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This is a call to members visitors of the Nigeria Village Square (especially those based in Nigeria) to stand and be counted! As you all know, we are taking a pivotal role in the campaign against British Airways for the untoward way they treated our nationals aboard the BA075 flight from Heathrow London to Lagos on March 27, 2008. We are mobilizing Nigerians everywhere and well-wishers within the international community for this effort to let British Airways act as a responsible corporate citizen of Nigeria - a country in which it operates its business.

On Tuesday, April 15 2008, we made five specific demands on British Airways over this issue and asked that they address these before Wednesday, April 30, 2008. We asked British Airways to:

• Tender a clear and well-worded apology to all passengers affected by their discriminatory and intimidatory conduct aboard flight BA075 on 27 March, 2008 in a Nigerian national newspaper;
• Tender a clear and well-worded written apology and appropriate compensation to Mr Ayodeji Omotade for financial and emotional losses suffered as a result of the conduct of British Airways and its agents on the day;
• Withdraw all adverse statements made to the police about Mr. Ayodeji Omotade over this incident;
• Lift the ban imposed on Mr Ayodeji Omotade, even as he would still retain his right to decide whether or not to fly British Airways in the future, and
• Issue an undertaking that British Airways shall improve its customer care culture and desist from such practices that give the impression that the airline is arrogant, uncaring and discriminatory.

Rather than respond responsibly to these demands, British Airways went to the Nigerian press the day after our ultimatum expired to issue a provocative Statement filled with lies! This Statement was widely carried in the press with the aim of painting the aggrieved customers and Nigerian campaigners in bad light.

On our part, we waited for two weeks for them to make amends; but when they didn’t, on Thursday, May 15, 2005, we declared a national and international boycott of all British Airways goods and services by Nigerians and well-wishers of Nigeria. However, on that day, British Airways invited the police to their Lagos office, which was one of the venues of the peaceful protest launching the boycott. The heavily-armed anti-riot police squadron kept out the protesters, but our representatives still managed to get into the office at No 5 Oyinkan Abayomi Close to see the British Airways Executives and put forward our demands. Despite their promise to look into our complaints and get back to us, British Airways has since kept mute. Our last Press Statement was essentially a rebuttal of their lies and the misconceptions these have generated. As we speak, we are still waiting for them to apologize.

Today, we are escalating the campaign, but we are acutely aware of the fact that we lack an active culture of protest as Nigerians and, of course, that is why all sorts of preventable political and social maladies keep germinating in our nation and in our body politic. But, with your active help, those of us behind this campaign are committed to sailing against the wind! This cat must be belled at some point and that time is now! The BA Campaign is a perfect case to test our national conscience!

To cut a long story short, this message is for Nigerians and Nigerian Village Square members who believe in what we are doing. We are due to launch the Nigerian T-shirt Campaign within the next few weeks. We are counting on you now to begin to show your support by coming out to support the campaign whenever we call you out to do so! We shall be sending you private mails via PMs and calling you on the phone (if we have your number) to get you out there when we need you. We need the numbers out there in Abuja and anywhere BA operates in Nigeria because that is the way to show that we feel what we say we feel as Nigerians over this issue. It is not enough to say you support what we are doing; you have to show presence right there during our protests.

Though the Nigerian T-shirt Campaign will be launched in Abuja, it would be marked nationwide. We would be printing and distributing freely T-shirts that say: “Boycott British Airways Now!” and “Respect Nigerians!” We shall be distributing these to Nigerians and well-wishers of Nigeria who turn up at our protest venues. On the same day in Abuja, we shall be submitting our Petition against British Airways to the National Assembly. We shall be asking them to formally debate the issue on the floor of the Assembly with a declaration that no Nigerian taxpayers’ money should be spent buying BA tickets for government officials whether at the states or national level. We shall be urging them to back this campaign by avoiding a company that flagrantly disrespects our nation and our nationals. It is time they treat BA like a leper!

So, fellow Villagers and well-wishers of Nigeria, stay tuned! We need you! Be there for us! Be there for your people! Be there for Nigeria! We shall be giving you more information about what is required and what you can do.

Note: If you live in Nigeria and would want to be part of the protest on a date yet to be fixed, but certainly soon, please contact us now via BAProtest@nigeriavillagesquare.com or info@respectnigerians.com.

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I am with you 100%. God willing we shall overcome.

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Thx for this protest. The best time to do this is now.

Let them hear that no mater what. Nigerians deserve some respect from whoever.

I am 120% in support.

My tel is 01 763 2113

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=jydewalker;4295062794>Thx for this protest. The best time to do this is now.

Let them hear that no mater what. Nigerians deserve some respect from whoever.

I am 120% in support.

My tel is 01 763 2113

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Thanks Jyde. Can you send an e-mail to either of these e-mail addresses BAProtest@nigeriavillagesquare.com or info@respectnigerians.com. ? Someone will be in touch with you soon.

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=jydewalker;4295062794>Thx for this protest. The best time to do this is now.

Let them hear that no mater what. Nigerians deserve some respect from whoever.

I am 120% in support.

My tel is 01 763 2113

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Thanks Brother,

I will give you a call very soon. And for anyone that wants to be part of this, send emails to the addresses putiing down your phone numbers and you will informed about the activities that would take place.

Thanks for your support.

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=RespectNigerians;4295062794>On our part, we waited for two weeks for them to make amends; but when they didn’t, on Thursday, May 15, 2005, we declared a national and international boycott of all British Airways goods and services by Nigerians and well-wishers of Nigeria

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eeeeehh :D:D:D ...... British Airways dey laugh

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=dele26;4295063028>eeeeehh :D:D:D ...... British Airways dey laugh

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I believe British Airways are able to recognise a typo when they see one, even if you cannot. I am amused that this is all you are able to pick out from the notice, it shows priorities, some of us have them, some don't unfortunately.:D

I notice you have deleted your post accusing Jyde of posting a wrong number. I am wondering why you would try the number since you are not a member of the campaign team?

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=VOR;4295063102>I believe British Airways are able to recognise a typo when they see one, even if you cannot. I am amused that this is all you are able to pick out from the notice, it shows priorities, some of us have them, some don't unfortunately.:D

I notice you have deleted your post accusing Jyde of posting a wrong number. I am wondering why you would try the number since you are not a member of the campaign team?

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Thank you sir,
Respect is earned and not fought for ……. your organisation will only earn my respect and others if you can confront the leadership milking Nigeria dry instead of unnecessarily constituting nuisance to BA.

In spite of the skyrocketing crude oil price poverty is increasing in Nigeria. If una get shame make una go demonstrate and demand for wetin UMY gofment dey do with the oil windfall. :D

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=dele26;4295063168>Thank you sir,
Respect is earned and not fought for ……. your organisation will only earn my respect and others if you can confront the leadership milking Nigeria dry instead of unnecessarily constituting nuisance to BA.

In spite of the skyrocketing crude oil price poverty is increasing in Nigeria. If una get shame make una go demonstrate and demand for wetin UMY gofment dey do with the oil windfall. :D

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Same 'ole same ole song.......we have heard it all before! :biggrin:

I suppose you think you have shame, so what stops you from getting off your behind and doing something about Nigerian leadership, are you not Nigerian? Oh.....you are one of the "behind-the-computer" revolutionaries with "shame" :Dabi? shioooooooo

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=dele26;4295063168>Thank you sir,
Respect is earned and not fought for ……. your organisation will only earn my respect and others if you can confront the leadership milking Nigeria dry instead of unnecessarily constituting nuisance to BA.

In spite of the skyrocketing crude oil price poverty is increasing in Nigeria. If una get shame make una go demonstrate and demand for wetin UMY gofment dey do with the oil windfall. :D

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I feel you broda!
Our national propensity for drama and hypocrisy is really getting out of hand. Our country is on fire and wetin dey our mind is how to
gain cheap press coverage by taking on British airways for ejecting unruly passengers from their planes! Who are we going to turn on next; The British government for making it increasingly difficult to get asylum in Britain , or the Irish government for ending the immensely popular 'maternity tourism' of Nigerians to their country?
Respect Nigeria Coalition, It is hardly rocket science that if we respect ourselves, others will respect us. If we love ourselves we will teach others to love us. Enough of this tomfoolery abeg!
Black Friday at Abuja neighbourhood
By OLUWOLE AKINBOYEWA, Abuja
Monday, June 23, 2008


•FCDA demolition of Toge village structure, Airport road, Abuja on June 13, 2008
Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Kabiru Abubakar, the second in a family of six, cuts the picture of the little angel an average parent would delight in a child. Humble, handsome and promising lad. Until June 13, 2008, when he was fed with a dose of ‘police friendship’, he had always dreamt of writing his primary six first leaving school certificate examination at Toge Primary School, Airport road, Abuja, later this year, pass in flying colours and enroll at the Federal Government College, Gwagwalada.

The 12-year-old had joined the family morning devotion, thanking Allah and asking for protection. A sports lover and supporter of Manchester United football club, Kabiru had prepared his ball, preparatory for the long break at school, situated a few meters away from home.

But as the hands of the clock hung on the wall in his home ticked away approaching the 8a.m school resumption, he was aroused by the unusual noise from the direction of the Abuja airport road at about 7.50 am and as inquisitive as an average child is, he went out to catch a glimpse of what was amiss. The rest was news to him after he was revived in the hospital, nursing a shattered thighbone.

His dream for the day was cut short as three lorry loads of armed-to-the–teeth mobile policemen, had arrived the village in a terminator-commando style, led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), cordoning off the once quiet environment of Toge, fouling the peace and tranquility in their sporadic shootings, leaving behind on their trail, household effects buried under rubbles.

A first-hand visit to the leveled village revealed that the residents were not prepared for the ambush as many were seen scavenging personal effects including television sets, suitcase boxes, wardrobes, children’s tricycles, clothes, cooking utensils, certificates, books and the like from beneath the rubbles of what used to be their homes. Others trapped were abandoned while carpenters and trucks had a field day dismantling the squeezed corrugated iron sheets from broken planks.

Witnesses told the tale of people and animals running for cover in their attempt to avoid being caught in the morning siege. As one of them summed up later, "the situation was akin to the once- ravaged Odi, Zaki Biam and Fela’s kalakuta republic". Presently, Toge remains a ghost town in ruins, its lone government primary school is deserted while the Nigerian flag of the demolished structure of a private nursery school nearby stands in front of what used to be the school’s assembly, flaunted at half-mast on its bamboo pole.

At his Accident & Emergency (A & E) ward bed 11, where Kabiru spoke with this correspondent last Monday, he recounted that he was about leaving for his school, situated at about 500 meters away from home when suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his right thigh, fell and did not know how he got to the hospital bed.

But he was lucky. After the first aid treatment administered on him at the Nigeria Air Force Medical Centre, situated along Bill Clinton Drive, Airport road, Abuja, Kabiru underwent an x-ray at the St. Mary’s Catholic hospital, Gwagwalada, before he was referred to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital for admission. The x-ray revealed that the bullet entered and left through the other side of the thigh not doing much damage to the bone.

"I cannot sleep because I dey fear police make them no come kill me ", he told Daily Sun. The injury was bandaged and the leg strapped to the bed and supported with cotton wool to prevent stress. According to his elder brother Ibrahim looking after him, the boy usually has some nightmare, which has started relaxing.

For Isa Burukuru another resident of Toge, he too had a taste of the bitter pill of the ‘kalashnikof’ assault rifle, but not as much as Kabiru. The young man suffered a swollen right toe, allegedly caused by a warning shot, for daring to assist a dying Ismaila after he was shot. The photographer and video cameraman who snapped the victim and bloody scene, said Ismaila could have survived if he had been allowed the privilege of early assistance, but for the insistence of the commanding Assistant Superintendent of Police, who dared the surging crowd.

Dan Asebe Mohammed was just too lucky. A hot flying bullet flew past his forehead missing him by inches. However, 27-year-old Ismaila Usman was not too lucky. He allegedly disobeyed a ‘keep moving’ instruction of the invading policemen and paid the supreme price. He was shot at close range below the abdomen, for allegedly requesting to salvage his personal effects from his room before the demolition. A shot allegedly fired by one Corporal Sanga Mohammed with Mobile Force tag 211185, snuffed life out of him. A witness said his intestine gorged out and his blood watered the floor as he laid gasping and clutching his stomach.

According to his uncle, Alhaji Usman Isa,with whom the late Ismaila lived, the deceased was rushed to an ACO private hospital which rejected him, because of the absence of a police report. He was also taken to a hospital at Abaji and suffered a similar fate. Ismaila gave up the ghost afterwards from excessive blood loss. His remains were committed to mother earth in Toto, Nassarawa State, on June 14, this year.

The man at the centre of the storm is Alhaji Adamu Salihu, a Kogi State indigene, who said he had lived in Toge since 1999 and who the police accused of hiring thugs to attack them in their legitimate duty of providing safety for the demolition squad of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA). According to him, he and seven others had sworn to a 22-paragraph affidavit at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, on June 9, 2008, seeking an interlocutory injunction, restraining the FCDA from carrying out the demolition exercise after all pleadings made to the delegation of the authority led by the Director, Development Control Yusuf Yahaya, on May 27, 2008 had failed.

Salihu explained that his group as settlers, bought landed property from the Gwari owners and built their houses, after they had been convinced by the then Abacha administration, that Toge village was " a resettlement area and not a squatter slated for demolition at a latter date." He said that the area was "a portion specifically carved out by government to placate the problems encountered by those who were evicted from their land." Salihu however expressed surprise that the FCDA gave notice of demolishing the structures after a similar action in the neighbouring Gosa. He said the villagers were given a week notice to vacate the land hence, the recourse to the court for the protection of the rights of the residents of Toge only.

Another resident of Toge and Chief of Igbirakoto, Adamu Ategba, said some of the strutures at Gosa village were demolished on the suspicion that the newly constructed ones breached the 150 metres setback. He alleged that the Director, Development Control, FCDA, Mr. Yusuf Yahaya, had vowed repeatedly, that Toge village would go because of the reflective corrugated iron sheet, which showed that such structures were new.

Ategba however admitted that government has the sole authority to decide on how best to put its land to good use, but argued that a suitable alternative and time should be provided, stressing that in this dispensation, no alternative has been provided to residents of identified illegal structures. He expressed disappointment that the rains have not been helpful in the sense that property has been lost. While admonishing government to build people’s houses for low income earners, regretted that the recent killing and maiming have only succeeded in reducing the rule of law and human rights advocacy in Nigeria to nothing.

The FCT Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, while flagging off the demolition exercise recently, had noted that some illegal structures had been developed after illegal structures or squatters had been identified and marked for demolition in the territory besides those that were found to have breached the 150 metres setback.

But the court affidavit filed by the plaintiffs restraining the authority from demolishing the structures, Paragraph 9 states thus: "That Toge village is not within the areas considered or described as squatter settlements within the Federal Capital Territory (exhibit A attached hereto shows the areas considered or described as squatter settlements in FCT)". Also, Chapter 10 of the affidavit states: "That the area mentioned to be demolished is Gosa, which is a different district from Toge village"

The Federal Capital Development Authority, Abuja letter reference FCDA/PC/715/4 dated August 11, 2000, sent to the Director, Department of Engineering Services, FCDA, Abuja, copy to all Assistant Directors titled RE: "CLARIFICATION OF SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS" and signed by U. Kalco, Director, Planning and Survey, had listed thirty settlements which did not include Toge as squatter settlements. The considerd squatter areas are Gwagwa, Karimo, Kaimo Jiji, Habunhu, Durumi 1, and 11,111. Jabi 1 and 11, Utako, Jiwa, Dantata and Sawoe site yard, Lagba, Kushigoro, Piwoyi, Aleyita, Sabo Lugbe, Katampe, Kado 1, 11, 111, Jabi 1 and 11, Shagari village, Rupo, Kaburi, Dutun, Ido, Galadimawa village, Dakibiu, Aao villages via Nyanya, Npanpe, Kududuma, Gwarimpa village, Apo and Pyakasa.

The FCT Police Public Relations Officer Ahmed Musa, had said earlier in the week that the command was yet to ascertain the "truism of the incident" at Toge, adding that the leader of the police demolition squad the Divisional Police Officer in charge OF Toge would be summoned to clarify the allegation.
At the outbreak of the incident, the police at its Lugbe Divisional headquarters had said that the FCT Development Control department had arrested "the man who hired the thugs" and the police had detained him overnight "for safekeeping".

Also, the Deputy Director, Building Inspection of the FCT Development Control, Mr. Ali Obadiah had denied knowledge of police shooting in the area but alleged that some residents protested the police occupation and threw stones hence, they were tear- gassed.
During the week, the affected residents had pursued their grievances beyond the courts. They have protested to a group of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and human rights. Reports say the residents have presented vivid pictures including a video recording of the police occupation, which captured alleged battery of some of the residents.