Breaking News: Another Bomb Blast In Gombe, More than 30 killed (Photos)

A bomb blast at the Central Parkin Cross, Gombe, Gombe state, has resulted in the death of “many people”, a senior StateSecurityService(SSS) official has confirmed to The Cable. He said the blast happened at about 9:30am. “They left the bomb inside one of the vehicles at the park”, he said. “The blast went off at about 9:30am. Up till now, we don’t know the number of people. But it is a very busy park, so many people will die in such a bomb blast.” He also said officials of the Nigerian army, the police (led by its commissioner) and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had arrived the scene to cordon it off and begin rescue operations. A NEMA official who spoke with TheCable from the scene of the blast said more than 30 people had died, as at the first count. “I have counted more than 30 dead bodies, but the death toll is likely to rise,” the official said, before asking for permission to continue with rescue operations.

Martins on MLS rich list

Seattle Sounders forward Obafemi Martins and former Aston Villa flop Michael Bradley are among a quartet of West Midlands old boys on the Major League Soccer richlist, Birmingham Mail reports. Ex-AstonVilla, Blues and Albion defender Liam Ridgewell and Robbie Keane, once of Wolves and Villa, are also ranked among the top 15 $1m-plus earners in the MLS. The salaries of the players in the United States’ leading soccer league were made public on Tuesday and included the wages of several familiar faces. Bradley, who had a lacklustre loan spell at Villa in 2011 under Gerard Houllier, is the third highest earner behind Kaka and Clint Dempsey. The Toronto FC midfielder and US international picks up $6.5m (around £4m) per year. Keane, of Los Angeles Galaxy, is seventh in the big money league, with an annual salary of $4.5m (roughly £2.75m). Martins, who was Birmingham’s match-winner at Wembley in February 2011, pockets $1.75m (just over £1m) per year playing for Seattle Sounders. Ridgewell is the latest West Midlands import to seek the latter part of fame and fortune across the pond. He now plays for Portland Timbers and trousers $1.2m (around £750,000) per year.

Senate to overrule INEC on new polling units

The Senate on Tuesday vowed to overrule the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission to create additional polling units, if the agency failed to heed its advice to stop the exercise. The Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Andy Uba, who stated this in an interview with journalists, said the idea behind the creation of additional units was good but the timing of the exercise was wrong. He said, “We have sent a letter to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and we expressed our reservations over the planned creation of additional polling units across the country. “What he is doing is good but the timing is wrong. We are close to an election year and we have so many displaced people in the north-eastern part of the country. So, where will the INEC put the new polling units? “If they (INEC) continue with it (creation of new polling centres), we will pass a resolution to overrule it. It is simple. And once we pass our resolution, is he going to go ahead, saying that he doesn’t care? “There are consequences when you say you don’t care, that is what it is, but I know he (Jega) is a gentle man and he is a man that keeps to his words. We had a meeting and (we) had sent him a letter. “He should know that his integrity, from what people are saying, is at stake. However, that it is not our business. And I believe that there is nothing he has in mind against anybody or anything.” Uba, who explained that the exercise would go a long way to solve the problems which the electorate usually encounter at polling centres, however maintained that the grouse of his committee with INEC was the timing. He said, “There are over 4,000 registered voters in Wuse 2 in Abuja, for instance, and you know the inconvenience when 4,000 people are expected to queue up in line. It is not possible for all of them to be accredited before voting would start. Many people will come and would be turned back. “It (the exercise) is a good idea but the timing is wrong; that is all we are saying. Nobody is saying what they did was wrong. Some people are saying there is ulterior motive. There is no ulterior motive in it; that is not the issue. “INEC needs time to educate people to let them know that their names have been moved to a different polling unit, but it is a good idea because it will decongest these polling units. Five hundred names each, it makes things work faster. “When you come in, you will get accredited; then you will vote and go but when you have 4,000 names in a centre, that is a problem.” He nevertheless expressed confidence that the Electoral Act Amendment would be concluded as soon as the Senate resumes from its current Sallah break. He said, “We are working on it and I am sure the Deputy Senate President, who is the Chairman of that Joint Conference Committee, had said that by the time we come back, we should be able to finish what we are doing.” Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu and Mr. Ebenezer Foby as the Director-General and Commissioner of the National Pension Commission. The upper chamber had also confirmed the appointment of Capt.Mukhtar Usman as the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority.

N4,000 call-up fee for NYSC sparks anger

Despite the National Youth Service Corps’ explanation, many Nigerians still frown on the planned N4,000 call-up fee for prospective corps members, CHARLES ABAH reports The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students should know where the shoe pinches an average undergraduate. As the umbrella body of all students in the country, it understands the mood of the majority. Although many Nigerians frown on the divisions within NANS and the organisation’s mode of operations, with regard to romancing politicians and those in the corridors of power, there is still no denying its prime place as the heartbeat of student unionism in the country. Therefore, it is not surprising that the body is responding to issues concerning the students. The planned imposition of online registration fee on prospective corps members is one of such issues and the leadership of the association is currently kicking against it. The NYSC recently announced that the next batch of prospective corps members would access their call-up letters via the Internet by paying the sum of N4,000. According to the 41-year-old agency, the move is to guard against impersonation and to reduce the inconveniences as well as the dangers of travelling long distances to collect call-up letters. The NYSC, through its Director of Corps Mobilisation, Anthony Ani, says, “Before orientation, every prospective corps member has to pass through a long process, including travelling to collect call-up letters. Sometimes many corps members have died while travelling to get their call-up letters and, most times, school officials may not be there. “Coming to camp, you meet long queues during registration, while others bring fake call-up letters. Some prospective corps members change their dates of birth because they want to serve and get discharge certificates. Some institutions are admitting students without passing through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board and enrolling them into unaccredited courses.” Dismissing the NYSC’s argument, the leadership of NANS describes the plan to introduce the fee as exploitative. Indeed, going by the participation of an average of 300, 000 corps members in the scheme annually, the NYSC will be laughing all the way to the bank with no less than N1.2bn every year. According to the South-West zone of NANS, the N4, 000 call-up charge is not only exploitative but criminal. Speaking through its South-West Public Relations Officer, Jeremiah Olatinwo, the student body says, “The clandestine and venal method of extortion by the management of the National Youth Service Corps has come to our notice. The mandatory youth service is a call for service to our nation; hence, there should not be price tag to obtaining the call-up letters. It must remain free. “Enforcement of a non-refundable fee of N4, 000 for NYSC call-up letters is barbaric and is nothing but a path strewn with thorns. NANS, therefore, demands that the fee be suspended.” Also, the National Association of Polytechnics Students has joined NANS to condemn the fee. The NAPS Senate President, Lukman Salaudeen, says the association has rejected the planned move to impose the fee on prospective corps members. The leadership of NAPS, he adds, met in Abuja last week to discuss the issue alongside other matters of national importance. He says, “NAPS Senate rejects the introduction of payment for printing call-up letters for prospective corps members by the NYSC authority. It, therefore, calls for the reversal of the policy with immediate effect.” Beyond students, many other Nigerians and groups are not comfortable with the NYSC’s planned move. For instance, the Education Rights Campaign says the initiative is condemnable, exploitative and unacceptable. The ERC, in a statement titled “Do not turn NYSC into a racket”, opposes the introduction of the fee and promises to persuade the leadership of the NYSC to reverse the “extortionate” policy. The group says, “The decision to commercialise the NYSC scheme is condemnable, exploitative and unacceptable. Charging N4, 000 for online registration is fraudulent. We respectfully call on the NYSC DG, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi, not to turn the scheme into a racket. “The ERC opposes the N4, 000 charge and shall campaign to force the NYSC tops to reverse this extortionate policy. We demand that the NYSC provides the online registration free of charge. NYSC is supposed to be a platform for the youth to serve their country meritoriously. Asking people to first pay to serve their country is turning the idea of the NYSC scheme completely upside down from a meritorious service to a business venture. “The proponents of this extortionate scheme have laboured to justify it. The ERC is not against any effort to ease the process of mobilisation and collection of call-up letters by prospective corps members. We are in favour of every means to ease the burden of students, youths and workers. What we are against is an attempt to extort Nigerians. A cross-section of NYSC members “What the NYSC bureaucracies want to do is to use this to create an opportunity for themselves and their big business friends to fleece Nigerians and make some cool profit. It is the same sleazy racket in the Ministry of Interior, which saw the ministry and a private company raking in billions of naira from the travails of unemployed youths. It is in the nature of Nigeria’s ruling elite to use every progress to extract payment from already over-exploited Nigerians.” “Progress should mean easing of burden; not the other way round. More so, the technology to be deployed for the online registration and processing of call-up letters by prospective corps members is not something from heaven. The technology exists here in Nigeria. It is the same technology already used for online registration in schools and it is not beyond what the NYSC, which has an enormous annual budget, can provide at no extra cost. At this point in Nigeria, when the vast majority is wallowing in poverty and tens of thousands of youths are graduating without prospect of employment, it is the height of heartlessness for the NYSC to think up this fraudulent conspiracy in order to fleece Nigerians.” Although the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria, Lagos State commends the online registration initiative, it wonders why the fee is as high as N4,000. Like the ERC, the Muslim group says the move is not only exploitative but it also has no regard for human labour. The MSSN President, Kaamil Kalejaiye, in a statement condemning the fee, urges the NYSC not to betray the interest of Nigerian students for profit making. Kalejaiye notes, “This is another betrayal from our government. Why should someone who wants to go and serve his nation freely pay so much money? Where do they expect a student who has suffered so much in the decaying Nigeria universities and polytechnics to have such amount of money? The NYSC must realise that having finished a degree course does not mean that you have a job. So, where do you want the thousands of jobless Nigerian students to get N4, 000? If that charge is retained, then the authorities do not have regard for the human (corps members) labour, especially when they want to go and serve their fatherland.” For a youth pressure group, Advocate for Collective Transformation, also, there is no justification for the fee. The ACT, in a statement by its President, Tayo Fashogbon, and the National Secretary, Ifetoluwa Ajayi, says the fee negates the higher call to national duty. “We are surprised that an agency, such as the NYSC, that is not saddled with the responsibility of generating funds will be monetising its core duty to Nigerian graduates. We disagree with the justification for this and immediately call on the Minister for Youth Affairs and Chairman NYSC Governing board to stop this extra financial burden on these patriotic youths,” it concludes.