One of Governor Isa Yuguda’s confidants, Alhaii Muhammadu Sade, was kidnapped on Sunday night.
His security man known as Maigadi was also killed at his GRA residence in Bauchi, the state capital.
The state police command confirmed the incident to our correspondent on Monday.
He hails from Sade in Darazo local government area of the state.
Sade is married to Yuguda’s sister and sources say he plays important roles in the governor’s political decisions.
Vietnam has jailed three bloggers accused of spreading anti-government propaganda, in a case criticised by human rights groups.
The high-profile but brief trial took place in Ho Chi Minh City under heavy security, BBC says.
The trio were given jail sentences of between four and 12 years.
The government, which does not allow freedom of expression, has been under pressure from bloggers over corruption cases and human rights issues.
The three were accused of posting political articles on a banned website called Free Journalists’ Club, as well as articles critical of the government on their own blogs.
Nguyen Van Hai, who uses the pen name Dieu Cay, received the longest sentence of 12 years.
The case of Dieu Cay, who was a soldier before he became a dissident writer, was raised by United States President Barack Obama earlier this year.
Former policewoman Ta Phong Tan, who also wrote a blog called ”Justice and Truth”, was sent to jail for a decade.
In July, her mother died after setting herself on fire in apparent protest against the detention of her daughter.
The third dissident writer, Phan Thanh Hai, was jailed for four years.
In a statement, the U.S embassy in Hanoi called on the Vietnamese government to free the group.
Muslims protested in Nigeria, Iran, Greece and Turkey on Sunday to show anti-Western anger against a film and cartoons insulting Islam had not dissipated.
As delegates from around the world gathered in New York for a United Nations General Assembly where the clash between free speech and blasphemy is bound to be raised, United States flags were once again burning in parts of the Muslim world, Reuters reports on Monday.
Iranian students chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” outside the French embassy in Tehran in protest at the decision by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, days after widespread protests – some deadly – against a film made in the U.S.
Shi’ite Muslims in the Nigerian town of Katsina burnt U.S., French and Israeli flags and a religious leader called for protests to continue until the makers of the film and cartoons are punished.
In Pakistan, where 15 people were killed in protests on Friday, a government minister has offered $100,000 to anyone who kills the maker of the short, amateurish video “The Innocence of Muslims.”
Calls have increased for a U.N. measure outlawing insults to Islam and blasphemy in general.
In Athens, some protesters hurled bottles of water, stones and shoes at police who responded with teargas. Calm returned when demonstrators interrupted the protest to pray.
Hours later, dozens of Muslim inmates in Athens’ main prison set mattresses and bed sheets on fire in protest. Firemen with four engines battled the flames in some cells but police and government officials said late at night the situation was under control.
Protests around the world were relatively small and calm, but Western embassies remained on alert after the U.S ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in one of the first protests, on September 11.
The upsurge of Muslim anger – just weeks before U.S elections – have confronted President Barack Obama with a setback yet in his efforts to keep the “Arab Spring” revolutions from fuelling a new wave of anti-Americanism.
In U.S ally Turkey, a secular Muslim state often seen as a bridge between the Islamic world and the West, protesters set fire to U.S. and Israeli flags on Sunday.
“May the hands that touch Mohammad break,” chanted some 200 protesters before peacefully dispersing.
“We will certainly not allow uncontrolled protests, but we will not just grin and bear it when Islam’s prophet is insulted,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told party members at the weekend.
“The protests in the Muslim world must be measured, and the West should show a determined stance against Islamophobia.”
The National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Mr. Sam Nkire, has said that producers of the anti-Islamic film should be prosecuted, appealing to Muslims to temper justice with mercy.
Nkire made the call in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that making such a film was in bad taste but advised Muslims not to take the law into their hands.
The PPA chairman said that the destruction of lives and property that followed the released of the film by some angry mops in many countries was uncalled for, advising people to focus on issues that would bring unity and development and not crisis and destruction.
He said that anyone with the fear of God should not produce films that would desecrate religions.
President Goodluck Jonathan arrived in New York on Sunday for the 67th General Assembly of the United Nations.
Jonathan was received at the John F. Kennedy International Airport by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Olugbenga Ashiru, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Prof. Ade Adefuye, Nigeria High Commissioner to Canada, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and Prof. Joy Ogwu, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN.
The New York Correspondent of the News Agency of the Nigeria reports that the President was also received by Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State.
Jonathan is among the first 38 Heads of State who will speak at the General Assembly on September 25 on Peaceful Resolution of International Disputes.
While in the New York, the President is also scheduled to meet with other world leaders, including the Presidents of China, France, South Korea, Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland and Switzerland.
The President is to deliver a speech at the high-level meeting on Rule of Law at the UN Headquarters on Monday.
He will join the Prime Minister of Norway, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg with whom he currently serves as co-chair of the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children.
Jonathan will also attend a meeting on the Nigerian economy, meet with the Chairman and top executives of the oil giant, ExxonMobil.
He will attend a reception hosted by President Barack Obama of the U.S. and the UN Secretary-General on the eradication of polio.
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Sunday announced the closure of the Lokoja-Abuja highway to ensure the safety of road users.
Mr Mohammed Garuba, the Kogi State Sector Commander of the FRSC, said that the decision to close the highway was to ensure the safety of lives.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the highway had since last week been flooded because of the rise in water level from River Niger.
He said that the commission arrived at the decision following the continued rise in the water level at the Banda Village, two kilometres to Lokoja, the Kogi capital, adding that the movement of vehicles on the road had become “completely impossible”.
According to him, FRSC officials and some youths who had been guiding vehicles through the water for the past three days had been overstressed and could no longer cope with the situation.
He said that the road would remain closed until the commission could guarantee safe vehicular movement.
Meanwhile, officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), who had been carrying out rescue operations in Idah and Ibaji local governmentstold NAN that the situation in the area was deteriorating.
One of the officials , Mr Ishaya choloko, who spoke to NAN on telephone from Idah said: “although some trapped victims had been rescued, so many people are still taking refuge on top of trees’’.
He said that the three boats being deployed for rescue operations by National Inland Water Authority (NIWA) were inadequate, adding that the agency had been contacted to release more boats and equipment to hasten the evacuation of victims.
He said that all the rescued victims had been camped at primary schools in Idah and gave an assurance that NEMA was making efforts to rescue the remaining victims latest by Monday morning.
He explained that no casualty had been recorded so far.
Meanwhile, Gov Idris Wada has visited Idah and Ibaji to assess the extent of damage and to commiserate with the victims of the flood disaster.
He promised that the government would assist them to resume their normal lives. (NAN)
The Presidency yesterday deplored what it called the threats of impeachment being dangled before President Goodluck Jonathan by members of the National Assembly at every given opportunity. It said the lawmakers should put the nation’s interest above any other consideration.
Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, enjoined the legislators and other members of the public to give due respect to the office of the President, irrespective of their political affiliations.
Okupe described conflicts between the legislative and the executive arms as normal in a democracy as, according to him, such conflicts tend to strengthen the principle of checks and balances.
According to him, members of the National Assembly remained the best the nation has produced since the return of democratic rule in 1999. The legislature has always demonstrated its readiness to work harmoniously with the executive for the good of the people, Okupe said.
He went on: “There are bound to be conflicts and disagreements but moderation must be the order of the day. Even in the face of conflicts and disagreements, the interest of the over 160 million Nigerians must be paramount.
“The legislative arm of government has the constitutional right to impeach the President. But that impeachment should be the last option. It’s not that any time there is one form of disagreement or the other, the legislature will be threatening the President with impeachment.
“There is always room for dialogue. Our democracy is new and we have to build it and allow it to grow. The legislature will be passing good laws while the executive will be executing the good laws for the development of the country”, Okupe added.
The President’s aide said his boss decided to stop action on the proposed N5000 banknote by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) based on protests by the public.
Okupe explained that the President’s intervention was to allow the CBN enough time to educate the public.
The Nigeria Red Cross Society said on Sunday that it had deployed three boats three boats to the riverine areas of Ibaji Local Government Council of Kogi, to rescue trapped flood victims taking refuge on tree tops.
Mr Mustafa Allah-Dey, the Chairman of the state branch of the Society, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja that the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) released the boats for the rescue operation.
Nustafa said that men of the Nigerian Navy and officials of NEMA, SEMA and the state Ministry of Environment were also involved in the operation, adding that many of the victims were said to be in life threatening situations.
He said that the people should be blamed for their present predicament, adding that they failed to heed several warnings to quit their houses to avoid being trapped.
The chairman said that he did not have the figure of exact number of people trapped and that no report of casualties been received as at the time of this report.
He only described the situation in Ibaji as “very terrible”.
Meanwhile, the traffic gridlock on Lokoja-Abuja road has become more chaotic with vehicles forming long queues on both sides of the road.
The queue at the Lokoja end of the road has extended to Obajana village, about 15 kms drive to the Lokoja city centre.
Mr Isaac Martins, the Head of operations of the State Sector Command of the FRSC, who confirmed this to NAN, said that there was not much the commission could do to help the situation.
He said the problem was particularly with the small cars, adding that it takes officials and youths assisting them an average of 20 minutes to help a car out of the water.
“ Vehicles are moving but they are moving slowly, that is just the situation at hand now,’’ Martins said.
He appealed to motorists to make use of alternative roads pending the time the flood would be over. (NAN)
Gunmen have shot dead a member of Somalia’s new parliament in an attack in the capital Mogadishu.
Mustafa Haji Maalim was gunned down after leaving a mosque in the southern Waberi district following evening prayers, witnesses told BBC on Sunday.
The speaker of parliament, Mohamed Osman Jawari, said he was killed by “elements that are known for cruelty.”
This appears to be a reference to the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.
It was pushed out of Mogadishu last year, but has frequently staged attacks in the city since then and still controls large swathes of southern and central Somalia.
On Thursday, a double suicide attack in Mogadishu targeting a restaurant recently opened by Somalis from the diaspora killed 18 people.
The assassinated lawmaker was the father-in-law of former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and is the first parliamentarian to be targeted since a new 275-member assembly was selected in August.
No-one has so far claimed the attack, but al-Shabab has vowed to kill Somali government officials.
A court in Cameroon has sentenced former presidential hopeful and senior minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya to a 25-year jail term on embezzlement charges related to the botched purchase of a presidential plane in 2004.
Reuters says the court handed down the sentence early on Saturday morning after a marathon overnight trial.
The court handed the same sentence to a former director of defunct state air transport company CAMAIR, Yves Michel Fotso.
Hamidou Yaha was minister of territorial administration until he was sacked in December in a cabinet reshuffle by President Paul Biya.
He was widely believed to harbour ambitions to succeed the 79-year-old Biya.
Biya, who has been in power since 1982, launched “Operation Sparrow Hawk” in 2006 to combat corruption in the central African nation.
The drive has seen several of his former aides brought to court but critics say the anti-corruption campaign has been used to target opponents.
The court in the capital Yaounde found the two guilty of embezzling 24 billion CFA francs that was meant for the purchase of the presidential plane called “Albatross.”
In letters published after he was arrested in April, Hamidou Yaha denied he participated in any attempt to embezzle public funds and said he was a victim of a political plot.
“Investigations show that the 24 billion CFA francs … for the purchase of the aircraft were diverted by Yves Michel Fotso for personal interests,” the presiding judge said in sentencing.