President Jonathan visits bombed police headquarter

President Goodluck Jonathan visited the site of the first suicide bombing in Nigeria on Friday, which killed a policeman and destroyed properties, assuring that security agencies were tackling the "ugly" emergence of terror attacks.

"The security agancies are on top of it," Jonathan told reporters after his inspection at the site.
The president was taken round the site by the lucky Hafiz Ringim,whom was the prime target of the Boko Haram attack.

The radical Islamist Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility thereby scoring a devastating goal at the premises of the National Police Headquarters, in Abuja on Thursday against the Inspector General of police, barely 24 hours after the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, boasted that the violent Islamist sect, Boko Haram, would be suppressed in days.

Speaking at the premises of the police headquarter

, President Jonathan said, "Let me use this opportunity to assure Nigerians, it is a period globally, that we experience all these terrorist attacks all over the world. No country is free."
"Nigeria is also having some ugly incidents relating to that.

People working in offices hundreds of metres away from the police headquarters said the force of the explosion rattled their building and forced many of them to abandon work. Even police officers working at the headquarters decided to take the day off. Several offices within the police headquarters itself were damaged in the blast.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Boko Haram said on Thursday that the group was responsible for the explosion in an interview with VOA. Usman Alzawahiri told the group that "Yes, the blast is our handiwork. We are behind it and we are going to attack the entire north and other parts of the country, including the capital, Abuja." He also said Boko Haram personnel just returned from Somalia five days ago and have been scattered around northern parts of the country. He said his group is advising Nigerians to be careful.

THE fear of Boko Haram is, to state the fact, the beginning of wisdom in some states of the Northern part of Nigeria. The group, which parades religious extremists pushing for the enthronement of Sharia and abadonment of western education in the region, has always sent jitters down the spines of old and young in the North Eastern states of Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe and Taraba. Wherever the group operates, it often leaves behind sad stories and scary scenes of destruction, maiming and death.

Carpenter jailed for releasing sperm on woman's buttocks

A 25-year-old carpenter, Godwin Aboye, has been sentenced to 10 days imprisonment by an Abuja Senior Magistrates’ Court for releasing his semen on Mrs. Simi Maikaura in a queue at Karu Village, Abuja.

The police prosecutor, Corporal Francis Odofia, told the court that the man, on January 19, while in a queue at ECWA Church for voter registration, indecently brought out his reproductive organ and pressed it against the complainant’s buttocks.

“You indecently pressed your penis against her buttocks and in the process released your sperm and stained her dress without her consent,’’ Odofia said.
According to the prosecutor, the act of gross indecency committed by the Aboye contravened Section 285 of the Penal Code Law. The News Agency of Nigeria reported that the convict pleaded guilty and begged for leniency before the court.

Delivering judgement, Senior Magistrate Sharon Ishaya convicted Aboye, pursuant to Section 157(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

She sentenced him to 10 days imprisonment with an option of N1, 000 fine.

Nigerian pilgrim commits suicide in Makkah

A Nigerian woman who was on pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudia Arabia committed suicide by jumping from the 10th floor of a residential building where she was staying.

It was reported she's in her early fifties and suffers mental illness

Maj. Abdul Mohsen Al-Maiman, spokesman of Makkah police, confirmed the woman's death, adding that she was suffering from mental problems. "She died jumping from a toilet window," he said.

Police have launched an investigation to know whether there were any criminal motives behind the incident. The woman was residing in a building in Kudai.

In another development, a Nigerian man, who was in his forties, committed suicide. The man who was living illegally in the Kingdom hanged himself on a light post in a desolated area in Makkah. Al-Maiman said police are investigating the incident.

May their souls rest in peace.

Former IG of Police berates police force

With the 2011 elections around the corner former Inspector General of Police, Musiliu Smith berated the police force, when he said the police lacked needed resources to adequately maintain law and order during the forthcoming elections.

Speaking at a conference where he delivered a paper titled, "Security Institutions and Electoral Reforms", at the Obafemi Awolowo Institute of Governance and Public Policy.Smith said the police is faced with issues bothering on inadequate staff and poor funding.

"The Nigeria Police Force, no doubt shoulders a major security responsibility for elections. With a staff strength that is still under 500,000 (inclusive of specialists and those manning police stations nationwide) to cover at least 120,000 polling stations and annual poor funding that makes it impossible to provide officers and men with attractive/motivating service conditions and necessary logistics in the right quantity and quality, it will be sheer wishful thinking to expect efficient performance", he said.

At the moment, Nigeria is busy with plans for the next general election, but there may not be free and fair election in 2011 if police would not be there to take full charge, because they are poorly funded.