DTN News: Nigeria Top Stories / Headlines News Dated December 25, 2011
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 25, 2011: Comprehensive daily news related to Nigeria for the world of TODAY.
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DTN News - NIGERIAN NEWS: Islamic Militant Boko Haram Claims Christmas Day Church Bombing
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 25, 2011: A bomb blast during Christmas mass left 35 people dead and dozens wounded at a Nigerian church near the nation’s capital of Abuja.
The radical Muslim sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for both the Abuja-area explosion, which left bodies on rooftops and in nearby gutters, as well as a bombing near a church in Jos, in which one police officer was killed. In all, at least 39 people were killed Sunday during ongoing sectarian violence in Nigeria, which also included at least three explosions in Yobe, an agricultural state in the country’s northeast that has often been at the heart of fighting between security forces and Boko Haram.
The Islamist group routinely attacks police and security forces as well as civilians in Africa’s most populous country. A faction of the group, whose name roughly means “Western education is forbidden,” has used increasingly violent means to advance its call for a strict interpretation of Islamic law in Nigeria. Fifty percent of the population of the oil-rich nation of 155 million is Muslim and 40% is Christian.
Diplomats and global security analysts say the sect, which has members in Cameroon, Niger and Chad, maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia.
Last year, explosions in Jos on Christmas Eve killed 32 people and left 74 wounded. In August, an attack on UN headquarters in Abuja killed 20 people. In recent days, ongoing clashes with paramilitary forces in the north of the country had left 61 people dead. On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Abuja issued a warning for Americans to be “particularly vigilant” around churches and public crowds.
With Sunday’s bombings, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for at least 504 deaths in Nigeria this year alone, according to a count by the Associated Press.
According to local newspapers, the Abuja blast ripped through St. Theresa's Church in the town of Madalla at the end of the 6 a.m. Mass of Nativity. The parish priest of St. Theresa’s, Rev. Fr. Isaac Achi, told Nigerian newspaper This Day that more than a dozen cars leaving the church were destroyed, packed with bodies inside that were burned beyond recognition.
“Nigeria must intensify its efforts in the area of security and guarantee freedom of movement and worship,” the newspaper reported Achi as saying.
The second attack occurred shortly after in the central city of Jos, near the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church. Government officials said one police officer was killed when gunfire broke out among those outside the church, according to the Associated Press. Two undetonated explosive devices were also reportedly discovered in nearby buildings.
Jon Gambrell, chief Nigeria correspondent for Associated Press, said via Twitter that Nigeria’s secret police, the State Security Service, claimed three people died in suicide attacks on its headquarters in the town of Damaturu, in Yobe state.
The attack on the Abuja-area Catholic church came just hours after Pope Benedict XVI delivered his traditional Christmas message from the Vatican. A spokesman for the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, condemned the bombings as “terrorist violence.”
“We are close to the suffering of the Nigerian Church and the entire Nigerian people so tried by terrorist violence, even in these days that should be of joy and peace,” Lombardi said, according to Reuters news agency.
‘N39b Budget For Science, Technology Insignificant’
GIVEN the place of Science and Technology in the technological transformation of the country, the paltry allocation of N39 billion to the sector in the 2012 budget has been described as a major barrier to the actualisation of the desired...
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Pomp As New Navy Ship Berths In Senegal
IT was pomp and carnival as the new Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS), ‘Thunder’, berthed on African soil after many weeks of sojourn on the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific.The Ship, which was transferred from the United States of America’s (USA)...
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Obi, Mimiko, Sylva, Oshiomhole, Aregbesola, Atiku, Others Urge Peace, Tolerance
Obi: ‘Amid Celebrations, We Must Master Our Challenges’GOVERNOR Peter Obi of Anambra State has called on all Christians to reflect on the mystery of the salvation through Jesus Christ.
In his Christmas message to the people of Anambra...
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Abdulmutallab May Appeal Case, Says Govt Lawyer
UMAR Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 2009 Christmas day alleged underwear bomber of a US jetliner, may be laying the grounds for an eventual appeal of his terrorism case. This is after he had pleaded guilty to the offence.However, the US-based...
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Jonathan Renews Commitment To Serving The People
PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan yesterday restated his government’s commitment to education and peace in a country reeling from terrorist attacks that had claimed hundreds of lives.The president gave the pledge in a Christmas message to the...
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Jos Clerics Preach Peace Following Bomb Threats
CONCERNED over the recent threats to bomb some 21 designated areas in Jos, the Plateau State capital, by unknown hoodlums before December 26, religious leaders voluntarily went on air yesterday to appeal to people of the state to demonstrate love...
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Ex-Envoy Urges AU To End Congo Crisis
NIGERIA’s former Ambassador to China, Ambassador Victor Chibundu has called on the African Union (AU) to nip the Democratic Republic of Congo crisis in the bud. According to him, there has been a lot of publicity in the international and...
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Groups Support Fuel Subsidy Removal, Task FG On Economy
NIGERIANS have been asked to take the opportunity of the raging debate on the removal of oil subsidy to reach a consensus with the government on the urgent need to move the country from its present debilitating wealth sharing structure, to a...
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Nigerians Tasked On Security
BRIEFS
NIGERIANS have been urged to play their own individual roles in the efforts to address security challenges facing the nation as government alone cannot solve all the problems without the cooperation of the citizenry.
The Director General...
READ MORE...NIGERIANS have been urged to play their own individual roles in the efforts to address security challenges facing the nation as government alone cannot solve all the problems without the cooperation of the citizenry.
The Director General...
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‘Gay Marriage Not Christian Marriage’
THE Archdeacon of Enugu Diocese, Venerable Davidson Udodi, has said that Christian marriage is not gay marriage.
Speaking during the wedding ceremony between Adaobi Okoye and Zoltan Ebozue at Our Saviour Church, Diocese of Lagos (Anglican...
READ MORE...Speaking during the wedding ceremony between Adaobi Okoye and Zoltan Ebozue at Our Saviour Church, Diocese of Lagos (Anglican...
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Benue, Taraba Youths Pledge To Uphold Peace
THE dreams of those planning to thwart the existing peace between Benue and Taraba states have been dashed as the youths of Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State have resolved to do everything in their power to ensure lasting peace between...
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Family Of Six Perishes In Jigawa Auto Accident
A FAMILY of six travelling from Maiduguri en-route Jigawa-Kano Road, died yesterday after the car conveying them had a head-on collision with a truck and immediately bust into flames.The accident, which occurred at about 5.30 am, happened about...
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