STEPS
Belarus’s forced landing of Lithuania-bound Ryanair plane sparks outrage
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to land on Sunday in Minsk, where a Belarusian opposition activist on board was detained, prompting international condemnation. EU member Lithuania urged the European Union and NATO to respond, Germany called for an immediate explanation and Poland’s prime minister called it a “reprehensible act of state terrorism”. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Belarus’s action was “utterly unacceptable”. The aircraft, flying from Athens to Vilnius, had almost reached Lithuania when it changed direction and was escorted to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, after reports that it had explosives on board, according to an online flight tracker and BelTA state news agency. Belarusian law e...
PDP governors asks President Buhari to summon Police Council meeting
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum has unanimously has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately summon the meeting of the Nigerian Police Council to implement strategies to combat the security challenges facing the nation. The governors, who met in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Monday to further review the State of the nation, particularly, as it concerns the worsening security situation and the country’s collapsing economy said the meeting of the Police Council which comprises Mr President and all State Governors and other critical stakeholders should be called to evolve strategies to present threats to Nigeria as a country, especially with respect to policing Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, who read...
Kaduna in total blackout as workers begin strike
Kaduna State on Sunday was thrown into total blackout ahead of the five-day warning strike directed by the Nigeria Labour Congress to commence from midnight of Sunday in the state. The total blackout followed a warning by the National Union of Electricity Employees, an affiliate of the NLC, directing its workers to join the strike action in Kaduna beginning on Midnight Sunday. But the state government said it won’t bow to the intimidation of the NLC over its planned ‘rightsizing’ of the state workforce. While speaking at a press conference in Kaduna on Saturday, the Commissioner of Local Government Affairs, Malam Jafaru Sani, said it uncovered a plot by the NLC to recruit hoodlums from other states of the federation to cause mayhem under the pretext of embarking on strike. Sani, therefore,...
Governor Obaseki: No record of Indian coronavirus variant in Edo
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Friday said there was no record of Indian COVID-19 variant in the state, as was speculated on social media. The governor stated this in Benin at a news conference to provide an update on COVID-19 response in the state. Mr Obaseki was represented by the Permanent Secretary from the state Ministry of Health, Osamwonyi Irowa. He said the federal government had on April 26, taken precautionary steps by restricting international travel from India, Brazil and Turkey to curtail COVID-19. “We as government have reached out to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) with regards to any Indian variant in Edo and the verified information reveals that the said sample was collected in January. “There is currently no update or report suggestive of any such o...
Myanmar junta imposes martial law in town
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup on February 1, with protests almost daily against military rule across the country and ethnic militias stepping up attacks, overrunning military posts. Myanmar’s junta has declared martial law in a town in Chin State after blaming “armed terrorists” for attacks on a police station and a bank, state media reported, amid an upsurge in fighting between the military and ethnic rebels in border areas. In the face of widespread opposition, the junta has struggled to retain order amid daily protests in cities and fighting in border states since overthrowing elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end tentative steps towards democracy. The unrest in the town of Mindat on Wednesday and Thursday involved about 100 people using homemade guns to attack a police st...
Southern governors meet, urge President Buhari to address Nigerians
Worried by the rising rate of insecurity, Southern Governors, Tuesday, met in Asaba, the Delta State capital and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on the spate of insecurity in the country. The Governors in the meeting which started at about 12 noon and ended about 4:20 pm, urged the Federal Government to convocated a national dialogue as a matter of urgency and insisted on the ban of open grazing across Southern Nigeria The Governors in the 12 point communique read by the Chairman of Southern Governors Forum, Governor Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, “affirmed that the peoples of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples with ...
South-east group hails re-organisation in Nigeria Police Force
The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders has expressed delight over the recent re-organisation in the Nigeria Police Force. The group, an umbrella body of youth organisations in the zone, described the measure as “a step in the right direction”. This is contained in a statement issued by the group’s President General, Goodluck Ibem, in Owerri on Wednesday. It commended the Acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, for his “foresight” in appointing Mr Etim Okon as the Assistant Inspector General in charge of Zone 9. Ibem said that Okon’s appointment could not have come at a better time, considering the rising cases of insecurity in the zone. “We are deeply grateful to the IGP for his foresight in appointing a tested and experienced hand to man the affairs of Zone 9, Umuahia in Abia. ...
Rainstorm destroys houses, properties in Plateau communities
More than 50 houses and other properties worth millions of naira have been destroyed by rainstorm in communities in Qua’an pan Local Government Area of Plateau State. Residents said the rainstorm, which started Sunday night and lasted till the early hours of Monday, was accompanied by a heavy windstorm that blew off roofs of several houses and rendered many families homeless. The Chairman of the council, Hon. Abdulmalik Yusuf Haruna, in a statement signed by his Senior Assistant on Media, Mr. Mathias Yengoet Dajan, said that the management and residents of Quaan-Pan Local Government Area are devastated by the level of destruction. The statement added that the chairman has personally gone round some of the affected structures to ascertain the level of damage and has sympathised with the vic...
Washington denies Iran state media report saying prisoner swap agreed
The United States on Sunday denied a report by Iran’s state television that the arch-foes had reached a prisoner swap deal in exchange for the release of $7 billion frozen Iranian oil funds under U.S. sanctions in other countries. Iranian state television said on Sunday that Tehran would free four Americans accused of spying in exchange for four Iranians held in the United States and the release of $7 billion in frozen Iranian funds. The U.S. government denied that an exchange was in the works. The state TV, quoting an unnamed Iranian official, also said British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be released once Britain had paid off a debt on military equipment owed to Tehran. A British Foreign Office official played down that report. Iran and world powers are holding talks ...
NOA urges all leaders to de-escalate tension, preach peace
File Photo Responding to the spike in violent crimes and insecurity across Nigeria, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has urged political, ethnic and religious leaders to take deliberate steps to de-escalate tensions and promote peace, unity and tolerance among the citizens. In a letter of appeal signed by the Director General of NOA, Dr Garba Abari, the agency said the present situation called for leaders across political, religious, traditional, professional and the social landscape to do all within their powers to arrest the situation to avoid further deterioration. The letter reads in part: ‘At these very challenging times, all the nation and its citizens need are deeper reflection and sobriety in what we do and say, as truly, the forces of disunity and national disintegration are ...
Rebels attack Myanmar army near border, junta knocks back ASEAN plan
Ethnic minority Karen insurgents attacked a Myanmar army outpost near the Thai border on Tuesday in some of the most intense clashes since a military coup nearly three months ago threw the country into crisis. The Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar’s oldest rebel force, said it had captured the army camp on the west bank of the Salween river, which forms the border with Thailand. The Myanmar military later hit back against the insurgents with air strikes, an aid worker in the area said. The fighting took place as the junta, in a setback for diplomatic efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said it would “positively” consider the bloc’s suggestions to end the turmoil in Mynamar but only when stability was restored. The ASEAN leaders said after meeting at the weekend...
Isa Pantami: PDP lambasts APC for ‘supporting terrorism through silence’
The Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives Congress and its leaders of a “conspiratorial silence in the face of the worrisome revelation in which a member of the Federal Executive Council and Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has been accused of affiliation with terrorist groups.” Pantami has been under fire of late over sermons he delivered in the past that allegedly had him sympathising with terrorist organisations – Al-Qaeda and the Taliban – a thing he says he has repented of. He has, however, received the backing of the Presidency which declared that calls for his resignation or sacking are tantamount to cancel culture. The ruling All Progressives Congress is yet to issue a statement on the comments made by the Minister concerning the terr...