President Jonathan disowns Maku

• President: I can’t be involved in anti-party activities
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday disowned former Minister Labaran Maku, who claimed his support for dumping the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), saying he cannot be involved in anti-party activities. Maku contested for the governorship candidature in Nasarawa State last year, but lost
The President said he had at no time had any discussion or encourage him to join another party. He said in Lafia, Nasarawa State yesterday that the PDP does not encourage anti-party activities and he would never flout the party’s rules and regulations as the leader of the party, insisting Maku was on his own.
He thanked the crowd that welcomed him at the Lafia Township Stadium for believing in him.
He assured that  the mineral resources in the state would be tapped ‎amid dwindling oil prices and in line with the administration’s policy to diversify the economy, adding that Nasarawa will be one of the areas the central government will want to work with to realise this.
He assured that  the Doma dam will be completed on record time so that they will continue to promote dry season farming.
“What is good for you we will not wait for you to demand before you get what is rightly yours. We want to change the concept that farming is for the poor but that it is for the rich because the farmers in America are millionaires.
Vice President Namadi Sambo said PDP is Nasarawa and Nasarawa is PDP, while soliciting for votes from the people of the state.
Also disowning Maku, Senate President David Mark, who asked the former minister to apologise and retrace his steps,  before he could be accepted back to the party.
He urged the people, “don’t be deceived by ‎any son of yours that says he has been put in another party to run for the governorship. Mr. President is PDP from top to bottom”.
Mark who addressed the students from his official car shortly before the President’s chopper landed in school’s compound, cited the YouWin programme, establishment of universities under this administration as a demonstration of Jonathan’s commitment to youth development‎.
“The emphasis that the current administration is putting on education is in the right direction. I know that most people are complaining of unemployment but the government is generating employment through YOUWIN, youth programmes, SURE-P, these are areas in which government is putting a lot of attention.
Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam assured that the North-Central will vote Jonathan because he has done well.
He said the state made a mistake in 2011 that was why they lost to the opposition but the PDP is poised to get it back.
Former national chairman of PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali said Maku is ungrateful, despite using the platform of the party to rise to stardom, he jumped the ship because of greed and joined APGA.

ASUP withdraws strike notice

 by Friday Olokor, Abuja 

After about five hours meeting with the Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, and members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics has suspended its decision to embark on an indefinite strike, scheduled to commence on Wednesday.The decision, according to the union, was sequel to “fruitful” discussions it had with government and other stakeholders.
Shekarau was said to have ordered the immediate withdrawal of the circular suspending the controversial CONTISS 15 and restoration of union activities in the the Federal Polytechnic, Oko in  Anambra State and the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State.
The Public Relations Officer of ASUP, Mr. Clement Chirman, told journalists on Tuesday after the union’s meeting at the National Assembly that its negotiation team would relay the outcome of the deliberations to the National Executive Council.
The meeting with Shekarau, started by 11am while ASUP ended another meeting with the House of Reps Committee about 7pm on Tuesday.
While calling on ASUP members “to continue to perform their lawful duties,” the chairman said the union and government would continue to dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues.
According to him, the Minister of Education had ordered the immediate withdrawal of the circular suspending the controversial CONTISS 15 and has ordered the restoration of union activities in the the Federal Polytechnic, Oko in  Anambra State and the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State.

-culled from punchng.com

Copenhagen shootings: Police kill 'gunman' after two attacks

The BBC's Malcolm Brabant says police tracked the gunman down using CCTV

 

Continue reading the main story

Police in Copenhagen say they have shot dead a man they believe was behind two deadly attacks in the Danish capital hours earlier.

Police say they killed the man in the Norrebro district after he opened fire on them.
It came after one person was killed and three police officers injured at a free speech debate in a cafe on Saturday.
In the second attack, a Jewish man was killed and two police officers wounded near the city's main synagogue.
Police say video surveillance suggested the same man carried out both attacks. They do not believe any other people were involved.
"We assume that it's the same culprit behind both incidents, and we also assume that the culprit that was shot by the police task force... is the person behind both of these assassinations," Chief Police Inspector Torben Molgaard Jensen told a news conference.
He said police would maintain a high presence in the city.

 

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt: "The Jewish community belong in Denmark"

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said it was "a very sad morning" and described the shootings as "a cynical act of terror against Denmark".
"I am happy and relieved that police have disarmed the alleged perpetrator behind the two shootings," she said in a statement. "I will continue to encourage everyone to follow police instructions and be vigilant."
She later visited the synagogue and said Denmark would do everything to protect its Jewish community.

 

Police quickly sealed off the scene where the suspected gunman was shot in Norrebro

Flowers were left outside the synagogue in Copenhagen on Sunday

Early on Sunday, police said they had been keeping an address under observation in the district of Norrebro, waiting for the occupant to return.
The address, near Norrebro train station, had been identified using information from a taxi driver who dropped the suspect there following the first attack on Saturday.
When the man appeared, he saw the officers, pulled out a gun and opened fire, police said. They returned fire and shot him dead.
A massive manhunt had been launched after the first shooting, which took place during a free speech debate at the Krudttonden cultural centre hosted by controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks.

 

A man attending the event, named by Danish broadcaster DR as film director Finn Norgaard, 55, was killed and three police officers wounded.

Officials said the gunman fled by car, and a black Volkswagen Polo was later found abandoned a short distance from the scene. Police said the gunman then called a taxi to take him home.

At the scene: Malcolm Brabant, BBC News, Copenhagen It was always a case of not if but when. What's surprising is that it has taken this long for Denmark to be scarred by a fatal terror attack.
In September it will be 10 years since the Jyllands Posten newspaper inflamed the Muslim world with the publication of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including one of him with a bomb in his turban.
The country has been perpetually vigilant since 2005, after its embassies in the Middle East were burned and Danish exports threatened.
Kurt Westergaard, the 79-year-old cartoonist who drew the seminal turban caricature, has spent the past decade living under a death fatwa (religious ruling). He narrowly escaped an attempt to kill him at home, and had to lock himself into a panic room when a Somali militant broke into his home in the city of Aarhus.
He continues to live under police protection.

Why Denmark was steeled for attack

Police released photographs showing the alleged attacker wearing a purple balaclava and thick puffer jacket.
Hours later, a gunman opened fire outside a synagogue in Krystalgade street, about 5km from the scene of the first attack, killing a Jewish man and wounding two police officers.
Denmark's Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior named the victim as Dan Uzan, 37. He had been on security duty while a Bar Mitzvah ceremony was taking place inside the synagogue.
French President Francois Hollande said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve would visit the Danish capital on Sunday.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said they had been in touch with their Danish counterparts and were ready to help with the investigation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Jewish people in Europe to migrate to Israel following what he described as a "wave of attacks" on Jews in recent weeks.
"This wave of attacks will continue. I say to the Jews of Europe - Israel is your home," he told a cabinet meeting.

 

 Police warned the public to avoid central Copenhagen as they investigated the shootings

 

 Copenhagen was on high alert as the manhunt continued

 

 Police released this picture of the alleged gunman in the first shooting

Cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has faced death threats over his caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, said he believed he was the intended target of the first attack. He was unhurt.
The French ambassador, Francois Zimeray, was also present during the attack.
A description of the debate at the cafe asked whether artists could "dare" to be blasphemous in the wake of attacks by Islamist gunmen in Paris last month against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
In the French attacks, two gunmen opened fire at Charlie Hebdo's office, shooting dead 12 people. The next day a suspected accomplice of the militants shot dead a policewoman and later took hostages at a Jewish shop, killing four of them.
All three attackers were eventually shot dead by police and security services.

M1 crash: 'West Ham fans travelling to match killed' when coach crashed into broken-down car

• By Anthony Bond

West Ham chairman David Gold and former player Rio Ferdinand are among those to report that the three killed were Hammers fans en-route to their FA Cup tie at West Brom

Tragic: Three men killed following a crash on the M1 motorway yesterday are believed to be West Ham fans

Three men killed after a coach crashed into a broken-down car on the M1 were West Ham fans travelling to the club's FA Cup match with West Brom, it has been reported.
The victims were in a stationary car on the motorway's hard shoulder when it was hit by a coach at 6.45am yesterday.
Three men died and another was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries following the crash between junctions 12 and 13, near Flitwick, Bedfordshire.
The coach driver who was involved in the crash was arrested and is now being quizzed by detectives.
Today, West Ham supporter groups have reported that the three men killed were fans on their way to the West Brom match.
David Gold, chairman of the club, and former West Ham defender Rio Ferdinand are among those to repeat the claim.
However, Bedfordshire Police said it could not confirm the reports.
The force continues to investigate the crash.
There have also been suggestions that Spurs fans will applaud in the third minute when the teams play each other nex Sunday.
One fan appeared to confirm the reports, writing on a Tottenham supporters' Facebook page: "I lost a dear friend today in that car crash on the m1 this morning. Coach driver hit them on hard shoulder."
He later added: "Wasn't even a massive irons fan. Probs his first game in years and years"
The double-decker coach was heading north along the motorway when it smashed into the hatchback car which had stopped on the hard shoulder.
The northbound carriageway was closed for a full collision investigation and diversions were established.
Former England and Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand wrote on Twitter: "Thoughts are with the families of the 3 West Ham fans who lost their lives travelling to WBA yesterday."
Another former Hammer Matthew Etherington added: "Horrendous news that 3 West Ham fans died on the way to the game yesterday. Supporting the team they love, watching the game they love."
Anyone who witnessed the collision is urged to contact Bedfordshire Police on 101. 

-Culled from mirror.co.uk