August 25, 2014

Page 1

Newspaper of the Year

2015: We don’t know where we’re going, says Obasanjo NEWS Page 6

News ‘Three PDP governors for APC’ P4 Sports Ideye: I wanted to score on debut P41 Business 18 firms take N225.3b bonds P25

•Nigeria’s widest circulating newspaper

VOL. 9, NO. 2949 MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014

•www.thenationonlineng.net

TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH

N150.00

•The scene of an accident on the Sagamu-Ore Road...at the weekend

Boko Haram declares ‘Caliphate Republic’ DHQ: Shekau’s claim empty Troops to launch aerial battle

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UST a few days after it captured a police training facility, the insurgent Boko Haram sect has declared an “Islamic Caliphate”. The head of the armed group, Abubakar Shekau, proclaimed an “Islamic caliphate” in Gwoza, Borno State in a video obtained by French news agency AFP yesterday. Gwoza is a big town, which is about one hour thirty minutes by bus to the capital city, Maiduguri. “Thanks to Allah who gave victory to our brothers in Gwoza”, which is now “part of the Islamic Caliphate”, said Shekau in a video of 52 minutes. The video purportedly recorded in Gwoza, shows a footage of prisoners being shot while on the floor, lay in a ditch before assault rifles were aimed at their heads. Besides, fighters are shown storming

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WHERE ARE THE CHIBOK GIRLS KIDNAPPED ON APRIL 15?

From Yusuf Alli and Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja

the town in tanks, firing sporadically. Shekau also lauds the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere.” “We will not leave the city. We came to stay,” said Shekau. The leader of Boko Haram has been labelled a “global terrorist” by the United States and a $7 million price was put on his head. He declared that Gwoza now has “nothing to do with Nigeria”. “By the grace of Allah, we will not leave the town. We have come to stay,” said Shekau, who has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council. The United Nations humanitarian

Furore over INEC’s new polling units By Raymond Mordi, Leke Salaudeen and Ugochukwu Ugoji-Eke, Umuahia

I

T is meant to shorten queues and smoothen elections. But the allocation of the newly created 30,027 polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2015 election is causing a big row. The electoral agency last week announced its plan, which will increase the total number of polling units nationwide to 150,000. The North got 70 per cent of the new units. Southeast Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders cried out yesterday that the region had been shortchanged. A member of Delta PDP, Col. Joseph Achuzia, described INEC’s decision as illogical.

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 4

Gwoza: The troubled town

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WOZA is a Local Government Area of Borno State. Its headquarters is in the town of Gwoza, a border town about 135 kilometres Southeast ofMaiduguri, the state capital. It has an area of 2,883 km and a population of 276,312, according to the 2006 census. The terrain is rocky and hilly. There are 11 wards in the largely farming community split between Muslims and ChrisContinued on page 4

•INEC chair Prof. Jega

FIFA U-20 WOMEN W/CUP FINAL •Map of Borno State showing Gwoza

Germany 1 Nigeria 0

•UK FLIES HOME EBOLA PATIENT P3 •CUSTOMS SEIZES MONKEY MEAT TRUCK P6


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