Home » The Nation

The Nation

Yoruba Nation: Police arrest, teargas protesters in Lagos

The Ojota venue of the Yoruba Nation rally has turned rowdy as police teargassed and also shot in the air to disperse protesters. Police also sprayed water cannon on the protesters to forestall the breakdown of order. Newsmen observed that more security operatives including men of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Army, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and their vans have been deployed to the venue of the protest. The Police also arrested some protesters at the venue of the rally and were kept in the waiting Black Maria. They also cordoned off the strategic points where the protesters had gathered. Motorists and other road users have also been advised to ply alternative routes to their destinations. Earlier, Odumosu while speaking to journalists, stressed that Lagos State ...

Ex-Senate president urges Nigerian government to review suspension of Twitter’s operations

Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has reacted to Federal Government’s suspension of the operations of the micro blogging and social networking service, Twitter. Newsmen report Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had announced the “indefinite” suspension in a statement on Friday by his spokesman Segun Adeyemi. Reacting, Saraki noted that Twitter has become part of the daily lives of youths and also a source of income and livelihood for many youths. He further called for a review of the suspension. “No sir! This should not be the response from the president of a nation with a vibrant youthful population for whom #Twitter is part of their daily lives and a source of their income and livelihood. This must be reviewed,” Saraki tweeted. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to...

Osun: Five ‘gunmen’ arrested after killing two

Five suspected gunmen have been arrested after they launched an attack on a residence around Arulogun area of Ede in Osun State where they killed two persons. It was gathered about 30 gunmen invaded the Arulogun area to attack a house that belongs to Wakili Olayiwola around 5:00am last Thursday. They were said to have rained bullets on the residence. A resident, who preferred anonymity, said: “Those gunmen got to the house and started to fire bullets on the building for minutes after that they razed the car belonging to the house owner. “We are still in shock over the incident because we don’t know the reason why those gunmen perpetrated such a dastard act.” Our correspondent learnt while the gunmen were trying to raze the building, policemen arrived the scene. The gunmen engaged them in a...

National Assembly members agreed not to be hostile to Prudent Buhari’s government – Senate spokesman

The current 9th National Assembly members all agreed that they will not have an acrimonious relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, unlike the 8th Assembly under Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara. Spokesman of the senate, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, who represents Osun Central disclosed this in an interview published in newsmen on Wednesday while responding to claims that the current national assembly is a rubber-stamp that is always quick to do the bidding of the executive. He said “I don’t know the basis for your question, but what I do know is that at the inception, there was an agreement among the lawmakers that we do not want an acrimonious relationship between the Executive and the Legislature”. “All of us witnessed how such a relationship worked against the interest of...

Zamfara schoolgirls kidnap: President Buhari has failed Nigeria – Wole Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Saturday said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigeria after terrorists abducted hundreds of school girls in Zamfara State. Soyinka spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Ogun award lecture and public presentation of ‘Chronicles of the happiest people on earth,’ the latest book authored by him. According to Soyinka, it is important for all to know that these were abnormal times, but that it seemed to him as times of shirking of responsibilities in key areas. “We cannot permit ourselves to accept the child hostage taking as a way of life, we just can not continue in this fashion, some thing drastic and meaningful has to take place and it has to be collective,” he said. Soyinka emphasised that ...

Niger debunks plan to recruit youths to fight bandits

Niger state government has debunked reports making round in the state that the government is planning to engage youths to fight against banditry in the state. Newsmen learnt that a social media post has been making rounds across the state on Saturday morning that the state government has concluded plans to recruit about 4,000 youths across the 25 local government areas of the state to fight the security challenge in the state. The Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mallam Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji stated this in a statement made available to newsmen in Minna on Saturday. He said that although the state is faced with serious security challenges, the government has no immediate plan to engage the youths in the fight against armed bandits. According...

Lekki shooting: CNN objects to Lagos panel’s invitation

Cable News Network, Inc. (CNN) has protested against its invitation by the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry to appear before it on Saturday, December 12, 2020, (today), over the alleged killing of peaceful #EndSARS protesters by soldiers in October. The news outfit said the panel does not have the jurisdiction to summon its staff to testify before it because they are not in Nigeria. The panel had invited CNN following its two-part report on the Lekki shooting incident. The report had claimed that Nigerian soldiers shot at and killed peaceful #EndSARS protesters on the night of October 20 at the Lekki toll gate, Lagos. According, the objection file by CNN’s Lawyers, Messrs. Olumide Babalola LP and dated 4th December 2020 at the Tribunal on December 9, 2020, stated that the panel is bereft of...

UNIOSUN student commits suicide

A 23-year-old 100 level student of Osun State University, Ikire campus Juba Orisajafor on Tuesday drank poison and died few hours he preached against suicide on his WhatsApp. It was gathered that Orisajafor on Tuesday morning around updated his WhatsApp status, condemning suicide. His post on WhatsApp reads: “Often time I ask myself, Why do people commit suicide? Perhaps because they’ve got no one to encourage, motivate or guide them or because they felt there is no solution to whatever problem they are going through. Perhaps they forgot there’s more to enjoy when there’s life (hope) is not lost”. A source told newsmen that one of the students in the hostel where Orisajafor was living saw him lying unconscious in front of his hostel around 6:30pm after taking a bottle of a sniper. “He was ...

Osun PDP embattled chairman takes over secretariat

The embattled chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) Osun State, Hon Soji Adagunodo, on Friday took over the party secretariat in the Osogbo capital of the state. Newsmen report that an Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun on Tuesday, November 3 reinstated Hon. Soji Adajunodo as the chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP) following a motion Exparte by the Adagunodo’s counsel, Edmund Biriomoni, in suit number HIK/25/2020 filed before Justice Saka Falola sought for seven reliefs from the respondents four respondent including the substantive chairman, Mr Sunday Bisi. Adagunodo in the company of his supporters stormed the party secretariat around 1:30 PM on Friday greeted party members that were inside the premises. Addressing journalists after he took over the secretariat, Hon A...

Nigerian government clarifies position on social media regulation

File Photo The Federal Government says it has no intention of shutting down social media. It said its plan is to regulate social media to be responsible and refrain from being purveyor of fake news and hate speech. The Minister of Imformation and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the clarification on Saturday in Lagos when he inspected the headquarters of The Nation newspaper and TV Continental (TVC) that were attacked during the #EndSARS protest. Newsmen report the minister was accompanied on the inspection by heads of parastatal agencies in his ministry. Speaking at the premises of The Nation, the minister said the Muhammadu Buhari administration has high regards for freedom of the press. He said his recent call for the regulation of the excesses of the social media should not be miscon...

#EndSARS: Oyo veteran journalists condemn attacks on media houses

The League of Veteran Journalists, Oyo State Chapter, has condemned the burning down and destruction of media houses in Lagos, by fifth columnists that infiltrated the ranks of the #EndSars protesters. According to a statement by the Chairman of the League, Mr Banji Ogundele, the burning down of Vintage Press Ltd, publishers of The Nation, was condemnable and unacceptable. He said that the #EndSars protesters respected the Press and courted on them to help publicise their actions to the outside world, noting that the destruction was the work of the fifth columnists that wanted to give the protesters a bad name. Ogundele said that other media houses that were vandalised included TVC Network, Radio Lagos, Eko FM and traffic FM. He described the action as not only dangerous and unacceptable, ...

APC: All Imo North aspirants cleared

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday night declared all the eleven aspirants in the Imo North Senatorial District were cleared to contest the primary. Its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, who spoke with newsmen on telephone, said all the aspirants for Imo North Senatorial district were cleared by the Screening Appeal Committee. He confirmed all of them were eligible for the primary, which held last Thursday. “The truth of the matter is that all the 11 aspirants jostling for the party’s ticket in Imo North Senatorial district were cleared by the Screening Appeal Committee. “It was on the strength of the decision of the appeal panel that informed the statement the party issued on the 1st of September, 2020 clearing all aspirants to contest the primary,” Nab...

  • 1
  • 2