TheNewsGuru

Tag: niger

  • NDLEA intercepts explosives enroute bandits camp

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has intercepted a consignment of 32 pieces of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), on its way to bandits’ camp in Niger.

    The Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

    Babafemi quoted the Chairman, NDLEA, retired, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa as ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect, Musa Muhammadu caught with the explosives on Monday May 22 on Wawa Road, Kainji, Niger to the military authorities.

    He said that the agency had intensified operations at drug joints and routes nationwide, ahead of the May 29 inauguration of new administrations across the country.

    Babafemi said that operatives of the agency at the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (SAHCO) export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International (MMIA) Airport Ikeja Lagos, also intercepted a consignment of 30.10kg methamphetamine.

    He said that the consignment were billed to London.

    He added that another shipment containing 379grams of the same illicit substance concealed in false bottom of six black soap containers were recovered.

    Babafemi said that the drugs were packed in a carton containing local hand fans, heading to Cyprus in Europe.

    He also said that the officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation (DOGI), of the agency carried out the operation in a courier company in Lagos.

    Also, in Adamawa operatives on stop and search patrol on Michika- Bazza Road on Friday, May 26 arrested a Cameroonian, Ndawai Ngalou with a pair of Nigerian Army camouflage uniform bearing Sunday U and two ATM cards belonging to Turaki Mohammed and Ekene Izuegunam.

  • DPO, 4 policemen killed in gun duel with bandits

    DPO, 4 policemen killed in gun duel with bandits

    The Police Command in Niger has confirmed the death of a Divisional Police Officer, SP Mukhtar Sabiu, and four other policemen in a gun duel with bandits in Gurara Local Government Area on Saturday.

    This is contained in a statement by DSP Wasiu Abiodun, the command’s Public Relations Officer, issued in Minna on Sunday.

    “On 11/02/2023 at about 1100hrs, information was received that armed bandits were sighted around Kwakuti-Dajigbe villages area of Lambata, in an attempt to attack some communities around Gurara Local Government Area.

    “Combined teams of police from Gawu-Babangida and Paiko Divisions, military, and vigilante members were drafted to the scene.

    “The hoodlums were engaged in a gun duel and repelled with scores of them neutralised, while others escaped with bullet injuries.

    “Regrettably, DPO Paiko Division, Superintendent of Police (SP) Mukhtar Sabiu and four other police personnel from both divisions lost their lives during the gun duel.”

    The spokesman said that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Ogundele Ayodeji, later led a reinforcement team to the scene and recovered the bodies of the deceased personnel.

    Ayodeji condoled with the families of the affected personnel, while reassuring the public that the police would not relent in their efforts to eliminate banditry and other forms of criminality in the state.

    Similarly, police tactical teams and vigilante members on Friday at about 3:00pm thwarted attempts by bandits to attack Chibani village market via Sarkin-Pawa, Munya local government area of the state.

    Abiodun said the hoodlums were successfully repelled without any incident, and normalcy restored in the area.

  • Hemp: Niger LG Boss appears before NDLEA over trending video

    Hemp: Niger LG Boss appears before NDLEA over trending video

    The Chairman of Chanchaga Local Government in Niger, Alhaji Aminu Ladan, has disowned a trending video clip of him encouraging some youths to use the council secretariat to smoke weed.

    Ladan told operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Thursday in Minna that the viral video was doctored by those who posted it on the Internet to tarnish his image and scuttle his political career.

    Ladan was invited for questioning by the NDLEA over the matter.

    “As a leader I will never make such a derogatory and inciting statement that will destroy the society rather than build it.

    “The video clip on social media was doctored by my political rivals to achieve their selfish interest of destroying my political career,” he said.

    He appealed to the people of the state, especially residents of Chanchaga local government area to remain calm and ignore the video.

    The Chairman challenged members of the public to watch the full video clip to ascertain the truth.

    Dr Mohammed Malami, Commander Zone “C” of the NDLEA,  said that the trending video clip was embarrassing and an attempt to sabotage the work of the anti-narcotic agency.

    “The video was disturbing, being that we are approaching the general elections.

    “Also the Niger Command of the agency was commended twice recently by the Headquarters for ensuring drug demand reduction,” he said.

    Malami appreciated the local government chairman for honouring the Agency’s invitation to explain the content of the video.

    Earlier, Mr Haruna Kwetishe, the state NDLEA Commander, said that the command was extremely worried about the video clip encouraging young people to use the local government secretariat as a joint to smoke hemp.

    “When we saw the video it gave us concern and we invited the local government chairman for clarification.

    “He has debunked the statement, saying that the video clip was doctored by some persons for their political interest.

    “Therefore, his debunking of the allegation has settled our minds,” he said.

    Kwetishe said that after reviewing the whole content of the video clip, it was clear that someone doctored it to achieve a particular purpose.

    “We want members of the public to be careful with some of the video content on the social media.

    “Some people may edit a video to indict someone, living the person with the burden of dispelling the rumour,” he said.

    He assured the people that the agency would continue to work towards eradicating illicit drugs in the state.

  • Fish out killers of Rev. Fr. Achi, assembly tells Niger govt

    Fish out killers of Rev. Fr. Achi, assembly tells Niger govt

    The Niger State House of Assembly has called on the executive arms of government to fish out the killer of Rev. Fr. Isaac Achi at Kafin-Koro area in Paikoro Local Government of the state.

    The call followed a motion under matters of urgent public importance brought before the house by Mr Andrew Jagaba (APC-Munya) during the plenary session in Minna on Thursday.

    The Speaker of the House, Mr. Abdullahi Bawa, while reading the resolutions of the house, called on the state government to, as a matter of urgency, deploy resources toward apprehending the killers.

    He said that the state government should also carry out its constitutional duty of protecting the lives and property of citizens.

    Bawa said that a delegation should be sent to condole with the Catholic Diocese of Minna and the families to the deceased.

    Earlier in his motion, Jagaba said that Section 14 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution as amended provides that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.

    The lawmaker recalled that Achi of St. Paul and Peter’s Catholic Church, Kafin-Koro, died on Jan. 15 when he was burnt by unknown assassins at the parish residence.

  • Bandits gang rape pregnant woman to death

    Bandits gang rape pregnant woman to death

    A pregnant mother has been gang raped to death by terrorists in Dnakundna village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

    The incident occurred when the woman ran into the bandits as she fled from an attack on her village.

    According to The Nation, the terrorists had imposed a N2 million levy on the villagers to allow them to harvest from their farms.

    But it was gathered that the villagers could not pay the sum, which angered the bandits.

    To avoid being attacked, the villagers, especially women and children in their numbers, decided to leave the village but unknown to them that the bandits had already been informed of their mass exodus and decided to lay ambush.

    The pregnant woman was not lucky as she and her three children ran into the ambush, and were matched into the bush.

    After being raped by no fewer than seven men, the woman was left with bruises all over her body.

    She was taken to the hospital by her family but died on Friday night, December 23, 2022.

    It was gathered that many villagers were abducted during the attack.

  • Nigerien military helicopter crashes, three killed

    Nigerien military helicopter crashes, three killed

    Three people have been confirmed dead after a Nigerien military helicopter crashed on return from a routine training flight.

    The country’s defence ministry said the helicopter crashed while landing at an airport in the capital Niamey on Monday, December 26, killing three people on board including an expatriate instructor.

    The wreckage burst into flames, blocking rescuers from reaching the crew.

    Reuters reported that a commission of inquiry has been set up to determine the cause of the accident.

  • Why Buni received Niger’s National Honour Award

    Why Buni received Niger’s National Honour Award

    Niger’s President, Mohamed Bazoum, has decorated Gov Mai Mala Buni of Yobe with the country’s National Honour Award.

    This is contained in a statement by Buni’s Director-General Press and Media Affairs, Alhaji Mamman Mohammed, in Damaturu on Sunday.

    He said the governor was decorated with the ‘Commandeur dans l’ordre du merite du Niger’ in Niamey, the capital of Niger Republic on Sunday.

    Bazum said the honour was in recognition of Buni’s contribution to bilateral, economic and social relationship between Nigeria and Niger Republic.

    He added that the award had placed the governor in a position of an ambassador who would strengthen relationship between the two countries.

    In his remarks, Buni expressed happiness for the award, saying that it would spur him to do more in the interest of the two neighboring countries.

    “Yobe shares international borders with Niger Republic, therefore, we will strengthen peace, peaceful coexistence, and economic prosperity among the border communities of the two countries,” he said.

    Mohammed said Buni was accompanied by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, members of the state Executive Council, members of the national and state legislature, among others.

    Buni had also received Nigeria’s National Honour of Commander of the order of the Niger (CON) in Oct.

  • 2023: Court affirms Kantigi as Niger PDP candidate

    2023: Court affirms Kantigi as Niger PDP candidate

    A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, affirmed Mr Liman Kantigi as the validly elected governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 elections in Niger.

    Justice Zainab Abubarkar, in a judgement, dismissed the suit brought by the plaintiff, Mr Idris Mohammed Sani, for lacking in merit.

    Newsmen reports that Sani had sued the PDP, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Kantigi as 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.

    In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/804/2022, the plaintiff had challenged that the PDP (1st defendant) ought not to have cleared Kantigi (3rd defendant) to participate in the party’s primaries, having submitted false documents for the poll.

    Delivering the judgment, Justice Abubakar held that the suit failed to disclose reasonable cause of action against the defendants.

    The judge, who said that the case was a pre-election matter, held that the cause of action should have crystallised 14 days after the said action.

    She, however, said that the suit was filed before the conduct of the primaries.
    The judge held that the plaintiff had no cause of action in the suit, hence, the jurisdiction of the court cannot be activated.

    She said that the court would have assumed jurisdiction if the plaintiff had challenged the actual conduct of the poll.

    Abubakar, who said that the suit was not properly instituted, declared that it lacked merit.
    She consequently dismissed the suit.

  • Crude Oil Theft: Govt is helpless, top officials deeply involved, says renown journalist, Akugha, who reports in Niger Delta +photos

    Crude Oil Theft: Govt is helpless, top officials deeply involved, says renown journalist, Akugha, who reports in Niger Delta +photos

     

    The executive producer of the acclaimed television and radio series, Inside The Niger Delta, Mamode Akugha says the Federal Government is helpless in the fight against oil thieves in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
    Over One billion US dollars worth of crude was stolen from Nigeria in the first quarter of this year. Akugha said crude theft is the biggest single business in Nigeria today.
    Akugha was speaking during an anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development, PRIMORG, Wednesday in Abuja.
    He lamented that for every 100 barrels of oil crude produced, Nigeria loses 91 to oil thieves, leaving the Federal Government of Nigeria with only 9 barrels, leading to huge losses in revenue and fueling the illegal refinement of some of the stolen crude oil in the Niger Delta region
    Akugha said top military officers and community members were involved in the illegal business and urged the government to restructure the security architecture in the Niger Delta region and organize and set up modular refineries to curb the widespread oil theft and illegal refining of petroleum products in the Niger Delta region.
    The menace of oil theft had become a national disaster and a severe threat to Nigeria’s revenue base, and it is now said to be losing crude oil at the level of about 91 percent of output. Furthermore, a recent investigative report by Premium Times revealed that residents of Port Harcourt and environs risk health problems due to soot pollution.
    Akugha called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to change security strategies and stop the involvement of the military personnel in the booming oil theft business in the oil-rich region.
    He emphasized that the menace of oil theft continues to thrive due to corruption and complicity of military personnel and senior government officials, stressing that redeeming Nigeria from oil thieves can only be possible if the government rejigs the security architecture in the Niger Delta and stop military officials from getting involved.
    “The military is the ones who sell black (crude oil) to the boys, and the boys take it back to their camps and refine it. Some refine, some do bagging, some do the loading, and eventually, some coordinate the tankers that come in. This is happening in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Ondo, and Imo. It’s happening in every single place where you have oil production.”
    Asked what the government must do to tackle oil theft, Akugha said: “The right thing is just ensuring that our entire security architecture is overhauled.
    “These military guys have tasted this thing; it’s going to be so challenging to take it out of them. They are so corrupt now. In the Niger Delta, the military is a big problem.
    “It’s not that the FG does not know the involvement of their people. Governor Nyesom Wike has even pointed direct fingers at some people. He named a commander of an army formation in Port Harcourt directly responsible for oil bunkering, but what has the Federal Government done about that? So they need to overhaul their security strategy and remove the military from involvement in oil theft.
    Akugha advised the Buhari administration to jettison importation of petroleum products by organizing individuals in the Niger Delta region to run illegal refineries and establishing modular refineries, which will, in turn, reduce the burden of subsidy payment and loss of foreign exchange by the nation.
    “The government should go to the Niger Delta; What they are producing locally in diesel production now is even better than what is imported. Let them get these boys into cooperatives, support them, set up modular refineries, and let us forget about importing petroleum products from outside Nigeria and save that forex so the naira can improve,” Akugha stated.
    Earlier, a journalist with Premium Times, Chiamaka Okafor, noted that residents of Port Harcourt and its environs are in grave health danger following the soot pollution. She said that indigenes of communities she visited were the ones operating the illegal refineries, adding that unemployed university graduates are sorting to oil bunkering and illegally refining crude oil in the Niger Delta region.
    Despite identifying the lack of political will as a major challenge of the government in tackling the menace of oil theft, Okafor urged President Buhari-led government to live up to its billing regarding stamping out oil theft and soot pollution in oil-producing states.
    “For every problem in Nigeria, it is not the absence of the government knowing what to do but the lack of political will. So the onus lies on the government, and if there is no political will, we are back to ground zero, and that’s where we’ve been all this while.
    Last week, President Buhari vowed to increase security across the country to try to stamp out widespread oil theft after the supertanker, MV Heroic Idun, with a capacity of three million barrels, was seized by the navy of Equatorial Guinea, days after fleeing Nigeria.
    Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program used by PRIMORG to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.
    The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

  • No foreigner supplies arms to bandits with helicopter – Police

    No foreigner supplies arms to bandits with helicopter – Police

    The Niger Police Command said it had not arrested any foreign national distributing weapons with a helicopter to bandits in the state.

    Commissioner of Police, Mr. Monday Kuryas said in Minna on Friday that such an incident never occurred in any part of the state.

    Kuryas described the report as ”fake news circulating in social media as such incident never happened in the state.

    ”We have not arrested any foreign national with helicopter distributing weapons to bandits in our area of supervision.”.

    He called on members of the general public to disregard such reports and support the police with the required information that could aid in apprehending men of the underworld in the state.

    ”All we require from good samaritans is vital information on the movement of bad characters in their midst, especially those at rural areas to tackle the menace of kidnapping, banditry, and cattle rustling”, he urged.

    The commissioner said that the police would remain resolute and focused in “exterminating enemies of our collective security.”

    Kuryas, urged law-abiding citizens to be vigilant and promptly report all suspicious characters to security agencies nearest to them.

    He assured residents of the state of confidentiality of all sources of information.