After a lull, terrorists yesterday struck in Sabon-Laye, the Gombe capital, where they exploded a bomb.

Although no life was confirmed lost at press time, the incident caused panic in the state capital and brought business activities to a standstill as shop owners and traders immediately shut their outlets and markets and rushed to their homes.

Nevertheless, the military in Borno State made a breakthrough yesterday as they recovered a register alleged to contain suspected Boko Haram members during a dawn raid in the home of a “commander” of the terrorist group.

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The Boko Haram sect has been a thorn in the flesh of all Nigerians. Many lives and properties have been lost in the course of their influx and the flow of innocent people’s blood has yet to cease. The federal government has indicated that a dialogue with this group would ease their attacks on Nigerians. Nigerian Tribune took the matter to the court of the Nigerian public through a poll. Of the 666 people who participated in the poll, 333 (50 per cent) stood against the opinion, through their votes, while 321 people (48.2 per cent) opined that it would be a reasonable decision. 12 people (1.8 per cent) voted indifferent.

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Nigeria’s government says it is in negotiations with Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Some analysts are skeptical the talks will end the violence blamed on the group in northern Nigeria.

There has been a lot of debate among Nigerians recently about the militant group known as Boko Haram. Are they, or are they not holding peace talks with the government?

On Sunday, the government emphatically said “Yes, they are.” Presidential spokesperson Reuben Abati told state-house reporters negotiations are taking place through “backroom channels,” not at a formal table in an air conditioned office.

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Even at a glance, anyone could see that the unlimited and easy availability of contraceptives in Africa would surely increase infidelity and sexual promiscuity, as sex is presented by this multi-billion dollar project as a casual pleasure sport that can indeed come with no strings ”“ or babies ”“ attached. Think of the exponential spread of HIV and other STDs as men and women with abundant access to contraceptives take up multiple, concurrent sex partners.

And of course there are bound to be inconsistencies and failures in the use of these drugs and devices, so health complications could result; one of which is unintended abortion. Add also other health risks such as cancer, blood clots, etc. Where Europe and America have their well-oiled health care system, a woman in Africa with a contraception-induced blood clot does not have access to 911 or an ambulance or a paramedic. No, she dies.

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Gunmen in Nigeria’s troubled northeast blew up part of a primary school then attacked a Catholic church and police station before officers fought them off, police said on Monday.

Separately, two gunmen riding on motorcycles opened fire on troops at a military checkpoint in the northern city of Kano on Sunday, injuring a soldier, military spokesperson Iweha Ikedichi said.

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In a bid to forestall untoward incident during this weekend’s Eid-el-fitri celebrations marking the end of the Ramadan fast by Muslim faithful, the Federal Government has put all security agencies on red alert to contain any threat to the nation’s security before, during and after the festive period.

The move came on the heels of threat by employees of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to throw the nation into total darkness, following their deadlocked talks with government, as well as fresh plans by members of the Boko Haram sect to unleash mayhem in the nation.

Nigerian Tribune authoritatively learnt in Abuja, on Thursday, that officials of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) had been placed on high security watch nationwide as a result of unfavourable security report at the disposal of the Federal Government that the union might carry out its threat in spite of ongoing negotiations.

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Nigerian troops have killed 20 suspected members of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram in the north-east of the country, the army says.

One government soldier also died in a shootout in the town of Maiduguri.

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Archbishop [John] Onaiyekan pointed out that this attack was unusual in that it came on a Monday; previous attacks on churches have been carried out on Sundays during worship services.

The prelate also noted that the attack was against a Pentecostal church in the middle of Nigeria, not in the far north of the country.

Archbishop Onaiyekan called on the Islamic community to help identify the gunmen, as the town where the attack took place, Okene, is predominantly Muslim.

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Gunmen have opened fire on an evangelical church during a service in central Nigeria, killing at least 19 people in the latest such attack in the country, the military said on Tuesday.

“The attack was at 8:20 pm yesterday night. The attack was from unknown gunmen at the Deeper Life Church,” said Lt. Col. Gabriel Olorunyomi, head of the military’s Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kogi state.

“They were doing their normal Monday evening service. When we went there we discovered the church had been attacked. Instantly we saw 15 people dead, including the pastor,” he explained.

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A suicide bombing in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Damaturu has killed several soldiers, reports say.

According to an eyewitness, the suicide bomber rammed a car into a military vehicle that was part of a convoy.

The attacker’s vehicle was being chased by troops when the bomb went off, a police spokesman said. No group has said it carried out the bombing.

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The religious aspect of the violence, the report says, is reinforced by radical Islamist groups like Boko Haram which, the task force believes, exploits the secular issues, and the revenge killings by Christians and Muslims.

The report states: ”˜The joint delegation believes that the primary causes of the current tension and conflict in Nigeria are not inherently based in religion but rather, rooted in a complex matrix of political, social, ethnic, economic, and legal problems, among which the issue of justice””or the lack of it””looms large as a common factor. Nevertheless, the joint delegation acknowledges that there is a possibility that the current tension and conflict might become subsumed by its religious dimension (especially along geographical ”˜religious fault”“lines’) and so particularly warns against letting this idea””through misperception and simplification”” become a self”“ fulfilling prediction.’

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The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (RABIIT) on 12 July issued a report on their joint commitment to help in resolving the tensions in Nigeria. The report reflects a new Christian-Muslim model of cooperation for peace between religions and further interfaith dialogue.

The report follows the high level inter-religious delegation’s visit to Abuja, Jos and Kaduna, Nigeria, from 22 to 26 May. The visit and report are a response to the inter-communal strife between Christian and Muslims in the country. Last week, around a hundred people lost their lives in the Plateau state alone as a result of the clashes.

“Religion should never be used as a pretext for conflict. We are committed to the situation in Nigeria. We are concerned and anxious for the lives that are lost in the name of religion in Nigeria,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC.

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The Pope spoke of the situation at the end of the general audience, saying he is following the news with “deep concern,” as “acts of terrorism directed especially against Christian faithful continue.”

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An event or ganised in honour of the retiring Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, in Abuja, Tuesday, took a different dimension, after a member of the Board of Trustees, BoT, of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and publisher of Champions Newspaper Ltd, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, urged the Federal Government to hold northern leaders responsible for the increasing spate of violence by the Boko Haram Islamist sect.

Iwuanyanwu, who presided over the presentation of a book entitled Tit-Bits of Advocacy, dedicated to Justice Musdapher by the Imo Law Publishers, in his speech, said: “Boko Haram problem cannot be solved by killing or shooting people. It can only be solved by the leaders in the areas where they operate.

“The massive killings must stop. Nigerians must feel free to travel to various parts of the country without fear. Nigerians must worship their God according to their faith without fear of being killed or bombed in their places of worship.”

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Bishop George Dodo of Zaria, Nigeria, was in the middle of his homily June 17 “when we heard a loud explosion.” A car bomb had just exploded near the Cathedral of Christ the King, where the bishop was celebrating the second Mass of the day.

“The car bomb created a crater two feet deep; all around there was broken glass, rubble and burning cars,” the bishop told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Reuters, the British news agency, reported 10 people were killed at Christ the King.

Bombings also were reported at the Evangelical Church of the Good News in Zaria and at churches in Kaduna. Vatican Radio said June 18 that the total death toll from the Sunday bombings had reached 45 and some 100 people were reported injured, either by the bombings or by reprisal attacks afterward.

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Boko Haram militants have attacked two churches during Sunday services, triggering deadly reprisal attacks.

In the central city of Jos, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a church, wounding at least 50 people.

In a separate attack, gunmen opened fire during a service in Biu in northeastern Borno state, leaving at least one person dead.

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For over 20 hours between Tuesday and yesterday, there was a gun battle in Maiduguri between the Joint Task Force (JTF) and members of the Jama’atu Ahlil Sunnati Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, better known as Boko Haram. Daily Trust reports that the result of the gun duel was devastating because residents said there was “mass casualty” on both sides.

Witnesses said the confrontation, which started on Tuesday with terrifying sound of eight bomb blasts, has left “unforgettable scars on the civilian population” in many settlements in the affected areas.

During the ensuing crisis, many people were reportedly killed, houses, shops and vehicles vandalized and freedom of movement curtailed.

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Speeding up his vehicle, the attacker approached a checkpoint near the church in Bauchi State, which has previously been hit by Islamist group Boko Haram and where tension between Muslims and Christians has led to violence in the past.

“We have a checkpoint not far from the church which prevented the bomber from gaining access to his target,” said state police commissioner Mohammed Ladan.

“So he rammed the car into a security gate and the car exploded, killing him and eight other people,” he added.

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In brutally poor neighborhoods and mansions alike, this city choked by military checkpoints seethes with rumors, paranoia and conspiracy theories. Even academics like to assert a favorite: The homegrown Islamic extremist movement that is terrorizing northern Nigeria is a CIA creation.

Others are convinced that the extremist group known as Boko Haram is a plot by the southern-led Nigerian government to create an eternal crisis in the north.

How else to explain Boko Haram’s transformation from a group of bearded radicals stashing homemade weapons to an organization that has half the country on military alert and U.S. lawmakers warning of threats to American interests?

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Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect yesterday killed four persons. The victims died when a bomb exploded in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

It was learnt that the Boko Haram suspects threw an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) from a moving vehicle, targeting members of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in a patrol vehicle.

The IED, which narrowly missed the JTF men, exploded a few metres away, killing four persons, some of who were in a moving commercial tricycle.

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The premise of [Eliza] Griswold’s book [The 10th Parallel] is that although there is frequent and bloody tension between Christians and Muslims along the 10th Parallel, especially where resources are scarce, there is no ”˜clash of civilizations’. Rather, there is a competition for souls that is strongest among faiths, as Christians fight for Christians and Muslims fight for Muslims. “There is a proliferation of vibrant forms of religious practice. They look pretty kooky from a distance, but as any good Nigerian will tell you, religion is a market place. And it’s up to everybody to get as many people as possible to fill their Churches and Mosques.”

Enlightened religious organisations of both faiths in southern Nigeria are confronting reactionary groups in the north, groups which believe that vaccinations are poisons and that natural disasters are punishments from God. Meanwhile, Anglicanism and Catholicism are being supplanted along the 10th Parallel by flashy Pentecostals, who preach that God is the surest route to material wealth.

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Soldiers in the northern Nigerian city of Kano killed four suspected members of Boko Haram Islamist sect in a raid on their hideout on Sunday, an army spokesman said.

“We carried out an operation today on a terrorists hideout”¦where we killed four of them and arrested many after a prolonged shootout,” Lieutenant Iweha Ikedichi told AFP. Troops from military special Joint Task Force (JTF) had stormed the hideout in the Hotoro Kwari suburb of the city notorious for Boko Haram attacks.

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The leader of Nigeria’s bishops is criticizing the government’s response to the growing threat from radical Islamist groups, saying Christians are increasingly at risk of attack.

Archbishops Ignatius Kaigama, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, along with Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja spoke with Aid to the Church in Need about the plight of Christians in the country, and how the government is handling the situation.

The statement came after at least 21 people were killed and more than 20 others were injured last Sunday in coordinated attacks targeting worship services at a university campus in Kano, and a chapel in Maiduguri belonging to the Church of Christ in Nigeria.

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When a suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed car into the flagship church of one of Nigeria’s largest denominations, angry Christian youth retaliated by burning Muslim shops and killing nearby motorcycle riders.

The February incident, which killed 12 and injured 40 at the Church of Christ in Nigeria’s Jos headquarters, fueled the global debate over whether Nigeria will erupt into a religious civil war. Christmas Day bombings of northern churches by Islamist extremists, which killed 44, also fueled such fears. The headlines haven’t stopped since. On Sunday, gunmen attacked church services in Kano and in Maiduguri, killing at least 21 people, including a pastor preparing for Communion.

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Pioneers, an evangelical mission movement, is reporting that thousands of Christians from Ghana, Nigeria and the Philippines are asking to be trained in the principles of “church-planting movements” (CPMs).

Today, cross-cultural church planting is taking place in regions fraught with poverty and persecution. By necessity, the local church often takes root in its simplest form. In these places, churches are essentially groups of believers gathering in homes, under trees, or cafe back rooms to worship, pray, study the Bible and teach others to do the same. And it is in response to these realities that Pioneers has adopted the “church-planting movements” approach.

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The Primate of the Church of Nigeria has denounced as “satanic” the calls for the impeachment of the President of Nigeria after an Italian construction firm refurbished a church in the president’s home town.

Speaking to reporters last week, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh said the claim put forward by the opposition ACN party that there was an element of corruption in the refurbishment of a church was nonsense.

“The call for the impeachment of the president over the renovation of the church in his town is satanic and it is capable of causing religious bigotry which we don’t want. The ACN should apologise and retract the statement. We call on the National Assembly to disregard the call,” the archbishop said.

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One person was killed and nine others were injured last night after suspected Islamic extremists attacked a TV viewing center in a Christian area of Jos where a crowd had gathered to watch soccer.

At about 10:15 p.m. at the viewing center, one of many such establishments popular in Nigeria for watching soccer matches, the attackers drove past the site and threw an explosive device at hundreds of Christians watching the match, eyewitnesses told Compass.

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Britain’s drift away from its Christian moorings is impacting its ability to support Christians being attacked in other countries, the Archbishop of Nigeria has warned.

Archbishop Nicholas Okoh made the comments during a meeting at the House of Lords on Tuesday night where he gave a report on widespread attacks against churches in Nigeria.

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Prelate of the Methodist Church, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, has described as ”˜careless and unguarded statement’ the comment made by American government that years of neglect and poverty led to the insurgence of Boko Haram sect in Nigeria.

Speaking at the weekend during the launch of a book titled “Women as Teachers and Character Moulders” written by Mrs. Ezinne Elizabeth Abimbola Makinde at Hoare’s Memorial Methodist Cathedral, Yaba, Lagos, the prelate declared the premises on which such a statement was based as poor research that lacks every credibility.

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The Nigerian religious sect Boko Haram had been sporadically attacking police stations and people for years with machetes and sometimes guns to create an Islamic state in its corner of Africa’s largest nation.

Then, in 2010, the group exploded into violence with suicide bombings, car bombs and coordinated assaults, months after an al-Qaeda leader in Algeria disclosed that the terror group had decided to help the Nigerian radicals….

“This new Jihadist nexus in Africa” is a rising danger that the West has yet to fully comprehend,” said Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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