Ransom
Bwa Moute: Gang In Haiti Demanding $17M In Ransom For Kidnapped Missionaries
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: RICHARD PIERRIN / Getty A dire situation is unfolding in Haiti after a group of missionaries was kidnapped over the weekend by a local gang who is now demanding millions of dollars in ransom. The Christian aid group that the gang kidnapped is comprised of 16 Americans and one Canadian, including five children, according to still developing reports. On Tuesday (October 19), Haiti justice minister Liszt Quitel shared the news that the gang, known as “400 Mawozo,” is demanding $1 million for each of the kidnapping victims for a total of $17 million. The group, which is part of Christian Aid Ministries, fell victim to the gang’s plot in a suburb just outside of Port-au-Prince. According to a report from CNN, the group is comprised of seven women, five men, an...
Nigerian lawmakers approve $2.4 bn funds for security, coronavirus vaccines
Nigerian lawmakers on Wednesday approved some 982.7 billion naira ($2.4 billon) additional budget funds to help the government buy COVID-19 vaccines, and equipment for its security forces. Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria is struggling with the economic impact of the pandemic and a slump in crude prices as well as surging violence from criminal gangs and its grinding jihadist insurgency. The approved amount is $216.8 million higher than President Muhammadu Buhari’s request made to the lawmakers in June and is expected to be sourced through international and local borrowing. Most of the funds – around 722 billion naira ($1.8 billion) would go towards the procurement of additional equipment for security forces, Senator Barau Jibrin, chair of the senate appropriation committee, said. Around...
Colonel Umar: Blame President Buhari for separatist agitations
Former Military Administrator of Kaduna State Colonel Abubakar Umar (rtd) has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government for separatist agitations threatening national unity. The current administration, he said, has failed to unite the country. Umar also lambasted the government for what he described as undue attention to threats of separatist movements in contrast to the more daunting threats posed by bandits, kidnappers and insurgents in the North West, some parts of North Central and North East. In a statement on Wednesday titled: ‘Nigeria; A Nation Challenged,‘ the former MILAD said the best way to unite a diverse and fragile nation like Nigeria is through justice, fairness and equity. He stated the current administration has so far exhibited poor skills management of...
Ekiti: Gunmen kidnap four farmers, demand N50 million ransom
Some suspected gunmen have kidnapped four farmers in a farm located in Ekiti, demanding N50 million ransom to secure their release. The Police Command in the state on Tuesday confirmed the kidnapping of the four farmers but denied knowledge of the N50 million ransom. The latest incident was coming barely a week after a traditional ruler, Oba Benjamin Osho, the Eleda of Eda Ile, in Ekiti East Local Government Area, was kidnapped, with his captors demanding N20 million ransom. Sources said the latest victims, the farmers, were kidnapped on Monday evening in Ikosu Farm Settlement in Ikosu-Ekiti, Moba Local Government area. Commenting, Mr Olawumi Ayodeji, Manager of the farm, told newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, that the abductors had made calls, demanding N50 million ransom. When contacted, ...
NUT: Nigerian government not interested in curbing insecurity
The 1st Vice President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Kayode Akosile, has said insecurity is getting worse at schools and other places in the country because the government is not seriously invested in curbing the situation. Akosile said government could as well use the money being embezzled and wasted on other not too important things to combat insecurity in the land. The NUT boss said this while speaking with journalists in Ibadan on Tuesday on the sidelines of a workshop on privatisation and commercialisations of education organised by NUT in partnership with International and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation. He said teachers and students’ minds were no longer at rest while in schools, saying the future of the nation was already in jeopardy. He said everything should be done t...
Provost advocates national confab on education
Provost of the Federal College of Education (Technical), Isu, Ebonyi state, Prof Ruben Okey Okechukwu, has advocated an education conference in the country to discuss the way out of the many challenges confronting Nigeria’s education system. According to the professor, the report of the conference will help in addressing the many challenges that have bedeviled the nation’s education system. He noted that a similar conference convoked immediately after the civil war in 1970 had developed education immensely which led to the introduction of the universal primary education. On the ravaging insecurity plaguing some parts of the North, leading to kidnapping of students in exchange for ransom, he urged government to urgently arrest the ugly trend. Okechukwu, who spoke in Abuja after he was confe...
PDP: Zamfara governor’s reason for defection confirms APC behind insecurity
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) noted that Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle’s statement that he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in order to get the Federal Government to end insecurity in his state is a confirmation that APC and its government are responsible for the banditry, terrorism and kidnapping ravaging that state. According to the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the confession by Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, that he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in order to get the Federal Government to end insecurity in his state, reinforces public stance that the APC and its government are responsible for the banditry, terrorism and kidnapping ravaging that state.” The party believ...
Police arrest 16-year-old girl who ‘faked’ own kidnap
A 16-year-old girl, Abimbola Suluka, has been arrested alongside her boyfriend, Oluwaseun Olajide, by the Ekiti State Police command for allegedly kidnapping herself to raise money to pursue her career in acting as against study of medicine demanded by her mother. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Sunday Abutu in a statement on Saturday said the duo were arrested on Thursday in a hotel in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital where they lodged and demanded N500,000 ransom. Abimbola is alleged to have conspired with her 25-year-old boyfriend and two of his friends to stage the abduction so as to raise money and relocate from the state following her mother’s insistence for her to study medicine. Abutu explained that Abimbola’s sister had gone to the police station to report that her sis...
JUSUN strike: NBA accuses governors of reneging on agreement
Pool Photo The 1st Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), John Aikpokpo-Martins, has said that governors have not fulfilled their agreement with the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, (JUSUN) who are currently on strike. Aikpokpo-Martins, said that as things are now, the governors are holding everybody to ransom. “The agreement was very straightforward. They are supposed to have paid last week upon receiving allocations. But when they received the allocations, they didn’t pay.” he said According to him, the governors are saying that “we should wait for last week of June when they will get another allocation from the federal purse. But the question is: if they entered into an agreement whose implementation was to start this May, what guarantee do we now have that even in that ...
If You Pay Kidnappers Ransom, You Will Go To Jail!
If You Pay Kidnappers Ransom, You Will Go To Jail! An Article By Tony Ogunlowo Nigeria is a funny and strange country to live in and the lawmakers are even stranger making you think whether they’ve lost touch with reality all together: recently the Senate is trying to push a Bill, the Terrorism Prevention(Amendment) Bill 2021, through that threatens to imprison anybody, for up to 15 years, if they pay a kidnappers ransom!. Morally, paying a kidnappers ransom is wrong: it sends out the wrong signals as it not only encourages the kidnappers to abduct more people but encourages more people to become kidnappers because its lucrative. But in a country where there is a breakdown in law and order and there are no specialized police units to rescue abductees, the victims next-of-kin often have no ...
Former Nigerian soldier who trains ESN militants arrested in Abuja
The police have arrested a dismissed army lance corporal allegedly responsible for training and recruiting people into the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the militant arm of the outlawed pro-Biafra group, IPOB, according to a report. He was arrested a few days after a top commander of the terror group, Awurum Eze, was arrested in Aba, Abia State. The group is alleged to have been responsible for killings of security agents and destruction of public properties in the South-east and South-south zones. They have, however, denied the allegations. According to sources, the 32 years old dismissed soldier, whose name was given as Livinus Owalum-Barnabas, was arrested on Sunday, at Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT by men of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT). The e...
Ireland’s health service IT systems shut down by ransomware attack
Ireland’s health service said it was under a ransomware attack on Friday that forced it to shut down its computer systems. A ransomware attack locks users out of their computer systems until they pay a fee to the intruder. There were few details, but the attack was described as significant by Ireland’s Health Service Executive. Motorists line up for fuel at one of the few remaining gas stations that still has fuel in Arlington, Virgina, on May 13, 2021. AFPBiden says oil pipeline back in operation after cyber attack It said it was shutting down all its IT systems to protect them from the attack while it consulted security partners. Covid-19 vaccinations would still go ahead as planned, the agency said. “We apologise for inconvenience caused to patients and to the public and will give furth...
