Terrorists strike again in France, kill over 70

Police officers stand near a van, with its windscreen riddled with bullets, that tore into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice on July 14, 2016

A large truck plowed into a crowd of people in the southern French of city of Nice on Thursday night, killing at more 70 people and injuring at least another 100 as the heavy vehicle mowed over its victims along hundreds of feet, according to police and government officials. The grim death toll jolted the entire country, which has been tenterhooks for months, wondering if and when another deadly assault might occur.

The incident occurred just as thousands of people poured on to the streets on a warm midsummer’s night to celebrate the country’s biggest public holiday of the year, Bastille Day, and to watch the fireworks display — a traditional feature in every city and village across France in the annual celebrations. The truck slammed into the crowds gathered on the city’s Promenade des Anglais, which runs along the Mediterranean seafront, and sent those who could escape screaming in panic as they fled the scene.

The driver fired on the crowd before being fatally shot by police, officials said.
The city’s deputy mayor , Christian Estrosi, said more than 70 were killed in the attack.
“There was carnage on the road,” eyewitness Wassim Bouhlel told the AP. “Bodies everywhere.”
The Nice region’s president said that the truck was loaded with arms and grenades, according to the Associated Press.

For France, the attack on Thursday night is likely to be deeply distressing — and to raise the question about how the country can possible avoid further attacks, given the extraordinary security measures already in place. What is more, Thursday’s mass deaths, if terrorism, will be the third terror attack in France in just 18 months; in January 2015 ISIS and al-Qaeda gunmen killed 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo satiric publication and a kosher supermarket, both in Paris. Then came the Paris attacks — a devastating blow, from which the country had only just begun to shake off the anxiety and grief.

By midnight, no group had claimed responsibility for the chaos. But regional police and local officials in the South of France quickly declared it a terrorist attack. They appealed for people to remain calm and went on television to tell people to stay indoors — clearly fearing that there might be multiple attacks on the streets, as there were in last November’s Paris attacks, when ISIS gunmen-suicide bombers opened fire on cafés and a music hall, killed 130 people. On Twitter, the regional mayor Christian Estrosi told Nice residents, “Stay for the moment in your homes. More info to come.”

France has been under a state of emergency since then, and thousands of armed soldiers patrol department stores, stations, and other public places. Security was hugely ramped up during the FIFA European Football Championships, which French officials feared could be a target of attack. Indeed, police in Nice evacuated a shopping center in Nice late last month, after a threat that a bomb would explode during the England-Iceland match being played in that city. There was a palpable sense of relief among the French after the championship’s final game last Sunday, that the monthlong tournament ended without an attack.

The scene in Nice was one of devastation, with the heavy-duty white truck stalled amid the bloodshed on the street, its windows smashed and riddled with bullets, from police gunfire. Nice police said around midnight that their gunfire had killed the truck driver, but that one other man had fled the scene, and was still on the run.
Source:PM NEWS

Tears as Lagos demolishes eateries

Helpless food sellers and other business operators, at the Old Toll Gate area of Lagos, battled to hold back tears when their business centres were demolished by officers of the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment (MOE) on Wednesday.

The traders who were reportedly given only a 24-hour notice to evacuate their belongings from the trading centre, which was located directly at the back of the 7-UP Bottling Company, at the Old Toll Gate end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, were left with no choice but to gather their wares in small packs.

This, according to information gathered from a reliable source, was a far cry from what the traders were used to, based on the fact that officers of MOE often gave them long notices in the past.

While the motive of the government for demolishing the centre remained a mystery to the hapless traders, Lagos Metro gathered that the development might not be unconnected with cases of homeless thugs turning the shops at the centre to their homes at night. There were also cases of sales and smoking of Indian hemp there.

This allegation was also re-echoed by an eyewitness, whose office was closed to the demolished centre.
The man, simply identified as Tunde, noted that government could have taken the action because “area boys had turned the centre into an arena for smoking marijuana.”

When contacted the spokesperson of the Ministry of the Environment, Mr Tunde Awobiyi, denied having knowledge of the demolition exercise. However, he noted that for the government to have carried out the action, it meant the place must have contravened the state’s environmental laws.

“The fact that they (traders at the centre) had always gotten away with trading there did not mean what they were doing was right. There are laws guiding the rights of ways in Lagos, and there are also numerous laws protecting trees and flowers in the environment from all forms of encroachment,” he said.
Source:Tribune

ELECTRICITY FIRMS PUSH FOR 100% TARIFF HIKE

Power firms are pushing for a fresh 100 percent increase in electricity tariff, the second in six months, Daily Trust investigations have shown.
 

The electricity distribution companies (DisCos) raised tariff by over 45 percent in February.
The DisCos had written to the regulatory authority, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) demanding hike in tariff from the current average of N24 per kilowatt (for residential consumers) to N50 per kilowatt.

However, the Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr Remi Ogunmefun, told Daily Trust in Lagos that his association had opposed that move in writing to the NERC.

The NERC announced the 45 percent hike in electricity tariff with effect from February 1, 2016, and said theincrease would enhance service delivery and customer satisfaction.
But since the increment, the electricity supply across the country has dropped affecting both household and commercial activities.
A source at the NERC confirmed to Daily Trust that the DisCos had written a letter seeking for the increase.

“When MAN got wind of the power firms’ letter seeking for the 100 percent hike, they equally wrote a letter countering the DisCos claims,” the source said.
The spokesperson of NERC, Mike Faloseyi, when contacted on Sunday, said he was not aware of the proposed hike but promised to get back to our reporter. When Daily Trust contacted him yesterday, he said he was in a meeting but would consult with the commission chairman and get back to us. But he never did.

Power firms justify tariff
Daily Trust observed that in an attempt to justify its proposed electricity hike, the umbrella body for DisCos, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has been running advertisements in about 10 national dailies in the last five weeks highlighting “basic electricity facts the public must know.”

The publicity messages, ANED said, were meant to clarify the position of 11 power distribution companies in the power sector value chain.
Some of the paid publications carried messages such as: “Electricity is a commodity with a price that must be paid.” 

“The average residential tariff of N24.12/kWh is still significantly cheaper than self-generated power at a cost estimated to be in excess of N50/kWh,” among others.
ANED on its website also said the DisCos had a five-year performance commitment to reduce power interruption, extend the distribution network, increase metering and improve the quality of customer service.

One other message by the association reads: “DisCo operators only collect 24 percent of the tariff revenues. The balance goes upstream to transmission, generation and other industry stakeholders (CBN, NERC, NBET, etc).”
The association said without a tariff that allowed the operators to recover their cost of operation, there would be no increased generation or improved service delivery.

On the recent vandalism, ANED in its most recent series of paid publicity said electricity customers should blame vandals and not the DisCos as “we cannot give what we do not have.”
 

MAN rejects fresh tariff
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) confirmed to Daily Trust that it recently wrote the NERC to express displeasure over moves to increase electricity tariff in the country. 

Mr. Ogunmefun said the letter to NERC was a continuation of MAN’s opposition to intense lobbying by electricity distribution companies to increase electricity tariff without recourse to procedures and rules.

He wondered why the DisCos were so anxious to introduce a new tariff regime when the ongoing tariff would only lapse in 2017.
“We have an agreement with the electricity distribution companies on MYTO 2 which states that the current electricity tariff would terminate in 2017. 

“We have consistently challenged the moves by the distribution companies to hike tariff for manufacturers outside the MYTO 2,” he said.
Ogunmefun said, “We filed a suit at the Federal High Court Lagos which has since given injunction stopping the electricity distribution companies from going ahead to tamper with the current electricity tariff. 

“We will not relent in our opposition to the moves by power companies to increase electricity tariff outside the MYTO 2.”
He said the manufacturing sector alone contributed over 80 percent of the revenue of the power distribution companies as such there was no justification to stultify the sector with arbitrary tariff regime. 

He said Nigeria was battling with infrastructure gaps and frustrating manufacturers with high electricity tariff would go a long way in killing ease of doing business in the country.
“To imagine an increase in electricity tariff with the already frustrating state of infrastructure in the country is a mortal blow on the manufacturing sector,” he said. 

Civil society kicks
The Nigerian Electricity Consumers Advocacy Network (NECAN), a consumer group earlier initiated by NERC, has frowned on the planned increase while accusing the commission of complicity.

NECAN President, Tomi Akingbogun, told our reporter yesterday they confirmed the proposed increment with MAN and that they would take up the issue with the minister of power.
“We totally condemn it because it is dangerous for our economy at a point when the DisCos are not supplying any electricity,” he said.

He said any fresh increase “is quite dangerous for this economy because it is like inciting the people against the government; it means the people are being pushed to the wall.
“The economy is almost nearing a recession. The increment if done will be 200 percent in two years. We believe the minister will not approve such and for those who are having such thoughts including the owners of the DisCos, are they really in Nigeria?”

Akingbogun said “Even Ghana just complained of poor power supply because of the vandalism here in Nigeria. We are not having enough power now. This is the fourth time they will be asking for tariff rise. When they first asked for 100 percent, NERC gave them 50 percent and it happened the second time.

“NERC should have thrown their request out but it is better we don’t wait for NERC because they may not say anything to the advantage of the public. In the past, they aligned with the GenCos, that is why we, as the voice of the public, said this must not be done,” he said.
 

Consumers’ reaction

Individual electricity consumers across Abuja and environs also expressed their dismay over the new proposal. Mr Nwigwe Obi who runs a welding venture in Nyanya, Abuja said it would not work as Nigerians would resist such moves at all cost.

“We have not even gotten over that of February 1, 2016 when it rose to over 45%. This time, government should know that everybody will rise up in protest because it is too much,” he said.
Malam Haliru Musa, a cold room operator in Mararaba, Nasarawa state said the DisCos should not think that way because the power supply situation has been bad in the past months.

“The DisCos won’t think of that because vandalism has crippled power and they have not supplied meters to customers. Nobody will pay if they attempt to even increase a little,” he said.
Mr Odoh Vincent, a resident of Lugbe, Abuja said “with the last increase, my estimated bill rose from an average N3,000 monthly to about N7,000. The DisCos promised to provide meters after the February increase but we have not seen any yet.”
 

DisCos response

When contacted yesterday, the spokesperson of ANED, Barrister Sunday Oduntan said in a text message that it was not true. “No. That is not true. Call me later,” Oduntan said. He didn’t answer subsequent calls or respond to text messages sent to his mobile phone.
Source:Daily Trust

Husband of murdered Redeemed church preacher: I warned my wife two weeks before her death

•She was breadwinner of the family, he says
There were no signs that it would be her last day on earth.

When Mrs Eunice Elisha, a deaconess with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) set out from her home at about 5.30pm last Saturday, she had no premonition that some assailants were going to cut her life short and send her packing from this world. But that was the case. She was gruesomely murdered while preaching around Gbazango-West area of Kubwa in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Even now, days after her demise, Pastor Olawale Elisha, her bereaved husband, and indeed, the entire family, are still finding it hard to believe that the preacher is no more.
He told Daily Sun: “I am a pastor, and a pastor depends on what God gives to him. Sincerely speaking, my wife was the breadwinner of this home. That is the truth. She sold things to take care of the house. She was the one God used to take care of this house.

“In the past, I was into business. But my wife and I agreed about two years ago that I needed to face the ministry since the business was affecting it. She said I should be fasting and praying for people. She was the one who paid the school fees and took care of other things,» Pastor Elisha revealed.
The cleric was surrounded by family members and some of the children of the murdered mother of seven when the correspondent paid a visit to the house on Monday.

He continued: “My wife always went out early in the morning for the ‘Morning Cry,’ to preach. On that fateful morning, she went around 5.30am and I was still in bed because we had a vigil overnight. She participated for a while and slept because she was going out to preach in the morning. Two of my boys are footballers, so they went to the field to play. And when they came back, they told me that they heard some footballers saying that they butchered a woman preaching early this morning.

“So, when I heard this, we trekked down with the short I was putting on and we did not see anybody, but we saw blood on the ground. I asked a policeman around and he said it is true but that they had taken her to Phase 4 Police Station. I went to the station with my children and when we got there, I saw the lifeless body of my wife at the back of the police van and there, she was taken to the mortuary. The incident happened between 5am and 5:30am because she usually went out by 5am and came back by 6am.»

How did he receive the devastating news? And what was the immediate reaction of the family? Pastor Elisha said sorrowfully: “I fell down when I saw the body of my wife covered. I cried. I was too tired and could not drive back home. Someone had to drive us back to the house.»

He disclosed that his wife was a peace-loving woman, explaining that she was at peace with everyone. He also told the reporter that he warned his wife three weeks before her gruesome murder. He said an Imam in a nearby mosque had commended her wife’s preaching, but informed that he was uncomfortable with the whole thing.

Said he: “My wife never argued with anyone. She was the giving type and the church can confirm that. About three weeks ago, my wife went to the back of my house. That morning, after preaching, she came and told me that a man in the mosque heard her and called on people to listen to what she was saying.

“When she came back and told me about it, I warned her. I did that because I was a Muslim before I converted and became a Christian. I told her to be careful. I told her that although what the man in the mosque said was commendable, she needed to be careful.

“For about a week, she did not go out to preach because of the warning. That was about three weeks ago that I warned her. The comments made by the man in the mosque were not against her. In fact, they were commending her.”

Pastor Elisha said there was no prior warning from the assailants before they murdered his wife. But he affirmed that he had forgiven the assailants. According to him, as a Christian, it was not in his nature to seek personal revenge.

“There was no harassment or warning before she was murdered. My wife was a child of God. She did not have issues with anybody. We were married for 16 years and had seven children. I am not a lawyer or a law enforcement agent. All I can say is that I forgive those that killed my wife.

“There is no need to avenge her death. When we went to the place where her lifeless body was kept, the crowd said her head and breasts were removed. Till this moment, I have not seen her body. I only heard. I have not confirmed,» he said.

Wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, who is also a pastor with the RCCG, visited the Elishas at about 1:30pm on Sunday, the day after Mrs. Elisha’s killing.
Source:Daily Sun

REDEEMED FEMALE PASTOR MURDERED IN ABUJA DURING MORNING EVANGELISM

• My wife died as a martyr for Jesus –Husband
• Police arrest suspects

A forty-two-year-old mother of seven and an assistant pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Mrs Eunice Elisha, was in the early hours of Saturday murdered by assailants, while preaching around Gbazango--West area of Kubwa in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Eunice, an indigene of Ekiti State, was a Deaconess at the Divine Touch Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Old NEPA Road, Phase 4, Kubwa, Abuja. Speaking to newsmen, the husband of the slain woman, Mr. Olawale Elisha, said his wife had gone out to preach
in the neighbourhood in her usual practice at about 5am on the fateful day only for him to hear the report of her murder.
Narrating the incident, he said: “My wife always goes out early in the morning on ‘Morning Cry’ to preach.

There was a particular day she went out and she told me that there is a mosque at the back where they commented about what she said. So, I just warned. This morning, she went around 5am and I was still in bed because we did night vigil which she participated for a while before she went to sleep because of the Morning Cry. Two of my boys are footballers;; so, they went to the field to play. When they came back, they told me that they heard some footballers saying that they butchered a woman preaching early this morning.”

He went further, “So, when I heard this, we trekked down in the shorts I was putting on. We didn’t
see anybody, but we saw blood on the ground. I asked a policeman around and he said it was true but that they had taken her to Phase 4 Police Station. I went to the station with my children and when we got there, I saw the lifeless body of my wife at the back of the police van.
From there, she was taken to the mortuary. The incident happened between 5am and 5:30am because she usu ally goes out 5am and comes back 6am.”

While eulogising his late wife, Olawale described Eunice as a devout Christian, who served God with everything she had. His words: “My wife was so committed to anything that is of God. She was a reckless giver to God’s work. She rarely missed any programme in church. Asked how he felt with the murder of his beloved wife, Olawale paused for a while before he could mutter some words saying: “I see her as a martyr who died for Christ. Whether the people are caught or not, they should forgive them.

My prayer is that if they can accept Christ it will be a gain for Christ.”
A neighbour, who did not want her name mentioned, said the deceased and her family packed into their personal building less than a year ago. She described the late Eunice as a friendly woman. Another resident of the area, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said though the community engaged the services of private guards, the effort was not enough.

According to him, the residents started facing security challenge when some boys who are mainly non-Nigerians began to settle in the area and building batchers as their hamlet.
Giving account of the incident, he said the woman screamed but could not be rescued before the attackers butchered her to death.

“She shouted Blood of Jesus! Blood of Jesus! She laid dead with her handset and the megaphone she used for the preaching. Really, the attack was an act of hatred and religious sentiment,” he said.
When Sunday Sun visited Kubwa Divisional Police Statation, Phase 4, the DPO was not around.

However, one of the senior officers, who confirmed the killing, said he was not authorized to speak.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the FCT, ASP Manzah Anjuguri, when contacted promised to release the details of the incident later. But as at the time of filling this report, the police PRO was yet to contact the reporter. He disclosed that the police had arrested some people in connection with the killing.

Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has arrested some suspects in connection with the killing of the female preacher.
The FCT command’s spokesman, ASP Anjuguri Manzah confirmed the arrest. He said that the FTC Commissioner of Police, Mr Alkali Usman has directed the homicide section to take over the investigation.

“We have made some arrests and they are helping in our investigation.
“The commissioner of police has ordered the homicide section of the command to take over the investigation of the case,” he said.
The spokesman, however, did not mention the number of suspects arrested. He said personnel of the command had visited the scene of the incident and investigation had started.
Source: Sunday Sun

3 men found with human head in Niger

THE Niger State command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), on Saturday, announced  the  arrest  of three suspects in possession of a human head in Mokwa Local Government Area of the state.

The state Commandant of NSCDC, Mr Philip Ayuba, stated this in Minna, the state capital, while parading  the suspects before newsmen.
Ayuba said that the suspects, Abdulmumuni Aliyu (alias Danjuma), Jubrinsha Aba and Salihu Usman, aged 34, 35 and 24 respectively, hailed from Ekpa village in Mokwa.

“I invited you here to see three suspects that we arrested on the ground of possession of human head.
After we arrested them, they confessed to us that they owned the human head,” he said.

He explained further  that the suspects were arrested last Thursday while  asking somebody to purchase  the human head when they were apprehended  by operatives of the NSCDC in Mokwa.
According to him, “our operatives  pretended to bargain with them on how much to pay before they were arrested.”

The commandant said that the suspects had made confessional statements, adding that they would be handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.

Also speaking, the gang leader  Abdulmumuni Aliyu,  told journalists that his brother, Salihu Usman, invited him to his house to see the human head and assist in getting a buyer.

“I looked for a buyer for five months. So when I approached  one Isah to buy the head, he agreed and said that he had a buyer in Mokwa town. When the buyer came, we started negotiating the price with him. It was in that process we were arrested,’’ he said.

Similarly, Salihu Usman, the third suspect, said that it was during a hunting expedition with Jubrinsha Aba in Ekpa bush that they discovered a decomposing body of a woman in the bush.

Usman said that both of them decided to cut off the head and sell it to make money.
“Two of us decided in the bush that we would sell the head to scientists and make money,” he said.
Source:Tribune