NSCDC arrests, parades 87 fake Corps members

NSCDC arrests, parades 87 fake Corps members

87 fake Corps members were paraded at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’ headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday.

The fake Corps members who were mainly females were arrested by the men o f NSCDC at an illegal camp in Loptik Guest House, along Shagari way in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

They were camped by an acclaimed agent of National Youth Service Corps who was said to be at large.

While parading the fake Corps members, the NSCDC Head of Public Relations, Mr. Emmanuel Okeh said “our intelligence staff who helped in apprehending them pretended to be one of them. They never knew that he was understudying their activities.”

“It was when they were expecting their deployment that we clamped down on them and arrested 87 of them”, according to Mr. Okeh

He revealed that “with them, we got the regular NYSC call up letter and kits, waiting for deployment to their various places of primary assignment.”

Networking paying off

Deputy Commandant in-charge of Nasarawa Command, Walter Okubuiroh said the Corps was able to achieve the feat because of its restrategising and networking which started last year.

“We have kept surveillance in virtually all locations of the state. In most cases, abnormalities and threat to security have been uncovered while arrested persons are handed over to appropriate quarters”, he said.

He said most of the victims were students from distance learning sections of their various universities and were made to believe that they would be given the opportunity to serve like other students of their school.

“Our investigation shows that, initially, they took them around the State somewhere in Nyanya where they camped for four days before they were taken to a hotel in Nasarawa.”

Investigations on course

The Deputy Commandant said investigations were still on-going in order to apprehend the syndicate.

In 2010, 54 fake corps members were arrested in an illegal camp in Nasarawa State.

He said the NSCDC will continue to partner with other sister agencies to get to the root of the situation.

Most of the arrested graduates claimed they fell into the trap because of their ambition to serve their fatherland.

One of them who pleaded anonymity said she graduated from University of Jos for more than two years and has not been called up for service till date.

“I couldn’t get a job because all the employers were asking for my NYSC certificate. I got N50, 000.00 from my brother to get the call up. I was to pay the balance of N30, 000.00 after deployment”, she revealed.

Another lady who spoke to Daily Trust said she never knew that the syndicate was illegal.

Toulouse killings arrest denied

Mohammed Merah was reportedly convicted of bomb-making in Afghanistan

Toulouse Shootings

France's interior minister has denied reports that security forces have arrested the main suspect in the recent spate of shootings around Toulouse.

Claude Gueant said the arrest had not yet taken place.
BFM TV had reported that the suspect, named earlier as Mohammed Merah, 23, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, was detained inside a block of flats that has been under siege all morning.
Merah is suspected of killing three soldiers and four Jewish people.
The killings took place in and around Toulouse in three separate incidents.
Police surrounded Merah's block of flats after two officers were shot at when they tried to get into his flat.

Mohammed Merah

• French citizen of Algerian extraction, aged 23
• Has criminal record in France for non-terrorist crimes
• Has described himself as an al-Qaeda member and has spent time in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Officials say he is heavily armed with a Kalashnikov high-velocity rifle, a mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol, several handguns and possibly grenades.

Police are hunting for accomplices and have detained several members of his family.
His mother was taken to the scene in the hope that she could persuade him to surrender, but she told police that she had no influence over her son.
Negotiators have been talking to Merah all morning, but Mr Gueant, who is at the scene, said he appeared to have no particular demands.
The suspect has said he belonged to al-Qaeda and acted to "avenge Palestinian children".
He had apparently spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he was jailed for three years for planting bombs.
The prison director in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, Gulam Farooq, told the BBC that Merah was arrested in 2007, but escaped in a Taliban-led break-out in 2008.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Toulouse and is expected to speak to the media shortly.
In an earlier televised address, he paid tribute to the security forces who are carrying out the operation and said terrorism "will never be able to fracture our national community".

Utah's Republican governor signed a law

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Utah's Republican governor signed a law extending a required waiting period for women seeking an abortion to 72 hours on Tuesday, even though a similar requirement in South Dakota has been blocked in court, a spokeswoman said.

The decision by Governor Gary Herbert is expected to meet with approval from social conservatives in the heavily Republican state just four days after he upset some members of his party by vetoing a bill to curb sex education in schools.
"Governor Herbert is an adamant supporter of rights for the unborn," said Ally Isom, a spokeswoman for the governor. "He felt the bill appropriately allows a woman who's facing that decision to fully weigh her options and the implications of that decision."
The state currently requires a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion.
The law is the latest salvo in the long-running national battle over abortion that has seen a host of states pass laws imposing requirements on women before they can undergo the procedure. In neighboring Idaho, lawmakers are considering requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before ending a pregnancy.
A South Dakota law that passed last year also required women seeking an abortion to wait three days before having the procedure, but the state's Planned Parenthood group sued in federal court saying the law violated the equal protection and due process rights of women.
Chief Judge Karen Schreier of the U.S. District Court for South Dakota preliminarily blocked the requirement in June when she found it imposed an undue burden on women, noting that some low-income abortion patients travel long distances and cannot afford to go home and then return.
A representative for the National Organization for Women could not be reached late on Tuesday to comment on the Utah governor's action.
"We believe that a court will find the 72-hour waiting period (in Utah) is not an undue burden," Isom said.
One difference between the two state laws is that, unlike in South Dakota where lawmakers sought to require that women wait 72 hours after first meeting with the abortion provider, Utah would allow the waiting period to begin after an initial consultation with a health professional. That person need not be an abortion doctor.
The Utah law is due to take effect on May 7 in a state that is one of the most conservative in the nation and has not had a Democratic governor since 1985.
While South Dakota was the first state to pass legislation for a three-day wait in 2011, 26 states require women to wait before receiving an abortion. Most often, that is a 24-hour period, according to reproductive health organization the Guttmacher Institute.
(Writing By Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)

George Clooney arrested outside Sudanese embassy

Actor George Clooney was one of several protesters arrested outside of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Video showed a smiling Clooney and his 78-year-old father, Nick, arrested by park police outside of the embassy. The pair were handcuffed and taken into custody along with U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), Rep Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), former Rep. Tom Andrews (D-Mass.), Martin Luther King III and NAACP president Ben Jealous.
The group had planned the protest to draw attention to Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir's rocket attacks on his people in Nuba Mountain region.
"[We want] the (Sudanese) government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children," Clooney said before being led away with the others in a Secret Service van. "Stop raping them, and stop starving them."
Clooney testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday about the Sudanese government's bombing and violence against civilians near its border with South Sudan.
"I want to separate what is fact and what is fiction," Clooney, who just returned from an eight-day trip to Sudan with human-rights activist John Prendergast, told the committee. "The government of Sudan, led by Omar al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun and defense minister Hussein, the same three men who orchestrated the atrocities in Darfur, have turned their bombs on the Nuban people. Now, these are not military targets. These are innocent men, women and children. That is a fact."
Clooney, Rep. Jim Moran (back) and George's father Nick Clooney (right) are arrested at the Sudanese Embassy, March …
"When we got there," Clooney said, "we found children filled with shrapnel, including a nine-year-old boy who had both of his hands blown off."
On Thursday, Clooney met with reporters outside of the White House.
"There is a very, very great possibility of a lot of people starving to death in the next few months if we don't act soon finding some way to get the government of Khartoum to open up some form of a humanitarian corridor," he warned. "Obviously that's not something that we do unilaterally—it will have to be done with the help of many different countries."
And despite Clooney's trip to Washington this week, he downplayed talk of a post-acting political career.
"I don't find that I would be much help in any other position than the one I am in," he said. "I don't make policy. All I can really do is amplify the situation and hope to bring a spotlight to it so that we're talking about it for at least a brief period of time."
Clooney added: "Anytime you're making the names of people who are charged for war crimes famous, I think that's good. I think the name Omar al-Bashir should be famous. I think people should know it."

Row: South Africa bows, apologises to Nigeria

After one week of diplomatic stand off, the South-African government, on Thursday, apologised to the Federal Government for deporting 125 Nigerians from the country on March 2. The Nigerian travellers were deported for allegedly presenting fake yellow fever vaccination cards.

The Nigerian government, which disputed the claim and took reciprocal actions to show its displeasure, said on Thursday that it had accepted the apology.

Nigeria had deported a total of 131 South Africans before the resolution of the row. Some reports had also claimed that South Africa had deported an additional 25 Nigerian travellers in retaliation.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, who announced the end of hostilities, at a Press Conference, in Abuja, said machinery had been put in motion to ensure a permanent truce.

Ashiru said, “Today, I can confirm to you that I have received a letter from the South African Foreign Minister apologising for the course of action and the deportation of 125 Nigerians last week.

“What it means is that, for you gentlemen of the press, we have reached the end of the exchange of statements between the time this incident happened and today.

“On behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria and of course, of the President, I, as the Foreign Minister, will accept the apology; I will be sending a letter back to my counterpart in South Africa, accepting the apology of the South African government.

“And thereafter, we will move quickly to ensure that we put machinery in place so that it will be a lasting solution because we don’t want this to happen again in the course of our bilateral relations.”

While giving an insight into the letter, the Minister said, “In the letter, the South African government promised to dispatch a special envoy as soon as possible to come and visit Mr. President, and to also convey the apology of the South African government.”

According to him, the ministry was already making arrangements for President Goodluck Jonathan to receive the Special Envoy “within the next couple of days.”

He also noted that the South African government and Nigeria’s High Commission in that country issued a joint press statement, in Pretoria, South Africa, earlier in the day.

Ashiru said as part of the truce, other remedial measures, the details of which were still being worked out, would be taken.

He noted, “Other measures will be taken to ensure that our relations are normal and that all the causes of irritation in our relations are removed.”

Also, the minister said, “The major thrust (of the statement) is that, we have both agreed to reconvene immediately, the Bi-national commission between our two countries.”

The Nigeria-South Africa Bi-national Commission is headed by the Vice-Presidents of the two countries.

Issues to be discussed at the Commission’s meeting will include but not limited to political, economic and commercial, immigration, consular, and security matters.

It is expected that after the meeting, a comprehensive framework will be put in place to deter officials from maltreating Nigerians.

Earlier, the Department of International Relations, Republic of South Africa, and the Nigeria High Commission in Pretoria, had issued a joint press statement.

After reviewing the situation, both countries said in the statement:

“The governments of South Africa and Nigeria view these developments in a serious light. Accordingly, the two countries have, through diplomatic channels, consulted at the highest levels on ways of avoiding a recurrence of such developments.

“Furthermore, the South African government has sent a letter of apology to the Nigerian government following this regrettable incident which the South African government believes could have been handled better.

“Amongst other things, the two countries agree that:

“The Bi-national Commission between South Africa and Nigeria should be revived as soon as possible. There is also agreement that the immigration Working Group should also be reviewed.

“The National Department of Health and the Gauteng Health Department should reconsider re-opening the vaccination clinic at the OR Tambo International Airport so that passengers without the yellow fever card can be vaccinated upon arrival at the airport rather than be deported.”

Other issues agreed upon were that, “The South African and Nigerian Health authorities would exchange vaccine batch numbers and details about official institutions that administer the vaccine batch numbers.

“When it comes to mass deportation, it was agreed that senior officials at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (including Protocol) should be consulted by Immigration and Health officials at the Airport before undertaking such action.

“This will provide the Senior Officials the opportunity to consult with the Department before deporting large numbers of people.”

However, Ashiru appealed to Nigerians travelling abroad to obey the laws of the countries they are visiting.

“We should also look inwards when we travel abroad to conduct ourselves properly and at least, to make sure that, whatever you are doing that you are conscious of the fact that you are a Nigerian. And that people are watching you.

“While we as a government have a responsibility to protect you, you also, as Nigerians and travellers, should behave and don’t do anything that will portray Nigeria in a bad light.”

Declaring the dispute over, Ashiru said with the formal apology issued by the government of South Africa, and the acceptance of the same by Nigeria, the matter had been put to rest.

He said “I will finally say, we should put this episode behind us.

“We are going to move forward and make sure we consolidate our relations with South Africa.”

The diplomat noted that the two countries had enjoyed cordial relations over time and as such, it was important that both countries “move forward.”

Also speaking at the event, the Minister of State II, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed, said the action taken by the Federal Government during the face off marked the beginning of a new era of tit-for-tat diplomacy.

He said, “This government is a government that cares for its citizens; it’s a government that is saying the days of the ‘Big Brother’ is over that the days of tit-for-tat are here.

“If a Nigerian is maltreated anywhere in the world, the Nigerian government will take that incident with all seriousness it deserves. It is not about South Africa as the Minister said.”

Italian, Briton killed during rescue operation in Sokoto

Two Europeans – a Briton and an Italian – kidnapped by Boko Haram in May 2011 were killed in Sokoto, Sokoto State on Thursday during a rescue operation by British and Nigerian special forces.

News of the failed rescue attempt was relayed yesterday by the Prime Minister of the United Kindgom, Mr. David Cameron, in a special statement issued from his 10, Downing Street office.

Chris McManus, from the North West of England, and his colleague Franco Lamolinara were working for an Italian construction firm, B Stabilini, in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State when they were kidnapped by members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

THE PUNCH

had got a tip late last year that a rescue operation was in the works and that British Special Forces were combing the North for the hostages. The paper then assigned a reporter to do the story.

But the newspaper decided to heed the pleas of a senior government official who pleaded that publishing the story could jeopardise the operations and imperil the lives of the men.

The British Prime Minister said the hostages were murdered by their captors either before the rescue bid or during the operations. Sky News reports that a source told its correspondent that the UK and Nigerian forces could not get to McManus and Lamolinara in time.

“It strongly appears that the hostage-takers shot the hostages,” the sources said.

Sources told Sky News that there were no fatalities on the British and Nigerian forces side, but there were several fatalities among the hostage-takers.

Cameron said the rescue bid was reportedly launched after the UK had received credible information about their whereabouts and that their lives were under increasing threat.He added that the decision to launch the operation was jointly taken by the two countries.

Cameron said, “Since then (May 2011), we have been working closely with the Nigerian authorities to try to find Chris and Franco, and to secure their release.

“The terrorists holding the two hostages made very clear threats to take their lives, including in a video that was posted on the Internet.

“After months of not knowing where they were being held, we received credible information about their location. A window of opportunity arose to secure their release.

“We also had reason to believe that their lives were under imminent and growing danger. Preparations were made to mount an operation to attempt to rescue Chris and Franco.

“Together with the Nigerian Government, today I authorised it to go ahead, with UK support.

“It is with great regret that I have to say that both Chris and Franco have lost their lives.

“We are still awaiting confirmation of the details, but the early indications are clear that both men were murdered by their captors, before they could be rescued.”

He added: “Our immediate thoughts must be with Chris and Franco’s families, and we offer them our sincerest condolences.”

Meanwhile, President Gooodluck Jonathan has condemned the killing of the two kidnapped foreigners and revealed that their killers had been captured.

A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, quoted the President as describing the incident as sad, unfortunate and regrettable.

The President, on behalf of the Nigerian government extended his condolences to the families of the bereaved and the people and governments of Britain and Italy.

He commended the cooperation and understanding of the British and Italian governments and assured them that the perpetrators, who had all been arrested, would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Jonathan also promised that the Nigerian government would take every necessary step to continue to protect the lives of foreigners in the country.

In a statement, the McManus family said: “As a family, we are of course devastated by the news of Chris’ death which we received earlier today.

“During this ordeal, we have relied heavily on the support of our family and friends which has never waned and has enabled us to get through the most difficult of times.

“We are also aware of the many people who were working to try and have Chris returned to our family, and his girlfriend. We would like to thank all of them for their efforts.

“We knew Chris was in an extremely dangerous situation. However, we knew that everything that could be done was being done.”

In August, a Nigerian group believed to be a splinter faction of Boko Haram had announced that it had captured a Briton.

The group, which called itself ‘Al Qaeda in the land beyond the Sahel’ released a hostage video to a Mauritanian news agency showing a blindfolded and bearded hostage in a red shirt, guarded by three men with Ak-47 rifles and a cutlass.

In the video, the hostage man asked the British government to meet the demands of the group to save his life. However, neither the hostage nor his captors had given details of the demands.

One of the kidnappers said it would be the “last message” issued to Mr. Cameron about the hostage. The speaker said the British government had failed to answer their demands and it was given two weeks to “take the correct decision.”

Higgs boson hints multiply in US Tevatron facility data

The Tevatron led the high-energy physics world for two decades before its shutoff in 2011

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Q&A: The Higgs boson
• Higgs 'may have been identified'
• What does Tevatron closure mean for big US science?

Scientists from the US Tevatron accelerator say they have spotted possible hints of the Higgs boson at a mass similar to that seen at the LHC.

The findings add weight to the idea that the Higgs - purported to give all other particles their mass - exists near a mass of 125 gigaelectronvolts.
However, the new data are not themselves sufficiently statistically assured to rate the find a "discovery".
The results were presented at the Moriond physics conference in Italy.
The Tevatron, based at the US national laboratory Fermilab, was for two decades the world's premier particle accelerator, but was shut down in 2011 after negotiations to extend funding failed.

Continue reading the main story

Statistics of a 'discovery'

• Particle physics has an accepted definition for a "discovery": a five-sigma level of certainty
• The number of standard deviations, or sigmas, is a measure of how unlikely it is that an experimental result is simply down to chance rather than a real effect
• Similarly, tossing a coin and getting a number of heads in a row may just be chance, rather than a sign of a "loaded" coin
• The "three sigma" level represents about the same likelihood as tossing more than eight heads in a row
• Five sigma, on the other hand, would correspond to tossing more than 20 in a row
• With independent confirmation by other experiments, five-sigma findings become accepted discoveries

However, like all particle-smashers, the Tevatron created a tremendous amount of data that remained to be analysed.

The latest data hint at the existence of a particle between 115 and 135 gigaelectronvolts (GeV; this is between about 120 and 140 times as heavy as the protons found in every atom) with a certainty of about 2.2 sigma.
That means that there is about a one in 36 chance that the anomaly they see is the result of happenstance - far less assured than the "five sigma" threshold that physicists use to demarcate a formal discovery.
However, what makes the find more compelling is that the Large Hadron Collider has found a suggestive "bump" in its data at about the same mass, despite being a radically different experiment.
The LHC collides protons together, while the Tevatron used protons and their antimatter counterpart, antiprotons.
Both experiments hunt for the Higgs by looking at what those high-energy particles decay into.
At the Tevatron, the data are from the production of bottom quarks and their counterparts bottom antiquarks, whereas at the LHC the primary search is for the production of the light particles known as photons.
"It's a different accelerator, different detectors and a different decay channel," said Rob Roser, spokesman for CDF, one of the two main Tevatron detectors.

Continue reading the main story

What is an electronvolt?

• Charged particles tend to speed up in an electric field, defined as an electric potential - or voltage - spread over a distance
• One electronvolt (eV) is the energy gained by a single electron as it accelerates through a potential of one volt
• It is a convenient unit of measure for particle accelerators, which speed particles up through much higher electric potentials
• But because of the equivalence of mass and energy laid out in E=MC2, physicists also speak of the mass of particles in electronvolts

"It adds to the picture, and it's starting to make a compelling case," he told BBC News. "But we can't make quite as bold a statement as we would like.

"I just wish either one of us just had more data right now. It's frustrating."
The two main detectors at the LHC, CMS and Atlas, also presented results at the meeting on Wednesday, but the experiments have precious little further data relative to those presented late last year.
That will radically change later this year as the facility will produce three times the amount of data this year as in 2011.
However, recent analysis of Atlas data has "excluded" the mass range up to 122.5 GeV. The Tevatron data, meanwhile, exclude its presence at the heavier masses of 147-179 GeV, also completely consistent with what the LHC has found.
As has been said before, if it indeed exists, there are few places left for the Higgs boson to hide.
Tony Weidberg, a University of Oxford physicist who works at the LHC's Atlas detector, said that the Tevatron results were consistent with the idea of a comparatively "light" Higgs boson.
"It's interesting because it's another little hint," Dr Weidberg told BBC News. "It makes it a little bit more likely that we're going to end the year with a discovery rather than an exclusion.
"The proof of the pudding will be in the LHC data that we'll get this year; by the end of the year we'll have moved away from hints to either discovery or exclusion - and either of those results is exciting to me."