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Bandits kidnap village head, wives, others in Katsina
Bandits on Monday night kidnapped the village head of Kaigar Malamai, Kabir Muhammed Ajiya, his two wives and 14 other peasant farmers in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina state. The bandits were said to have also ransacked the entire village, injuring six other persons and rustled unspecified cows in the village. A survivor of the attack, Umar Abdulsalam, who spoke to newsmen in a telephone interview on Tuesday, said the villagers had relocated to Dan-Musa town and other nearby villages in the local government. Newsmen report that bandits had earlier kidnapped 80 pupils of Hizburrahim Islamiyya School in Mahuta village of Dandume Local Government Area of the state but were rescued by a team of security operatives. He said, “yesterday (Monday) at about 9pm some armed Fulani people r...
Official: Amotekun corps never killed anybody in Ibadan
The Commandant of Oyo State Security Network, codenamed Amotekun Corps, Col Olayinka Olayanju (retd), has dismissed the media report that operatives of the agency opened gunfire on some residents of Ibadan, killed two and injured many. He confirmed that there was a crisis around Born Photo and Isale Osi area, where the men of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) faction of late Dr Frederick Fasehun, was trying to deal with some hoodlums. According to him, the operatives of Amotekun Corps were invited and its operatives went to the scene. The personnel of the agency that went to the scene, he said were returning from an operation, where a Lebanese man was rescued from his abductors on December 15. The incident reportedly occurred at Asaka area of Ibadan. But two persons and many other people, a...
Gunmen kill seven, burn 13 houses in Kaduna community
Seven people have been killed by gunmen in Gora Gan community, Zangon-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna state. One person was also injured, while 13 houses and two shops were burnt by the bandits. The incident occurred on Thursday night when the gunmen invaded the community and opened fire on residents. It was learnt that the bandits surrounded the community and shot sporadically as residents scampered to safety. The Kaduna state commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan confirmed the incident in a statement on Friday in Kaduna. “The security agencies carrying out internal security operations in parts of southern Kaduna State have reported that Gora Gan community in Zangon Kataf Local Government came under attack on Thursday night”, Aruwan said. According t...
NIMC insists on deadline for linking of NIN to mobile numbers
File Photo Despite criticisms from many Nigerians of the two-week ultimatum for the registration and linking of National Identity Number (NIN) to mobile numbers, the federal government has insisted on the deadline. The director-general of the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC), Aliyu Abubakar, in an interview with newsmen on Friday said there was no extension for the announced deadline. “Right now, the way it is, there is no extension. We should not be complaining, rather we should see how it can be done,” he said. “It is until after 10 to 12 days then we will see how far it has gone before we beg the government for anything.” When the agency issued a two-week ultimatum for the enrolment, Nigerians took to social media platforms to kick against such a deadline. “In the whole o...
Families of kidnapped Katsina schoolboys fear time running out
Families of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be brainwashed or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the Islamist group – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – was responsible for last week’s raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. “They will radicalise our children if the government does not act fast to help us rescue them,” said trader Shuaibu Kankara, crying as he spoke from home. His 13-year-old son Annas was among those abducted from the Government Science school on...
Ghanaian fisherman sentenced for snatching ballot box
A 39-year-old fisherman has been sentenced to three months imprisonment for interfering in the just-ended elections at the Sene West constituency in the Bono East region. Christain Nukpeta who a resident of Tato Bator is reported to have snatched a Parliamentary ballot box at one of the polling stations in the area when the counting process was ongoing. He was subsequently pursued by some security personnel and arrested. But the retrieved ballot box was without the seal of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Appearing before the Techiman Circuit Court presided over by Justice Alexander Graham, the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a fine of GH₵3, 600 and in default, serve a six months imprisonment term. In addition, the 39-year-old has been disqualified from voting for the next fi...
DPR shuts down seven filling stations in Rivers
File Photo The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says it has closed seven Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) retail outlets in Rivers for operating without valid licences. Bassey Nkanga, Zonal Operations Controller of the agency, made the disclosure during a meeting with Petroleum Products Marketers Association and Petrol Tankers Drivers Union (PTD) on Friday in Port Harcourt. Mr. Nkanga said the enforcement of safety requirements/sanction against violators became necessary to support effective regulation in the downstream sector. “We are in a very peculiar season, the harmattan season when fire incidents usually occur at filling stations. This challenge had, in most cases, occurred as a result of avoidable mistakes, hence, the need to step up safety consciousness amongst stakeholders in ...
Angry mob set three armed robbers ablaze in Delta
Three suspected armed robbers were set ablaze by an angry mob early Tuesday morning, along Okumagba Avenue in the Warri South council area of Delta state. Newsmen learnt that two of the suspects were burnt at Emebiren Junction, close to the popular Robinson Plaza, while the other one was lynched at Eburu Junction. According to reports, the hoodlums were members of a gang, whose numbers could not be ascertained. A witness who spoke on condition of anonymity claimed that they started the robbery operation from about 1 am in an unknown vehicle. A chemist, a fish farm, and a household, all within the Okumagba Avenue axis, were said to have been attacked by the hoodlums, who carted away an undisclosed amount of money and mobile phones. Other onlookers claimed they attempted to rob some female t...
Governor Fayemi hails Ooni on fifth coronation anniversary
The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, has congratulated the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, on his fifth coronation anniversary. The Governor said the foremost traditional ruler has been making very significant impact in the development of Yoruba land in particular and Nigeria in general since his ascension to the exalted throne. Fayemi, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, hailed the Ooni for using his position to promote peace among the various ethnic nationalities in the country as well as working with relevant stakeholders and institutions to advance the socio- economic development of the people. Describing Ooni Ogunwusi as a vibrant, visionary and progressive monarch, the Governor noted that the Arole Oodua has always been in the forefr...
Lagos by-election: Assemblyman advises INEC to improve on voter registration
Rotimi Abiru, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, has advised INEC to improve on the voter registration exercise conducted in the country. Abiru, representing Shomolu Constituency 2, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen after he had voted at his Gbagada Ward, G PU030 during Saturday’s by-election. He said since the law permitted citizens that had attained 18 years to vote, then they would be disenfranchised if the exercise was conducted only every four years. The Assemblyman said the commission should conduct voter registration every year instead of the four years exercise to allow citizens that had attained voting age to vote. “INEC should step up the game in the area of voter registration. The process should be improved upon as it should not be a four-year periodic exe...
Senate threatens labour ministers over absence at hearing
The Senate Committee on Local Content has threatened to sanction the Ministers of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige and Festus Keyamo, over their failure to appear at an investigative hearing on diving operations in the oil and gas industry. It also threatened to sanction the managing directors of international oil companies (IOCs) in Nigeria for the same reason. The IOCs MDs include ExxonMobil, Total and Chevron. The chairman of the committee, Teslim Folarin, said this at the hearing on Thursday after they all failed to show up for the event which was meant to review the challenges experienced by diving operators in the sector. The invitation followed a debate on a motion on the urgent need to ensure strict compliance with statutory regulations and provisions on Nigerian diving sector. P...
U.S. warns Pacific islands about Chinese bid for undersea cable project
The United States has warned Pacific island nations about security threats posed by a Chinese company’s cut-price bid to build an undersea internet cable, two sources told Reuters, part of an international development project in the region. Huawei Marine, which was recently divested from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and is now majority-owned by another Chinese firm, submitted bids along with French-headquartered Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), part of Finland’s Nokia, and Japan’s NEC, for the $72.6 million project backed by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the sources with direct knowledge of the project details said. The project is designed to improve communications to the island nations of Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and Kiribati. Washington sent a diploma...