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Police ordered to arraign suspect detained for one year
The Independent Investigative Panel probing police brutality in Abuja, on Thursday, gave the police a six-day ultimatum to arraign a suspect, Raphael Toona, who has been in detention for about one year. The Chairman of the panel, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd.), ordered that Toona should be arraigned on or before December 23. Justice Galadima gave the order following an application by Toona’s lawyer, N. T. Utasha, urging the panel to order the police to either release the suspect or arraign him in court. “The first complaint (Toona) should be taken to Benue State to be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction on or before December 23, 2020 where his bail should be considered, considering the fact that he has been in detention for more than a year,” Justice Galadima ordered. Too...
CAN: Nigeria almost becoming a failed nation
File Photo The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has condemned the abduction of 333 students of Government Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State. CAN also said that the worsening security situation across the country shows that Nigeria is “almost becoming a failed nation.” The group’s statement by Adebayo Oladeji, Special Assistant (Media and Communications) to the CAN President, described the incident as another tragic chapter in the history of the country. Newsmen reported how 333 schoolboys of the school were abducted on Friday by the gunmen. A terrorist group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for the raid. The federal government said security operatives have already located where the abducted students were taken to and they “would soon be rescued”. CAN expressed its sadne...
Senator Musa: Two killed, 30 abducted, 5,000 homeless in Niger East
Chairman, Senate Services Committee, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, All Progressives Congress, APC, Niger East has raised the alarm that the insecurity situation in his Senatorial District is worsening every day, saying that it has been one week of sleeplessness and horror. Senator Musa has reiterated his call on President Muhammadu Buhari to put the security operatives on their toes to ensure they live up to their responsibilities of protecting the lives of the citizens, adding that if security agencies in the country cannot guarantee the protection of lives and property of the citizens, then Nigeria may be on the precipice of anarchy. According to him, the horrible event in the last one week in Niger State and particularly in Niger East Senatorial District has raised tension and uncertainti...
Mozambique jihadists push masses to Pemba
The population has soared in Pemba, a northern Mozambique port known for its wide bay, but rather than tourists coming for a swim, the newcomers have fled Islamic extremists. In the past few months, boatloads of people with little but the clothes they wear have landed under the palm trees after their homes fell prey to Al-Shabaab gunmen swearing allegiance to the Islamic State group (IS). In October, the violent rebellion entered its fourth year and has reportedly killed more than 2,400 people and displaced half a million, according to the government. Their villages were torched, many men killed and many young women kidnapped. After seizing coastal zones that host natural gas installations, Islamist fighters have begun to push to the inland districts of Cabo Delgado province. The last offi...
Senate summons minister, service chiefs over Kankara kidnapping
The Senate, on Tuesday, invited the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd.), service chiefs and heads of other security agencies to brief it on measure being taken to rescue the abducted students of Government Science School, Kankara Katsina State. This followed a motion by Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina South), who noted that the abduction is coming on the heels of yet to be resolved abduction of 270 girls at Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State in 2014, and abduction of about 100 school girls at Government Girls Science and Technical School, Dapchi, Yobe State in 2018. He expressed concern that like the other incidents of school children abduction that took place in Chibok and Dapchi, if no immediate action was taken to rescue Kankara School boys, their fate...
Wolves want Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City
Manchester City renewed Oleksander Zinchenko until 2024, but his future may not lie at the Etihad… or with a Barca team that took an interest in him months ago. According to the ‘Daily Star’, Wolves will bid for the Ukrainian player in January. Oleksander Zinchenko has always been under the magnifying glass at Manchester City. He was convincing at times as a winger and in the centre of the field. He aroused some interest from FC Barcelona in the summer. The Catalan media considered him the “favourite” for the left-back position, although the economy did not allow him to move. To this was added the fact that Zinchenko had renewed until 2024 with Manchester City. In the meantime, some are trying to take him away from City and from Barca in January. We are talking about Wolverhampton Wanderer...
Vice Chancellor blames cultism in schools on idleness among students
Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, the Vice Chancellor, Alex-Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi, has said that idleness among students leads them into cultism. Nwajiuba said this in an interview with newsmen in his office on Monday. He spoke on preparations for the institution’s fifth convocation and his impending disengagement from office after completing his five-year tenure. He said that the institution had no record of cultism because the students “are too serious” to engage in such an act. “Our students do not have to be dancing inside bushes at night because they begin academic activities from the first week of a every new semester. “We duly concluded the first semester of the 2019 academic session, re-opened on Oct. 2019 and our lecturers were already in classes upon...
Air passengers decry upsurge in fares, seek urgent attention to roads, railway
Nigerians, who travel by air, have decried the “sudden” upsurge in air fares and urged the Federal Government to intervene to avoid poor patronage that could dwindle the fortunes of the aviation industry. Newsmen report that the air fares shot up by about 100 per cent in the last one week, with some airline operators even raising their fares by as much as 120 per cent or more. At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the fare from Abuja to Lagos, which was N35,300 (Economy Class), rose to between N70,000 and N75,000. Newsmen found that Business Class travellers were charged between N100,000 and N120,000, depending on the airline. Our correspondents, who visited other airports across the country, found that the rise in airfares was the same, a situation that forced some passengers to...
NCDC: Many health workers still doubt existence of coronavirus
Oladipo Ogunbode, assistant director, department of prevention programmes and management, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says it is surprising that health workers still doubt the existence of COVID-19. According to newsmen, Ogunbode stated this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at a conference to mark the 2020 health week, themed: “Outbreak of Disease in Nigeria: Are We Ready?” Ogunbode said it is hard to understand how health workers who had come in contact with victims of COVID-19 in the line of duty, still doubted the existence of the virus. “Health workers should create awareness on COVID-19, but many of them still doubt its existence. We must work hard to remove such doubt,” he said. “It’s amazing and inexplicable for medics to doubt the fact that the pandemic was a real...
Governor Fayemi mourns Harry Akande’s demise
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has commiserated with the family of the late business mogul and former Presidential aspirant, Chief Harry Akande, who passed on Saturday, aged 77. In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, the Governor described Akande’s death as an unfortunate and irreparable loss not only to members of his family and the good people of Oyo State but to the nation at large. The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum said the late Akande worked his way to the top, built a solid business empire and became influential across the globe through dint of hard work, brilliance and diligence. Fayemi said the Ibadan-born Billionaire ventured into the Nigerian politics with the intent of using politics as a tool for social and economic change, but could n...
2023: Kogi lawmakers endorse Yahaya Bello for the presidency
Less than one year into his constitutional four-year second tenure mandate as Governor of Kogi State, members of the Kogi State House of Assembly have called on Yahaya Bello to seek a higher office. The 25-member house made the unanimous call at plenary on Wednesday, 2 December, in Lokoja. Bello had on Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N130.5bn for 2021 to the lawmakers. The document was expected to gain attention of the lawmakers when they reconvened Wednesday. They however chose to delve into the uncertain waters of 2023 Presidential politics, asking the governor to throw his hat into the ring. The House in its plenary described Bello as fit for the office in view of his outstanding performances as Governor and in view of the fact that the North Central Zone has also not had the opp...
Cross River by-election: INEC assures transparent, violence free election using technology
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it wil deploy relevant technology to ensure transparent, violence-free and fair election in Saturday’s Cross River North Senatorial and House of Assembly by-elections. Mr Festus Okoye, INECs Commissioner for Information and Voter Education Committee said this on Wednesday in Calabar while speaking on the commission’s preparedness for the polls. He said the successes recorded in Edo and Ondo elections were testimonies to the fact that the commission was improving by every election through the use of modern technology. “We want to surpass our successes in Edo and Ondo. “We are going to conduct a transparent, violence-free and credible election in Cross River North come Saturday. “We are ready for the elections, the Card Readers have b...
