Smirnoff Midnight Circus Party Rocks Calabar! (More photos)

By: Online Publisher's

 

 

The fab event took place on the 22nd of Decemeber in Calabar. Continue to see more photos...

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 injured in Gombe hotel bomb blast

By: Online Publisher's

 

No fewer than 15 persons were injured in an explosion at a hotel located on the outskirts of Gombe.The attack occured on Wednesday night and came after a series of bombings on Christmas, Day, which killed at least 40 persons in Suleja, Jos and Damaturu.The Manager of the hotel, Mr. Ojiego Nelson, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Gombe on Thursday that three persons came to the hotel at about 10.13pm on Wednesday to explode a device.Nelson said he was at the gate of the hotel when the men, who were carrying guns, started "manhandling" the security man.


He said, "When he asked what was happening, they started shooting sporadically."Our customers and everybody started running helter-skelter and the one with two gas cylinders in his hands threw them into our reception."He threw one into the reception and threw the other one under the cars parked by our guests in the hotel."The one thrown into the reception exploded and damaged the building, so we just managed to escape through the back fence."The manager said as soon as the incident happened, all the customers vacated their rooms in the hotel.He said the incident was immediately reported to the Divisional Police Officer in Tumfure, Mr Hassan Bappa, who came to the scene with his men.

Bappa told NAN he moved his men to the scene of the incident when the matter was reported to him, but said the gunmen had escaped before the police arrived. Bappa said there was no casuality and nothing was stolen from the hotel. "We are waiting for bomb experts to come and remove the relics at the scene of the incident," he said. He said there was no arrest made so far but investigations were going on. Meanwhile, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magus Abe, on Thursday in Lagos called for political support for security agencies to reduce the spate of bombings in the country. Abe (PDP-Rivers South-East) made the call in an interview with the NAN, urging the security agencies to be persistent in handling the incessant bombings by the fundamentalist Boko Haramsect.

He said, "The security agencies need full political support of the leadership of the country and the communities; besides, they need to be focused, consistent and avoid distractions. "The Boko Haram issue is a challenge that must be overcome. Take for instance, there was a time in Israel when bombs were going on everyday but today they have overcome it.’’ The senator advised the country’s leadership to be courageous in handling the present security challenges facing the nation. "The Boko Haram issue requires leadership and total courage, courage on the part of the leadership and the leadership must adopt the consistency approach," he said.

Man shot to death at home. His pregnant wife arrested for his murder

By: Online Publisher's

Hadiza Afegbua, (pictured above right) yesterday December 28th, was arrested by police at Utako Division, Abuja, for the murder of her husband, Ibrahim Abutu, (pictured above with their child).

Ibrahim was killed in the Parakou Crescent home he shared with Hadiza and their child at Wuse II, Abuja, yesterday morning.

When police arrived at the couple's residence, Hadiza told them she was in the kitchen when she heard a gun shot and rushed towards the direction, only to find her husband shot. She and a few neighbors rushed him to the hospital where he eventually died.

Then the man's family went to police with their story.

 

According to the family of late Ibrahim Abudu, Hadiza allegedly used a double barrel gun in shooting her husband in cold blood, supposedly over his plans to marry a second wife. He's Muslim. 


The police recovered a gun from the scene of the incident and an autopsy will be carried out on the corpse in order to unravel the cause of his death.

Hadiza is still in police custody while investigations are ongoing.

Will bring you update...

4 killed as another blast hit Maiduguri

By: Online Publisher's

KANO (AFP) – An explosion and gunfire rocked an area near a mosque and market in northeastern Nigeria on Friday, killing four people, residents said, but the military denied there was a blast and said two people had been shot dead by armed robbers.

The violence erupted after a series of Christmas Day attacks blamed on Islamist sect Boko Haram that killed at least 49 people, most of them outside a Catholic church near the capital Abuja, and triggered fears of reprisals by Christians.

Details of Friday’s incident remained unclear, with residents initially reporting a loud explosion near a mosque in Maiduguri, a northeastern city that has borne the brunt of violence blamed on the Islamists.

Two residents said they later saw four dead bodies.

A spokesman for a military task force at first confirmed an explosion near the city’s main market, but later strongly denied there had been a blast, saying armed robbers had shot three people and that soldiers were in pursuit.

Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed said several robbers had stormed a market in Maiduguri after Muslim prayers.

“In the course of trying to rob the traders, they gunned down three people,” he said, adding that two people had been killed and the third was critically ill in hospital.

He said the robbers may also be members of Boko Haram, which has been accused of carrying out armed robberies in the past to finance its activities.

A relief agency official in the city said on condition of anonymity that “many residents in Maiduguri said that they heard the blast that took place in Guddum area, behind the emir’s palace.

“But the (military task force) denied there was a blast,” the official said.

“A robbery took place in the central business district of Maiduguri and there were gunshots fired at the scene. Where the robbery took place is about a kilometre away from the scene of the blast.”

Nigeria’s security agencies have come under intense pressure to stop attacks by Boko Haram amid spiralling violence blamed on the group.

President Goodluck Jonathan met with his security chiefs for the second time in as many days in Abuja on Friday following suggestions that he may reshuffle his team.

Boko Haram has carried out scores of attacks in Nigeria, most of them in the northeast, and its targets have included Muslim leaders.

Thousands have fled Maiduguri fearing further attacks by Boko Haram and heavy-handed military raids, with soldiers accused of killing civilians and burning their homes after bomb blasts.

Christian leaders have expressed mounting frustration over the Nigerian authorities’ inability to stop attacks that have killed hundreds of people this year.

They have said they will be forced to defend themselves if the authorities do not address the problem.

Amid the mounting concerns over reprisals, a bomb was thrown into an Arabic school on Tuesday in Delta state in southern Nigeria, wounding six children and an adult.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.

Violence had been raging even in the days before the Christmas Day bombings, especially in the northeastern cities of Damaturu, Potiskum and Maiduguri.

Another attack hit the northeast on Wednesday night, when gunmen opened fire and threw explosives at a hotel and open-air bar in the city of Gombe, wounding 15 people, the hotel manager said.

The motive for that attack was not clear, although Boko Haram has often targeted bars.

In Damaturu last week, suspected members of Boko Haram carried out attacks followed by a military crackdown that led to clashes. A rights group and police source said up to 100 people were feared dead in the violence.

An emergency official has said an estimated 90,000 people have been displaced in Damaturu.