Chad President Idriss Deby has fired his armed forces chief of staff following the latest bout of unrest which culminated in a Boko Haram attack that left 23 dead.
Deby fired Brahim Seid Mahamat and his two deputies by presidential decree after six years in the post on Friday night just hours after the attack in the southwest of the country.
The soldiers were killed after coming under attack from jihadists in the early hours of Friday morning in the deadliest attack on the Chadian military by Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency in Nigeria a decade ago.
The unrest has spread to neighbouring Niger and Chad with the Boko Haram revolt to date claiming more than 27,000 lives and uprooting more than 1.7 million people.
Friday’s attack took place at Dangdala, on the northeastern bank of Lake Chad.
Thursday had seen another attack by the group kill eight civilians at Karidi in southeastern Niger in the Diffa region bordering Lake Chad, The area is one of the worst-hit areas for jihadist attacks in Niger.
Troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria have been grouped into a multi-national force to fight Boko Haram.
Deby’s reorganisation of security — which included the suspension of the air force chief and his deputy — saw army chief of staff Taher Erda take the top job with a general from the northeastern region of Tibesti made chief advisor on national defence issues.
Erda is a Deby loyalist and former police chief who fought alongside the president before he took power in 1990.
The air force suspensions followed the discovery of debris from an helicopter which went missing more than a week ago in the north.
The sparsely populated, mainly desert region near the border with Sudan, Libya and Niger is volatile prone to attack from Chadian rebel groups based across the Libyan border.
In late January, France pounded Chadian rebels who had crossed back into their country from Libya to halt their incursion.
A shocking trending video making the rounds online has called for caution among Nigerians to be very careful when employing house maids. Two boys who disguised perfectly as girls were recently apprehended by the authorities after they were discovered to be what they are not.After they were arrested and taken to the station, the boys allegedly confessed that they pretended to be girls in order to be employed.
Imagine what they would have done to the female children left in their care.
They were asked to show their private parts (including the fake breasts) right there in the station as they were filmed.
A Facebook user who posted the video online urged people to thoroughly check housemaids before employing them.
A generational divide is at the heart of the wider divisions of faith currently roiling the Church, with younger priests more traditional than their older compatriots.
TWO months after the five engineers deployed to a road project at Effium in Ohaukwu Local Government Area, in Ebonyi State were declared missing, their families remain hopeful that they would one day return home, even though their hope appears to be getting dim.
Wife of one of the missing engineers, Patricia Onyemeh, 58, and her children spent the holidays indoors, praying and hoping for the return of the head of the family, 64-year-old Nelson Onyemeh.
For them, there was nothing to celebrate as nothing could fill the vacuum created by his disappearance.
On November 2, Patricia was with her husband, a Director at NELAN Consultants, in their Enugu house when he called four engineers to join him at a location in Ebonyi State the following day for supervision of the second phase of the Abakaliki Ring Road project.
“He asked them to get ready the next day as they would be travelling with him to Abakaliki for their routine supervision of the Ring Road project,” she said.
The project, which is in Effium, Ohaukwu Local government Area of Ebonyi State, is funded through a repayable loan from African Development Bank, AFDB, and meant to contribute to socio-economic development, poverty reduction through improved road transport infrastructure, reduced road maintenance costs and vehicle operating cost and travel time.
The disappearance
On November 3, the five engineers, Nelson Onyemeh, Ernest Edeani, Ikechukwu Ejiofor, Samuel Aneke and Stanley Nwazulum, travelled from Enugu to Ebonyi.
Onyemeh’s wife
Part of what they had planned to do that day in Abakaliki was to check out an accommodation a certain man identified as Ken Okeh was helping them to find as they were supposed to be resident within the location of the road project.
They had scheduled a meeting with Okeh at 3.00 pm that day after visiting the road construction site. They travelled to the location in Effium with the project vehicle, a Toyota Hilux and arrived at about 2.00 pm ahead of the scheduled meeting.
It was gathered that on arrival, the team allegedly called Okeh and announced their arrival at the site. But that was the last time anyone would hear from them as they were subsequently reported missing in a suspected case of kidnaping from the project site in Ohaukwu as they supervised the road project.
On Tuesday, 30th November, 27 days after the incident, during a security meeting organized by the state’s elder statesmen led by former governor, Martin Elechi, the Christian Association of Nigeria among others, the Governor of Ebonyi State Dave Umahi, was quoted as saying that the suspect arrested in connection with the abduction confessed that the engineers had been “killed and buried”.
This came six days after the governor held a meeting with the wives and other family members of the missing engineers.Umahi however, did not inform the abducted men’s family of their “death and burial” and they received the devastating news through the media.
“It has been a home for us two and life without him is meaningless,” said Patricia.
When she read the story that her husband, alongside other engineers, had been killed and buried, Patricia became depressed.
She told The ICIR that people started coming to her house to console her and the children.
As several thoughts and questions raced through her mind, she again summoned courage on December 1, 2021 to write the governor, demanding to know if indeed her husband had been killed and buried as reported in the news.
This is sequel to the letters she wrote earlier dated November 11 and 23, where she explained her ordeal and thanked him for inviting the families of the missing engineers for a briefing at the government house.
Patricia said she received a response from the Governor telling her that he was working to confirm the true position and that he had sent security operatives to the location where the said kidnap occurred. and they were attacked and four of them were killed.
“More security is coming from Abuja with trackers. I need proper information before I can say something to you. I am doing everything possible including suspending all civil servants and political office holders from there. I know how you feel but give us more time,” Umahi was quoted as saying in his response.
On December 4, Patricia sent another message to the governor suggesting an open communication with any identified contacts of the abductors and suggesting the release of suspects detained over this matter, if it became a consideration to accepting the option of ransom and the application of effective peace-making mechanisms to ensure the abductees are returned alive.
Again, in his response, the governor allegedly assured her that he was “working all options”.
Before December 25, 2021, travelling home had become a ritual for Onyemeh and his family, not only because it is a time when he gets to make merry with his family but also because it is that period of the year when he extends his hands of fellowship to members of his community who would always besiege his village home to receive gifts.
“A lot of people depend on my husband because he never stops giving. If anything happens to my husband, it is going to be a huge loss to many families, most of whom had called after we did not return for Christmas last year, “she said.
It is well over two months since she last saw her husband, Patricia fears for what her husband is passing through.
MINISTRIES, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Nigerian Federal Government paid for projects without any proof of performance, leading to misapplication and loss of government funds.
This was revealed in the 2019 Audit Report released by the Auditor-General of the Federation Adolphus Aghughu.
The report, dated September 15, 2021, highlights cases of non-compliance with Financial Regulations by several agencies of the Nigerian government.
One of the agencies where payment without proof of execution of project was recorded is the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (FCTA) – the ministry which supervises the FCT and its area councils.
Payment for projects without proof of performance contravenes the provisions of Paragraph 708 of the Federal Government’s Financial Regulations (FR) (2009), which stipulates that “on no account should payment be made for services not yet performed or for goods not yet supplied.”
The sum of N73.064 million was paid to some officers of the FCT Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) for the conduct of residency verification and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) project in December 2019. The payment was approved on December 17, 2019 by the executive chairman (residency verification) and the director of human resource.
But the audit found that the payment for the projects was made without any proof of performance.
The Auditor-General of the Federation Adolphus Aghughu says the project report, which ascertains whether the projects were actually executed, was not made available in the course of the audit despite repeated requests.
The audit report notes that the development is a possible case of payment for jobs not executed and misapplication of funds, which can result to loss of public funds.
The audit report also identifies discrepancies in the payment for the TIN project.
The FCT-IRS funded the TIN project from staff welfare sub-head (code number 22021007), an unrelated sub-head, contrary to extant regulations.
The auditor-general of the federation, in his recommendations, directs the executive chairman of the FCT-IRS to explain why payment for the TIN project was made from an unrelated sub-head.
The executive chairman is also directed to recover, and remit to the treasury, the sum of N73.064 million paid for the TIN project without proof of performance.
Evidence of the remittance is to be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly.
In the event that the executive chairman of the FCT-IRS fails to recover and remit the money, the auditor-general of the federation recommends the application of sanctions relating to payment for job not executed, as prescribed in paragraph 3104(iii) of the Financial Regulations.
The audit also found that the bank balance of the FCT-IRS was understated due to failure to carry out bank reconciliation, a development which could lead to loss of government revenue and difficulty in funding budgets.
The understatement of account due to failure to carry out bank reconciliation contravenes provisions of Paragraph 716 of the Financial Regulations which states that “all (government) officers authorized to keep bank accounts must compare on weekly basis, and at the close of each month, the entries appearing on the bank statements with those in their cash books and effect early clearance of outstanding items.”
The audit discovered that the FCT-IRS operation accounts domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were not reconciled for the period of January to December 2019.
According to the audit report, the closing balance in the FCT-IRS account as at February 28, 2019 was N709.1 million while on March 1, 2019, the opening balance was reflected as N1.8 billion.
The development resulted in an understatement of N613.734 million in the bank balance.
Also, the closing balance as at March 31, 2019 was N1.2 billion while N636.366 million was reflected as the opening balance.
Other financial irregularities discovered in the accounts of the FCT-IRS, according to the audit report, include extra-budgetary spending, non-deduction and remittance of 1 per cent stamp duties, and non-submission of audited financial statement
On Dec 18, 2021, the Editor in Chief of The LancetRichard Horton wrote, “To be clear, the lab leak theory was and remains a perfectly legitimate line of inquiry.” Despite being considered a “conspiracy theory” by many, the GOP Oversight Committee has released emails showing Dr. Anthony Fauci may have concealed lab leak info.
These newly released emails show that Fauci knew at the beginning of 2020 that a genetically manipulated virus may have leaked, intentionally or unintentionally, from the lab in Wuhan.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan pointed to a Feb 1, 2020 conference call that included Fauci and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins in which the virus’ origins were discussed.
According to the letter, it was on this call that Fauci and Collins were warned that COVID-19 may have leaked from the lab in Wuhan and may have been intentionally genetically manipulated through gain of function research. US Republicans are now questioning whether the lab leak theory was dropped due to influence from Fauci and/or Collins.
According to Comer and Jordan, the emails, which are included with the letter, contain notes from the Feb. 1, 2020 conference call. One of the emails, from Dr. Jeremy Farrar to Collins, Fauci and current NIH Acting Director, Lawrence Tabak, stated that “a likely explanation” could involve accidentally creating a virus that would be primed for rapid transmission between humans. Discussing the similarities to a bat coronavirus and the very specific differences, Farrar said he “just can’t figure out how this gets accomplished in nature.”
Fauci and Collins expressed hope a Nature Medicine article on the genomic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 would settle this. But it didn’t. This paper, as mentioned in the emails, was being used to shut down the debate. But it failed to do so and was criticized by many.
Comer and Jordan are now asking HHS for information regarding whether Fauci and Collins warned anyone at the White House about the lab leak theory, whether there was new evidence between Feb 1 and Feb 4, 2020, that convinced them it was not a leak, and whether they edited the content of the Nature Medicine article.
The congressmen are also calling for Fauci to appear for a transcribed interview where they can discuss this matter regarding the possibility of Fauci and his colleagues hiding information.
In September of 2021, we published a story about documents that were made public via a freedom of information act (FOIA) request revealing details about U.S funded research in Wuhan. The documents suggest that gain-of-function (GOF) experiments were taking place with coronaviruses and humanized mice. If true, Dr. Anthony Fauci would be guilty of lying to congress and playing a part in funding this research.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and Anthony Fauci appeared before a Senate Committee Hearing this week regarding the “Omicron Response,” and both of them lied under oath.
They both claimed that they “didn’t know” how many deaths were recorded in VAERS following COVID-19 vaccines, and Walensky stated the COVID-19 vaccines are “incredibly safe” and “protect us against Omicron, they protect us against Delta, they protect us against COVID.”
She also stated that all reported COVID-19 vaccine deaths have been “adjudicated,” when in fact not a single COVID-19 vaccine injury, let alone a death, has been tried in the Government CounterMeasures Injury Compensation Program, the only place where a vaccine death or injury following a COVID-19 shot can be “adjudicated.”
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville either displayed his complete ignorance regarding VAERS, or colluded with Walensky and Fauci to ask them a meaningless question which then gave them the opportunity to control the narrative.
Tommy asked:
Dr. Walensky, it has been reported by some virologists and scientists that this year around 170 people have died from taking the regular flu vaccine.
The Vaccine Adverse Reporting System reported that the number of people dying after or following the COVID vaccine is actually in the thousands.
Now this is what I am hearing. I’ll give you a chance to refute that or confirm it here. Is this true?
Are we having that many people die after taking one of these vaccines?
This is a meaningless question because the answer is already public knowledge!
The VAERS database is open to the public, and anybody can search it. You don’t need a “virologist” or “scientist” to tell you how many deaths there are following COVID-19 shots. Anyone can make that search, and it takes less than 60 seconds to find the answer.
As of this recorded Senate Hearing, the total deaths following COVID-19 shots in VAERS was 21,382. (Source.)
So what he should have asked was:
Dr. Walensky, VAERS is reporting 21,382 deaths following the emergency use authorized COVID-19 vaccines for the first year, which is more deaths than following all FDA-approved vaccines for the past 31 years combined, since VAERS started recording deaths following vaccines in 1990.
Why are we still injecting these experimental products into Americans?
But instead, he questioned whether or not VAERS was actually reporting this, which led to a canned response by both Walensky and Fauci that VAERS is not reliable, because someone can get the vaccine and then walk outside and get hit by a car, and that is recorded as a vaccine death.
So let’s fact check this new narrative that people getting hit by a car after getting a COVID-19 shot are being entered into VAERS.
VAERS does have a “symptom” that is called “Road traffic accident.”
So if we search for “Road traffic accident” following COVID-19 vaccines that result in a death, we get 20 listed deaths out of the current 21,382 deaths recorded following COVID-19 shots that are associated with a “Road traffic accident.” (Source.)
Of those 20 cases, two of them appear to have listed “Road traffic accident” by mistake because nothing in the description mentioned a traffic accident.
Of the remaining 18, it appears that most, if not all of them, happened with the person driving the car (or motorcycle), not being hit by a car.
She started having breathing problems/heart attack appearance. on 1/22/21 and went to the ER. Upon admittance was told it was an anaphylactic shock from the Covid shot. They kept her in ICU and released her 1/23/21. At 12:45 am on 1/24/21 she passed out and we called the ambulance. Hospital admitted her and worked through multiple organ failure issues and thought her numbers were under control. She was released on 1/27/21 and was driving on 1/28/21 around 4:15 pm and appears to have had heart failure and had a wreck. She passed away that day.
People having heart attacks while driving their vehicles shortly after getting injected and then crashing doesn’t quite fit the new narrative that Walensky and Fauci are claiming regarding “getting hit by a car,” does it?
Penn State biologist David Kennedy PhD, published a paper in PLOS BIOLOGY in 2015 titled, “Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens.” In it, he explains how the transmission of viruses and more severe strains by infected vaccinees could provide an opportunity for more virulent variants to spread.
The article described an experiment with a herpes virus that causes Marek disease in chickens. Vaccines against Marek disease are described as “leaky” because, although they protect chickens from getting sick, they don’t prevent them from becoming infected and transmitting the virus to unvaccinated chickens. That allows the most virulent strains that normally would die along with an infected chicken to survive and infect and kill unvaccinated chickens.
In other words, the vaccinated and unvaccinated can still spread the disease, and the vaccinated are protected from severe disease and symptoms. But what happens if vaccines don’t protect against severe disease and symptoms of these new variants? This means that conditions can be created that cause more severe disease in the vaccinated as well.
We’ve seen this with seasonal flu, where vaccines have to constantly be updated because of changes in the virus, and we’re currently witnessing it with COVID vaccines. COVID vaccines will most likely be tweaked as new variants continue to emerge, and shots may be encouraged once or twice a year. Who knows?
Many people have already received a third dose and in some countries, like Israel and Canada, a fourth dose is being offered to the elderly and immunocompromised patients. This is something people aren’t used to, so many jabs in such a short period of time, along with mandates as well.
We now know that COVID vaccines don’t stop the transmission of COVID, and that variants like Omicron and Delta are able to escape the protection that COVID vaccines provide. This is why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that even after they’re fully vaccinated, people should continue to mask up and socially distance in public places in part because they could still unknowingly become infected and transmit COVID to people who have and haven’t yet received their shots
As good as the available tools and psychological aids are in helping men to combat pornography, a certain disposition is necessary for a man to have any success.
While the Omicron variant-led third wave of Covid-19 in India might be around for a shorter duration, it may mildly increase the inflationary pressures and may cause a delay in a reverse repo rate hike from February to April, research firm Nomura wrote.
Research shows that the Indian economy has entered the third wave in a far healthier state relative to the second wave but voluntary pullbacks and reimposition of state restrictions are starting to bite.
While the Omicron variant-led third wave of Covid-19 in India might be around for a shorter duration, it may mildly increase the inflationary pressures and may cause a d ..
