Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Tuesday 15th December 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 15/12/20
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Three Suspected Kidnappers, Ritualists Arrested In Ondo
Three suspected ritualists have been arrested at a house where abducted persons were slaughtered in Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State.
The suspects, Bode Omoboye, Eric Ogungbamila and Tayo Loto who served as their agents, are currently being detained at the Igbokoda police division.
According to residents of the community, Tayo confessed after an interrogation that he was sent to Kogi State by Omoboye and Ogungbamila to kidnap people and bring them to Igbokoda for rituals.
“I want to appeal to Nigerians to take this case seriously, especially the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, and his Kogi State counterpart, Yahaya Bello because this case involves two states,” said a resident who narrated the incident on Facebook.He added, “A guy named Loto Tayo has confessed after interrogation at NURTW motor park in Igbokoda that he was sent to Kogi State by two men from Igbokoda to go and kidnap people for rituals as he has been doing for them for a very long time.”Though Tayo was successful this time around, having spent two weeks in Lokoja looking for whom to kidnap for the rituals, he came to Igbokoda on the 12th of December 2020 with two beautiful ladies and a guy.”On their way coming, Tayo lodged at Brytelite Hotel along Igbokoda road in Okitipupa where the duo of Eric and Bode went to meet him to confirm the job.”Thereafter, Eric and Bode left the hotel (Brytelite) while Tayo also left with the three persons to Igbokoda. On their way coming to Igbokoda, Tayo entered a commercial car with the three persons.”Fortunately for the kidnapped victims, another lady entered the car with them. On their way coming to Igbokoda, the three kidnapped persons regained their consciousness and secretly narrated their problem to the lady who entered the car with them.”
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Police Parade 45 Suspects For Armed Robbery, Murder In Bayelsa
Police in Bayelsa State have paraded 45 suspects arrested for armed robbery, rape, arson, murder and cultism in the state.
Five suspects were arrested for their involvement in the last month’s invasion of the country home of the former governor of the state, Seriake Dickson, and killing of a police inspector in Toru Orua Community of Sagbama Local government area of the state.
The Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mike Okoli, while parading the suspects, noted that though crime and criminality could not be eradicated in the country, the police are on top of their games to checkmate and arrest perpetrators of such crimes.
He said due to intelligence gathering and discreet investigations, the police arrested the five suspects that invaded Dickson’s home who were searching for hidden money purportedly kept in his residence.He said though the suspects confessed to the planning of the invasion, they denied that they carried out the attack. “We will arraign them in court and allow the court to determine their fate and tell the court who carried out the invasion and killing of the inspector,” Okoli said.Okoli disclosed that the police also arrested a 41 years old married man and employee of the Bayelsa Ministry of Education from Ekeremor Town in Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state over alleged rape of a 25 years old virgin who just completed the mandatory National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).The commissioner of police said that the state police command has no mercy for suspects involved in rape and child defilement cases, declaring that the command would diligently prosecute culprits.According to Okoli, an investigation showed that the suspect promised his victim marriage and lured her to his friend’s house.”He threatened to kill her and had forceful carnal knowledge of her despite her plea for mercy,” Okoli said.On the repeated rival cult clashes in Yenagoa, the state capital, Okoli confirmed the arrest of two leaders of rival militant groups known as the Greenlanders and Bobos.Two suspects, Finidi Aaron, who is identified as the leader of the Bobos cult and Richard Derigha, the leader of the Greenlanders, were also arrested.They were both alleged to be involved in numerous killings in Yenagoa, including the invasion of the office of the telecommunication giant MTN, killing its customer.
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Tenant Takes Over Widow’s House In Abuja, Uses Police To Intimidate Relatives
The relatives of an Oyo State-based widow and property owner, Kachi Owanwe, have cried out for help over intimidation by tenant Vitalis Njoku who allegedly used the police to harass them at their house located at Bilyman Usman Street in Jab, Abuja.
Njoku occupies one of the three flats in the building which was rented to him by Osias and Oseji Estate Surveyors and Valuers. He had refused to sign and returned the tenancy agreement form to the house agents.
With a long-overdue rent and a debt of N4 million, the owners appealed to Njoku to move out for the house to be renovated, but he allegedly refused to do so, further barring other potential tenants from taking over from him.
Instead, they said, he installed cameras and door locks at every point in the building to track uninvited guests and wade them off with dogs.
One of the widow’s relatives, Jonathan Chinedu, said Njoku had gone on to occupy the two bedrooms downstairs without their consent in the previous year, a scenario which had prompted the tenant to keep police officers at the gate and prevent their property managers from gaining access to the compound.Earlier in November, Chinedu said he went for a routine check at the building but discovered that Njoku and his two male cousins had burgled the other apartments and carted away seven air conditioners. Chinedu alleged that Njoku had told his cousins to take whatever they wanted as he was bound to leave soon, adding that with threats to have the case of theft reported, one of the boys’ mothers appealed and promised to replace the air conditioners with her own money.He said the case had been reported to the Life Camp Police Station.The relatives, however, said they wished to go to court to bring to book the policemen who had been intimidating them at the house and to evict Njoku from the building.”Njoku is a police contractor who has been using the police to intimidate us,” Chinedu said. “They even stayed in this building for more than a year until the federal government stated that all policemen assigned to private properties should be withdrawn and that was how they left.”The policemen had been here since September 2019 till after #EndSARS. But yet at night, Njoku still brings the police. He claims to be connected, and nobody can take him out.”He had gone to Zone 7 when he heard the matter was going to be taken to court, not because he wanted them to investigate and do justice, but because he wanted to flatten it. And we’ve tried our possible best to get the name of the senior police officer who used to be the Area Commander of that place. He is the police friend that Njoku used to intimidate us.”
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Shiites Dare Police, Demonstrate In Abuja To Mark Five Years of Zaria Massacre
Members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), popularly known as Shiites, on Monday dared the Nigerian police. They staged a massive protest at the nation’s capital Abuja to mark the fifth anniversary of the massacre of their members by the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The demonstrators stormed Wuse Market chanting anti-government songs to demand the release of their leader, Ibraheem El-zakzaky, who has been held since December 2015.
The sect also distributed some leaflets to passersby which contained information on how unarmed members of the sect were murdered soldiers.
PHOTONEWS: Shiites Dare @PoliceNG, Hold Protest On Abuja Streets To Mark Five Years Of #ZariaMassacre Carried Out By @HQNigerianArmy | Sahara Reporters pic.twitter.com/yvCvRHgMRZ— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) December 14, 2020
The group said the demonstration was aimed to honour and remember hundreds of their members who died during a violent clash with the convoy of Chief of Army Staff, Yusuf Buratai.
The Spokesperson for the group, Abdullahi Musa who recounted the tragic incident, said nobody was spared during the massacre including children, women and the elderly.He said: “Even pregnant women and nursing mothers were not at all relieved from such wanton brutality. Some women, so heavily pregnant, delivered of their babies under duress.”Children were moving about crying in search of their parents, some even clutching them, having been killed beforehand. Soldiers did not refrain from harming such toddlers. It was a sad and disgusting spectacle,” he said.The demonstration ended at Berger Roundabouts, where armed police officers had gathered to prevent the group from advancing further into the city.
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E2%80%99-abduction-slap-buhari%E2%80%99s-face%E2%80%94soyinka Katsina Schoolboys’ Abduction A Slap On Buhari’s Face—Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has lamented the spate of insecurity in the country, noting that President Muhammadu Buhari was not in charge of the government.
He said the recent “abduction once again of the nation’s children” in “Buhari’s terrain” is “a slap across the face of the Commander-in-Chief”.
Wole Soyinka
He spoke on the backdrop of late Friday’s abduction of pupils in an all-boys Government Secondary in Katsina State; hometown of Buhari.
Soyinka condemned the security challenges confronting in the country in a statement on Tuesday titled “INFRADIG–A presidential comeuppance.”
He added that when the National Assembly summoned the President to appear before it amid the rising insecurity in the country, he (Buhari) didn’t initially consider the summon as below the standard of behaviour.He stated that the President considered the invitation as a polite invitation to preserve the “tattered remains of his ‘Born-Again’ democratic camouflage.”“That, to come to the present, constituted General Buhari’s response to the National Assembly’s invitation to drop in for a chat. He did not consider it infradig at the beginning. He responded to the polite invitation to rub minds urgently over a people’s security anxieties as one who still struggled to preserve the tattered remains of his ‘Born-Again’ democratic camouflage.“However, his reversal of consent raised yet again the frightening situation report I have fervently posed: Buhari is not in charge. Whoever is, that segment of the cabalistic control cornered him on the way to the lawmakers’ chambers and urged: Don’t! Their invitation is infradig! He succumbed.“Beneath the dignity of a Commander-in-Chief! Well. The opportunistic homicidal respondents -Bandits/Boko Haram or whoever – thereupon picked up the gauntlet and provided a response in their language: abduction once again of the nation’s children. They handed him a slap across the face, on his home terrain, taunting: See if that is more suited to your dignity, ” he stated.He noted that he joined other people in using the word “Infra dignitatem” to any situation indicating assailing his dignity or statement unworthy of response.He said, “Once, the word featured prominently in the repertory of Nigerian shorthand diction. Indeed, I grew up thinking that it was only one word, not two, and also assumed that it was English, not Latin: infra dignitatem!“I joined others in applying the shorthand to any situation where I felt that my dignity was assailed, that a chore was beneath my status, an individual beneath notice or a statement unworthy of response. Sometimes, of course, it came useful when one could not think of an adequate response. Then, carrying myself as I had seen others do, I hissed, shook my head in disdain, and walked away as I spat out the ultimate sanction: Infradig!”According to the playwright, the nation is at war considering the latest abduction of pupils reminiscent of the kidnap of Chibok schoolgirls in Born State on April 14, 2014.Soyinka said, “If only this latest outrage were a personal contest of slights between insurgency and power – alas, its resonance is felt far beyond! It is merely the latest in the serial stinging slaps across the face of the nation, and it draws blood from every sensing citizen. Over five years since Chibok, we have yet to anticipate and to guard against a repeat. We continue to hand over innocent wards cheaply, en masse, to the agents of darkness and despair.A government refuses to accept that, as indicated several times over, the nation is at war. At war within itself, and that it requires drastic measures, away from spasmodic responses after the dread deed, if there is any will left over to salvage what is left of nationhood. The appropriate expression here is “thinking outside the box.”He also condemned what he termed banal responses to genuine calls on government for action against insecurity.ThePunch quoted him to have said, “When others do, they deserve better than to be rewarded with banalities such as The government will not be stampeded. The presidency will not be blackmailed. Stop politicizing the issue. The President is committed to preserving the integrity of the nation. We will not be bullied into abandoning our commitment to national unity. The sovereignty of the nation is non-negotiable…. and so on and on, ad nauseam.“Has anyone been detected marching to a contrary tune? Sure, we are assailed with such minority rhetoric from time to time but, is “unity” what is profoundly at stake? Does such predictable rhetoric remotely touch upon the existential anxiety of millions of humanity? Or are we confronted, at its most primary level, with a growing question of the ability of the nation to even feed herself?“When defenceless farmers are set upon – what does it matter if it is fifty or a hundred? – are butchered in one fell swoop, harvesting their crop, does the sheer suggestion that they met their deaths because they did not seek military cover not speak to the parlous state of a nation, and her need to urgently “think outside the box”? What is tragically demonstrated daily in all departments of citizen survival is the need to overhaul the nation’s structural existence – beginning, obviously, with the imperative of guaranteeing that very existence. The rest is waffle. Vaseline massage on the malignant tumour. National Infradig! Again, the nation laments – and waits.”
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E2%80%95-survivor Katsina Abduction: Two School Boys Killed By Bandits ― Survivor
A pupil of the attacked Government Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State, who escaped from the bandits’ hideouts, has claimed that two of his colleagues have been killed.
A parent of a missing pupil, Hajia Faiza Hamza Kankara, who spoke to Vanguard, said the pupil stated this while giving an account of his ordeal in the hands of the captors.
The grieving parent said the boy told them that the bandits fed them with leaves and beat them like cattle.
She also said the pupil told them that the abducted pupils still missing stand at over 500, saying whoever said the number of missing children is 10, is a liar.She said, “My son, Usman Lawal Tahir, is in SS2 class. He is still missing. One of the pupils who returned yesterday (Sunday night) said they were 520 that included two that were killed and him who escaped.
“So whoever says the missing children were ten lied. Today (Monday), another child just returned, and he is being interviewed in the principal’s office. So we are waiting to hear what is the situation with the missing children over there. Although when the boy returned, one of the security personnel who brought him back said 15 more were on their way before the dusk.
“The children said they were fed with leaves and beaten like cattle.
“We appeal to President (Muhammadu) Buhari and Governor (Aminu) Masari to come to our aid and rescue our wards. We cannot sleep and cannot eat.”Meanwhile, the grieving parents of the students have besieged the school premises, awaiting the return of their missing children.
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Kankara Attack: Katsina Government Begins Negotiation With Bandits
Governor of Katsina state, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari
The Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, on Monday said the government had opened discussions with kidnappers who invaded Government Science Secondary School, Kankara Local Government Area of the state.
SaharaReporters reported that Bandits had stormed the school on Friday night and abducted over 300 students after a gun duel with the police.
Governor of Katsina state, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari
PT
Despite arriving the state hours before the abduction took place, President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to visit the community three days after the incident.
A google map check by SaharaReporters showed that the distance between Daura, Buhari’s hometown, and Kankara is 190km, a journey of less than 3-hours if the President decided to travel by road.
President @MBuhari Appears In New Video Visiting His Cows In Katsina After Refusing To Visit Families And School Of Kidnapped Katsina Students | Sahara Reporters pic.twitter.com/PVveM3OF52— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) December 14, 2020
Meeting with the President on Monday in Daura, Governor Masari said the kidnappers had made contact and discussions were already pertaining to safety and return of the students to their homes.
The governor, according to a statement by Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, assured Buhari that steady progress was being made to bring them out unharmed.
The statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Daura, Katsina State, received a briefing on children kidnapped from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, with an assurance from Governor Aminu Bello Masari of steady progress to bring them out unharmed.
“The governor, who was accompanied by the deputy governor of the state, Manir Yakubu, said the kidnappers had made contact and discussions were already on safety and return to their homes.
“Governor Masari also noted that security agencies had located the position of the children.
“The governor said the President was fully committed to the rescue of the school children, adding that it was only appropriate to visit the President and give him more details of rescue efforts.”
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Group Asks National Assembly To Speed Up Passage Of Electoral Bill
File Photo: National Assembly
A coalition for constitutional and electoral reforms has advised the National Assembly to pass and send the electoral bill for an immediate assent by the president in January, having missed the December target.
The group said the need to have the electoral bill passed and signed next January has become imperative so that it could be tested and used in good time for the 2021 Anambra gubernatorial election.
File Photo: National Assembly
The passage of the bill would improve the level of trust and confidence of citizens in the democratic process, according to a statement on Monday, jointly signed by the representatives of Center for Liberty, Yiaga Africa, Raising New Voices, NESSACTION and Millennials Active Citizenship Advocacy Africa.
The coalition pointed out that the bill if passed into law, would address deficiencies in the current electoral system by providing for electronic transmission and publication of results, full biometrics for accreditation, the conduct of general elections in one day, election finance reform.
The statement reads: “We have come to restate our unwavering commitment to electoral reforms and to ask the National Assembly to urgently have the Bill for an Act to Repeal the Electoral Act No. 5, 2010 (As Amended) and Enact the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2021, passed in the first sitting of 2021, and transmitted for an immediate assent by the President.
“Having missed the much-anticipated December 2020 target, the need to have the electoral bill passed and signed in January 2021, has become imperative and most instructive, so that it could be tested and used in good time for the 2021 Anambra governorship election.
“The impressive turn out of Nigerians at the public hearing, the quality presentations of suggestions and the adoptions of memoranda are a sure-testament to the eagerness and zeal of the people to have free, fair and credible elections emplaced and tested in the 2021 Anambra election, through the quick passage of the bill.”
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Court Remands Convener Of #ENDSARS Protest For Impersonation In Osun
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A Magistrate Court in Osogbo, Osun State, on Monday, remanded the convener of the second ENDSARS protest in the state, Adebisi Emmanuel Oluwaseun, over alleged impersonation.
The prosecutor from the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Ben Nweke, told the court that the accused person dressed and appeared in the garb of the armed forces of Nigeria, on June 19, 2020, in Osogbo.
File Photo
#EndSARS
He also said that the accused was also found in possession of accoutrements of the armed forces of Nigeria in his residence located at the Ile-Idande Area, Ayekale in Osogbo, on December 9, 2020.
The 40-year-old Oluwaseun was accused of signing a “Memorandum of Understanding”, Referenced PCC/OS/2020/6/2/7 as “Captain Adebisi Emmanuel”.
The prosecutor said the offence committed by the accused person was contrary and punishable under section S. 467, S. 484, S.109 and S.428 of the criminal code, Cap 34, Vol. lI, the law of Osun state of Nigeria, 2002.
Adebisi Emmanuel pleaded not guilty to the allegations charged against him by the police and his counsel, A.C Olaniyi, sought his bail.
The magistrate, F. I Omisade declined the bail, remanded him at the correctional centre and adjourned the case till December 21, 2020.
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Gunmen Kill Cleric, Kidnap 19 In Niger State
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Gunmen have kidnapped at least 19 people in Ogu and Tegina communities in Rafi Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State.
The Chief of Staff to Rafi LGA Chairman, Mohammed Mohammed, confirmed the incident to Channels Television on Monday.
File Photo
He, however, had to place telephone calls to some residents of the affected communities for more information.
Efforts to reach the police authorities to confirm the incident proved abortive as the Police Public Relations Officer in Niger, Wasiu Abiodun, did not pick his calls or respond to messages sent to him.
A resident of Ogu, Kamal Wayam, decried that the attackers stormed the community on Sunday morning and started shooting into the air.
“The gunmen in their large number arrived in Ogu on motorcycles and before we knew what was happening, they started shooting into the air.“They ransacked people’s houses and whatever valuable they could lay their hands on, they carted away,” Wayam said during his conversation with Mohammed.He added, “They also abducted six persons from Ogu. Four of the persons abducted were members of one family while the other two were visitors to the community.”Ogu is a settlement close to Wayam, another community about two kilometres from Kagara, the headquarters of Rafi LGA.Similarly, the attack on Tegina community was said to have happened at about 12:30 am on Monday with 16 people abducted.“The gunmen entered the room of my daughter that night, but she hid under the bed, while her husband went up the ceiling,” Sani Gamachindo, a resident of the community, told Mohammed,He added, “When the gunmen entered their room, they spent like 30 minutes and ate almost all the food in the kitchen. Thank God they were not abducted, but 16 persons were kidnapped.”The latest attacks in Rafi LGA came barely four days after gunmen abducted a youth leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the District Head of Gunna, and two children of two health workers in Garin Gabbas and Yakila communities in the local government.Elsewhere, a pastor with the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Jeremiah Ibrahim, was killed by gunmen in Chukuba community in Shiroro LGA.The clergyman who was serving at the branch of the church in Kuta was murdered on Friday last week.A senior official of the church in Minna, who pleaded anonymity, said Pastor Ibrahim had gone to check his farm in Chukuba and decided to visit a colleague who was the resident pastor of Chukuba where he was attacked and killed.“This is coming barely two weeks after six missionaries of ECWA and the wife of one of them were abducted,” he added.He stated that the clergyman has since been buried.
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