Reactions have continued to trail the comments made by the immediate past governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should conduct the 2015 polls in three North-East states currently under emergency rule only if the security situation improves there. The governor of one of the affected states, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, in his reaction declared that the former governor had lost his mental balance by the desire to satisfy his new paymasters. Nyako made the reaction through his Director of Press and Public Affairs Malam Ahmed Sajo at Government House, in Yola, yesterday.…
Author: Wale Adebayo
A faction of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State known to be loyalists of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Monday said it has set up a reconciliation committee to meet with the other factions of the party in the state and submit its report to the leadership in one week time. This was made known by a former state chairman of the party, Joju Fadairo, who led the team, known as mainstream PDP, at a press conference held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. Fadairo also debunked the insinuation that his group had defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress,…
Coming on the heels of yesterday’s bomb blast in Nyanya, which left no fewer than 71 persons dead and over 124 others injured, the All Progressives Congress, APC governors reviewed the security situation in the country and concluded that the Federal Government had run out of ideas on how best to checkmate terrorists and other criminals. The governors, under the aegis of Progressive Governors Forum, PGF, while commiserating with families of victims of the blast, regretted that the death of innocent Nigerians had become a daily occurrence with little respite. The statement, which was released by the Chairman of the…
Scores of girls have been abducted in an attack on a school in North-East Nigeria, parents say. Gunmen reportedly arrived at the school in Chibok, Borno State, late last night, and ordered the hostel’s teenage residents on to four lorries. Parents told the BBC’s Hausa service that at least 200 girls had been abducted. The attackers are thought to be from the Islamist group, Boko Haram. On Monday, bombings blamed on the group killed more than 70 people in Abuja. Speaking after the latest attack, a student, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC that she had…
The Niger Government said it uncovered 7,000 ghost students on the payroll of its scholarship board. The Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Dr Mohammad Nuhu, who made this known to newsmen in Minna on Monday, said the discoveries were made during a verification exercise. Nuhu said the discovery had saved government over N125 million, noting that the achievement was as a result of the introduction of a scratch card issued to all scholarship beneficiaries. He, however, wondered how students were able to beat the security of various universities to fill registers made for eligible scholarship’s beneficiaries on government request with fictitious names.…
The Delta State Police Command on Tuesday arraigned five persons allegedly involved in the abduction of Ebikeme Clark, son of Ijaw national leader, Chief Edwin Clark. The accused were arraigned on a two count charge of conspiracy and kidnap. However, their plea was not taken as the case was adjourned to May 27 for further hearing. The five were remanded at Ogwashi-Ukwu prison.
A Pakistani man was arrested on suspicion of cannibalism when the head of a newborn baby was found at his home — three years after he was jailed for the same offence. Police raided the house in a remote village in Punjab province after neighbours complained of a foul smell and found the head of the two-day-old baby inside. Householder Mohammad Arif admitted eating the child after his brother stole the body from a graveyard in Darya Khan village, around 300 kilometres south of Islamabad, officers said.Arif and his brother Farman Ali were arrested for eating human corpses in the…
FROM LEFT: OLUBADAN OF IBADANLAND, OBA SAMUEL ODULANA; GREETED BY MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DELEGATION, MINISTER OF STATE FOR FCT, OLOYE JUMOKE AKINJIDE; MINISTER OF INFORMATION, MR LABARAN MAKU AND MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, DR AKINWUMI ADESINA, AT THE CENTENARY Birthday THANKSGIVING SERVICE OF THE OLUBADAN AT THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETER CHURCH, AREMO IN Ibadan ON MONDAY (14/4/14). President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday advised geo-political zones in the country to emulate the religious tolerance in states in the South-West. He said that if people in the South-West could live together inspite of the population of Muslims and Christians in…
Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State said yesterday that residents will not welcome President Goodluck Jonathan today to the state. The governor, who spoke in Kano, ahead of the president’s visit to the state, where he is expected to receive the former governor of the state – Malam Ibrahim Shekarau – to the Peoples Democratic Party fold, said Jonathan has done nothing to improve the peoples’ standard of living since he assumed office. Kwankwaso said: “I regret voting for Jonathan in 2011. He has not done anything to move the nation forward. “Only a few people are enjoying in…
The stay of execution application sought by Chief Victor Umeh of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was on Monday dismissed by an Abuja Federal High Court. It would be recalled that the court had earlier this year sacked the Umeh-led exco and dissolved the APGA faction led by him. Consequently Umeh appealed against the decision and urged the court to stay the execution of the judgment pending his appeal. But ruling in the application, Justice Abdul Kafarati, dismissed the application. Kafarati had in the judgment declared Chief Maxi Okwu, Chairman of a rival faction of the party elected on April…
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has distanced the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, from fake Facebook accounts being operated by some scammers in the country. This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja and signed by the Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen Chris Olukolade. “We wish to therefore dissociate the CDS from the said accounts and call on the general public not to patronise them. “The DHQ views this as a criminal act and effort is being made to track and bring the perpetrators to book”, Olukolade said. According to the Defence spokesperson, the…
SOME BUSES AFFECTED BY explosion AT NYANYA MOTOR PARK IN Abuja ON MONDAY (14/4/14). The deadly blast in Nyanya, a suburb in Abuja early Monday morning that claimed 71 lives and left 124 with various degree of injuries, has been described by the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan as an unwarranted act of wickedness to fellow Nigerians. This is contained in a statement signed by her Media Assistant, Mrs Ayo Adewuyi, and made available to newsmen in Abuja. According to the statement, Mrs. Jonathan said the killing of innocent souls is a crime against humanity and must be condemned by all…
Delegates at the ongoing national conference yesterday, condemned in strong terms, bomb explosions at Nyanya bus terminal in Abuja, the nation’s capital, by members of the Boko Haram sect in which about 100 people were feared dead and several others injured. The delegates, who observed one minute silence for the victims, also condemned past and similar mayhem in other parts of the country. They therefore called on the Federal Government and stakeholders to, as a matter of urgency, implement all actionable recommendations made to it by various committees such as the Gaji Galtimari, Kabiru T. Turaki and Borno/Yobe Elders among…
The national headquarters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Wadata Plaza in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, was last night at about 8:15pm gutted by fire. A section of the building, which serves as the party’s press centre, was completely razed in the inferno. Confirming the incident, PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisah Metuh, who earlier in the day had accused the main opposition party, All Progressives Congress, APC, of being behind the deadly blasts that rocked Nyanya, an Abuja suburb on Monday morning, ruled out any form of sabotage in the fire incident. According to him, the fire was…
The United States on Monday condemned a bomb attack on a packed bus station in Nigeria which killed 71 people, and called for a full investigation. “We are outraged by this senseless act of violence against innocent civilians,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, also condemning a series of attacks on three villages in Borno State over the weekend. The bomb, which also injured 124 people, rocked the Nyanya station on Abuja’s southern outskirts as it was filled with morning commuters, leaving body parts scattered across the terminal and destroying dozens of vehicles. President Goodluck Jonathan blamed Boko Haram…
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said it seized illicit drugs valued at N240 million at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, in the first quarter of the year. Head of Public Affairs of NDLEA, Mitchell Ofoyeju, in a statement in Lagos said the drugs, weighing 95.93kg, were seized between January and March. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the NDLEA in a report, as saying, a total of 19 suspected drug traffickers were arrested during the period. “The total weight of drugs seized during the period under review is 95.93kg. The suspects include 16 males and…
The federal government has disclosed that steps are being taken to address the constant crises between farmers and Fulani herdsmen in the country. Speaking Sunday, during a lecture marking the golden jubilee of the Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) which was held in Kaduna, Vice President Nnamadi Sambo also said that the government would ensure fairness and justice to all Nigerians irrespective of religion and ethnicity. According to him, the government was making concerted efforts to ensure harmony between farmers and pastoralists, adding that strategies had been adopted to stop the constant crises between the two groups. He added that the…
British Prime Minister David Cameron today held emergency talks with European leaders over the deteriorating situation in Ukraine with violent clashes now reported in six major cities on the country’s eastern border with Russia. Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov has said the country was now “at war” with Russia which it blames for having troops in east Ukraine arming and orchestrating local militia to rise up against authorities. Prime Minister Turchynov’s stark words came as about 100 pro-Russian protesters armed with bats and rocks stormed a police station in the east Ukrainian town of Gorlivka, smashing its windows and grabbing…
A 14 year-old bride, who killed her husband and three of his friends, Wasila Tasi’u, was on Monday charged before a Rijiyar Zaki Magistrates’ Court in Kano for alleged culpable homicide. The prosecutor, Insp. Yusuf Sale, alleged that the accused poisoned Sani’s food with some substance, popularly known as Ota pia pia. According to him, the husband and three other persons died on the spot after eating the food. The prosecutor also alleged that the other six persons who ate the meal in the same dish were rushed to General Hospital Gaya, but were later treated and discharged. Sale said…
The Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2, Mamman Tsafe, weekend, attributed the persistence of insurgency in some parts of the country to the refusal of governors to provide required support for security agencies/was responsible for the continued mayhem by the Boko Haram insurgents in parts of the country. Tsafe said this in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the inauguration of an ultra-modern secretariat built by the Police Officers’ Wives Association, POWA, Ogun State Command. The AIG, who spoke in the presence of the State Commissioner of Police, Ikemefuna Okoye, his wife, Amaka, the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun…