The Nigerian government has ordered all telecom operators to shut down their networks in Zamfara State.
Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission in a letter to all telecom operators on Friday said the action was one of the strategies taken by security operatives in curbing banditry ravaging the state.
“The pervading security situation in Zamfara State has necessitated an immediate shutting down of all telecommunications service in the state from today September 03, 2021.
“This is to enable relevant security agencies carry out required activities towards addressing the security challenge in the state, in line with the requirement, Globacom is hereby directed to shut down all sites in Zamfara State and any site(s) in neighboring state that could provide telecommunications service in Zamfara State.
“The site shutdown is for two weeks (September 03 - 17, 2021) in the first instance. Your urgent action in this regard is required,” a copy of the letter sent to Globacom Nigeria reads.
However, checks by SaharaReporters showed that all the major networks were still working as at 11pm on Friday, except Airtel that was off in some areas.
There is suspicion among the residents that they may shut down anytime soon.
The Zamfara State Government had last Friday also announced some new measures aimed at tackling the growing activities of bandits in the state.
These included the restriction of fuel sales to the state capital and the headquarters of the local government areas and suspension of all weekly markets across the state.
Similarly, the government suspended the transportation of livestock to and from the state, saying the transportation of food across the state and outside Zamfara must be verified.
It stressed that the destination of the food must be authenticated otherwise, it would be seized and taken to the orphanage.
The new rules further include the banning of riding on motorcycles and tricycles from 6pm to 6am in the state, except the state capital which starts from 8pm to 6am every day.
“Furthermore, any tricycle that is covered will be stopped to verify its passengers, otherwise will be apprehended,” the statement read.
“Governor Matawalle reiterated the ban on more than two persons riding a motorcycle and warned that those who break the law stand the risk of being shot at by security operatives.”
The government urged the people of the state to comply with the measures to avoid unfortunate incidents, saying security operatives would be empowered to treat offenders as suspected bandits.
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Gunmen suspected to be bandits have abducted Kabir Muhammad Inuwa, a brother to the Secretary to the Katsina State Government (SSG), Mustapha Inuwa.
SaharaReporters gathered that Kabir was abducted on Wednesday when the heavily armed men invaded his farm in a village called Daftau, in Danmusa Local Government Area of the state.
File Photo
“He is a step brother of the SSG; the same father but not the same mother. He was abducted on his farm. He is much older than the SSG and a retired police officer,“ a source told SaharaReporters on Friday.
Katsina, despite being the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, has witnessed sporadic attacks by bandits and kidnappers that have claimed the lives of many.
Over 1000 people have been reportedly killed by the gunmen in Jibia, Kankara, Dutsinma, Musawa, Danmusa and Safana Local Government Areas of the state in the last five months.
On December 11, 2020, some bandits kidnapped 344 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara. They were released about a week later.
Also on December 19, 84 Islamiyya students of Hizburrahim Islamiyya in Mahuta village, Dandume Local Government Area of the state were abducted but rescued shortly after.
Recently, some members of the State House of Assembly lawmakers shed tears for the Buhari-led government at a plenary while discussing the deterioration of insecurity under the present regime.
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His reputation and the verdict of history are very important to him. He has said so, so many times, and hopes that he will find solace in the knowledge that he has done his best for Nigeria. There is simply no doubting the fact of the importance of the judgement of posterity for Muhammed Buhari, Nigeria's 14th national leader, the second civilian after Obasanjo to exchange military khaki with civilian clothing. There is also no doubt that the president is a very proud man. All the more reason why a not so flattering post 2023 judgement of his presidency will be very hurtful to him. His demeanor gives him off as a very stand-offish person, which his very close friends might dispute. Perhaps he is a simple man, but by virtue of his privileged positions, both past and present, that knowledge is beyond us. Nobody knows just what to think about President Muhammadu Buhari who came to power on the back of such great expectations and promises for the 200 million inhabitants that make up this vast, beautiful, and long suffering country of ours. It is so sad to see the gradual decline of hope and the acceleration of despair, anger, and fear overtake Nigeria under a man who promised to be a father to all. Oh! How Nigerians believed him. How they loved him and believed him that bright sunny, May day in 2015 when he stood before the whole world at Eagle Square to swear that he belonged to no one but belonged to all of us. How they prayed for his success, knowing that his success would be theirs. How could such love turn so sour in a space of six years? It must be true; the saying that love, when it goes sour, is twice as hateful, twice as bitter.
Achike Chude
There is just so much happening in our country and around the person of our president. So much is being said about him, mostly negative - perhaps false, perhaps true, or perhaps somewhere in between. The tragedy of the president's situation is his penchant for taciturnity and stoic silence. Perhaps he is an apostle of the saying that 'silence is golden.' I am not so sure that that is the right attitude because we are aware of another saying that 'silence is assent'. Surely the gravity of the various sundry allegations by Nigerians against the president are so weighty, so monumental, and so immense that the president just has to respond, especially and specifically to the most egregious of these allegations because of the Goebellian dictum that a lie repeated so many times takes on the garb of truth. A president who is hoping on the kindness of history's judgement will not keep quiet when all manner of people accuse him of treasonable offence against the very state over which he presides - for that is the implication of the accusations by Governor Ortom of Benue state and former naval intelligence officer and professor of international strategic studies, Professor Akinwunmi. They say the president knows more about the terrorism and herdsmen violence than he is letting on. They accuse him pointedly of having sympathy for the killers of our people. But do not think that these accusations are found only within the persons of the Benue state governor and the professor. You hear it on the streets of the four corners of this country. You hear it from the mouths of bus conductors and drivers You hear it from market women and men, from blue colour workers, from religious men and women and within the four walls of people's homes and offices. The accusation is as perfidious and as heinous as they come. How can the man who was elected to be commander-in-chief now turn out to be our tormentor-in-chief? The president must speak up. He must talk directly to his people - all 200 million of us, including those who say that they want out of Nigeria. Until they get their wish of separation, if they ever do, they have to deal with the fact that they are still Nigerians, and Buhari is their president.
If the president continues to hide under the nebulous and sometimes senseless press statements of Laurel and Hardy - Shehu and Adesina, then the legend of the president's people-driven narratives of his dalliances with insurgents and violent criminals will continue to surge.
Or perhaps the president is a prisoner at Aso Rock, held hostage by a band of blood sucking sycopants whose hold on their principal consists in isolating him from the public and creating a different and false narrative of the Nigerian situation. Perhaps, surrounded by this band of praise singers who praise him by day and night about his achievements, real and fictive, he has become oblivious of the prevailing fear in the land and the terrible things people are saying about him.
But oblivious or not, the inexorable, just, and passionless verdict of history will be passed on President Muhammadu Buhari, the 14th head of state of the Nigerian federation. The outcome of his promises to the Nigerian people, made on the 29th of May in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and fifteen will be laid side by side with the reality of the Nigerian situation - over two hundred and fifty thousand Nigerians killed since he became president, poverty unimagined and unimaginable, assailing the country, corruption unchained and unbridled, rule of law on the retreat and amnesty for the killers of our people. And to wit, do not forget that never in the annals of the great Nigerian federation have Nigerians been so divided along ethno-religious, and geo-political lines. Pro-ethnic agitations under the president who pledged unity are bursting at the seams, as insults and counter insults are hauled with reckless disdain by various ethnic- based groups against one another. People are saying that it is the president that is also fueling this division. For instance, they point to the open grazing initiative still being pushed by the president even after so many lives have been lost as a result. And this is coming after the Northern Governors' Forum in February officially jettisoned the idea - a move that was followed a few weeks later by the Southern Governors'Forum (SGF). This has also been the position of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF). So, why is the president the only prominent Nigerian (and the most important), still pushing for an initiative that is already settled by the elites? Why is he still looking for old grazing routes through his brand new grazing committee set up by him? You see why people are making insinuations? Why they are smelling a rat, even if they smelling it from the wrong nostrils.
It is not that the president has absolutely done nothing during these years of the locusts. He has built rail lines across parts of the country, though at a price higher than the African average. He has embarked on social poverty alleviation programs, though they are sometimes derided by people as too little and meaningless in terms of impact. He has jailed a few government looters, though people point to the ones jumping into his party for sanctification, seemingly to escape corruption probe. He is building the 3rd Onitsha Naija bridge, something that has been clamoured for for so many years , and yet people are pointing to the dualized Benin-Asaba expressway built by the late dictator, Abacha.
Unfortunately, when all these achievements are weighed with the failures, they will likely pale into insignificance.
Perhaps, Muhammadu Buhari is a good man who found himself in a situation that was bigger than him. Laurel and Hardy - sorry! I mean Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina say that he is a good and compassionate man. Garba called him a decent man recently. Perhaps he is not as nepotistic and as provincial as people make him out. We might never know. But what we do know are the fruits of his actions and inactions as president of our beautiful but sad country. And the fruits are sour and have gone rancid.
Perhaps! Perhaps! Perhaps!
I simply shudder at what the verdict of history would be for him.
Three persons kidnapped at the Goshen Community area of Ajebamidele in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, have been released by their captors, Punch reports.
Sources at Goshen Community said that the abductees – a man with his pregnant wife and one other said to be a pastor, who were abducted on Tuesday evening — regained their freedom on Thursday night.
File photo used to illustrate story.
The gunmen were reported to have instantly on capturing the victims to the bush, contacted the families on phone and demanded N10million ransom.
A source said on Friday that the families paid N3million following passionate appeal to the gunmen for reduction.
He said, “After intense negotiation, the couple paid N2.5m, while the criminals collected N500,000 from the other person, totalling N3m. After collecting the money, the victims were released at a bush in Igbara-Odo in the Ekiti South West Local Government area on Thursday night.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti State Command, Sunday Abutu, who confirmed the release, said, “The three abducted persons from Ajebamidele, Ado-Ekiti on August 31, 2021 have been released by their abductors after a serious pressure mounted on the abductors by the Police and other relevant agencies including the locals.
“They have been reunited with their family members while effort is ongoing to ensure the arrest of the culprits. However, two suspects were arrested during the search operation in the bush.”
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The Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, has issued a two-week ultimatum to civil servants in the state to get vaccinated against the deadly coronavirus.
The governor revealed this on Friday in his bid to curtail the spread of the deadly Covid-19, while declaring that the vaccination had been made compulsory for all the public workers under the state.
Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.
This was made known in a circular signed by the Permanent Secretary, Service Matters, Mr O. J. Afolabi on behalf of the Head of Service, on Friday.
According to the circular, the state government gave public servants in the state two weeks to take the vaccine.
The circular stated that the vaccination card would henceforth be required from public servants in order to access some facilities.
The circular read in part, “Following the outbreak of Delta Variant, a subsequent third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become imperative for government to direct all categories of public servants to take Covid-19 vaccination within two weeks from the date of this circular.”
It also urged workers to continually maintain strict adherence and compliance to Covid-19 protocols.
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Pelumi Olajengbesi, lawyer to 12 arrested aides of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has warned the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, to comply with the court order and release the remaining two detainees in the agency’s custody.
According to Olajengbesi in a statement on Friday, a contempt proceeding would be instituted against the DSS and its Director-General for failing to release the detainees despite the fact that they had been served with the court’s signed warrant of release.
File Photo
The secret police had on August 30 released eight of the 12 aides of the agitator.
It subsequently released two of the remaining four on Friday but refused to release the other two namely; Amudat Habibat Babatunde and Jamiu Noah Oyetunji, contrary to an order of the court that granted bail to the entire 12 arrested aides.
Condemning the action of the DSS, Olajengbesi said the secret police should stop carrying out its official responsibility with impunity and absolute disrespect to the law of the land especially where the constitutional rights and liberty of citizens are at stake.
He said, “The keenly observing world will recall that during our last press briefing on the on-going case of Chief Sunday Igboho’s aides, it was reported that the DSS is yet release four (4) of detainees on their custody on grounds of bail perfection technicality, in which we were allowed to secure the release of others.
“Sequel to the refusal of the DSS to release the other detainees, concerted efforts were immediately made to resolve all technical issues raised by the DSS. Accordingly, on Friday the 3rd of September, 2021, all issues raised were resolved and we proceeded to the Headquarters of the DSS to demand the immediate release of the four (4) remaining detainees in their custody.
“Regrettably and in the whimsical habit of the DSS, only two of the remaining four received their freedom while the other two namely; Amudat Habibat Babatunde and Jamiu Noah Oyetunji, remain in the unlawful custody of the DSS. No valid reasons on law were availed the Legal Team for this willful disobedience of the rule of law and court.
“The DSS' cherry-picking of an order of court is an open dare and affront on the authority of the issuing court and it lacks legal backing under the extant laws of Nigeria. It is a condemnable action in any sane democratic society and speaks ill of the professionalism of the intelligence agency. The DSS simply have no right nor power to select or unilaterally handpick which order of court is convenient for it to obey or honor. Any iota of non-compliance to an order of court is tantamount to disregard of such an order in its entirety and same is contemptuous.
“Consequently, we want to restate that if by Monday the 6th of September, 2021, the DSS continue with their unlawful detention of the remaining two (2) detainees, we shall not hesitate to proceed with our earlier plans to institute a contempt proceeding against the Director General of the SSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
“The DSS as a law enforcement agency should not be allowed to carry out its official responsibility with impunity and absolute disrespect to the law of the land especially where the constitutional rights and liberty of citizens are at stake. It is a reprehensible conduct unbecoming of an agency which is itself a creation of the law and it will not go unchallenged.”
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Two more aides of Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho have been released.
According to their lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, the two were released by the secret police on Friday.
SaharaReporters Media
The DSS, however, refused to release the remaining two persons, Lady K and one other, contrary to an order of the court that granted bail to the entire 12 aides of the Yoruba Nation agitator in the custody of the agency.
The secret police had earlier on August 30 released eight of the activists.
They had met their bail conditions including the provision of 24 sureties but the DSS lawyer, Idowu Awo, kicked against the bail granted by Justice Egwuatu to four of the detainees, claiming that they were heavily involved in the alleged offence of arms stockpiling and other criminal activities of their boss, Igboho.
Awo had filed a remand application for the four detainees saying their release would affect investigation. He had also approached an Appeal Court sitting in Abuja to revoke the bail earlier granted to the four persons.
The aides were released to Olajengbesi after the Department of State Services (DSS) failed to comply with a court ruling on the matter.
It would be recalled that the lawyer had issued an ultimatum to the DSS to release the detained aides, who were arrested at Igboho's house.
He had said, “It has become imperative and urgent to make this brief address in light of the vindictive and oppressive conduct of the State Security Service (SSS) (also known as DSS) in the matter involving 12 detained associates of Yoruba Nation activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, aka Igboho.
“In the wee hours of the 1st of July, 2021, a joint team of men from the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigerian military, with neither lawful cause nor a warrant of arrest, broke into the Ibadan home of the Yoruba Nation activist popularly known as Sunday Igboho and extra-judicially murdered two of his associates while rounding up, bounding and abducting 12 others to be incarcerated without cause in the dungeons of the SSS where they continue to languish without reprieve to this day.
“All 12 detainees who were immediately subjected to degrading conditions of detention and torture were denied access to their lawyers by the SSS up until the intervention of the court through an order recognising and re-emphasizing the detainees’ right to legal representation against whatever allegations against them.
“Regrettably and indeed unacceptably, while no charges, in full or tentatively, have been preferred against all 12 detainees, the SSS have failed and refused to honour an order of court which granted bail to and ordered the release of all twelve detainees upon the perfection of the terms of their bail which have now been fully satisfied and duly communicated to the SSS.
“The refusal of the SSS to honour a clear order of court, though habitual, is not only worrisome and unacceptable but is an affront on the authority of the court and our entire judicial system. Such blatant disregard for, and contemptuous, spiteful and insolent disrespect of an order of court if allowed to fester would undermine the very integrity of the court and breed even newer levels of rascality by state agents. It would also amount to surrendering the freedom and rights of all twelve detainees to the whims and caprices of an agency that has gone rogue and thrives in wilful disobedience of court orders.
“In light of this, we are giving the SSS, particularly its Director-General, forty-eight (48) hours and not an hour more, within which to fully obey and comply with the release order of the court in favour of all 12 detained associates of Mr. Sunday Igboho or face contempt proceedings before a court of competent jurisdiction with the full weight and recompense of the court brought to bear against his insolence and disregard of court order.
“Take notice that we will not fail to exhaust all legal and social remedy available to the detainees in enforcing their rights in this matter and setting the tone against the SSS’ notorious disregard of due process and the rule of law.”
Two more aides of Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho have been released.
According to their lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, the two were released by the secret police on Friday.
SaharaReporters Media
The DSS, however, refused to release the remaining two persons, Lady K and one other, contrary to an order of the court that granted bail to the entire 12 aides of the Yoruba Nation agitator in the custody of the agency.
The secret police had earlier on August 30 released eight of the activists.
They had met their bail conditions including the provision of 24 sureties but the DSS lawyer, Idowu Awo, kicked against the bail granted by Justice Egwuatu to four of the detainees, claiming that they were heavily involved in the alleged offence of arms stockpiling and other criminal activities of their boss, Igboho.
Awo had filed a remand application for the four detainees saying their release would affect investigation. He had also approached an Appeal Court sitting in Abuja to revoke the bail earlier granted to the four persons.
The aides were released to Olajengbesi after the Department of State Services (DSS) failed to comply with a court ruling on the matter.
It would be recalled that the lawyer had issued an ultimatum to the DSS to release the detained aides, who were arrested at Igboho's house.
He had said, “It has become imperative and urgent to make this brief address in light of the vindictive and oppressive conduct of the State Security Service (SSS) (also known as DSS) in the matter involving 12 detained associates of Yoruba Nation activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, aka Igboho.
“In the wee hours of the 1st of July, 2021, a joint team of men from the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigerian military, with neither lawful cause nor a warrant of arrest, broke into the Ibadan home of the Yoruba Nation activist popularly known as Sunday Igboho and extra-judicially murdered two of his associates while rounding up, bounding and abducting 12 others to be incarcerated without cause in the dungeons of the SSS where they continue to languish without reprieve to this day.
“All 12 detainees who were immediately subjected to degrading conditions of detention and torture were denied access to their lawyers by the SSS up until the intervention of the court through an order recognising and re-emphasizing the detainees’ right to legal representation against whatever allegations against them.
“Regrettably and indeed unacceptably, while no charges, in full or tentatively, have been preferred against all 12 detainees, the SSS have failed and refused to honour an order of court which granted bail to and ordered the release of all twelve detainees upon the perfection of the terms of their bail which have now been fully satisfied and duly communicated to the SSS.
“The refusal of the SSS to honour a clear order of court, though habitual, is not only worrisome and unacceptable but is an affront on the authority of the court and our entire judicial system. Such blatant disregard for, and contemptuous, spiteful and insolent disrespect of an order of court if allowed to fester would undermine the very integrity of the court and breed even newer levels of rascality by state agents. It would also amount to surrendering the freedom and rights of all twelve detainees to the whims and caprices of an agency that has gone rogue and thrives in wilful disobedience of court orders.
“In light of this, we are giving the SSS, particularly its Director-General, forty-eight (48) hours and not an hour more, within which to fully obey and comply with the release order of the court in favour of all 12 detained associates of Mr. Sunday Igboho or face contempt proceedings before a court of competent jurisdiction with the full weight and recompense of the court brought to bear against his insolence and disregard of court order.
“Take notice that we will not fail to exhaust all legal and social remedy available to the detainees in enforcing their rights in this matter and setting the tone against the SSS’ notorious disregard of due process and the rule of law.”
Bruce Fein, the US-based lawyer to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has said it is absurd that Nigeria still uses the 1999 constitution although it was imposed on the people by a military dictator.
Fein spoke in an exclusive interview with Human rights activist and Amnesty International designated Prisoner of Conscience, Omoyele Sowore, shortly after he and Kanu’s lead counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, were denied access to the IPOB leader by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Bruce Fein
Kanu had remained in detention since he was re-arrested by Nigerian authorities in collaboration with others outside the country.
The court had earlier ordered that his lawyers should be granted a routine visit to interact with the separatist leader while in detention.
But on Thursday, the DSS had denied the pair access despite meeting formal notification and existing procedures on visitation.
Speaking during the interview, Fein condemned the disregard for human rights and due process in Nigeria by government institutions.
The constitutional lawyer said globally, the right to self-determination and due process are fundamental rights of every citizen which should also be upheld by the Nigerian government.
“Everybody recognises the right to self-determination and due process. Universally, the law condemns torture and extra-judicial killings,” he said.
“I am an expert in constitutional law and it seems very odd to me from the US that Nigeria lives on a constitution ordained by a military dictator in 1999 with no input from the public. No referendum, nothing and the country is living under such a constitution 22 years later.
“To me, that is totally absurd. We should look at how laws benefit the people, not just being manipulated to benefit those in power.”
WATCH: @MaziNnamdiKanu’s American Lawyer, Bruce Fein, Rubbishes Nigeria's 1999 Constitution In Interview With @YeleSowore, Says It's Absurd To Rely On Constitution Imposed By Military pic.twitter.com/TufaqaA7D1
The court-ordered routine visit of the lawyers representing the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra took another dimension as the operatives of the DSS prevented them from seeing him on Thursday.
According to a statement issued by Kanu’s lead counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor and obtained by SaharaReporters on Friday, the DSS said, "that the person assigned to receive us during yesterday's visit was on a special assignment.”
Ejiofor stated that he was in the secret police’s office with a constitutional lawyer from the United States (US), Bruce Fein, but they were prevented from seeing the separatist leader despite meeting formal notification and existing procedures on visitation.
Fein had in May filed a lawsuit on behalf of IPOB in the US to revoke the six A-29 Tucano fighter jets sold to the Nigerian government and also block the remaining six from being conveyed to the country.
Both Ejiofor and Fein were not allowed to see Kanu on Thursday.
Ejiofor, in the statement, described the action as “ridiculous and a clear violation of the court order on the guideline for visiting our client, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
The statement reads, “Yesterday's court-ordered visit to our client, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was aborted by the officials of the State Security Services (also known as the Department of State Services, DSS) for a reason we find extremely ridiculous.
“Following the arrival of Mr. Bruce Fein, a foremost American trained Constitutional Lawyer and IPOB's Attorney in the United States of America, the game took an interesting twist.
“Despite our formal notification to the Service, in line with the existing protocol, and in compliance with the Court-Ordered guideline, the officials of the Department of State Services came up with an excuse, 'that the person assigned to receive us during yesterday's visit was on a special assignment, and as such, the visit cannot be conducted.
“This is not only ridiculous but a clear violation of the Court Order on guidelines for visiting our client, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“For the records, we have been consistently visiting our client on the specified days and time of the week, and there hasn't been any time we were denied access to him on the ground that an individual assigned to receive us was not available.
“Needless to mention, that no one individual has been specifically assigned to receive us on any of the visits. They are fully aware that the visit takes place every Monday and Thursday.
“Thankfully, we have another date for Monday, and we do hope that this individual will be available on Monday to receive us, whilst we have taken steps to formally bring this latest infraction to the attention of the Court.
“We will continue to update you all, while we continue to urge for your relentless prayers and understanding. We are winning, you can be assured.
“Thank you all and remain blessed.”
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The recently exited N-Power beneficiaries have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouk, over her inability to pay their allowances.
The aggrieved people trooped to social media on Thursday demanding the termination of the appointment of the appointment of Farouk for aggravating their penury.
Sadiya Umar Farouk
SaharaReporters had reported last week Thursday how a source revealed that Farouk had withheld five months’ stipends from 14,000 volunteers.
“Npower Batch A and B who were engaged 2016 and 2017 respectively were disengaged since May 2020.
“While she launched another portal for exited Npower beneficiaries to apply for their exit package which the Federal government promised to give all the exited beneficiaries after serving for about three years.
“They are owing about 14,000 beneficiaries five months’ stipend but Sadiya Farouq keeps mute after making numerous promises without fulfilment while the 500,000 exited beneficiaries remained desperate for not getting loans promised while opening the portal,” the source disclosed last week.
After the sack of Saleh Mamman and Sabo Nanono, the Ministers of Power and Agriculture and Rural Development respectively by Buhari on Wednesday, the victims of the exited N-Power called Farouk’s sack as well.
The source speaking on the condition of anonymity told SaharaReporters on Thursday that Farouk was one of the most corrupt ministers in Buhari’s cabinet.
“We are urging President Buhari to sack Sadiya Farouk next, noting that she's the most corrupt minister in Buhari's cabinet following her continuous negligence of 500,000 law-abiding youths by making numerous promises without fulfilment.
“The abandoned youths are suffering to survive because she makes life very difficult for them after serving for about three to four years. Sadiya must go. We demand justice. Our exit package must be paid,” the source said.
On the Facebook page of the exited N-Power National President, Bashir Gobir, other disgruntled workers also registered their grievances.
Kabiru Ado Muhd started the conversation and posted, “President Muhammadu Buhari will also go round among ministers in the future, as said by his speaker (Presidential Media Aide) Mallam Garba Shehu. So, which minister do you want Buhari to sack next in your opinion?”
Reacting, Umar Magaji said, “Sadiya Farouk must be sacked. She must leave office. She's wicked, and may God humiliate her the way she's treating N-power Batch A and B. May God not let her have a good end.”
Umar Shehu commented, “Sadiya should be sacked next, no backlog, no exit package, no device after they made promise without fulfilling it.”
According to Patient Agu, “Sadiya must go because she is not complying with President Buhari's policies of uplifting 100 million people from poverty, she denied Batch A and B their right of getting exit package loan.”
Also, Zubair A Zube said, “Sadiya must be sacked, because she keeps on deceiving the 500,000 law-abiding youths. Why keeping our lives in more danger, giving us high blood pressure, keeps saying very soon every time and later ignores us. We're suffering a lot.”
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The recently exited N-Power beneficiaries have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouk, over her inability to pay their allowances.
The aggrieved people trooped to social media on Thursday demanding the termination of the appointment of the appointment of Farouk for aggravating their penury.
Sadiya Umar Farouk
SaharaReporters had reported last week Thursday how a source revealed that Farouk had withheld five months’ stipends from 14,000 volunteers.
“Npower Batch A and B who were engaged 2016 and 2017 respectively were disengaged since May 2020.
“While she launched another portal for exited Npower beneficiaries to apply for their exit package which the Federal government promised to give all the exited beneficiaries after serving for about three years.
“They are owing about 14,000 beneficiaries five months’ stipend but Sadiya Farouq keeps mute after making numerous promises without fulfilment while the 500,000 exited beneficiaries remained desperate for not getting loans promised while opening the portal,” the source disclosed last week.
After the sack of Saleh Mamman and Sabo Nanono, the Ministers of Power and Agriculture and Rural Development respectively by Buhari on Wednesday, the victims of the exited N-Power called Farouk’s sack as well.
The source speaking on the condition of anonymity told SaharaReporters on Thursday that Farouk was one of the most corrupt ministers in Buhari’s cabinet.
“We are urging President Buhari to sack Sadiya Farouk next, noting that she's the most corrupt minister in Buhari's cabinet following her continuous negligence of 500,000 law-abiding youths by making numerous promises without fulfilment.
“The abandoned youths are suffering to survive because she makes life very difficult for them after serving for about three to four years. Sadiya must go. We demand justice. Our exit package must be paid,” the source said.
On the Facebook page of the exited N-Power National President, Bashir Gobir, other disgruntled workers also registered their grievances.
Kabiru Ado Muhd started the conversation and posted, “President Muhammadu Buhari will also go round among ministers in the future, as said by his speaker (Presidential Media Aide) Mallam Garba Shehu. So, which minister do you want Buhari to sack next in your opinion?”
Reacting, Umar Magaji said, “Sadiya Farouk must be sacked. She must leave office. She's wicked, and may God humiliate her the way she's treating N-power Batch A and B. May God not let her have a good end.”
Umar Shehu commented, “Sadiya should be sacked next, no backlog, no exit package, no device after they made promise without fulfilling it.”
According to Patient Agu, “Sadiya must go because she is not complying with President Buhari's policies of uplifting 100 million people from poverty, she denied Batch A and B their right of getting exit package loan.”
Also, Zubair A Zube said, “Sadiya must be sacked, because she keeps on deceiving the 500,000 law-abiding youths. Why keeping our lives in more danger, giving us high blood pressure, keeps saying very soon every time and later ignores us. We're suffering a lot.”
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Two officers of the National Drugs' Law Enforcement Agency on a special duty from Ogwashi Uku command headquarters in Delta State have been arrested and detained at the Sapele Police Station over the death of a 50-year-old alleged drugs dealer, Ilaya Christine.
It was alleged that Christine who was dealing in marijuana and other hard drugs was arrested by the drugs' enforcement officers from the Ogwashi Uku command for being in possession of hard drugs.
File Photo
The deceased’s friend, Friday Akpotor, said Christine was arrested by the NDLEA officers numbering about 14 with two vehicles at about 9am and taken away, only for them to return him half-dead after torture.
Another source close to the Ilaya family said Christine was “raided by NDLEA men over possession of drugs and taken away. Minutes later, they brought him back feeling unwell and it was the wife and some of the officers who took him to the clinic and left for the Central Hospital where he died.”
He added, “Obviously, they beat him to death and as I speak to you, his corpse has been deposited at the Sapele General Hospital mortuary by the police and the NDLEA officers without even contacting the family.”
A group of youths who assembled at the Tropical area, in Amukpe where the deceased was arrested, also pointed accusing fingers at the agency for brutally killing their brother.
“We will not accept this and soon you will know what we can do,” some of them threatened.
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I CAME across a Cable News Network, CNN, interview with a man identified as the Ugandan Minister of Internal Affairs. It was anchored by the network’s North American Correspondent, Larry Madowo, who clearly was being threatened.
Madowo, a Kenyan journalist who had also worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, had to go into hiding in 2018 when he had a disagreement with the Kenyan government over press freedom. Now on air, a Ugandan minister was making a veiled threat because Madowo asked uncomfortable questions about 177 people detained by the military for their political choices.
Everything about the video seemed okay, including the CNN logo and the fact that the journalist conducting the interview is a serving CNN correspondent. I posted it on a serious WhatsApp platform on August 27, 2021. Four days later, I found out that the ‘interview’ was a prank. Yes there was a CNN interview conducted by Madowo with an Ugandan Minister.
Owei Lakemfa
However, it was not its Internal Affairs Minister, but with Foreign Minister, General Jeje Odongo. So, the original interview was doctored and circulated to the world with no indication it was a prank and without any warning or caveat. Lies were deliberately spread against Uganda.
In a sense, we are victims of a world in which reality can be substituted with illusion, and lies passed off as the truth. Falsehood has become a pandemic with Donald Trump when he was American President, as the super spreader. The research results of the Washington Post of January 24, 2021, revealed that during his four-year presidency, Trump told a total of 30,573 lies or inaccurate claims.
That means that he told 7,643 lies per annum; 637 monthly or 21 lies for everyday he was in office. Only Trump broke his own record with 503 false claims or lies in a single day; that was on November 2, 2020. But lies can be quite rewarding as 74,216,154 adult Americans rewarded Trump with their votes in the 2020 presidential election.
Also, one of the biggest beneficiaries of lies, is an Italian immigrant in America, Charles Ponzi, who in 1920 tricked thousands of Americans into investing in a phoney postage stamp scheme with a promise of 50 per cent return on investments every 90 days. Every time a new investor paid, he used the money to off-set the returns of earlier investors.
At a point, Ponzi raked in an average $250, 000 daily or about $3 million by today’s calculations. That year, he was charged with 86 counts of mail fraud. He was such a smooth operator and so good that such schemes were named after him: Ponzi Scheme.
In this age, the truth is no longer reality; like religion, it is what you believe. On the other hand, what you disbelieve is not the truth or cannot be the truth because the truth depends on who is saying it, to whom and in what circumstances. The truth is like market forces; its price is determined by a perfect system of ‘Willing Buyers’ and ‘Willing Sellers’. Its value is determined at the stock exchange.
The truth, like Western Democracy, is a game of numbers or the numbers; however you get them or arrive at the numbers is not important. The truth is no match for falsehood; it is at best a sparring partner. In most cases, the truth is like the 2021 Arsenal football team: fabled gunners who can neither shoot straight nor defend their position.
On the other hand, the lie is so sweet that it does not need sweeteners. It is also quite easy not just to put on the garb of the truth, but in fact, to assume its identity. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Propaganda, was quoted as saying: “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes accepted as truth.” This is what psychologists call the “Illusion of truth”. That is why after decades of the United States declaring countries like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and Syria as ‘state sponsors of terrorism’, we have come to believe this as the truth.
Nigeria has been beset by terrorism since 2009. So many leapt for joy when in September 2015, the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari announced it would wipe out Islamic terrorists within three months. When the period expired, we expected the government to tell Nigerians it had been over confident and would need far more time. Yes, the government reported back to Nigerians, however, it was not to ask for more time, but to report that it had “technically defeated” the terrorists.
Today, six years after, with the war against terrorism becoming full blown and government repeating its claims, I am beginning to believe that Nigeria has defeated terrorism. By the way, please, don’t ask me if this Goebbels quote is true, or one of the endless lies peddled by the allied powers and their propagandists against Adolf Hitler and his party.
In most cases, the truth is not pleasant; it might be better to ignore or marginalise it. Better still, to turn it into an orphan. Like we say in Nigeria: “The truth is bitter.” So it might be better to ignore it, or take it with sweeteners of lies. That is why in many climes, governments can ignore or forgive you for telling lies against them, but will be quite brutal for revealing the truth. This is why official files are marked “Secret” or “Top Secret.” It is also why the citizen is told: “Keep our secrets, secret.” To act otherwise, is to be labelled a spy which can lead you to prison or even death.
This is why Julian Assange is being made to waste and live out his productive life in British prison. His unforgivable crime is that he uploaded mega tonnes of the truth about American atrocities on the internet. If he were dealing in falsehood, his lies might simply have been exposed and he is told to go, and sin no more.
Unfortunately, many of us who believe in the truth, will not make Heaven. The Holy Book decrees: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). But how can we know the truth when we can hardly differentiate truth from falsehood; when the face of the truth is buried in the funeral piles of falsehood waiting for the fires to be lit?
How do we recognise the truth when it has undergone serious battery requiring many plastic surgeries and face lift? Perhaps the truth is whatever pisses you off. This may be the reason the American journalist and feminist, Gloria Steinem made the famous variant: “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off."
