A truce in the conflict in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-producing Niger Delta is in danger of being derailed by anger at the military over the death of an elderly local leader.
The Niger Delta Avengers group, whose attacks on oil pipelines in the southern region crippled crude output earlier this year and pushed Africa&#8217;s biggest economy into recession, said in August it agreed to a ceasefire.
The government has held out the prospect of holding talks on the grievances of people in the Delta with militant groups which maintain a truce.
But the death last week of Chief Thomas Ekpemupolo, the father of a fugitive former militant leader, could rekindle hostilities.
The octogenarian fell while fleeing an army raid on his home town in May and injured his leg, which had to be amputated two months later, said a spokesman for his son, former militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, known as Tompolo.
Militants launched a wave of attacks at the start of the year to demand a greater share of oil revenues for the swampy region, which produces most of Nigeria&#8217;s crude but whose residents are mired in poverty.
Security sources say Tompolo has links to those responsible for the attacks, which began shortly after corruption charges were brought against him. He has denied any involvement.
&#8220;In a nutshell, (the) government caused the death of my father,&#8221; said Frank Ekpemupolo, another son, raising his voice above the traditional music played through giant speakers at a gathering of 400 mourners at his father&#8217;s compound in Warri, the largest city in Delta state.
Mourners including community chiefs, politicians and villagers accused troops of harassing people in the fishing communities dotted along the region&#8217;s waterways.
An Avengers spokesman told Reuters the military was &#8220;harassing poor people of the Niger Delta&#8221;. The military denies it, saying troops are merely searching for militants and criminals.
Several new militant groups have sprung up in the last few weeks, each with its own demands, and some have vowed to launch a new wave of attacks.
Community leaders say they are concerned that the government has not contacted militants or unveiled a negotiation team, three weeks after the Avengers said they were ready for the promised talks.
&#8220;We haven&#8217;t been contacted, but we are not worried,&#8221; said the Avengers spokesman.
 
&#8216;GOVERNMENT MUTENESS&#8217;
Captain Mark Anthony, a spokesman for defunct militant group the Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF), said the &#8220;government&#8217;s muteness&#8221; since the Avengers announced a ceasefire was creating &#8220;a security concern for everybody&#8221;.
&#8220;They have only stopped bombing temporarily. It doesn&#8217;t mean they are tired of bombing,&#8221; he said.
An army offensive was launched in late August against militant camps and led to the deaths of five people and the arrests of 23 others.
Eric Omare, spokesman for the Ijaw Youth Council, which represents one of the region&#8217;s largest ethnic groups, said statements by President Muhammadu Buhari that militants would be treated like Boko Haram jihadists prompted fears that the offer of talks was a ruse to prepare for a military onslaught.
Tensions in Warri are concentrated along its murky brown waterways &#8211; used by fishermen, commuters and thieves stealing crude oil &#8211; where fleeting encounters with strangers can end in bloodshed.
Boats slow down and their occupants raise their arms when they encounter naval patrol boats fitted with machineguns.
Fishermen say they fear being mistaken for militants and shot. Gunmen disguised as priests killed three soldiers last month.
An official who did not want to be named said &#8220;arrangements&#8221; were being made to resume dialogue with the militants.
He said the government wanted each militant group to send representatives, rather than acting through intermediaries as in the past.﻿

Nigerian oil ceasefire threatened by local anger at military

Jailed former Nigerian state governor James Ibori&#8217;s convictions remain valid despite evidence a British police officer took bribes during the investigation of his case, Britain&#8217;s state prosecution agency said on Thursday.
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Ibori, who as governor of oil-producing Delta State from 1999 to 2007 was one of Nigeria&#8217;s most powerful men, is serving a 13-year sentence in a British prison after pleading guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering.
He is the most senior Nigerian politician to have been held to account for the corruption that has blighted Africa&#8217;s most populous nation for decades, and his jailing was hailed as a high point in the international fight against graft.
But the case has become an embarrassment for Britain since one of Ibori&#8217;s associates, convicted money-launderer Bhadresh Gohil, alleged that the judicial process was tainted because prosecutors had covered up evidence of police corruption.
Authorities initially denied everything and charged Gohil with perverting the course of justice, but that prosecution was abruptly dropped in January.
In May, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had found &#8220;material to support the assertion that a police officer received payment in return for information&#8221;.
After an internal review of the case lasting months, the CPS said on Thursday that while the material &#8220;should have been disclosed to the defence&#8221;, that did not call into question the validity of the convictions of Ibori, Gohil and others.
Ibori&#8217;s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gohil&#8217;s lawyer said he could not comment for legal reasons.
Court proceedings on the confiscation of Ibori&#8217;s assets are still dragging through the courts, and lawyers for Ibori and Gohil could use the next court hearing to challenge the findings of the CPS review.
Ibori first came to the attention of British police in 1991, when he was working as a cashier at Wickes, a home improvements chainstore in London, and was caught stealing from the till.
After returning to Nigeria, he became involved in politics. As governor of Delta, he amassed a huge fortune and became a power-broker in the PDP party then ruling the country.
The charges to which Ibori pleaded guilty amounted to the theft of about $80 million. Prosecutors said that was only part of his total booty, which was kept hidden via a complex web of shell companies, offshore accounts and front men.
During his sentencing in 2012, the court heard that he had enjoyed a lavish lifestyle involving foreign properties and a fleet of luxury cars. At the time of his arrest, he had been trying to buy a $20 million private jet.﻿

UK says Nigerian's conviction stands despite bribery evidence

There are many innovative solutions available to the Central Bank of Nigeria, but is it taking advantage of them, or just going with the old way of doing things?﻿
Earlier in August, in a sudden move, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) changed its International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) policy. The change was so drastic that the licences of all money transfer services, save three, have been revoked. The three remaining are old players in the scene relatively speaking &#8211; Western Union, Moneygram, and Ria.
The decision was made in the interests of curbing the growing unlicensed money transmitters operating in the country, and also &#8211; in the words of a press release &#8211; to ensure that no ‘attempt aimed at undermining the country’s foreign exchange regime’ is condoned.
Much has been written on the reasons, however, I’m interested in this from an innovation point of view, and from the point of view of the many people who were using newer, more innovative money transfer solutions.
Several startups have been finding more technological, and cheaper ways, to allow users to transfer money. The issue is a rather simple one. The African diaspora is huge, and many Nigerians need easy and cheap solutions that will help them get money to loved ones in their home country. It’s got to be an easy transaction without a lot of friction. There’s a good reason why Nigerians are sending money home &#8211; they didn’t’t just wake up in the morning and decide it’s a good day to send money. There are obligations, needs, and reasons. After all, most of them are somewhere else in the world because they found they could get a decent job that could help with their responsibilities at home.
Several startups like WorldRemit, MFS Africa, Transferwise, or Azimo found solutions for these people where money transfers can be almost seamless. Many of the solutions make use of Digital Payment Services (DPS) where money can be sent using mobile phone apps and SMS services, in partnership with retailers and service providers.
The CBN announcement has its pros and its cons. The pros are obvious &#8211; better control, more safety. There obviously needs to be adequate and effective regulation. It’s good that CBN consolidate the numerous avenues to send money into the country &#8211; with only three partners to work with, managing fraud and laundering is much, much easier and effective. That’s a plus.
The cons, however, are much more complicated. There is a question about these three providers that needs to be answered. All three have been around for a long time, but with that also comes antiquated systems and unnecessary costs in today’s technological landscape. Do these partners have the capability, or the plans, to provide seamless transactions for users at a low cost? In order to get at the big fish involved in laundering and fraud, the common person is being cut off from valuable services that are really changing lives.
<div id="inarticle_wrapper_div">Does the diaspora have to now go to a Western Union agent in person, fill out the necessary forms, bring in all the necessary paperwork such as proof of address etc., conduct the transaction and then send the necessary Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) to the person they’re sending it to, and then pay the fees? At the time of writing, it costs 9.99 USD to send 5 USD to Nigeria if you’re sending cash! Sure you can do it online, or make use of the Western Union app, but then you can only make use of a VISA or Mastercard credit card to do it &#8211; something that many Africans do not have. Many do not even have bank accounts.</div>
The beauty of DPS in recent years has been the ability to circumvent these options and pay someone directly to their cellphone, with digital money they can actually use. Or if they want the cash, they can draw it from hundreds of agents around the country. DPS also allows you to pay for goods and services, and then send a coupon or code via SMS to someone else, who then simply pick up those goods and services from the relevant retailer or service provider. While the three players above provide similar services by allowing users to pay bills for others, it’s still not exactly the same thing.
In my opinion, remittance itself has to disappear from the customer’s experience. Amazon has showed us the value of the ‘one-click payment’ service. Amazon are also a good example of how borders are closing &#8211; I can order almost anything from Amazon from almost anywhere, and have it delivered to just about anywhere. The costs will change, but the borders don’t mean much. This is the sort of thing that needs to start happening in the money transfers space. For example, instead of sending money home to Nigeria, why can’t I be allowed to pay for groceries and medical supplies from select partners, and then those goods are delivered to my loved one’s door? That kind of thinking is what needs to enter the money transfer space, and in the case of many startups, it has.
I think it’s a great that CBN has chosen three solid partners in solving their problem, but often in Africa we focus so much on regulatory framework without the bigger African picture in mind. Perhaps these three players don’t have everything in place now to meet the true needs of many, many Africans &#8211; but do they have the plans and strategies to do so? Or are they still thinking in one, limited context? It’s not about remittance but rather about the end result.
In theory, the partner selection by the CBN is crucial. If they just picked the biggest remittance providers because of who they are, based on historical and e ven political relationships, that’s not helping us all in the long run. In my opinion, innovation is key here, and we have the technology in DPS.
I love the example of Tanzania. In 2008, less than one percent of Tanzanian adults had access to mobile financial services, but by 2013 this shot up to 90 percent. As I explore in detail in my bookDisrupting Africa: The Rise and Rise of African Innovation, these services are effectively offering a huge amount of people the security and benefits of bank accounts (these days, even interest is being paid out) &#8211; it’s making it easy for people to invest into the financial system. It’s just that the financial system is looking very different!
The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) has taken a “test and learn” approach, inviting the private sector to partner with them in opening up solutions and freeing up financial services to the common person. &#8220;We have learned that new technologies that augur well with the Central Bank&#8217;s objective need to be nurtured and monitored closely to ensure they do not cause any financial instability or reputational risk that may affect the country&#8217;s payment systems. This approach has made digital payment services in Tanzania a success story,&#8221; says Prof Benno Ndulu, governor of BOT. Colaboration has been key.
Africa can leapfrog traditional infrastructure and find new solutions to its challenges. In the case of money transfer solutions, there is a lot on the table. My hope is CBN and its partners have a plan &#8211; for the sake of the long term.﻿﻿

OPINION: Are Nigeria's new money transfer policies good for the people?

Arik Air, Nigeria&#8217;s largest airline, cancelled all of its flights on Tuesday in what it called a temporary disruption related to insurance renewal, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
The company warned the disruption was likely to continue for the next few days as it awaited approve from national insurance commission NAICOM to renew its insurance with a new company. It did not say why it had changed insurance companies.
Arik, which has services to London, New York and Johannesburg, said it was &#8220;working around the clock&#8221; to resume operations.
&#8220;We are fully committed to returning to our normal operations and minimize any unfortunate inconvenience to our passengers,&#8221; Arik Chief Executive Michael Arumemi-Ikhide said in the statement.
Nigerian airlines and international carriers operating within the country have struggled with a plunge in the local currency, the naira, that has made it difficult to get U.S. dollars to buy jet fuel and also to remain profitable as passengers pay in naira.
Two other local carriers, Aero Contractors and First Nation, recently suspended operations, though the government said both would eventually reopen.
International carriers United and Iberia stopped their services to Nigeria earlier this year, while others have begun refuelling abroad to avoid jet fuel shortages. International airlines have complained about the difficulty of repatriating millions of dollars worth of fares sold in local currency.
 
(Reporting by Libby George; editing by Susan Thomas)﻿

Nigeria's largest airline temporarily suspends operations

Nigeria&#8217;s telecoms regulator has shut the offices of Nokia-Alcatel for operating in Africa&#8217;s largest economy without the necessary permit, the watchdog said on Friday.
The Nigerian Communications Commission&#8217;s (NCC) spokesman Tony Ojobo said that the mobile telecoms equipment manufacturer had failed to obtain the 2 million naira ($6,349) licence required for the sale and installation of network equipment.
The head of Nokia&#8217;s Nigerian operations said the company was in talks with the NCC to secure the licence and that its offices would reopen imminently.
Nokia-Alcatel had applied for the licence about three months ago but had not completed the process, a separate NCC source said, adding that the company had operated without the permit for some time.
Nokia-Alcatel&#8217;s office will be reopened after they comply, he said.
($1 = 315.00 naira)

Nigerian watchdog closes Nokia-Alacatel's local offices

Nigeria&#8217;s military has liberated large swathes of land from Boko Haram but a ride with an army convoy, all guns firing for fear of ambush, shows how far the northeast is from normality after a brutal Islamist insurgency that has displaced millions.
The moment military convoys leave the relative safety of Bama, Borno state&#8217;s second town, soldiers in the lead vehicle open fire with a heavy cannon into the scrub along the road to pre-empt attacks by remaining fighters from the Islamist group.
As they head for the regional capital, Maiduguri, the soldiers scan the road for bombs or booby-traps, while shooting at any possible cover &#8211; abandoned petrol stations, burned out farmhouses, trees, even clumps of elephant grass.
    Jeep drivers behind them in the convoy join in, firing assault rifles indiscriminately through windows with one hand while gripping the steering wheel with the other.
    &#8220;If there is somebody there and you fire at him, he definitely wants to fire back so then you know his position and take action,&#8221; said Colonel Adamu Laka, the military commander in Bama. &#8220;You are trying to seize the initiative.&#8221;
Such extreme measures highlight the lack of security across Borno despite the army&#8217;s success in driving Boko Haram out of occupied territory that 18 months ago was the size of Belgium.
Reuters was given access to the Nigerian army on the ground as it seeks to reimpose order in Borno after seven years of dominance by Boko Haram, one of the world&#8217;s deadliest Islamist groups and a major challenge to a government also grappling with an economic crisis caused by plunging oil prices.
As the first international reporting team to travel through the area by road since Boko Haram was pushed back, Reuters was able to see the devastation caused by the group. Roads are highly dangerous, no food is grown in the fields, and people are still trickling out of their hiding places in the bush.
The military campaign has curbed an insurgency that has killed at least 15,000 people since 2009 but in a new phase of the conflict, the army now finds itself facing small groups of guerrillas operating in the sparsely populated, wooded terrain.
In July, Boko Haram fighters hiding in trees along the Bama-Maiduguri road ambushed a United Nations aid convoy, wounding five people.
With the U.N. saying up to 5.5 million people in the northeast might need food aid this year, the military is under intense pressure to make roads safer. It is no easy task.
    &#8220;There are so many ambush sites along the road so we are cutting the trees,&#8221; Colonel Laka said.
As Boko Haram has been forced back, the government and aid agencies have been able to assess for the first time the extent of the humanitarian disaster left in the jihadists&#8217; wake.
The U.N. children&#8217;s agency, UNICEF, said last month nearly half a million children were at risk of &#8216;severe acute malnutrition&#8217; in the area around Lake Chad that has been ravaged by Boko Haram.
According to UNICEF, in Borno, where two in three medical centres or clinics had been partially or completely destroyed, 49,000 children will die this year if help does not arrive.
&#8220;Towns and villages are in ruins and communities have no access to basic services,&#8221; UNICEF said.
Describing civilians liberated by the army, Mohammed Kanar, northeastern coordinator for the national relief agency, said: &#8220;You will see them emaciated. As for an adult man, you can even count his ribs.&#8221;
The numbers could well rise as civilians emerge from the countryside into towns now controlled by the army.
&#8220;We had to leave the bush because we were hungry,&#8221; said Haja Jamil, 40, a pregnant yet painfully thin woman who arrived in Bama two weeks ago with two children.
&#8220;Boko Haram kept coming and hassling us. We are still afraid of them,&#8221; she said, sitting on the floor of a military clinic in Bama while feeding her 3-year-old daughter, Aisha.
    
DESERTED CITY
    Since President Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, took office last year, the army has found fresh resolve against Boko Haram, which has been fighting to establish a mediaeval caliphate in the southern stretches of the Sahara.
The military has moved its headquarters to Maiduguri, drafted in new generals and improved cooperation with neighbouring countries, allowing it to capture and take control of dozens of towns such as Bama.
But the plight of Bama shows the extent of the challenge in recovering from the group&#8217;s scorched earth campaign.
Once a city of more than a quarter of a million people, Bama is now a ghost town, littered with burnt-out buildings and home to 11,000 people living behind military fortifications.
Goats nibble at grass growing in cracks in the road. Piles of rubbish fester in ditches. The main street is lined with fire-gutted banks and shops, walls daubed with graffiti in Arabic saying &#8220;God is Great&#8221;.
    Before it left, the group, whose name means &#8216;Western education is sinful&#8217; in the local Hausa language, also ransacked schools and the palace of Bama&#8217;s traditional ruler.
    Now, soldiers camp in abandoned shops behind walls of sand-bags. Officers work in a tent, near a wall painted with the black flag of Middle East militant group Islamic State, to which Boko Haram pledged loyalty this year.
The army has set up makeshift classrooms for displaced children and piles of concrete blocks trucked in from Maiduguri point to hoped-for reconstruction, but the proximity of Boko Haram in the Sambisa forest &#8211; its final bolthole, according to the army &#8211; makes normality a distant dream.
    &#8220;It&#8217;s just four or five kilometres from here. Once you cross the river you start meeting their checkpoints,&#8221; Laka said, pointing towards the forest on a tour of Bama&#8217;s outskirts in a bullet-proof jeep.
The fight against Boko Haram has been complicated by an apparent split in the group after Islamic State&#8217;s magazine announced Abu Musab al-Barnawi as new leader. The previous leader, Abubakar Shekau, appears to have rejected the move.
But dangers remain for the military and, above all, for young people. While Barnawi rejects Shekau&#8217;s strategy of suicide bombings in crowded areas, analysts think he could regroup in rural areas to stage targeted strikes against the army.
And both groups will be competing for recruits at a time when many displaced children are not in school. That will reduce their job prospects and leave them vulnerable to Islamists ready to exploit grievances over poverty and unemployment.
 
ANGER, AND HUNGER
For now, the military says Boko Haram is low on ammunition and food. Heavy rains have however prevented any advance into Sambisa, whose dirt tracks do not suit tanks and artillery.
&#8220;Once we go in with any equipment it&#8217;s difficult to operate. So we rely on foot patrols,&#8221; Laka said.
    Meanwhile, everything from bread to ammunition to medicine comes in from Maiduguri by road, passing abandoned farms, deserted petrol stations, bombed mosques and gutted tanks.
    Behind its fortifications, Maiduguri has become an oasis of safety that is choking under the pressure.
Its population over the last few years has almost tripled to 5 million, according to the national relief agency, causing shortages of everything from living space to food and cash.
Food price riots broke out twice in August, with crowds smashing cars outside one location until police restored order.
Many are desperate to go home, turning up at dawn at Maiduguri&#8217;s minibus taxi rank to take their chances on the Bama road, only to be turned back by soldiers on the outskirts of the city. Thousands are now trapped in Maiduguri.
    &#8220;They have spent all their money and eaten all the food they brought,&#8221; said Mohammed Tada, sitting on the back of a truck laden with women, children and bags that had halted at a checkpoint. &#8220;All the people are suffering from hunger.&#8221;﻿

Nigerian army faces more danger in Boko Haram campaign

Militant attacks on energy facilities in Nigeria&#8217;s southern Niger Delta threaten to cripple the country&#8217;s state oil company if allowed to go unchecked, it said on Sunday.
Militants calling for a greater share of the country&#8217;s oil wealth to go the impoverished region have reduced Nigeria&#8217;s crude oil output by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.56 million bpd since the start of the year.
Niger Delta Avengers, which claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, said last month it had ceased hostilities to pursue talks with the government, but others say they will continue attacks. Another group, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate, attacked a state oil company pipeline on Tuesday.
&#8220;If the current situation remains unchecked, it could lead to the crippling of the corporation and the nation&#8217;s oil and gas sector, the mainstay of the Nigerian economy,&#8221; the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in a statement.
Crude oil sales account for 70 percent of government revenues in Nigeria and the country, which has Africa&#8217;s biggest economy, has slipped into recession for the first time in more than 20 years as a result of low crude prices.
The statement was issued by NNPC following a meeting on Saturday held by Maikanti Kacalla Baru, group managing director, and a number of his predecessors including the oil minister, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, whom he replaced in July.
&#8220;Insecurity is threatening production and damaging the Niger Delta environment. There is the urgent need for government and security agencies to refocus as well as engage the various host communities,&#8221; said the statement.
The attacks have meant that the government has struggled to fund its budget, which assumes oil production of 2.2 million bpd, hampering the implementation of plans aimed at boosting the flagging economy.﻿

Nigeria's state oil company says could be crippled by Delta militancy

Nigeria&#8217;s government has approved a three-year plan to borrow more from abroad, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Wednesday after the economy slipped into recession for the first time in more than 20 years.
The government has so far disbursed more than 400 billion naira in capital expenditure this year, part of a record 6.06 trillion naira ($30 billion) budget for 2016, Adeosun said last week
But with lower oil prices and attacks on oil facilities, it has struggled to fund its budget, aimed at averting the recession.
Data on Wednesday showed Nigeria had slipped into recession and the naira was quoted at a new record low of 420 per dollar on the black market as chronic hard currency shortages continued to hurt businesses. The news sent its dollar bonds down to more than two-week lows.
Adeosun said the drop in oil prices had accelerated the recession and that Nigeria had to tackle structural problems that had stoked inflation. She said interest rate hikes were not the answer.
&#8220;If we rely on oil and the price of oil remains low and the quantity of oil remains low, we can&#8217;t grow. We have to grow our non-oil economy,&#8221; she said told reporters in Abuja after a cabinet meeting.
Adeosun said the government would look for soft loans in addition to tapping the commercial Eurobond market and that the West African country was negotiating with institutions including the World Bank, China Eximbank, the Development Bank of Japan and the African Development Bank.
Nigeria has said it wants to switch its debt mix so that 40 percent of loans would come from abroad, compared with 16 percent now, and extend its debt maturity profile.
It plans to borrow as much as $10 billion from debt markets, with about half of that coming from foreign sources and is seeking advisers to manage a $1-billion Eurobond it intends to offer this year.
Adeosun said monies from the Eurobond would be spent on power transmission projects, solid mineral development and agriculture.
She said the World Bank was providing $150 million for polio immunization.
The medium-term borrowing plan, which covers 2016-2019, will now be sent to parliament for approval.﻿

Nigeria approves plan to borrow more from abroad as recession hits

Nigeria&#8217;s army expects to seize Boko Haram&#8217;s last few strongholds in the northeast over the next few weeks, the commander in charge of crushing the jihadist group&#8217;s seven-year insurgency said on Wednesday.
The army missed a December deadline set by President Muhammadu Buhari to wipe out the group, which wants to set up an Islamic caliphate in the area around Lake Chad, but has retaken most of its territory &#8211; at one point the size of Belgium.
Major General Lucky Irabor, commander of the operation, said the jihadists were now holed up in a few pockets of the Sambisa forest &#8211; where more than 200 girls kidnapped from the town of Chibok in 2014 are believed to be held &#8211; and two areas near Lake Chad and would be flushed out &#8220;within weeks&#8221;.
Despite the set-backs, Boko Haram still manages to stage regular suicide bombings in Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Since 2009, more than 15,000 people have been killed, 2.3 million displaced and the local economy decimated.
&#8220;Almost all of the locations held by the Boko Haram terrorists have been reclaimed. We are talking only of a few villages and towns,&#8221; Irabor said in an interview at his base in Maiduguri in Borno state, birth place of the insurgency.
Much of the success is down to better military cooperation with Nigeria&#8217;s neighbours, especially Chad, whose forces have been attacking Boko Haram fighters fleeing across the border.
&#8220;There are joint operations. My commanders have an exchange with local commanders across the borders. Because of the collaborations we&#8217;ve had Boko Haram has been boxed in and in a few weeks you will hear good news,&#8221; he said.
He said the jihadists, who pledged loyalty to Islamic State last year, were still controlling Abadan and Malafatori, two towns near Lake Chad, apart from their main base in the Sambisa forest, south of Maidguri.
The army was planning a new push into Sambisa after abandoning an attempt due to torrential rain, he said.
&#8220;Earlier on this year we had a major operation in the Sambisa,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Gains were made but unfortunately the weather conditions became such that we to pull out waiting for more favorable conditions.&#8221;
He said the army had rescued some 20,000 people from Boko Haram, a fraction of the 2.2 million UNICEF said last week remained trapped in the region around Lake Chad.
LEADER &#8220;WOUNDED&#8221;
Irabor&#8217;s base on the outskirts of Maiduguri, a sprawling military complex with rows of residential blocks for officers, is the most visible sign of a shake-up introduced by Buhari, a former military ruler.
Under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, the army had a reputation for being poorly equipped and running away in the face of Boko Haram assaults.
Britain and other countries have recently increased military assistance, and two Westerners wearing flat jackets could be seen jogging in the compound.
U.S. officials told Reuters in May that Washington, which blocked arms sales under Jonathan amid concerns about rights abuses, wants to sell up to 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria although Congress needs to approve the deal.
Irabor has set up a human rights desk to address the issue.
&#8220;The code of conduct is quite clear. Human rights issues are taken quite seriously,&#8221; he said.
He said that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had recently been wounded, but backed off an Air Force statement this month suggesting he had been killed in an airstrike.
&#8220;Shekau was wounded. That&#8217;s what I can confirm, but as to whether he is dead that I cannot at the moment confirm.&#8221;
Boko Haram, which normally communicates via video or audio clips posted on the Internet, has said nothing since the Aug. 24 Air Force statement about Shekau being hurt.
 
(Editing by Ed Cropley and Louise Ireland)﻿

Nigerian army commander: only weeks left for Boko Haram

Nigeria&#8217;s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 2.06 percent in the second quarter, the statistics office said on Wednesday, sending Africa&#8217;s biggest economy into a recession after a decline in the first quarter.
The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the non-oil sector declined due to a weaker currency while lower oil prices dragged the oil sector down. Output shrank by 0.36 in the first quarter.
Nigeria is in the midst of an economic crisis triggered by a slump in crude prices, its mainstay, which has hammered public finances and the naira and caused chronic dollar shortages. Crude sales accounts for around 70 percent of government revenues.
The West African nation was last in a recession, for less than a year, in 1991, and experienced a prolonged one that started in 1982 and last until 1984, NBS data showed.
On Wednesday, the statistics office also said annual inflation rose to 17.1 percent in July from 16.5 percent in June, and food inflation rose to 15.8 percent from 15.3.
 
(Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Toby Chopra)﻿

Nigeria economy contracts, slides into recession

A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil and gas facilities in the southern Niger Delta energy hub in the last few months, said on Monday that it had halted hostilities.
The statement by the Niger Delta Avengers comes just over a week after the militant group said it was ready for a ceasefire and talks with the government.
The swampland region &#8211; which produces most of the oil that makes up 70 percent of government revenue &#8211; has been hit by pipeline attacks since January which have cut the OPEC member&#8217;s output by 700,000 barrels a day to 1.56 million bpd.
&#8220;We have listened carefully and halted hostilities in the Niger Delta,&#8221; said the Avengers in the statement, presented as an &#8220;open letter&#8221; to President Muhammadu Buhari on the group&#8217;s website.
&#8220;We expect a genuine and positive attitude to restructuring and self-determination for every component unit of Nigeria,&#8221; the group said. It added that &#8220;no amount of troop surge and simulation exercises will make you win the oil war&#8221;.
Nigeria&#8217;s military on Saturday said that it had launched a new offensive against militants in the Delta, killing five and arresting 23, to crack down on criminal activities.
 
(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Bangalore newsroom; editing by Ralph Boulton)﻿
<div></div>

Niger Delta Avengers says halted hostilities

Nigeria would let Boko Haram choose a non-profit organisation as an intermediary in any talks on the release of about 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern village of Chibok in 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday.
Buhari first said last year that his government was ready to negotiate with Islamist militants Boko Haram over the girls, but the group has not commented on the proposal.
Nigeria&#8217;s failure to find the kidnapped children prompted an outcry at home and abroad. Critics of Buhari&#8217;s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, said his government was too slow to act.
Any negotiations would be the first publicly known talks between the government and Boko Haram, whose seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state in the northeast has killed 15,000 people.
&#8220;The government which I preside over is prepared to talk to bona fide leaders of Boko Haram,&#8221; Buhari told reporters at a conference on African development in Kenya&#8217;s capital, Nairobi, in comments later issued in an official statement.
&#8220;If they do not want to talk to us directly, let them pick an internationally recognised non-governmental organisation (NGO),&#8221; he said.
Buhari said Boko Haram could begin negotiations on a prisoner swap if they could provide evidence to the NGO that they had the girls.
Around 270 girls were taken from their school in the village of Chibok in northeastern Nigeria in April 2014. Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 are still missing.
Earlier this month, Boko Haram published a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of the girls and saying some were killed in air strikes.
Authorities said in May that one of the missing girls had been found and Buhari vowed to rescue the others.
Nigeria is fighting the group on the ground and with air strikes. A multi-national joint task force &#8211; comprising troops from Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin &#8211; is also battling the militants.
On Tuesday, Nigeria&#8217;s air force said it had killed some senior Boko Haram militants in raids. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) last year, but there are signs of a rift emerging.
This month IS announced a new leader for what it described as its West African operations but Boko Haram&#8217;s hitherto leader Abubakar Shekau appeared to later contradict this in a video message.
Buhari said that if the Nigerian jihadists moved to start discussions &#8220;through the &#8216;modified leadership&#8217; of Boko Haram and they talk with an internationally recognised NGO&#8221; then Nigeria would be prepared to discuss the release of militant leaders.
&#8220;We want those girls out and safe. The faster we can recover them and hand them over to their parents, the better for us,&#8221; he said.﻿

Nigeria would let Boko Haram pick NGO intermediary in talks to free Chibok girls

Traditional leaders in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-producing Niger Delta have demanded that authorities release youths arrested by the army before they will mediate in talks with militants who have been blowing up pipelines, a government official said.
On Thursday, Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu met traditional leaders from the southern region where a wave of pipeline attacks has cut the country&#8217;s oil output by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.56 million bpd.
The government had asked the leaders to make contact with the militants, who are fractured in many small groups with no unified command or demands.
The rulers, or traditional kings, asked for the release of a group of school children arrested in May and other prisoners caught in a military sweep against militants in the swamplands, the official said.
They also want the government to appoint one team to engage with all militant groups, he said.
Kachikwu asked the leaders to contact the different militant groups. &#8220;So I do urge you all to continue to reach out to all the splinter groups,&#8221; he said, according to the officials.
&#8220;The government is worried that over $40 billion invested in the area is yet to yield the desired result,&#8221; he said, referring to oil investments in the Niger Delta.
Militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria&#8217;s oil wealth to go to the impoverished region. Crude sales make up about 70 percent of national income and the vast majority of that oil comes from the swampland.
One group called Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed several major attacks, said in a statement attributed to them on Sunday they had agreed to a ceasefire to start a dialogue. Officials have refused to confirm this.
 
(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Dominic Evans)﻿

Nigerian traditional rulers say prisoners to be freed before Delta talks

Nigeria&#8217;s distributable revenues to the three tiers of government fell in July to around 444 billion naira after 559 billion naira in June as militant attacks hit oil revenues, the finance ministry said on Thursday.
Nigeria, Africa&#8217;s biggest economy and an OPEC member which relies on crude sales for about 70 percent of national income, has been hit hard by the fall in global crude prices since mid-2014.
Militants have carried out a series of attacks on oil facilities in the southern Niger Delta energy hub in the last few months, reducing oil output by 700,000 barrels a day, according to state oil firm NNPC.
&#8220;Crude oil export volume decreased&#8230; partly because of a subsisting force majeure declared at (Shell&#8217;s) Forcados Terminal,&#8221; said Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, permanent secretary of the ministry of finance.
&#8220;Also, shut-in and shut-down of pipelines at other terminals due to the activities of vandals and maintenance impacted negatively on production,&#8221; he said.
The distributable revenues includes value-added tax payments of 64.308 billion naira, the ministry said.﻿

Nigeria's distributable revenues fell to 444 billion naira in July

Nearly half a million children around Lake Chad face &#8220;severe acute malnutrition&#8221; due to drought and a seven-year insurgency by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, UNICEF said on Thursday.
Of the 475,000 deemed at risk, 49,000 in Nigeria&#8217;s Borno state, Boko Haram&#8217;s heartland, will die this year if they do not receive treatment, according to the United Nations&#8217; child agency, which is appealing for $308 million to cope with the crisis.
However, to date, UNICEF said it had only received $41 million, 13 percent of what it needs to help those affected in the four countries &#8211; Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon &#8211; that border Lake Chad.
At the start of 2015, Boko Haram occupied an area the size of Belgium but has since been pushed back over the last 18 months by military assaults by the four countries.
Most of its remaining forces are now hiding in the wilds of the vast Sambisa forest, southeast of the Borno provincial capital, Maiduguri.
UNICEF said that as Nigerian government forces captured and secured territory, aid officials were starting to piece together the scale of the humanitarian disaster left behind in the group&#8217;s wake. &#8220;Towns and villages are in ruins and communities have no access to basic services,&#8221; UNICEF said in a report.
In Borno, nearly two thirds of hospitals and clinics had been partially or completely destroyed and three-quarters of water and sanitation facilities needed to be rehabilitated.
Despite the military gains, UNICEF said, 2.2 million people remain trapped in areas under the control of Boko Haram &#8211; which is trying to establish a caliphate in the southern reaches of the Sahara &#8211; or are staying in camps, fearful of going home.
Boko Haram is thought to have killed as many as 15,000 people since the launch of its insurgency in 2009.
Responding to its battlefield setbacks, Boko Haram has turned to suicide bombings, many involving children.
UNICEF said it had recorded 38 cases of child suicide bombings so far this year, against 44 in the whole of 2015 and just four the year before that.
 
 
(Reporting by Ed Cropley; editing by Mark Heinrich)﻿

Without aid, 49,000 children will die this year in northeast Nigeria – UN

<div class="inlineRelatedContent">Nigerian bank executives met with central bank officials, banking sources told Reuters on Wednesday, a day after the monetary authority suspended nine lenders from foreign exchange transactions for failing to remit money owed to the government.</div>
The suspensions from the interbank market were imposed after the banks failed to remit $2.1 billion, the government&#8217;s share of dividends from state-owned gas company NLNG, the sources said. They were due to pay the funds into the government account at the central bank.
Investors dumped bank shares on Wednesday while traders said the black market naira sank to a record low of 402 per dollar.
The central bank (CBN) readmitted UBA &#8211; one of the banks suspended on Tuesday &#8211; to foreign exchange trading as it had remitted all outstanding deposits, CBN said in a statement.
Last year, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered all state accounts merged into that single account in a bid to reduce corruption.
Bankers told Reuters the central bank wanted the funds remitted in dollars, which are in short supply as Africa&#8217;s largest economy suffers its worst financial crisis in decades due to a slump in the price of oil, its dominant commodity.
The central bank tightened restrictions on the flow of dollars to domestic lenders in March, forcing the banks to delay hard-currency loan and trade repayments and increasing their risk of default.
One of the nine banks, FCMB, said it was working with the central bank to resolve the issue, which was a function of illiquidity in the currency markets and the weak economy rather than wilful non-compliance.
A third, First Bank, said it remits government funds when due but was discussing with the central bank and state-oil firm on ways of retaining the dollars to help solve forex shortages and meet its obligations.
There was no comment from the other banks.
There were no trades on the interbank market until three minutes before the end of the session, when the central bank intervened with dollar sales, traders said.
Only three deals worth $0.75 million were traded at 305.50 naira per dollar, the level the market has closed at since Monday.
Traders said the central bank, which has been selling dollars almost daily since it floated the naira in June, had reduced the volumes of dollars it supplied.
Foreign investors &#8211; other past suppliers of dollars &#8211; have remained on the sidelines during the West African country&#8217;s financial crisis, making the central bank the main source of hard currency.
On Wednesday, Nigeria&#8217;s dollar reserves fell 2.5 percent from a month ago to $25.67 billion, its lowest level in more than 11 years, according to central bank figures.
But reserves may be far less when all future dollar commitments are included.
The central bank settled $1.2 billion worth of outright forward contracts it sold in June at 280 per dollar this week. It is due to pay $153 million in futures contract settled in naira on Wednesday.
 
(additional reporting by Camillus Eboh and Ulf Laessing; Editing by John Stonestreet and Phil Berlowitz)﻿

Nigerian bank execs meet central bank over FX market suspension – sources

LAGOS &#8211; A year before his wedding, Jude Egharevba was overjoyed when he bought a plot of land to build a house for him and his fiancee on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria&#8217;s commercial capital.
But his joy was short-lived, after a group of young men stormed his land and demanded cash to leave peacefully.
The same men and other gangs visited his land several times and disrupted the building work, forcing Egharevba, an oil and gas executive, to pay them off with one million naira ($3,175) over the course of a year in order to finish the construction.
These men, known as the Omo Onile, which means &#8220;Sons of the Soil&#8221; in the local Yoruba language, roam Lagos looking for land owners and property developers to dupe and extort for money.
&#8220;They milk you at every stage, and beat up your workers if you don&#8217;t pay,&#8221; said Egharevba, 28, who had to postpone his wedding due to the constant setbacks to the construction of his house.
The menace of the Omo Onile, whose numbers have swelled in recent years amid rising unemployment in Nigeria, is discouraging investors, hindering businesses and holding back development in Lagos state, government officials say.
Earlier this year, the governor of Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode, vowed to crack down on those who extort landowners or take over their property, and set up a task force to tackle the problem.
The state&#8217;s assembly followed his lead, and on Aug. 15 the Lagos State Properties Protection Law was enacted.
The law punishes land theft and a range of related offences with fines and a jail term of between five and 21 years.
&#8220;These hoodlums were becoming embarrassing, and were frustrating companies,&#8221; Akinjide Bakare, chairman of the Omo Onile task force, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
&#8220;Lagos was losing investments to other states, and the government decided to step in and act,&#8221; Bakare added.
 
&#8220;SONS OF THE SOIL&#8221;
Land disputes and theft have long been a contentious issue in Lagos, and across Nigeria, according to land rights experts.
Dating back to the 1920s, most disputes within society and customary court cases have been about land, said a staff member at the National Archives of Nigeria, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not permitted to speak to the media.
In 1978, Nigeria passed the Land Use Act, which nationalised all land, and was intended to override customary land rights &#8211; where people have traditional rights but no legal recognition or protection of their land. This aimed to make land more accessible, improve tenure security, and boost development.
But the act made allocating land discretionary, fuelling state corruption, and contributed to Nigeria&#8217;s large informal land market, academics and development experts say.
&#8220;Some Omo Onile believe the land was originally theirs and so act as if government ownership does not count,&#8221; said Matthew Ottah, a Lagos-based lawyer and also a victim of the Omo Onile.
While there are no estimates of the number of Omo Onile, their ranks are believed to be growing as Nigeria&#8217;s unemployment rate has reached a seven-year high &#8211; 12 percent &#8211; and Lagos state&#8217;s population continues to grow past 20 million people.
Across Lagos, the Omo Onile idle in their communities, often drinking and smoking, but always on the lookout for abandoned projects, land purchases and deals struck by construction firms.
&#8220;There are no jobs from the government and vulcaniser (local rubber) work does not pay so this is better than stealing,&#8221; said Jamiu Alao, a young man who scouts out potential victims for the Omo Omile in Ajah, an area still under development in Lagos.
Some have set up small, bogus offices to bait prospective landowners, sometimes with illegible or misspelt signage and flyers, where they pose as genuine real estate developers.
They issue fake certificates of occupancy, collect money from landlords overseeing renovations, and conspire with some local traditional leaders to fleece property developers.
&#8220;Those who have money for land must settle with those who are keeping the land safe,&#8221; Alao added. &#8220;The new people must show respect to the old people &#8211; the sons of the soil.&#8221;
 
BATTLE FAR FROM OVER
When construction boss Kunle Adigun decided to take on the Omo Onile years ago, and press charges against the intruders, he arrived at his building site to find all his workers had quit.
&#8220;Eventually, I had to pay up,&#8221; the 32-year-old said.
&#8220;It is no good arguing with them or bringing police into the matter, because even they want to get money from land deals.&#8221;
Previously, forcibly entering a person&#8217;s land or seizing that land was punishable under the Lagos Criminal Law by two years in jail, yet it was rarely enforced, experts say.
Frustrated by the impunity of the Omo Onile, lawyer Ottah, who has been supporting their victims for over a decade, set up a start-up for land verification, identifying &#8220;risky lands&#8221;, detailing a history of land cases, and selling land.
&#8220;For unsuspecting buyers, I recommend a trustworthy lawyer, a quantity surveyor &#8230; and prayers,&#8221; Ottah said with a smile.
The new Properties Protection Law, which criminalises a range of offences from the illegal occupation of property and the use of land agents to selling property without authority, has been hailed by Lagos residents and activists alike.
Yet the battle against the Omo Omile and land theft is far from over, according to Samuel Oloyede, a professor of estate management at Covenant University, just outside of Lagos.
&#8220;There is no way to completely eliminate this issue &#8211; the land is vast and there are no official records in many cases.&#8221;
&#8220;The new law will minimise disputes because no one wants to go to jail. But it can not stop the problem completely because people will always find a way to cheat the system,&#8221; he said.
($1 = 315.0000 naira)
 
(Reporting By Eromo Egbejule, Writing by Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Jo Griffin.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)﻿

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Nigeria gets tough with marauding "Sons of the Soil" in search of land to seize

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Nigeria

Nigerian oil ceasefire threatened by local anger at military

UK says Nigerian's conviction stands despite bribery evidence

OPINION: Are Nigeria's new money transfer policies good for the people?

Nigeria's largest airline temporarily suspends operations

Nigerian watchdog closes Nokia-Alacatel's local offices

Nigerian army faces more danger in Boko Haram campaign

Nigeria's state oil company says could be crippled by Delta militancy

Nigeria approves plan to borrow more from abroad as recession hits

Nigerian army commander: only weeks left for Boko Haram

Nigeria economy contracts, slides into recession

Niger Delta Avengers says halted hostilities

Nigeria would let Boko Haram pick NGO intermediary in talks to free Chibok girls

Nigerian traditional rulers say prisoners to be freed before Delta talks

Nigeria's distributable revenues fell to 444 billion naira in July

Without aid, 49,000 children will die this year in northeast Nigeria – UN

Nigerian bank execs meet central bank over FX market suspension – sources

Nigeria gets tough with marauding "Sons of the Soil" in search of land to seize

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