HRM/Pastor Nnamndi Ofuegbu

This could  seem like a Nollywood script. But there is more to it than meet the eyes.

Pastor Lazurus Muoka, is the founder and General Overseer of The Lord Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement (LCCRM) in Nigeria.

Are churches turning political tussle field as succinctly put  by the narrator?

A traditional ruler in Anambara State, Pastor Nnamndi Ofuegbu of LCCRM is now claiming he has been defrauded of millions of Dollars by Pastor Muoka, and wants his money back. Watch the video for more revelation!

The suspects told a bewildered crowd that human heads were sold for N8,000; hands, N4,000 and private parts N10,000.

DEALERS: Fatai Akinwowo, herbalist (left) and alleged suppliers of human parts. On the ground are suspected mixture of ground human head and local gin in a bottle alongside a human finger, allegedly recovered from the suspects.

One of them, Agboola Kolawole, who blamed his indulgence on poverty and inability to pay his children’s school fees, disclosed that he had so far sold four heads of his deceased siblings to a herbalist, who in turn sold to some persons they identified simply as Alhajis.

The Alhajis, as gathered, offered to pay one of the suspects N40,000 to get a live human being, only for the suspect, Sanni Kazeem, to be apprehended during his search for prey.

Recovered from one of the arrested herbalists, identified as Ajibade Rafiu (40), who the suspects said they supply with the human parts, was a dried human finger suspected to be that of a lady, and a concoction, which he said was made from ground human head mixed with local gin.

The concoction, according to Rafiu, was to fortify him against spiritual attack.

Arrest, confession

Their arrest, according to the Command’s spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, followed a tip-off from the officer-in-charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Abba Kyari, that one of the suspects, Jamiu Adeleke, was at the verge of selling a human hand for N21,000.

The operatives, according to Braide, who paraded the suspects before newsmen, stormed Owode town, Ogun State, where Adeleke was arrested while attempting to sell the human hand to a buyer.

She said: “Adeleke confessed that one Sanni Kazeem sold it to him for N6,000. When Sanni was arrested, he also confessed to the crime, adding that he had supplied two human heads to a dealer named Akinwowo Fatai (30), who was also arrested.

Akinwowo, on his part, confessed to have received the human heads and another four human heads from another supplier, one Agboola Kolawole (40), who was later arrested in the same Owode town.”

Sources of ‘goods’

“Kolawole confessed that he cut the heads of his two late brothers and two late sisters buried in private graves in their compound and sold them for N8,000 each. The final buyer/receiver, one Ajibade Rafiu (30), a herbalist, was also arrested.

“During interrogation, the suppliers said they got their human parts from various grave yards in Ogun State, while the middlemen doubled the prices and sell to the herbalist, who is the end user.

“Sanni Kazeem also confessed that two popular Alhajis in the same Owode town had bought one head from him before and also requested for a live human being for N40,000.”

She added that the first suspect arrested, Adeleke, jumped out of a moving vehicle in his attempt to escape and sustained fatal injuries, which later resulted in his death, adding that effort was still on to arrest others indicted in the business.

‘Am in it for school fees’

One of the suspects, Agboola Kolawole, said: “Yes, I sold my dead siblings parts for N8,000 each. I was tempted to do that because of poverty and inability to pay my children’s school fees.

“Just as I was thinking of how to pay their school fees, a friend approached me and asked why I should be suffering when there was a way out. When I asked how, he said I should go and get some human parts that he would pay me.

“That was how I went to my late brother’s grave at night, exhumed the bodies of two of them and cut off the heads.

“When I took them to the friend, he gave me N16,000 and told me to get him four hands. This time around, I went to my late sisters graves and cut off their hands. I was paid N8,000 for a set of hands.”

‘I was offered N40,000 to get a human being’

Kazeem Sanni said he usually went to cemeteries to exhume dead bodies and cut off the needed parts.

He said: “The cemetery I usually frequent is CMS. I usually go there at night when the guards would have slept.

“I sell skull for N8,000 to Alpha Jamiu (Muslim cleric). So far, I have gone to the cemetery thrice to cut off human parts.

“Two weeks ago, he called to say that his clients needed a human being, promising to pay me N40,000. When I asked him how that was possible, he said he would give me a charm that would hypnotise the victim to facilitate his/her abduction.

“I told him I would think about it. But I never went back to him again because I felt I could not do that.”

However, it was gathered that Alpha Jamiu, the middleman, pays the supplier N8,000 but sells the parts thrice the amount to end users.

The herbalist, Ajibade Rafiu, told journalists that he bought a human head for N8,000, with an intention to prepare a fortification concoction for himself.

He said: “I burnt the human head and later ground it, poured it inside a plastic and added local gin and other roots. I prepared the concoction for myself.

“It is to fortify me against any attack because in this job if you are not fortified people may attempt to throw spiritual arrows at you. But with this, if anybody tries it, it will backfire.”

US President, Barack Obama

Citing strong human right violations, unchecked corruption amongst Nigerian government officials, President Barack Obama, who will make a weeklong trip to Africa this summer, will not visit Nigeria, Huhuonline.com can disclose.

In statement issued Monday, the White House said, President Obama and his wife Michelle will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania from June 26 to July 3.

“The president will meet with a wide array of leaders from government, business and civil society, including youth, to discuss our strategic partnerships on bilateral and global issues,” the White House said in a statement. “The trip will underscore the president’s commitment to broadening and deepening cooperation between the United States and the people of sub-Saharan Africa to advance regional and global peace and prosperity.”

Last week, Sen. John Kerry, US Secretary of State, in a statement, had expressed concerns about credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations in North eastern Nigeria.

The US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012, released penultimate weekend, said Nigerian government officials and agencies frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.

The corruption fighting agencies, such as EFCC, have been reduced to the notorious routine of police stations from which they were meant to be insulated by their independent existence.

Huhuonline.com gathered that report from Terrence Macaulay, US ambassador to Nigeria, who was on a working visit to River State, last week, helped  in frustrating  President Jonathan`s hope of hosting the Obama`s.

Excerpt of the restated diplomatic report obtained by huhuonline.com, reads;

“Ahead of 2015 elections, there is a credible allegation of plot by the Nigerian Presidency to frustrate, silence and annihilate dissenting voices. Particularly, there are clandestine machinations to oust Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State from office through undemocratic means for his opposing views.”

Senator Etang Edet Umoyo

Etang Umoyo, former senator and Chairman of Eket Senatorial District Forum, spoke to AYOYINKA OLAGOKE in Uyo on the raging issue of zoning, the 2015 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State and other issues affecting the people of Eket zone.

WHAT is your take on the ongoing agitation for the governorship in 2015 by the people of Eket Senatorial zone?

The agitation is democratic. The zoning arrangement in the state has been there since the creation of the state. The people of the state agreed to the zoning arrangement to engender political stability, harmony and peace.

It is democratic to the extent that when Akwa Ibom was created in 1987, the political class, opinion and community leaders came together to charted the way forward and said that Uyo, being the state capital, harbouring majority of Ibibios, which is the most dominant ethnic group in the state, should take the first shot at the governorship.

That was why we all came together and put forward the late Obong Akpan Isemin as the first civilian governor of the state.

Unfortunately, the arrangement was aborted by the intervention of Gen Sani Abacha’s regime on November 17, 1993.

With the return of democracy in 1998, we, the stakeholders in the state, met and resolved to continue with the zoning arrangement that has introduced a fair measure of stability and calmness in the political firmament in the state.

We agreed that since Isemin was unable to complete his tenure, common sense and love for peace and harmony demanded that we should still go back to Uyo senatorial zone to complete the tenure, and that was how we zeroed in on the choice of Obong Victor Attah from Uyo senatorial district to complete their tenure.

I was an active participant in the entire arrangements, because I remember very well that when Chief Ben Okoko from my own senatorial district came to contest the primary election with Attah, I was drafted to stop him.

I joined the panel chaired by late Senator Chuba Okadigbo and reversed the arrangement they wanted to carry out in favour of Okoko to ensure that the zoning agreement agreed upon was not shattered.

I told Okadigbo that all PDP should be interested in was to win Akwa Ibom through the arrangement we had on ground.

I also told him that we had Attah, a knowledgeable person, tested, experienced and mature, as the governorship candidate of PDP in the election.

That was how Attah emerged as governor of the state for two terms of eight years.

Midway through Attah’s tenure in 2006, we met at Ikot Ekpene and Attah insisted that power should shift to Ikot Ekpene senatorial district after him and Eket senatorial district thereafter.

The state party chairman at that time was Otu Ita Toyo and all of us were there, including Governor Godswill Akpabio, who was then a Commissioner in Attah’s cabinet.

That was how the governorship was zoned to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district and the major beneficiary of the arrangement is Akpabio.

But Akpabio recently said he was not a product of zoning and will not hand over power on the basis of zoning, but credibility?

The governor has said too many things on the issue of zoning and we are yet to hear the last from him on the issue of zoning.

The governor in February this year said he is a product of zoning and was not opposed to it when Ibibio elders went to see him and the issue of zoning came up, as reported in two national newspapers on Friday, February 22, this year.

On the basis of this, I issued a press statement and thanked the governor for doing so, only to be maligned by some power-hungry individuals, who said the governor didn’t say so.

But to the best of my knowledge, the governor didn’t deny those statements credited to him on the page of the newspapers I have cited. So, where these people got their information beats my imagination.

Also, the governor reechoed his position on zoning at the funeral ceremony of the late Prof I. I Ukpong, where he said Ukpong was an apostle of power to shift from Uyo senatorial district and he became a beneficiary.

Given all those statements and circumstances, the governor cannot deny or refute that he didn’t say so at the funeral ceremony of Ukpong on April 4, this year, and I repeat, he cannot deny saying so.

Ukpong, who was my leader, told me the role he played in having power shift from Uyo district to Ikot Ekpene district.

When the governor extolled the late Ukpong for his role in ensuring that power shifted to Ikot Ekpene zone at the funeral, my reaction was that power shift will not die with the death of Ukpong, there and then in the presence of the governor and to the hearing of all those who sat near him at the funeral.

So, however you look at it, whether you call it zoning, power shift or rotation, the position of the Eket district is that power shift, power rotation or zoning has come to stay in Akwa Ibom politics.

No one in his honest conscience can deny that it is not so, and whoever wants to do so, commits political hypocrisy and will be thrown out by the people of Akwa Ibom State, who know the truth, respect the truth and always stand by the truth.

Regarding the statements of whoever quotes the governor to suit his own position, what I have said is that the majority of the people of Akwa Ibom knows and will do the right things at the appropriate time.

Do you agree with insinuations that there is no credible candidate from Eket district to take over from Akpabio in 2015?

Those peddling the rumuors should come up with the criteria they used in arriving at that conclusion.

So, I dismiss such argument as being in the realms of speculation of hungry political turncoats, who say so to earn very rich flamboyant packages from their sponsors. They are not serious.

Is it in terms of intellectual prowess, capacity to deliver, experience or knowledge? There is no person or group in Akwa Ibom and in fact Nigeria that can write-off Eket district.

Akwa Ibom State

In the last couple of days,a lot has been written,posted and published here and other media by some uninformed and misinformed elements to rubbish and discredit the time-honored zoning and rotation policy of the party with a view to projecting the blind and desperate ambitions of their pay-masters

Before I proceed,I will like to cite the relevant provisions of the PDP constitution as amended so that all could be properly guided:

”IN PURSUANCE TO THE PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY,
JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS,THE PARTY SHALL ADHERE
TO THE POLICY OF ZONING AND ROTATION OF PARTY
AND PUBLIC ELECTIVE OFFICES AND IT SHALL BE
ENFORCED BY APPROPRIATE EXECUTIVE COMMI
TTEES OF THE PARTY AT ALL LEVELS”

The following facts cannot be contested by anybody:

1.The zoning and rotation policy of the party is not only sacrosanct,supreme and binding on all party members but also legally enforceable.

2.The appropriate executive committee of the party in this case,is the state working committee of the party.

3.At the material time,Rt.Hon.Prince Uwem Ita Etuk was the state chairman of the party and head of the state working committee of the party.

4.The state working committee of the party is fully and clearly mandated by the party constitution to enforced the zoning and rotation policy of the party.

5.The state working committee of the party under the chairmanship of the Rt.Hon.Prince Uwem Ita Etuk met on Tuesday 15th September,2009,to,among other things,give effect to the provisions of the party constitution.

6.The meeting voted unanimously to zone the 2011 governorship ticket of the party to Ikot Ekpene senatorial district and the 2015 ticket to Eket senatorial district respectively.

7.The resolution of the party was well-publicized and in fact it was the banner story of the mid-week Pioneer of wednesday 16th September,2009.

8.Nobody came out to challenge the state leadership of the party or that resolution then.It was well-received and hailed by all.

The meeting of the state working committee of the party referenced here was attended by all the state officers of the party and chapter chairmen then and some of then are still in the exco of the party.

It is for them to come out and controvert what the former state chairman of the party has said.

It is for them to come out and say that there was no such meeting or there was no such resolution and challenge their former chairman to bring his proofs or evidence.

Flowing from the above,it can be stated without any fear of contradiction that the former state chairman of the party and his exco acted in good faith and within the mandate and powers vested on them by the provisions of the party constitution cited above.

It is therefore wrong for some elements to be attacking his person for coming out to confirm that the party under his leadership actually zoned the governorship ticket to Eket senatorial district in 2015 and that the party must stand by that decision.

To me and every other right-thinking person,that is the path of honour,peace,unity.justice,equity and fairness.

His accussers and traducers have no good case against him.

They knew his stuff and feared that they would not be able to manipulate him to distort or twist the well-known history of the party and desperately plotted his removal as the state chairman of the party to pave the way for actualization of their blind ambitions.

He is a victim of some people’s inordinate and blind ambitions.

Though his head is bruised but as a crown prince of the Ibibio kingdom,he has refused to bow to his evil traducers.

History and posterity shall certainly vindicate him and his principles and his traducers shall be humbled.

 
By John Shiklam

President Jonathan with Boko Haram Amnesty Commitee

The Middle Belt Dialogue (MBD), an umbrella body of professionals and new breed politicians in the Middle Belt region, has described  Boko Haram as the military wing of the  northern political elite who seek to use Islam to dominate and control Nigeria.

The group, which was reacting to last week’s declaration by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) that power must return to the North in 2015, also faulted the forum on its position on some national issues.

The spokesman of NEF and former Vice-Chancellor of the Ahmadu University (ABU), Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, had during a courtesy call on the Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, said the North had the population to reclaim power in 2015.

He was also reported to have castigated President Goodluck Jonathan for declaring state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.

However, the MBD said it was saddened that in their desperate quest for power, the “northernists” were ignoring and fighting the very people, who helped to sustain them in power, namely the Niger Delta People and the Middle Belt.

Besides, the group in a statement by its facilitator, Mr. Rima Shawulu Kwewum, said the NEF was not competent to speak for the Middle Belt.

The MBD wondered why  Abdullahi and others have resorted to such vituperations in spite of the fact that the Boko Haram leadership is yet to accept dialogue.

According to the group,  Abdullahi and his NEF have not seen anything wrong with the ethnic and religious cleansing programme of Boko Haram, stressing that since the killings and destruction, they have neither condemned the killers nor sympathised with the victims.

“All they are concerned with is “amnesty” for the killers, and how the anarchy and mayhem being perpetrated by these ruthless killers and bombers will give them power”,  he added.

“ The Middle Belt Dialogue (MBD) is not surprised that the Northern Elders Forum is concerned about protecting Boko Haram and not bothered about victims of the Boko Haram insurgency who are Christians, and ethnic groups of Northern Nigeria.

“After all, Boko Haram is acting out the script the leaders wrote for it. For some time now, in central and northern Borno State, commercial vehicles are stopped, Christians separated from Muslims and summarily executed; churches are primarily targeted for destruction and attack.

“ Boko Haram members we are told, has a camp where they keep kidnapped Christian women and children, – and at such camps, they execute Christians who refuse to renounce their faith.

“Old women and children playing around churches have been killed by Boko Haram, whose supporters and proponents two years ago gleefully told the media that Christians were responsible for bombing churches and attacking Christian worshippers with sophisticated guns.

“The Middle Belt Dialogue calls on Nigerians to pray and work for the total defeat of the retrogressive Boko Haram agenda. We need a new Nigeria, where every tribe, religion and group would be accorded equal rights, a Nigeria where religion or tribe will not be the basis for promotion or demotion”,  the statement said.

By Mike Thomson

After seven months of beatings, burns, electric shocks and constant threats to kill him, an Eritrean refugee has finally been freed by his kidnappers in Egypt’s Sinai desert. Covered in deep scars and suffering from breathing problems and bone injuries, Philemon Semere, now in Cairo, told the BBC how it feels to be free at last.

“Words are not enough to say how good I’m doing right now. I’m so relieved after everything I went through. Death was very near to me and at one point all hope was gone.”

It was hard to believe that this was the same man whose terrible plight had been broadcast across Britain and much of the world a few months before.

In a rare and chilling phone interview last November, an evidently distraught and petrified Philemon Semere had told the BBC in broken English:

“I have no enough food. Have no enough water. Always hit by sticks and burnt by fire and electricity. My body is burning. Please help me, Mike, please help me!”

His Bedouin kidnappers forced him to make frequent calls to his family, warning them that he would be killed if they failed to pay a $33,000 (£22,000) ransom.

With the consent of Philemon’s family, I phoned the number he had called from.

‘Cold, sneering voice’

Numerous attempts brought no response.

Then, finally, the phone was answered.

An unidentified voice wanted to know who was calling and why. A long pause followed my answer.

Then Philemon came on the line. Sobbing, he said that his family could not pay the huge ransom and feared he would soon be killed.

Suddenly, a cold, sneering voice confirmed his fears.

“If he hasn’t any money, I will kill Philemon here.”

I asked the man, who later told me that he was the leader of the kidnap gang, if he had killed other hostages who failed to pay their ransoms. Appearing to relish the question he replied:

“A lot of people I have killed here.”

Facts on the ground seem to bear this out.

Pleading for money

The UN estimates that on average 3,000 Eritreans fled into eastern Sudan each month last year. During that journey many of them were kidnapped, tortured and killed by Bedouin people-trafficking gangs. Their bodies were often dumped in the Sinai desert.

Philemon explained how he and a large group of fellow Eritreans had been seized by kidnappers soon after crossing into Sudan but had managed to escape into the desert.

Driven by raging thirst to drink their own urine after four sweltering days, they staggered to the nearest town for help.

But soon after they arrived there, locals tipped off their kidnappers.

Within hours they were thrown, hooded and chained, into the back of a truck and driven to North Sinai.

“When we got there we were surprised because the house they took us to in Sinai looked quite nice. But minutes after we arrived we were made to lie on the floor and told we’d die unless each of our families paid $33,000,” he said.

In the days and months that followed, Philemon and 19 other Eritrean hostages were repeatedly made to phone their families and plead with them to get the ransom money.

‘She heard my scream’

The kidnappers know that many Eritreans have relatives working in Western countries and can appeal to them for help.

Soon after the hostages were given a phone, the beatings, burning and electric shocks would start.

“They wanted our relatives to hear us screaming and crying in pain. That way they were more likely to pay the ransom money,” Philemon explains.

He described what happened the first time he called his mother:

“She heard my screams and couldn’t stop crying. I was crying too. We both just cried and cried until we had no tears left.”

He says that for the first few days after my phone call, he was treated better.

But the beatings and torture resumed not long after that. Only 11 of Philemon’s group of 20 hostages survived their seven months of captivity.

“There was death every day, right in front of my eyes. The kidnapper who spoke to you wasn’t lying. He’s killed many people, and he’s still killing many people.”

The kidnappers finally agreed to release Philemon after accepting that the $13,200 his now impoverished family had paid was all they had.

But then they changed their minds and demanded that he and two other men being held with him paid a further $10,000 between them.

Several weeks later the money was paid and the men finally freed.

Philemon has now made his way to Cairo, home to hundreds of former kidnap victims like him.

But his search for a better life has brought only horrors and left his family back home poorer than ever.

With no guarantee that he’ll be allowed to work to help pay them back, or be granted asylum, Philemon’s future, like that of so many others, hangs in the balance.

“God brought me out of the deepest darkness and only he knows what lies ahead for me now.”

The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 1 Division Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Major-General Garba Wahab, at the weekend said the media should not eulogize criminals as the Division has arrested a suspected orange seller who spied for terrorists and over N600 million was found in his bank account within three months.

The GOC, whose area of command covers the north-western states, while fielding questions from newsmen in Kaduna relating to why the Army is carrying out general search without discrimination, said, “When we stop those who are hawking and carrying wheelbarrow, and we said we want to check, people will shout, ‘Why are you disturbing the average person?’ And I give you example; we arrested somebody here called mai lemu (orange seller) in Kawo here. And in three months when we checked through his account, over 600 million naira has passed through that man’s account, and he sells orange here by Kawo bridge.

“He is there as a lookout. He is like a spy. He looks around, gets information and feeds these guys, says this is what is happening. That is why I said we are not dealing with idiots. We are dealing with people who have one or two guys working and thinking, and giving them information. And we know that before they attack they must look at the softest locations.”

Wahab added that it is a criminality that the media and society must cooperate and ensure that it is brought to an end.

On Thursday’s attacks in Daura, he explained that military personnel adhered to the principles of rules of engagement, saying, “I called this press conference to fill the gap on the attack that occurred in Daura, Katsina state. We don’t want a situation where people will be speculating. Yes, the criminals came, they bombed vehicles, and they packed money using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to bomb everywhere. Nobody will give an instruction for an innocent life to be lost, so in whatever we do, we keep to the rules of engagement given to us and that is why I have called the media to lend us their support because when a few reports go out, it’s like it is encouraging the criminals and they start to think they have the upper hand.”

Meanwhile, the presidency yesterday offered amnesty to any Boko Haram member who surrenders, as it wages war on the insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where state of emergency was declared last Tuesday.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Rueben Abati, revealed this yesterday while talking to Reuters, a foreign news agency, on telephone.

He said: “Mr President has urged Boko Haram members to surrender their arms and embrace the amnesty option which is still open as the committee is working on the option of dialogue for a peaceful resolution.”

Tornado on the surge

At least one person has been killed and 21 injured in Oklahoma as a severe storm system generated several tornadoes Sunday in Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa, leveling neighborhoods and sending frightened residents scurrying for shelter.

The tornadoes, high winds and hail across the Midwest were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

Victims and emergency responders might not get much of reprieve as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center was forecasting similar weather for Monday over much of the same area.

At least four separate twisters touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park. Oklahoma state Rep. Justin Wood confirmed to Fox News Sunday that at least one person had been killed in the town.

Authorities tell the Associated Press the 79-year-old man’s  body was found in an open area of the neighborhood.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado “scoured” the landscape in the park and an area along Interstate 40. The highway has been closed because of overturned tractor-trailers that now litter the road.

Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend.

A tornado grazed the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond Sunday afternoon, dropping hail as large as grapefruit and damaging roofs and structures before heading east. Aerial flyovers in Wellston, northeast of Oklahoma City, showed significant property damage.

“I knew it was coming,” said Edmond resident Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young boys in their Edmond’s home’s safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.

“Then I realized it was swirling debris,” Grau said. “That’s when we shut the door of the safe room.

“I probably had them in there for 10 minutes.”

Dozen of counties in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri were placed under tornado watches and warnings that were in effect through late Sunday.

In Kansas, an “violent and extremely dangerous tornado” was spotted in the southwest side of Wichita near the Mid-Continent Airport, according to the National Weather Service.

Carl Brewer, the mayor of Wichita, told Fox News that the city was hit harder by high winds and golf ball sized hail than anything from the tornado.

“That alone, and the rain, actually just really did a number on the city,” he said. “It was so bad you think a tornado came through.”

Brewer said hail ripped through the sides of houses in Wichita, in addition to breaking windows and damaging cars.

But Randy Duncan, Wichita’s emergency management director, told Fox News that he has not yet heard of any local reports of injuries of deaths stemming from the storm.

In Iowa, a tornado touched down 30 miles west of Des Moines, the National Weather Service said, according to the Des Moines Register.

More severe storms are also in the forecast in Oklahoma a day after large hail fell in the state’s southwest and electricity was knocked out to thousands.

“The overall environment appears quite favorable for tornadoes,” the SPC outlook stated, according to the Kansas City Star.

The center says the greatest risk for storms in Oklahoma is in the far north, around the Bartlesville area. Overall, the cities included in the area of moderate risk are Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

In Enid on Saturday, a police officer was injured in high winds when his cruiser was struck by an object. Area emergency manager Mike Honigsberg told The Oklahoman that the car may have been hit by a cattle trough lifted by the wind. In Oklahoma City, an officer was trapped for a time when surrounded by fallen utility lines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/05/20/oklahoma-braces-for-severe-storms/#ixzz2TormGN7K

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
| credits: http://www.date360.net

President Goodluck Jonathan has thanked Nigerians for their support for the state of emergency declared last week in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.

Senior Special Assistant to the President, Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, made this known in a statement on Sunday.

The statement read, “President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed gratitude to all Nigerians for the overwhelming support they have given to the declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. The President also thanked the leadership of the National Assembly and many of its members, who have through calls and personal visitations, given solidarity and support for this extraordinary step taken by the President in order to halt the mindless killings, bombings and general insecurity that had prevailed in that part of the country.

“The President also notes with gratification the positive disposition and understanding of the governors of the federation, especially the Northern Governors Forum, Leaders and Elders in the North, traditional rulers, religious leaders, cultural and political groups nationwide, including opposition political parties, civil society organisations and the media.

Okupe said the President was appreciative of the efforts, loyalty, commitment and sacrifice of members of the armed forces and other security agencies, who had demonstrated commendable patriotism and gallantry in compliance with the order of the Commander-in Chief.

Okupe further stated, “Mr. President also appreciates the encouragement by members of the diplomatic corps and international community, and promises that as a disciplined force, members of the Armed Forces will operate according to acceptable international rules of engagement and will pay particular attention to the safety and well-being of the citizens of the affected states during this period of emergency rule.

“Mr. President also notes that the efforts of the Armed Forces have already started yielding positive results, as available information confirm that the insurgents have been dislodged from their previous safe havens and camps, while many have been apprehended, and their activities in the affected states have been brought to a total halt.”