Govs head for S’Arabia to brief Yar’Adua – The Guardian

As Dr. Goodluck Jonathan settles down as Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a delegation of governors has left Abuja for Saudi Arabia to see ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Jonathan presided over the Federal Executive council (FEC) meeting yesterday in his new capacity.

The governors’ mission is said to be essentially to officially break to the President and his family the news of the decision of the National Assembly and the factors that led to it.

Those who were at the Abuja airport on their way out yesterday were Governors Ibrahim Shema (Katsina State), Gabriel Suswam (Benue) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), who is also married to one of the President’s daughters. They were supposed to have left on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s resolutions in the National assembly, but the chartered aircraft they were supposed to use developed a fault and the trip was shifted till yesterday.

The Guardian had reported last Tuesday that a delegation of some Nigerian officials was to leave the country for Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with the President’s family, aides and associates.

Beauty queen launches campaign against VVF in North – Daily Trust

Parents have been advised to avoid giving out their underage daughters in marriage to check cases of Vesico Virginal Fistula (VVF) which is common in Northern Nigeria.

The Queen of Aso 2009 Miss Jennifer Uju Igwegbe gave the advice in Abuja yesterday during a visit to the corporate headquarters of Media Trust.  Miss Igwegbe whose office is organizing a national sensitization campaign on VVF in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and NTA International on Friday December 4 2009, said she chose the VVF campaign as a pet project because of her ardent desire to help give better life to the girl-child and sensitise people on the dangers of under age marriage and the effects of VVF.

She said as a result of the prevalence of the disease in the north, the project would first target the 19 northern states with Bauchi, Kano, Kebbi, Niger and Zamfara as the initial target states.
“VVF is a very silent disease because of the stigma attached to it, once a young girl is married and gets it, there is always the danger of their husbands leaving them for other wives. We want to sensitize people on the dangers and let victims know that’s not the end of life. Victims should try as much as possible to access medical care to get back their lives, parents should not give out their kids for marriage, it’s like destroying the child”, she said. Jennifer said statistics derived from the campaign in the aforementioned states would be used in inputs to help check the disease across the country. According to her, first lady, Hajia Turai Yar’adua is expected to be the mother of the day with a key note address by Health Minister Prof. Babatunde Oshotimehin, while Commissioners for Health and Women Affairs from various states as well as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs Hajia Amina Mohammed Zubair are also to attend.  Twenty-one year old Jennifer is a 200 Level Law student in the University of Abuja.  Experts say VVF is an abnormal connection between the bladder and vagina. It is caused by injury to the urinary tract, basically occurring during labour. The disease is known to cripple women both socially and physically.   Jennifer appealed to government and well-meaning organisations to assist her campaign to succeed for the benefit of the girl-child.

Sectarian violence in the North Why they attack police—AIG – Daily Trust

Members of Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf-led Boko Haram group may be targeting the police in their attacks because as anti-establishment they see police as the symbol of authority, the Assistant Inspector of Police in charge of zone 12, Moses Anegbode, has said. Addressing journalists in Bauchi yesterday, Mr Anegbode said members of the group, who see anything western as prohibited, are criminals masquerading in the name of religion.

Speaking specifically on the incident of Bauchi, the AIG said the police had no option but to open fire on the members in self-defence after they attacked the Dutsin Tanshi police station. Police killed 39 of the attackers and wounded others while two policemen and a soldier lost their lives in the clash. Anegbode said 176 heavily armed suspects, most of whom came to Bauchi from Yobe and Borno States, were arrested at DIC area, behind the premises of Styer Company, at the outskirts of Bauchi, when they were allegedly planning to burn the company.

Sectarian violence spreads, 157 feared dead in Borno, Kano – The Guardian

The  sectarian violence, which broke out in Bauchi on Sunday, has spread to Borno and Kano yesterday, claiming over 157 lives.

In Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, over 154 people were killed when armed members of the Islamic fundamentalists sect, Boko Haram, led by Mohammed Yusuf, a cleric, attacked the police headquarters around 10.00 p.m. and burnt 12 offices and quarters of the police and 11 patrol and personal vehicles.

However, the timely intervention of mobile policemen limited the casualty figure in Kano to three.

The Islamic fundamentalists were alleged to be fighting against those who have adopted western values.

‘Dozens die’ in Nigeria clashes – BBC News

At least 32 people have been killed in a gun battle between security forces and a radical Islamist group in north-east Nigeria, reports say.

Dozens of people attacked a police station in Bauchi city but were repelled, Reuters news agency said.

The agency quoted a police spokesman as saying the militants belonged to Boko Haram, a group seeking the imposition of sharia law across Nigeria.