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Twenty-one newly freed Chibok girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, met with Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday in Abuja.

The release of the girls is "very exciting news for the whole country," he said.

Osinbajo denied press reports that the girls had been swapped for four captured Boko Haram militants.

Information Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed called the girls' release "the product of painstaking negotiations and trust on both sides."

The International Red Cross and the Swiss government brokered the talks that led to freedom for the 21.  

Nigerian officials said talks with Boko Haram for the remaining captive girls would continue.

The names of all 21 girls will be released as soon as their families are contacted. Information on their health has also not been disclosed, but one of the girls is pregnant.

Mohammed thanked all Nigerians for their support and for "never losing confidence in the ability of Mr. President [Muhammadu Buhari] to secure the safe release of our Chibok girls."

Buhari, who is traveling to Germany on official business, said on Twitter he had been briefed on the girls' release before departing. "I welcome the release of 21 of our Chibok girls, following successful negotiations," he said.

Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls from a secondary school in the Borno state town of Chibok in April 2014. Dozens escaped, but 219 remained captive.

These were the first of the Chibok girls to be rescued as a result of government action.

Buhari has repeatedly vowed to rescue the girls and crush Boko Haram, which has frequently attacked schools as part of its seven-year insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, aimed at setting up an Islamic state.

The group, whose name is roughly translated as "Western education is forbidden," has been blamed for about 20,000 deaths in the region since 2009.

VOA

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Rita Akana

14.Oct.2016

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Some 500 appeal letters formatted with the SDF logo and allegedly dispatched to Government Ministers by a Councillor of Douala I Urban Council has gotten SDF officials bristling with anger.

Celestine Djamen, a member of the SDF National Executive Committee, NEC, and is alleged to be the brain behind the appeals.

Aspiring for the position of SDF Chairman of the Littoral Region, Djamen allegedly printed 500 appeal letters in a bid to raise funds for his campaign and flooded Government circles with them.

The row over the appeal cards is reportedly splitting the Littoral SDF given that Djamen is accused of using the SDF logo, which gives the impression that the entire political party is fundraising.

Concerns have also been raised over information that the appeal letters were distributed to CPDM elite and Ministers.

Minister Donates FCFA 200,000

Speaking to The Post through a telephone interview on October 4, the Interim Chairman of the Littoral SDF, Senator Jean Tsomelou, said he was aware of the scandal that Djamen has allegedly committed.

Tsomelou said the matter is under investigation and disclosed that he and some SDF elite in Yaounde have identified a Minister to whom Djamen gave one of the appeal cards and received FCFA 200,000.

Tsomelou, however, refused to disclose the name of the Minister. He would also not say whether the Minister is of the CPDM or another party.

The leader of SDF Group in the Senate also said he got information that Djamen has bought a Mercedes car. 

“It is very unfortunate, embarrassingly and totally inadmissible that some people have turned the SDF in the Littoral Region into a terrible business,” the Senator lamented.

On the same October 4, John Ndangle Kumase confirmed to The Post that until a few weeks back, Djamen had been living in their family compound but recently packed into a private apartment.

He also admitted news of Djamen’s purchase of a new Mercedes car but wondered where he got the money to do so.

Kumase said he was aware of the scandal about the appeal cards involving Djamen, the SDF logo and some CPDM elite.

“It is heartbreaking to see that some people have transformed the SDF in the Littoral Region into a private business. In fact, Djamen is not the only person.

I don’t know if these people ever think of the blood of the six martyrs who were killed by troops sent by the Biya regime, when the SDF was launched in Bamenda on 26th May, 1990,” Kumase wondered.

Local officials and militants of the SDF in Douala also talk of a recent change in Djamen’s lifestyle.

At the level of the Littoral SDF, Djamen is not new to controversies. In 2013, he launched a verbal attack on the SDF first Vice National Chairman, Joshua Osih, for changing his constituency from Ndian Division to Wouri Centre (Douala I and Manoka Islands).

When Djamen faced difficulties within the SDF during the legislative polls in 2013, he threatened to decamp to the ANDP to vie for the Wouri South constituency.

Right To Use SDF Logo

Contacted on October 7, Djamen admitted that he used the SDF logo on his appeal cards and distributing the cards to raise funds for his election campaign.

According to him, there is nothing wrong for an SDF militant, particularly a NEC member to use the logo of the party.

“I am of the SDF. More so, I am a member of NEC. I have the right to use the logo of the party,” Djamen told The Post.

On the argument that the logo implies that the funds are meant for the party, Djamen questioned: “What logo then would I have used? Should I have instead used a CPDM logo or the logo of another party, when I am not a militant of the party? I used the logo of my party.

After all, the campaign funds that I set out to raise are for an election in the SDF.”

Djamen denied sending appeal letters to CPDM elite to raise money. He insisted that all those to whom he sent the appeal cards are SDF militants.

“I, for example, addressed a card to the Mayor of the Douala III Urban Council, Job, who is of the SDF.”

He dismissed as spurious claims that he received FCFA 200,000 from a member of Government. He asked if Tsomelou and the Nintcheu camp that are propagating the rumour have any evidence to show that he received money from the unnamed member of Government.

He instead Nintcheu of selling the SDF several times during elections in his 12-year reign.

Post of National Chairperson

The first time SDF militants heard about Djamen was about 12 years ago. Then, he was based in France. He came to Cameroon and travelled to Bamenda where an Elective Convention of the SDF was holding.

There, Djamen declared his intention to run for the post of National Chairman of the party. He would return to France and later return on grounds of shaping his political career.

According to Abel Elimbi Lobe, Djamen only has ambitions for top political positions but lacks the prowess to manage even basic organs.

Cameroonpostnewsline

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Rita Akana

14.Oct.2016

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About eight people were killed and 15 wounded when a car laden with explosives hit a taxi in northeastern Borno state's capital of Maiduguri, birthplace of a seven-year-old Islamist insurgency, military and medical sources said.

Five people were inside the taxi in a convoy to Gamboru, a town near the Cameroon border, police said in a statement. Cars in Borno state often travel in convoys organized by the military to minimize the risk of Boko Haram ambushes in rural areas.

The army has retaken much of the territory initially lost to the militants but Boko Haram still stages suicide bombing attacks and plants roadside bombs. 

"We evacuated eight dead bodies and about 20 other injured persons," said a rescue worker. A hospital official put the number of wounded at ten.

Boko Haram, which has pledged alliance to Islamic State, has killed about 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million in its attempt to create a state adhering to strict Islamic laws.

It controlled a swathe of land in northeast Nigeria about the size of Belgium at the end of 2014 but was pushed out early last year by Nigerian troops, supported by soldiers from neighboring countries: Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

12.Oct.2016

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will not come to Paris next week after declining an offer to meet President Francois Hollande only for talks on Syria, a French presidency source said on Tuesday. There were contacts between the Kremlin and the Elysee this morning to offer to Putin a working visit on Syria, but excluding all other events that President Hollande could have taken part in," the source said. "In response to this proposal, Russia has just indicated that it wants to postpone the visit planned on Oct. 19." The Russian leader was scheduled to inaugurate a new Russian Orthodox cathedral and visit a Russian art exhibition in the French capital.

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Rita Akana

11.Oct.2016

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Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has responded to hints by French investigators to reopen investigations into the death of former leader Juvenal Habyarimana.

The downing of Mr Habyarimana’s plane over two decades back helped trigger the genocide in which hundreds of thousands mainly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

Habyarimana was the third president of Rwanda, from 1973 until his death in 1994. Kagame was at a time leader of a rebel group. He has maintained that he does not have a hand in the shooting down of the plane.

Kagame however insists that it is France that needs to be standing trial with relation to the Rwandan genocide. He added that the judicial system of his country was not subordinate to that of the French.

“After investigating the case for 2 years,not finding anything,they want to start all over again. I have no problem with that, If starting all over again is a show down, then we will have a show down.

African News

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Rita Akana

11.Oct.2016

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According to credible sources, an international arrest warrant has been issued by the Cameroonian justice against Essimi Menye, Cameroon's former Minister of Finance, who is currently at large in the United States of America. According to a report published the weekly news magazine L'Anecdote, in its Monday, October 10, 2016 issue. According to the same source, the lawsuit concerns only some of the crimes against the former minister, especially as regards to the scandal of the Cameroon Society of Tobacco (SCT) and the billions of FCFA that went missing at the Banque atlantique.

The first case against him involves the sum of FCFA 50 million of embezzled money at the defunct Cameroon Tobacco Company (SCT), in which he is suspected of playing a role. The second involves suspected criminal dealings in the liquidation of Amity Bank, during which about FCFA 9 billion FCFA was paid under murky circumstances to Banque atlantique that took over the debts of the troubled bank.

Mr Essimi Menye, was dropped as Agriculture and Rural Development minister in a government shake-up in October of 2015.The fugitive former minister who is the subject of this international arrest warrant is now liable to arrest by the police of the country in which he is resident.

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Mbi James

10.Oct.2016

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