University after their first degrees from the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.

One of the officers said: “We designed and built this unmanned air vehicle based on the pressing needs of our country today. The vehicle can be used in pipeline monitoring, border patrol, mapping and disaster monitoring.

"Other areas of use include maritime patrol, aerial surveillance and pest monitoring. This vehicle can fly at 3000 feet and remain airborne for four hours using petrol for now."

Another added: " The first one we built is called Amebo 1 and the second one is Amebo 2, which is an improvement over the first. If we keep getting the right support as we are getting now, we will accomplish our mission for the country.”

He added that over the next five years, there are plans to start building light aircraft. The minister who was in Kaduna attending the National Stakeholders’ Workshop/Exhibition, was shown several other innovations at the event.

http://www.nigerianwatch.com/news/1188-nigerian-air-force-engineers-display-locally-manufactured-drone

Police Nabs Five With N108m Worth Of Fake Currencies

Posted by: daniel on January 29, 2013 in Nigerian News Leave a comment

THE SUSPECTS WITH THE PRINTING MACHINES & FAKE CURRENCY NOTES

The Lagos State Police Command on Monday, paraded five men for printing local and foreign currencies.Two of the suspects, Femi Jacob and Ramon Adeoye, were arrested at Ogunlana Street, Alagbado with eight printing machines and a large quantity of printed fake notes in Naira, Dollars, Pounds, Euros and Cedis totalling N8m while Isaka Usman and Akeem Ayobado, were nabbed at Ikorodu with 14 printing machines, one cutting machine and N100m fake notes. The fifth suspect, Onyeka Ibe, was allegedly an Anambra-based buyer, who usually comes to Lagos to buy fake currencies.

The state Command’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, said, “This syndicate has been in operation for over five years. Their customers are spread across several African countries like the Republic of Benin, Mali, Ghana, Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“The Officer-in-Charge of SARS, Superintendent of Police Abba Kyari, got a tip-off about the operations of the syndicate some weeks ago and mounted surveillance at Jacob’s Alagbado residence. It was Jacob’s confessional statement after his arrest that led to the arrest of Ayodabo who is the leader of the syndicate.“This case will eventually be handed over to operatives of Interpol because of the negative implications the fake currencies outflow might have had on the economies of the West African countries.”

The CP stated that the cutting machine was owned by Ayodabo and procured from the Republic of BeninOne of the suspects, Ibe said, “I often come down to Oluwole Street in Lagos Island. That is where Ayodabo has his shop. I would spend N5,000 to get currency worth N100,000. I usually buy currency worth between N500,000 and N700,000.”

During the parade of the suspects, who have been in business for five years with customers spread across the continent, the fake notes were also displayed.Adeoye, who said he was arrested at Iyana Ipaja, said, “I am just an errand boy, my duty was to deliver fake currencies to buyers. I was on my way to deliver fake notes worth N700,000 to one Ibrahim when I was arrested.”

http://www.informationng.com/2013/01/police-nabs-five-with-n108m-worth-of-fake-currencies.html

NIGERIAN SOLDIERS ..MAIL

Nigerian Troops Ill-equipped For War In Mali! - Politics - Nairaland

Jan 21

There are speculations that due to lack of adequate training and discipline, the over 1,200 Nigeria troops would not be directly involved in combat operations to oust the militiamen from the northern region of Mali. A United Kingdom (UK)-based newspaper, The Guardian,on its website yesterday alleged that men of the Nigerian Army deployed in Mali lacked the capacity to fight on the front line. The paper quoted a senior source in Mali that the military contingent from Nigeria lacks the needed training and discipline to be relied upon to oust the Islamists from northern Mali prompting suggestions that the role of the men would be limited to security and logistics. “The Nigerian Army is in a shocking state,” said the source, “in reality there is no way they are capable of forward operations in Mali – their role is more likely to be limited to manning checkpoints and loading trucks. “The Nigerian forces lack training and kit, so they simply don’t have the capability to carry out even basic military manoeuvres. They have poor discipline and support. They are more likely to play a behind-the-scenes role in logistics and providing security.” The source added that under plans for the enforcement of a United Nations (UN) Security Council-backed military intervention in Mali, Nigeria, alongside troops belonging to member states of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) are expected to lead forward operations. The reality on ground as reported by the paper may have forced the governments of France, Germany, the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) to consider the idea of further providing the Malian army with the necessary training, equipment and logistics support. http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/45501/2013/01/20/nigerian_troops_illequipped_war_mali.html

“Sullivan Chime is not dead” – Enugu State Government

“Sullivan Chime is not dead” – Enugu State Government

Posted by Information Nigeria in Home » Nigerian News on December 16, 2012 - Comments Off

Contrary to the news making the rounds that the bed-ridden Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime has joined the late Yakowa and others, Enugu State government Sunday, debunked the rumours, saying the governor is alive and healthy.
According to the State Commissioner for Information, Mr Chucks Ugwuoke, the rumour is from the pit of hell, as he described the news as unfounded.
According to Ugwuoke, the Governor is doing well and will soon return to the government house in no distant time.
It would be recalled that the Governor was said to have died at an Indian hospital on Saturday, after battling an undisclosed protracted sickness, a news many have referred to as the work of rumour mongers.

 http://www.informationnigeria.org/2012/12/sullivan-chime-is-not-dead-enugu-state-government.html

NIGERIANS RED MEAT & BEER

Nigeria ; a place where  whatever you say or  do  might become  ‘culture’ for  more than 160 millions  of  people. When did this ‘story’ of RED MEAT’ being the greatest health problems Nigerians have. Many people visible   anemic and deficiency of iron preach against red meat while ‘soaking’ themselves in bottles and bottles of beer etc.  Who will tell them that excessive beer is also bad to our health.

(By Chukwubike)

Nigerian gets 20 years for sex slavery

Nigerian gets 20 years for sex slavery

Published: Oct. 29, 2012 at 10:10 PM

CANTERBURY, England, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A court in southeastern England has sentenced a Nigerian immigrant to 20 years in prison for trafficking teenage African immigrant girls into prostitution.

The court in Canterbury sentenced 42-year-old Osezua Osolase after his conviction on seven counts of trafficking young girls, rape and sexual activity with a child, the regional Kent Online report said.

Three unidentified Nigerian girls ages 14, 16 and 17 testified they were lured to Britain via Italy and Spain with a promise of education, but instead were forced to work in the sex trade, the report said.

Court heard Osolase told the girls he had magical powers and had cast a spell on them.

In sentencing Monday, Judge Adele Williams called Osolase "a very, very dishonest man, arrogant and manipulative, devoid of conscience, and devoid of any compassion for your victims."

Prosecutors also recommended deportation at the end of his sentence. He was deported once before in 2007 but married a German woman in Nigeria and was permitted to return to England.

After his conviction Friday, prosecutors began proceedings to seize all of his assets, the report sai

Read more

 http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/10/29/Nigerian-gets-20-years-for-sex-slavery/UPI-16481351563028/#ixzz2AkzqNsP8

Nigerian Stowaway Dies in Arik's Undercarriage

BY CHINEDU EZE, 27 OCTOBER 2012

The dead body of a young Nigerian man was discovered Friday in the wheel well, the undercarriage compartment of an Arik Air aircraft, after it returned from a flight to New York, United States.

One of the airline's officials who spoke to THISDAY said the deceased might have hidden himself in the wheel well for days and was crushed to death while the flight was airborne to the JF Kennedy Airport, New York, from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The official who spoke to THISDAY said the dead body was found during a check on the aircraft panel as it was being prepared for another flight and that the undercarriage compartment of the Airbus A340-500 is big enough to accommodate a person, besides the space for the tyres.

"He probably might have hidden himself there some days and died while the aircraft was on its way to New York. We found him when we were doing checks on the panel; the aircraft probably came back with him dead," the official said.

The source said that it is out of ignorance that people hide in the wheel well and plan to stowaway because "the compartment is not pressurised like the cabin of an aircraft and it is not heated, so survival is rare even if the person is not crushed by the wheels."

Pilots and aeronautical engineers familiar with the wheel well compartment said it is roomy enough to contain a human being, but it is highly unlikely that any one who hid there would come out alive after a flight that took several hours due to lack of oxygen.

The official attributed the incident to porous security at the airport, noting that "if having access to the airside is stringently prohibited, anybody that is not an official of airlines, handling companies and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria would not gain access to the tarmac."

Another source said: "The security at the airport is very bad and that explains why somebody can gain access to the airside and inside the aircraft and no one will know.

Security around the cargo area is even worse and from there anybody can take anything into the tarmac. Now, it is a human being that is smuggled in; one day a dangerous object will be smuggled in."

THISDAY investigations revealed that stowaways connive with ground handling companies to access the airside and the wheel well.

"The handling company workers and the security operatives indulge in a lot of illicit activities at the airport and over the years there have been efforts to put a check on such excesses but every effort has so far failed," said another source.

In March 2010, a Nigerian, Okechukwu Okeke was found dead in the nose wheel compartment of the United States carrier, Delta Airline, Boeing B777 aircraft parked on the tarmac of the Lagos airport

.http://allafrica.com/stories/201210280107.html

 

Soyinka Backs Achebe on Civil War Memoir

Soyinka Backs Achebe on Civil War Memoir

17 Oct 2012

Prof. Wole Spyinka

Ike Abonyi with agency report

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has backed his literary colleague, Prof. Chinua Achebe, in the raging controversy over the roles of some prominent Nigerians during the Nigerian civil war.

Soyinka, in an interview published in The Telegraph of London, but obtained by THISDAY yesterday, said the Igbo were victims of genocide during the three-year civil war, which was fought to break up Nigeria.

Achebe had stirred the hornet’s nest in his civil war memoir, “There Was A Country”, when among others, he accused wartime Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and the then Finance Minister, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, of carrying out a genocide against the Igbo.
The claim has generated considerable controversy, with many commentators accusing Achebe of re-writing history.

Soyinka, however, justified the secession bid and described Biafrans as “people who’d been abused, who’d undergone genocide, and who felt completely rejected by the rest of the community, and therefore decided to break away and form a nation of its own.”

He also condemned religious militancy, saying now is the time to tackle Boko Haram, the insurgent group that has visited terror on the North, killing over 1,500 since 2009.
According to him, what Boko Haram is doing is not religion, but criminality.

He said: “All religions accept that there is something called criminality. And criminality cannot be excused by religious fervour. Let me repeat something I first said at the meeting organised by UNESCO a few weeks ago, which was prompted by the recent film insulting the religion of Islam and depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a very crass way.
“The first thing to say is that we do not welcome any attempt to ravage religious sensibilities. That can be taken for granted. But you cannot hold the world to ransom simply because some idiots chose to insult a religion in some far-off place which most of the world has never even heard of. This for me is a kind of fundamentalist tyranny that should be totally unacceptable.

“So a group calls itself the Boko Haram, literally: ‘Book is taboo’, the book is anathema, the book is a product of Western civilisation, therefore it must be rejected.

“You go from the rejection of books to the rejection of institutions which utilise the book, and that means virtually all institutions. You attack universities, you kill professors, then you butcher students, you close down primary schools, you try and create a religious Maginot Line through which nothing should penetrate.

“That’s not religion; that’s lunacy. My Christian family lived just next door to Muslims. We celebrated Ramadan with Muslims; they celebrated Christmas with Christians. This is how I grew up.

“And now this virus is spreading all around the world, leading to the massacre of 50 students. This is not taking arms against the state, this is taking up arms against humanity.”
He said the unrest in Nigeria following the Boko Haram insurgency had attained a critical mass and criticised the way the Federal Government was handling the terror war.

“The president of Nigeria is making a mistake in not telling the nation that it should place itself on a war footing. There’s too much pussyfooting, there’s too much false intellectualisation of what is going on, such as this is the result of corruption, this is the result of poverty, this is the result of marginalisation.

“Yes, of course, all these negativities have to do with what is happening right now. But when the people themselves come out and say we will not even talk to the president unless he converts to Islam, they are already stating their terms of conflict,” he added.
Soyinka said if religion were to be taken away from the world, he would be one of the happiest people in the world.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/soyinka-backs-achebe-on-civil-war-memoir/127912/#.UH41NBGVanA.facebook