Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Friday 20th March 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 20/03/20
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Coronavirus: Nigerian Government Bans Foreign Trips For Government Officials
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In a bid to curb the spread of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria, government has placed a ban on foreign trips for all of its officials.
The ban was announced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who said that it will commence immediately. Outcomes from the first meeting of the Presidential Taskforce on #COVID19 chaired by @OfficialOSGFNG:1) There is a ban on ALL travel for public servants2) We strongly discourage travel by Nigerians to affected countries except for essential trips pic.twitter.com/UN10AW6Yun— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 17, 2020
SaharaReporters had earlier reported the establishment of a Presidential Task Force for the control of Coronavirus in the country.
Mustapha disclosed the ban to journalists after the inauguration of the task force as a major step to contain the spread of the virus.
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Oshiomhole Pleads For Forgiveness As APC Asks Members To Withdraw Court Cases
Embattled National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, has asked members of the National Working Committee to forgive him of all shortcomings in piloting the affairs of the party.
Oshiomhole made the plea on Tuesday in Abuja at the end of the meeting by the committee.
He said that the move was aimed at promoting peace and building confidence within the party.
The APC also directed all members to withdraw all pending cases in court as part of measures to resolve the crisis within the party.
He said, “I have asked everyone and they have accepted, whatever they consider to be my own shortcomings, I have asked for forgiveness and they have forgiven and whatever I considered to be anyone’s shortcoming that irritated me, I have also forgiven.
“This is the way it should be. It can only be abnormal if people know how to fight and they do not know how to settle.”
Oshiomhole also announced the lifting of suspension of two members of the NWC, Lawan Shuaibu, Deputy National Chairman, North, and Inuwa Abdulkadir, National Vice Chairman, South West.
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JUST IN: Nigerian Government Sets Up Presidential Task Force On Coronavirus
The Nigerian Government has set-up a Presidential Task Force for the control of Coronavirus in the country.Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, will chair the 12-member committee.Mustapha while inaugurating the committee on Tuesday in Abuja, said it had six months to complete its assignment.
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EXCLUSIVE: SARS Operatives Unlawfully Arrest Four Men At Night Club In Port Harcourt, Refuse To Disclose Whereabouts To Relatives Two Months After
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Four young men in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, remain missing two months after being unlawfully arrested by personnel of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The four were arrested at Boss Lounge, a popular nightclub along Woji Road in GRA, Port Harcourt, on Sunday, January 5, 2020 around 8:00pm and their whereabouts have remained unknown since that period.
Efforts by their family members to locate the four persons have been rebuffed by the police, who deny having a hand in their ordeal.
Narrating the incident to SaharaReporters, Mr Ezekiel Tariuwa, elder brother of one of the missing young men, Kingsley, said a Mobile Police officer in charge of security at the lounge, gave access to the SARS officials into the facility to effect the arrest of Kingsley and the three others.
According to Tariuwa, the police in Rivers have denied ordering the arrest and claimed not to be aware of the incident and whereabouts of the young men.
He said, “My brother, Kingsley Tariuwa, was arrested alongside three others at the Boss Lounge, on Sunday, January 5, 2020, at around 8:00pm by SARS.
“The SARS officers were actually cleared by a Mobile Policeman named Elisha Hassan, who is in charge of security at the facility.
“Someone at the lounge, who recognised my brother, had to call someone that alerted one of my siblings to the fact that Kingsley had been arrested.
“We tried calling his phone number from around 9:00pm, it was ringing but there was no response until around 11:30pm when someone picked up the call but all I could hear were voices of police officers ordering them to write statements.
“The line soon dropped and up until this moment, the number had remained switched off.”
Speaking further, Tariuwa disclosed that he had been to the SARS headquarters in Port Harcourt several times to search for his brother but the officers deny carrying out any arrest the previous night each time he went there.
He stated, “I met one officer named Supol Amanze Onyegbula, who sent a junior officer to check their cells if the persons I was looking for were there.
“The officer came back and said they were not in their custody.
“He then advised me to go to radio room at the state police headquarters so that they could help me do a radio search for my brother instead of walking from one station to another.
“I went there, the lady on duty radioed all the stations around but none of them confirmed to have them in custody. I was there for more than two hours and it was still negative.
“The lady at the radio room advised me to go and confirm once again from the policeman at Boss Lounge about which people actually made the arrest.”
Tariuwa further revealed that in the course of his findings, the identity of the SARS official, who led the operation was revealed, adding that the man indirectly confessed to killing the four persons.
He said, “The Mobile Police officer at Boss Lounge told me that it was men from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad that made the arrest and that one of the SARS officers gave him his number.
“He then called the number of the SARS officer, put it on loudspeaker so that I could hear what the man would say while I was standing next to him.
“When the SARS officer picked the call, he then told him that he was the Mobile Policeman at the night club where they arrested four young men the previous night and that their relatives were there with him.
“The SARS officer then said in pidgin that, ‘Forget them! Them don come our office today, commander tell them say no be we arrest the boys. In fact we don travel those boys, we don clear them, no where he reach, nothing go happen’.”
Tariuwa disclosed that after running a check on mobile application, Truecaller, with the SARS officer’s number, the name was revealed as Francis Nwankwo.
He said that a petition had been sent to the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mustapha Dandaura, who directed the DCP, CIID, to oversee the matter.
He added that during the course of investigation, all parties concerned were invited for interrogation and while they honoured the invitation, the SARS officer refused to visit the state CIID.
Tariuwa also revealed that the Mobile Police officer at Boss Lounge was detained by the command.
According to the aggrieved man, Nwankwo, the SARS officer, denied arresting anyone at Boss Lounge when he was called by the investigating officer at the state CIID.
Irked by the slow pace of investigation by the Rivers State Police and ludicrous cooperation of the SARS, Tariuwa lodged another complaint at the Police Complaint Response Unit, which he said triggered some results.
He said, “After I petitioned the Police CRU in Abuja, two days later, the SARS officers showed up at the state CIID, gave their statements but did not show up with my brother and others arrested.
“The day that the DCP gave us to update us on their final investigation was the day that the OC, General Investigations, told us that the case had been transferred to Abuja.
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“The result of their investigations has not been relayed to us, no words on the whereabouts of my brother.
“The only thing the OC, General Investigation, said was that SARS had agreed that they arrested my brother but they have not told us his current state or the other three men.”
Apart from family members of Kingsley Tariuwa, relatives of the three other young men unlawfully seized and arbitrarily detained by Rivers State SARS officials are demanding justice.
Over recent months, SARS officials have been behind many unlawful arrests, detentions and even killings across Nigeria. For instance, on February 22, 2020, SARS officials arrested a player of Remo Stars Football Club in Sagamu, Ogun State, named Tiyamu Kazeem after accusing him of being an Internet fraudster. While taking him away in their van, the policemen pushed him from the vehicle on motion and on to an oncoming car which crushed and killed him instantly. The incident led to violent protests all across Sagamu, forcing authorities to ban the activities of SARS in the area.
In April 2019, personnel of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad shot dead a young man named Kolade Johnson in the Mangoro area of Lagos while he was watching an English Premier League match. The policemen claimed to be chasing cult gangs when the bullet from their gun hit and killed the young man. The list is indeed endless.
Though police authorities announced a handful of measures put in place to check the excesses of SARS operatives, nothing significant has changed about the unit as they continue to torment innocent Nigerians.
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E2%80%99s-vice-chancellor Expelled FUNAAB Student Alleges Threat To Life By Institution’s Vice Chancellor
L-R: Ifemosu Michael Adewale and, Prof Felix Salako
L-R: Ifemosu Michael Adewale and, Prof Felix Salako
A student of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, who was expelled for writing an open letter to the school’s management over issues of transportation and insecurity on campus, Ifemosu Michael Adewale, has raised the alarm over plans to kill him.
In a petition written to President Muhammadu Buhari, Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, and heads of law enforcement agencies in the country, Adewale alleged that Vice Chancellor of FUNAAB, Prof Felix Salako, was currently doing everything possible to kill him.
According to the young man, he had been receiving death threats from different persons, who have told him that he would suffer for speaking against Salako.
Adewale said that he was crying out so that the world would know where his death came from in case he was killed.
He said, “At exactly 1:00am on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, some hired assassins came to my apartment around Apakila Camp with cutlasses and guns. They tore the net of my room and afterwards moved to the last room in my compound, tore the net and started searching for me.
“When they could not find me, they left but not without warning that they were going to deal with me for fighting the VC.
“Earlier, I had received a lot of calls from private numbers telling me that they would kill me for challenging my unlawful and illegal expulsion from the university and ridiculing the Vice Chancellor.
“Prof Salako is close to those in power, whereas I am an ordinary citizen.
“I am crying out publicly so that at least the world will know where my death came from and I will not join the long list of unresolved murders. My killer should at least be known.”
But when contacted by SaharaReporters, spokesperson for FUNAAB, Dr Lydia Onwuka, denied the allegations, insisting that the VC, Prof Salako, has no reason to go after the life of Adewale or any other person in fact.
She said, “There is a matter in court but let me just say that the VC has no reason to kill Ifemosu Adewale or any other person.
“The allegation is not founded on any proof or fact, so it is not true.”
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Coronavirus: Nigerian Senate Calls For Travel Ban On High Risk Countries
The Nigerian Senate has called for travel ban on high risk countries with Coronavirus.
The lawmakers on Tuesday said entry should be banned to flights from the United Kingdom and China.
This came after Nigeria announced its third case of Coronavirus on Tuesday.
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Coronavirus: ISIS Warns Fighters To Stay Safe, Not To Kill
Terror group, ISIS, has instructed members to stay safe and avoid killing anybody at the moment.
In a full-page infographic on the back cover of its most recent Al-Naba Newsletter, the terror group gave a list of tips instructing fighters how to stop the spread of Coronavirus.
Since the pandemic broke out in China, the group has been covering the outbreak like a responsible media outfit with its newsletters.
It has spoken less of killing ‘infidels’ and carrying out jihads, rather focusing on keeping the plague away from members.
The terror group has cells scattered all over Europe, Asia and Africa.
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Nigerian Government Postpones National Sports Festival Over Coronavirus
The Nigerian Government has announced the postponement of the National Sports Festival earlier scheduled to begin in Benin, Edo State, next week.
Making the announcement on Tuesday, Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, disclosed that the decision was caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria on Tuesday recorded the third case of the deadly virus after a woman, who arrived from the United Kingdom on March 13, tested positive to the disease.
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In a post on Twitter, Dare said, “Following the briefing of Mr President from myself and Minister of State for Health on COVID 19, Mr President approved the immediate postponement of Edo Sports Festival to a future date.”
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Supreme Court To Announce Date For Review Of Zamfara Judgment
The Supreme Court in Abuja on Tuesday reserved ruling on the All Progressives Congress’ application for the review of its judgment nullifying the party’s victories in the general elections held in 2019 in Zamfara State, a report by PUNCH said.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, said the date of the ruling would be communicated to the parties.
The CJN made the announcement after the parties to the case concluded their submissions on the application on Tuesday.
The APC and the faction of the party in Zamfara State led by former Governor Abdulaziz Yari had filed the application for the review of the May 24, 2019 judgment, which nullified their victories at the general elections barely four days to their inauguration.
In the said May 24, 2019 judgment, the Supreme Court had declared that APC failed to conduct valid primaries and, therefore, had no candidates in the 2019 general elections.
The apex court had declared the votes polled by the APC in the elections as wasted.
The Peoples Democratic Party and its candidates, who polled the next highest votes in the elections, were declared winners of the exercise and eventually inaugurated.
The APC’s application for the review of the May 24, 2019 judgment was opposed by the Senator Kabiru Marafa-led faction of the party in the state.
APC’s lawyer, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), on Tuesday urged the court to grant his clients’ application by setting aside the consequential order directing that candidates with the next highest votes be sworn in.
He urged the apex court to order the APC to conduct fresh primaries.
He argued that the previous orders of the apex court were made without jurisdiction.
But the Marafa faction’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), urged the apex court to dismiss the application and award huge and punitive costs against the applicants’ lawyer.
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JUST IN: Lagos Government Asks Passengers On British Airways To Self-isolate
The Lagos State Ministry of Health has asked all passengers on British Airways flight BA 75 to self-isolate.
Commissioner for Health in the state, Prof Akin Abayomi, said the flight arrived Lagos on March 13, 2020.
It was the flight that brought in the third carrier of Coronavirus into Nigeria.
The 30-year-old Nigerian woman arrived in the country on March 13 on the flight and self-isolated herself on government’s recommendation.
The government said she developed symptoms of the deadly virus during self-isolation.
She is currently in the isolation centre in Lagos.
The government has asked other passengers on the flight to call the following numbers; 08000corona, 08023169485, 08033565529, 08052817243, 08028971864, 08059758886, 08035387653 for urgent medical help.
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