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The Police said the introduction of a new Biometric Central Motor Registration (BCMR) is designed to fight terrorism, Kidnapping and car theft in the country. Police force spokesman CSP Frank Mba made this known at a press briefing in Abuja yesterday. He said the registration take effect from Monday next week and would involve the registration processes of vehicles, tricycles and auto-bikes from the analogue to the new system. He argued that the decision informing the introduction of the new process was against the backdrop of contemporary security challenges bordering on terrorism, high incidence of car theft, carjacking, kidnappings and other crimes. Mba said unlike the analogue procedure, the new method operate on smart-cards and portable hand-held receiver and is a specially developed technological means of attaching automobile owner's unique traits and personal data to their vehicles for proper identification and protection purposes. He said the new system is d...

Nigeria and the United States of America, on Thursday, rounded off their regional security cooperation working group meeting in Abuja. The meeting was co-chaired  by the Permanent Secretary, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Martin  Uhomoibhi and  the United States’ Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Wendy Sherman. The Nigerian delegation included officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of the National Security Adviser, Ministry of Defence, Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Police, Department of State Security, National Intelligence Agency, Borno State government and Civil Society Organisations while the United States delegation included officials from the Department of State, Department of Defence, the United States Agency for International Development, and the White House. During the meeting, both countries acknowledged that terrorism posed a threat to Nigeria’s national development and regional stability,...

Al Qaeda threat: Despite the seriousness of the Al Qaeda threat, the apparent targeting of US interests abroad – rather than in the US proper – suggests the group's aspirations have contracted since 9/11. A Bahraini armored personnel vehicle reinforces US Embassy security just outside a gate to the embassy building in Manama, Bahrain, on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013. The US has extended the closure of some of its embassies across the Middle East and Africa through the end of this week, amid fears of an imminent attack by Al Qaeda against Western targets within the region. Arthur Bright is the Europe Editor at The Christian Science Monitor.  He has worked for the Monitor in various capacities since 2004, including as the Online News Editor and a regular contributor to the Monitor's Terrorism & Security blog.  He is also a licensed Massachusetts attorney. CNN reports that 15 of the 22 embassies and consulates that the US closed on Sunday, a normal work day in th...

THE Ogun State  command of the Nigeria Police Force has agreed to deploy over 5,000 policemen to complete the efforts of a detachment of Federal Road Safety Corps members as well as officers and men of the Nigeria’s Security and Civil Defence Corps to provide needed security as the Redeemed Christian Church of God begins its annual convention today. A source close to the church told Vanguard last night that participants who are coming for any of the programmes only need to obey instructions of the officers, some of whom will be drawn fron Lagos State. According to the source, the church on its own has mobi-lised thousands of its workers to maintain law and order in and around the Camp as well as the Lagos-Ibadan Express-way throughout the period of the convention, noting that the Ogun State Command had already established a division in the fast growing city. Asked if the facilities in the Camp would be enough to cater for the needs of huge number of persons expected during t...

Director-General of the SSS, Ekpeyong Ita Investigations into the activities of the co-owner of Amigo Supermarket, Mustapha Fawaz, and three other Lebanese – Abdalah Tahini, Talal Rouda and Khosai Nouridine – arrested in connection with the armoury and Hezbollah terror cell in Bompai, Kano State, have taken an international dimension, according to the State Security Service. Also, preliminary investigations have established a more serious case of terrorism against the Lebanese suspects. These revelations emerged in a counter-affidavit filed by the SSS to oppose a suit before an Abuja Federal High Court, in which the Lebanese are challenging their arrest and detention. The Lebanese joined the SSS, the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice as defendants in the suit in which they demanded N50bn compensation, as well as an order restraining the defendants from extraditing them without following due process.

PHOENIX – The 22-year-old man accused in a deadly Arizona rampage that critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has made his first public statement regarding his role in the shooting: He's not guilty. Jared Loughner entered the plea Monday to federal charges of trying to assassinate Giffords and kill two of her aides. He also faces murder charges in the deaths of a federal judge and another Giffords aide killed in the Tucson shootings, and more charges were expected. The Tucson man had his wrists cuffed to a chain around his waist; eight U.S. marshals kept watch in the packed Phoenix courtroom and gallery above. Investigators have said Loughner was mentally disturbed and acting increasingly erratic in the weeks leading up to the attack on Jan. 8 that killed six and wounded 13. Giffords, a three-term Democratic congresswoman, was shot in the forehead and spent two weeks in a Tucson hospital before she was flown to Houston to begin her rehabilitation. Among the si...