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01/26/20
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7:16 PM

Retired United States basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, was killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday morning.

He was traveling with at least three other persons in his private helicopter when it went down. 

A fire broke out. Emergency personnel responded but nobody on board survived. 

His wife, Vanessa, was not among those on board.

Eyewitnesses said they heard the helicopter's engine sputtering before it went down. 

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Kobe has famously used the helicopter to travel for years -- dating back to when he played for the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Kobe has recently spotted out at NBA games with his daughter Gianna -- a rising star basketball player herself, according to TMZ Sports. 

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7:16 PM



Kobe Bryant, United States basketball star, has died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday morning.   

The 41-year-old star died while traveling with four other people in his private helicopter when it crashed, killing everyone on board. 

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Bryant is survived by his wife, Vanessa, and their four daughters - Gianna, Natalia and Bianca and newborn, Capri. 
 

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7:16 PM



Kobe Bryant, United States basketball star, has died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday morning.   

The 41-year-old star died while traveling with four other people in his private helicopter when it crashed, killing everyone on board. 

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Bryant is survived by his wife, Vanessa, and their four daughters - Gianna, Natalia and Bianca and newborn, Capri. 
 

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7:16 PM



SaharaReporters has gathered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has perfected plans to arraign Senator Shehu Sani before a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday over allegations of extorting money from owner of ASD Motors, Sani Dauda. 

A source in the know of things told our correspondent that the commission had filed charges against the lawmaker at Court 5 bordering on misrepresentation and obtaining money by false pretence.

It was gathered that the commission deliberately abandoned the charges it filed at the FCT High Court with a view to frustrating the application for rights enforcement filed by Sani so as to further detain him.

The detention order earlier obtained against the senator by the anti-graft agency will expire on Monday. 

After first obtaining a 14-day order to keep Sani, the EFCC secured an order to further keep him for extra five days while investigation into the matter continued. 

The court had slated Sani's rights enforcement application for Tuesday for hearing.

SaharaReporters also gathered that the legal team of the senator had not been served with any charge and proof of evidence till this moment. 

The senator had on January 16 filed the enforcement of his fundamental rights over his continued detention by the commission, which he described as illegal and a breach of section 35 (5) of the constitution.

SaharaReporters had reported that the EFCC was planning to arraign Sani before the expiration of the additional five days extension it obtained to further keep him. 
 

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7:16 PM



SaharaReporters has gathered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has perfected plans to arraign Senator Shehu Sani before a Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday over allegations of extorting money from owner of ASD Motors, Sani Dauda. 

A source in the know of things told our correspondent that the commission had filed charges against the lawmaker at Court 5 bordering on misrepresentation and obtaining money by false pretence.

It was gathered that the commission deliberately abandoned the charges it filed at the FCT High Court with a view to frustrating the application for rights enforcement filed by Sani so as to further detain him.

The detention order earlier obtained against the senator by the anti-graft agency will expire on Monday. 

After first obtaining a 14-day order to keep Sani, the EFCC secured an order to further keep him for extra five days while investigation into the matter continued. 

The court had slated Sani's rights enforcement application for Tuesday for hearing.

SaharaReporters also gathered that the legal team of the senator had not been served with any charge and proof of evidence till this moment. 

The senator had on January 16 filed the enforcement of his fundamental rights over his continued detention by the commission, which he described as illegal and a breach of section 35 (5) of the constitution.

SaharaReporters had reported that the EFCC was planning to arraign Sani before the expiration of the additional five days extension it obtained to further keep him. 
 

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7:16 PM



President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the opinion of General T.Y. Danjuma (retd) was not more important than that of millions of Nigerians, who voted for his re-election in 2019.

Buhari made the comment while speaking with The Interview on Saturday.

Asked if he was concerned about the vote of low confidence expressed by Danjuma during a recent book launch in Ibadan, Oyo State, Buhari said, “And what is the vote of confidence of Nigerians in me as expressed in the polls last year? That is what matters more, not the opinion of one man.”

Danjuma had said if he says what he knew about the happenings in government, Nigerians would lose sleep.

The comment was viewed in some quarters as an expression of lack of confidence in Buhari’s government, and a blow from a man widely believed to be a close ally of Nigeria’s President. 

Buhari however, said his re-election was a vindication of voters’ confidence in him and his government’s policies.

Shedding light into his relationship with Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari said things were “perfect” between them.

He said, “Perfect. Or has he complained to you?”
 

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7:16 PM



President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the opinion of General T.Y. Danjuma (retd) was not more important than that of millions of Nigerians, who voted for his re-election in 2019.

Buhari made the comment while speaking with The Interview on Saturday.

Asked if he was concerned about the vote of low confidence expressed by Danjuma during a recent book launch in Ibadan, Oyo State, Buhari said, “And what is the vote of confidence of Nigerians in me as expressed in the polls last year? That is what matters more, not the opinion of one man.”

Danjuma had said if he says what he knew about the happenings in government, Nigerians would lose sleep.

The comment was viewed in some quarters as an expression of lack of confidence in Buhari’s government, and a blow from a man widely believed to be a close ally of Nigeria’s President. 

Buhari however, said his re-election was a vindication of voters’ confidence in him and his government’s policies.

Shedding light into his relationship with Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari said things were “perfect” between them.

He said, “Perfect. Or has he complained to you?”
 

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7:16 PM

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An improvised explosive device has gone off at a mosque in Gwoza, Borno State, killing a 12-year-old boy and leaving several others injured. 

A resident of the area, who identified himself only as Musa, told SaharaReporters that two suicide bombers strapped with IED forced their ways into the mosque during afternoon prayer before the explosion occurred. 

He said, "The bombing happened around Guduf Nagadiyo at Bulabaulin in Gwoza. A 12-year-old boy was killed, while others sustained injuries." 

Musa added that soldiers from 192 battalion of the Nigerian Army had been deployed to the spot to forestall against any further attack. 
 

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7:16 PM

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An improvised explosive device has gone off at a mosque in Gwoza, Borno State, killing a 12-year-old boy and leaving several others injured. 

A resident of the area, who identified himself only as Musa, told SaharaReporters that two suicide bombers strapped with IED forced their ways into the mosque during afternoon prayer before the explosion occurred. 

He said, "The bombing happened around Guduf Nagadiyo at Bulabaulin in Gwoza. A 12-year-old boy was killed, while others sustained injuries." 

Musa added that soldiers from 192 battalion of the Nigerian Army had been deployed to the spot to forestall against any further attack. 
 

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7:16 PM

Ayoola Babalola

 

The shocking arrest and detention of Ayoola Babalola in Ibara Prison over his publications on a campus newspaper in which he is the editor, is only a testament to the obvious and audible fact that the Nigerian Government has declared war against freedom of expression and thought in Nigeria despite the fact that the constitution already empowers every citizen to express themselves freely.

With these kind of outcome, one need not ask to know that Nigeria do not have a government. We have people empowered to protect and safeguard Nigerians and the law but they go ultra vire that purpose and repress the voice of Nigerians.

Ayoola Babalola’s article only asked about the petition given to EFCC, if they would investigate Bola Tinubu for money laundering. Tinubu's house is not a bank, so why will he use two bullion vans to bring money home days to an election? It is embarrassing at a time that one of their spokespersons tried to cover it up by claiming that the bullion van may be carrying papers, and then we ask, when did we start using bullion vans to carry papers, and if the papers were classified as security sensitive.

None the less, the same Tinubu came out openly to tell Nigerians to mind their business, that it is his money and not theirs.  On this note, Ayoola Babalola asked if the EFCC will do their job and investigate the incident.

Babalola published other articles about how Muhammadu Buhari do not believe in Nigeria, which is evident in the way the old man prefers to go outside the country to treat himself. The same old man tells Nigerians to patronise domestic goods and services. Is there any further meaning to hypocrisy than this?

Babalola also published an article asking the University of Lagos to apologise to student activist, Femi Adeyeye, after he was suspended by the school for writing an article exposing many dirty dealings about the school management and lecturers. Years after he was expelled, many of the things he revealed in the article were found to be true. At such point, it is only honourable for a supposedly intellectual institution to apologise and recall the student but they have proved unapologetic and unrepentant in their action.

He further published an article about human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, and his unjust treatment by the Nigerian Government. After all this, he was called by the school management of Gateway Polytechnic, who told him that they don't like his attack on the All Progressives Congress because the school was loyal to the party.

On January 23, Babalola was reportedly beaten by some sponsored student cultists and arrested by the SSS, which showed a collaboration between the security agency and the attackers. He was charged to court where he was denied his representative and then remanded in prison.

These are tough times in Nigeria for every patriotic and innocent citizens. The case of Agba Jalingo and Joseph Odok also victims of repression still lingers only because they dared to expose corruption in governance and speak truth to power.

As it stands, Nigeria do not have a responsible government, what the country have are bunch of lawless power-drunk politicians, who pounce on any patriotic citizen calling them to order.

Like Omoyele Sowore said in 2000, “We will no longer live in fear".

We are sending this strong message to the Nigerian Government, "not the walls of prison, nor the sod of cemetery shall isolate us from the path of justice, truth and humanism".

If the Nigerian Government think by putting an innocent Ayoola Babalola in prison will silence us, on this we say, kolewerk.

Obinna Ezechukwu is the Media and Publicity Coordinator of Take It Back Campus Wing

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6:46 AM

 

The Kaduna State Government has confirmed a case of Lassa Fever in Chukun Local Government Area of the state. 

According to a statement by Commissioner for Health in the state, Amina Mohammed-Baloni, the patient is being treated at the designated Infectious Disease Control Centre. 

The commissioner assured that the Ministry of Health had supplied the “infectious diseases control centre with the necessary commodities and our health personnel are ready to manage any cases that may arise. 

“The epidemiology unit is monitoring the situation closely, and all health facilities are on alert for prompt referral of suspected cases." 

The commissioner also reiterated the ministry’s earlier appeal to the public to maintain the highest standard of hygiene and report any suspected cases promptly to the nearest health facility. 

 

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6:46 AM

Gunmen, who invaded some communities in Niger State, have killed 11 people and also kidnapped four women.

The gunmen stormed Kudodo, Galapai, Dnakpala Makera and Dnalgwa communities in the early hours of Saturday.

The bandits were said to have moved from house to house to carry out their activities, The Nation newspaper reported.

Senator representing Niger-East Senatorial District, Alhaji Sani Musa, confirmed the latest attack, saying that the situation was getting out of hand.

The lawmaker lamented the incessant killings and called on the Federal Government and security agencies to up their strategies.

He said, “As the attacks continued, more villagers in my constituency are awaiting their fate as no sign of succour seems to be coming their way. 

“It is confirmed that the bandits are attacking all through the night to this afternoon

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1:16 AM

Even when its blood-sucking soldiers slash the throats of captured Nigerians in audacious video recordings that periodically go viral on the social media, the truth is that Boko Haram, that deadly terrorist group, has left the consciousness of many Nigerians, especially the political elite. For example, as that eight year-old boy insurgent horrendously gorged out the last pint of blood in the veins of Daciya Dalep, the Langtang student of the University of Maiduguri, who was abducted on January 9 as he returned to his school, President Muhammadu Buhari was apparently busy battling a mound of Tuwo Shinkafa, which he washed down his belly with a very cold fura. In other parts of Nigeria, we individually and collectively bantered away as if we had no care in the world. Dalep was executed last Tuesday and the video of his gruesome killing was circulated by Boko Haram’s side-kick, ISIS, through its Amaq News Agency. The eight-year old, who killed Dalep had been quoted in the ISIS-circulated video as saying that, “We won’t stop until we take revenge for all the blood that was spilled.” Almost about this time, Lawan Andimi, leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Michika council of Adamawa State, was also executed by this deadly terrorist group.

But not to worry, the Buhari government had sent its usual condolence message to the families of the murdered, an advertised reflated bravura, a pumped up and flexed muscle to mow down the insurgents in no  time and a message to Nigerians to continue to hold forte. This is a slight departure from government’s earlier peacock boastfulness. As the “Jingle Bell” rhythm percolated round the world in December, 2015, Buhari released his own good tidings to a distraught Nigerian world on December 24 of that year: Nigeria had "technically won the war" against these accursed Islamists, Buhari said to the BBC. This is because, in his words, the militant group could no longer mount "conventional attacks" against security forces or population centres. It had thus been reduced to fighting the war only with improvised explosives devices, with a fractured base located only in the heartland of Borno State, he said. "So I think technically we have won the war because people are going back into their neighbourhoods. Boko Haram as an organised fighting force, I assure you, that we have dealt with them," the president enthused in what has turned out an empty waffle.

Since December, 2015 when that Buhari’s prattle was circulated, Boko Haram has massacred thousands of Nigerians, prompting that highly cerebral traditional ruler, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, to ask an audience in Ibadan late last year what was technical in a defeat. Even warfare theorist, Carl von Clausewitz, would agree with the Alaafin that a war is either won or lost and the Buhari new and unorthodox classification of a middle-of-the-road stratification of a war was strange and unsupported by any thesis in the history of warfare.

Anyway, the deceit of defeat continued, making total mockery of Nigeria’s war preparedness. Unfortunately for Nigeria and her politicisation of the true state of the warfare, the western world, with sophisticated gadgets that get minute-by-minute mirror of the tragedy, is aware that Boko Haram and its sister bloodhound, Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) are an epidemic. At a point, the Nigerian Army descended on NGOs offering humanitarian services in the North-East war zone. Aware that these NGOs give information to their home countries on the actual figures of casualties, the alarmingly high number of soldiers felled as a result of fossilised military hardware, the military authorities began a mini war to rid the NGOs from the war zone. And the cemeteries kept on receiving unprecedented traffic of the dead, while the spate of attacks received daily muscle.

Frustrated by the unceasing carnage, the European parliament, a legislative branch of the European Union, had to voice out its bottled concerns about the slide at the warfront last week. Among a long list of distressing manifestations, the EU Parliament said it “Deplores that progress has stalled in the fight against Boko Haram, ISWAP and the increased occurrence and severity of suicide attacks and direct attacks against military positions; recalls that Nigeria’s President Buhari was re-elected in 2019 on the promise of defeating the violent extremism promoted by Boko Haram and other terror groups, and urges the President to implement his campaign promises.” It was a diplomatic artillery fire on a Buhari who seldom knows what his governmental right and left hands were about.

Then the President came in with another waffle. On Friday, as he received European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, at the State House, Abuja, Buhari lapsed into his usual boring riposte but this time, with a tinge of myopia laced with very poor logic. Because Nigeria fought and won a civil war, the 50th anniversary of which it just celebrated, said Buhari, the country will also win the Boko Haram war, no matter how long it takes. If Nigeria could go through the 30-month civil war, it would be atop the 10-year-old war of insurgency soonest.  “If we were capable to fight a 30-month civil war and reorganise our country, I wonder why people are thinking that Nigeria cannot do it,” he was quoted as saying.

Now, there are two unpardonable, even if laughable cants laced with that statement. One was the assumption or even hypocritical submission by the President that after the 30-month war, Nigeria got reorganized and second, his deployment of the civil war model as an apt corollary to the current Boko Haram insurgency. As an aside, Nigerians must collectively deploy the very strange and even obtuse media management model of Aso Rock where the Nigerian president is shrouded from scrutiny by the press. How come nobody hears first hand from the president but his thoughts are parcelled as press releases, when Villa correspondents who should cover visits of this hue are next door? Is the Buhari media apparatchik hiding a discernible limitation of the president from the scrutiny of the world, through decreeing out live coverage of the president by the press?

Anyway, on the first prong, Buhari erred very massively in stating that after the civil war, Nigeria had been reorganized. Reorganised into what? More than the pre-war era, Nigeria is today fractured into frightening fissiparous tendencies of tribe, religion and class. These tendencies got more pronounced under the Buhari government than any government in the history of Nigeria. The recent Amotekun hoopla and government, as well as its sidekicks – narrow-minded voices in the North  and Miyetti Allah’s frantic fear that Amotekun could be a hub for secession advertise the fear that Nigeria is soldered together by a tender wedge that could snap at any moment. For the president to anchor on this lie of Nigeria’s togetherness is one of the Donald Trump-like lies that have caked this administration and keep on defining it.

Second is Buhari’s reference to the Nigerian Civil War as a manifestation of Nigeria’s commitment or even assuredness of winning the Boko Haram war. Except for the fact that it sounds like an esoteric lapse into spiriticism, nothing links the two wars under reference apart from the ounces of bloodshed that they both advertise. More significantly, that statement seems to again advertise critics’ lampoon of Buhari for possessing pre-historic or Acheulian remedies to 21st century Nigerian situation. Yes, the Boko Haram war is fast sprinting to the finish line of over one million souls lost in the Nigerian civil war, but no, it wasn’t quelled by current Nigerian military establishment’s myopic understanding of warfare, World War 1-like quality of armaments against sophisticated weaponry of the insurgents and demoralized troops who cannot see Nigeria as the philosophy behind their fighting at the war front.

First is the Commander-in-Chief’s warped understanding of the concept of security itself. Surrounded by security chiefs whose expiry in service is benumbing and who the President stubbornly retains, Buhari has deafened his ears to the cascading demoralization of troops that comes with expiration of tenure of service chiefs, some of whom have overstayed by as long as six years. Second is Nigerians’ haunch that if Buhari deploys remedies he used as military Head of State in 1984 to 2020 matters of state, he is more likely deploying same strategies against this long-winding insurgency. Third is that the civil war that he inflates his feathers as having won was disposed of in 30 months while the current interminable war has lasted over a decade. With the politicisation of the Boko Haram war, Nigerians, except the merchants in Aso Rock, don’t see an end to the bloodletting of the war.

If those Nigerian soldiers killed daily like chickens and who are buried at nocturnes were children or relatives of villa tenants, they probably would be minded to deploy 21st century remedies towards ending the war. This is why, rather than be sober at the gruesome killings and the recent horrendous murder of Andimi, leader of CAN, the presidency could go on a roller-coaster of harangue of Christian leaders, rather than face the gory fact that, apart from the civil war, no Nigerian Head of State has harvested as much Nigerian blood as Buhari has in five years or so. It is apt ingenuity to call this administration a government by condolences.

As a people, we seem unconcerned by the peremptory handling of the Boko Haram crisis by the Buhari government and externalize its consequences because none of the casualties is our relative. Families who daily lose loved ones to this tepid fight by Nigeria are the ones who know where the shoe pinches. Otherwise, we would all in unison howl at Buhari to go back to Daura if our people are slaughtered mindlessly in hundreds like this while he surfeits us with sophistries. Comparing Boko Haram with the Nigerian civil war is the unkindest cut of them all, even worse than his technical defeat gibbering.

Nigeria and the impending Wahum Coronavirus

The world is literally laying eggs at the moment, worried at the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China. As at the time of writing this, China has reported 41 deaths and 1369 cases in Mainland China. America has ordered all its workers at the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan to vacate the city. Hong Kong has declared state emergency as it shuts down the city while China, where the disease originated, is quoted to have begun the building of two hospitals with which it planned to combat the outbreak said to have likely been contracted from the saliva of snakes. The hospitals’ period of completion time is slated for between 10 and 15 days.

Nigeria has a huge share of Chinese inflow. A report claimed that an estimated 120,000 Chinese come into Nigeria annually and workers who litter several construction spots in Nigeria who travelled to China for the holiday are expected back to Nigeria next week.

There is no doubt that it is at moments of emergencies as this and countries’ responses to them that you identify the state elements in assemblages that purport to be states. States with balls swivelling between their legs have risen to this emergency while ones that merely advertise a pretention to same are absent on the radar. What plans are being made to ensure that many of the China returnees are screened appropriately at air and seaports? As against the vacuous prayers often offered by our nationals against disasters, what are Nigeria’s proactive health plans in case the Coronavirus sidles into the country?

 

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