We Will Free All Kidnapped Nigerians From Boko Haram Captivity – PMB [LEADERSHIP]
President Muhammadu Buhari has reassured Nigerians and the international community of the commitment of his administration to secure the freedom of all children and other victims of abduction by Boko Haram insurgents.
The Nigerian leader stated this at a high level breakfast dialogue on ‘‘Stop the War on Children Affected by Armed Conflicts, Dividends of Silencing the Guns’’, a side event during the 33rd African Union (AU) Summit.
Buhari’s renewed pledge to rescue the captives was contained in a statement issued by his senior special assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in Abuja, yesterday.
The programme was co-sponsored by Nigeria, Uganda and Norway, the AU Commission and Save the Children.
In his speech, Buhari stated that “a number of school girls from Chibok and Dapchi earlier abducted by Boko Haram have regained their freedom.
“We commend the gallant efforts of the Multinational Joint Task Force and the partners in supporting the reintegration of the girls.
“Let me categorically reassure you of the steadfast commitment of the government of Nigeria to ensure the freedom of all kidnapped children from the shackles of Boko Haram. We will not relent until every child, boy or girl, every Nigerian adult in the custody of Boko Haram, is freed,” Buhari declared.
The president urged African countries and stakeholders on the continent to work fervently towards strengthening the protection of children from the six grave violations during armed conflict.
Oyo Suspends 13 Head Teachers, 2 Others Over Misconduct [LEADERSHIP]
Oyo State government, yesterday, suspended 13 primary school head teachers and two assistant head teachers over gross misconduct.
The state government alleged that the 13 primary school teachers were involved in illegal collection of levies, extortion and various misconducts.
The state government issued the directive through the Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Nureni Adeniran, following an inspection tour of some schools in Ibadan metropolis.
Adeniran maintained that the state government would not tolerate inequity and gross indiscipline among teachers, noting that the Board suspended the erring teachers due to established facts met on ground at the various schools they supervised.
He added that apart from illegal collection of fees from pupils, the suspended teachers were also found culpable of insubordination and refusal to comply with posting instructions.
The SUBEB chairman, who stated that the suspended Teachers would face a disciplinary committee set up by the board, said the committee had been mandated to ensure a thorough probe of the allegations and give all concerned fair hearing.
Navy Relocates Command Drafting Office To Kogi [LEADERSHIP]
The Nigerian Navy has relocated the Command Naval Drafting sOffice to its permanent site at Nigerian Naval Ship (NNS) Lugard at Banda, Lokoja.
While receiving the Commandant of the command drafting office, Rear Admiral Ebony Aneke in his office in Lokoja, the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, commended the Nigerian Navy for taking the bold step of relocating the Command office to the state.
Speaking during the visit, the Commandant of the NNS Lugard, Rear Admiral Olotun, commended the governor for his contributions to the command and other security agencies in the state.
He said the essence of the visit was to officially notify the governor that the command naval drafting office has been relocated to Lokoja and to also introduce the Commandant of the naval drafting office to the governor.
He said that the Commandant has fully resumed his duty in the state.
Rear Admiral Olotun reminded the governor that the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, had during the inauguration of the NNS Lugard officers/ratings quarters stated that the command naval draft be relocated from Lagos to Lokoja immediately.
In his remarks, the commandant of the Nigerian Naval Drafting Office, Rear Admiral Ebony Aneke thanked the governor for his support to the security agencies in the state over the years and the success of his administration in the area of fighting insecurity in the state.
Buhari Raises Hope For Leah Sharibu’s Release [THE NATION]
- Frontal onslaught against Boko Haram, ISWAP ongoing
All victims of abductions by terror groups, including Leah Sharibu, the remaining Chibok, and Dapchi schoolchildren, will regain their freedom, says President Muhammadu Buhari.
The President gave the assurance on Monday at a breakfast dialogue themed: ‘Stop the War on Children Affected by Armed Conflicts, Dividend of Silencing the Guns’, held on the sidelines of the ongoing 33rd African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The programme was co-sponsored by the governments of Nigeria, Uganda and Norway, the AU Commission and Save the Children.
Buhari, who also charged AU Peace and Security Council to energetically champion the strategy to stop the war against children, said his administration had a frontal onslaught on Boko Haram and the “so-called” Islamic State West Africa Province(ISWAP), as part of measures to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
The President was quoted in a statement yesterday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, as having said that the onslaught, led to the release of “a number of schoolgirls from Chibok and Dapchi earlier abducted by Boko Haram” in the Northeast.
He said: ‘’Let me categorically reassure you of the steadfast commitment of the Government of Nigeria to ensure the freedom of all kidnapped children from the shackles of Boko Haram.
‘’We will not relent until every child, boy, or girl, every Nigerian adult in custody of Boko Haram, is freed.
‘’We commend the gallant efforts of the Multi-national Joint Task Force and the partners in supporting the reintegration of the (Chibok and Dapchi) girls.”
Southwest Governors To Sign Amotekun Bill Friday [THE NATION]
- Houses of Assembly begin legislative work
- Fayemi: outfit to protect all residents
All is set for the commencement of Operation Amotekun, the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN).
The legal hurdle which is delaying its take-off will be cleared this week.
Houses of Assembly in the six states – Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti – are expected to pass the regional security outfit’s operational bill for the governors to give assent on Friday.
Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi on Monday announced the decision of the governors to make the outfit operational, when he received the bill’s draft from Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Olawale Fapounda (SAN).
Operation Amotekun was launched by the governors on January 9 in Ibadan but Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice Abubakar Malami, declared the outfit illegal.
He said the Constitution has no room for a regional security outfit. He also said security is on the Exclusive list.
But the governors insisted that it was the only way for them to protect their people from kidnapping for ransom and other violent crimes.
Following Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s intervention on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, it was agreed that each of the states should legalise the security outfit.
Consequently, attorneys-general in the six states met to draft a bill while the speakers of Houses of Assembly agreed to give the bill accelerated passage.
Fayemi said yesterday: “My colleagues and I were still in discussion about this yesterday (on Sunday) and we have promised ourselves that this will be given accelerated discussion in our various state executive councils this week and we also send it expeditiously to our various houses of assembly this week. Our discussions with our speakers who had been really waiting for this, some of them had been recalling other honourable members from recess in order to give this an accelerated passage in their various legislature, so that by Friday the 14th of February, the bill that hopefully would have been passed would be assented to simultaneously in the six states of the Southwest.”
30 Burnt To Death By Boko Haram In Borno Attack [THE NATION]
A four-hour rampage by Boko Haram terrorists in Auno, a sleepy community near Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Sunday night left no fewer than 30 people, including infants, dead.
The victims consumed by the fire set to their houses and the vehicles inside which they were sleeping by the insurgents who arrived in the village on motorcycles.
Eyewitnesses said the fire was aggravated by a military fuel tanker which rammed into parked commercial vehicles already torched by the insurgents.
An unspecified number of women, according to some of the witnesses, were said to have been abducted by the terrorists before fleeing the village along the Maiduguri/Damaturu highway. There was, however, no independent confirmation of the abduction
A resident said “those who died in that attack were over 30, including infants. The attack started around 9:45pm (on Sunday) and lasted till about 1am (Monday).
“The entire village was almost burnt down.
“A friend’s relative was among the victims. They were caught up in the curfew imposed by the government on parts of the state because they got to the checkpoint few minutes past 5pm.”
87% Nigeria’s Poverty Rate In North – World Bank [PUNCH]
The North accounted for 87 per cent of all the poor people in Nigeria in 2016, the World Bank has disclosed in a new report.
The report titled ‘Advancing social protection in a dynamic Nigeria’, released on January 28, 2020, was described as a ‘detailed analysis of the social protection sector’ in the country.
The report noted that social protection measures implemented by the government in Nigeria had not been able to address the high level of poverty, as well as the negative impact of conflicts and natural disasters.
In the comprehensive report, obtained by one of our correspondents, the World Bank observed that although Nigeria was a richly endowed country, it had a larger proportion of the world’s extreme poor than any other nation.
The report further noted that most of the poor in Nigeria were found in the Northern part of the country.
The North-West, specifically, was described as home to almost half of all the poor in the country.
Nigeria’s President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, (retd.), is from Katsina, a state in the North-West, which like other parts of the North, has produced a larger proportion of Nigerian leaders.
Looking at inequality in the country, the report said, “Nigeria experiences high inequality along geographic lines, with poverty mostly concentrated in the North and in rural areas.
“Poverty in the northern regions of the country has been increasing, especially in the North-West zone.
“Almost half of all the poor lived in the North-West and the North accounts for 87 per cent of all the poor in the country in 2016.”
“Poverty rates in the southern zones were around 12 per cent with little variation across zones. The South-South zone saw the most significant drop in poverty from 2011-2016.
“Poverty was significantly higher in rural areas of the country in 2016. An estimated 64 per cent of all poor lived in rural areas and 52 per cent of the rural population lived below the poverty line in 2016. In contrast, the poverty rate in urban areas remained stable at 16 per cent between 2011 and 2016.”
Community Policing: IG Meets South-East Govs Wednesday, Police Begin Screening [PUNCH]
The Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, and the South-East governors will on Wednesday meet in Enugu, the Enugu State capital, over the Federal Government’s community policing policy.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, who disclosed this in an interview with one of our correspondents on Monday, said the IG would be attending a security summit with the South-East governors as part of a nationwide mobilisation towards the community policing policy.
The meeting is coming three days after the South-East governors, the Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and prominent Igbo leaders met on the insecurity in the country, in Enugu.
Before the meeting attended by the governors and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo leaders at the Enugu State Government House on Sunday, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo at another meeting earlier in the day said it would do everything to defend its people.
At the Enugu State Government House meeting, the South-East governors urged the houses of assembly in the zone to make laws that would pave the way for the establishment of a security outfit for the region.
But the Force Public Relations Officer, Mba, told The PUNCH that the police had begun the process of screening and recruiting constables for community policing.
Recall that the IG, had in a wireless message to state commissioners of police, directed them to liaise with community leaders and traditional rulers with a view to setting up committees for recruiting the constables.
Boko Haram Kills 30 Travellers As Military Closes Maiduguri Gate [PUNCH]
Suspected Boko Haram on Sunday killed no fewer than 30 people, majorly late travellers in a Borno village.
Villagers said the victims arrived at the military checkpoint leading into Maiduguri after the 5pm closure of the gate and had no choice but to sleep in Auno, the neighbouring village on the Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway.
The villagers, while narrating their ordeal in the hands of the terrorist group on Sunday night to the Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, said many persons were abducted.
They lamented that 18 vehicles comprising trailers, buses and cars were burnt by the insurgents who laid siege to the village at about 9.50 pm on Sunday.
The villagers, who were still in shock when the governor visited them on Monday morning, said women and children were loaded into three buses and driven away.
The villagers lamented that most of those that were attacked were those that could not get into Maiduguri on Sunday as the gate to the town was shut against them having failed to arrive before the 5pm deadline.
One of the villagers, who spoke to journalists in confidence, said, “It is so sad as the Boko Haram seems to have targeted the people knowing that many would have to sleep in Auno as the gate to Maiduguri would have been shut against them by 5pm.”
The governor, who was visibly shaken when he saw the charred bodies of the victims of the attack, requested the military authorities to dismantle the Auno gate from its present position and move it further away from the village so that it would be more difficult for the insurgents to gain access into the village.
He said the Borno State Government would assist those whose vehicles were destroyed in the attack as well as those whose goods were burnt alongside the vehicles transporting foodstuff and other wares to Maiduguri.
Malabu Oil Scam: Ex-AGF, Adoke Gets Bail, Rearraigned [SUN]
Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court, yesterday, granted bail to the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN) to the sum of N50 million and one surety in the like sum.
In her ruling on the bail applications, Justice Nyako, ordered that Adoke and his co-defendant, Aliyu Abubakar, should be released on bail on all the conditions that was earlier handed to them by a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory sitting at Gwagwalada, on January 30, 2020.
The FCT High Court had in it’s by Justice Abubakar Kutigi stressed that the sureties must be responsible citizens that must depose affidavits of means, adding that they must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court and own verifiable landed properties worth the bail sum.
The court further ordered the sureties to tender their three years tax clearance certificates, even as it seized international passports of all the defendants, warning them not to travel out of the country without permission.
It held that the defendants must sign a written undertaking not to interfere with any of the prosecution witnesses and to make themselves available for trial at all times.
The bail followed an initial 42-count corruption charge the EFCC preferred against the defendants over separate roles they played in the alleged fraudulent transfer of ownership of Oil Prosecting License, OPL, 245, regarded as one of the biggest oil blocs in Africa.
A few minutes later, Adoke and Mohammed were again arraigned on a fresh seven-count charge of money laundering before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Also arraigned with him is Aliyu Abubakar who is accused of paying dollar equivalent of N300m in Adoke’s account in September 2013 in violation of the Money Laundering Act.
Both Adoke and Abubakar are standing trial alongside others at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Gwagwalada, Abuja, in respect of the Malabu Oil scam.
After the charges were read to them by a court official, they all pleaded not guilty before Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court.
In the said charges, the prosecution alleged that the second defendant, about September 2013, made payments in naira and dollar which equivalent was about N300m into Adoke’s accounts in violation of various provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
Meanwhile, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Bala Sanga, urged the court to remand them in EFCC custody pending when their bail applications would be heard and determined.
However, the defence team led by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), who appeared for Adoke and Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) for Abubakar informed the court that they had filed separate applications for the bail of their clients.
Meantime, Adoke told the court of his preference to be remanded in the Kuje Correctional Centre to the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
His lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), disclosed this while arguing his client’s bail application when he noted that his client was produced in court by the EFCC from the Federal Medical Centre near Jabi, Abuja, where he had been admitted for treatment
While arguing his bail application, Ozekhome who urged the court to grant bail to the former AGF in liberal and affordable terms and conditions said his client would prefer to be remanded in the Kuje Correctional Centre, instead of the custody of the EFCC.
Fleeing Hyena Recaptured In Imo [SUN]
Experts have recaptured a male hyena which escaped from Imo State Zoological Garden and Wildlife Park at the early hours of Monday.
General Manager of the zoo, Francis Abioye Who confirmed the recapture of the animal told our correspondent that the hyena was recaptured after six hours of its escape by experts.
Before the recapturing, there was heavy panic within the Nekede autonomous community in Owerri West council area, a host community of the zoo.
However, the GM who led the operation said there was no casualty as the animal was recaptured by experts through “Physical Restricted Method,”.
He disclosed that the operation lasted for six hours before the animal was eventually captured.
Abioye explained that the operation was aided by armed personnel of Civil Defense corps who were attached to the zoo.
Abioye however advised the general public to go about their normal business as the situation has been put under control.
China Gives Nigeria Tips On Coronavirus Treatment [SUN]
The Chinese Government has distributed official guide documents on how to prevent and control the novel but deadly Coronavirus pneumonia to Nigerian authorities.
The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, which disclosed the development to Daily Sun, said the guide documents were provided by China National Health Commission to Nigeria and other countries through official channel.
“Documents include Lab Test (laboratory test) Procedure, Epidemic Update and Risk Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol, Management of Close Contacts, Surveillance, Epidemiological Investigation,” the Embassy of China disclosed.
The Chinese Government further disclosed that notable rise in cure rates in Wuhan, Hubei and nationwide have been recorded in the fight against the 2019 novel Coronavirus.
In the February 10 edition of the ‘Newsletter on Fighting 2019-nCoV,’ the Chinese Government said: “Statistics today suggest a notable increase in cure rates in Wuhan, Hubei and across China, which rose to 6.2 percent, 6.1 percent and 8.2 percent respectively as compared to 2.6 percent, 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent on 27 January. The figures show that treatment measures are achieving preliminary results across the country.”
It also reported that Chinese authorities were carefully balancing efforts to control the novel coronavirus epidemic and minimise its impact on the economy.
It added that millions of people in China headed back to work on Monday after an extended holiday.
Giving an overall update on the situation, the Newsletter reported that as of 24:00 on February 9, the National Health Commission of China received 40,171 reports of confirmed cases and 908 deaths on the Chinese mainland.
It said in all, 3,281 patients had been cured and discharged from hospital.
“There still remained 23,589 suspected cases.
“So far, 187,518 are now under medical observation, who have been identified as having had close contact with infected patients.
“The number of confirmed infections in the China’s Hong Kong (36, incl. 1 death) and Macao (10, incl. 1 cured) special administrative regions and Taiwan province (18 incl. 1 cured) had risen to 64 in total, according to the commission,” the Chinese Government said.