Kidnapping
Sheikh Gumi: GSC Kagara victims to be released in days
Staff and students kidnapped from GSC Kagara early Wednesday are expected to be released in days, according to a source on the delegation of Kaduna-based cleric Sheikh Ahmed Gumi. Gumi has been on a tour to visit bandit leader Dogo Gide and other top commanders at Dutsen Magaji forest for talks. The source said Niger government, which initially ruled out payment of any ransom to secure freedom of the kidnappees, would enter a dialogue and had sent a strong delegation. Passengers abducted earlier and the students are in good state, the source said. During the visit, Gumi was shown an entire community said to have been razed in a military bombardment and corpses dumped in wells. Gumi and his entourage are back in Minna, after travelling more than seven hours from Dutsen Magaji. Earlier, anot...
Sheikh Gumi: GSC Kagara victims to be released in days
Staff and students kidnapped from GSC Kagara early Wednesday are expected to be released in days, according to a source on the delegation of Kaduna-based cleric Sheikh Ahmed Gumi. Gumi has been on a tour to visit bandit leader Dogo Gide and other top commanders at Dutsen Magaji forest for talks. The source said Niger government, which initially ruled out payment of any ransom to secure freedom of the kidnappees, would enter a dialogue and had sent a strong delegation. Passengers abducted earlier and the students are in good state, the source said. During the visit, Gumi was shown an entire community said to have been razed in a military bombardment and corpses dumped in wells. Gumi and his entourage are back in Minna, after travelling more than seven hours from Dutsen Magaji. Earlier, anot...
NLC: Nigeria’s insecurity, poverty getting out of control
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday held their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, at the Nigerian Airforce Conference Centre, Abuja, where they lamented the precarious state of insecurity and economic woes in the country. According to President of the NLC Ayuba Wabba, hardly does any day passes by without one negative report of citizens either kidnapped or abducted for payment of ransome. Lamenting the situation, Wabba said our beloved country has never been emmeshed in the grips of insecurity turbulence and crisis as we witness today. He said in the past two years or so, we have witnessed an intense resurgence of terrorism, armed banditry, kidnap-for-ransom, militancy and resource conflicts all over the country. According to him, there is also the challenge of criminals ...
Insecurity: Nigerian governemtn to hold nationwide town hall meetings
In view of the security challenges confronting the nation, the Federal Government is set to convene town hall meetings in the six geo-political zones. Government is expected to confer with state chief executives, religious leaders, women and youth groups in a bid to find lasting solutions to the spiralling, multiple security threats in the country. A statement issued by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) said the move was in furtherance of Federal Government’s commitment to address multiple security threats facing Nigeria. It said the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd) convened a meeting of the General Security Appraisal Committee (GSAC) on 11th February, 2021. The meeting, which was attended by the service chiefs and heads of law enforcem...
Anger over arrests in Myanmar at anti-coup protests
Opponents of Myanmar’s military coup sustained mass protests for an eighth straight day on Saturday as continuing arrests of junta critics added to anger over the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Thousands assembled in the business hub, Yangon, while protesters took to the streets of the capital Naypyitaw, the second city Mandalay and other towns a day after the biggest protests so far in the Southeast Asian country. “Stop kidnapping at night,” was among the signs held up by protesters in Yangon in response to arrest raids in recent days. The United Nations human rights office said on Friday more than 350 people, including officials, activists and monks, have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 coup, including some who face criminal charges on “dubious grounds”. Anger in...
DHQ reorganises operations to tackle security challenges
The Defence Headquarters has said it is reorganising operations across theatres toward tackling security challenges in the country. Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, disclosed this while giving update on the operations of the armed forces across the country yesterday in Abuja. Enenche said the recent changes in the leadership of the armed forces would usher in new modus operandi for tackling security challenges in the country. He said the service chiefs on assumption of duty, immediately hit the ground running, by conducting operational visits to the North East. “In line with the re-organisation of the armed forces of Nigeria with the appointment of new service chiefs, the operations of the armed forces are equally being reorganised to tackle security challenge...
How bandits made woman widow barely a month after marriage
A housewife Ramatu Idris of Unguwar Malam Lamu, Tankarau, Dutsen Abba Ward in Zaria Local Government Area (LGA), has narrated how bandits made her a widow barely a month after her marriage with late Yusuf Suleiman. Idris told newsmen, on Thursday that the incident happened on Feb. 4, at about 12.45 p.m., 28 days after her wedding to Suleiman. “There were about seven of them (bandits). They forced themselves into our home holding guns and a stick. “My husband and I went to find out what was happening on hearing noises and shouts for help,but he was shot on the neck in my presence and he died on the spot. Idris, who has been traumatised by the incident, claimed those who killed her husband were the same criminals that raided the residence of Alhaji Abdulaziz Sani, Councilor representing Duts...
Nigeria, UN partner on food availability, safety
To check the growing inequality in food systems in Nigeria and to meet certain components of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Federal Government is partnering with the UN to hold a food systems dialogue. The Nigeria National Food Systems Dialogue (NNFSD) 2021is preparatory to the Food Systems Summit scheduled to hold in September, the National Coordinator of the Dialogue and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Mrs Olusola Idowu said on Thursday. Speaking at a webinar to draw the attention of stakeholders to issues relating to food systems, Idowu said that convening the Food Systems Summit was part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. “The Summit is aimed at launching a bold new action to deliver p...
VP Osinbajo: We must resist all attempts to tear Nigeria apart
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called on Nigerians to resist any attempt to divide the nation saying Nigeria is better as one indivisible entity. He also called for the strengthening of community policing structures which he said will result in improved security situation across the country. Osinbajo who made this known on Tuesday while revalidating his membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ikenne ward one in Ogun state declared “we must resist any attempt to destroy the unity of this country, our people have lived and worked together for decades, even centuries.” He added: “While we must attend to the cries of communities, and the cries of our people for justice, equity and fairness, we can do so within this same union. Ultimately we are stronger together than apar...
PDP asks US, others to prevail on President Buhari to protect Nigerians
Ahead of its proposed conference on security, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on the United States of America and other members of the international community to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive steps to protect Nigerians and curb escalated violence, terrorism and banditry ravaging many parts of the country. The party also tasked President Buhari to respond to a widespread cry for credible elections in the land by making a personal commitment towards an accelerated amendment to the Electoral Act, to among other things, “give statutory force to simultaneous electronic transmission of results and use of card readers in elections.” PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, presented made this known at a crucial meeting with the political officer with the...
Ex-President Obasanjo urges Nigerian youths to make it uncomfortable for old leaders to remain in government
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged youths to mobilise and make it uncomfortable for old leaders to remain in government. He stated this on Sunday during a virtual interview with academic and historian, Toyin Falola. Obasanjo, who was Nigeria’s president between 1999 and 2007 under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party, also apologised to youths, saying his generation had done a lot of wrongs in Nigeria but the youths can change the fortunes of the country by taking over leadership. Many Nigerians have lamented the persistent recycling of leaders since post-independence Nigeria till date as some leaders who ruled Nigeria during the military era have been in charge in the last 21 years since the country returned to democracy in 1999. Responding to a question by a youth during ...
Timi Frank: Sack, appointment of service chiefs late
Silverbird Television Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Tuesday, attributed the rising spate of insecurity in the country to the retention, for far too long, of Service Chiefs who were no longer delivering as expected by President Muhammadu Buhari. Frank who was reacting to what he described as the earlier reluctance and eventual sack of the Service Chiefs, as well as appointment of new ones in a statement in Abuja, lamented that despite a whooping one term and a quarter of Buhari’s administration (about six years), that the administration “has not achieved any decisive victory against Boko Haram, murderous herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers.” “It became apparent early in the life of this regime that the set of Security ...
