Nigerian Immigration arrests 24 human trafficking suspects!

According to Punch news, the Nigeria Immigration Service said it has arrested 24 persons suspected to be involved in human trafficking in Katsina State.

The Comptroller of Immigration Service in the state, Mr Emmanuel Ogbumuo, made this known in a news conference in Katsina on Friday.

Ogbumuo said the suspects were arrested at Kongolam border while plying illegal routes to Agades in Niger Republic to the Sahara Desert and to Libya.

He said investigations conducted by the command revealed that one Mr Olumese Barnabas, 26, was the coordinator of the movement and that he collaborated with one Miss Blessing Emmanuel in the activity.

He said all the suspects had expired and outdated ‘Machine Reader Passport’.

The comptroller explained that trafficking in persons was one of the most severe violations of human rights in the world.

He said the command would continue to collaborate with other security agencies to curtail the nefarious activities of human traffickers by arresting them and their victims.

He said the suspects would be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons for further action.

Dan Foster resigns from Inspiration FM!

Nigerian-based, US-born radio presenter Dan Foster is set to quit his radio job for good.

According to the NET, the seasoned OAP who joined Inspiration FM station in 2009 has turned in his resignation.

“He also has not been on air this week. He has resigned,” an OAP at Inspiration disclosed.

However in a telephone chat with NET, Dan Foster explained saying, “I’m thinking of leaving but I’ll still be consulting for them. I’m currently negotiating with management”.

Foster says the one thing he still wants to handle is the very popular ‘Praise Jam’ Sunday show which he says he’s grown very fond of. “It’s more like a ministry for me. It’s touched so many lives, I want to continue it there, and even if that’s the only thing I get to do. I started the show back at Cool FM and did it for free. I was only paid to work on weekdays there.”

He further revealed that he is starting his ‘Dan Foster Academy’ pretty soon. “I’ll be teaching broadcasting there,” he said.

Twin explosions hit Kenya!

Two blasts hit Kenya's capital on Friday, killing 10 people and injuring 70 more in the latest in a string of increasingly frequent terror attacks.

The blasts came the same week the United States and the U.K. issued renewed warnings about possible terror attacks in Kenya, leading to a bristling response from the country's President Friday, who said such warnings strengthen the will of terrorists.

Nairobi Police Benson Kibue, who announced the casualty figures, said two improvised explosive devices detonated in a market area near downtown Nairobi. One blast hit a mini-van used for public transportation.

Before the blasts, the United States embassy sent out a new travel alert Friday to American citizens warning of a continued terrorist threat in a country where the U.S. Embassy suffered a devastating attack in 1998.

An earlier U.S. warning this week  reportedly said for the first time that the embassy itself is taking new steps to increase security "due to recent threat information regarding the international community in Kenya."

It was gathered that Britain's government also warned its citizens this week to avoid the coastal city of Mombasa and beach towns nearby, prompting a travel company to cut short the vacations of hundreds of British citizens and fly them home.

Security concerns have long been high in Kenya because of its proximity to Somalia and the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group that operates there. In September, four al-Shabab gunmen attacked an upscale mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67 people. The 1998 embassy bombing killed more than 200.

Armed Marines now patrol the U.S. Embassy grounds in Nairobi in bullet proof vests and helmets. Increasingly frequent emergency drills tell embassy staff: "Duck and cover, duck and cover."

"We know from experience whether it's been in Yemen where embassies have been attacked or in Benghazi where our consulate and ambassador was attacked, anything that is a symbol of a foreign country is a potential target," said Scott Gration, the immediate past U.S. ambassador in Kenya.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, who began a previously planned news conference only minutes after the Nairobi blasts, offered his condolences but dismissed the U.S. and U.K. travel warnings, saying that terrorism is a common problem, including in New York and Boston.

Kenyatta said he was aware of Britain's warning and the decision to evacuate tourists.

"I don't want to refer to anybody in particular. Acts like were done yesterday, by the people you just mentioned, only strengthens the will of terrorists as opposed to helping us defeat that war," Kenyatta said.

The similarity of terrorist attacks in Nigeria and Kenya can not be over emphasized, (public bus attacks, markets, bus -stops) considering the fact that these two are emerging African economies in the global terrain.- Roving Informant.

Narendra Modi Wins India!

63 year old Narendra Modi thundered to victory on Friday in India's election, with partial results showing that the pro-business Hindu nationalist and his party trounced the ruling Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in a seismic political shift.



India has won, good days are coming, Mr Modi said at a rally in Vadodara in his home state of Gujarat, where thousands chanted his name. In a clear message to those who have tagged him a polarising leader, he said, "Even if we've clear majority to run the government, it's our responsibility to take everyone along in running India." 

Through his campaign, Mr Modi had vowed to reboot the economy and deliver efficient governance -he said today "development for all" would be his mission.

Sudan woman sentenced to death for refusing to renounce Christian faith!

A pregnant Sudanese woman was sentenced to death by hanging Thursday in a Khartoum court, for refusing to renounce Christianity, provoking outrage from human rights groups. 



According to reports, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who has a young son and is married to a Christian from South Sudan, violated Islamic sharia law, the court said. She insists she was raised Christian, not Muslim. The court also ordered Ibrahim to be flogged for having sexual relations with her husband, since her marriage is not recognized by officials.

Ibrahim refused a court order Sunday giving her several days to renounce her Christian faith, which resulted in the sentencing Thursday. 

Amnesty International issued a statement describing the sentence as abhorrent and called for Ibrahim's release. "The fact that a woman has been sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is appalling and abhorrent," said Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher. 

"Adultery and apostasy are acts which should not be considered crimes at all. It is flagrant breach of international human rights law," Idriss said in the statement. "The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, which includes the freedom to hold beliefs, is far-reaching and profound; it encompasses freedom of thought on all matters, personal conviction and the commitment to religion or belief." 

It was gathered that Ibrahim was charged after being reported to authorities last year by a member of her family because of her marriage to a Christian. 

In February, the court added a charge of apostasy based on her 2012 marriage in a Christian church and the fact that she insisted in court that she was Christian. Her mother, an Orthodox Ethiopian Christian, married a Sudanese Muslim who was never at home as Ibrahim grew up, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a network of 80 civil society women's organizations based in Khartoum. 

Ibrahim, currently jailed with her son, will be allowed to give birth and raise her second child until the age of 2 years but then faces execution. Sudanese authorities refuse to allow Ibrahim's son to reside with her husband because the husband is Christian. 

SIHA has called for an urgent global campaign by activists to pressure Sudanese authorities over Ibrahim's death sentence. 

"Sudan’s legal system has often displayed a pattern of selective enforcement of the law and has frequently singled out women, ethnic minorities, and activists with punishments often disproportionate to alleged crimes committed," a SIHA statement said. "The fact that Meriam stands to lose her life over specious charges makes this case of utmost urgency and demands a unified advocacy and outreach efforts by human rights defenders across the globe.''

Presidential chibok visit never existed- Reuben Abati!

Against the backdrop that President Goodluck Jonathan at the dying minute cancelled an alleged scheduled visit to Chibok  to meet with the families of the girls, instead traveled to Paris to attend a security meeting, the Presidency reportedly denied any plan for President Goodluck Jonathan to visit Chibok, Borno State.

According to Twitter account of the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati on Friday, the President was not scheduled to visit Chibok as widely reported yesterday.

He described the reports as rumours, wrong and maliciousness to allege that a “non-existent trip has been cancelled.”

He said: “Every trip by the President is usually pre-announced. The Presidency did not at any time announce a trip to Chibok today (Friday). Ignore rumours.”

He explained that the statement issued by my office on Thursday only indicated that the President was scheduled to travel to Paris yesterday.

“It is therefore wrong and malicious to allege that a non-existent trip has been cancelled.” He stated

Earlier reports has it that two officials in the presidency, who the Associated Press confirmed the cancellation, they told the news agency that "there were apparent concerns about security after news of the planned trip was leaked to the media and published on front pages of newspapers on Friday."

A clear situation of mis-information or dis-information at play here, Nigeria....we are supposed to have gotten past this stage.

Wild fire spreads across California!

Reports revealed that California firefighters were currently battling wind-whipped wildfires on Friday, as some 125,000 people were reported to have fled their homes in the San Diego area and police arrested at least two people on arson-related charges.

The cluster of fires comes as California enters its peak fire season amid its worst drought in decades. Officials believe the fire may have been deliberately set and worry it could be a particularly dangerous year.

More pictures below: