POLICE FOILS PLAN TO SELL 10YEAR OLD KID FOR N3MILLION NAIRA

A child trafficking gang was arrested after their plot to sell a 10year old boy in Calabar for N3 million was foiled. The gang allegedly attempted to sell the boy who goes by the name of Mfon Bassey in Bogobiri area of Calabar before they were rounded up by security forces.
Luckily for the boy that was about to be sold off, the three suspects were arrested when one of the persons who wanted to buy the boy provided information to the police about the plot. Sources say the prospective buyer alerted the authorities when the terms and agreements of the deal were allegedly violated by the gang.

Mfon Bassey was about to be sold for N3Million when the plan was foild by authorities.
Speaking to the press, SSS Assistant Director, Mr. Bassey Ntewo said the suspects arrested includes, a watch seller (who allegedly facilitated the sale), a 28-year-old uncle of the boy, and a tailor who was ready to pay the N3 million price tag for the boy.
10 year old Mfon Bassey lives with his sick mother, a farmer who lives in Calabar as well. Authorities have confirmed that the suspects are in police custody and that the key suspect has confessed to getting paid N3 million for each human being he produced to the kidnapping gang.

Nigerian migrants hope Libyan crisis will ease path to Europe

A group of African migrants have put their destinies to fate with the hope to cross to Europe hoping the chaos in Libya will ease their flight to the boats awaiting them on the Mediterranean.
Take the case of this Nigerians who are determined against the odds to make it to Europe in the face of torture and execution of blacks on suspicion of fighting as mercenaries alongside Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

But for them, the risks from gunmen are an acceptable alternative to being turned back by a border patrol.
"They say blacks are being killed as suspected Gaddafi fighters, but I say we all have a destiny," said Sule, a 25-year-old Nigerian migrant who did not want to give his last name.
"I see this war as an opportunity that I cannot let pass if I want to make it to Europe."
Lured by the seductive mirage of a better life in the West, tens of thousands of Africans trek every year across deserts or risk perilous sea crossings in try to slip illegally into Europe via Spain or Italy.
But for Sule and his companions -- and the dozens of others arriving in northern Niger each day -- that gamble means passing through what may be the most dangerous place in the world right now for an African.
Refugee camps within Libya and sprouting along its land borders contain thousands of fleeing Africans telling tales of horror at the hands of rebel fighters suspicious they are pro-Gaddafi mercenaries. Identity cards of nationals from Chad, Niger, Mali, Sudan and other African states have been found on the bodies of gunmen who anti-Gaddafi fighters say were paid to confront them. "We are risking our lives but we have been assured by our guide that we'll be alright between here and the Libyan border.
The rest is our affair," Sule said.
"If things become dangerous, we can always head to a refugee camp," said Obasi, one of Sule's companions.
Sule's group travelled 700 km from their homes in Kano, to Agadez, a city in Niger's northern desert just below the Air mountain range.
In this bustling town, once a popular destination for European tourists seeking a taste of the Sahara before a Tuareg uprising in 2007 and a string of Al Qaeda-linked kidnappings made it a no-go zone,
Sule's group waits for the signal to complete the 3,000 km journey north. "The smuggler said he'll bring us to Libya via the mountain trails through Agadez. There are others coming and even if we become impatient, the timing is his responsibility. There are preparations to complete and it is important that we have enough water," said Serin, one of Sule's companions.
Sule's group paid 300,000 CFA francs ($625) each to be smuggled to the Libyan border, about double what they would have paid before the war, they said.
They said they had been encouraged to try the route when Gaddafi threatened Europe with a deluge of illegal immigration early on in the uprising against him.
Italy's government said last month it has proof Gaddafi planned to turn its tiny island of Lampedusa, off the southern coast of Siciliy, into an "inferno" by sending thousands of desperate African migrants there. A deal between Gaddafi and Italy to send migrants back before they entered Italian waters had curbed the flow of migrants until the Libyan uprising brought strict border controls.
Abdul Rachid is a driver in Agadez, paid to run the smuggling routes to Libya's border with a cargo of humans.
He said migrants were given choices between riding in the back of a powerful 4X4 pickup truck -- the "fast and comfortable option" but more expensive -- or being packed into a larger, slower truck.
"If you take a truck you will be 50 people or 60 people, packed in like sardines. It takes at least 10 days if all goes well," he said.

120 dead in Kenyan pipeline fire

At least 120 people were

burned to death on Monday when a pipeline burst into flames in a Nairobi slum as local people were siphoning fuel from it, and more than 100 hospitalised, officials said.
Scores of bodies, some burned to the bone, lay on charred grass near trenches and a filthy river in the Sinai slum following the accident.
No official explanation had been given as to what caused the accident along the pipeline that runs through Sinai's tin shacks.
However, some residents said fuel siphoning in the slum was a common practice.
"It happens whenever the Kenya Pipeline (company) is pumping fuel ... we usually go to get fuel from there," said Francis Munge.
"There are people who know how to open it (a valve) and I don't know what happened this time for it to burst. Maybe there was a lot of pressure."
Another resident, Kenneth Makau, said: "There is usually a long queue of people getting fuel with jerrycans from that pipeline. It is an open secret because even they (the company) knows it very well. It has been happening."
"The death toll from bodies counted so far is 120. It is likely to rise because of the bodies in the river," said Philip Kisia, a Nairobi city council official.
Richard Lesiampe, the head of one of the country's main hospitals in Nairobi, said 109 people were being treated for burns.

Tanzania mourns after ferry disaster

STONE TOWN Tanzanians on Sunday began three days of national mourning for victims of a crowded ferry that sank off the popular tourist archipelago of Zanzibar, in which some 200 people have been confirmed dead.

Survivors said the M.V. Spice Islanders, which sank early on Saturday was well beyond its official capacity of 600 passengers.
Bodies of the deceased have been taken to a sports field, and were buried according to Islamic custom.
The ferry left Tanzania's commercial capital of Dar Es Salaam loaded with building materials, mattresses and passengers, survivors said. It stopped at the island of Zanzibar and then continued on to Pemba, a top diving destination. But it began to list in the early hours of Saturday, and eventually sank in an area of deep sea and strong currents.
Most survivors drifted ashore clinging to foam mattresses or wooden planks from the ferry. Some were plucked from the water by a flotilla of pleasure craft, wooden fishing dhows and yachts which set off from the beach Saturday to search for survivors.
The number of total passengers is still unclear and officials expect the death toll to rise.
Flags are flying at half-mast and radio and television stations are playing readings of the Quran instead of music.

Man City CEO resigns over Nedum Onuoha's mother email

Manchester City chief executive officer Garry Cook resigned on Friday following an email in which he appeared to mock the mother of English footballer of Nigerian descent, a statement said.
Cook stepped down from his post with the English Premier League club following an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding an email sent to Dr Anthonia Onuoha, the agent and mother of City player Nedum Onuoha.
Cook had denied that he sent the email, claiming someone hacked into his email account.
However Cook's resignation was confirmed on Friday following an internal investigation by City.
"The club can confirm that there is a foundation to Dr Onuoha's allegations and the chairman has written to apologise to Dr Onuoha for any distress caused," a statement said.
"Following the findings of the review, Chief Executive Officer Garry Cook has offered his resignation, which has been accepted with regret by the Board."
According to reports, Dr Onuoha wrote to City official Brian Marwood about a contract dispute between the club and her son, who is an England Under-21 international.
In an email sent to Marwood last October, she said that, although her body was "ravaged with cancer and ongoing chemotherapy", she was still able to fight her son's corner.
Two weeks later she received an email, apparently written by Cook but destined for Marwood and sent to Dr Onuoha by mistake.
The Sun claimed: "The e-mail was addressed 'Brian' then said: 'Ravaged with it!!......I don't now how you sleep at night. You used to be such a nice man when I worked with you at nike (sic).'"

Nigerian Sharia court sentences two to amputation for stealing cow

An Islamic sharia court in Nigeria has sentenced two men to amputation of their right wrists for stealing a bull, with the amputation to be carried out in public if it is given final approval.
The sharia court in the village of Nassarawan Mailayi in the northern state of Zamfara on Thursday ordered that Auwalu Abubaka, 23, and Lawalli Musa, 22, have their right hands chopped off for stealing a bull worth 130,000 Naira ($867, 628 euros).
However, the two men have 30 days to appeal their sentence and the state governor must approve any amputation. Such sentences have only rarely been carried out in Nigeria.
"Based on the admission of guilt by the two of you of trespassing into the house ... and stealing a bull whose worth is well above the minimum value to warrant amputation, I hereby order that each of you should have his right wrist amputated," Judge Muhammadu Abubakar said.
"I hereby order that the sentence be carried out on October 8, on market day for members of the public to witness."
The convicts were arraigned on August 8 following complaints to the police by a resident accusing them of stealing his bull from his house, which led to their arrest, court documents showed.
Sharia law is in place across 12 states in predominately Muslim northern Nigeria, but it is selectively enforced.
It provides for amputation of the wrist for theft and it would be the second time such a sentence is handed down in Zamfara, the first of Nigeria's 36 states to reintroduce sharia law after the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.
In 2001, a notorious cattle rustler had his right wrist amputated following conviction by a sharia court in the state capital Gusau for stealing a bull after the then state governor approved the sentence.
The amputation drew outrage from local and international rights groups, which led to the overturning of more than a dozen amputation sentences across the 12 predominantly Muslim states.
Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation, and its 150 million people are roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

Qatar begins World Cup qualifier in Bahrain

On Friday, new Qatar coach Sebastiao Lazaroni's boys will take their first step dow the long and ardous path towards the 2014 World Cup, with an away fixture agaianst Bahrain. The match at the Bahrain's National Stadium in Riffa is scheduled to kick off at 8pm local time. Apart from Iran, ranked 53rd in the world, Qatar (88) is well ahead of Bahrain (101) and Indonesia (131) in its Asia qualification group (E). Only the winne

r and runner-up of the round robin group advance to the fourth round of the AFC qualifiers, which means that Qatar is left with little margin of error. After Friday's clash, Qatar will host Iran on September 6 in Doha. Their next qualifying game will then be in Jakarta against Indonesia on October 11. This round of Asian qualification qualification continues February next year. Qatar arrived in Bahrain on Wednesday reeling from back-to-back losses in friendly games in the past fortnight.They recorded losses against Iraq (1-0 at home) before falling to the United Arab Emirates 3-1 at Al Ain. Going into Friday’s game, coach Lazaroni seems optimistic, especially after the recovery of the injured players such as the team captain Bilal Mohammed, Majdi Siddiq and Hamid Ismael. As for Bahrain, they are coming off a 1-0 victory over Sudan in a friendly played at home last week. They had also recently beaten United Arab Emirates club side Bani Yas 3-0 after drawing 1-1 with Oman in an abandoned friendly during their July training camp in Dubai. Meanwhile, this Qatar-Bahrain match will mark the first official game for Qatar’s Brazilian tactician Sebastiao Lazaroni, who was appointed to his new post earlier this month. Same for the former England under-21 manager, now Bahrain head coach Peter John Taylor, who was signed to take over the national team duties in July. Bahrain is one of five nations (others being Japan, South Korea, Australia and North Korea) that received byes through to the third round. Friday’s clash may be the group opener but it looms as a potentially vital one. The other teams in Group E, Iran and Indonesia, are expected to finish top and bottom of the group respectively, leaving Bahrain and Qatar to fight out the second spot which yields a place in the fourth round. Qatar will be hoping to claim a much-needed victory as a boost to its credential as the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Lazaroni brings vast international experience to the Qatar job. He was coach of his native Brazil in the successful 1989 Copa America campaign and 1990 World Cup, and had coached the Jamaican national team. The 61-year-old had managed several of the big club in Brazil, including Flamengo, Vasco de Gama, Gremio and Botafogo, plus several club sides around the world including Fiorentina and Fenerbahce. If Qatar wins in this group, it will then move on to the fourth round, which will have two groups of five teams each that will see the group winners and runners-up automatically qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.