EPL: Arsenal regain 4th position

Arsenal had to come from behind as Matt Jarvis broke the deadlock in the 40th minute for West Ham. Arsenal, Tuesday night, climbed up to fourth on the Premier League table after the Gunners rallied to a 3-1 win over West Ham United at the Emirates. Arsenal had to come from behind as Matt Jarvis broke the deadlock in the 40th minute for West Ham; heading in after Wojciech Szczesny palmed the ball into his path following an Antonio Nocerino shot. However, the Gunners were back on level terms before the break, as Santi Cazorla picked out Lukas Podolski, who fired the ball past Adrian for the somewhat deserved equaliser. Having ended all square in the first half, Arsenal tried to apply pressure from the start of the second half, and managed to take the lead for the first time 10 minutes in, after Thomas Vermaelen played the ball in for Olivier Giroud to score. Arsenal’s second-half dominance continued past the hour mark with Cazorla creating some space on the edge of the box before drilling the ball towards the goal; but his finish was just off target. With just over 10 minutes left to play, Arsenal took the game completely off the reach of West Ham as Podolski picked up the ball from an Aaron Ramsey header, powering it in for his second of the night. Ramsey, who was making his first Premier League start since picking up an injury on Boxing Day, had a shot in stoppage time, but he could not get enough power behind it to beat Adrian. With the title now out of reach, Arsenal know they need more of tonight’s win to retain the fourth spot and qualify for the Champions League next season.

Abuja explosion: survivor narrate experience

 “I was dumfounded at where I saw myself. In fact I was so confused that I can’t still explain how it happened.” When Oyebuchi Chigozie arrived the Nyanya motor park at about 6.00 a.m. on Monday, he thought his daily routine would continue. He would board a bus from the park to Garki, Area 11 to resume sales at his electronics shop. Over 30 minutes after he arrived at the park, Mr. Chigozie found himself at the Nyanya General hospital, trying to recollect how he got there. “I was dumfounded at where I saw myself,” the trader told PREMIUM TIMES on his hospital bed. “In fact I was so confused that I can’t still explain how it happened.” “I just dropped at Nyanya from Lafia where I stay and I entered into the garage to buy the ticket so I can get into the bus and head for work. “I was so close to the bus but not inside the bus and the next thing I heard was a loud sound and I knew I was lifted from the ground and landed on the other side of the garage and then I found myself at the hospital.” Mr. Chigozie is one of the 124 people that the Nigerian government said were injured after a bomb explosion at the motor park in Nyanya on Monday morning. At least 71 others were not as lucky as they died from the blast. The trader said the momentary heat he felt all over his body when the explosion happened was so hot that he felt he was going to explode just before he landed on the floor. “I was surprised when I woke up and I saw myself on the hospital bed with plasters and bandages on my right leg and left arm, I feel so much pain round my arm and leg,” he said. Nyanya Motor Park is located in the Abuja suburb, about 30 minutes’ drive from the city centre. Every day, thousands of people who leave in Nyanya, Karu, and other Abuja suburbs board public and private buses and cars from the park to their work places at the city centre. The park also serves as a workplace for hawkers of different age groups who sell various products like confectioneries, sachet water, books, wrist watches, and others. Other occupants of the park include the bus drivers, ticket vendors, and beggars. Onyebuchi Chigozie a victim of the Nyanya bomb blast recieving treatment at the Nyanya general hospital Just like Mr. Chigozie, Issac Okafor also arrived the Nyanya park with intention of boarding a bus to Wuse Market, where he sells clothes. “At about 6.00 a.m., I was just at the entrance of park, I have not even gone into the park when I heard a loud sound that made me feel my ears were about pulling out,” Mr. Okafor told PREMIUM TIMES on his hospital bed. “My feet were off the ground, in the next minute I landed on the ground again. For a minute, I lost my breath. I found it so hard to breathe before I was rushed to the hospital.” “As I landed on the floor with my back, I felt like I was choking, I could not breathe properly, it was as if I was struggling to breathe, I felt this sharp pain just in my chest just before I was brought to the hospital. The doctors that attended to me injected me and gave me pain killers which I think has helped my breath well,” he said. Mr. Okafor said he lost his phone and all valuables during the blast and has not been able to contact his family. Messrs Chigozie and Okafor are among the 11 victims of the blast brought to Nyanya General Hospital, the Medical Director, Frank Idegwe, told PREMIUM TIMES. He said all the patients are currently responding to treatment and eight of them have been discharged from the hospital.

Nigerian government confirm abduction of scores of female students

A soldier and a policeman were also killed during the attack. Security officials have confirmed the abduction of at least 100 female students in Borno State. The girls, final year students of the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Chibok Local Government Area of the state, were kidnapped from their school on Monday night. The incident occurred about three weeks after the state government closed down all public schools to avert further attacks on students. The Boko Haram terrorist group has attacked many schools in Northeast Nigeria killing scores of students and staff. PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the female students were asked to return to school to write their final year secondary school exams that was supposed to commence this week. The Borno State Police Commissioner, Tanko Lawan, confirmed the kidnap to journalists. He, however, declined comments on the exact number of students affected. “We have received the report about the kidnapping of students by gunmen in a school in Chibok Local Government Area last night,” Mr. Lawan said. “But we have no details on the actual number of the students for now; our men are still on the trail of the abductors”. A senior official of the State Security Service, who does not want his name mentioned as he is not permitted to speak to journalists, provided more details of the kidnap. “The abduction happened at about midnight when these hoodlums called Boko Haram attacked the school, killed a soldier and policeman and took away over a hundred female students in a lorry,” he said. The SSS officer added that “we have been able to locate the vehicle where it broke down and our men have moved in to intercept the gunmen; but we understand that some of the girls were able to escape and made it back to the town”. An official of Chibok local government, who sought anonymity for security reasons, told PREMIUM TIMES that “the gunmen actually came in two Hilux pickup vans but had to intercept a lorry that was conveying bags of grains to Askira-Uba Local Government. “They offloaded the grains and ordered the abducted student into the lorry and took them away.” The official said many of the girls summoned courage to escape by holding some branches of trees while the lorry was moving in the night. They hung there until the lorry went far before jumping down and made it back to town, he said. “Some others jumped off the lorry since it was not moving at high speed and the road was sandy”. “Many of the girls have been able to make it back through the bushes, but others are yet to be found; but we understand that the chairman of Chibok local government had led some security operatives to trail the track of the lorry,” the official added. The official said the number of girls kidnapped cannot be more than 200 “because we are just talking about the final year students, not all students in the school.” Chibok is an agrarian town located about 130km south-west of Maiduguri. It shares a border with Sambisa Forest, believed to be one of the major camps of the Boko Haram. The Boko Haram is responsible for the killing of thousands of people in an insurgency that began since 2009. Over 1,500 people have been killed in 2014. Monday’s abduction occurs less than 24 hours after a bomb explosion killed over 70 people in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The Boko Haram is believed to be responsible for the attack. The attacks occur despite almost a year of emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.

Another delegate at the national conference slumps

Security operative smashed the camera of a photo-journalist taking the photograph of the ailing delegate A National Conference delegate, Abubakar Abdulmumuni, on Tuesday slumped and was rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Abuja for medical attention. Mr. Abdulmumuni slumped after the plenary session of the Conference a few minutes after 6 p.m. while emerging from the auditorium where it was holding. It could not be immediately ascertained which of the groups the delegate represents at the Confab, which is holding at the National Judicial Institute, Airport Road, Abuja. This brings to two the number of delegates who have suffered that fate in the last one week. Last week, a delegate of the Market Women Associations, Ifeyinwa Ezenwa, slumped shortly after the Conference resumed for the afternoon session. Mrs. Ezenwa was trying to gain entrance into the auditorium when she slumped and was immediately assisted by some security operatives. Mamman Misau, a delegate representing Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria, ARPON, died during the first week of the Conference. Immediately he collapsed on Tuesday, Mr. Abdulmumuni was assisted by security agents, including operatives of the Department of State Security, DSS, and the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, who alongside a doctor rushed him to an ambulance. However, a female security operative of the NSCDC engaged a photo-journalist, who was taking the photograph of the delegate, in a fisticuff. In the process, the operative smashed the camera of the photo-journalist.

Evacuated victims of Abuja bomb site faces hunger in hospitals

When Shuaibu Abukabar arrived Nyanya Motor Park early Monday, his plan was to travel to Suleja to purchase new wares for his shop as he does bi-weekly. But 15 minutes after paying for a ticket and taking a spot on a long queue of passengers, a deafening blast threw him off the ground, set off a huge fire and left bodies of injured and the dead littered around him. In three minutes, Mr. Abubakar recalled, everything seemed quiet as a thick dark smoke curled into the morning air. “At first there was quietness and suddenly I saw smoke and fire, then I passed out,” Mr. Abubakar narrated from the hospital where rescuers rushed him to. He said he was thought to have died and was hauled alongside mangled bodies, but was later confirmed to be alive. “After I fainted only to open my eyes and tried to turn only to find myself inside a truck with dismembered bodies, they noticed me and later removed me when they realized that I am still alive,” he said. “As I am talking to you now, there is so much noise inside my head, I cannot move my legs, the doctors attended to me, gave me drips and medicine.” Official statistics puts the number of the dead from Monday’s explosion at the crowded Nyanya park at 75. But a PREMIUM TIMES reporter who arrived the scene minutes after the incident insists the casualty figure was much higher. Mr. Abubakar was one of the 124 injured survivors. President Goodluck Jonathan blamed the extremist group Boko Haram for the explosion. At the Maitama hospital where Mr. Abubakar was being treated Tuesday, he said he had to endure not only pains but the pangs of hunger. He had, on the day of the incident, missed breakfast, having left so early, and throughout Monday, ate nothing. The hospital provided nothing and he remained hungry until Tuesday morning when reporters visited the hospital. “I did not eat anything I was too weak to eat but at midnight I couldn’t sleep of hunger, the last time I ate was on Sunday evening, but there was no food provision. Some people from the mosque came here to give me bread and tea this morning, the hospital only gave us injections and drips. I am still hungry, broke and with no money.” Salome Jim, a bus ticket vendor, was among those who also survived the attack. The force of the blast hurled her to a nearby rock and, fortunate to escape the death that surrounded her, she sustained a fracture. “I was selling tickets to passengers when I heard a loud bang and I saw myself flying in the air, I landed on a stone, got up to run when I felt a sharp pain in my legs,” she said from her hospital bed. Ms. Jim said she mustered strength to crawl on her buttock to safety. “My leg broke into two like a broom,” she said. Lying next to her was Isah, an okada rider well known within the park. “Isah too was badly injured, I saw his intestines coming out from his stomach, and the rescue team covered him up and packed the things back into his body that was the last time saw him,” she said. “I have been sitting down here waiting for a surgery, I am in pain, I am very hungry. No one has come here to give me food, I can neither walk nor move, the nurses and doctors are nice to me but they didn’t give me food.” “The nurse said she will come and attend to me at 9:30 am this morning and this is 9 o’ clock so I am waiting, but when I came here yesterday they took care of me, I didn’t pay for anything, but they didn’t give us food,” she narrated. “I went to bed with an empty stomach, the woman inside the ward over there (she pointed) shared her food with me at midnight, as I am here my relatives didn’t know I am here as I couldn’t find my phone.” A staff of the hospital who pleaded anonymity told PREMIUM TIMES that some cannot eat due to their medical conditions but those that can eat should be given food. “Some of the victims cannot eat just yet, but some of them who can eat do not have the money to eat, the government can’t only be administering drugs on empty stomachs it can lead to other serious cases, we all tried yesterday but not even a single word of commendations from the government. You people should let Nigerians know the bomb blast victims are hungry and are not fed,” the official said. When asked why the victims had not been fed, health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, who visited the hospital early Tuesday did not give a direct response.

Abuja to install bomb detectors in commercial buses- minister

Mr. Mohammed stated this while visiting victims of the Monday morning Abuja explosion in Nyanya that killed 72 people. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed, said on Tuesday in Abuja that metal and explosive detectors will be installed in Abuja high capacity buses. Mr. Mohammed stated this while visiting victims of the Monday morning Abuja explosion in Nyanya that killed 72 people. Several of the buses were completely burnt in the explosion. Mr. Mohammed said the Abuja administration will take care of all the medical bills and feeding of victims of the blast in the hospitals. He also directed that bills of cases referred to any private or specialist hospitals be paid by the Abuja administration, FCTA. The minister said the Abuja administration will meet with various security agencies to work towards providing security for public places. The public places, he said, include motor parks, markets, churches, and mosques within Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. Over 70 people were killed from the bomb blast that rocked a populous motor park in Nyanya, Abuja on Monday. The incident also left over 100 persons injured. The explosion is believed to have been carried out by the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Abuja bombing, jonathan is a hearthless president- Kwankwaso

Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano has described President Goodluck Jonathan as an insensitive man oblivious of the yearnings of Nigerians. The governor also lamented that at a time the nation was mourning the Nyanya bomb explosion that left many either dead or injured, the president decided to embark on what he described as “merry-making trips”. “At a time when several innocent lives have been lost, when many of the victims are in hospital seeking blood donations to survive, the president is gallivanting round the country in the name of PDP unity rally”, the governor said. The governor, who spoke in Hausa during the 2nd matriculation ceremony of students of Northwest University, Kano, at the Government House lawn, today, Tuesday, wondered why the president should be travelling aimlessly with taxpayers’ money, while the common man is being killed daily because of failure of the Federal Government to adequately protect lives and property. Governor Kwankwaso chided the President for justifying, promoting, and sustaining corruption, pointing out that despite the allegation of corruption against the Minister of Aviation and the missing $20 billion oil funds, for instance, the president remained silent on such issues during his campaign visit to Kano. “The man came to Kano to smear our image but thank God, the man gave me free publicity by mentioning my name over 50 times in a 15 minute address,” the governor said. “The President, his Vice and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation are vultures. They want the PDP to die and feed on its carcass,” Mr. Kwankwaso said, adding that Mr. Jonathan’s posturing was adding fertilizer to his future political aspiration. “Supposing I decide to contest for the number one seat in this country, I will beg APC, APGA and Labour Party not cast their votes for me – I want to assure you that with the PDP vote that I will garner, definitely I will defeat the incumbent President hands down,” the governor said. He said the Federal Government, under Mr. Jonathan, had failed the people of Kano state and indeed other Nigerians by not doing what is expected of a responsible government to better their lives, adding that Jonathan is not the President Nigerians deserve.