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Chad said on Thursday its forces had killed 117 Boko Haram insurgents during a two-week military campaign aimed at clearing islands on Lake Chad used by the militants as hideouts and bases to launch attacks. Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from neighbours Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to tackle the militant group whose six-year insurgency has killed thousands. “We killed 117 Boko Haram fighters during the two-week operation. We lost two men and several wounded,” Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for the Chadian army, said. “We destroyed their boats and seized various weapons during the operation,” he said. Boko Haram, which calls itself the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) since pledging allegiance to the militant group that controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has stepped up attacks in countries around the lake in recent months in response to a regional offensive. Last weekend, suspected militants from the group raided several remote localiti...

Chad said on Thursday its forces had killed 117 Boko Haram insurgents during a two-week military campaign aimed at clearing islands on Lake Chad used by the militants as hideouts and bases to launch attacks. Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from neighbours Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to tackle the militant group whose six-year insurgency has killed thousands. “We killed 117 Boko Haram fighters during the two-week operation. We lost two men and several wounded,” Colonel Azem Bermandoa, spokesman for the Chadian army, said. “We destroyed their boats and seized various weapons during the operation,” he said. Boko Haram, which calls itself the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) since pledging allegiance to the militant group that controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has stepped up attacks in countries around the lake in recent months in response to a regional offensive. Last weekend, suspected militants from the group r...

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday in Abuja declared that the party has no preferred candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi. APC Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, who was represented by the Director of Administration, Abdullahi Yusuf Gashua, disclosed this during the presentation of forms to one of the governorship aspirants, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. “APC stands for change and the party has no preferred candidate and it will prepare a level playing ground for every aspirant,” he said. Izunaso urged the aspirant to give an undertaking that he will abide and play by the rule of the game and supportany aspirant that emerges as the party’s candidate. Izunaso urged the aspirant and his supporters to conduct themselves in an orderly manner no matter the outcome of the party primaries. In his response, Bello said he was on a historic rescue mission to salvage the “Confluence State from the grip of a few cabal who have underdeveloped the state. “T...

Looking at the events unfolding in the State of Osun, “Ipinle Omoluwabi,” especially in the past few months and concerning the payment of salaries for civil servants in all cadres and pensioners in the state, is enough for me to make some clarification. Many headlines, articles, commentaries had taken over national dailies, magazines, the electronic media as well as the new media – Facebook, Twitter amongst others – on a daily basis. While a lot of commentators saw the event in the State of Osun as a national phenomenon which wasn’t peculiar to the state alone, but brought about by the maladministration of the Jonathan government, others, especially the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, and its allies spread across the nation, saw it as an avenue to rubbish the good work done in the past five years by the indefatigable leader and people’s Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. The projects done by Ogbeni are monumental in the State of Osun and are today used as models by all a...

The Chief Commissioner of Scout in Nigeria, Chief Soga Sofolahan has described Nigeria participation at this year World Scout Jamboree currently going on in Yamaguchi Kirara, Japan as historical and part of the change process that will bring about a desired impact on the youth development sector in Nigeria. Sofolahan, who led 39 others to the 23rd world event posited that the quadrennial event is a unique opportunity for scouts to be a global citizen and experience scouting as a worldwide movement for youth. This was contained in a statement forwarded to our correspondent Thursday afternoon in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital. One hundred and fifty countries across the world with 34,000 scouts are participating in the event in far away Japan. Addressing the opening ceremony, the Chairperson, World Scout Committee, Joao Armando G. noted that scouting is an educational movement that engages young people from all over the world to promote unity, respect, friendship, understanding and ...

FILE PHOTO: A Naval personnel takes a pose with some of the rescued women and children Nigerian soldiers rescued 71 people, almost all girls and women, in firefights that killed many Boko Haram militants in villages near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the military said Thursday. Some captives told The Associated Press they were in the clutches of the Islamic extremists for as long as a year. “I was waiting for death … they often threatened to kill us,” said Yagana Kyari, a woman in her 20s who said she had been kidnapped from her village of Kawuri and taken to a militant camp in Walimberi, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast and the birthplace of Boko Haram. Kyari said they often went hungry because the extremists never provided enough food. “Our gallants troops have rescued a total number of 59 civilians in two camps of the terrorist group,” army spokesman Col. I.T. Gusau said. “Many of the terrorists were killed in the co...

The Nigerian Air Force has announced on Wednesday that it has succeeded in blocking routes through which petroleum products and other materials are supplied to the Boko Haram insurgents. Air Commodore Dele Alonge, Director Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, said in a statement that the feat was achieved through patrols along the Nigeria-Cameroon borders which, according to him have greatly strained the supply efforts of the terrorists. “The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) through its intensified and persistent efforts in the ongoing fight against Boko Haram Terrorists (BHT) has intercepted over 4,000 drums and jerry cans of petroleum products and other smuggled items. “The items, suspected to be supplies meant for BHT, were confiscated from the smugglers in Pepe, Dashin-Hausa, Belel Bilachi, and Konkul villages located along the Nigeria-Cameroon Borders on Tuesday, 28 July 2015. “The NAF was able to achieve the recent feat through its air patrol activities, covering bot...

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has commended the peaceful resolution of the House of Representatives leadership crisis, which until now, had bogged down the activities of the House. In a statement released by his Media Office in Abuja on Wednesday, 29 July, the former Vice President recalled that the amicable outcome of the tension was in line with his earlier position that compromise and accommodation were necessary in ending the deadlock. According to the former Vice President, the opposing sides have demonstrated maturity, wisdom and sense of patriotism by finally arriving at a workable compromise. He said that in any compromise, you win some and lose some of your demands. He explained that he was constantly disturbed by how the crisis was adversely affecting the change agenda of the APC administration. He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the fatherly role he played in the resolution of the National Assembly crisis. Atiku said it was this concern that led to his p...

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule (3rd right) receiving some life Jackets from the Deputy Managing Director, Total Exploration & Production Nigeria Limited, Mr. Charles Ngoka (2nd left) during the Official handing over of 2,400 Life Jackets donated by Total Nigeria PLC. to the Lagos State Government at the Lagos House, Ikeja, on Wednesday, July 29, 2015. With them are: Managing Director, Lagos State Waterways Authority ( LASWA ), Mr. Olayinka Marinho (right), Acting Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Mrs. Adebisi Ariyo (2nd right), Supervisory Community Development National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Mrs. Helen Nkwo (3rd left) and Business Development Manager, Emo Exploration & Production Limited, Mr. Dennis Otsemobior (left) Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has received 2,400 life jackets donation from Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited to be distributed to riverine areas in order to curb ince...

The newly appointed Senate minority leader and former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, Tuesday suffered a setback in his bid to retain his seat after the Akwa Ibom State National Assembly election tribunal ruled in favour of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Inibehe Okori, on two preliminary objections brought by Mr. Akpabio, reports Premium Times. The three-person panel of judges, led by Goddy Anunihi, sitting at the Customary Court of Appeal at Dutsen Alhaji, Abuja, ruled against Mr. Akpabio on his submission that there was no need entertaining the petition from Mr. Okori because he was not even the candidate of the APC in the March 28 National Assembly election. Mr. Anunihi said it was premature to decide at this stage of the trial the preliminary objection raised by Mr. Akpabio. “The issue of the petitioner not having the locus standi would be considered as the trial progresses,” he said. The panel also maintained that Mr. Akpabio’s ...