Jihadists in Niger Republic have killed all the male Christians in Fantio and Dolbel, two towns in the Tillabéri region in the south west. Survivors of the attack, a group of women, with small children and babies fled to the Dori region of Burkina Faso. AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED (ACN), which reported the attacks, quoted the women as saying the terrorists attacked the towns twice, killing the men. The two towns were abandoned by the rest of the inhabitants. In Fantio, the jihadists took a statue of the Virgin Mary, liturgical books and musical instruments and burned them. They then desecrated the Blessed Sacrament by throwing the sacred hosts on the ground and finally setting the church on fire. This is the third parish in this part of Niger that has been abandoned due to terrorist attacks ...
The Federal Government says it has facilitated the use of a tracking device to track every truck loading petroleum product from any of its depots as part of efforts to nip smuggling in the bud and arrest culprits. Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said this at a forum organised by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to gauge the achievements recorded in the oil and gas sector in the last two years. Sylva noted that a lot had been achieved in the industry but that the activities of smugglers had continued to overshadow the successes especially as it concerned fuel subsidy and the quantity of petroleum products consumed in the country. “This is one big question that we try to answer ourselves because when we look at the number of load-outs from our depots every day...
Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari has announced his decision to stop further dialogue with bandits in the state due to their lack of central leadership and structure. Masari made the declaration while visiting the Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Isiaka Oladayo Amao at NAF Headquarters, Abuja, stated that the State Government had made several attempts in the past to engage the bandits but that not much success was recorded because each group of bandits operates independently. ’’The security situation was compounded by the vastness of the Katsina open border with the Niger Republic as well as the huge ungovernable spaces in the State which gives the bandits freedom of movement.” The governor further expressed that the bandits also betrayed the state government in the previous agreements rea...
President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an extraordinary summit of Heads of State and Government of Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. Newsmen report that other sub-regional leaders participating in the summit include the Presidents of Niger Republic, Mohamed Bazoum and Central African Republic, Faustin Touadera. Others are Mahamat Idriss Deby, President of the Transitional Military Council of the Republic of Chad, while Cameroon’s President Paul Bryan, was represented at the meeting. Other participants at the summit include representatives of Mohamed Al-Menfi, Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya, and the Sudanese President. Newsmen report that the leaders would be discussing the growing security threats in Sahel and Lake Chad region, politica...
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the attempted coup in Niger Republic, saying “any illegal effort to depose a democratically elected government is not only despicable, but also unacceptable to democratic governments around the world.” Speaking in a telephone conversation with Mahamadou Issoufou, his counterpart and outgoing President on the situation in Niger Republic, President Buhari according to a statement by his media aide, Garba Shehu warned that “the international community is hostile to the change of government by violent and unconstitutional means.” “It is utterly naive to attempt the removal of an elected government by force. “Military political adventurers should respect the will of the people and respect constitutional order. “I’m particularly concerned about the negati...
Nigeria reached the semi finals of the WAFU U17 Cup Tournament ongoing in Lome, Togo on Tuesday evening after Group B pacesetters Cote d’Ivoire hammered the Black Starlets of Ghana 3-1 at the city’s Stade Municipal. Five-time world champions Nigeria, who lost by the odd goal to the Ivorians on the opening day of the competition and were forced to a 1-1 draw by the Starlets at the weekend, needed a favour from the Ivorians to progress to the knockout stage. And the Ivorians obliged. The Baby Elephants raced into the lead after only nine minutes and consolidated at 2-0 as the match wore on. But the Starlets, themselves two-time champions of the world, pegged back their neighbours to leave Nigeria’s chances on the wire. The Eaglets and their Ghanaian counterparts had both scored through penal...
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, remanded the former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Taskforce Team, Abulrasheed Maina, in prison custody. The remand order came barely 24 hours after Maina who is answering to a 12-count money laundering charge, was arrested at Niger Republic and extradited back to the country by the Interpol. The former pension reform boss jumped bail since September 29 and refused to appear for continuation of his trial. Following his arrest, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Friday, produced him Defendant in court. The anti-graft agency, through its lawyer, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, further applied that he should be remanded in custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service. Mohammed reminded the court that Maina’s re-appearance was sequ...