US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says US will assist Nigeria with latest security equipment and intelligence sharing in its efforts toward the safe return of the abducted Dapchi schoolgirls.

Tillerson stated this when he briefed newsmen alongside Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to him, the US government will also offer special training for security personnel to enable them engage in special operations towards the rescue the girls as well as the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in captivity.

He, however, expressed the hope that both the Chibok and Dapchi schoolgirls would return home.

First, we respect the responsibilities of the government of Nigeria and the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

But the way we support is in providing them capability capacity with equipment and also training of the personnel of special operations and sharing intelligence to ensure that they have all the information available to carry out the recovery effort.

But I think it is also important to put this in a broad regional context as well. Boko Haram is a threat to other regions and this has been the subject of my meetings elsewhere and in Africa as well.

In my discussion with President Derby in Chad earlier today, we spoke about the threat of Boko Haram and I think it is important and its really been powerful.

The collaboration between the joint task force which Nigeria is a part and Chad is a part, to respond to this threat of terrorism which Boko Haram is one of the organizations, there are other threats that the leadership of this country has to deal with.

So the United States is ready to engage and coordinate efforts as well. But we have been supporting, equipping, training and when we can provide information.

I think that is the best way we have been helping the government of Nigeria secure the release of the girls, which we hope, will be done in a peaceful manner. We hope that something can be worked out and they can secure the release of these girls quickly, he said.

On his recent warning to African countries against doing business with China, Tillerson said the warning was not meant to stop Chinese investments from flowing to countries that needed such investments.

He, however, cautioned that such countries should be careful with the level of debts they might accumulate as a result of such business dealings.

But what we are cautioning countries is to look carefully, that the implications of the level of debts, the terms of the debts, and whether the arrangements around the local financing are intact creating jobs, local capacity or the projects being carried out by foreign labour being brought to your country.

Is the structure of the financing such that you will always be in control of your infrastructure?

Are there mechanisms to deal with the faults so that you do not loss ownership of your own assets? These are national assets whether they are ports, railways, or major highways.

We have seen this occurred in other countries that were not so careful and has result they got themselves in situation where they awfully lost control of their infrastructure, lost the ownership, the operationalization of it.

And that is the precaution that we are talking about. That there are international rules and norms and financial structure to deal with unforeseen circumstances and I think we are just cautioning countries to look carefully.

We have seen many around the world that did not work out so well and we are just saying as friends, be careful, he said.

According to the top U.S. diplomat, the American government is creating other alternative financing mechanisms that are available for African nations, saying we are developing mechanism that will also create alternative opportunities financing offer.

Tillerson also stressed the need to increase the volume of trade between the U.S. and Nigeria which he said stood at nine billion dollars.

In his contribution, Nigerias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, said Nigeria had succeeded in degrading Boko Haram, contrary to reports in the social media.

Fighting terrorism is a new challenge globally. When we talked of having degraded Boko Haram, we were referring specifically to the situation that we were confronted with when the government took over.

That was a situation where you have a classical military confrontation and Boko Haram were capturing territory, holding unto territory and hoisting flags. So as a conventional military threat, Boko Haram has been completely degraded.

He, however, acknowledged a challenge with regards to sporadic suicides and bombings as well as kidnapping of the girls. (NAN)

Source: NAN

The Nigerian Peace Corps has reacted to recent reports which implied that President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the Peace Corps Bill.

In a statement issued on Saturday by the Public Relations Office of the Corps, Millicent Umoru, the NPC described the report as misleading and a voyage of interpretation of the Constitution.

The report had insinuated that by not signing the Bill 30 working days after it was transmitted in December 2017, the President had denied accent to the bill.

However, Umoru insisted that some of the bills that were sent to the President along with the Peace Corps bill had been rejected as the president expressly wrote the National Assembly to convey the reasons why those bills were rejected.

The corps stressed that the Peace Corps Bill was not part of the rejected ones and as such it was wrong for the medium to have published such a report.

Read the full text of the statement below:

RE: BUHARI REJECTS NIGERIAN PEACE CORPS BILL.

Whenourattention was drawn tothe aforementioned report in the Vanguard Newspaper of Saturday, February 17, 2018, which was written by Mr.SoniDaniel, the Northern Regional Editor of the Newspaper and Mr.EmmanOvuakkporie,ourinitial reaction wasthat of disbelief.

But after reading the entire report, it suddenlydawned on usthat the authors deliberately elected to sensationalize the caption with a view to selling the Newspaper and on that note;wewish to assuretheteeming members of thePeace Corps of Nigeria andmillions ofourwell-wishers nationwide that thewriters merely embarked on a voyage ofinterpretation of the Constitution.

The truth of the matteris that out of about nine Billsthat were transmitted to the President together with that of the Nigerian Peace Corps, the President rejected three and returned same to the National Assembly(NASS), stating reasons why he rejected them. And of course, the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill was not part of the rejected ones.

We are not unaware of the grand conspiracy by some security agencies againstthe Peace Corps,especially the Police, Department of State Services (DSS) and CivilDefencein theiradversarial memos to the Presidency to thwart assent to the Bill. Thisconspiracy, whichwasalsomanifested in form of opposition during the Public Hearings conducted by both chambers of the NASS on the Bill, was roundly defeated by superior arguments of over 500 Oral and written Memoranda submitted during the Public Hearings in the NASS.

The major plank of this conspiracy is that the functions of the NigerianPeaceCorps (NPC)Bill overlap that of the Nigerian Police and Nigerian Security and CivilDefenceCorps (NSCDC), which is far from the truth. (Nigerians should watch out for ourfull pageadvertorial on this issue inThe Nation, The Sun, Daily Trust and TribuneNewspaperson Monday, 19thFebruary, 2018). The advertorial clearly articulates the statutory functions of the Police, CivilDefenceand that of the Nigerian Peace Corps.

We wish tocorrect the erroneous impression created by this report, whose contents are just the authors interpretation ofthe provisions of the law,PresidentMuhammaduBuhariGCFR,has notassented to or rejected the NPC Bill.And ifeventhe President rejectsthe Bill, he will communicate same to the NASS, stating reason(s) for doing so.

Moreover, the Spokespersons of both chambers of the NASS, SenatorSabiAbdullahi(Senate) and Hon.AbdulrazakNamdas(House of Representatives) have clarified the issuesas far as the law on this matter is concerned.

The authors also questioned the legal status of the Peace Corps, a position that smacks of mischief. For purposeof clarity, Peace Corps of Nigeria was dulyincorporated bythe Corporate Affairs Commission under the Companies and Allied Matters Act Cap1990, Part CasNigerianLeadership and MarshalCorps, but changed to Peace Corps of Nigeria in 2002 in accordance with theCompanies and Allied Matters Act.So, its legality has never been called to question and even if the Bill is not assented to, that will not stop it from functioning as an entity.The Bill isessentiallytogivestatutory backingto the Corps.

That this report is coming out a few days after the House Committee on Public Petition gave the Corps directive to take-over itsHeadquarters that has been under lock and key by the Policesince February 2017, a directive thatwasalmost executed before the intervention of the FCT Commissioner of Police, is suspicious.How sad!

Sadder still is that in spite ofseveralCourt judgments pronouncing Peace Corps as a legal entity, including recent verdicts by two different Federal High Courtsjudges,the antagonists of the Corps have continued to disregard these valid Ordersby refusing to unsealthe Peace Corpsoffice.Somuch forthe Rule ofLaw!

In conclusion, we request all PCN Stakeholders and indeed the entire Nigerian youth to disregard any erroneous, malicious and none-evidence based information against the NPC Bill.

Patriot MillicentUmoru

Corps Public Relations Officer

Source: NAN

A video of a two year, 11 month-old pupil of Chrisland School, Lekki, Lagos portraying her alleged serial defilement by the schools supervisor was played today at the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court.

The video was played during the testimony of Miss Olive Ogedengbe at the trial of Adegboyega Adenekan, 47, a Supervisor at Chrisland School over defilement of a child.

Proceedings lasted from 11a.m. to 3.03 p.m.

Ogedengbe, a clinical psychologist, is an expert in sexual and reproductive health behaviour in children and adolescents. She has over 10 years work experience with children and adolescents, the court heard.

The video recording (Exhibit A1), depicted the child, named Child X, in the clinical psychologists office on Nov. 28, 2016 answering questions about the alleged defilement from Ogedengbe and her colleague.

In the recording, Child X was given a sheet of paper and asked to draw the private part of Adenekan, which she did as well as another image with the ensuing questions.

Child X, referring to the other image said:that is the hand he used to put in my wee wee.

Ogedengbe: Where is Mr Adenekans wee wee?Child X in response, pointed to her private area.

Ogedengbe: Does he put his wee wee in your wee wee?Child X: Yes.

Child X in the recording, using a teddy bear as a puppet, also showed how the supervisor allegedly sexually abused her friend (name withheld).

Kissing the private region of the teddy bear, the child can be heard saying in the video recording Your bum bum is delicious, your bum bum is sweet, I will eat your bum bum.

Ogedengbe, before the video recording was played in the courtroom, in her testimony while being led by Mr Jide Boye, the Chief State Counsel, narrated to the court what had previously transpired during her interaction with the child.

She said:the mother came into my office with a referral letter from the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) and narrated the story and she started crying.

She (the mother) said she did not know the reason why this was happening to her.

She said she was usually over protective of her children and follows them everywhere except school.

She said somebody in her church handed her a book on sexual education for children which she read and decided to practice it on her child.

That was when the child disclosed that she has been defiled.

She told her mother that Mr Adenekan comes to take her out of the class and shows her some videos that are sexually stimulating.

She pleaded with us to help to correct the psyche of her child.

I carried out an independent psychological evaluation on the child. I asked the mother to sit at the corner of the room and myself and my colleague interacted with the child.

We did not directly start interrogating the child as that was against the ethics of our profession.

We started an initial interaction with the child to make her relax and gain her trust.

When our trust was gained by the child and she was in a happy frame of mind, I asked the child:who touched your wee wee? and the child repeated on several times `Mr Adenekan.

I was shocked because I did not expect it from a child her age. I brought out my assessment sheet and I told the child to draw any person that comes to her mind.

She restlessly started jumping around Mr Adenekan is on my mind we got her back to being settled but she continued talking without yet drawing.

She (Child X) said Mr Adenekan said it is good for a child to put her wee wee in Mr Adenekans wee wee at that point in time we decided to do a recording to ensure her story remains consistent.

We asked her how does Mr Adenekans wee wee look like and she demonstrated playfully by pointing her finger upwards stating sharpener.

We asked sharpener or pencil? She stated `sharpener.

We told her to draw Mr Adenekans wee wee. We want to see what it looks like.

To my greatest shock and surprise, for a two-year-old child, she drew a picture which symbolises a reproductive organ of a man in the form of a penis.

I then asked her, show me your wee wee, she pointed at her private part. I asked her to show me where Mr Adenekans wee wee is and she pointed at the lower region of her private part.

By then the child was again getting very restless and she ran to her mother who was at the corner of the room.

We still wanted to hear more but she was playfully running around and her mother started probing her: Is it only you he comes around to take out of the class and she replied no.

The child said it was herself and her friend (name withheld) so her mother asked her to show us what he normally does with her friend.The child said he kisses her bum bum and he licks her bum bum, the child demonstrated by using a puppy in the room.

That was the end of the first interview with the child.

Ogedengbe during her lengthy testimony said from her evaluation, the mother and Child X needed psychological help.

She said:Afterwards, I decided to confirm from the mother if the child was exhibiting any symptom of psychological abuse.

I asked the mother if she observed any strange behaviour in the child and the mother said yes.

I had asked because I noticed in the course of interacting with the child that the child was occasionally aggressive.

The mother confirmed this and also stated that the child had sleep problems and had been having nightmares.She also complained of sexual inappropriate behaviour from the child and that after the incident the child became curious to see naked bodies of people.

From my findings I found the child exhibited aggressive behaviour, inappropriate sexual behaviour, sleeping problems and fear.

After the interaction, myself and my colleague realised that the child and mother needed help.

The mother also exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

We decided to do an intervention and we held two more sessions of psycho-social intervention for the mother and the mother was counselled on how to help and assist the child.

While being cross-examined by Mr Olatunde Adejuyigbe (SAN), Ogedengbe said that Child X was not tutored on what to say during the interview by either her or Child Xs mother.

We used projective techniques in which a client projects their subconscious minds on paper.

The clinical psychologist revealed to Adejuyigbe that she visited the mother of Child Xs friend who was also allegedly sexually assaulted by Adenekan.

We saw the mother of the childs friend but she was not willing to get involved in the case because of stigma, she said.

Ogedengbe also added that she did not interview the staff of Chrisland School, Child Xs father and her older sister.The clinical psychologist also insisted that the child was of above average intelligence.

Children 0-5 years, are usually not able to form full sentences, the child could string meaningful sentences.

In drawing a picture, most children her age do not draw meaningful drawings but she did.

I have worked with children her age from diverse sections of society and she is of above average intelligence, she said.

On re-examination by Boye, the prosecutor, Ogedengbe insisted that the child was not tutored.

If a child is being brainwashed or tutored, the child wont be consistent in answering several questions.

You will see it in her non-verbal behaviour that she was tutored, there would be no flow of conversation, this child was not tutored, the clinical psychologist said.

Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011 prescribes a life sentence for the offence of defilement of a child.

Justice Sybil Nwaka adjourned the case till March 21 for continuation of trial.

Source: NAN

At least two persons died late Sunday when the helicopter they were riding in crashed into Manhattans East River in New York, officials said.

The red chopper, owned by tourism group Liberty and carrying six people including the pilot, fell into the river near the upscale Upper East Side neighborhood around 90th Street shortly after 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) at the end of a sunny day.

The pilot freed himself, the other five did not, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told reporters during a brief press conference.

We are told the five people were all tied tightly in harnesses that had to be cut and removed.

Divers rushed to the scene and freed the passengers, two of whom were pronounced dead, amid strong currents and frigid temperatures, Nigro added.

The other three were taken to hospital in critical condition.

Liberty organises aerial tours of Americas financial capital. Police chief James ONeill said the aircraft had been leased by photographers.

New York 1 television, citing police sources, reported that five of the six people flying in the helicopter had died, with only the pilot surviving.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, but local media indicated the pilot had sent a distress signal that mentioned an engine problem shortly before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

Source: NAN

The black box from Mina Basarans private jet that crashed in Iran while travelling from the United Arab Emirates to Istanbul on March 11, has been recovered.

Mina, heiress to a Turkish billionaire, seven of her friends and three crew members all died in the crash.

The report byIrans state-run IRNA news agency also stated that officials have recovered 10 bodies so far from the crash in the Zagros Mountains outside of the city of Shahr-e Kord, some 370 kilometers south of the Iranian capital Tehran.

The Sharjah civil aviation authorities said the planes eight passengers were six Turks and two Spaniards. Three others were the flight crew.

The aircraft days earlier carried a bachelorette party bound for Dubai.

Search and rescue teams were deployed to the area of the incident, Kerem Knk, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent, wrote on Twitter on March 11.

The three crew members as well as the eight passengers on board were also identified as female.

A plane belonging to Turkey has crashed near Irans western city of Shahre Kord. The Iranian Red Crescent Society has dispatched 10 teams to the disaster area in ChaharMahal and Bakhtiari province to search for possible survivors, Knk said in his tweet.

Iranian state television quoted Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesman of the countrys emergency management organization, as saying the plane hit a mountain in Shahr-e Kord and burst into flames.

The plane took off around 4:41 p.m. (1311 GMT; 9:11 a.m. EST) on March 11 and reached a cruising altitude of just over 35,000 feet, according to FlightRadar24, a flight-tracking website. At around 6:01 p.m. (1431 GMT; 10:31 a.m. EST), something appears to have gone wrong with the flight as it rapidly gained altitude and then dropped drastically within minutes, data published by the website showed.

The semi-official Fars news agency said the plane took off from Sharjah International Airport on its way to Istanbul. A private company that handles public relations for the Sharjah airfield, the home of low-cost airline Air Arabia, declined to immediately comment to the Associated Press. Sharjah is a neighboring emirate of Dubai.

Turkeys private Doan News Agency identified the plane as a Bombardier CL604, tail number TC-TRB. The Turkish Transport Ministry said the plane belongs to Baaran Holding.

Mina Baaran, a 28-year-old woman who is part of Baaran Holdings board of managers and is in line to run the business, posted photographs on Instagram of what appeared to be her bachelorette party in Dubai.

Among the photographs was an image of the crashed plane posted three days ago.

The last videos posted to her account showed her and friends enjoying a concert by the British pop star Rita Ora at a popular Dubai nightclub. There was no further activity on her account after that.

The crash of the Turkish jet comes after an Iranian ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, crashed in southern Iran, killing all 65 people on board in February.

Source: NAN

US President Donald Trump has backtracked on raising the minimum age requirement from 18 to 21 for some gun purchases, local media reported on Monday.

Trump indicated support for the measure in the wake of Februarys massacre at a Florida high school.

The latest proposals put forward by the White House instead suggested the establishment of a commission to examine whether the measure would make sense.

There was, however, no proposed timeline for the commission.

The proposals are much more modest than those Trump suggested he would support in February.

Controversially, they do include a plan to help individual states arm teachers on a voluntary basis.

The plan is backed by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) and opposed by the countrys biggest teachers group, the National Education Association.

Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer said in response to the new proposals that the White House has taken tiny baby steps designed not to upset the NRA, when the gun violence epidemic in the country demands that giant steps be taken.

The White House is also supporting improved background checks.

It is also calling on states to introduce measures which would allow law enforcement to confiscate weapons from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, Schumer added.

A 19-year-old has been charged over the killing of 17 people at a school in Parkland, Florida, in February.

The former pupil had legally purchased the weapon used in the attack in spite of having a record of mental health problems and making threats. (dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus conservative governing coalition remains on the verge of collapse on Monday after a night of negotiations over legislation to extend military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The crisis, which could spark early elections, came after ultra-Orthodox parties said they would not support the 2019 state budget unless the draft exemption legislation is approved.

Israels Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who heads a hawkish secular party, is the leading coalition member against the draft exemptions.

Lieberman has said that he would only support legislation that is drafted by a committee of military officials.

Report says the crisis comes as Netanyahu faces police allegations of bribery and mounting corruption probes.

Opposition politicians and a leading member of the prime ministers coalition have accused Netanyahu, who is polling strongly of seeking snap elections as a way to bolster his standing in the event of a criminal indictment.

Netanyahu has said he wants elections only at the end of this governments term, November 2019. (dpa/NAN)

Source: NAN

Oil markets climbed on Monday on the back of a drop in the number of United States rigs drilling for more production and as the U.S. economy continued to create jobs, which industry hopes will drive higher fuel demand.

Brent sweet crude was at 65.70 dollars per barrel, up 21 cents, or 0.3 per cent, from their previous close.

A falling rig count and the strong employment data may have helped support prices, said William OLoughlin, investment analyst at Rivkin Securities.

The U.S. economy added the biggest number of jobs in more than 1-1/2 years in February, with non-farm payrolls jumping by 313,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday.

In oil markets, U.S. energy companies last week cut oil rigs for the first time in almost two months RIG-OL-USA-BHI, with drillers cutting back four rigs, to 796, Baker Hughes (GE.N) energy services firm said on Friday.(Reuters/NAN)

Source: NAN

A Bangladeshi aircraft carrying 67 passengers and four crew crashed on Monday while coming in to land at the airport in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, an airport official said.

He said that 17 people on board had been rescued.

The state of the other people on the flight from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, operated by US-Bangla Airlines, was not clear, airport spokesman Birendra Prasad Shrestha said.

We are trying to bring the fire under control. Details are awaited, he said

He added that the airport had been shut down and all other flights diverted.

Were now concentrating on evacuating the passengers.

Television images showed smoke rising from the crash site.

Mountainous Nepal is notorious for air accidents. Small aircraft often run into trouble at provincial airstrips.

Read More at :https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-nepal-crash/bangladesh-plane-carrying-71-people-crashes-in-nepal-idUKKCN1GO0WT

Source: NAN

U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillersonhas changed his schedule so that he will spend only a few hours in Nigeria before leaving late Monday evening to Washington DC.

A spokesman for the top U.S. diplomat said Tillerson had cut short his first trip to Africa to return to Washington about one day ahead of schedule to deal with urgent work there.

Tillersons travel plans have changed so that he can return to Washington early on Tuesday morning instead of late that night, the spokesman told reporters traveling with him.

The secretary departed the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Monday morning.

He will visit Chad and Nigeria, both oil-producers struggling to contain the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency, on Monday afternoon and evening.

He was billed to spend Monday night in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, before flying back to Washington.

On Saturday while visiting Nairobi, Tillerson, 65, canceled his scheduled events because he had been feeling unwell.

Tillersons week-long, five-country visit to Africa came amid other urgent foreign policy developments, including Thursdays announcement that U.S. President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

NAN reports that Tillersons visit to the Horn of Africa just days after he announced a new $533m aid package for Africa out of which 128 million dollars was earmarked for Nigeria and countries of the Lake Chad region.

When Tillerson meets Buhari, both men are expected to discuss counter-terrorism efforts and humanitarian issues in Nigerias North-East and the Lake Chad basin.

He is also expected to discuss how to advance peace and security, promote good governance, and spur mutually beneficial trade and investment with the President

During his trip, he is expected also to meet with the U.S. Embassy personnel and participate in events related to U.S. government-supported activities. (Reuters/NAN)

Source: NAN