120 Days After Abduction: BBOG Group Plans Strategic Protest

As the captivity of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State by the Boko Haram sect clocks 120 days, the #BringBackOurGirls Group (BBOG) has said it would take its campaign to strategic places. The group said it would do this to ensure that the Nigerian people were reminded of the fact that the girls were still in the hands of the insurgents.

The group, which revealed this at its daily sit-out session yesterday, stated that the reason for the strategic protest today was to appeal to the conscience of the people, in the hope that they would better connect with the plight of the girls.

The group however refused to reveal the venues for the protest due to possible security interference, but stated that the protest would take the group to different places, where their demands would be properly made.

"We have to engage the Nigerian people. We have to appeal to them to show empathy to the abducted girls and understand why we have decided to stand with them and be their voices. We have to engage them and explain to them the reason for our campaign and why we are asking the president to bring the girls back,"it said.

The group explained that it would move to strategic places with placards and banners bearing its demands and distribute pamphlets containing its frequently asked questions for people to understand its singular purpose, which is the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls.

The group also disclosed that apart from the protest and its normal daily sit-outs, it had devised other strategies for channelling its demands to the relevant offices.

Take Ebola patients to quarantine centres, not prayer houses- Maku warns

Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, on Monday urged Nigerians to ensure all victims with possible Ebola ailment to be taken to quarantine houses and not prayer houses.

The Minister who spoke at a conference organised by the Ministry of Health to provide guidelines to State Commissioners of Health on how to sensitise the people on the deadly Ebola Virus Disease.

He said: "While it is important to note that God perform miracles, the public must help the federal government contain the disease by leaving their loved ones at the designated quarantine centres. I urge you to rather send names of patients to prophets and religious leader for prayers.

"Miracles should take place in quarantine centres. If you have a prayer warrior in Lagos, just send the name of the person to him for the miracle," Mr. Maku said.

He added that while the disease was deadly, it is important to note that there is no need to stigmatise anyone with the infectious disease.

The Minister called on persons who might show the disease's symptoms to help by reporting themselves to quarantine centres in order to save their own lives and that of their family members.

He also encouraged the Commissioners to work towards the translation of pamphlets shared at the conference to their various local dialects.

The Head, Port Health Services, Sani Gwarzo, said Nigeria has started land border screening in Seme and Idiriko land borders adding that it was the responsibility of every country to protect its borders.

Mr. Gwarzo said that since the outbreak of the disease, the Ports Health Services was making sure that it delivers safe, healthy and easy screening at all ports and borders in Nigeria.

Ebola: Octogenarian, 5 Children Hospitalised After Drinking Salty, Water

A women in her early 80's and five children have been hospitalized in a Makurdi hospital (name withheld) for bathing with and drinking salt water to avert being stricken by the dreaded Ebola virus disease.

There was chaos in Makurdi and other communities of the agrarian state, weekend, when all residents woke up in the midnight to bathe with and drink the salt water solution, claiming that it could prevent them from contracting Ebola virus.

LEADERSHIP gathered from a relative of the affected persons who spoke on the condition of anonymity yesterday, that the aged woman and the children have started vomiting and purging out excreta immediately they consumed it.

The place where the incident occurred, according to the relative, is Logo 1 area of Makurdi, and that the people were quickly rushed to a nearby hospital for urgent medical attention. He said the unhealthy situation was caused as a result of over-consumption of the salt.

This is coming barely 48 hours after the director of public health in the state, Dr. Joseph Kumba debunked the claim that Ebola virus disease could be averted by salt water solution.

Meanwhile, sellers of fairly-used clothes popularly called bend-down-select, yesterday in Makurdi, decried low patronage from customers. The marketers opened for business every Sunday in Wadata, Wurukum and Northbank metropolis of the state capital.

A 45- year- old man who deals in fairly used clothes, simply called Uche, was met at the Wurukum market yesterday. He said, "there is no market because our customers have not come to buy goods and even, many people are saying they are afraid to buy the clothes because of Ebola disease."

Saudi beheads man for killing wife with axe

Saudi authorities beheaded a national on Monday after he was convicted of killing his wife with an axe in front of their daughter, the interior ministry announced.

Mahdi al-Ghabari battered his wife Shaqraa al-Bahri several times on her neck with an axe, killing her "in the presence of their little daughter who witnessed" the crime, said the statement published by the official SPA news agency.

He was executed due to the "hideousness" of the crime, said the statement.

The beheading in the southwestern city of Najran raised to 23 the number of executions so far this year in the Gulf state, according to an AFP count based on official reports.

Last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced a "sharp increase in the use of capital punishment" in Saudi Arabia.

In 2013, there were 78 executions.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islamic sharia law.

Wives, children stop military trucks conveying soldiers to fight Boko Haram

Hundreds of women and children weekend forcefully stopped military trucks from conveying their husbands and fathers to the Boko Haram-seized Gwoza by locking the exit gates of a barracks in Borno State, demanding quality fighting equipment for the soldiers.

Scores of soldiers have been killed by Boko Haram in Borno State in the last few months, and many blame the inferior weapons Nigerian troops are equipped with to fight brutal insurgents.

According to witnesses, after locking the gates, the women and children placed themselves as wedges before the trucks that were to drive out of Giwa Barracks of the 21 armoured brigade Maiduguri.

One woman was quoted as saying, "we don't want to be made another set of widows, give our husbands modern and better arms, weapons and vehicles or they go nowhere!"

The reaction came after nearly 60 soldiers killed in Gwoza and Damboa- both in Borno State- were given a mass burial at the Maimalari Barracks Maiduguri.

The women and children also reportedly blockaded the roads leading to the barracks with stones and sticks, while some sat in front of the barracks' gate.

Some soldiers at the barracks said they were in support of the action. One soldier who chose to remain anonymous told newsmen that "we are ever ready to tackle Boko Haram terrorists but our superior officers are not helping us by not giving us the right arms to execute the war. How can I go and face Boko Haram with AK47 that is charged with only three cartridges when the enemy is brandishing modern GPMG, AA, RPG and so on. Most of our soldiers die every day like fowls because of faulty deployment and yet when you complain they only tell you to obey the last order."

Another soldier said, "we are being pushed to death because we usually run out of ammunition or our weapons would fail us during an operation, while the Boko Haram who came fully kitted with better arms and extra supplies would continue to pick on us like insects."

According to another: "We are ready to finish Boko Haram in one week because we have the courage to do that if we are given the right arms and ammunition."