A suicide bomber, Thursday, blew himself up at a crowded bus station in Biu, in Borno state, on Thursday, leading to 18 deaths, AFP reports. However, another bomber was shot dead by soldiers before he could detonate his explosives. “At least 18 people, including three women, died… and several others were injured,” Babagana Kyari, a civilian vigilante told AFP. The attack happened after two men arrived the Tashar Gandu motor park in the town, before one detonated his explosives among passengers and vendors, witnesses said. The two men in the latest attack pretended to be traders leaving Biu after business…
Author: Wale Adebayo
Ahead of Nigeria’s elections which were postponed to March 28 and April 11 from February 14 and 28 over security concerns, the United States has alerted its citizens of the risks of traveling within Nigeria between now and May 25. “We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Nigeria enroll in the Department of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. If you do not have internet access, enroll directly with the…
President Goodluck Jonathan, today, visited Mubi in Adamawa State, more than three months after Nigerian troops recaptured the town from the Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. He also met with the Emir of Mubi, Isa Ahamadu, and the people of the area. Security sources told Premium Times that from Mubi, Jonathan was to travel to Baga in neighbouring Borno State. Military, last week reclaimed the town after Boko Haram militants overran it, killing hundreds and displacing thousands. “Of course the president will be going to Baga today but the trip is not being handled by us here. I believe it…
The Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday admitted that military rule was dictatorship but said he is now a converted democrat. “Let me say without sounding defensive that dictatorship was military rule, though some are less dictatorial than others,” he said in a speech at the Chatham House international affairs institute in London, which was streamed live via the institute’s website. “I take responsibility for whatever happened under my watch. I cannot change the past but I can change the present and the future. “So, before you is a former military ruler and a…
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has condemned the latest bombings in Yobe and Kano States, and called for greater vigilance and new strategies in dealing with the insurgents. A statement signed by the Director of APC Presidential Campaign Organization, Mallam Garba Shehu, quoted Buhari as regretting that the latest blasts came on the eve of the first anniversary of the Buni Yadi terror attack, where several students of a Federal Government College were killed in their sleep. While regretting the frequency at which terrorists destroyed lives of innocent people, the statement said that a…
The Deputy Governor of Borno, Alhaji Zannah Mustapha, on Wednesday, reiterated the state government’s commitment to empower persons with disabilities so as to keep them away from begging. Mustapha said this during the distribution of food items to 300 persons with disabilities, organised by Hajiya Nana Shettima SWOT Foundation in Maiduguri. The Foundation was the pet project of the Borno governor’s wife, Hajiya Nana Shettima. The deputy governor commended Shettima for the various support she had given to widows, orphans and Tsangaya (Islamic education) pupils in the state. He said that the state government was determined to ensure that all…
The Police, on Wednesday, arraigned Sulaiman Daniel, 18, of Kunchi Kawo, Abuja, in a Grade 1 Area Court, Kado, Abuja for misappropriation of fund. The prosecutor, Insp. Simon Ibrahim, told the court that Joyce Ekulaman, canteen proprietor, of Utako, Abuja, reported the matter at Utako Police Station, Abuja, on Feb. 11. He said the accused converted N15,000 paid into his account meant for his employee to his personal use. “The accused, who served food at the canteen, also stole N40,000 belonging to the employee”, the prosecutor added. The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 309 of the Penal Code. The…
Six suspected members of the Kalakato sect were arrested on Wednesday by the Kaduna State Police Command, after their hideout at Farakwai Village along the ever busy Kaduna-Zaria road, was raided. Farakwai Village is about 40km away from the Kaduna metropolis. The suspected terrorists are presently in detention at the police command’s headquarters, Kaduna. The Command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Abdullahi Zubairu, said the six were alleged to be involved in human trafficking, robbery and possession of sophisticated weapons. He said the case was reported to the command this month, explaining that following a tip-off, policemen raided the hideout, where…
A former Deputy Comptroller in charge of Ogwashi-Uku Prison in Delta State, DCP Diete Wure Wisdom and a Senior Inspector of Prison, Ayamede Peter, have each been sentenced to three years imprisonment for stealing 27, 200 litres of automotive gas oil (AGO) stored in exhibit trucks, left in the custody of the prison service. They were sentenced to prison by Justice C. O Ogisi of Delta State High Court, Sapele, on Wednesday. The duo were prosecuted on a 4-count charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on the strength of evidence that they conspired to sell products in…
The Ekiti State chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, has challenged Governor Ayodele Fayose to explain to Nigerians why he imported men in Army uniform, suspected to be thugs, into his country home in Afao-Ekiti on Tuesday night. The opposition party, which said the governor’s action might be in furtherance of his insistence that soldiers must be deployed to rig the forthcoming general elections, also challenged him to explain the roles of the young men in Ekiti State. A statement by the state Publicity Secretary of APC, Taiwo Olatubosun, on Wednesday, said Nigerians ought to know the reason behind the stealthy…
The Senate on Wednesday, failed to conduct the screening and confirmation of eight ministerial nominees, shifting the exercise till next Tuesday. The postponement was announced two hours after all the ministerial nominees, including Senators Musiliu Obanikoro, Patricia Akwashiki and Joel Danlami Ikenya, among others, were already in the senate wing of the National Assembly premises, waiting to be called upon for the screening and confirmation exercise. One man, whose screening might not be an entirely smooth scale, despite being a former senator, is Mr. Obanikoro, whom opposition to his nomination by President Goodluck Jonathan, is gathering momentum in the red chamber. This much was…
The Presidency on Wednesday denied reports that the Federal Government had so far spent about $32 billion (N6.5 trillion) on the counter-insurgency operation currently ongoing in the northeastern part of the country. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, debunked the report at a media briefing in Abuja, describing the claim as “falsehood and outlandish assertion”. Okupe, however, failed to disclose the actual amount spent by the Goodluck Jonathan administration on the war against insurgency. The All Progressives Congress had accused the PDP-led federal government of spending about $32 billion in the fight against…
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as unrealistic, saying it is meant to deceive and misdirect the electorate. The PDP argued that APC’s promise to pay N5, 000 monthly stipend each to 25 million poor Nigerians, which would amount to N125 billion monthly and N1.5 trillion every year, cannot be achieved nor sustained, given the poor state of the nation’s economy and dwindling oil revenue. “What is baffling is that the APC knows fully well that this is not only unrealistic but also impracticable in a nation with an estimated budget…
Chief Great Ogboru, the candidate of Labour Party for the April 11 governorship election in Delta, on Wednesday urged that soldiers should not be deployed for the 2015 general elections. Ogboru, who spoke with newsmen in Lagos, said that deployment of soldiers for elections could take away the civility of the process. “We shouldn’t deploy soldiers”, the governorship candidate told newsmen. He also spoke on the preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the elections. Ogboru said that INEC should have test-run the card readers to be used for accreditation during the elections, before deploying them in the…
The campaign organization for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election has reportedly paid out the sum of $20,000 to hire protesters in London ahead of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari’s speaking engagement at Chatham House, Thursday. According to an internal memo, a copy of which was seen by our correspondent on PREMIUM TIMES, the said sum would be spent on mobilising the crowd, providing refreshment and defraying other logistics. The memo, which originated from the campaign’s Assistant Director, Civil Society and Support Groups (Diaspora), Peter Mozie and addressed to Prof. Nick Eze, Director, Civil Society and Support…
The South-South Youth Students Organisation, SSYSO, the umbrella body of all former and present Students Union Government presidents and students in the South-South region, has backed the ambition of Dr. Dakuku Peterside, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State. The organisation noted that with Peterside, the future of youths in Rivers State was assured. Speaking when they paid a solidarity visit to the Greater Together Campaign office of Mr. Peterside in Port Harcourt yesterday, the group’s leader, Tonye Tom-George, called on South-South students at home and abroad to support the APC candidate, who, he said, has…
The Ogun state chapter of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organisation has vowed to challenge the state of mind and physical health of the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in court. The Peoples Democratic Party has insisted that Mr. Buhari is ill and suffering from a terminal disease. The campaign asked the leadership of the APC to stop playing politics with the health status of its presidential candidate and come out clean on Mr. Buhari. In a statement signed by its director of media and publicity, Steve Oliyide, the campaign said the APC should not…
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has accused the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government of destroying the nation’s economy. Speaking to a coalition of women from across the 18 local government areas of the state, led by Evelyn Igbafe, who paid him a solidarity visit, Tuesday, the governor said, “PDP has mismanaged the economy. You can all see that you need about N220 now to buy $1. When PDP took over power in 1999, $1 was between N60 and N65. “They have destroyed the economy. After 16 years PDP cannot give light to Edo people and upon the darkness, they…
The All Progressives Congress, APC, has described as untenable and an after-thought, the explanation by President Goodluck Jonathan on why the rigging audio tape on Ekiti governorship election has not been investigated, saying the president’s waffling on the issue shows he may have something to hide. In a statement issued in London on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said the President erred when he stated that the rigging audio tape had not been investigated because the army captain who leaked it had not come forward to authenticate it. It wondered whether the president would have…
FILE PHOTO The Nigerian Navy, Central Naval Command, Bayelsa State, has arrested 13 suspected oil thieves and intercepted vessel laden with stolen crude oil. The suspects and the illegal vessel, christened MT REDEMPTION, were intercepted at Middleton and Peddington area of Brass, Bayelsa State, off the Atlantic Ocean. The suspects were paraded before journalists at the command’s Forward Operating Base (FOB Formoso) at Egwema, Brass, Bayelsa State, on Wednesday. The suspects and the vessel with its content, were subsequently handed over to operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for further investigation and prosecution. Narrating how the suspects…